I'm now in week 6 of JAPN 111 Elementary Japanese I

[as_per_humphrey]

I am back again with another easy post ready for translation; in addition to a question. In week 6 we are learning what is and where is grammar. This was fun week because more and more pieces of the Japanese language are connecting for me. Just wish we were using kanji, but that is for Elementary Japanese II. My post/question is below.

My question is about the first sentence, “The cat is on my desk.” If I wanted to say, “My cat is on my desk,” would I write it as ”私の机の上に私の猫がいます。” Just curious if that would be a natural way to write it. I chose to use kanji here because there are no rules saying I can’t

[Belthazar]

The first sentence is more like “On my desk, there is a cat”.

I feel like 私のネコは机の上にいます would work best. I’m not sure you need to explicitly state that it’s your desk - that much can be assumed.

Also, printer in Japanese is プリンター

[musera]

@Belthazar

I’m not sure you need to explicitly state that it’s your desk - that much can be assumed.

Since the course is elementary Japanese, I would probably explicitly state that it is my desk. Plus we’re not sure whether the listener would have enough information to know which desk, probably does but can’t say for sure without a scenario.

[as_per_humphrey]

Thanks! You helped me realize what I was trying to figure out.

[Jonapan]

I would rework the fifth sentence a little. I’m guessing you’re trying to say “there is a printer on the left side of my desk”? But maybe to make it more clear you could write it as パソコンのひだりにprinterがあります。Or “computer” if you haven’t learned パソコン yet.