A Difference?

[Eiko]

I know E and NI are interchangeable in most situations, but in other cases, are they not? Like, if you're saying, "I'm going to school," would the more correct be "Gakko e ikimasu," or "Gakko ni ikimasu." ?Is there really a difference?

[Nebby4T]

My japanese teacher always told me that ni was more proper for those type of situations. It could be a difference in dialect thing.

[Mukade]

They are interchangeable. The difference between the two is in emphasis.

e tends to be more neutral.

ni tends to emphasize where you are going.

[Eiko]

Thank you very much. I understand much better now.

[xdj220]

Remember that e and ni are ONLY interchangable when you're talking about verbs involving movement, like iku, kuru, kaeru, etc. If you change the ni to an e with any other verbs, it's flat out wrong.

[Eiko]

xdj220 wrote:
Remember that e and ni are ONLY interchangable when you're talking about verbs involving movement, like iku, kuru, kaeru, etc. If you change the ni to an e with any other verbs, it's flat out wrong.

Really? I never had any idea. I should copy, paste, and save that on a document.

[redfoxer]

i dont know if this might help but e is usually used to show a location (e.g where you live) if there is no movent on your behalf. ni is used when there is movement of some kind....which is explained in the post above lol i hope im not wrong.

[InsanityRanch]

Well... ok, this may not be welcome news but...

I highly suggest that when you learn a new verb, learn which particles go with it.

Sometimes it is obvious -- wo for verbs that take a direct object, for instance. Sometimes it may seem obvious. Sometimes it is obviously NOT obvious.

For instance: "N ni noru" could be to ride IN something, ON something or merely to ride something in English. Regardless, it is "ni noru" in Japanese.

I mostly do not try to figure these things out in principle anymore. I just learn the verbs with the particles: ni naru. wo taberu. ga mieru if it means to be visible; ni mieru if it means to look like. And so on. This may seem inefficient, but in my opinion it actually results in less wasted effort (in most cases) than trying to deduce principles.

JMO...

Shira

[InsanityRanch]

Y'know, I was just thinking about this. And I realized another reason to memorize the particle with the verb.

Japanese sentences (real ones, as opposed to most of the ones you encounter in grammar texts) frequently have, how to say this, interrupted clauses which end in a particle and a comma. Taking note of that particle tells when that particular bit of the sentence is complete...but ONLY if, when you encounter the verb, you remember the dangling particle that belongs with that verb.

Damn. I don't know how to say this. If you've parsed Japanese sentences very often, you probably already know what I'm saying. If not, then I don't know if I can explain it.

But trust me. Knowing that a particular verb requires a particular particle is vital, and I highly advise learning the verb and the particle as a unit.

Shira