I can't see my post so I'm assuming I somehow deleted it by mistake. - Feed Post by lootyman
I can't see my post so I'm assuming I somehow deleted it by mistake.
Quick question which is used more often or is more natural:
私は日本語で話せる or 私は日本語で話すことができます
Quick question which is used more often or is more natural:
私は日本語で話せる or 私は日本語で話すことができます
posted by lootyman
Comments 8
Idk man. Have you tried Lang 8? They'll help you out with the quickness.
whats lang 8?
- http://lang-8.com/ you make post in your target language, and it is corrected by native speakers and vice versa.
私は日本語が話せる・話せます。(が, not で)- I thought we needed で to say in or within. I used it to say I could speak "in". Did I use it wrong?
- I was taught "日本語が話せません" and "日本語がちょっと話せます" by a Japanese friend, and potential forms of verbs do usually use が. Note that both 日本語で話す and 日本語を話す are possible, the former being closer to "speak in Japanese" (that is, "using" Japanese as opposed to some other language) and the latter being closer to "speak Japanese" (just talking about the action of saying Japanese sentences, with no implied comparison to another language).
- so 日本語で話す specify your ability to speak Japanese while 日本語を話す just says you are speaking Japanese? (sorry i'm a noob at this language)
- No. One's ability to speak is expressed by the potential form, 話せる.
Both 日本語で話す and 日本語を話す describe the action of speaking using Japanese words. The first just puts more emphasis on the choice of Japanese as a medium.
Think about when you might say "speak in English" as opposed to just "speak English". Both of the following sentences are just about the action of speaking English, not ability to speak English:
I heard a couple in the other room speaking English.
I speak in English with my friend John, but I speak in French with my friend Antoine.
It's perfectly possible to omit both "in"s in the second sentence, but they kind of emphasize that you need to use a different language to communicate with each of the two friends.
I don't know if it's really exactly like that with で話す and を話す in Japanese, but I do know that both are possible, just as both "speak in English" and "speak English" are possible when one is talking about the action, not the ability to speak the language.
