who needs ‘e’ anyway?
November 15th, 2005 by heatheri found another blog for someone in ireland learning a language. he’s learning french and writes brief sentences. this inspires me to keep it short.
i had a lesson today, and i actually learned something about the difference between ‘e’ へ and ‘ni’ に particles. at least that へ is something you don’t really need to know! (note ‘e’ is written with the hiragana for へ, but pronounced え ‘e’ ).
following on from my work before with coming/going. i started gathering what i could on the topic of going places and also started on conjugating those verbs to talk about the past. but i got confused on how and when to use ni and e.
When asking someone “where did you go to?” you can use EITHER へ or に
Example Question:
どこ へ いきましたか？ OR
どこ に いきましたか？
r: doko e ikimashita ka / doko ni ikimashita ka
e: where did you go?
answer: when you answer, you have to stick with either the e or ni as it was used by the person asking.
みせへいきました。OR
みせにいきました。
r: mise e ikimashita. / mise ni ikimashita
e: i went to the shop.
Vocab:
みせ / mi se / shop
どこ /doko /where
いきました/ ikimashita / past of ‘to go’ いく、いきます
However you can ONLY use へ with:
いきます / ikimasu / come
きます / kimasu / go
かえります / ka e ri masu / to go home, return
For example, you must use に when you say つきます/ tsukimasu / arrive, because it’s not a verb of action. Lithmus test: Arrive means you’re there, hence no action. Ok, i’m confused.
Well, actually I don’t understand the rule for ni に yet, but I do now know: that basically, you can use に in most cases, so you don’t really NEED to use へ! Why not just cross this little particle off your list of things to do?!
Tim R. Matheson’s article on Japanese particles explains why it’s useful. (I have added the hiragana to his quote).
Destination indicator e:
While not as flexible as ni, e is sometimes used in place of it to emphasize a destination:
* そとへいきたい。 Soto e ikitai. (I want to go outside.)
* きゅうはどこへ？ Kyou wa doko e? (Where are you going today?) (Yes, the verb can be omitted here.)
* あしたびじつかんへいきます。 Ashita bijutsukan e ikimasu. (We’re going to the art museum tomorrow.)
So it is useful! Yay for へ!
November 15th, 2005 at 11:54 pm
Japanese For Busy People I seperates へ by direction and gives the example of considering the two like “-ward”. ”とうきょう に／へ” - “Tokyo-ward”. The author suggets that they are interchangeable.
Over at YesJapan they explain that に is used for a direct location like ”とうきょうに いきます,” and that へ is more often used for directions like in ”みなみへ いきます。” They then go on to say that most Japanese speakers tend to swap between に and へ without regard for specific grammatical rules.
Swapping with aplomb it would seem! Either way, it can be quite confusing.
I’d hadn’t seen Tim Matheson’s site before you linked it. Thank you!
November 16th, 2005 at 4:01 pm
I used to study Japanese and your site gives me the chance to try and recall them (after so many years). I recognise and recall most of them especially if I cheat and peek at bit at your romanisation. It takes a little getting used to though, because I’m used to seeing “ikimasu” instead of “ikimas”.
Just a question about your hiragana for “bijutsuku” , I recall clearly what “tsu” looks like in hiragana, and so I cannot make out your rendering.
November 16th, 2005 at 4:02 pm
- Just a question about your hiragana for “bijutsuku”
I suppose I mean “bijutsukan”
November 16th, 2005 at 4:07 pm
i end up writing ikimas, since you don’t actually say the ‘u’ at the end, and i always find that confusing.
thanks for the corrections. bad typo!