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 Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 7:05 pm
(I can normally type in Japanese, including some kanji, however I'm borrowing my dad's computer and can't right now)
So, I have some questions about "Koto" and "-Kute" (verb ending). Koto seems to be used in every Japanese sentence, however I only know two uses of it and am confused of the other uses.
"Nihongo wo hanasu koto ga dekimasu" - A formal way of saying "I can speak Japanese". So I know the use on how to use koto for Being able to do something.
"Hon no koto" - "About a book". So I know how to use koto to describe what something is about. there are many other ways that I don't know, so could you teach my the uses of koto, and then use examples so I can learn in context?
For "Kute", the only use I know for it is so link adjectives together in a sentence. I've used it heard in a million other ways, such as sentences always seeming to end in "Janakute" and stuff. What are the other uses for -Kute? Again, I'd like an example.
Just to clear something up that I'm not sure about, could you also explain the use of "Ni tsuite" when talking about something? Again, context learning!
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 7:18 pm
I'd be happy to help.
"koto" simply means "thing" (in an abstract sense, as opposed to "mono" that means a physical thing).
In Japanese it's generally held that using more words to say the same thing is more polite. So "hanasu koto ga dekimasu" means the same thing as "hanaseru", but more polite -- "I can do the thing that is 'talking'" as opposed to "I can talk."
"koto" is also used for a few other things -- if you use "hanasu koto" as a noun phrase, it means "the thing we're talking about," for instance.
The "-kute" conjugation is quite a bit simpler. It's just a conjunction for -i adjectives. So "akarukute shiroi" means "bright and white" -- for comparison "akaruku shiroi" means "bright white," because the -ku alone turns an adjective into an adverb. Similarly, "itakute nigeta" means "it hurt, so I ran away."
It just so happens that negated verbs, which end in -nai, start acting like adjectives. Likewise, the negative of "desu" is "dewa nai" (ALMOST ALWAYS contracted to "ja nai"), so "X ja nakute..." is just "not X, but..." -- when you see it end a sentence, it's sort of like trailing off or letting the rest of the sentence be implied. The effect is that it makes the sentence sound softer.
If I remember right, "X ni tsuite" means "regarding X" but I don't have my textbooks with me to double-check.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 8:57 pm
Coda Highland I'd be happy to help. "koto" simply means "thing" (in an abstract sense, as opposed to "mono" that means a physical thing). In Japanese it's generally held that using more words to say the same thing is more polite. So "hanasu koto ga dekimasu" means the same thing as "hanaseru", but more polite -- "I can do the thing that is 'talking'" as opposed to "I can talk." "koto" is also used for a few other things -- if you use "hanasu koto" as a noun phrase, it means "the thing we're talking about," for instance. The "-kute" conjugation is quite a bit simpler. It's just a conjunction for -i adjectives. So "akarukute shiroi" means "bright and white" -- for comparison "akaruku shiroi" means "bright white," because the -ku alone turns an adjective into an adverb. Similarly, "itakute nigeta" means "it hurt, so I ran away." It just so happens that negated verbs, which end in -nai, start acting like adjectives. Likewise, the negative of "desu" is "dewa nai" (ALMOST ALWAYS contracted to "ja nai"), so "X ja nakute..." is just "not X, but..." -- when you see it end a sentence, it's sort of like trailing off or letting the rest of the sentence be implied. The effect is that it makes the sentence sound softer. If I remember right, "X ni tsuite" means "regarding X" but I don't have my textbooks with me to double-check. Thanks but I already knew a lot of these, as stated in my original post... I was asking for uses other than what I said (because all you really listed was the polite "can do" and the "thing about ___" with koto, and the adjective linking with -kute). So I'm wondering what other ways to use it are (with examples)
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 10:06 pm
Please use the sticky in Learning Japanese for asking these kinds of questions, if you could.
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