I have a bit of a struggle with the に particle. Could somebody explain to me
why it is used here?

>   1. 結婚のお祝い **に** 、部長に時計をいただきました。 (first に)
>
>   2. このかばんは物が入れやすくて、旅行や仕事 **に** 便利です。
>
>   3. 車の修理 **に** １週間かかります。
>
>   4. 今晩のおかずはすき焼き **に** しましょう。
>
>   5. 事故 **に** あわないように、気をつけてください。
>
>

Thank you
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-06T16:31:31.053
57764
2018-04-08T10:12:51.403
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
-1
29449
question
grammar particle-に
に particle. Why is this sentences
>   1. **結婚のお祝いに** 、部長に時計をいただきました。
>

In this case, _ni_ is indicating the time at which the speaker received the
watch. This is similar to the preposition "at". You can roughly translate the
sentence as "I received this watch from the manager **at my wedding
celebration** ".

>   2. このかばんは物が入れやすくて、 **旅行や仕事に便利** です。
>

I don't know any formal, textbook-like definition to this, but my intuition
tells me _~~ ni benri_ means more or less "convenient for ~" because there are
several phrases in Japanese that use adjectives with _ni_ like this. Consider
the following example:

> p 乗の対数は、 **対数の p 倍に等しい** 。 (Source: Japanese Wikipedia article on
> logarithms)
>
> A logarithm to the p-th power is **equivalent to** the logarithm times p.

You can also translate the phrase as " **equals the logarithm times p** ", but
I hope you can feel something about these patterns.

>   3. **車の修理に** １週間かかります。
>

In this case, _ni_ is marking purpose and functions similar to the phrase "in
order to ~." The phrase in your example means " **(in order) to repair the
car** ". You can translate the sentence as "It will take one week **to repair
the car** ".

There are two common patterns in which _ni_ is used like this. The first one
is with the so-called "masu-stem" of a verb when indicating the purpose of a
motion verb. The other one is usually with a nominalized verb phrase and looks
like _noni_ (don't confuse it with the other _noni_!) Here are some examples:

> **彼女と外食に** 行く予定だ。
>
> I'm planning on going out **to eat with my girlfriend**
>
> **このレポートを書くのに** 一ヶ月かかりました。 (Source: A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar,
> entry titled "のに(2)" )
>
> It took me a month **to write this paper**.

  

>   4. 今晩のおかずは **すき焼きにしましょう。**
>

_~ ni suru_ is an extremely common pattern in Japanese and usually translates
as "decide on ~". It has many other usages (e.g. _koto ni suru_ , _~ wo ~ ni
(shite)_ , etc.) and there should be many questions regarding _ni suru_ on
this website, so I will not explain it here. This example can be translated as
" **Let's have sukiyaki** for tonight's side dish."

>   5. **事故にあわない** ように、気をつけてください。
>

You can think of this usage of the _ni_ particle as an indirect object marker.
This is roughly equivalent to several prepositions in English such as "to" and
"in". Again, there should be many questions on this website that describe this
usage of _ni_ , so I will not explain it here.

Notice the verb is 逢う _au_ , which means "to meet" with a nuance of something
bad and undesirable. The highlighted phrase in this example can be translated
as " **not get _into_ an accident**"
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-08T10:12:51.403
57801
2018-04-08T10:12:51.403
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
-1
22698
57764
answer