Alexander
Is で understood as a single concept? Much like に being almost always considered a "target", is there a way to think of で as a single entity? Or do the Japanese think of で as different kinds of で based on the context of the word/situation?
Aug 26, 2014 11:38 AM
Answers · 3
2
I am assuming that you are asking about the variations of で, which could change based on the context. If it is so, I say the answer for your question is yes. For example, 今度は東京で(in)会おう。 (Let's meet up in Tokyo next time) 我々は食事はおはしで(with)食べるべき。(We should eat meals with chopsticks.) 私はバッドで(with)ボールを打つ。(I hit a ball with a bat.) 今日で(within)夏休みは終わり。(The summer vacation is ending (within) today. 私は学校で(at)勉強をする。 (I study at school) In general, if your sentence is to do something leveraging a tool or idea, で tend to be used as "with." Otherwise it would be pretty much used as all those prepositions such as on, at, in... If you want to learn how to used all those prepositions such as で、に、を、..etc properly, I would say it is better for you to forget about English preposition rule and try to read more Japanese example sentences to get better comprehension. Because I remember that I had exactly the same preposition problems in English when I started studying English. Those languages simply have different grammer rules.
August 26, 2014
1
I found it helps to think of で as a particle for "context". That can be spatial or temporal, or other forms as well. There are also special rules for motion verbs.
August 27, 2014
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