Couple of translation questions


I'm on chapter eight of Genki 1 and I'm struggling with a couple of pieces of
dialogue and their translations.

Here's the first:

> たけしさん、あしたみんなでバーベキューをしませんか。

The given translation is "Takeshi, would you like to have a barbecue party
tomorrow?"

My best effort of a direct translation is, "Takeshi, would you like to do a
barbecue all [together] tomorrow?" I don't see where the reference to "party"
is, and I'm confused by the use of "みんな" (which I take to mean "all" or
"everyone").

Here's the second:

> [何か]{なにか}[持って]{もって}いきましょうか。

The given translation is "Shall I bring something?"

I'm assuming the root verb being used is 持ってくる, but I can't figure out how
it's being conjugated into 持っていき. I'm hoping someone can clear that up.




  1. Both translations are correct, although in yours you wouldn't say "do a barbecue" in English. The "party" part is implied by "having a barbecue"; it doesn't need to be explicit. 「みんな **で** 」 (notice the で) means "with everyone" or "altogether".

  2. The root verb is 持っていく ("take"), not もってくる ("bring"). Note that in Japanese, there is a fairly strict distinction between "going" and "coming" (and by extension, "taking" and "bringing"). Even though the following it is often said in English

>   * A: Are you **coming** to my party tomorrow?
>   * B: Yes, of course I'll **come**!
>

, you can never say it this way in Japanese, because for "come", it's always
said from the location being converged upon. Person A can say くる because it's
their party; Person B must use いく because he is not at that location.

It is the same with "bring" and "take". You can only use 持ってくる from the point
of view of the party's location. Since Takeshi is not currently at the
location of the BBQ, he must use 持っていく.

For more on direction, see:

  * [What is the _proper_ differentiation between 来る and 行く?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/1669/78)
  * [Difference between -ていく and -てくる](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/676/78)

