I’ve been using Bunpro for reviewing grammar concepts and really like it so far. However I’ve hit a bit of confusion over a certain exercise:
__のパソコン
That PC there.
[near listener]
I thought the answer would be それ but the correct answer was そこ.
Assuming PC means “Personal Computer”, that would be a thing (not a place) and according to its Bunpro page which says そこ is for a “Place near the listener”. A PC is not a place so I’m a bit confused.
Thanks for any light you can shed on the topic.
そこ itself means a place. It literally means “place near listener’s PC” or something.
それのPC would be “that’s PC”, which is not what you want.
So the “there” in this sentence isn’t the PC itself but the location in which the PC is currently?
When would you ever use “there” to mean an object like a PC?
And to answer your question, yes.
“there’s PC” / “the PC of there” = “that PC there”
This is casual but understandable English grammar to me. “That PC there” = “That PC (the one which is located there)”.
| this | near | far | question | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| thing | このX | そのX | あのX | どのX | (must have an X noun) |
| thing | これ | それ | あれ | どれ | (must not have a noun) |
| place | ここ | そこ | あそこ | どこ | |
| direction | こちら | そちら | あちら | どちら |
それ is a thing, so それのパンコン would imply the PC belonging to thing that is there.
OK that makes sense. Thanks!
そこ is not a pronoun to replace the PC (the PC is still there in the sentence), it replaces a place. It enables you to talk about a place that both speaker and listener know about.
Yeah, you can think of this like… you’re talking to your friend on the phone, and instead of saying [friend’s name]の家のパソコン, you can turn [friend’s name]の家 into そこ because it is a place near the listener.
(just one of many possibilities)
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