Memorised pairs and the words they cannot fix
A third-year student practises sentence reordering: five items, each with a Japanese sentence and a set of English chunks, one chunk per item being a decoy that must not be used. Each item is worth two points, and he scored 4 out of 10.
- 「あなたは図書館がいつ開くか知っていますか。」 Chunks: Do / you know / when / does / the library / opens / ? His answer: 「Do you know when does the library open?」
- 「このかばんは私には重すぎて運べません。」 Chunks: This bag / is / too / heavy / for me / to carry / . His answer: 「This bag is too heavy to carry for me.」
- 「彼はその切符を買うのに十分なお金を持っていません。」 Chunks: He / does not / have / enough / money / to buy / the ticket / . His answer: 「He does not have money enough to buy the ticket.」
His study note reads: 「Reordering is memorising pairs: too … to, enough to, when … does.」 He has ten more items to do tonight and wants to know whether to memorise more pairs.
1. For each of the three answers, state whether it earns the point and give the reason in terms of a structure rule, not a memorised pair.
Read the worked answer
1. No point. 「when」 already opens the embedded clause, and an embedded clause takes statement order: subject + verb, with no do/does/did. So 「… when the library opens」. The chunk 「does」 was placed there as a decoy to catch exactly the memorised pair 「when … does」. The rule is about clause type: a question inside a sentence is no longer a question in form.
2. Usually no point under the key. The standard frame is too + adjective + for + person + to-infinitive: 「too heavy for me to carry」. 「for me」 names the person who would do the carrying, so it belongs with the to-infinitive, not with 「heavy」. Both orders are heard in speech, but the paper fixes one; write the textbook frame.
3. No point. 「enough」 goes before a noun (enough money) and after an adjective (tall enough). The chunks offer a noun, so the order is 「enough money」. 「money enough」 survives only in older writing and is not the tested pattern.
2. Rewrite his study note as a set of checks he can run in about thirty seconds per item.
Read the worked answer
Replace 「memorise pairs」 with four checks:
- Find the clause boundary first. Is my chunk inside a statement or inside a question? Inside a statement, use subject + verb and no do/does/did.
- For degree words, look at what is being modified. Noun → enough + noun, such + noun. Adjective → adjective + enough, so + adjective.
- Attach 「for + person」 to the to-infinitive, not to the adjective.
- Cross out the decoy before writing. One chunk in every item cannot appear in a correct answer; finding it removes one wrong starting point and usually reveals the pattern.
Why this beats more pairs. Pairs are two words long and the exam moves the other words: it splits 「too … to」 with 「for me」, and it turns 「when … does」 into a decoy. Checks describe the whole frame, so they survive the rearrangement. Tonight, do three items with the checks written beside him, then two without.
3. For item 2, some teachers accept both orders. Explain why the key places 「for me」 before 「to carry」, and what a candidate should do when he notices the disagreement.
Read the worked answer
Why the key prefers the earlier position. In 「too heavy for me to carry」, 「for me」 marks the agent of the infinitive - the person who would carry it. Placing it immediately before 「to carry」 keeps that link visible. In 「too heavy to carry for me」, the sentence-final 「for me」 can be read as 「in my opinion」 or 「for my benefit」, a different meaning. The key is choosing the reading, not just the word order.
What to do in the exam. Use the textbook order even if you have heard the other one; examiners mark against a fixed key, and a thirty-second item is not the place to argue. If the paper offers both orders as possible chunk arrangements, the Japanese sentence usually settles it, so read the Japanese again before writing.
What to do after the exam. Ask the teacher which order your school's textbook prints, and use that one consistently. Knowing why the other order exists is useful; producing it under time pressure is not.