I was wondering about the following sentence (from BunPro - the grammar point is そんなに)
そんなに 頑張っても、彼みたいに出来ない。
Even if I tried that hard, I couldn’t do it like he can.
My question is, why is the translation in past tense? I am unable to see anything that hints to a past tense in the japanese sentence. Am I missing something? Is “Even if I try that hard, I can’t do it like he can” a less accurate translation?
We just talk that way in English.
This feels a little less natural, but not wrong. I would personally word it like this if I was already doing the same thing he was and he was better/putting in more effort.
“Even if I bought a lottery ticket, its not like I would win” can be about some hypothetical future thing as well. Like if the pot is super high and my friend is telling me to go buy a ticket soon.
“Even if I bought a lottery ticket, its not like I would have won” is how I would say it for some past tense thing. Like my friend telling me I should have bought one after the lottery was over.
Thanks, it is lot clearer now.
I guess the good thing is that the problem wasn’t my japanese failing me 
お前は本当に真相を究明するつもりがあるのか？
In this sentence, what is the grammatical function of the final の particle? I feel like I see it here and there but I haven’t been able to piece together what it means yet.
のか gives questions the feel of a rhetorical question (you don’t necessarily really want them to answer you).
That’s just the “how” of it, but I suppose the “why” is because の turns the whole thing into a noun, and then you are questioning that and it takes that feel. I don’t know if のか actually has that etymology, but it’s a guess.
Oh I see! So it’s more along the lines of “You’re really going to investigate the truth of the matter, aren’t you?” where it’s more of a statement than a question?
Yeah, that’s what I mean.
Though in this particular sentence, it might come off as “You really think you’re going to get to the bottom of it?” where the person is doubting a bit. お前 and 本当に in particular give it that feeling. But maybe they’re just really familiar with the listener. When someone asks you a question like that in English, you might just blow them off.
彼かれの成功をしんじようではありませんか。
Why don’t we trust that he will be successful?
How is it that and not “Why don’t we trust in his success?” As in he already is 成功 and therefore has credibility, so why not trust him? Them using の sounds like it already exists.
Any help would be appreciated
Where did you get that sentence? The 彼かれ makes me think I might know, but anyway.
彼の成功 could be a past success or a future success. The sentence would need some context to say for sure.
In Tae Kims guide, I just learned how to say "according to… " using 「〜によると」and am wondering if it’s possible to use question words or phrases to express something like "According to what I see… " with a sentence like this: 「何を見る」によると、正しそうです。I also don’t know how to attach it if it can actually work in that way.
This grammar cannot be used this way. によると needs to be proceeded by a noun. See this resource for the possible constructions. I’m not sure if there’s an exact wording for “according to what I see…” but the general idea could be encapsulated by ～限り(では). For this usage, you could just put the plain form of the verb in front of 限り.
One tip when thinking about how to say something from one language into Japanese is think about the concept as a whole not how translate each individual word of the expression into Japanese.
Is it grammatically correct to in some cases exclude “ん” in “んですか”
for example
“あかがいいんですか。”
と
“あかがいいですか。”
I know it changes the tone but is it still a sentence?
〜によると can’t be used like that I’m afraid.
I have heard and seen the phrase 「聞いたところによると」.
But I haven’t seen 「見たところによると」at all.
https://thesaurus.weblio.jp/content/聞いたところによると
Here may be some useful expressions that carry the message that I think you want to say.
https://thesaurus.weblio.jp/content/見たところ
They are different things.
赤がいいですか is standard grammar. い adjective on the polite form (+です), made into a question.
赤がいいんですか is just the contracted form of 赤がいいのですか, you can read about that use of の at Tae Kim
But I’m not sure one would call んです as “grammatically correct”. Of course you will find it at songs, manga and etc because that’s how Japanese talk. But there is no doubt the real sentence is のです, and that is how any newspaper, article or “formal” book will write it.
Well, yes, but it stops being んですか if you do omit it. (Actually, it’s more weird to use んですか all the time - makes you look a little bit nosy.)
のですか / んですか is used to reaffirm or confirm something. So if you are asking a question out of the blue with no prior context to it, you wouldn’t use it.
Sorry I didn’t notice the reply until this late.
Sorry it seems like I copied the furigana and pasted it without noticing, as you suspected it’s just 彼. It’s an example sentence from Bunpro, so unfortunately that’s the full context. But if you’re saying it could go both ways then I shouldn’t worry about it.
Thanks!
Hello, I’m doing some listening practice and am a little confused by a part.
What is the 「たからか」part? Is it just 「〜から」, right? I’m guessing that she is just pondering here.
Yes, she’s saying the reason is that we spoke Japanese (日本語を話してたから). And the か is as you said, for pondering whether that maybe was the reason.
Not exactly a grammar question, but I didn’t want to post a thread for a simple question.
止める and 止まる … Wanikani has them sounding like tomeru and tomaru. I swore it was yameru and yamaru and jisho.org has both.
Is there any point of saying it one way or the other? The main word I recall from any listening is Yamette!!!