Breakdown of haha ha kuruma de gakkou made mukae ni kimasu.
はha
topic particle
学校gakkou
school
車kuruma
car
でde
means particle
母haha
mother
までmade
limit particle
迎え に 来るmukae ni kuru
to come to pick up
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Questions & Answers about haha ha kuruma de gakkou made mukae ni kimasu.
Why is は used after 母 instead of が?
は is the topic marker, setting 母 as “as for my mother…”. It frames the sentence around what your mother does. If you used が, you’d be simply identifying the subject “my mother” (e.g. answering “Who is coming?”). Here the focus is more on the action she does rather than introducing her as new information.
What does 車で indicate?
The particle で marks the means or instrument. 車で means “by car,” telling us how your mother comes to pick you up.
What does 学校まで mean?
The particle まで means “up to” or “until.” So 学校まで literally means “as far as (the) school,” indicating the endpoint of the movement: she comes by car all the way to the school.
Why isn’t there any direct object like 私を before 迎え?
In Japanese, if the object is clear from context it’s often omitted. Here it’s obvious your mother is coming to pick you up, so 私を (“me”) can be dropped without losing meaning.
How would you include the person being picked up explicitly?
You insert the person ＋ を right before 迎えに.
Example:
母は車で学校まで私を迎えに来ます。
(“My mother comes by car all the way to the school to pick me up.”)
Why is it 迎えに来ます instead of just 迎えます?
This is the common pattern [verb-stem]＋に＋来る/行く, meaning “to go/come in order to [verb].”
- 迎え is the stem of 迎える (“to pick up”) treated like a noun.
- に marks the purpose (“for pickup”).
- 来ます shows movement toward the speaker’s position.
So 迎えに来ます = “comes (here) to pick (someone) up.”
Why is 来ます used here instead of 行きます?
来ます implies movement toward the speaker’s location or perspective. If you’re at the school awaiting your mother, you say she comes to the school. From her own viewpoint (at home) she might say 学校まで迎えに行きます (“I’ll go to the school to pick you up”).
What’s the nuance difference between 学校まで迎えに来ます and 学校に迎えに来ます?
Both are understandable and often interchangeable:
- 学校に迎えに来ます simply means “comes to the school to pick [someone] up.”
- 学校まで迎えに来ます adds the nuance of “all the way up to the school,” emphasizing the endpoint. It sounds a bit stronger or more explicit about how far she comes.