LEARN + JAPANESE / Note 127 JLPT N4
Together With, Compared To (と)
と marks a partner in an action that inherently involves two people, like meeting, dating, or marrying, and marks the other side of a comparison, like being the same as or different from something.
Daisuke is marrying Saya next month.
Naoki and Yuki talked things through a lot.
In Real Life
Verbs like 結婚する, 話し合う, and 別れる describe something that structurally needs two people, and と, not を, marks the other party involved, since neither person is simply the object of the other’s action, they’re both doing it together.
My way of thinking is pretty much the same as the department head's.
Today's phones are different from phones in the past.
In Real Life
同じ (the same) and 違う (different) both need と to mark what they’re being compared against, X はYと同じです, “X is the same as Y,” X はYと違います, “X is different from Y,” a fixed pattern worth memorizing as a set.
Vocabulary
| Japanese | English |
|---|---|
| to talk things through | |
| to break up, part ways | |
| to go on a date | |
| to get married | |
| happiness | |
| way of thinking | |
| department head | |
| roughly, mostly | |
| height, one's back | |
| to resemble | |
| to differ, be different | |
| the same | |
| high school | |
| opinion | |
| to compare | |
| common, shared | |
| the other party | |
| partner | |
| relationship | |
| to match, coincide |