Which sentence is grammatically wrong?
a. えきまで あるいた。
b. がっこうに あるいた。
c. きのうは 10キロ あるいた。
d. もりの なかを あるいた。
あるく means “to walk,” so the intended meaning for each sentence is:
a. I walked (as far as) to the station.
b. I walked to school.
c. I walked 10 km yesterday.
d. I walked in the woods.
The question here is what particles can be used directly with あるく and which ones can’t be used.
Particles used with あるく directly
- まで as far as
- えきまで あるいた。We walked to the station.
- まいあさ がっこうまで あるきます。I walk to school every morning.
- を in
- もりの なかを あるいた。I walked in the woods.
- ひとごみを あるいたから つかれた。I’m tired as I walked in the busy streets.
に cannot be used with あるく directly
The one you can’t use here is に. We don’t say ～にあるく in Japanese. If you want to say “walk to [destination]”, you should say either ～まで あるく (literally walk as far as to ～) or ～に あるいて いく (literally go ～ on foot). The same applies to verbs like:
- はしる (to run)
- およぐ (to swim)
- うんてんする (to drive (a car)).
They can’t take the destination marker に directly.
“Place of passage marker” を
You might have thought d. もりを あるく is the wrong one, but this を is not the object marker, but “a place of passage marker” and it is legitimate. Other examples of this usage are:
とりは そらを とぶ。
Birds fly in the sky.
このみちを まっすぐ いってください。
Go straight along this road.
You don’t need a particle to describe the distance you walked.
10キロ is used like an adverb, so you don’t need any particle with it.
