Monday, April 16, 2018

word choice - の意味は何 versus はどういう意味


What is the difference between の意味は何 and はどういう意味? When asking for the definition of a word, I've been told to use the latter, but I don't know why the former is incorrect.



Answer



Use the latter if you want to speak and write "natural" Japanese. 「~~はどういう意味ですか。」 is how native speakers ask for a word's definition.


「~~の意味はなんですか。」, while grammatical, sounds SO "directly translated" from "What is the meaning of ~~?". It is not very natural, if not incorrect.



No comments:

Post a Comment

periodic trends - Comparing radii in lithium, beryllium, magnesium, aluminium and sodium ions

Apparently the of last four, $\ce{Mg^2+}$ is closest in radius to $\ce{Li+}$. Is this true, and if so, why would a whole larger shell ($\ce{...