Hi,
I have a big doubt regarding this phrase. Unfortunately, I have no context to provide, as it is an isolated phrase from my textbook. It is rather simple, and I already know what it means, though, so it shouldn't be a problem.
道のどこを渡ってもいいですか。
Is it O.K. to cross the road at any place?
Now, as I already mentioned I know the meaning, as it is given in my textbook (which is in Italian, I translated, so if it sounds slightly awkward you know why). So you might be wondering what my doubt is. Here it goes: why is it どこ and not どこも? As far as I know, どこ means 'where?' and it is implicitly interrogative, while どこも means 'anywhere' (or 'nowhere', with a negative, but that doesn't apply here), which seems to me much more appropriate to the translation. So, the literal translation as I would do it (if I didn't know the right one beforehand) would be this:
Is it O.K. to cross the road where?
Which obviously doesn't make the slightest sense even to me. So, there's my doubt... why どこ instead of どこも?
P.S. I noticed that in some places the も gets postponed (as in どこへも行きません, for example), so I initially thought this would be the case here. But then I reasoned that the も present in this phrase is part of the sentence construction itself - that is, to say "is it possible to..." you have to end the sentence in 「もいいですか。」. So this is the reason I ruled out this hypothesis. Of course, if I'm wrong with this, please correct me and explain me why. =)
Thank you very much in advance.
I have a big doubt regarding this phrase. Unfortunately, I have no context to provide, as it is an isolated phrase from my textbook. It is rather simple, and I already know what it means, though, so it shouldn't be a problem.
道のどこを渡ってもいいですか。
Is it O.K. to cross the road at any place?
Now, as I already mentioned I know the meaning, as it is given in my textbook (which is in Italian, I translated, so if it sounds slightly awkward you know why). So you might be wondering what my doubt is. Here it goes: why is it どこ and not どこも? As far as I know, どこ means 'where?' and it is implicitly interrogative, while どこも means 'anywhere' (or 'nowhere', with a negative, but that doesn't apply here), which seems to me much more appropriate to the translation. So, the literal translation as I would do it (if I didn't know the right one beforehand) would be this:
Is it O.K. to cross the road where?
Which obviously doesn't make the slightest sense even to me. So, there's my doubt... why どこ instead of どこも?
P.S. I noticed that in some places the も gets postponed (as in どこへも行きません, for example), so I initially thought this would be the case here. But then I reasoned that the も present in this phrase is part of the sentence construction itself - that is, to say "is it possible to..." you have to end the sentence in 「もいいですか。」. So this is the reason I ruled out this hypothesis. Of course, if I'm wrong with this, please correct me and explain me why. =)
Thank you very much in advance.