Particle Quesion

[iaai]

Hi,
please look at these two sentences:
父親に聞く
父親を聞く
Can someone please explain the difference between using these two particles with the verb 聞くin the sense of to listen and to ask?
If I had to make a guess, does にestablish a connection to the person you are speaking to whereas をdoes not?

[Thefrozenskies]

を is a direct object marker, when the main subject is acting on an object.
父親を聞く
This translates, roughly to "i hear dad" or "i ask dad"

に is more of a direction marker, and i think that's what you meant by a "connector"... it shows that the intent was towards a person, object, or place.
父親に聞く
Translates to "i listen to dad" or "i ask of my dad

[iaai]

Thanks!
I have another question that I want to get cleared up from when I was studying beginner's Japanese. The adverb ぜんぜん- I had only encountered it with negative predicates, e.g.
私はテレビをぜんぜん見ない (I never watch TV)

When the predicate is positive, does it mean the opposite? As in 'I watch TV always', 'completely' or something similar?
Also does the above apply to the adverb まったくas well?

[Thefrozenskies]

ぜんぜん- I've seen this with positives and negatives, and i think your assumptions are right.

まったく - I haven't seen this used as an adverb before, just as an interjection, so i wouldn't know.

[iaai]

OK next question! (this is really helping to clear up things I learned a while ago)

Question word + も
e.g. だれも,何も
When it occurs with negative predicates, I know that it means no-one or nothing.
大使館の前にだれも立っていない。(No-one is standing in front of the embassy)
So when it occurs with positive predicates, does it mean everything or everyone? I know that みんなcan be used as well though.

[Jessi]

You should always use the negative after ぜんぜん. There are some instances where affirmative phrases are used after ぜんぜん (as in the common phrase ぜんぜん大丈夫), but this kind of Japanese is technically not correct (you will hear that phrase a lot though, it seems to have become accepted these days).

The same goes for まったく - when used as an adverb, it's always used in a negative sentence.

[Javizy]

Question word + も
e.g. だれも,何も
When it occurs with negative predicates, I know that it means no-one or nothing.
大使館の前にだれも立っていない。(No-one is standing in front of the embassy)
So when it occurs with positive predicates, does it mean everything or everyone? I know that みんなcan be used as well though.

With positive predicates, ～でも seems a lot more common from my experience.

何でも知ってるよね。
誰でもできることじゃん。

According to goo, you can use だれも interchangeably with だれでも, but 何も needs to be used with a negative, unless it's in some sort of phrase like 何もかも.

[iaai]

Thanks everyone.

Is 死ぬthe only verb that ends with ぬ?

[Jessi]

Thanks everyone.

Is 死ぬthe only verb that ends with ぬ?

I don't believe it's the only one, but I often hear that it's the only verb that ends in ぬ that is still commonly used in modern Japanese. Textbooks always use 死ぬ as their example for ぬ verbs in conjugation charts and such.

[kagawashaun]

ぜんぜん followed by negatives is considered correct, but is still used frequently followed by positives. I wouldn't say to "always" use it followed by negatives as you'll find yourself not using phrases that are common in the language.

As a general rule use it followed by a negative until you hear someone do it otherwise in some context. Then you can use that usage either.