Thread: I love you too
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KyleGoetz (Offline)
Attorney at Flaw
 
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Join Date: Dec 2008
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03-31-2010, 09:24 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by pizzicatogo View Post
Hello everyone, I have a couple of questions about a couple of things I guess. All of them are related to Japanese language though, so here we go.

1) Why does 愛してる use を instead of が like 大好き?

example: a) 君を愛してる。
b) ケーキが大好き。
Because 愛してる is a transitive verb, so it needs an object. However, 大好き is not a verb at all! It is an adjective meaning "very pleasing." This is a technical explanation that will hopefully clear things up
私はケンさんがすきだ <--the Japanese
I-topic Ken-subject pleasing COPULA. <--semantic markup/translation
As for me, Ken is pleasing. <--literal translation
Ken is pleasing to me. <--more clear English
I like Ken. <-- natural English

Do you see? The Japanese more literally means "Ken is pleasing to me," but this sounds awkward in English, so we alter the translation to "I like Ken."

Spanish has the same problem:
Me gusta agua.
To-me pleases water.
Water pleases me.
I like water.

A lot of new speakers try to say
Yo gusto agua.
I please water.

Last edited by KyleGoetz : 03-31-2010 at 09:26 PM.
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