Forum Rocket Japanese Japanese Grammar Why no particle after Ashita but after Shuumatsu in lesson 2.9

Why no particle after Ashita but after Shuumatsu in lesson 2.9

SamanthaW-k8ax

SamanthaW-k8ax

Hello. I have a question, hoping someone can explain the grammar of two sentences in lesson 2.9 talking about what will happen. The first sentence is ashita testo ga arimasu. I understand what it says but I wonder why there is no WA after ashita? Can someone explain why WA is not used? Also the next sentence shuumatsu NI matsuri ga arimasu. Once again I understand what it says and why using NI (as that it is marking the time/when) but it makes me feel ashita is somewhat also marking a time/when. So why the particle with the second sentence and not the first sentence?

 

Thanks

Emma-Rocket-Languages-Tutor

Emma-Rocket-Languages-Tutor

こんにちは (Konnichiwa) SamanthaW-k8ax,

Thanks for your question!

The reason why there is no (wa) after 明日 (ashita) “tomorrow” in the sentence 明日テストがあります (Ashita tesuto ga arimasu) “There will be a test tomorrow” is because you usually don’t need a particle after time expressions in Japanese.  Time expressions are any words or phrases that tell you when something happens. To give you a few examples, these are words like:

  • 明日 (ashita) “tomorrow"
  • 今日 (kyō) “today"
  • 昨日 (kinō) “yesterday"
  • 来週 (raishū) “next week”
  • 今月 (kongetsu) “this month”

So when you use time expressions, you do not need to follow these with a particle. This applies for other particles too, not just (wa).

For example, although you would use the particle (ni) “at” and say 2時に行きます (Ni-ji ni ikimasu) “(I) will go at 2 o'clock,” if you're saying “(I) will go tomorrow,” you would simply say 明日行きます (Ashita ikimasu), since the word 明日 (ashita) “tomorrow” is a time expression.

I hope this helps. 
勉強を頑張ってください! (Benkyō o ganbatte kudasai!)

SamanthaW-k8ax

SamanthaW-k8ax

Thank you. I just have one more question then. What you said is making sense but is しゅうまつ not considered a time expression then? Or is because it is being specific about a certain weekend due to the context? 

Emma-Rocket-Languages-Tutor

Emma-Rocket-Languages-Tutor

こんにちは (Konnichiwa) SamanthaW-k8ax,

Good question and sorry for the confusing explanation! 

To clarify, time expressions are words that tell us when something happens. Some of these words are used so often and are so clearly understood as referring to time that they don’t need any particle after them. They are usually the following words—as a general rule of thumb, these words won't need any particles after them:

  • 今日 (kyō) “today," 昨日 (kinō) “yesterday," 明日 (ashita) “tomorrow," 明後日 (asatte) “the day after tomorrow”
  • 来週 (raishū) “next week,” 今週 (konshū) “this week,” 先週 (senshū) “last week” 
  • 来月 (raigetsu) “next month,” 今月 (kongetsu) “this month,” 先月 (sengetsu) “last month” 
  • 来年 (rai'nen) “next year," 今年 (kotoshi) “this year,” 去年 (kyo'nen) “last year”

Since 週末 (shūmatsu) “weekend” isn't one of the above time expression words, to clearly mark it as the time something happens, we need to add the pariticle (ni), meaning “on," “in,” or “at” (depending on the context) after it.

In the same way that we say “There is a festival on the weekend” or “I went shopping in the weekend” in English, Japanese uses the particle (ni) for this purpose. So we need to use a (ni) in the sentence 週末に祭りがあります (Shūmatsu ni matsuri ga arimasu) "There is a festival on the weekend."
 

To summarize, most time words in Japanese do take (ni) to mark the time of an event. But for a handful of very common expressions, it is usually left out because they already clearly indicate time on their own.

I hope this clarifies things!
勉強を頑張ってください! (Benkyō o ganbatte kudasai!)

SamanthaW-k8ax

SamanthaW-k8ax

Thank you so much!

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