I have the following sentence:
昨日は彼の家に行きました。
I would translate it to
Yesterday, I went to his house.
I read that the context like 私は can be left out if its clear who is doing something.
But “left out” means you don’t need to mention it but it is there.
So if I don’t left it out wouldn’t this sentence have two は’s which is not allowed?
Is the example sentence wrong or am I wrong?
You can have two は’s in a sentence, but not in the sentence you’re proposing. Two は’s can be used to emphasize a contrast, but that’s unrelated here.
In your case, if you wanted to put 私 into the mix, then it would as the subject. 昨日は私が彼の家に行きました。
But you can omit that if you want, it’s not necessary if the context makes it clear.
So if this sentence stands on its own without a previous one defining the context. It would sound like:
Yesterday, to his house went.
right?
If there’s no previous context then typically you assume the speaker is omitting their personal pronoun. That it’s about the speaker. Because you have no reason to assume otherwise.
@Leebo might be totally wrong because I am getting this from Rosetta Stone and they don’t explicitly explain anything but… I know when the use the word 朝 they just kind of place in it the sentence with no particle. like…
彼は朝オレンジのジュースを飲みます。
He drinks orange juice in the morning.
Am I wrong?
Is this a possible sentence?
(私は)昨日彼の家に行きました。
I have been wanting to get clarification on why 朝 didn’t have a particle in those sentences for a while.
I believe the particle に is optional for the general chunks of the day, like 朝, 昼, 夜. I’ve seen it with and I’ve seen it without.
For relative time, like 昨日, 明日, 来月, etc the particle に is not used.
Yes it is.
Huh, interesting to know about に. If I were to add 私 into the sentence I’d have written
私は昨日に彼の家に行きました, which now I know is wrong.
This is all about the difference between a subject and a topic. English doesn’t have a topic, so it can be difficult to grasp. Well, for me anyway, but I may not be the fastest pony on the racetrack.
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