On Duolingo, it teaches 春服 (spring clothes) and 春のコート (spring coat). Why do the spring clothes not need “no” in between? Or is Duolingo not right in this case?
Sometimes two words can combine to form a single compound word, while sometimes they don’t.
This is simlar to English: “icebox” and “icebreaker” are each one word, but “ice cream” and “ice pick” are each two words. There’s no real logic to determine which compounds form single words; you need to learn each one individually.
And there are cases where both forms are correct. Searching on Google, it looks like both 春の服 and 春コート are also in use.
I’d hazard a guess it’s because the first one is a single compound word and the second one is an adjective describing a noun.
It’s probably more like the concept of “rain gear” which is a single noun to describe weather or season appropriate attire as a whole, rather than “rain coat” which is a single specific type of coat. So spring clothes embody the concept of the type of things you wear in the spring. Spring coat is a coat whose adjective is spring.
There is technically a difference in meaning with and without the ‘no.’ 春服 is objective ‘spring clothes,’ meaning not necessarily clothes you or someone in particular wear for spring but rather clothes that are designed and intended to for springtime. In Japan we generally have a two sets of clothing for the spring/summer and fall/winter and we do something called 衣替え koromogae where in early spring and fall we switch out our current set for whichever we had stored away. It may make more sense to understand 春服 as more or less ‘cooler’ or ‘lighter’ clothing whereas 冬服 is heavier clothing to keep warm. 春の服 is simply spring clothing so you may say something like 春の服って花柄が多いよね。Spring clothing has a lot of florals.
TL;DR All 春の服 is 春服 but not all 春服 is 春の服. Light clothing for warmer weather vs. clothing specifically for spring.
3 comments
Sometimes two words can combine to form a single compound word, while sometimes they don’t.
This is simlar to English: “icebox” and “icebreaker” are each one word, but “ice cream” and “ice pick” are each two words. There’s no real logic to determine which compounds form single words; you need to learn each one individually.
And there are cases where both forms are correct. Searching on Google, it looks like both 春の服 and 春コート are also in use.
I’d hazard a guess it’s because the first one is a single compound word and the second one is an adjective describing a noun.
It’s probably more like the concept of “rain gear” which is a single noun to describe weather or season appropriate attire as a whole, rather than “rain coat” which is a single specific type of coat. So spring clothes embody the concept of the type of things you wear in the spring. Spring coat is a coat whose adjective is spring.
There is technically a difference in meaning with and without the ‘no.’ 春服 is objective ‘spring clothes,’ meaning not necessarily clothes you or someone in particular wear for spring but rather clothes that are designed and intended to for springtime. In Japan we generally have a two sets of clothing for the spring/summer and fall/winter and we do something called 衣替え koromogae where in early spring and fall we switch out our current set for whichever we had stored away. It may make more sense to understand 春服 as more or less ‘cooler’ or ‘lighter’ clothing whereas 冬服 is heavier clothing to keep warm. 春の服 is simply spring clothing so you may say something like 春の服って花柄が多いよね。Spring clothing has a lot of florals.
TL;DR All 春の服 is 春服 but not all 春服 is 春の服. Light clothing for warmer weather vs. clothing specifically for spring.