Re: Nerd Boy, episodes 129-134 (+ fan art)

On Sun, 16 Dec 2001 16:23:53 +0100, "Joaquim Almgren G�ndara"
<cla...@lords.com> wrote:

> "Philip Newton" <pne...@newton.digitalspace.net> skrev i
> meddelandet news:4b9...@4ax.com...
> > On Sat, 15 Dec 2001 14:08:14 +0100, "Joaquim Almgren G�ndara"
> > <cla...@lords.com> wrote:
> >
> > > "Oshigoto wa nan desu ka" = "What is your profession?"/"What do you do?"
> > > "Nani o shimasu ka" = "What are you doing?"
> >
> > What about "Nani o shite imasu ka"?
> 
> I don't know enough Japanese (yet) to know how the "-te" suffix works... But
> "imasu"? I've only seen that used for telling someone where a person is.

Yes, but it's also used in a sense that I think is a bit like the
English present continuous (I'm ...ing): -te + imasu. So I think you
would translate "What do you do in the summer?" "I read books" as "Hon o
yomimasu", but "What are you doing right now?" "I'm reading a book" as
"Hon o yonde imasu".

So I would have expected "Nani o shite imasu ka", because it's a
question about what the person is doing right now. But my Japanese
grammar isn't all that great, either.

Cheers,
Philip
-- 
Philip Newton <nos...@gmx.li>
That really is my address; no need to remove anything to reply.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.