Having trouble getting my mind around this phrasing. How would I say, "I saw the cat drink… - Feed Post by invasion10
Having trouble getting my mind around this phrasing. How would I say, "I saw the cat drink water."? My initial thought is "neko ga mizu wo nomimasu, mimashita." I assume this is wrong. Where do I put both verbs?
-Thanks in advance!
-Thanks in advance!
posted by invasion10
Comments 17
neko ga mizu wo nonde iru no wo mimashita
That is very likely wrong as I'm not studying grammar at all at the moment... It's just what my guess would be.
"nomimasu"... -masu is normally used only for verbs at the end of a sentence, so should be in plain form, "nomu".
"nomu"... you probably need to say you saw the cat 'drinking' water, which means you need to use the "-te iru" form, "nonde iru".
Now the first part needs to be nominalised to be used as the object of the last verb (mimashita). So need to add a nominaliser like "no" to nominalise it.
[neko ga mizu wo nonde iru] + no
Then add the direct object marker particle "wo" and then the final verb "mimashita".
This could be very wrong in some parts though, as I've forgotten a lot of grammar from back when I was studying it, so wait till someone else checks it too. ^^;- Also, romaji is horrible. I used it only because that's what was used in the question. Here's the sentence in normal writing:
ねこが水を飲んでいるのを見ました。 
That looks good to me mog! Basically like Mog said you needed to nominalize the cat drink water part meaning turning it into a noun and then attaching を with the verb with the ねこが水を飲んでいる part being the object in the sentence.
Also remember that you can use the て form of verbs to connect multiple verbs together as well. But it's used as a sort of "and" in the sentence. Ex. (十時に起きて学校に行った) I got up at 10 and went to school.
私は、猫が水を飲むのを見ました
I prefer using koto instead of no like this : neko ga mizu wo nonde iru koto wo mimashita .I m not sure about koto tho , if i remember right its to make something like noun- "こと" is used mainly as generic noun substitution for " の " . you can just use
"こと" and there's no problem . - if you're willing to improve your grammar have a look at this website :
www.lang-8.com . native japanese speakers will answer your questions . i'm already a member . it is worth a try . 
I agree, こと is better in this case. I think that the phrase 猫が水を飲んでること見た sounds much more natural.- @AranorX, @DS25, Between those two different nominalisers, I also prefer using こと more than の in cases like this. I normally only use の in the situations where it must be used and use こと in all other cases. As far as I remember it though, either one is fine to use in this situation? Part of the reason I used の instead this time was just to see if anyone said it was definitely wrong. :P
Here's a similar sentence I found using the の nominaliser:
彼女が部屋を掃除するのを見ました。
= "I saw her clean the room."
http://tatoeba.org/eng/sentences/show/153472
@BYAKUREN, I notice you used 飲む instead of 飲んでいる. I know for some verbs -te iru form would definitely be needed, but I'm not actually sure whether -te iru was needed to be used in this situation. Also just noticed the Tatoeba sentence I found uses the plain form する without needing to be -te iru... Just wondering whether either is fine, or does it have to be 飲む ? - @Mog: As far as I remember it though, either one is fine to use in this situation?
Yes, since the situation is close but not close enough for koto to be an error. I think that the cat is a random cat, and not actually "my" cat (even if sometimes I call MY cat "cat" :D).
This would be an error:
私は静江が泳ぐことを見た, since I probably know Shizue.
This would be another error:
この町ではいい音楽を聞くのができる, since the situation is generic.
Both examples were taken from Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar - in this sentence " 私は、猫が水を飲むのを見ました " if the emphasize is on the action enduring , then "んでいる" would be correct . on the other hand if you focus on the action itself which means whether or not it has taken place then verb + の/こと is also correct . the purpose why i put this structure is that i wanted to use another possible type of this grammar . on the whole i prefer using 飲んでいる over 飲む which is used frequently because in most cases when talking about a person doing sth they already are in the state of doing that act so clearly there's need to use continuous action form .
- @DS25 I have access to that book "Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar", which is a very good book. I thought I might as well check out its explanations for the nominalisers to cure my curiosity...
In the section for the の nominaliser, it seems to say you can't use こと with 見る, and also says "cannot use" こと for clauses which "express concrete, perceptible events." ?
Another interesting thing I noticed was one of the main examples given for the の nominaliser:
私は雪子さんがビルを飲むのを見ました。
(watashi wa Yukiko-san ga biru wo nomu no wo mimashita.)
= "I saw Yukiko drink beer."
Pretty much the perfect answer for the OP question. :D
So my guess in my original reply to this post was fairly correct? Only that it seems I was wrong to mention needing to change 飲む(nomu) to 飲んでいる(nonde iru). ^^ 
So this is correct then? あなたは ねこが さしみを たべる の を ききましたか.- @invasion10 Depends if it's possible to actually "hear a cat eating sashimi" or not... I guess it's "correct" but it's a very weird question! :P
Sounds kinda weird putting あなたは at the start too. I wouldn't think it is necessary to add at all when you're talking to someone asking them a question. - Well, what i mean is "did you hear about/that the cat ate sashimi?"
- if you mean that you saw the cat in the middle of eating sashimi them it would be like this : 私は、猫がサシミを食べているのを見ました。
but if you just focus on the action whether it has been done or not you say this : 私は、猫がサシミを食べるのを見ました. it is regular to use て form for verbs in the middle of a sentence instead of using two ます ending verbs together which is weird .
- @invasion10 I guess what you wrote might be able to mean that? I'm not sure though.
I think you would want to use 食べた(tabeta) instead of 食べる(taberu)?
Also, I probably would switch の with こと in that sentence, but I can't really explain why I feel this is necessary (or even whether it makes any difference / whether it is even correct to do this)...
It's also possible that I might just be reading your sentence wrong. It still sounds to me like you are asking "Did you hear the cat eat sashimi?". Maybe I'm getting too mixed up between the usages of きく(kiku) and きこえる(kikoeru)... ^^;
