Quote:
Originally Posted by risingstar3110
Hey guys, can i have a quick question on Japanese?
How do you say this in Japanese:
The horse is probably trying to make you like it
The best i can think of is below, but it probably does not even make sense:
Uma ha jibun ni sukinisaseru, tabun.
|
Firstly, I need to highlight that my Japanese is still pretty rudimentary, compared to many people I know. And my writing sucks, so I'm not really qualified to give you a suggestion. But I can give you some of my humble input from my rudimentary level through a reverse translation of your version while waiting for someone more qualified to come along. I'd say this first: I stand corrected if I make a mistake
Now that my disclaimer is made, there are actually a few potential problems with the sentence even though it might appear correct grammatically. But before that, is this a stand-alone sentence? Or part of a larger context? The later will depend on the context and to what has occurred before. Regardless however, the sentence does sound a little strange.
Additionally, I believe you are trying to mean:
the horse is doing something to win your favor, that is to say make itself appealing to you?
Because the way you put it sounds like the horse is trying to 'force' you into liking it, implying you don't have a choice. And causative form has that kind of effect sometimes. If that's really the case, then normally, using causative form can be appropriate (though here there's another issue).
Your sentence is:
馬は自分に好きにさせる。
I dropped 'tabun' because there's nothing wrong with it and it's inconsequential to the issue here.
My 2 cents:
1. Is it really necessary to apply は to 馬? Is the horse really that important? Assuming you are using は as a topic marker here, you can think of 馬は as "As for the horse", "With reference to the horse". In a larger context, it can also add the effect of meaning, "The horse (but not anything else)". So is it really important to convey the meaning in this manner is my question.
2. 自分 here is a misuse. Because 自分 can mean himself, herself, myself, yourself; it depends on the context and the topic. I'm not sure whether 自分 is restricted to humans only, but based on the structure of the sentence, 自分 seems to be referring to the horse itself.
3. 好きにさせる, ie. 好きにする is a misuse. If you want to describe "turning into a state of liking", なる should be used instead. 好きにする actually means "Do (something) as one pleases". eg. XXXXを好きにする where する is applied to XXXX, so XXXX is the thing that is being done, not 好き. In the first place, note that する is "do", an action. If assuming 好き can be done, then it should be "好きする" or "好きをする", which of course doesn't work for 好き. In short, 好きにさせる thus means "let (someone) do (something) as he pleases".
I'm not sure what you are trying to describe. But I think structure wise, it might be better to keep 'yourself' as an implied topic of discussion and use possibly passive-causative in such circumstances. Unless the subject (horse in this case) really becomes a topic of discussion, or you're making a comparison / emphasis of some sort in the context of discussion. Assuming my assumption is right about what you're trying to describe. I'd use "アピールする" instead of "好き". I'll let you figure out the sentence yourself, or wait for someone more qualified than me.
If you want to practice writing, you can try out this site recommended by Doraneko, who does not seem to be active at AS much these days:
http://lang-8.com/
where native speakers will correct you.