With
Structure
Noun (A) + は + Noun (B) + と + Verb
I want to ask regarding this example
僕は友達とごはんを食べる。
why it is not “僕の友達とごはんを食べる”?
That sounds more like someone else is eating with your friend
You don’t have to specify your friend. The topic of the sentence is you. What will you do? Eat, with a friend. We can assume it’s your friend since there isn’t a mention of it being anyone else’s friend/friends.
Same with English, “I’m going to eat with friends today” you don’t have to say my friends (unless you feel the need to point out to the listener that the friends belong to you, not them, and they are not apart of that group)
1 Like
Okeyyy. Thanks <3
1 Like
Is there a difference between the about sentence 「コーヒーを妻と飲む。」and the example sentence 「僕は友達とごはんを食べる。」? Does having Noun (B) after the object change the meaning than if it’s before the object?
To me it’s 90% the same thing. Think of it like:
I think I’ll go out today.
Today, I’ll go out I think.
I’ll go out today, I think.
There’s a minimal change in nuance, but it doesn’t change the sentence in a substantial way.
That makes sense. Thanks for the response and clarification!
1 Like
Question about example sentence: コーヒーを妻と飲む。
Here “wife” is after the particle wo. I was confused by this as when とwas covered in Duolingo (I’m aware perhaps not the best) I walked away with the understanding that a sentence like this would have appeared as 妻とコーヒーをのむ. Is it then possible to place the person with whom you are doing the object to the “right” of the object marking particle? An example sentence written both ways could be
友達とじゅうどうをします or じゅうどうを友達とします
Would love some clarification thanks y’all!
The key here is to see each part of the sentence as a component of it, with their order switched around.
[コーヒーを][妻と飲む]
I think a good way to think about this is that the particle next to the word establishes that word’s role in the sentence, and not quite the order in which the words appear.
This would also be correct! It’s basically just the order switched around.
It’s not that the particle can be thrown nillywilly, it’s all about what that particle is marking.