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In my textbooks solution it says

getsuyoubi ha itsumo ani to isshoni tabemasu

I thought it would be

getsuyoubi ni

Thank you in advance

Flaw
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Ciff
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  • What context is given by your textbook? I don't think the English should be always translated like that. – broccoli facemask Aug 11 '19 at 10:26
  • Watashi wa itsumo getsuyōbi ni ani to issho ni tabemasu. Add I to the sentence. – Jack Bosma Aug 11 '19 at 11:02
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    @JACK the 私は you suggest may well be entirely redundant. Japanese is a 'pro-drop' language. – henreetee Aug 11 '19 at 11:19
  • I wanted to demonstate getsuyoubi ni. Getsuyoubi ha doesn't sound right. – Jack Bosma Aug 11 '19 at 11:33
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    @JACK 月曜日は is absolutely OK and indeed preferable in certain contexts. You can also "demonstrate 月曜日に" without using 私は; the sentence いつも月曜日に兄と一緒に食べます is comprehensible. Just saying "Add I to the sentence" isn't clear advice. Further, please refrain from answering in the comments -- if you want to answer a question, answer it using the answer box. Use the comments for clarifications or discussion of the question. – henreetee Aug 11 '19 at 12:54
  • Apparently ha and ni can both be used. – Jack Bosma Aug 11 '19 at 13:00
  • @henreetee, in which context is ha preferred? The context of the book was that he declined an offer to eat pizza, because always eating with his brother on Mondays – Ciff Aug 11 '19 at 20:52
  • @Ciff -- see answer below :) – henreetee Aug 11 '19 at 21:09

1 Answers1

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So, first of all, the sentence （私は）月曜日にいつも兄と一緒に食べます。 is grammatically totally fine and would be comprehended in the context you give. This would probably best structurally translate as

"I usually/always eat with my brother on Mondays"

However, partly because Japanese is a pronoun-drop language, and partly because of the situation -- where the speaker has been asked about going for pizza (presumably on a Monday) -- 月曜日はいつも兄と一緒に食べます might well be preferable here.

The reason for that is that he's focusing on the concept of Monday, so it makes sense to make it the topic/discourse of the conversation. In comparison to the above sentence, you'll thus get a structural translation of something closer to

"On Mondays, I usually/always eat with my brother".

Using は thus makes it a bit clearer that it's the pizza invitation being on a Monday that is the issue as to why he can't go, which is appropriate for this context.

Hope that helps.

henreetee
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