what does "おばあさんは川へせんたくにでかけます。 " mean?
i am learning Japanese and right now i am reading stories for children with English translations, now i came across this sentence and the translation is: "The old woman went out to the river to wash clothes." but in the sentence there isn't a word for clothes or for wash. So if someone could give me the real translation (the google translate translation is useless).
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http://life.ou.edu/stories/
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せんたく をする already expresses clothes as well.
When we want to specify the clothes like "to wash my clothes" we say わたしのふくを せんたくする, but we usually just say せんたく をする for the meaning of "to wash clothes."
おばあさん the old woman
は a subject marker
川へ to the river
洗濯に to wash clothes
でかけます go out
I hope it helps :)
That translation is correct. If you've ever used a Japanese dictionary, you know that kakeru has over a dozen different meanings. Apparently, you have discovered that one of these meanings is holding clothes in a stream to wash them. Or maybe it means the old woman is carrying the clothes to the stream. I'm not an expert.
When learning a new language, you cannot always rely on direct transitions of every word. If you try to directly translate "I'm hungry" into Japanese you'll be dead wrong. Nobody every says that in Japan. Instead, they say "My stomach is empty" when they want to eat.