What did A-san do with the door?

I am making some question and answer sentences for flashcards and would like them to be in natural sounding Japanese. みてをください。The basic form looks like this:

Q: A-san is standing by a door. What is he/she doing?
A: Opening it.

Are these OK:

(a)
Q: Aさんは戸の前にいて、何をしていますか。
A: 開けています。

(b)
Q: Aさんは戸の前にいて、何をしていますか。
A: 戸を開けています。
Would the noun of the action tend to be omitted from this answer.

(c)
Q: Aさんは戸の前に立って、何をしていますか。
A: 開けています。
If my example is OK (I am NOT sure) Am I correct in thinking that いる would be the better choice. Using 'to stand' is over the top because it is obvious I think.

(d)
Q: Aさんは戸の前にいて、何をしたか。
A-san was standing by a door, what did he do?
A: 開けた。
He opened it.

(e)

Q: Aさんは戸の前にいて、何をしますか。
A-san is standing by a door. What will he do?
A: 開けますか、開けませんか。
He will either open it or not open it.

seaDonkey said:

みてをください

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Requests are ～て＋ください, no を is needed or permitted.

seaDonkey said:

Would the noun of the action tend to be omitted from this answer.

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Both are allowed, but since the question is a very general 何をしていますか I'd favor including 戸 in this answer.

seaDonkey said:

Am I correct in thinking that いる would be the better choice. Using 'to stand' is over the top because it is obvious I think.

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I don't think you need either. All of your questions could be like 「Aさんは戸の前に、何をしていますか」.


Personally, when making flashcards of the sort you're talking about, I always take my examples from references. Textbooks, "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar", and Japanese-English dictionaries are all good, and of course anything that a native speaker like our Toritoribe-san gives you as an example is also good.

I particularly like the sentences from Shogakukan Progressive, which you can get results from online at goo,


Weblio has a much larger database of example sentences drawn from a variety of dictionaries and bilingual corpuses, but the quality of those sources is not always the best. The biggest problem to watch out for is sentences that only translate that way in a very specific context. Watch the attributions - if it's from a 辞典 or a 辞書 it's probably a fine example; if from a translation of a book, it has a high chance of being a very context specific translation.

SomeCallMeChris, great thanks for clearing those things up. I will look into the resources you mentioned. I also think sentences constructed for grammar study are safer than book excerpts. I look at examples from the Tenjin dictionary when I want to know something but without good knowledge of Japanese it is difficult to put all the pieces together in a meaningful way. My primary goal is to learn the 100 or so JLPY n5 verbs to improve my kanji and vocabulary and I am confident in achieving that goal. A secondary goal seems to be gaining a better understanding of question sentences. The interrogative of a verb seems to be the thing I am finding tricky. It would be nice to improve so I will try some examples and hope for a reaction. 見てください。

In my examples (they will be made to a system) the topic must be a living thing, the subject must be the do'er of a verb and the place the action takes place in must be specified. For this reason they may seem unusual. I wish for them to be grammatically correct.

(a)
In this example the question is actually a statement followed by a question. I have used te-from to connect the two. Is this correct?
Also I am worried about having made する into a noun using の. It the question OK Japanese.
Q: Aさんは家にいて、雨がどうするのですか。
A: 降っている。
Q: A-san is at home, what is the rain doing there?
A: Falling.

(b)
I am not sure about 何をするか. Take the example:

Q: What is he doing?
何をするか.
A: Going to the bank.
銀行に行きます。

The question uses を and the answer に. Is there a problem with this?
(c)

For asking 'which verb', between using 何 and どう is there a favorite? I am most concerned with being understandable. Sounding a bit odd is a secondary concern.

(d)

A child will often say 'What is that man/woman doing?'. Out of curiosity how would this be phrased in Japanese. This knowledge will help me become better at phrasing questions. I think...

seaDonkey said:

(a)
Q: Aさんは戸の前にいて、何をしていますか。
A: 開けています。

(b)
Q: Aさんは戸の前にいて、何をしていますか。
A: 戸を開けています。
Would the noun of the action tend to be omitted from this answer.

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As Chiris-san wrote, the object is ambiguous if it's just 開けています. They might be opening their bag, for instance. If the question is ドアに何をしていますか "what are they doing to/with the door?", ドア can be omitted in the answer.

seaDonkey said:

If my example is OK (I am NOT sure) Am I correct in thinking that いる would be the better choice. Using 'to stand' is over the top because it is obvious I think.

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ドアの前に立って, ドアの前にいて and ドアの前で are all acceptable. I prefer the last one. Incidentally, the most literal translation is Aさんがドアの前に立っています。何をしていますか.

seaDonkey said:

A: 開けますか、開けませんか。
He will either open it or not open it.

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開けますか、開けませんか。means "Will/Does he open the door, or not?". You need to use other expressions for the answer.

Toritoribe said:

ドアの前で

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Ah. Sorry about that, I was careless when shortening the question before and neglected the particle. If you want to ask what Ａさん is doing at the door, it would be で wouldn't it, and not に.

Incidentally, Torotoribe-san, I notice you used ドア rather than seaDonkey-san's 戸 ... and in general I've noticed that ドア is heavily preferred in modern Japanese for doors in general, and only occasionally 障子 or 扉 or whatever very specific term for doors with very specific characteristics. But, Is there any time you would prefer to use 戸? Do you still use ドア on a Japanese style house as opposed to a western style house?

ドア mostly refers to entrance and exit doors of a room/house for people(or maybe animals) often in western style, thus, 戸 is more preferred for Japanese (traditional) style doors. I used ドア simply because I imagined western style doors.

Incidentally, 扉 and 戸 tend to be used for hinged doors and sliding doors, respectively.

SomeCallMeChris said:

If you want to ask what Ａさん is doing at the door, it would be で wouldn't it, and not に.

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But with 'to exist' ある and いる they ' Call for the particle に rather than で for the place description' according to Genki. Judging by Toritoribe's post this extends to some other verbs too. Or perhaps it has to do with a relative place word being used.

Toritoribe said:

ドアの前に立って, ドアの前にいて and ドアの前で are all acceptable. I prefer the last one. Incidentally, the most literal translation is Aさんがドアの前に立っています。何をしていますか.

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Thank you for this. I will get to work on some verb flashcards.

で indicates the location of action, while に is for the location of existence. Thus, ドアの前 is the location where the action する is done in Aさんはドアの前で、何をしていますか, whereas it's the location of the existence in ドアの前に立って and ドアの前にいて.
in conclusion;
ドアの前でする
ドアの前に立つ
ドアの前にいる

Toritoribe said:

Incidentally, 扉 and 戸 tend to be used for hinged doors and sliding doors, respectively.

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Ah, interesting, thank you! I had thought 扉 was for particularly grand buildings (temples, palaces, government offices) but then I've seen more than few counterexamples to that. If it's the *hinges* that makes the difference, that explains it... those grand buildings do to tend to have hinged doors, but so do plenty of other buildings.

seaDonkey said:

But with 'to exist' ある and いる they ' Call for the particle に rather than で for the place description' according to Genki.

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Yes, that's correct. に is used when the verb indicates existing at a place, as in いる、ある、立つ. I only meant my re-writing to
✖Aさんは戸の前に、何をしていますか
should have been,
Aさんは戸の前で、何をしていますか

Your 「Aさんは戸の前にいて、何をしていますか」 was fine, but I gave you a wrong example when I rewrote carelessly. My rewrite changes the verb that 戸の前 is connected to. Changing the verb from いる to する requires a change in particle, because you use で for doing an action at a place, as with する.

Well, Toritoribe-san just gave a nice summary in the previous post anyway.

Having re arranged the structure of my examples I have a question about だれ and Q and A sentences.

(a)
A: だれがドアを開けましたか。
Who opened that door?
B: トムが開けました。
It was tom.

I think because it is a verb sentence there is no way to omit the verb from the answer. ドア and the particle を can and should be omitted. Can this question be answered using a generic term for 'did'? Perhaps there is a colloquial or lazy way of answering a verb sentence question?

You can use トムです as an answer just like the English version.