Hello,
I have been studying Japanese for a little while now and I still find myself consistently making mistakes when determining which particle is appropriate in a sentence. Maybe it’s because I’m thinking of them incorrectly, but they don’t seem to capture the nuance of what I am trying to communicate. For 2 examples:
When I want to say “I voted in an election” – 選挙で投票しました。- is で correct in this scenario? To me, it’s where the action took place? Am I thinking of this wrong?
For a slightly more complicated example from my homework, when I want to say “voting is a privilege that some people have forgotten about – 選挙権は特権だについて人々はわすれています。- Is this correct? google docs is telling me that “nitsuite” should be replaced with と, but this doesn’t seem right to me. Can と mean “that” (as in something *that* we have forgotten about)? I should also note that I used “nitsuite” to say “about which,” but I’m not sure that’s right either.
I also find that I often feel as if a sentence needs は more than once, for example, in the above sentence, isn’t the subject both voting and people? But as far as I can tell, は should only appear once in a sentence, or twice if the 2nd subject emphasizes a contradiction.
Any help would be appreciated, as well as any resources on understanding particles better!
Thank you!!
3 comments
> 選挙で投票しました
You can say this but 選挙に投票しました is more common. In daily speech, most people actually say 選挙に行く.
> 選挙権は特権だについて人々はわすれています
The と Google is suggesting is a quoting particle, which is correct. Also you can’t stick について onto だ like that – you have to turn it into a clause with ということ.
多くの人は選挙に投票できることは特権だということを忘れているようです。
You’re trying to stick to English word order a bit too much.
While English is fairly front loaded as a language (the important bit comes first: ‘voting is a privilege), Japanese is comparatively back loaded (the important bit comes last)
So here’s how I would say ‘voting is a privilege that some people have forgotten about’:
選挙権は、一部の人々が忘れてしまった特権である。
As for the particles: we are talking about the right to vote, so that’s our topic marked with は. The people are the ones who have forgotten it, and because this is an active sentence, they are marked with が. Other than the possessive の, you don’t really need any other role particles.
選挙で投票しました is fine, if a bit stiff.
Notice that “I voted in the election” is redundant. Different languages are redundant in different ways at different times. The only way to know what is natural is to pay attention to what other people say and write – you simply can’t translate usage from one language to another.
特権 is a right that only privileged people have, like legislators being harder to legally arrest.
> 特別の権利。ある身分・資格のある者だけがもっている権利
“Perogative” is often a better translation; it doesn’t make sense here.
The best way to overcome these problems is to read examples that are in the same [genre, like so](https://go2senkyo.com/articles/2015/11/02/11214.html). If you can’t comfortably read them yet, then it’s too soon to expect to write anything of quality. Fussing over textbook grammar and grabbing words from a dictionary won’t be good enough, no matter how hard you study.
Reading and googling show 選挙に行く、選挙へ行く、投票する as commonly used options. 「に」も「へ」も使って、あんまりにも助詞にこだわらないみたいですね。Sometimes particles *are* precise and important. Often times they are not.
—
> voting is a privilege that some people have forgotten about
Translating that literally makes it rhetorically *uuuuuugly*
> 選挙権は、多少の人に忘れられた民権の一つです。
I think it feels better like this, if it’s a thesis statement.
> 選挙権は大事な民権なのに対して、かなりの人はないがしろにしています。
Or if I’m just adding the point “people sometimes forget that they can vote,” maybe with less weight
> 簡単に(選挙権を)忘れる人もいます
Japanese doesn’t have a pattern that mechanically corresponds to “that.” This kind of という is very useful with nouns
> 選挙権は民権です
> 選挙権という民権を忘れています
casual speech has だって in these situations
> 民権だってこと忘れないで！
I’d say that it’s pretty common for 忘れる to be used with a noun – you’d set up the previous clause to make this happen.
> 彼女は手を振った
> 手を振ってた姿を忘れない
But without that stylistic flair it’s valid to just use こと after a complete sentence.
> 彼女が手を振ってたことを忘れない