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Textbook sentence question

silk600

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21 Jul 2007
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Hi, I'm currently working through the 'Japanese for everyone' textbook, and I have a question about one of the sentences in it (it's pretty basic, I'm right at the start)

The sentence reads:

kyou wa, tsugou ga ii desu ga, ashita wa, dame desu.

(Sorry about the romaji, I tried to type in hiragana but it kept trying to change it all to kanji, which I don't understand and I got frustrated :p)

Now, I don't know what tsugou means (and I can't find it in the book), but I looked on WWWJDIC and it says "circumstances, condition, convenience".

So, I can SORT of see the sentence meaning (literally) "Today's convenience is good, but tomorrow's is bad".

Is that right?

Thanks,

Kieran
 
Yeah, thats right, well "Today's convenience..." is a bit awkward though :D But yeah, you got the meaning right. I'd stick to "Its fine today, but not tomorrow."
 
I prefer the more literal translation, because then the Japanese wording is more likely to stick in your head. As you can see, to say something is convenient or not convenient, the Japanese literally say, "The convenience is good/bad." (tsugou ga ii, tsugou ga warui)

I would translate it as, "Today, the convenience is good (it's convenient), but tomorrow is no good."
 
Hi, I'm currently working through the 'Japanese for everyone' textbook, and I have a question about one of the sentences in it (it's pretty basic, I'm right at the start)
The sentence reads:
kyou wa, tsugou ga ii desu ga, ashita wa, dame desu.
(Sorry about the romaji, I tried to type in hiragana but it kept trying to change it all to kanji, which I don't understand and I got frustrated :p)
Now, I don't know what tsugou means (and I can't find it in the book), but I looked on WWWJDIC and it says "circumstances, condition, convenience".
So, I can SORT of see the sentence meaning (literally) "Today's convenience is good, but tomorrow's is bad".
Is that right?
Thanks,
Kieran
A literal translation would actually be "Today there is/has convenience, but tomorrow is bad."

Although "Tsugou ga (no) ii" is also defined in most dictionaries as "convenient" which once again only shows the absurdity of deliberately jumbling up English grammar to try and force fit it into a Japanese mold. :D
 
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A literal translation is cool while you're learning, but step by step you must switch to the actual translations in my opinion.
 
Thanks for your help everyone!

I think it's better for me to learn the literal translations at the moment, as it allows me to see WHY a sentence means what it does. It's a lot easier to memorise, and even though it doesn't sound pretty in English, it can still make sense.

For example, "Today there is/has convenience, but tomorrow is bad." doesn't really make sense grammatically, but it conveys the right idea across.
 
Thanks for your help everyone!
I think it's better for me to learn the literal translations at the moment, as it allows me to see WHY a sentence means what it does. It's a lot easier to memorise, and even though it doesn't sound pretty in English, it can still make sense.
For example, "Today there is/has convenience, but tomorrow is bad." doesn't really make sense grammatically, but it conveys the right idea across.
That's fine if you get it right literally....which usually means comparing and cross referencing among more than one source.

Did you get the part that dictionaries commonly also define "tsugou ga ii" as convenient ??? :p
 
I'm sorry--what exactly is the point of memorizing that weird english version? Surely just memorizing the japanese version and then knowing what it means would be the easiest, most effective thing to do. If you have to memorize something, memorize that tsugou ga ii = convenvient and tsugou ga warui = inconvenient. These are probably the only uses of tsugou that you will come across at an early stage in the game...
 
Literal translations will only be a crutch that you lean on as you find your language skills not improving.

English and Japanese grammar and syntax cannot--and should not--be translated literally.
 
Well, I guess I'll have to try it your way, it obviously worked for you guys, and anything that can help is a positive!
 
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