みなさん、こんにちは。
I have a question about the following example sentence that is listed under ‘どこか’.
今日の父親の様子はどこか変だと思う。
There is something strange about the father’s behavior today.
Is this a correct usage of 'どこか’ in Japanese? (As in, is it regular to use ‘where’ when talking about 変?)
I have a feeling the translation is a bit off, since all other example sentences correctly use it as ’ somewhere’ instead of ’ something’. But guess it might be linked to 変.
ありがとうございます。
It’s correct.
「どこか具合が良くないですか？」Are you feeling unwell (in some way)?
「この車はどこか具合が悪いよだ。」It seems like something is wrong with the car (and I’m not quite sure why).
While, yes, “somewhere” is one of the definitions for どこか, another frequent meaning is “in some respects, in some way.” When you use it like in the above example sentences, it gives the feeling of “something went wrong, and I’m not really sure why.”
Thank you for the quick reply! Time for some extra study I guess. I have ghosted this item like 3 times now since I keep confusing it with なにか/なにも which are also in me review que.
if it makes you feel better, based on the English sentence, my first guess would’ve been なにか, too
Yeah, I’m glad I switched from the fill-in input mode to read/reveal and grade mode, saves so much time and heartache, especially once you get far enough in and there are just too many other similar things that can fit in a sentence.
To add to this -
どこか for a thing the speaker is thinking of as something that can be pinpointed/observed.
なにか for something the speaker can’t quite put their finger on.
様子 and 具合 can be observed, so どこか works.
That’s a great one - will keep this in mind! Thanks.