Specifying what's different between two things, 違い


I wanted to write a sentence that means:

> Okinawa and Hokkaido are different, their climate and the time cherry
> blossoms bloom differ.

I was wondering if this would be the appropriate way to write that:

> 沖縄と北海道が違い、気候とか桜を咲く時とか違います。

I want to make sure the second phrase doesn't sound like "climate and cherry-
blossom-blooming time are different (from each other)"

Another way I could think of writing this is (but might have two 違い too
close):

> ~,その違いが気候とか桜を咲く時です。

Basically, is there a grammatically different way to express "This two things
are different" vs. "This two things differ on these two points"?




I understood your question as asking whether different constructions are used
to express the ideas of

> A and B are different

and

> X and Y are different

where the statement

> A and B are different in X and Y

is true.

If my understanding is correct, I find it to be a very interesting question.

Your English sentence, which is actually two sentences connected only with a
comma, can be translated as:

> 沖縄と北海道 **は** 違います。気候と桜の咲く時期 **が** 違います。

And these can be combined into one sentence, as below:

> 沖縄と北海道 **は** 、気候と桜の咲く時期 **が** 違います。

Actually, 気候 **や** 桜の咲く時期 sounds more natural than 気候 **と** 桜の咲く時期 because
there must be other things that are also different, not just those two.
However, let’s use と here so we can focus on the main difference, which is
that of は and が.

Although I cannot say for sure this is a definite rule, I think that, unless A
(沖縄) and B (北海道) appear in a subordinate clause, they usually don’t take the
subject’s spot with the subject marker が in a sentence with 違う. That spot
seems to be reserved for X (気候) and Y (桜の咲く時期), which are properties in which
A and B differ.

Here is an example where A and B appear in a subordinate clause:

> 沖縄と北海道 **が** 違うのは、気候と桜の咲く時期です。

は may be used with X and Y to emphasize the difference in them in contrast to
similarity in other aspects of A and B.

> 沖縄と北海道はどちらも人気がありますが、気候と桜の咲く時期 **は** 違います。

By the way,

> 沖縄と北海道 **は** 、気候と桜の咲く時期が違います。

sounds a bit like it is meant for someone who already knows Okinawa and
Hokkaido are different in some way and wants to know what’s different. In
other words, the information conveyed by the first of the two original
sentences is assumed to be already known.

If this is a problem, you could add で, as follows:

> 沖縄と北海道 **では** 、気候や桜の咲く時期が違います。

This で limits the scope of comparison to Okinawa and Hokkaido before the
sentence goes on to state what’s different between them. It makes no
assumption about the listener’s prior knowledge about Okinawa and Hokkaido and
therefore works for anyone.

Lastly, although grammatically perfect, these sentences contain a logical
issue inherited from the original English sentence. The reason why the time
cherry blossoms bloom is different is precisely because climate is different.
But that’s a different issue…

