Breakdown of konya ha zimaku nasi de eiga wo mite mitai desu.
Questions & Answers about konya ha zimaku nasi de eiga wo mite mitai desu.
今夜 (こんや) means “tonight.”
- 今夜は: here は is the topic marker – “As for tonight…” / “Tonight, …”
- We are not marking time of an event so much as saying “speaking about tonight, this is what I want to do.”
Using に:
- 今夜に映画を見ます is grammatically possible but sounds odd or forced. For specific times, に is often dropped anyway:
- 明日映画を見ます。 “I’ll watch a movie tomorrow.”
- 今夜映画を見ます。 “I’ll watch a movie tonight.”
In this sentence, 今夜は is natural because it sets tonight as the topic of the whole statement.
字幕なしで breaks down as:
- 字幕 (じまく) – subtitles
- なし – “without / none / lacking” (a noun-like word meaning “absence”)
- で – particle meaning “with / in / under the condition of / by means of”
So 字幕なしで literally means “with the condition of no subtitles → “without subtitles.”
字幕ないで uses ない, the negative form of ある / いる / verbs, plus で. It usually means “without doing X” or “not having X and (then something happens).”
In practice:
字幕なしで映画を見たい。
“I want to watch the movie without subtitles.” (state/condition: the movie has no subtitles)字幕をつけないで映画を見たい。
“I want to watch the movie without adding subtitles / without turning on subtitles.” (not doing the action of adding/using subtitles)
字幕なしで is the standard, natural way to say “without subtitles” as a condition.
Here 字幕なし is functioning as a single phrase: “subtitle-less / no-subtitles.”
- 字幕
- なし → “without subtitles / lacking subtitles” (like a compound)
Because なし already turns 字幕 into a “without X” phrase, you don’t attach an extra particle between them. Then you add で to indicate the condition:
- 字幕なしで = “in a no-subtitle state / under the condition of there being no subtitles.”
You could see expressions like:
- 字幕はなしです。 – “There are no subtitles.” / “As for subtitles, there are none.”
But that is a different structure:
- 字幕 (topic) + は
- なし (predicate) + です
In your sentence, 字幕なしで is just one adverbial phrase modifying 映画を見てみたい.
- 見る – to watch / see
- 見たい – “I want to watch (it).”
- 見てみる – “to try watching (and see what it’s like / what happens).”
- 見てみたい – “I want to try watching (and see).”
Nuance difference:
映画を見たいです。
“I want to watch a movie.” (simple desire)映画を見てみたいです。
“I want to try watching a movie (and see how it goes / what it’s like).”
In your sentence:
字幕なしで映画を見てみたいです。
This strongly suggests:
“I’d like to give it a try watching a movie without subtitles (maybe as a challenge / experiment).”
見てみたい is the -たい form of a verb, which behaves like an i-adjective.
- Plain: 見てみたい。 – “(I) want to try watching.” (casual)
- Polite: 見てみたいです。 – “I want to try watching.” (polite)
Adding です:
- Makes the sentence polite, suitable for talking to people you’re not very close to, teachers, etc.
- It does not change the basic meaning; it just raises the politeness level.
In casual speech with friends, you would normally just say:
- 今夜は字幕なしで映画を見てみたい。
With the ～たい form, technically the object tends to be marked with が, because 見たい is treated like an adjective:
- (私は) 映画が見たい。 – “I want to see a movie.”
However, in modern Japanese:
- Both 映画が見たい and 映画を見たい are widely used.
- を is very common in everyday speech when the verb clearly takes an object.
In your sentence:
- 映画を見てみたいです。 is completely natural.
- 映画が見てみたいです。 is also possible, but sounds a bit more like you’re focusing on “It’s a movie (as opposed to something else) that I want to watch”.
For learners, it’s fine to remember:
- ～たい can take が or を as the object marker.
- In sentences like this, を is very natural.
Japanese word order is relatively flexible, but natural order and rhythm matter.
Original:
> 今夜は 字幕なしで 映画を 見てみたいです。
This order feels very natural:
- 今夜は – set the time/topic: “Tonight,”
- 字幕なしで – add the condition: “without subtitles,”
- 映画を – mark the object: “a/the movie,”
- 見てみたいです – main predicate.
Other possibilities:
- 今夜は映画を字幕なしで見てみたいです。 – Also natural.
- 映画を今夜は字幕なしで見てみたいです。 – Understandable, but the flow is a bit less smooth.
Your proposed:
- 映画を字幕なしで今夜は見てみたいです。 – Grammatically OK, but sounds awkward; putting 今夜は so late is unusual when it acts as the topic.
A good rule of thumb:
- Put time expressions (like 今夜) and topic (は) near the beginning.
- Keep related chunks together: 字幕なしで as one unit before the verb.
Japanese nouns generally do not mark singular/plural unless you add something explicit.
映画 can mean:
- “a movie”
- “the movie”
- “movies” (in general)
Context decides. In your sentence:
字幕なしで映画を見てみたいです。
Most natural translations:
- “I want to try watching a movie without subtitles.”
- “I want to try watching a movie (some movie) without subtitles.”
If you specifically wanted plural, you could say:
- 字幕なしで映画をたくさん見てみたいです。 – “I want to try watching a lot of movies without subtitles.”
But usually Japanese just leaves it to context.
Both mean roughly “tonight,” but with slightly different nuances/usage:
- 今夜 (こんや) – literally “this night,” often used in everyday speech and writing.
- 今晩 (こんばん) – “this evening/tonight,” very common in set phrases like:
- 今晩は。 – “Good evening.”
In your sentence, you can use either:
- 今夜は字幕なしで映画を見てみたいです。
- 今晩は字幕なしで映画を見てみたいです。
Both are natural. The nuance difference here is minimal; many speakers would treat them as interchangeable in this context.
Yes, in casual conversation Japanese often drops particles and です, especially when the meaning is clear.
Original polite:
> 今夜は字幕なしで映画を見てみたいです。
Very natural casual versions:
- 今夜字幕なしで映画見てみたい。
- 今夜は字幕なしで映画見てみたい。 (keeping は is also fine)
What was dropped/changed:
- Dropped を after 映画 (common in casual speech).
- Dropped です at the end (plain form).
- Spoke everything without the written-style spacing.
All of these still mean:
“I (kinda) want to try watching a movie without subtitles tonight.”