I was doing a Duolingo lesson and the last exercise asked me to translate “What are you doing here?” into Japanese. My answer was ここに何をしていますか。But it was marked wrong, with the right solution being ここで何をしていますか。My question is, is the difference between に and で so important here? Are there any nuances in their meaning that I’m not aware of? Thanks a lot in advance!
5 comments
で is for place of action.
に is for movement or time.
で is correct here because we are talking about a location: “here”.
I would have also said は is ok here but others can correct me there.
で marks the place where an action or event occurs.
Like いえでゲームをします which says at my house, I play games.
に marks a location/time.
とうきょうにいきます which which says I will go to Tokyo.
に defines a location you’re going to and is also used for time. で is for actions you will perform in the location that comes before it.
Example:
1. 大阪 **で** 旅行する。(おおさかで りょこうおする。) = I will travel **IN** Osaka. (As in, you will do traveling within Osaka.)
2. 大阪 **に** 旅行する。(おおさかに りょこうおする。) = I will travel **TO** Osaka. (As in, you will go to Osaka from wherever you are right now.)
Edit: Typo.
I think ni is correct. De is for location, and ni is for movement or indirect objects, as the others have said, BUT this is thrown out the window when you have a progressive verb, for which you use ni (technically, when you have a stative verb, i.e. the imasu in shite-imasu). But duolingo gonna duolingo.
It’s weird in the same way as
> pick me up in the airport
Actually it’s maybe a little bit more weird because Japanese speakers are less familiar with non-native speakers making small non-native mistakes. It’s not the *bad* kind of weird that makes your meaning completely unclear, but it’s certainly weird enough to be wrong.
And why is it wrong? Just because. Locationで is the normal basic form. Locationにて is a more formal synonym you’ll see in newspapers and such.
Locationに is only used with certain verbs and meanings, think of it like an exception. ある and いる are the most common verbs that follow this exception, so you’ve probably heard ここにいます ここにいるよ and so on.
Also, the specific choice of verb is important.
> ここで働いています
> ここに務めています
have very similar meaning (“I work here” is the easiest translation for both). But they expect different particles.