So he addressed the people at the theatre? Saying “To get lots of people to watch it, it became a happy movie”? I’m really struggling with this one for some reason…
Got it, thanks. I’m too paranoid about looking out for the other one 
I don’t know how exactly I would do a literal part for part translation, but it’s basically “I’m happy that so many people are going to watch the movie.” Or watched the movie. Depending on when he said it. He’s not necessarily addressing everyone, but I don’t see any context to suggest it’s something other than that. If you have more that suggests it was a reply to a question or something, then maybe #4 could fit, I guess.
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Sorry for the late reply
It doesn’t really make sense to me so I’ll leave it on my spreadsheet and came back to it in a few weeks.
Thanks for the help
I’m currently doing my reviews on BunPro and this question came up:
クリスマスが_______から、子供たちが色々なものを欲しがっている。[近づく]
(Christmas has come to be near, so the children are wanting various things.)
I answered with ちかづいてくる, however ちかづいてきた was the correct answer and I don’t understand why. Like, there has got to be something in the sentence that tells me I need the た-form, but I simply don’t see it.
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I think it’s the translation that throws things off
クリスマスがちかづいてくるから would mean that Christmas will soon be coming closer (as in the process of coming closer has not happened yet, it just will soon)
クリスマスがちかづいてきたから makes the act of ‘Christmas coming closer’ having already happened… so Christmas is close (as opposed to it will be close soon), hence why the kids want stuff.
There’s no clean way to really express what the question wants with just the translation you got given (which is already pretty clunky), which makes it confusing
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I don’t think one would mark your answer as strictly incorrect grammar-wise, but the sentence makes a lot more sense when you use 近づいてきた。
Note that 子供たちが～欲しがっている is in the present. The children already want things. So Christmas already drew near.
When you say 近づいてくるから it sounds like a neutral statement, most likely used before something you are planning to do next.
クリスマスが近づいてくるから今年のデコレーションを考えないと。
But regarding the question itself, I agree with Nikaaa. It is pretty clunky and hard to tell what it wants just by reading it.
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I was wondering about some verbs that appear to be potential form of another verb, where this new verb seems to mean to do the original verb well. Here are two examples:
- 売れる: To sell well
- 知れる: to be evident/obvious (i.e. to be known “well”)
Does anyone know if this is a general pattern? And if so, is there a name for this? Any resources explaining this or giving more verbs that follow this pattern would be appreciated.
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It’s not that unusual for conjugations to take on their own nuances that go beyond the plain conjugated form’s meaning, and when they do they get their own entry in the dictionary. I think that’s all it is.
Things like 生まれる and 呼ばれる come to mind as well, with a different conjugation.
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I’m not sure that’s what he meant. I think he was asking if the concept of conjugations taking on new meanings had a name.
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Yes, but specifically those like 売れる with the “to do X well” meaning. (And maybe there aren’t many others like this. I only knew those two off the top of my head.)
Aren’t your examples transitive/intransitive pairings?
Not too sure about a predictable pattern though.
No, I don’t think so. Particularly I don’t see how 売れる could be considered an intransitive version of 売る.
By the way they have another example of the pattern you were interested in, 切る・切れる just under 売る・売れる
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Daijirin does not have 切れる (the intransitive counterpart of 切る) as being adapted from the potential form of 切る (which looks identical to 切れる), but it does have 売れる listed as having been adapted from the potential form of 売る.
売れる is intransitive, but it’s not “merely” the intransitive counterpart, since it has that connotation of selling well, not just being sold.
To me, they’re not really quite the same kind of relationship.
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My two cents in here on the original question.
So I know that these days potential forms can be transitive and take を because languages change over time - and in this case, maybe get influenced by English - but in my (old) textbooks it’s very clear that potential forms must take が, because they (originally) functioned differently than English potentials. To me their traditional use seems to mean something more like “to be —able”
Keeping that in mind, look at something like この本が読める. While a fine translation would be “I can read this book,” a somewhat more literal translation would be “This book is readable (for me, or whoever, everyone).”
Keeping THAT in mind, この本が売れる would mean that this book is sellable, which I think you can see how a natural extention of that could easily be that it “sells well,” especilly if you throw a よく in there.
Same with 知れる. “That is very knowable” = it is obvious.
That’s how it makes sense to me, anyway.
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Hi, what’s the fonction of “のと” in this sentence ?
映画に行くのと家にいるのとどっちがいい。
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の turns the verb before it into a noun, and と is doing its normal thing.
Some possible translations:
Which is better, going to the movies, or being at home?
It is better to go to the movies, or to be at home?
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thanks you
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