– Vol.6 –
ARC teacher Mimi Sensei will answer your questions regarding Japanese language.
A:
First of all, let’s have a look at two sentences as example.
Mai nichi 9ji kara 5ji made benkyou shimasu.
Every day I study from 9 o’clock to 5 o’clock.
In this example, the sentence tells us that the student studies the entire time between 9 and 5. As you can see from this example, “MADE” is used as something that “continue”, in case of an action that lasts for a certain duration.
So how about “MADE NI”?
Ashita made ni repōto wo dashite kudasai.
Please submit your report by tomorrow.
This time it doesn’t mean “all the time until tomorrow”.
It means that you can submit the report by tomorrow, if you can send it before tomorrow it is fine.
Have a look at the verbs that follow.
After “MADE”, we usually find verbs like 「benkyou suru」or「neru」,「yasumu」,「hataraku」or「matsu」, verbs that continue for a particular amount of time.
But in the case of “MADE NI”, we use verbs that don’t require much time, for short actions such as「dasu」or「kaesu」,「tsuku」,「owaru」.
Picture in your mind the image of “a deadline”, something to do before, by that time.
…And don’t forget to do the things you have to do by tomorrow (tomorrow MADE NI)! ?