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From: barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: A second Try at Japanese Look-Alike Sentences
Message-ID: <2541@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Dec-85 08:26:13 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.2541
Posted: Tue Dec 24 08:26:13 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Dec-85 23:19:27 EST
References: <1791@uwmacc.UUCP> <839@h-sc1.UUCP> <1809@uwmacc.UUCP> <6711@boring.UUCP> <1847@uwmacc.UUCP>
Reply-To: barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold)
Organization: System Development Corporation R&D, Santa Monica
Lines: 37

Forgive me, Mark Edwards.  After sending off the first message, I suddenly
realized that kanajo wasn't some esoteric type of kana but a misspelling
of kanOjo (meaning "she").

That makes "Nihonjin no kanajo ga iru mo" probably mean "I once had
a Japanese lady."

Problems (as analyzed after some desultory study of Japanese for ten years)
	Kanojo is a pronoun, not a noun -- and so doesn't take adjectival
constructions.
	Mo- goes at the start of a sentence, not the end.  The verb (in
polite form goes at the end.
	Ga is an emphatic particle.
	Your verb is present form, not past.
I'd write that sentence as "Mo- nihonjin no musume wa imashita."

>Ima watashi no kanajo wa nihon ni modotte, juku o oshiete iru. Kanajo
>wa mochiron nihonjin desu. Kanajo wa sugu america ni kaette kuru to 
>omoimasu.

This group seems to mean, "Now my lady has returned to Japan; I am studying
at a private school.  She was certainly Japanese.  I think she will someday
return to America."

	Problems (besides those cited above)
	You seem to be confusing modoru (to return) and kaeru (to go back
to one's proper place, to go home).
	You seem to be confusing the progressive (e.g. I am teaching) with
the passive (e.g. I am being taught).   Combined with a misuse of -o, this
means you said you were teaching a school instead of learning AT a school.

I'd rewrite that group as "Ima kono musume wa nihon ni kaete ga
juku ni naraimashita....Sugu ni kanajo wa amerika ni modotte to omoimasu."

Comments from native speakers would be greatly appreciated.

--Lee Gold