I’ve been trying to learn Japanese by making simple sentences. But recently, I’ve kinda been stuck on a problem lol. I’m trying to say
“why don’t you come to Italy with us?” In japanese and I’ve wrote it like this:
なぜあなたは私たちとイタリアにこない?
However I am a bit confused regarding the 「と」particle since by my understanding, it means “and.” Any help would suffice!
P.S. I’ve been learning from tae kim! If you got any opinion regarding his work then please tell me! Thanks 🙂
5 comments
と means both “with” and “and”, it depends on the context. Also, you used “なぜ” and “あなた”, which are formal, but you used “こない”, which is informal. I suggest you using “きませんか?” for coherence.
Good luck with your japanese studies, 頑張って!
It’s short for と一緒に.
Like “Kimi to issho ni” so “Together with you” … Definitely.
Heres another detail: you dont specify where the speaker is while inviting the friend (already in Italy or outside of Italy).
If theyre in Italy, then using こない/きませんか is correct. Why dont you COME with us.
If theyre not in Italy yet however, it should be 行かない/行きませんか. Why dont you GO with us.
In english you can just say come either way, regardless of where the speaker is. But in japanese theyre not interchangeable. Hope it makes sense!
The list of what TO can mean is long. But it has rules.
The first suggestion of learning a new language is to look for patterns in native speech, rather than translations of any words other than simple nouns.
Water is water, but flushing the toilet, taking a shower, etc are all idiomatic in every language, as are all verbs.
And anything that is not a noun or verb should only be learned in context, as it only means something in a given translation in a given context.
TO means: said by, if, with, specifically enumerated list, by means of, in the manner of, etc. etc.
Stop trying to make up your own sentences.