# ご飯行こう



## 82riceballs

Hi everyone,

I have a question regarding the phrase, ご飯行こう.

1. What do you feel is the difference between ご飯行こう and ご飯食べに行こう? In English, we often invite ppl to meals by saying "let's get a meal sometime" instead of "let's eat a meal sometime". I think the reason for this is that, by *not* saying "eat," we take the focus away from the act of physically devouring food, since that's not the point. The point is to go get food _with _someone. Is there a similar difference in nuance in Japanese?

2. What other kinds of foods can you invite people to in this way? 

今度ラーメン行こう let's get ramen sometime!
今度アイス行こう ...ice cream... !
今度コーヒー行こう ...coffee... !
3. What other kinds of meals can you invite people to in this way?

今度お昼行こう let's get lunch sometime!
今度ディナー行こう ....dinner ... !
今度ブランチ行こう ... brunch ... !
Thanks for your help!!


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## DaylightDelight

82riceballs said:


> 1. What do you feel is the difference between ご飯行こう and ご飯食べに行こう? In English, we often invite ppl to meals by saying "let's get a meal sometime" instead of "let's eat a meal sometime". I think the reason for this is that, by *not* saying "eat," we take the focus away from the act of physically devouring food, since that's not the point. The point is to go get food _with _someone. Is there a similar difference in nuance in Japanese?


To me, both phrases seem to have some emphasis on "行こう," kind of like "let's go eat something."  I might say these to my colleagues at lunch time; "guys, let's go have lunch now."  We often say "こんどご飯しよう", "そのうち食事しましょう" and I think these are closer to your "let's get a meal sometime."  Of course ご飯行こう is totally acceptable and often heard, but the different nuances in "let's get a meal sometime" and "let's eat a meal sometime" are better represented with "こんどご飯しよう" and "こんどご飯食べよう."



82riceballs said:


> 2. What other kinds of foods can you invite people to in this way?
> 
> 今度ラーメン行こう let's get ramen sometime!
> 今度アイス行こう ...ice cream... !
> 今度コーヒー行こう ...coffee... !


We don't say neither.  As I said above, when 行こう is used in such phrases it seems to put some weight on the act of "going" and neither of the above sound natural to my ear.  When a specific food is mentioned, I think "食べよう" is most natural, because in such cases "to eat that food" is important. "Oh, so you like noodles? Me, too! 今度一緒にラーメン食べよう!"


82riceballs said:


> 3. What other kinds of meals can you invite people to in this way?
> 
> 今度お昼行こう let's get lunch sometime!
> 今度ディナー行こう ....dinner ... !
> 今度ブランチ行こう ... brunch ... !


The same as above about "行こう." "ランチしよう", "ディナーしよう" and "ブランチしよう" are more natural.
However, some people may find ディナー and ブランチ somewhat affected.  These words are common enough but not so widespread that they can sound very natural in everyday conversation.  Well, maybe in certain circles, but certainly not around me. 
今度お茶しよう "let's have some tea sometime" is very common. This is almost always understood to be a purely social invitation.


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## frequency

82riceballs said:


> ご飯行こう and ご飯食べに行こう


They almost mean the same to me.



82riceballs said:


> 今度ラーメン行こう


I think you already know that in Japanese you don't have the future modal verb "will". Instead of it, you can add the adverb "今度" that suggests a future, in order for you to mean so.
So you mean that you want to go to eat ramen with him or her in the future, not right now.

Note that if you say ラーメン行こう, this sounds, depending on the case, you want to go ramening right now.


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## 82riceballs

Thanks for all the great tips guys!! 



DaylightDelight said:


> We don't say neither. As I said above, when 行こう is used in such phrases it seems to put some weight on the act of "going" and neither of the above sound natural to my ear. When a specific food is mentioned, I think "食べよう" is most natural, because in such cases "to eat that food" is important. "Oh, so you like noodles? Me, too! 今度一緒にラーメン食べよう!"



I just have a question about this one, since I have heard ラーメン行こう, and a google search reveals that it is somewhat common. Perhaps it is more common among younger ppl?


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## DaylightDelight

82riceballs said:


> I just have a question about this one, since I have heard ラーメン行こう, and a google search reveals that it is somewhat common. Perhaps it is more common among younger ppl?


Hmm, I don't know... For me it sounds like "let's go have some ramen *now*".  "What are we gonna eat?" "ラーメン行こう!", "What do we do now?" "ラーメン行こう!", "Gosh, we got an hour more to kill!" "ラーメン行こう!"
These sound very natural.  But if it's "let's do it sometime," then I can't imagine myself saying it.


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## Flaminius

When I was in university, ugh more than ten years ago, we used to call dining out together _tabe_ (LH accent) and one with main focus on drinking _nomi_ (LH, homonym to "flee").  They are nouns that behave like _rāmen_ above.

今日は、飲みがある。

試験が終わったけど、飲みに行く、それとも食べにいく？

飲み、行く？


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## Wen24

82riceballs said:


> What do you feel is the difference between ご飯行こう and ご飯食べに行こう?


For me, no difference.
If someone said "ご飯行こう" or "ご飯食べに行こう" to me, my first action would be ask her or him "今？(now?)"



82riceballs said:


> I think the reason for this is that, by *not* saying "eat," we take the focus away from the act of physically devouring food, since that's not the point. The point is to go get food _with _someone.


...umm, I'm not a Japanese person. But for me, it is just a omission. The meaning of sentence is very clear for me with "食べに" or without "食べに".
In my opinion, the action of eating is also important. But there is "ご飯" in this sentence, it is very easy to guess the speaker wants to invite the hearer to eat food, not to cook or bla, bla. If the speaker wants to invite people to cook with her or him, the sentence would be like "ご飯一緒に作りましょう" or bla, bla.  So omitted "食べに" is no change mostly.



82riceballs said:


> 2. What other kinds of foods can you invite people to in this way?
> 
> 今度ラーメン行こう let's get ramen sometime!
> 今度アイス行こう ...ice cream... !
> 今度コーヒー行こう ...coffee... !


If I want to invite people to eat food, and explaining what kind of food we eat. I would not omit "食べに". Because I want to be clear
XX食べに行こう                  Let's go and eat XX.
今度XXを食べに行こう         Let's eat XX sometime.
今度XXでも食べに行こう      Let's eat XX next time. (The important thing is XX, they ate food together already.)

But for コーヒー, I would say "今度コーヒーを飲みに行こう"

BTW, "今度ラーメン行こう", "今度アイス行こう" and "今度コーヒー行こう" are also ok for me, if someone say such sentence to me, I would guess what he of she wants. But I want to check if my guess is right, so I would ask him or her "ラーメンを食べること？".




82riceballs said:


> 3. What other kinds of meals can you invite people to in this way?
> 
> 今度お昼行こう let's get lunch sometime!
> 今度ディナー行こう ....dinner ... !
> 今度ブランチ行こう ... brunch ... !


...umm, for me, "今度お昼*ご飯*行こう" is ok.
Without the sound of "ご飯", I would use "する".
    E.g. 今度ディナーしよう.


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## sleepy24

82riceballs said:


> In English, we often invite ppl to meals by saying "let's get a meal sometime" instead of "let's eat a meal sometime". I think the reason for this is that, by *not* saying "eat," we take the focus away from the act of physically devouring food, since that's not the point. The point is to go get food _with _someone. Is there a similar difference in nuance in Japanese?



In my opinion, if you add "でも" after "ご飯", you can take the focus slightly away from "food", because "でも" suggests that you don't limit the invitaiton to eating a meal.

今度ご飯でも食べに行こう。​
Also, if you don't want to use the word "食べる", there are some other ways:

今度ご飯でもご一緒しませんか。
How about having a meal together sometime?

今度ご飯でも、どう?
How about a meal next time?​
Probably the former is too formal to be used among friends, though.


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## 82riceballs

Wow thanks for all your helpful ideas!!

I have one last question, that I need a native speaker's help with:

I still don't quite get how ご飯行こう is grammatically correct. Is it correct, because it's an abbreviation of ご飯食べに行こう? Or does ご飯 also mean "a place to eat food", so ご飯行こう actually means "let's go to a place to eat food"? Or is it one of those grammatically incorrect things that's made its way into standard language?

What do you think?


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## frequency

82riceballs said:


> I still don't quite get how ご飯行こう is grammatically correct.


に行く can also mean go somewhere to do something. This is not the case when you go to any building such as your office or a bar. You can use a noun of actions, too. I can say 診察に行く、支払いに行く. So you can say ご飯に行く. Furthermore, you know you can sometimes omit a particle. But don't say 診察行く、支払い行く but ご飯行く is a popular way.

Then you go to Yokohama to eat ramen. Say 横浜へラーメンを食べに行く. Don't say 横浜へラーメン行く.lol  This is too abbreviated, so it sounds a bit impolite.



> so ご飯行こう actually means "let's go to a place to eat food"?


Yes, ご飯行く and ご飯食べに行く both exactly suggest that you'll go out. If you don't go anywhere, you don't need to say 行く.


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## 82riceballs

frequency said:


> You can use a noun of actions, too. I can say 診察に行く、支払いに行く. So you can say ご飯に行く. Furthermore, you know you can sometimes omit a particle. But don't say 診察行く、支払い行く but ご飯行く is a popular way.



Ahhhh I get it now!! I guess it is the same of phrases like カラオケ行く、お嫁に行く, etc.


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## frequency

82riceballs said:


> カラオケ行く


I agree with you!


> お嫁に行く


Good catch. This is the idiom that means とつぐ お嫁 isn't the noun that indicates an action, but this one may not be too far from other examples, indeed.


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