Where do babies come from?
Yo, Ty here.
A note for non-paid users of FMJ:
We have included the first correction above the paywall this week to help give you a feel for what type of corrections and feedback we tend to give here, so please enjoy this week’s first correction and thanks for reading^^
This week’s prompt
Your 4-year-old kid asks you how babies are made.
自分の4歳の子供に「赤ちゃんってどうやってできるの?」って聞かれた。
じぶん の よんさい の こども に 「あかちゃん って どう やって できる の?」 って きかれた。
* You can submit a response in Japanese here. *
Please try to submit your response within 48 hours of receiving this email. Please only write one response per form submission.
Corrections will arrive in your inbox next week.
Last week’s corrections
You had dinner with some friends and there’s a total of 5 people there. You just want to pay for yourself and your SO (boyfriend/girlfriend), so you tell the waiter.
This is one that is surprisingly challenging and still gets me to this day haha.
Some helpful words for this are 分(ぶん)[part] because we’ll only be paying for a part of the bill, and of course お会計(おかいけい)[bill].
Something to note is that we する an お会計 instead of 払う it! I’ve probably made that mistake many times without realizing it.
That said, you can totally 払う a 分 of the お会計.
That all might make more sense after reading the corrections, so let’s get into them:
Submission
すみません、お会計で分けますか?彼女と一緒に払います。
Correction
すみません、お会計分けれますか?彼女の分も一緒に払いたいです。
すみません、 おかいけい わけれますか? かのじょ の ぶん も いっしょ に はらいたい です。
Sorry, could you split the bill for us? I'd also like to pay for my girlfriend's portion as well.
Comments
We don't need a particle after our お会計(おかいけい)[bill], and we'll need to have 分ける(わける)[split] in potential form, so 分けれる(わけれる)[(are you) able to split].
You want to pay for her part, so we'll need 分(ぶん)[part] to express that.
We'll say 払いたい(はらいたい)[I'd like to pay...] over 払います(はらいます)[I'll pay...] because you're also asking the staff to go through the effort of splitting the bill for you so saying ~たい is less assuming and therefore more polite.
On the other hand, if the staff already had it split or someone else had split it before you, you can totally say both 払いたい and 払います without any issues.
In short, if you haven't asked them or you're not sure you can split the bill, 払いたい is the one you want.
If the bill is already split, 払います is fine as well (along with 払いたい).
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Fix My Japanese to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.