Syntax Structure Question

[Ben W Bell]

Okay. I'm working through Pimsleur and things are going well. However something has come up that I wish to query on. It concerns 'sukoshi'

The line 'watashi wa nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu' is fine, I get that.

However later in the course Pimsleur uses the line 'demo sukoshi nihongo ga hanasemasu'

What is confusing me here is that until this line I'd always heard 'sukoshi' before the verb, yet in the latter line it is being put before the subject.

So the question I have is why? To my mind there is no reason I can think of for the structure to be different, unless it's due to it being a sentence fragment rather than a proper whole sentence. Can anyone help explain this? Yes I can learn it this way, but I'd prefer to understand it.

 

[David Hallgren]

I would say that it is due to the speaker. Words like "takusan" and "sukoshi" are rather free and can be placed either before or after the quantity. There seems to be a dialectal preference of where to put it, but no rule. At least that what my textbook (Genki) states.

 

[okaeri_man]

hmm that's an interesting question. i've never thought about it to be honest; the placement of a word like sukoshi seems natural to me...

David, i know what you're saying, but in this case it's not true.
'watashi wa nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu'
'demo sukoshi nihongo ga hanasemasu'

to put the sukoshi anywhere else in either of the above sentences would sound incorrect. well, it would still be understandable, but would not sound natural.

hmm, i'll think about it, but without a grammar book i can't give a concrete answer sorry.

 

[Elizabeth]

hmm that's an interesting question. i've never thought about it to be honest; the placement of a word like sukoshi seems natural to me...

David, i know what you're saying, but in this case it's not true.
'watashi wa nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu'
'demo sukoshi nihongo ga hanasemasu'

to put the sukoshi anywhere else in either of the above sentences would sound incorrect. well, it would still be understandable, but would not sound natural.

hmm, i'll think about it, but without a grammar book i can't give a concrete answer sorry.

Sukoshi is grammatically correct in either position in both sentences, the only difference being it may sound slightly more natural or conversational in front of the verb. At least that's my extrapolation from experience with other modifiers, almost of any of which has these two possible placements (albeit with a change of form + no in some cases). ☝

 

[okaeri_man]

yes, but i think:

'watashi wa sukoshi nihongo ga wakarimasu' sounds strange.
'demo sukoshi nihongo ga hanasemasu' does not sound strange.

or is my definition of strange strange?

 

[Elizabeth]

yes, but i think:

'watashi wa sukoshi nihongo ga wakarimasu' sounds strange.
'demo sukoshi nihongo ga hanasemasu' does not sound strange.

or is my definition of strange strange?

They are both perfectly fine.