Page 247 - Basic Japanese
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5.15. ところ tokoro
The noun tokoro ‘place’ has several special uses. When you
speak of going to a person, doing something at a person’s
(place), coming from a person, in Japanese you usually say
‘to, from, or at the PLACE of that person.’ In fact tokoro is
used when you are going to anything that is not itself a
place.
クライアントのところまで車で行きました。
Kuraianto no tokoro made kuruma de ikimashita.
I went to my client’s place by car.
Tokoro can also refer to time as well as place. It then
means ‘the time or occasion when something is (was)
happening,’ and it is followed by the copula or by a particle.
Here are some of the expressions that result:
読むところです。
Yomu tokoro desu.
He is (just) about to read.
読むところでした。
Yomu tokoro deshita.
He was (just) about to read.
読んだところです。
Yonda tokoro desu.
