Channel R's Japanese practice page

[ChannelR]

Hey, I've been working my way through the Tae Kim guide to Japanese, and although it's incredibly useful, it would be great if someone more experienced could answer my questions and correct things if they're wrong.

1) 昼ご飯を食べている and 昼ご飯を食べる. Which one is appropriate to use and when? If someone asked me what I was doing, would it be wrong to say 食べる over 食べている？ 

2) regarding adverbs and adjectives, are these translations right?
早い人を食べる。Fast person ate.
早く人を食べる。Person ate quickly

3) 今、家庭に帰るて、友達と食べて、映画を見る。Is this right? Regarding stringing verbs together.

4) 運動するからトイレに行かない.
    学生なので勉強します。
    ひだるいのに食べない。
    ジュスだけど飲めない。
    testing out から、のに、ので and けど。

5) 富士山を見える。Can see Mt.Fuji.
    富士山が見られる。Was given the opportunity to see Mt.Fuji

I'm sure I'll think of more things to ask for help on later, or things to ask people to look over. Is the above right?    

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by ChannelR

Hey, I've been working my way through the Tae Kim guide to Japanese, and although it's incredibly useful, it would be great if someone more experienced could answer my questions and correct things if they're wrong.

1) 昼ご飯を食べている and 昼ご飯を食べる. Which one is appropriate to use and when? If someone asked me what I was doing, would it be wrong to say 食べる over 食べている？ 

One means "I am eating lunch." The other means "I will eat lunch" or "I eat lunch [regularly]."

It's the same thing as the English:
I am eating lunch.食べている
I eat lunch + I will eat lunch.食べる

Japanese combines the English habitual with the future.

2) regarding adverbs and adjectives, are these translations right?
早い人を食べる。Fast person ate.
早く人を食べる。Person ate quickly

No. The first means "I will eat the early person." The second means "I will eat the person early."

を marks the object of 食べる, not the subject. Second, 速い means fast. 早い means early. They are pronounced the same.

3) 今、家庭に帰るて、友達と食べて、映画を見る。Is this right? Regarding stringing verbs together.

No. You did not make the てform of 帰るcorrectly. It is 帰って, not 帰るて. Also, you probably don't mean to say you will return to your 家庭. That sounds impersonal, or a bit like "household." If you are returning home, you should use 家 instead.

4) 運動するからトイレに行かない.
    学生なので勉強します。
    ひだるいのに食べない。
    ジュスだけど飲めない。
    testing out から、のに、ので and けど。

You should provide English translations, since above we saw you aren't saying what you want to say. Regardless, the second one is correct. The fourth says "Although I am juice (you also misspelled ジュース), I cannot drink."

5) 富士山を見える。Can see Mt.Fuji.
    富士山が見られる。Was given the opportunity to see Mt.Fuji

No. Both take が. You say 富士山が見える not を. Also, again, the second one is not the same tense in Japanese and English. Please pay more attention to this.

My final note is that you need to pay more attention to what you're doing. If you're already teaching yourself stuff like から、のに etc., you should not be making some of the particle errors and misspellings you have made. Focus more on what you're doing, and read over it once more before hitting "submit."

Given the basic mistakes you've made, you probably want to stop adding more Tae Kim info to your brain and start re-learning the basics. You shouldn't have made the basic particle mistakes and tense mistakes if you're already trying to learn potential form.

Finally, are you not a native English speaker? Because you're writing some sentences in English that have errors. If you are a native English speaker, write in proper English. If you can't be bothered to write in proper English, then you should not expect to receive help with Japanese.

If your native language isn't English, just be aware you're making some English mistakes, too.

[ChannelR]

Thanks for the help.

I'll make sure to pay more attention of when to use を and not, and spelling by check my dictionary, thanks. I'll revise over all my particles and such and post again to check if I'm getting it right.

But on the subject of volcab, I can see that 開く and 開ける mean the same thing, but are two different kinds of verbs. Which one should I use and when?

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by ChannelR

Thanks for the help.

I'll make sure to pay more attention of when to use を and not, and spelling by check my dictionary, thanks. I'll revise over all my particles and such and post again to check if I'm getting it right.

But on the subject of volcab, I can see that 開く and 開ける mean the same thing, but are two different kinds of verbs. Which one should I use and when?

We've got to be careful about the first one(開く). It is read in two different ways based on context: あく and ひらく. I'm going to assume you haven't gotten far enough in your studies to encounter the ひらく reading yet, so you must be talking about 開（あ）く and 開（あ）ける. One is transitive and the other is intransitive.

English has this same duality. "to open" and "to be open."

ドアが開く The door will be open
ドアを開ける I will open the door