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What does this conversation mean?

prt1987

後輩
21 Oct 2013
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Hi,
What does the following conversation mean exactly?
Jiyon-san to ratanaa-san no ushiro ni donata ga imasu ka?
iie,donata mo imasen
 
Jiyon-san to Ratanaa-san no ushiro ni, donata ga imasu ka?

Is the someone behind (to the rear of) Jiyon-san and ratanaa-san?

Iie, donata mo imasen

No, there is no one
 
Thanks.

I know its not a good idea to map japanese to english word by word, but donata means who, so how does it fit in the response above?
 
Thanks.

I know its not a good idea to map japanese to english word by word, but donata means who, so how does it fit in the response above?

No, there is not any one (person).

The closest thing to "donata" is the "one" in the answer.

But as you just said, try to avoid mapping each word to english, once you reach a certain level, things will require you to "accept" new concepts, instead of "relate" things to another language
 
for what it's worth, 'daremo' is usually considered a word meaning 'anyone'; such as in 'daremo inai' - 'there isn't anyone there'.
But though it gets its own dictionary entry, 'daremo' is just a compound of 'dare' + 'mo'.
'donata' is just a more formal version of 'dare' and so even if 'donatamo' doesn't rate a dictionary entry of its own, it's still the same meaning.
 
Mo is a particle. It modifies whatever is before it. There is no equivalent in English. When used with a interrogative pronoun with a negative verb, it usually means any.

nani mo arimasen. There isn't anything.
Dare mo imasen. There isn't anyone.
Nani mo wakatteinai. You don't understand anything.
 
Hi,
What does the following conversation mean exactly?
Jiyon-san to ratanaa-san no ushiro ni donata ga imasu ka?
iie,donata mo imasen
Isn't it a typo of "Jiyon-san to ratanaa-san no ushiro ni donata ka imasu ka?"? "Donata ga imasu ka?" is asking who the person behind the two persons is, so the answer "Iie, dare mo imasen / donata mo irasshaimasen (No, no one is there.)" is odd for this question. On the other hand, "Donata ka imasu ka / irasshaimasu ka?" is asking if there is someone behind them. This fits the context.
 
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