Short Grammar Questions

Japanese Language Grammar
#124

This is the perfect place to ask this, I think! It didn’t seem big enough to write an entire topic about, but I can’t quite grasp the difference between 最後 and 最終. They are both nouns and no-adjectives. I even looked them up on ALC but they seem to mostly have the same meaning, except 最後 has some additional meanings where it can be used as “next to last, third to last, etc.”, and can also be used with に to make (I think?) an adverb. Is this really the only difference, though? I mean, can you really use both interchangeably to be “last [noun]”? ALC even has a definition of 最後 to be “last time”. Is this the same “last time” as 前回?

My brain is currently seriously broken over anything related to last/previous/previously/last time because they all seem EXACTLY the same to me. :sweat:

1 Like
#125

Context? Maybe it’s the end of the day and also the end of summer vacation.

#126

The translation I was given is “Summer vacation is over already” which I thought was accomplished without the additional, bolded も。But I honestly don’t know because I’m a complete grammar noob.

#127

I found this https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/48790/whats-the-difference-between-最後-and-最終

2 Likes
#128

It can also be used as an exclamation of sorts to indicate some sort of surprise. Example 5 here is very similar. However, as Heiopei suggested there’s a lack of context that would really help here.

1 Like
#129

That must be it! Thank you for the link, I will bookmark it.

Thanks to both of you @ccookf and @Heiopei

#130

I have a question that might be silly…
最初から左足でブレーキ、右足でアクセルと別けて普通に運転しています。

What is the と 's function in this sentence??

1 Like
#131

Where did you find the sentence?

#132

On Imabi! I was looking at this page when i saw it in the examples and had trouble parsing it:
http://www.imabi.net/adjectivesiiinavsno.htm

Its number 10.

#133

I don’t think it’s the conditional と
and it’s probably not the と that means “with” either
I think it’s there to quote all that comes bofore it, similar to ～と思う

But I’m not sure why it’s phrased like this, maybe 別けて calls fo a と-quotation

#134

My girlfriend (native Japanese) thought it sounded strange. But you can always reach out to the imabi guy.

1 Like
#135

とわけて is to separate from or keep separate, which makes sense here - separating your left break and right gas when driving. However, something does look a bit strange. My wife says it should probably be と分けて instead. A search for と別けて doesn’t turn up much at all. と別れて, however, is used.

Note that those Imabi translations are literal/not good.

1 Like
#136

@Heiopei, @Leebo, @tel003a, thanks for your help!!

Yeah that particular sentence was giving me problems, but you bring up a good point.
What a good way to start translating sentences in a not literal way, or to stray away from that habit? I imagine its just practice practice practice but you might have some advice for me =) thanks!

#137

I figure it’s just a matter of having a really solid understanding of the Japanese and then turning that into a natural English sentence. If you are native English speaker, you know what sounds natural and what doesn’t. Sometimes I have to simplify Japanese, and sometimes I have to break a Japanese sentence into two English sentences.

#138

Back with another one. Hope you don’t mind too much :blush:

そこには私一人しかいなかった
I was the only one there.

It’s also from the core 10k anki deck. I can’t figure out what しかいなかった means, and if it’s one word or not. Jisho says it might be a form of しか which means (I think) “only” or “nothing but”. But I’m not sure about it because of the いなかった ending, which is a past negative verb conjugation afaik. I can’t find a verb that is しかいる though. Plus, the English translation doesn’t give much of a hint what that means. What do you think?

#139

Looks like someone had the exact same question as you before! The link provided below has a good answer, so I think that should help

1 Like
#140

Also, Tae Kim explains it here under the sub header “Indication that there’s nothing else using しか”

(That exact sentence threw me off as well, before I had studied much grammar :slight_smile: )

3 Likes
#141

Xしか～～ない = there is nothing but X (～～ = in place/at time/additional info)
Xしか～～いない = there is nobody but X

Which leads to:
Xしか～～なかった = there was nothing but X
Xしか～～いなかった = there was nobody but X

3 Likes
#142

I’m not having trouble with grammar per se… I’m having trouble understanding how the japanese think when they say this sentence:

私はオレンジよりりんごの方が好きです。

So… I like apples more than oranges. So I, oranges but apples alternative, I like them better.

So if someone was like… オレンジとりんごが好きですか。could you say… りんごの方が好きです。Apples as an alternative are better?

Basically how does a japanese mind work that a sentence is formed this way. Sorry…

#143

I don’t understand your question, but if I asked this question オレンジとリンゴどちらの方が好きですか, your sentence りんごの方が好きです would be a fine alternative to オレンジよりりんごの方が好きです.