I came across a drill recently that reads 女の人と話しません. I know what it means, and I can answer the question, but I am curious about the と. I had to look up the exact translation because I didn't know how it functioned in that sentence, could somebody please explain?
Also, I've found that I have a lot of trouble remembering certain vocab words (particularly verbs) and nouns we don't use often. Does anyone know a way to help this?
2
Votes
+500
エミリーさん
That と in the sentense expresses the idea that conversation is something you have "with" someone, hence 〜と is used. I understand in English you can say both "I don't talk to women" and "I don't have conversations with women" At different occasions and situations, you can substitute と with に, but in this sentense in particulatr, you need to understand that conversation is to be had "with" someone. Does that make things clear?
Also, as for remembering vocabs, constant practice is always the key, but also you can try to write diaries or journals in Japanese, using those newly learned vocabs. Using them often enough is the fastest way to memorize them!
Cheers
4
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+1000
To answer the second part of your question, you've already answered it yourself!
If you don't use certain words enough, just find a way to use them more.
I don't know what your setting are for drills but I find the default five to be a bit low for retention. Anything upwards of 10 is going to do the job but is also a bit of a pain with the increased number of basic hiragana/katakana drills so I've found 7 to be the best option.
Of course you won't remember everything (language acquisition is a constant cycle of learning and forgetting things) but more often than not it does the trick.
