Sunday, September 17, 2017

Using による to Express "Depending on..."

In a previous Genki II chapter, there was a lesson explaining how you could embed questions in a sentence to express things like "I don't know whether Jim is at work." This may translate as something like ジムは事務所でいるかどうか分からないよ。

Well, this same structure plus による or によって違う can be used to express something like "X differs depending on..." or "Y depends on..." The structure is something like:

[Question or Noun 1] + は Noun 2 に + [よる / よって違う]

日本人が大好きな桜の花がいつ頃咲くかは、場所によって違います。
The time around which the beloved Japanese cherry blossoms will bloom differs depending on the place.

明日スーパーでどの食べ物を買うかは、食欲によって違うよ。
Which food I buy at the supermarket tomorrow will differ depending on my appetite.

性格は人によって違います。
Personality will differ depending on the person.

授業料をいくら払わなくてはいけないかは、大学によって違う。
How much you have to pay for tuition will differ depending on the college.

私はそのパーティーに行くかどうかは気持ちによるんだよ。
Whether I go to that party will depend on my mood.

私にとって、読み物が難しいかどうかは、漢字の多さによります。
For me, whether a reading is difficult depends on the amount of kanji.

I'm going to link to this post on Japanese Stack Exchange with regards to the 私にとって portion of the last sentence.

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