person can be adjective-er

[danfernold7261]

I'm working on learning how to say "person" can be "adjective-er" (i.e. I can be bigger) and am right now using Google translate, and my question is: is my sentence "watashi wa motto ookii dekimasu" correct and if not please help.

Is is possible that the answer could be "ku-form adjective する ことができます"?

looking forward to replies

ありがとうございます

[community.japanese]

danfernold7261-san,
to say "[adjective]-er" or "more...." you can use "motto", but, like you wrote,
"[ku-form] suru kotoga dekimasu" is the proper way, not Google Translate's sentence (that's wrong).

The sentences like "I can be bigger" would be translated into several different ways, since there can be many
different situations you might use. So, I can't really say what's the "pattern".
For example, "I can be stronger" would probably be translated as "motto tsuyoku naremasu" or "motto tsuyoku
naru koto ga dekimasu". When it's in a context, there can be better translation as well

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[danfernold7261]

OK. wakarimashita. Doumo Arigatou

Dan Fernold


P.S: actually, Google translate wasn´t wrong. It did say that "I can be bigger" was "ookiku suru koto ga dekiru" but I wanted to sure, as I didn´t understand why "suru" was needed, and also, i got a little confused when I wrote it in japanese, because the translation became "it is possible to increase" but, anyway: Google was right. And Natsuko, if I made you think otherwise, Hontoni sumimasen

D.S.


P.P.S: And just so you know. Here´s how this came up....

I was giving this type sentence a lot of thought (I can be bigger) and what I originally was thinking about was a situation like
"Sorry. You´re to small."
Ok, but I can be bigger."

What I´ve come to realise since my post is that the complete sentence in this case is: Ok, but I can be bigger than this, and I came to think: If so, can´t you use "A wa B yori X dekiru"

D.D.S.

[community.japanese]

Dan-san,
ah, I see
Thank you very much for all the explanations!

I couldn't give you a straight answer because "becoming bigger" in this case (about human being's size)
is not totally depends on your own will. If the sentence was more about objects which you can actually
change the size as you wish, then it was easier.
In any way, your thoughts about "A wa B yori X dekiru" not being the case were 100% correct

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[danfernold7261]

Oh, OK.

so just to clarify: can you or can't you use i.e. 私はこれより大きいできる? (from looking your "smiley" i guess not)

じぜんにありがとうございます

Dan Fernold

[community.japanese]

Dan-san,
if you mean "grammatically correct", the answer is "no".
First of all, you can't use できる with dictionary form of i-adjective (大きい).

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[danfernold7261]

Ok.

Then, which form can you use in comparisons with dekiru? ku-form?

Dan Fernold

[community.japanese]

Dan-san,
I think you're missing the point here; you must use "ku" form to connect to "dekiru" in comparision
sentence with "...yori".

I'm not very sure what exactly you want to know, but I really can't give you a simple straight
answer sometimes. That's how languages work and we, as teachers, never want to give
simple answers so that learners can use it in any patterns whatever the meaning/context is
applying literal "translation" automatically. That will never work and we never want to encourage
anyone doing that. We're here to help you understand grammar, usage and so on.

Hope you understand.

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[danfernold7261]

Ok, but one last try on this,.with an example.

Let us say I'm with a friend, and he has just ran a 100 metres,.and he says "See that! That was fast, on which a very (very) confident me replies "Yeah, it was, but I can run faster (than that)"

Now then , in this scenario, and others like it can you use "AはBよりku-adj.できます? (like a comparisons) or is AはBをku-adj.することができます the way to go?

よろしく

Dan Fernold

P.S. I don't mean to be a nuisance, I just want to be 100% sure that speak your language correctly. If I've been an inconvenience. ほんとうにほんとうにすみません。そのために私をゆるしてくださいD.S.

[community.japanese]

Dan-san,
actually, your last question confirmed me "what" exactly you wanted to know.
I knew it was strange to say "I can be [adjective-er]".

See, in English, it says "can run faster", so it's different from simple "[adjective]-er" you forcused on at first.
This is "can [verb] + [adjective-er]".
In such case, you have to express "can [verb]" and then, add "adjective-er". This also means that
adjectives in such sentences modify verbs. To do so, adjectives must be conjugated to adverbial form,
NOT comparative form.

=> (Watashi wa) motto hayaku hashiru koto ga dekimasu.

You are not bothering or annoying me at all I just can't give you a wrong answer and that's why I needed
some example sentence. Now you clearly see I had a point, right?
Now I could give you a very important information on this "can do more ....ly" kind of sentences

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[danfernold7261]

Yeah, I see that,.which means example sentences from now on.

どうもありがとうございますよ

Dan Fernold

[danfernold7261]

tokorode.

the "what" or "who" you can do something more-er that is marked by "o" right?

Dan Fernold

[community.japanese]

Dan-san,
you mean sentence like;
nani o motto tsukurimasu ka. (What do you make/create more?)

It's difficult to think of any sentences and/or imagine situations. Have you got any idea?
Particles might change, depending on the sentence type and I'm not very sure what kind of
converation or situation you have in your mind.

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[danfernold7261]

Natsuko sensei. Konnichiwa.

What I meant with my last post was, If I want to say, from the example, "Yeah, it was, but I can run faster than you"

Now, the "you" in this type of sentence "watashi wa anata "(o?)" motto hayaku hashiru koto ga dekimasu. is marked by "o"

or is it?

oshiete kudasai

Yoroshiku

Dan Fernold

[community.japanese]

Dan-san,
no, it can't be marked by the particle "o".
This particle marks the object of transitive verbs.

I think you should need to taks one-by-one step to understand comparative sentence properly.
Japanese particles can be very confusing, and picking up some without learning and understanding
step by step is very risky.

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com