Sunday, 24 January 2016

grammar - Difference in sentences (と and に)


I'm having a little trouble understanding the difference in these two contexts.


What would be the difference between these two sentences.



友達に晩ご飯を食べました


友達と晩ご飯をたべました




My understanding is that と can mean "with" or describe taking an action with a secondary object (as well as mean "and")


So maybe another example.



彼氏にキスした


彼氏とキスした



Would the difference for that be "I kissed my boyfriend" vs. "My boyfriend and I kissed"


Thank you!



Answer




に has a lot of functions and I won't go into detail of every possible usage of it. Let me just comment on your examples.


友達に晩ご飯を食べました is ungrammatical and makes no sense. 友達と晩ご飯をたべました means "I ate dinner with my friend."


彼氏キスした means "I kissed my boyfriend." This に is a target/destination marker. (キスする is an intransitive verb.) 彼氏キスした is similar, but it indicates your boyfriend also kissed you because there is と ("with ~"). If you kissed him on the lips, 彼氏キスした and 彼氏キスした are interchangeable. But if you kissed his wrist, you can say 彼氏キスした but not 彼氏キスした.


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