-でいて and -っている
  • niokunniokun February 2010

    I was translating some lyrics in japanese and I found this: 私の知ってる あなたでいて ...
    the first phase is something like "My knowledge" and the second part would be something about "you", but I don't know what is this =(
    Can someone explain what it means?
    And also, if anyone could help me, I saw a lot of verbs that normally ends with ru (る) and in another sentence it's ended with tteiru(っている), like the verb to know (知る and 知っている). The meaning is the same or it depends on the situation?

  • TobberothTobberoth February 2010

    It means "Be the you whom I know".

    -る verbs become -って in -te form. 知る 知って.
    -te form + the auxillary verb いる becomes continuing form, something being done right now.

    食べる - will eat
    食べている - is eating
    知る - get to know
    知っている - to know

  • louislouis February 2010

    The 私の知っている is an adjectival phrase which modifies the word which comes after it, i.e. あなた. So literally it means, "my known you", or more naturally, "the you whom I know".

    As for でいて, the で is the normal particle indicating a place or method, etc., and the いて is the て form of いる, to be/exist, which turns it into a command. Hence, "be the you whom I know".

  • niokunniokun February 2010

    thx for the translation...but can anyone explain (clearly) what -でいて means? is it to be?

  • tamatamatamatama March 2010

    Is this the complete sentence? But yes, でいる means "to be" or "being."

  • TobberothTobberoth March 2010

    Posted By: niokun
    [p]thx for the translation...but can anyone explain (clearly) what -でいる means? is it to be?[/p]

    Technically, it's "be as", いる by itself means "to be/to exist". If you want to understand it, learn the verb いる and the particle で well and it should be pretty obvious.

  • niokunniokun March 2010

    i see...
    but I (really) was going to make a topic exactly about this:differences between the particles -で and -に. They both indicate indirect objects but I never know how to use one or another :(
    Can someone clear things up for me?

  • TobberothTobberoth March 2010

    Posted By: niokun
    [p]i see...

    but I (really) was going to make a topic exactly about this:differences between the particles -で and -に. They both indicate indirect objects but I never know how to use one or another :(
    Can someone clear things up for me?[/p]

    It depends on how specific of a description you want, there are several perspectives. One I like which I learned from a grammar book for Japanese people is, what particles mean is actually decided by the verb/predicate. Some predicates need に while others need で, some need を while others need が. This doesn't actually explain the particles and it's not "correct" from a true grammatical standpoint, but I like how it makes you stop over analyzing things and it simplifies it all. It's also more similar as to how Japanese people actually think about particles in their daily life.

    If you want some more abstract idea of the particles themselves, I would say に indicates direction or goal while で describes location, reason or tool. It's very abstract though because those particles really mean a lot of different things depending on which situation they are being used. I would recommend just reading a lot of Japanese, you will get a good feeling for them eventually. Otherwise, the book "All About The Particles" has TONS of example sentences for each particle to show you how they are used.

  • niokunniokun March 2010

    thx for the answer... but it is just me or I need to use my "instincts" to whatever I use anything in japanese? I made a discussion some months ago and the conclusion was just the same: train japanese, read manga, see animes...
    really, I want to understand japanese more and more, but it's quite hard put like that. English is not that hard (even with all the rules and exceptions)... not even portuguese is as hard as it!

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