掲示板 Forums - で vs に

Okay, so I've recently realized that even though my vocabulary is quite large, my grammar is lacking to say the least... And one of the things I suck at are Japanese particles...

I've looked up both に and で both both online and in Renshuu's vocabulary dictionary and I still have no idea how to really differentiate these two...

Usually I get them right in Renshuu's quizzes, since the the correct answer just "feels right".

Couls you please help me with those two and maybe give some examples?

Thank you in advance!

When preceded by a location, both で and に are used to mean 'at'/'in'. で is used when an action takes place there, while に is used when just describing a presence there. For example:

レストランにいます = I'm at a restaurant

レストランで食べています = I'm eating at a restaurant

As カメリア mentions, に can also mean 'to', when used with a verb of motion (行く, 来る, 帰る, etc.), like:

レストランに行っています = I'm going to a restaurant

Aside from that similarity, both have many other distinct uses, such as indicating a reason, an indirect object, a means, a time period, linking nouns/adjectives, etc.

You might want to look at their respective grammar entries in the library for more details and example sentences:

https://www.renshuu.org/grammar/112

https://www.renshuu.org/grammar/113

Wow, I didn't know you can add sentences to the dictionary...(^o^)丿I'll be there whenever I'm struggling... I hadn't really noticed grammar pages before... I only used renshuus dictionary! What an awesome learning resource! Thank you for breaking it down!☺️