Hopefully that was comprehensible. I’ve delayed output for much too long, so I’m wanting to take my first baby steps into output. This seems like a decent place to start! Feedback is always welcome!
で vs に has been the particle pair I struggle with the most, I feel. I never really know when it feels to right to use one versus the other. Thank you for the feedback!
They each have a fair few use cases which overlap sometimes, mostly when referring to locations in relation to the verb.
As a general rule, で refers to where an action takes place, and に refers to what the destination is for an action.
So 公園に歩く = to walk to the park, whereas 公園で歩く is to walk in the park, basically.
This can sometimes get a bit confusing in translation: 東京で家を書いた and 東京に家を書いた both mean “I bought a house in Tokyo”, but with で the nuance is you bought a house while you were in Tokyo, whereas with に it’s the house that’s in Tokyo, but you might as well have been in Brazil when you bought it.
I think in this case 公園を歩く might work a little better for “walk in the park”, because walking and the park are still linked. With で, walking is independent from the park and the park becomes more of a background context.
I think it would be 東京にある家を買った。With に alone we still have only 1 verb.
I did some extra searching for the 東京にアパート and came up with options which I think are a little clearer:
東京の賃貸アパート
東京の賃貸マンション
I would say that if it’s “an apartment in Tokyo” (and the reader/listener is not necessarily in Tokyo), 東京のアパート makes more sense. But I also don’t see any other response in the StackExchange thread to this and couldn’t find anything sensible with に .
For what I would have wanted to say in Japanese if I could get the thoughts to properly form in my head: If you are feeling ill, I hope you get well soon! If you just meant that you were low on energy, I hope you get some proper rest! Take care of yourself! (Though of course that message goes for if you are ill, too. )
As for what I actually posted in Japanese:
Perhaps it’s best if I actually include an intended meaning? I’m not sure what the etiquette is!
Intended meaning:
“I’d love to respond in Japanese but translating my thoughts from English to Japanese is very difficult for me. Of course, I don’t want to translate (implied: so much as have the thoughts happen naturally), but it’s a bit early for that, isn’t it? Well, that’s okay. These sentences will suffice for today.”
The things I’m least sure about in how I phrased it:
I always worry I sound very stilted. For the time being, I’m trying to use mostly formal speech, but I don’t know if I just also sound really stiff and unnatural with my word choices, or if I’m just worrying about sounding stilted because it isn’t casual speech (which I have more practice input-wise thanks to what I read; hence why I figured I’d start with practicing output with more formal phrasings… I need to get that practice somewhere)
Is the location of that ちゃんと (just before the 英語) the proper (hah) place to put that? I almost feel like I should have put it in front of the 訳するの, but I don’t know for sure.
On that note, verbs being turned into nouns are something I’m not confident in. Did I do it right?
I bolded the second 訳す usage, because I wanted to emphasize that I don’t want to translate the thoughts so much as just have them, but I’m not really sure how I would express that nuance in Japanese. Even the way I phrased it in English sounds weird in my brain, but I think I’ve just spent too long thinking about this. Hopefully that indirect question makes sense.
Finally, is 足りる or 間に合う a better use for “to suffice/to be sufficient” in this instance, you think? I wavered back and forth, and decided 足りる felt more natural, but I’m going purely by gut feeling on that one. I also floated 事足りる in my head, but I’m honestly at a loss which would be the best one.
Thank you!
I think people mentioned this in another thread, but usually you can お大事に or 良くなってくださいね if you want to wish someone getting better. I think I should’ve clarified (with a translation, heh) that I actually meant just not feeling energetic with that 元気
I don’t think there are any requirements or expectations . Sometimes we include translations as that may help people figure things out.
I think you’re doing fine . It’s not like we’re all writing in keigo.
I would slap it in front of the verb for safety. There is also 訳す as a verb (to translate).
Yup . の for general conversions, こと for more conceptual stuff and もの for more physical stuff.
I only ever saw 間に合う being used in reference to time expressions. There is also 十分 meaning “sufficient, enough” and I’ve heard it used in news reports. This is what Goo says about 足りる:
Nah, because you specifically mentioned coffee and needing to get sleep, I leaned towards the low energy translation. It’s my own overthinking that went, “Well, maybe they meant sick… Better cover my bases.” I don’t think a clarification is necessary just to sate overthinkers.
訳す was actually what I intended to use when I wrote the sentence, and I think I just autopiloted the る onto there by mistake. Jisho tells me that there is a 訳する, but that’s it’s a “special” class verb… Not totally sure what that means, so I guess I know what I’m looking up for the next little bit.
Thank you for the feedback! It really is appreciated!