Hello! I am new to learning Japanese. Still level 1 as of writing this. In between WaniKani lessons and reviews, I’m trying some basic reading (and by basic I mean very basic) and some basic grammar, and I was wondering if this sentence was grammatically correct:
私は電車で日本です
What I want to say is: I am going to Japan by train, or something to that effect.
If I understand grammar correctly so far, the は particle indicates that “I” am the subject, while で particle indicates that I am using “train” to go somewhere. I think です in this case means that “I am doing the thing” or something, or is it more to make the sentence more formal? Or should です be omitted or replaced?
I was reading soms level 0 graded reading from Tadoku with some vocabulary, and wanted to try my hand at writing a very basic sentence with the very shaky grammar knowledge I gained, but I have no way of checking if I’m correct or not, hence why I ask here. Sorry if this isn’t the place for it. I’m not quite sure where else to post this question.
です here is for a (polite) sentence pattern which has no verb, but is instead stating something about the subject, like “apples are red” or “this is a train”. (In English this is one of several jobs we give to the verb “to be”, but in Japanese there is no verb involved.) For your sentence you want to say “I am going” so you need a verb, “to go”, 行く.
What’s the difference between です and that alphabet soup you wrote? (That’s how it still looks to me atm, so I guess I need to practice and learn more hahaha.) Oh wait, 行 is travelling or similar according to Jisho, so I guess that makes sense!
It is good to know my sentence structure seems to be fairly decent for a first try and with very low vocab.
Oh yeah also, about the railroads and stuff, that is true, but it was more my limited vocab forcing me to use ‘train’ instead of any other form of transport.
I don’t like to be a downer, but it really isn’t. The structure you’re trying to use is the wrong one for the job, and so it ends up meaning “I am a train and Japan”.
Keep moving forward with however you’re studying, and you’ll encounter plenty of sentences with verbs that you can use as patterns for creating your own sentences.
It’s better to make attampts and fail than not making any attempts.
Because making attempts and failing them and making more attempts – is the essential part of learning!
Thank you! I can tell I still lack much kanji knowledge and vocab, and of course grammar, but I feel I have learned something. Though I find it difficult to see why my sentence is “I am a train and Japan” while the first half seems to be the same as your breakdown. Is it because of the へ particle?
As you say, the best way to learn is to attempt, fail, and learn from it. Though it seems forming sentences might still be beyond my grasp at the moment.
You are half-right. The reason why this is the case is that there are two different uses of the particle で. In your first sentence the natural parse is to read で as the equivalent of “and”, the て-form of です so to speak. So a breakdown would look like:
私は - I am
電車で - a train and
日本です。- Japan.
In @trunklayer’s sentence, the で is a particle that indicates that 電車 refers to the means by which something is done, equivalent to “by” in English. へ, pronounced え, is another particle indicating the direction or location the subject is going. Again, a breakdown would look like:
私は - I am
電車で - by train
日本へ - to Japan
行きます。 - go.
Aaaahhhh! So へ indicates that the train moves to Japan in this case, or that Japan is my destination. My sentence never indicated a destination because it lacked that particle! I also never stated I went somewhere, I stated ‘I am/was’. I understand now! (Probably)
Though who can say… I might actually be both a train and a country. Choo choo.
I want to thank you, @trunklayer , and @pm215 for your help. I think I understand things juuuuuuust a little bit better.
At this stage, it’s probably a good idea to utilize a grammar resource with lots of exercises like a textbook, so you can work through them and get experience writing simple, grammatical sentences.
For example, if you’re using the Genki textbook, the X は Y です pattern is covered in the first chapter, and you can then get practice using it by doing the exercises. This page is a good place to practice the exercises online, and here’s one of the specific X は Y です exercises.
Hmm… that may not be a bad idea. I’ve heard Genki isn’t great for self study though since you can’t correct your own exercises or something. Is that true?
Nah, it’s fine. You can skip the classroom oriented partner exercises and just read the chapters and do the other exercises.
There’s also a good youtube series by Tokini Andy where he explains all of the grammar, in case you like having a person explain stuff to you vs. just reading.
The page I linked can correct the exercises, so no problems there.
It is functionally equivalent to: 私は電車です。日本です。
But as it is a bit heavy redundancy to have two です following like that, there is a “linking form” of です that is just で.
The “means of action” particle で ( or the “place of action” particle で ) need an “action”, and there was no verb of action in your sentence, hence the parsing of that で as the “linking です”.
(However, by seeing your level of Japanese, someone could infer that you intended the “mean of action”. Still without any verb it was quite vague: “as for me, with the train, it’s Japan”.
Particularly as a train doesn’t allow to go to Japan, I would have understood your sentence as “I (plan to) ride by train while in Japan”
( My first reading was actually “I feel like a Japanese citizen when I take the train”, but discarded it as unlikely)
