Short Grammar Questions (Part 1)

Since 主 isn’t a verb stem, it doesn’t have anything to do with the construction, just a separate expression.
And don’t let yourself get too confused by the に, it’s just a set expression. So whenever you see ‚verb stem’ + に行きます it just means „to go to do ‚verb‘“

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I found this short description which also points to Genki I so @Frosty-chan can further read on the topic if interested:

https://wp.stolaf.edu/japanese/grammar-index/genki-i-ii-grammar-index/ni-iku-genki-i-chapter-7/

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に doesn’t always refer to a location. に has many different uses depending on context. This webpage seems to have good information on the different uses:

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What’s the difference between 聞いてあげましょう and 聞きましょう? “Let’s listen for them” and “Let’s listen”?

~てあげる, ~てもらう, ~てくれる, and their variants convey the giving/receiving of favors.

So roughly, the difference however negligible:
聞いてあげましょう - “Let’s hear them out” (give the favor of listening)
聞きましょう - “Let’s listen” (doesn’t really express any additional, emotion/intention)

Hopefully that makes since. One thing to note is that てあげる, despite being polite, can come off as a little snooty depending on how it’s used.

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みたい doesn’t have past tense or negative form? How would you say in Japanese something like “X looked like Y (before / a year ago)”? Fiddling with Google Translate gave me: “X はかつて Y のように見えた。” for “X looked like Y before.”

The suffix みたい is a な adjective. So you can put だった or でした at the end for past tense.

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So that’s how it works. Thanks.

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Another one from BunPro…

8時までに学校につかないいけない。

I don’t get what the と is doing here?

ないといけない is just another way of saying “have to do X”, like なければいけない and なくてはいけない.
The と is the conditional, in this sentence meaning:
If I don’t arrive by 8 (と = certain consequence) いけない (roughly something like no good, hopeless).
And this “If I don’t, then something not good happens” basically just means “I have to…”.

But it looks like bunpro doesn’t have a grammar point that explains ないといけない, so I don’t know why they have an example sentence like that… maybe you should post in the BunPro thread, to make them aware.

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Yeah, I actually think I remembered that grammar point from one of Misa’s videos. Isn’t that this? It just looks like it’s in a sentence before it is taught (if you go by their order, at least).

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Yup, that conditional. I’m just wondering because for all the other conditionals + いけない they have extra grammar points, so it’s a bit weird to have this one just pop up without even a way to check the meaning via bunpro.

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ペットがいますか? Do you have pets?
ペットはいますか? Are there pets?
彼らはペットですか? Are they pets?

How does the particle in the first two change the meaning of the sentence?
Why does the verb form change in the third sentence?

Thanks.

The difference between は and が is a short question to ask, but kind of a long one to answer. There are a couple different reasons why you could put one or the other in those sentences. I would recommend reading a guide like Tae Kim or imabi on the general differences.

いる is a verb that means that something exists and is animate.
です is the copula in Japanese. You can think of a copula functioning like an equal sign. “They = pets?”

We happen to use “to be” for both existence and the copula in English, but they are separate in Japanese.

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“Is/are there” is different than “is/are”

Here they are with the verbs swapped:

ペットですか?
Is/are (you/it/they) a pet (or pets)?

彼らはペットがいますか?
Do they have a pet (or pets)?

三連休から夏の青空が優勢になりそうです
A blue summer sky will likely be dominant through the three-day-weekend

Is から being used as “through” in this sentence? It’s throwing me off, shouldn’t it be にかけて?

Thanks in advance

The person who wrote the English sentence just took the liberty to write it in a more natural sounding English even if it is not a word-by-word translation of the Japanese, which wouldn’t work really well in this case.

The から still means “from”. The literal translation of the sentence would be:

A blue summer sky will likely be dominant from the [beginning of the] three-day-weekend.

What ends implying the same desired meaning: the three-day-weekend will likely have good weather.

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Is anyone familiar with the "NameはNameで” grammar pattern? It’s always with names/people. I can’t search for what it means because all the results just come up with the individual は・で grammar points.

I tried to have my coworker explain it to me and from what I understood it was kind of like “Well if’s Name we’re talking about then…”, like 「のことだから」 but I’m still a little confused.

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It would help to have an example because I’m having a hard time figuring out what you mean.

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Haha that’s true. I always forget write an example down when I’m reading.

Luckily I found one today!

Book is Winnie the Pooh, context is that Baby Ru fell into a stream and everyone is scrambling to help him.

いっぽう、フクロが、「唐突なる一時的沈乳の場合にあっては、頭を水上に保つことが肝要である。」と、説明するかと思えば、カンガはカンガで、土手の上をとびはねながら、「ほんとにだいじょうぶかい、ルーや?」と、いっていました。

So from my understanding the grammar pattern is saying that it’s typical of Owl to give a grandiose lecture with super hard words, but on the other hand, typical of Kanga, she asks Ru if he’s alright. (Since she’s his mother.)

Am I understanding that right? Also does anyone have a link to a site that actually talks about this grammar point?

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