Sentence structure

Japanese Language Grammar
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I was just thinking about a sentence, and want it to try out writing myself, maybe someone can check if I’m doing the grammar right.

I go cycling - Watashi ni Saikuringu o kuru.

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“I go cycling” would be
わたしはサイクリングをする

We use “go” in English to basically mean “do” here. Same with “I go shopping”. In Japanese that’s
わたしはかいものをする
It doesn’t have a “go” verb in it.

I’m not sure if the use of くる was a typo, or if you can explain why you chose that, maybe I can explain why it’s wrong.

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Also, 行く and 来る can’t have direct objects (marked with を). You can go or come from or to somewhere, so に、へ、から and まで will work.

(EDIT: there are circumstances where を行く can be used, see below)

You can also go or come in order to do something: 見に来る, come to look.

Hope this helps more than it confuses… :sweat_drops:

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Also, くる ‘come’ indicates that the subject is moving (or will move) in the direction of the speaker. English is a bit for flexible in this regard. (e.g. “I’m going out for coffee. Do you want to come?”)

But I have a question, maybe for @Leebo. Can you say サイクリングに行く the way you can say 走りに行く?

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Also, here are the kanjified versions of Leebo’s sentences, in case you wanted them:

私はサイクリングをする。
私は買い物をする。

I believe you would have to say サイクリングをしに行く。The idea is that you have to take the stem of a verb and then add に行く to say you’re “going to go do” something (which is where your 走り in 走りに行く comes from). So you could say something like, 寿司を食べに行く。to mean, “I’m going to go eat sushi”.

But I will obviously defer to Leebo’s response as the correct one. This is just my understanding as a mere mortal :man_shrugging:.

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As a mere mortal, I also think it’s サイクリングをしに行く.

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You learn this points from grammar books?

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That’s about half right. Namely, you can use を with movement verbs, but when you do, it indicates the route of motion. 公園を行く = Go through the park.

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I didn’t know that! I knew it worked with 歩く、走る etc but not with just 行く

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Yeah, you might hear it in directions from people.

この道を行って…
Go down this street…

You can learn basically anything about Japanese grammar from grammar books. I’m not sure exactly what alternative you’re imagining.

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I asked my resident Japanese expert, and she says サイクリングに行く sounds more natural. But if you wanted to say roughly “I bicycle,” You’d say サイクリングする。

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Well to be fair, you could also learn these points by talking to people, or listening to dialogue if you have a good ear.

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Sure, it’s possible, but the way he said it was like… doubting that you can use grammar books.

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Hey, I was halfway through reading your second paragraph when it disappeared! It was de-leeboed or something.

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It was more confusing than necessary so I deleted it.

Basically was trying to make a point about how サイクリングをする and サイクリングをしに行く would be different, but I don’t think it’s worth going there in this topic given the level of the OP.

And yes, サイクリングに行く exists as well.

You can use に行く for nouns like that (仕事に行く, 買い物に行く), but they are not necessarily interchangeable with / not literally the same meaning as the しに行く construction… this is getting overly complicated again…

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Personally I just sacrificed one of my eyes for wisdom, but yeah it should be covered in most grammar books.

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Do you also have pet ravens? :smiley:

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