Re: Query: Use of WO where DE is expected.

mirror wrote:
On Fri, 14 Jul 2006 15:14:55 -1000, Bart Mathias
<mathias@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

You're skipping the "motte" = "holding." Usually when someone who is
holding a knife kills someone else, it's a case of killing with a knife.

"-o motte" is a long-winded way of saying "-de." You will probably
encounter "-de motte" from time to time. I'll not try to explain that one.


Thank you. I did not grasp this `motte' as a verbal since it is
built of the kanji i + te ("by means of")...
以て
and this did not seem to have a dictionary verb form.

Excuse accepted; even in Chinese 以 wasn't used as a main verb, though
it always takes an object.

But it was there, in the way between 刀を and 殺した and would need
*some* interpretation or other. If you noticed you didn't give it one,
you might have thought to *listen* to the sentence.

See? There's another of the bad things about kanji.

Bart
.