meaning of dekiru is “to come about” (Morita, p. 309), the subject marker ga rather than the object marker o is used with it even when it means “can do.”
(5) Watanabe-san wa eigo ga (not *o) dekiru.
Mr. Watanabe is good in English.
Dekiru in the sense of “can do” is used much less often in Japanese than “can” is in English. The reason is that in Japanese many verbs have their own potential forms. For example, taberu “to eat” has the potential form, taberareru “can eat,” and yomu “to read” has yomeru “can read.” Although it is also grammatically correct to say taberu koto ga dekiru “one can eat” or yomu koto ga dekiru “one can read,” these forms are lengthier and are therefore not used as often. In fact, dekiru is basically used only as the potential form of suru “to do.” It cannot even be used in place of the potential forms of other verbs. In English, it is perfectly correct to say “Yes, I can” in response to “Can you read this?” for example. In Japanese, on the other hand, the answer in (6) below would be incorrect.
(6) A: Kore ga yomemasu ka.
Can you read this?
B: Hai, *dekimasu.
Yes, I can.
Dekimasu in this case must be replaced by yomemasu, the same potential verb meaning “can read” that appears in the question.
DENSHA 電車 [electric] train
Densha literally means “electric train,” but oddly enough, not all electric trains are called densha. Long-distance trains run by the Japan National Railways used to be pulled by steam engines and were called kisha (lit., “steam trains”). Although these steam engines have long since been replaced by electric ones, trains that serve the same lines are even now called kisha by force of habit.
DENWA 電話 telephone
Denwa is a noun meaning “telephone.”
(1) Kono hen ni denwa wa arimasen ka.
Is there a telephone around here?
One difference between denwa and “telephone” is that denwa is often used to mean “telephone call” whereas “telephone” is not.
(2) Kinoo Tanaka-san kara denwa ga arimashita.
There was a telephone call (lit., There was a telephone) from Mr. Tanaka yesterday.
In English, “telephone” is also used as a verb; in Japanese, on the other hand, suru has to be added to change denwa into a verb, that is, denwa-suru “to telephone [someone].”
(3) Yoshida-san ni denwa-shite kudasai.
Please call Mr. Yoshida.
Denwa o kakeru “to make a phone call” and derma o ireru, a fairly new coinage meaning “to give [someone] a call,” may also be used in place of denwa-suru, as in
(4) Yoshida-san ni denwa o kakete (or irete) kudasai.
Please give Mr. Yoshida a call.
When the person to whom the phone call is made is not mentioned or even implied, only denwa o kakeru is acceptable. In (5), therefore, only (a) would be correct.
(5) Uchi no ko wa
| (a) denwa o kakeru | no ga suki de komarimasu. |
| (b) *denwa o ireru | |
| (c) *denwa-suru |
Our child likes making phone calls too much.
Deru most often means “to go out, to come out, to get out.”
(1) Amari atsui kara, niwa ni demashoo.
It’s so hot; let’s go out into the yard.
(2) Nihon o deta no wa nijuu-nen mae datta.
It was 20 years ago that I left Japan.
With reference to school, deru is used as a synonym for sotsugyoo-suru “to graduate.”
(3) Daigaku o dete (or sotsugyoo-shite) kara nani o suru tsumori desu ka.
What do you plan to do after graduating from college?
Don’t equate deru meaning “to graduate” with English “get out” since “to get out of school” might mean “to leave school without graduating.”
This latter meaning would be expressed in Japanese by another verb: chuutai-suru “to drop out of school.”
(4) Ano hito wa daigaku o chuutai-shite haiyuu ni natta soo desu.
I hear he dropped out of college and became an actor. (See also dekakeru.)
Whereas, in English, “what kind” can be used alone without “of” ＋ noun, Japanese donna has to be followed by a noun.
(1) Kore wa donna shoosetsu desu ka.
What kind of novel is this?
In questions like this, dooyuu can also be used to mean “what kind.”
(2) Kore wa dooyuu shoosetsu desu ka.
(same meaning as 1 above)
When donna and dooyuu are used in te mo (or de mo) clauses meaning “no matter . . . ,” however, there is a difference between the two (Tokugawa and Miyajima, p. 294). Dooyuu in such clauses can signal only “[no matter] what kind,” whereas donna can be used to mean either “[no matter] what kind” or “[no matter] to what degree.” Compare the following:
(3) Donna (or Dooyuu) koto ni natte mo kamaimasen.
I don’t care what happens, (lit., No matter what kind of result ensues, I don’t care.)
(4) Donna (not *Dooyuu) samui toki de mo jogingo o shimasu.
I jog no matter how cold it is.
In (3), either donna or dooyuu may be used because “what kind” is the issue; in (4), however, only donna is correct because dooyuu cannot mean “how” in the sense of “to what degree.”
Doo itashimashite, with or without a preceding Iie, serves as a response to someone’s expression of gratitude. In (1) below, therefore, all of speaker B’s answers are correct.
(1)
