Indefinite Article A

Discussion in '日本語 (Japanese)' started by ThomasM, Mar 3, 2009.

  1. ThomasM New Member

    How do I say and spell "a" in Kanji?

  2. Starfrown

    Starfrown Senior Member

    Columbia, SC
    English - US
    The Japanese language lacks articles, both indefinite and definite, so there is no representation for "a."
  3. ThomasM New Member

    What about if you used either or to represent a, would that make sence?

    What a day - 何
    What a day - 何

  4. lindie_ Junior Member

    English- U.S.A
    There is no equivalent to our article "a" in Japanese. represents the sound of "a" (although it is pronounced like "ah") and represents the sound "wa".
    Neither of these could be used as the article "a".
  5. Wishfull Senior Member

    Hi. I'm afraid you might be misunderstanding.
    It is impossible to think word to word translation, because of the differences of sentence structure.

    In Japanese,
    a day= the day= days=some days=日.
    We don't have the concept of article.　
    We don't distinguish singular and plural.
    We don't have the concept of definite article "the".

    In reverse,
    What is the problem? In this case "what" is used as subject, so なにが
    What do you want? In this case "what" is used as object, so なにを
    What a day!
    =What a wonderful (miserable) day it is! In this case "what" is used as adverb, so なんて
    We distinguish subject, object, etc by adding particles.

    What a day! might be translated as "何て日！”
    Ｉｎ　this context
    It is wrong way of thinking.

    日＝a day:tick:

    I hope this try will be your help!

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