Thursday, February 23, 2006
Do you know?
OK. Another short and sweet one, which I'm sure everyone except me already knew about.
Consider the type of question that starts "Do you know...", for example
English: Do you know this film?
Jenglish: [this film][know]
日本語： この映画を知っていますか。
The appropriate Japanese verb for 'to know' in this context is 知る, which in the polite 'present simple' tense is 知ります. However, as usual, life just ain't that simple with Japanese. Here, the Japanese (in commom with several other languages, I think) use the 'present progressive' tense, and would actually translate the question as "Are you knowing this film?". So, we get:
日本語： この映画を知っていますか。
When answering this there are a few options: (1) you do know, (2) you don't know, or (3) you didn't know, but do now. Using some posh grammatical terms these are present simple for (1) & (2) and past simple for (3). Of course, its' not that simple!
If you want to answer 'I know...' then you reply in the present progressive:
日本語： 知っています。
If you want to answer 'I don't know' then use the present simple:
日本語： 知りません。
And if you want to reply 'I didn't know' (implying you do now), use the past simple:
日本語： 知りませんでした。
またね。。。
Consider the type of question that starts "Do you know...", for example
English: Do you know this film?
Jenglish: [this film][know]
日本語： この映画を知っていますか。
The appropriate Japanese verb for 'to know' in this context is 知る, which in the polite 'present simple' tense is 知ります. However, as usual, life just ain't that simple with Japanese. Here, the Japanese (in commom with several other languages, I think) use the 'present progressive' tense, and would actually translate the question as "Are you knowing this film?". So, we get:
日本語： この映画を知っていますか。
When answering this there are a few options: (1) you do know, (2) you don't know, or (3) you didn't know, but do now. Using some posh grammatical terms these are present simple for (1) & (2) and past simple for (3). Of course, its' not that simple!
If you want to answer 'I know...' then you reply in the present progressive:
日本語： 知っています。
If you want to answer 'I don't know' then use the present simple:
日本語： 知りません。
And if you want to reply 'I didn't know' (implying you do now), use the past simple:
日本語： 知りませんでした。
またね。。。
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