JLPT past question

"Didn't you see Sato-san somewhere?" the intended sentence would be.
さとうさんを　どこか　で　みませんでしたか。 (Sato-san o dokoka de mimasendeshitaka.)

The answer to this question would be, if it's "no, I didn't see him anywhere":

- いいえ、どこでも　みませんでした・みかけませんでした。　(I did not see him anywhere) "mikakeru/mikakemasu" = to encounter, to see (by chance), or
- いいえ、どこにも　いませんでした。 (he was not anywhere = he was nowhere around.)

This "ka" is used with other words like "doko" "dare" "nani" "itsu" in questions (either in "isn't it?" type of negative question or "is it?" type of affirmative question) as well as in plain statements to add the "some-" meaning, thus, "somerewhere (dokoka)," "someone (dareka)," "something (nanika)," "sometime (itsuka)," etc.

- Nichiyoubi issho ni dokoka e ikimasenka. (Wouldn't you like to go somewhere on Sunday together?)
- Hai, iidesu ne. Dokoka e ikimashou. (Yes, that sounds good, let's go somewhere.)

And the "...(ni) (e) (de) mo" is used more with negative sentences, and means "not... any."
- Senshuu no nichiyoubi dokoka ni ikimashitaka. (Did you go somewhere last Sunday?)
- Iie, amede dokonimo ikemasendeshita. (No, I couldn't go anywhere because it was raining.)

Sorry it's just a list of sample sentences, I hope you get the gist! :)

Thank you, AK, I always look forward to your answers.
I think I realize my mistake. I have no trouble with the "ka" explanation. I didn't realize I should you "de" with the verb "miru". That was my mistake. I think I understand now.

In this question, I don't understand why the answer should be それ instead of あれ。 I thought both are equally possible depending on the position of the two speakers.
あなたの　えは　あれですか。
いいえ、　（　）　でわありません。
a。これ　ｂ。それ　ｃ。あれ　ｄ。どれ
Given ans.　ｂ。それ

Ummm.

If the first speaker asked a question about the picture using "are," that means that the picture was far from both parties (let's say high up on the wall or something). And if the second person is answering that question, being away from the picture... my first gut response is to use "are."

The intention of the author may have been that the first speaker is pointing at something (away from the speakers), and the second one is saying that no, it's not "it," "sore" = the one the first one is referring to, using "sore" more like "it" rather than "that over there close to you."

This one's going to keep me puzzled for a while.

nihon dewa ima otokono kotoba to onna no kotoba (..wa, ..kashira..,ze, toka)mada yoku tsukatte imasuka?, betsu ni 'kashira, wa' no shuujoshi wa otoko no tame ni tsukatte mo ii desu ka? onegai itashimasu.

Mazu, nihongo de kotae o kakimasu.

Saikin, tokuni wakai hito no aida de wa, onna no ko ga otoko kotoba o tsukau youni natte kimashita. "...ze" to iu onna no ko mo imasu. Demo, otoko ga onna no kotoba o tsukau koto wa arimasen. Moshi otoko ga onna no kotoba o tsukattara, totemo hen deshou. Desukara, "...kashira" ya "...wa" nado no kotoba wa, otoko no hito wa tsukawanai hou ga ii desu.

Sore ni, otona no onna no hito ga "...ze" to ittara, yahari, kotobadukai ga warui to omowaremasu. Yahari otoko no kotoba to onna no kotoba wa chigaimasu ne.

I'm not sure in what language you would want the answer... so I'm putting up another one (a bit more detailed) in English.

The boundary between "male" and "female" speech/words has been disappearing gradually, particularly among young people, so maybe I should say "girl's speech and boys's speech." And actually what's happening is that girls are using more of the "traditionally boys' words," meaning their speech is getting less girlish, a bit rougher. So I do hear high school girls saying "... ze." So in that sense, boys' speech COULD be used by girls as well (even though it would sound rough), but girls' speech/words would sound EXTREMELY strange coming from boys. So I would recommend against any boy/guy using words like "...kashira, ...wa," etc.

And after all, if a woman said "...ze," that would be considered a VERY rough way of speaking, not polite at all, and this would not be accepted in grownup world. So.. after all, yes, the distinction remains.

By the way, "... toka" is not a gender-specific expression, is it? :)

Another question about your question: when you said "ima ... mada tsukatte imasuka," compared with WHEN were you referring to??

Thanks AK for your answer concerning それ　and あれ. I am glad to hear that you agree with my choice of あれ as the appropriate answer. I will assume the book I am using made a mistake here. After all, I think I trust you more than my book which is printed in Taiwan.

Another question I have is the difference between: どれ　and　どちら, as well as　だれ　and どちら. At first I thought that どちら　can　always replace either　どれ or　だれ. But according to these two following questions, only one is correct.
いろいろな　くにへ　いきたいとき　ひこうきと　ふねと　(　)　が　いいでしょうか。
A.　どれ　B.　なに　C.　だれ　D.　どちら

たなかさんと　さとうさんと　（　）　が　わかいですか
A.　どれ　B.　だれ　C.　なに　D.　どちら

The given answer for both is どちら. The book explains that どちら　is used when there is a choice between two given items.　Is this correct? What if there is a choice from three given items? Or for an unspecified range of items?

In this case, yes, in both of the questions, it is a choice between two options, so "dochira" would be the right choice.

Examples with THREE choices for the above two questions.

(a) Iroiro na kuni e ikitai toki, hikouki to fune to kikyuu no uchi, DORE ga iideshouka.
...no uchi (de) = among....
kikyuu = hot air balloon (ha!)

(b) Tanaka-san to Sato-san to Kimura-san no naka de, DARE ga ichiban wakai desuka.
...no naka de = among (the same as "...no uchi (de)" above." The two are interchangeable.)
(In this case it would make sense to ask "dare," who, as it is referring to people. And it also makes sense to add "ichiban," as you are asking about who is the youngest among the three, rather than who is young/younger.)

Examples with a range.

(a) Iroiro na kuni e ikitai toki, koutsuu-shudan no naka de, dore ga iideshouka.
koutsuu shudan = means of transportation

(b) Kono kurasu no seito no naka de, dare ga ichiban wakai desuka.
seito = student


Additional information on "dochira." (Please keep it at the back of your head for future reference, as it is used in conversations/phrases you are likely to hear in Japan.) It is used to refer to:
(1) which of the two choices,
(2) somewhat indefinite direction
"Dochira ni ikaremasuka?" - Which way/where are you going?, in a polite, roundabout speech particularly.
(When you are in Japan, people might ask you) "Dochira no o-kuni kara desu ka?" - From which country are you?
o-kuni = o (for polite) + kuni = country
and
(3) it is used instead of "dare" in very polite speech.
"Shitsurei desu ga, dochira sama desuka?" (Excuse me, but may I ask who this is? = who are you?)

I just came across this question:
こんばんは　とても　（　）です。　ほんとうに　ありがとう　ございました。
a.　たのしいでした　ｂ。たのしくでした　ｄ。たのしかったでした
Ans.　ｃ。たのしかったです
I can understand the answer but I think there should not be a "です" after ( ) in the question, otherwise the answer will have two consecutive "です"s. That doesn't seem to make sense. Can I assume this is a typo (typing mistake)?

I believe so :)

In this question, I could guess the answer by applying the rules of grammar that I know. However, I don't really know what is being said.
まどが　あいて　いますよ。
あつ、きのう　かえるとき　（　）。
a.　しめないでした　ｂ。しめなかったでした　ｃ。しめませんでした　ｄ。しめてないでした
Ans. ｃ。しめませんでした　

This one is *supposed to* say, I guess,
- The window is open.
- Oh, (I) did not close it yesterday when (I) left.

I guess the あつ　part is a typo?? What could have happened is that instead of writing ああ ("aa," with two "a," simply meaning "oh," or "ah") sometimes a symbol is used to represent that the same sound is repeated. (Sorry I cannot call up that symbol on my PC right now!), which somehow could have been mistaken for a "tsu."

Thanks, AK. I understand it now. I was having a little trouble at first because I did not recognize the very aku = to be open.
Hoewever, here is another one where I worked out the answer but have some trouble with the content.
わたしの　おじいさんは　まだ　めがねを　（　）しんぶん　を　よみます。
a. かけないで　b. かけなく
c. かけなくて　d. かけない
Ans. a. かけないで　
Here, my question is: since it is MY grandpa, why do I not use そふ.
Also, isn't the speaker trying to say that his grandpa still CAN read the newspaper without his glasses. So why not use 読めます　instead.

About "sofu," you are right, in formal situations, you'd always say "sofu" to refer to your own grandfather. But I might say "ojiisan" about my own grandfather if I was talking to my friend (= not formal situation), while I'm sure I'd say "sofu" if I was talking to my boss or anyone like that. So this word choice is not impossible.

Another guess of mine here is that the writer of the textbook chose a relatively "simpler" word for this level, so that the students can
concentrate on the verb form part of the question rather than the proper names to be used for family members. While the pairs like "otousan +
chichi," "okaasan + haha" are taught pretty early on in textbooks, "ojiisan + sofu" might appear later in some textbooks.

The question about the verb: you are right about the intention of the speaker, it is to say that he can still read, or reads (as a habit), the
newspapers without wearing his glasses. So both "yomemasu" and "yomimasu" would be correct. Here again, because they wanted students to focus on the "...naide" verb, they may have made the rest of the sentence easier (meaning not using the "can do..." form of the verb.)

By the way, I found the little "repeat symbol" that I think might have been misunderstood by the author in the earlier post. It looks like: ゝ

I hope you can view this little symbol properly! :)

Thanks for your explanation.
As for that ゝ symbol, in the original text, it was in fact written as a small つ, like the 促音　symbol. I guess it was supposed to mean ああ as you suggested. My question now is: so how did you produce that ゝ symbol? I mean what keys did you need to press?

To get that little ゝ, I entered the word "onaji" ("= the same"), in Japanese, and hit "convert," amazing, right? Initially I didn't know, I thought I'd have to get the JIS kanji code list or something (and enter the code number) to get that symbol, and looked around on the internet for "kurikaeshi kigou" (= repeat symbol), and found a description for it. I just typed "onaji おなじ" here then 変換, and that ゝ is listed as one of the choices.

This latest question concerns the "i" adjective:
あなたが　よんで　（　）ほんを　おしえて　ください。
a.　おもしろい　b.　おもしろくて　c.　おもしろかった　d. おもしろいだった
Ans：　c.　おもしろかった　
I thought that when the "i" adjective comes before the noun it is always in the original "i" form so I chose "a." as the answer. わかりませんでした。教えて　ください。

It would not necessarily be in the "i" form before the noun.

"i" adjective is actually equivalent to "be + adjective" in English. So "omoshiroi" = "(is) interesting," and "omoshirokatta" = "(was)
interesting. It's unusual that the adjective changes its form and can express present or past tenses, but that's how it is in Japanese.

So,
"omoshiroi hon" = "book (that is) interesting" = "interesting book," and
"omoshirokatta hon" = "book (that was) interesting."

And what the author wanted to say here was:
"Please let me know the book that was (=past tense) interesting when you've read it."

I think I need to come up with a more helpful explanation for this......

"yonde omoshirokatta hon" would be "the book (you found to be) interesting when you've read it"
"yonde omoshiroi hon" would be "a book interesting to read."