vykis92 Groupie LithuaniaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5314 days ago 68 posts - 71 votes Studies: Spanish
| Message 1 of 5 24 January 2011 at 5:20pm | IP Logged |
Hi, I got new textbook for japanese and I found some sentence things whicch do not agree with my previous texbook.
What sort of book it is? my oppinion - donna hon desu ka. But now I found - nanno hon desu ka. Which correct?
Edited by vykis92 on 24 January 2011 at 5:21pm
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budonoseito Pro Member United States budobeyondtechnRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5804 days ago 261 posts - 344 votes Studies: French, Japanese Personal Language Map
| Message 2 of 5 25 January 2011 at 12:55am | IP Logged |
Both are correct. Welcome to Japanese. There are many pronunciations for the same word
and the same pronunciation for different words.
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fielle Diglot Groupie Japan maliora.com Joined 5269 days ago 53 posts - 69 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German
| Message 3 of 5 25 January 2011 at 6:10am | IP Logged |
It's like the difference between saying "What kind of book is it?" and "What type of book is it?" and "What sort of book is it?"
They all mean approximately the same thing, but they use different words.
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Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6948 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish
| Message 4 of 5 25 January 2011 at 1:23pm | IP Logged |
donna hon desu ka? = what kind of book is it? (donna = what kind of)
Some possible answers might be: An interesting book, a history book, a book about a
dude who falls in love with a chick, a really old book.
nan no hon desu ka? = what is the book about? (nan no = literally, "of what?" like
Spanish "de que"- Just think of "no" as a Spanish "de" that works in the opposite
direction. So nan no hon? = libro de que?)
Possible answers include: rekishi no hon (libro de historia)
As opposed to the first question, which is asking really broadly for any description of
the book, this second question is specifically asking the MAIN TOPIC of the book.
Even if it's bad Spanish, hopefully you get what I mean!
@Budonoseito,
Come on now, stop trying to scare the new guys ;)
Edited by Lucky Charms on 25 January 2011 at 2:07pm
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Monox D. I-Fly Senior Member Indonesia monoxdifly.iopc.us Joined 5134 days ago 762 posts - 664 votes Speaks: Indonesian*
| Message 5 of 5 25 March 2018 at 8:02am | IP Logged |
Lucky Charms wrote:
donna hon desu ka? = what kind of book is it? (donna = what kind of)
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Wait, if "donna" means "what kind of", why is "donna ni" often translated as "even though"?
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