# かける: Potential Form



## Whodunit

In my travel guide for Japanese, I came across the following sentence:

この字は正しくかけていますか。

Why did they use かけて? Doesn't this mean "to turn?" The translation reveals that it should be かいた, I think:

Did I *write* this character correctly?

What do you think? Was it a typo, a plain mistranslation, or just correct?


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## Anatoli

I think you're right, Whodunit. It should be ...書いていますか (かいていますか)


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## Flaminius

Some Japanese verbs have a form denoting potential (N can V/N can be Ved).  _Kakeru _is the potential form of verb _kaku_, to write.

So,  「この字は正しくかけていますか」 means, "This letter, have I been able to write it correctly?"

Flam


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## Anatoli

I thought about the potential form but then thought, why it should be there? Thanks Flaminius.


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## Hiro Sasaki

Whodunit said:


> In my travel guide for Japanese, I came across the following sentence:
> 
> この字は正しくかけていますか。
> 
> Why did they use かけて? Doesn't this mean "to turn?" The translation reveals that it should be かいた, I think:
> 
> Did I *write* this character correctly?
> 
> What do you think? Was it a typo, a plain mistranslation, or just correct?


 

この字は　正しく　書けていますか　？　・　Is this chinese character written
correctly ? is correct, But, usually we say simply : この字は　正しい
ですか　？　

Hiro Sasaki


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## Whodunit

Thank you, Flaminius. How strange that I had had a look at the form of the potential, and then I _wasn't able_ to recognize it. 

Anatoli, if you had just mentioned it, I would have remembered the potential form. The next time, please allow free rein to your thoughts. 



Hiro Sasaki said:


> この字は　正しく　書けていますか　？　・　Is this chinese character written
> correctly ? is correct, But, usually we say simply : この字は　正しい
> ですか　？
> 
> Hiro Sasaki


 
Hiro Sasaki, I don't think that 字 refers to Chinese characters. They can also mean "Japanese letter" by 字, can't they? I'd prefer 漢字 for "Chinese character" in order to avoid any ambiguity. Thank you for the alternative sentence, although I would expect your sentence (which I would translate as "Is this character correct?") in another situation:

_Japanese student (A) and a native Japanese speaker (B) are standing in front of a Chinese shop_:
A: Oh, look at this strange kanji. Is this character correct? (seeing 吗)
B: Well, it is correct, but it doesn't appear in the Japanese language. It's the Chinese letter that corresponds to our か to form a question.


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## Hiro Sasaki

Whodunit said:


> Thank you, Flaminius. How strange that I had had a look at the form of the potential, and then I _wasn't able_ to recognize it.
> 
> Anatoli, if you had just mentioned it, I would have remembered the potential form. The next time, please allow free rein to your thoughts.
> 
> 
> 
> Hiro Sasaki, I don't think that 字 refers to Chinese characters. They can also mean "Japanese letter" by 字, can't they? I'd prefer 漢字 for "Chinese character" in order to avoid any ambiguity. Thank you for the alternative sentence, although I would expect your sentence (which I would translate as "Is this character correct?") in another situation:
> 
> 
> _Japanese student (A) and a native Japanese speaker (B) are standing in front of a Chinese shop_:
> A: Oh, look at this strange kanji. Is this character correct? (seeing 吗)
> B: Well, it is correct, but it doesn't appear in the Japanese language. It's the Chinese letter that corresponds to our か to form a question.


 

Whodunit, 

You have given an example of a very unusual and rare case.

この字は　わかりますが　？　people usually do not think that he is asking 
how to read Hiragana or Katakana.

Hiro Sasaki


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## cheshire

Whodunit said:


> Hiro Sasaki, I don't think that 字 refers to Chinese characters. They can also mean "Japanese letter" by 字, can't they? I'd prefer 漢字 for "Chinese character" in order to avoid any ambiguity. Thank you for the alternative sentence, although I would expect your sentence (which I would translate as "Is this character correct?") in another situation:
> 
> _Japanese student (A) and a native Japanese speaker (B) are standing in front of a Chinese shop_:
> A: Oh, look at this strange kanji. Is this character correct? (seeing 吗)
> B: Well, it is correct, but it doesn't appear in the Japanese language. It's the Chinese letter that corresponds to our か to form a question.


I second that, whodoneit. The Chinese letters are 簡体字　(the simpler forms) and the Japanese ones are 繁体字　(the simpler forms), as it were.
Strictly speaking Japanese kanjis are not Chinese characters, though they derive from that.



> この字は正しくかけていますか。


This Japanese sentence is all right as it is. Perfect Japanese.


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## Hiro Sasaki

Cheshire san

That will happen only in the limited cases when chinese persons asked to
some Japanese 　about the Japanese letters. or the situation of :

"_Japanese student (A) and a native Japanese speaker (B) are standing in front of a Chinese shop_:"  
こういう特別な　状況は　思いつきませんでした。　私の文章は　日本語を学んでいる外国人が日本語が　正しく書かれているか　日本人に聞くという想定での文章です。当然　
ひらがな　かたかな　ぐらいは知っているという想定です。

Hiro Sasaki


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## Flaminius

Perhaps devising context is not necessary if we compare the two sentences vis-à-vis.

a. この字は正しくかけていますか。
b. この字は正しいですか。

For sentence *a*, _kono ji_ is written by the speaker in the most general understanding.  _Native speakers, do you agree or disagree?_  The auxiliary element _-masu _in the verb group, as it seems to me, is there to especially enable this interpretation.

In contrast, the _kono ji _in sentence *b* does not have such an implication.  _Native speakers, do you agree or disagree?  _Therefore, the letter in question can be written by anybody.  One may utter sentence *b* when one finds *組*識* in a hand-written note passed by to one.  One may show it to someone and ask, 「この字は正しいですか」.  The expected answer would be, 「いいえ、正しくありません。正しくは、『組織』と書きます」.

飢餓線上のFlam


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## Flaminius

Please follow the link for  the discussion whether 漢字 should be translated as kanji or Chinese characters.


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