texts: I have questions about the usage of でもある and さっそく in this context

texts:
Here's the sentence:

魔法のメッカでもある魔界に、（観光で）いくことに決め、さっそく靈夢にないしょで出かけていったのであった。

I understand what's being said: "Since, Makai was the Mecca of Magic, as a sightseer, [she] decided to go [there], but excluded [telling] Reimu Hakurei."

I'm just confused about the function of certain phrases in the sentence like and the placement of certain words:

でもある

Is it used because other things may or not have been said previously about the subject in focus, 魔界?

さっそく

I get that the phrase is supposed to function in this sentence to the effect of meaning 'rushedly', or excluding, or 'cutting steps out', but the action of 'not telling' the subject in focus (靈夢) is never explicitly mentioned. Is the action of telling her being purposely omitted in this sentence?

いったのであった

Is this all one expression? Why is ので placed so far-back in the sentence? My understanding of ので is that it's supposed to tail the part of the sentence that's supposed to be the reason, not the consequence. Why then is it placed all the way at the end of the sentence? Is going to 魔界 without telling 靈夢 not a consequence of 魔界 being the Mecca of magic? Is 魔界 being the Mecca of magic, not the reason she is going there?

Also あった does it roughly translate to (as it happens) in this context? I'm confused.

Can someone please explain this all to me??


texts: Causative Form - Difference between 子供に本を読ませる　and 子供を本を読ませる

texts:
What is the difference between these two examples?

  子供に本を読ませる
  子供を本を読ませる

Please give me some other example to illustrate the difference.


texts: Is "リア充" (Riajuu) interchangeable with "playboy"?

texts:
I often see phrases where Riajuu appears in situations where I think it could be translated to "playboy" without any loss in meaning, following from the context and the Urban Dictionary definition.

Am I right to think that way, or does "Riajuu" and "Playboy" have a nuance in meaning?

eg.: Boy says something outgoing to a girl. Then he says to himself:
何そのリヤ充みたいなセリフ


texts:
The phrase in question comes from the Japanese global warming article.

その一方で太陽放射等の自然要因による変化の寄与量は人為的な要因の数%程度でしかなく、自然要因だけでは現在の気温の上昇は説明できないことが指摘されている

I think I understand the gist of 数%程度でしかなく. My reading is, '[accounts for] just a few percent [of the change]'. However, I've never encountered 数 used as a prefix like this before to represent a small change. Can someone clarify the meaning of this phrase? Thanks.


texts: Questions about a correction, nominalizing, and particles

texts:
I was practicing writing sentences and tried to write the following in Japanese:

  I heard he escaped from the island.

I originally came up with

  彼が島から逃げるのを聞いたそうです。

But then I was corrected by 2 different native speakers. Their changes are in bold.

Person A:

  彼が島から逃げるのを聞きました。

Person B:

  彼が島から逃げたと聞きました。

When I read Person A's correction I read it as

  I literally heard (as in noises) him escape from the island.

I think Person B's correction is more in line with what I meant and I read it as

  I heard (from someone else) he escaped from the island.

Assuming I'm right about the above, I don't understand why と was used instead of を in the 聞きました part.

Now I'm wondering

Why was this done or when should I use と over を with 聞く?
When nominalizing, do verbs have to stay in their "pure" dictionary form
or can I change the tense? Could I write the following or is this
grammatically incorrect? Does it mean the same thing as Person B's correction?

  彼が島から逃げたのを聞きました。


texts:
I've come across several forums online detailing that 「今朝」 sounds either very formal or old-fashioned in that it is not used too often nowadays. However, it is also the one I see most commonly used in newspaper articles and the such.

Meanwhile, in the case of 「今日の朝」 or 「今日朝」, it more directly reflects the other structures we use in Japanese class, such as 「土曜日の朝」 and 「今夜」.

So, which of the two (or three, if you include 「今日朝」) sounds more natural in everyday speech?


texts:
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_(grammar):

  In certain languages, the agent is declined or otherwise marked to
  indicate its grammatical role. In Japanese, for instance, the agentive
  case is marked with the case particle ga (が), while the nominative
  case, also called "bare case" or hadaka-kaku (ハダカ格), is marked with no
  case particle.

Please teach me more about ハダカ格 and how it contrasts with the agentive case marked with が。 Thank you!


texts:
I was wondering if there is a Japanese equivalent for the term 'black ice'.
I googled image searched ブラックアイス , but the overwhelming majority of the results were unrelated.
Or would you say 道の上の見えない氷?


texts: What is the Japanese equivalent of "mhm"?

texts: In English conversations, when I listen to someone speak, I have a habit of intermittently uttering "mhm" just to let the other person know I'm listening to what he/she is saying. Is there a Japanese equivalent of this? I'm thinking of "はい", but I don't know if it will come off as being too stiff.


texts: N3 Pattern: Difference of 「～かわりに」、「～反面」、「～一方（で）」

texts:
こんにちは！

ちょっと困ったことがありますが、誰か手伝ってくれるといいんですが・・・

Hello! I'm having a little confusion with this sentence from 新完全マスター３級・文法

In the explanation from the book, it is said that 「～反面」、「～一方」and 「～かわりに」means "on the other hand".

In this sentence:
「会長の山田さんは、実行力があるかわりに、深く考えることはしない。」

instead of using 「～かわりに」can we change it to 「～反面」or even 「～一方」？

～反面：
「会長の山田さんは、実行力がある反面、深く考えることはしない。」

～一方：
「会長の山田さんは、実行力がある一方で、深く考えることはしない。」

^ Are these sentences acceptable? Do they make sense? Are they even grammatically correct?


texts: Seemingly non-interrogative use of sentence-ending か

texts:
I keep on coming across the particle か at the end of sentences without it having a clear or necessary interrogative nuance.

An example. The 1st Angel in Neon Genesis Evangelion is regenerating itself after the first raid: 予想通り、自己修復中か. Why would they introduce an interrogative nuance into what was already a predicted outcome?

I get the impression that Japanese speech encourages the use of か without any specific interrogative or grammatical purpose other than providing a strong phonetic closure to a sentence? Can anyone confirm or dispel this impression?


texts: Nuances in context- なぜそんなことをしたのか - why he did it, or what caused him to do it?

texts:
I'm trying to read a light novel for the first time and it's been confusing so far, what with the historical present tense and everything, but I mostly managed through until I got to this one scene.
Ana is a girl who can enter other peoples bodies, and is currently in the body of an old man, Oniwaka. Then, he teammate Daiki suddenly uhh harrasses the old man, so to say.

なぜ、そんなことをしたのか、自分でも分からない。気がつけば、ダイキはアナの……鬼若の尻をさっと撫でていた。
「キャッ」鬼若が……鬼若の姿をした、アナがぴょんっと跳び上がった。「なにするんですか！？」
「ずっと気になってたんだが……そんななりをしてても、やっぱり『キャッ』て言っちゃうんだな」

So translated,

Even Daiki himself didn't know why he did such a thing. He realised that he had quickly stroked Ana's...Oniwaka's buttock.
"Kya!" Oniwaka...Ana, who was in Oniwaka's body, jumped up.
"What are you doing?!"
"I've always been curious but...even in a body
like that, you still say 'kyaa', huh."

But, this is confusing me slightly. First it's said that Daiki doesn't know why he did it, and then he makes that comment about being curious as to how Ana would react in such a body. So then that would mean that he did it because he was curious- but then not knowing why he did it would be a contradiction to that.
So I looked up なぜ and saw it could be used to ask for either reason or cause, and I thought that second option made more sense. If the sentence wasn't meant in the 'he didn't know /why/ he did that' sense, but in the 'he didn't know what /caused/ him to do that' sense. Since he had a clear motive for it.
I've been thinking about this paragraph for a few hours now so my head feels too muddled to tell if I'm right or not though. Could someone explain this apparent contradiction?


texts: Should I repeat -san to refer to someone whos name ends in san?

texts: My friend's name is Allisan, how can I make it clear that her name is オーリサン and the honorific 'san' is not included and furthermore how can she introduce herself without sounding like a smug to everyone?


texts: I'm experiencing a little confusion with the verb form meaning "to want", and am a little confused as to how to say "would like to" instead. In Japanese, are the two meanings combined into the ending 〜たい? I've had language partners before say, for example, 「東京に行きたいと思う」and this was translated to, "I would like to go to Tokyo" by our messenger's in-app translator. Is this also acceptable to say?


texts:
The sentence in question is the second line of:

  いつもここにいて欲しいくせに…
  いつもここにいて欲しい心隠した
  会えなくなったら淋しいの

I know that ここにいてほしい is I want you to be here but the second part is tricky to me

  心かくした

Sounds strange to me it could mean something like "Hide my heart", how can you link that second part in to the first one to have any sense. Also is that grammatically correct? (I'm only N4 so I've never seen anything like it)


texts: た or ていた? Is "turned right" a state or an action?

texts:
In this link, Past Unreal Conditional, user l'électeur has given an answer pointing to the tense issues in the original sentence given in the question, stating that ていた needs to be used instead of た:

あのとき右に曲がれば、どうなっただろう。
If I had turned right back then, I wonder what would have happened.

l'électeur has given the following corrected sentences:

「あのとき右に曲がっていたのなら（ば）、どうなっていた（の）だろう(or のであろう)。」
or
「あのとき右に曲がっていれば(or いたら)、どうなっていた（の）だろう(or のであろう)。」

However, I would like to know why exactly ていた and not just た must be used for both 曲がる and なる. I am aware that ていた expresses a state while た focuses on the action, but I simply cannot comprehend why one would choose to focus on "the state of turning right" rather than regretting his decision of not "taking the action of turning right".
I have done some research on these tenses myself, and one source I have found is the following question, which I have derived the "state" vs "action" idea from:
What is the difference between using ている、ていた、た in relative clauses?


texts: How to write the name !xobile in Katakana?

texts:
So I have been wondering from this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiWiYjW1Xrc

How would one write the Katakana for this name that has an exclamation mark? And how would we pronounce it? Thanks!


texts: Could anyone tell me about how to use か at the end of the news article I see it a lot and get confused about it all the time

texts:
I get confused about it all the time
Please explain how to use and how to translate it
Thank you for your explanation


texts: Is 国家主義 considered as abhorrent as "nationalism" is?

texts:
Calling someone a "nationalist" is a very serious indictment. How well does "国家主義" translate as "nationalism"?

For example, is this sentence so extreme as to imply something like:
"田中さんは国家主義のある人です。"
"Mr. Tanaka wants to re-build the Imperial Japanese Empire."?

What about the difference between 国家主義 and ナショナリズム? The latter is not easily said nor "spelled" in Japanese. What is the difference between the two?


texts: explanation of 状況が摑めず固まったままの俺

texts:
I have difficulty to understand the expression in the following sentence

"その美少女は、髪と同色の、透き通った水色の瞳をパチパチさせ、状況が摑めず固まったままの俺をじっと見ていた"

It has been translated as:

This beauty stare at me with eyes the same light blue as her hair,
blinking at my inability to understand what had happened.

Context:
the protagonist wakes up in the after life in front of a beauty who announces that he has just died.
First I do not undestand why it is が not を that was used. I thought it was 状況を摑める
Second I do not undestand 固まったまま. If I look the verb: 固まる 【かたまる】 (v5r,vi) (1), it is translated as:
to harden; to solidify; (v5r,vi) (2) to become firm; to become certain; (v5r,vi)
But I do not understand the meaning in the context of the sentence.


texts: Help interpreting a chain of Kanji from manga

texts:
me and my buddies are reading a novel based on the manga series "Bleach." We are trying to interpret the name of a character's power-up

  逆様邪八宝塞 (sakashima, yokoshima, Hatsubou, fusagari)

The character's powers are "reversal" based.

We are debating over these questions -

1) Does 塞 describe 八宝 or act as a noun?.
2) Does 邪 affect 逆様 or 八宝?

My interpretation is-

  eight treasure obstruction of reversed evil

My buddy thinks it's more likely-

  Eight obstructed treasures of evil reversal.

But if we go with my buddy's interpretation, why isn't 塞 placed in front of 八宝 instead? Same with 邪 and 逆様. Doesn't the object being described come after the descriptor in Japanese?


texts:
I understand the dictionary definition of 惣菜:

  日常のおかず。副食物。

Basically, "a thing you frequently eat as an accompaniment to rice; a [non-staple] side dish".

Practically speaking, though, I don't quite get what kinds of things one would call a 惣菜. I have a sense for what kinds of things are おかず, but not what things are 日常のおかず, so some clarification about what sorts of things are considered 日常のおかず / 惣菜 would help.


texts: When speaking informally, do native Japanese speakers always remove い after て in present continuous tense across all conjugations?

texts:
Some examples below:

言っている > 言ってる
欲しがっています > 欲しがってます
見ていた > 見てた
行っていました > 行ってました

I'm trying to sound as native as possible, so would like to know the more common way of speaking in the present continuous tense (while knowing that the grammatically correct way would be to include い after て).

Thanks!!


texts: What does ~頂ければと思います mean? Why does such a construction happen?

texts:
I've heard phrases sometimes like:

  チェックいただければと思います。chekku itadakereba to
  omoimasu

"If you check this ... I think."?
Why is that ~と思います at then end of the phrase?


texts:
I understand from itrasci's answer in this link that なんか after a noun acts like a weak form of は which downplays the importance of the noun. But please look at the following sentence (where the writer is talking about authors he has invented in order to write book reviews on them):

  ...具体的に言うと、牟田口正午｛むだぐちしょうご｝とか、大坂五兵｛おおさかごへい｝なんかの作品は今読んでも刺激的だと思いますよ。

Given the context I can see why he might be downplaying the authors but I'm sure なんか must be doing something different in this context. I would never write はの (or at least I've never seen it) and the は comes after 作品 anyway.

I was wondering if it might be a contraction of 何か suggesting 'the works of author A or author B or whatever' but it doesn't seem correct to just attach 何か directly to the end of a noun.

Please help me understand the grammar here and the contexts in which I can use it. Thanks.


texts:
I'm slowly trying to read through a light novel and came across this sentence:

襲撃を予定してみたものの、集まったメンツは見事にキワモノばかりの盗賊団だ。

What does that キワモノ (kiwamono) mean? None of the dictionaries I've tried seem to know the meaning of that word.


texts: What is the use of でも in the following sentence?

texts:
冷えたビールでも飲みながら話しましょう。

This translates to “Let’s talk over a cold beer”, but でも means but or however. What does it mean here?


texts: When to use the particle 'ga' in questions?

texts:
I found these sentences in a book:

  Kaigi wa itsu arimasu ka?
  Kore wa nan desu ka?

Could anyone please tell me why it's ..itsu desu.. and not ..itsu ga desu..Similarly, why it's ..nan desu.. and not ..nan ga desu.., whereas in these statements, 'ga' is used:

  Kono heya ni dare ga imasu ka?
  Ano heya ni nani ga arimasu ka?

Also, is it wrong to say 'nan ga' in the second statement above?

I'm pretty new to Japanese grammar and like many others, I'm not very clear regarding the usage of 'ga'. From the websites I've gone through, I've come to assume that one of the uses of 'ga' is to indicate a specific person, thing, etc and so when it's used in simple sentences, it follows interrogative words like 'dore', 'dochira', etc.

For example,

  Dore ga anata no hon desu ka?


texts: Some congratulations phrases for birthday?

texts:
Hi I want to write a congrats message to my Japanese friend and I want to tell him this:

  Happy birthday

  I wish you so many more wonderful experiences

  and have a lot of fun this day

Obviously the first line will be:

  お誕生日おめでとう

And the second line will be:

 もっと素晴らしいことがあるといいです

And the third line something like this:

  そして楽しい日を過ごしてね

So I think that the first and third lines are relatively correct, but I really have my doubts on the second line. What do you think? Is there another way to say the same thing?


texts: Usage of の vs を for the direction of a place

texts:
I learnt that in Japanese, the の preposition is used to describe the direction of a place (up, down, right, left, next to, etc. For example:

部屋の中 (heya no naka): Inside the room.
テーブルの上 (te-buru no ue): On the table.

But then I listened to a conversation that contains a sentence which I believe is written like this:

あの 信号 をひだりへ 曲がってください (ano shingou o hidari e magatte kudasai): Please turn at that signal

In this case を is being used instead of の.

Is it just a mistake in the above sentence or did I not hear it right?


texts:
Ch.16 of the textbook 中級から学ぶ日本語 introduces the ～と、 structure, with this example:

  早{はや}く花{はな}がさくようにと、毎日水{まいにちみず}をやっている。

Without the と particle I would read this as 'I water the flowers everyday so that they bloom quickly' as per the verb+ように structure.

I'm inclined to think that this is the と which has the 思って, 言って, 感じて omitted (per A Dictionary of Intermediate Grammar p.464) but I can't see how or why any of those three verbs would apply to the above sentence.

The exercise for this structure wants us to complete some sentences, these are two of them, noting that one of them is かと:

  少しでもやせられるようにと、＿＿＿＿＿
  いつ帰ってくるかと、＿＿＿＿＿


texts:
I saw an advertisement on the train that said 世界に友達を作りたい... My Japanese friend said that the difference with "世界で友達を作りたい" is that で means like "In the world" whilst に means "all over the world".

I get that に is sort of like a means of highlighting the way, direction, actors and all that sort of indirect information of an action, and not necessarily "to" as beginners are taught.  So does that mean more like "the world" is the place of the action, but the action is moving throughout it and not restricted to on definite point like で would be?

SUMMARY:
What is the nuance of the particle に here and are there any other examples of such usage of に? I've heard Xにあふれる which is sort of like it I feel.


texts: What is the correct syntax for large numbers in kanji?

texts: Say I was trying to write the number 3,476,521,893,421 in kanji. How would I go about this? My guess was 三万四千七百六十五億二千百八十九万三千四百二十一 but it looks really wrong to me because it feels too Western to be correct.


texts: How can I thank somebody for pointing out my mistakes?

texts:
Thanking and apologizing in several forms is essential in a Japanese working environment. I currently have the following list that I have picked up from mails amongst my Japanese coworkers but I'm curious what could be other examples to do this...

Thanks for pointing out my mistakes.

ご指導を頂き、ありがとうございました。

丁寧にご指導を頂き、ありがとうございました。

丁寧にご指導を頂きまして有難うごいざいました
Thanks for the feedback!

添削ありがとうございます. とても助かります.

意味を間違っておりました。教えていただきありがとうございます。

どうぞよろしくお願いします。


texts: How should I write my name using Katakana?

texts:
How should Puttichai, which is pronounced as put-ti-chai (pʊttɪʃaɪ), be written using Katakana?
I have been writing プッティチャイ for quite a while. But then when I asked my friend, she told me that that writing may be a bit difficult for Japanese to pronounce since it will be more like pu-(pause)-ti-chai instead of put-ti-chai, and that using シャイ instead of チャイ is closer to the original pronunciation. She suggested me to remove the ッ.

My question is what would be an appropriate way to write Puttichai, considering closeness to the original pronunciation and ease of pronunciation by Japanese etc.?


texts:
In a manga, a character thinks about the feelings he has about his opponent (Jin) before a fight:

  いつもいらついてる

  むかつく　歯痒い　‥‥‥悔しい

  仁【じん】、お前にも

  自分にも

  だから

And then the two characters start to fight. What I don't understand is the meaning of お前にも and 自分にも. I think there is something unsaid here, but I am not sure what it is. Could it be "both you and me know that (the fact I can't stand you)"?


texts:
「むかしっからなァ、ただより高いものはないっていうことわざがあるんだぞっ。」
  From the old days there's a saying that "nothing costs as much as what is given to us".

I've taken the translation of ただより高いものはない straight from the dictionary, but I can't get this meaning when I analyse the sentence. I read something like "compared to expensive things there are no free things" (obviously nonsense).

Can the sentence be analysed grammatically such that it has the intended meaning? I can't make it work. Or must I just accept that it is a set phrase and move on?

Perhaps a separate question but I'll try asking anyway:
I wasn't sure about my translation of むかしっからなァ. In particular why there is a っ in it.


texts:
In my limited exposure to 尊敬語【そんけいご】 and 謙譲語【けんじょうご】, I feel like I've only really seen them used in their normal -ます forms and never in て form or conjugated such as a -たい form. Are honorific and humble verbs not typically used in conjugated forms like these? If I wanted to write a more extended sentence, would it be better to use normal verbs up until the end and finish with a 尊敬語【そんけいご】 or 謙譲語【けんじょうご】 verb?

EDIT: To be a little more clear about what I mean, could you do the following?

  Ex. To say "I called X and went home." - Xさんに連絡いたして、お帰りしました。
  or
  Ex. To say "I wanted to greet you." - 挨拶を致したかったです。

Are these valid sentences or is that not how 尊敬語【そんけいご】 and 謙譲語【けんじょうご】 are used?


texts:
I tried looking up a similar example to this sentence, but i couldn't:
図鑑読んで出直してきな . this isn't the whole sentence, the first part ends with たら conditional.


texts:
How should I determine which place I need to locate 「数詞{すうし}　+ も」? From my text book example:

  1: 毎年{まいとし}何百枚{なんびゃくまい}も年賀状{ねんがじょう}を出{だ}します

数詞も is now located in front of the noun 年賀状.

  2: 卵{たまご}を六{むっ}つも食{た}べた

Now 数詞も is located in front of the verb 食べた. I'm getting quite confused with this.


texts:
ゲームの歴史それははるか5,000年の昔古代エジプトにまでさかのぼるという｡

Well, I can understand some parts of it (which I put in bold):

ゲームの歴史: game history.
5,000年の昔: 5000 years ago.
古代エジプト: ancient Egypt.
さかのぼる: go up.

But the meaning of it seems unreachable to me. :(
I've researched in websites like: jgram, imabi, renshuu.org. But I haven't had luck. It feels like the structures I do study are never seen in authentic language use, hahaha.
This text is the opening of the first Yu-Gi-Oh episode.

Could somebody help me make sense of the elements of this sentence?


texts: Distinguishing polite form and potential form in speech

texts:
Not sure if this question is opinion based, but I think it's worth trying to ask.
Can native/fluent speakers easily distinguish the sound difference between the polite and potential forms of a verb in normal speech e.g. 行きます versus 行けます?
Is it perhaps the change of particle from を to が or the context the conversation that helps to determine the meaning rather than the pronunciation of the verb? Are there ever situations where this is confusing and you have to ask the speaker to repeat or rephrase what they said?


texts: Negative adjectives + です vs adjective + ではありません

texts:
For example, to translate :

  This dog is not cute.

We can use :

  この犬{いぬ}は可愛{かわい}くないです。

or :

  この犬{いぬ}は可愛{かわい}いではありません。

Is there a difference between those two sentences? Are there conditions to use the former instead of the latter, or vice versa?


texts:
As per a "中学{ちゅうがく}漢字{かんじ}ドリル" textbook used by native speaker students in Japan, this is the 音訓 readings specified for "肉" and "皿":

肉
音：  ニク
訓：　none given

皿
音：　none given
訓：　さら

Yet, at denshi.org this is the information provided:  肉、皿。

So, I trust my textbook. Native speakers get to decide the specs of their own language. But, I'd still like to double check this. In fact, I don't ever want to use denshi.org again. A native speaker I trust says the site is managed by non-native speakers. I continue to use it only because it gives we quick response times (and out of habit).

(1) what is going on with those readings 肉 and 皿? Which source is wrong?

(2) what is the official character dictionary that native speaker scholars use? A name, and a link, would be very useful to me.


texts:
I just come across these two words used to describe "home rental". However, I want to know the difference between these two words and whether they can be used interchangeably.

My understanding is that

家賃 can be used to refer to:

To let
The rent (money)

借家 refers to the house being rented.


texts: Did the Japanese have a concept of "Asia" apart from the Eurocentric definition?

texts: Japan had contact with China, India and the Mongols, among others. Is there a term they used for Asia (in the sense of "land mass where China is" or such) before "アジア"?


texts: 分{わ}かる vs. 分{わ}かっている

texts:
What's the difference between 分かる and 分かっている?

Based on my experience and this answer on HiNative, I assume 分かっている means something more like "I already know that (so you don't have to tell me)" and 分かる means that you understand it in a general sense.

But I wonder if there are any times when those two are interchangeable. After all, to me it seems that not only 分かっている suggests that you already understood something, but 分かる as well.

For example, both 「もう分かる」 and 「もう分かっている」 can be said, right?


texts: Is 生まれてくる an active thing, and how to translate it?

texts:
For the birth of our son, we received a very nice card saying:

  うまれてきてくれて
  ありがとう

While I entirely understand what it says, it seems impossible to express that exact meaning with the same nuance in another language like English. "To be born" is a passive thing, but 生まれてきて sounds like an active thing the baby did. How to reconcile that?


texts:
さて本日より貴様らに新たな命令が下されるわけだが
  "Now then, today I’m going to give you new orders"

I don’t get why the 貴様 is being targeted by the action. Shouldn’t they be doing the action instead?

For example,

  お前たちに蹴られた
  I was kicked by you guys

The に here indicates that お前たち is the one doing the action and the subject of the sentence (which is omitted) is the one receiving the action.

Let’s try a simpler sentence

  お前に命令が下される
  (私は)お前に命令 が下される

Shouldn’t this mean “I am given orders by you.”? But according to my initial sentence this would come out as “I am giving you orders”.

Does the に here indicate “to you” instead of “by you”? Or does the が somehow influences something?

Also if I were to rephrase this one

  お前たちに足が蹴られる

Would this come out as "I am kicking your legs"?

Once again, how does the に function here?


texts: What does のかもな mean at the end of a sentence?

texts:
I played a game (visual novel for PS2) in Japanese. And I came across this sentence:

  でも、あの時の俺は、本当は違ったのかもな。。。

And I was wondering what the part after 違う(ちがう）means. I guess, that の may change it into a noun, but I am not sure at all.


texts: Are there really 200 000 maids in one building?

texts:
Text:

  同じ頃のとある日曜日、20万の「メイド」と呼ばれる外国人家事労働者が働く香港のあるビルの一部屋では、演劇ワークショップを行うフィリピン人家事労働者たちの姿があった.

My translation:

  Around the same time on a Sunday, 200000 'maids' - what foreign domestic house labourers are called - work in one room in a Hong Kong building. Filopino domestic house labourers who perform a stage workshop can be seen.

There's something wrong with my translation but I can't pick it up. Are there really 200 000 maids in one building or one in each building? Can someone help me tell me why I'm wrong? And what a good translation would be?


texts: Is マネージャー suitable when describing a manager working in a large business?

texts:
In Fluent Forever's Awesome Word List, マネージャー is used to describe a manager in a bank or similar organisation.

However, doing a search with the basic version of google image search mainly got middle-aged women wearing sporting gear. jisho.org gave me a couple of meanings, a manager of a business, an idol, etc, or someone who does boring work for a sports team. The Wikipedia article マネージャー mainly emphasised meanings outside of a manager at a large organisation. For example, some of the meanings corresponded to an individual who managed a single person in entertainment or sport.

However, the word hasn't been mentioned by anyone in a forum thread about the Awesome Word List and suspected errors.

Is マネージャー a suitable word to describe a manager in a large business?


texts: flexibility of meaning between 恋に破れる vs 血に飽きた

texts:
A more specific question regarding a reply i got from a more long winded question. Hopefully i can expand this to other situations.

  Aくんも私と同じように、恋に破れて泣く日が来るんだろうか

  ～に破れる means either "to be defeated by ～" or "to be heartbroken
  regarding ～" depending on the context.

  A-kun just like me, is "broken due to" love, ....

compared something such as

血に飽きたときは、まぁ……これで代用できなくもないわね (as a vampire)

During times when i'm "tired of" blood, ...

If I were to rewrite this as:

  Aくんも私と同じように, 血に飽きて戦い続けてはいられない.

  A-kun just like me, has had enough due to the blood, ...

or is

"A-kun just like me, is tired of the blood, ..." the only way to read it?

Similarly, why can't you read  Aくんも私と同じように、恋に破れて泣く日が来るんだろうか as

"A-kun just like me, his love(relationship) is broken, ....

why or why not?

thank you


texts:
What is the difference in nuance between:

  (1) 今は、私にとっては大学卒業式に最も近い経験ということになっている。

and

  (2) 今は、私にとっては大学卒業式に最も近い経験になっている。

Personally, I'd always say #2. Is there a context when #2 is absolutely wrong? too unnatural?


texts: Nuance between いっとき and いちじ as a pronunciation of 一時

texts:
I am writing a flashcards deck to memorize Minato-ku's list of 防災-related words.
Excerpt:

一時集合場所  いっときしゅうごうばしょ  Temporary meeting places
一時滞在施設  いちじたいざいしせつ　　  Temporary stay facilities

As you see, one says 一時 as いっとき and the other one as いちじ.

This is an official document, so I don't think it is a case of "use the one you like it is exactly the same". Other official documents mark the exact same difference, for instance here is the yellow 東京防災 book sent to all families in Tokyo:

So, what is the nuance difference between いっとき and いちじ ?
Real-life examples appreciated, references would be wonderful.


texts:
From what I've read, からいって means "considering this..."

  人気や知名度からいって、彼が選挙で当選するのは確実だろう。

But when you add "と" to form "からといって" it becomes "even though..."

  すぐにメールの返事が来ないからといって、心配することはないと思う。

How does "と" change the meaning of the phrase? Or is it something that has no explanation and simply works this way?


texts: What is the meaning of using でば to end a sentence?

texts: I've recently heard a number of sentences where でば is used at the end, seemingly to convince the listener of something. Google has failed me for the most part, aside from one article about particles in Chinese that mentions both "de" and "ba" as mid-sentence particles (I'll post a link if i can find it again), but naturally I'd rather an explanation that actually applies to Japanese.


texts: formality issues regarding the 「調子はどうだい？」 greeting

texts:
(1) ”元気なの?” and "調子はどうだい？" are pretty much equivalent in meaning and formality, right? The ”元気なの?” being a little feminine because of the "なの"? And, "調子はどうだい？" is rarely / never used by native speakers? I don't think I've ever heard it used.

(2) "調子はどうだい？" is just an informal way to say "調子はどうですか？", right?

(3) Can I up the formality of 「調子はどうですか？」? Perhaps:
"ご調子は、どうですか？"
"ご調子は、いかがですか？" // <--- best?
"ご調子は、おいかがですか？"
"ご調子は、どうなさっていますか？"

(4) When I am greeting someone in a business setting, can I pop-off a:
"ご調子は、いかがですか？"
and not have the native speaker think that I sound weird? Rather, I'd want him/her to think I sound different, but not weird.

thanks.


texts: how to say "follow up appointment" in Japanese

texts: I have been trying to find the correct way to say 'follow up appointment' in Japanese. I have to go to the dermatologist for a follow up appointment and I am unsure what to say to the receptionist. I understand 予約 is 'appointment', what can I say for follow up appointment?


texts:
I'm quite familiar with the different uses of the particles に and　で. However, right now I'm stuck, because I want to say the following in Japanese, and as I understand it, either one of these particles could provide the appropriate adverbial meaning if attached to the end of 楽しみ.

I would like to say in Japanese:

I will explain [i.e., make an explanation] it [to you] with pleasure.

Which one of the following is correct?

楽しみに説明します。　or   楽しみで説明します。


texts:
Working in a Japanese based company I often see that in written English which is (directly or indirectly) addressed to Japanese the suffix -san is attached to names.

With some basic knowledge of Japanese I have some understanding how -さん is used in Japanese. Having in mind that it would seem unnatural for me to encounter Herr Müller instead of Mr. Müller in an English text I am wondering how natural it is for a Japanese to see -san being used in an English conversation a) attached to a (romanized) Japanese name or b) attached to an English/German/... name.

I hope this question will not be marked as opinion-based because I am actually interested in a general answer to help improve my conversation with Japanese people.


texts: Japanese word for "savage" (modern usage)

texts:
I am trying to translate some dialogue in which one person calls another "savage", in the modern sense of 'brutally direct and merciless in criticism, humor, or behavior.' My question is: is there a Japanese word that corresponds to this modern usage, and if not, what would be the best way to translate this?

So far, I have only been able to find words in Japanese corresponding to "savage = barbarian" (which is a dead end) and "savage = brutal" in the literal sense, but I have no idea whether the meaning carries over with any of these terms (source: jisho.org):

惨い {むごい} = "cruel; merciless; pitiless; brutal; atrocious; inhuman"
残忍酷薄 {ざんにんこくはく} = "cruel; brutal; atrocious; merciless"
残忍非道 {ざんにんひじょう} = "cruel and inhuman; brutal; merciless"
残忍冷酷 {ざんにんれいこく} = "atrocious and cold-blooded; cruel; brutal; merciless"
酷薄 {こくはく} = "cruel; inhumane; callous; brutal"
猛悪 {もうあく} = "savage; ferocious; atrocious"

As far as I can tell, these terms all refer to the more violent (original) meaning of the word.

The closest match that I have been able to find so far (as far as I can tell) is 容赦のない {ようしゃのない} "relentless, stern" from weblio.jp, but I am not sure whether that is the best translation possible.


texts:
I am making a Japanese verb conjugation app and can not seem to find the Japanese equivalent of "Progressive Form"

For example

辞書形 = dictionary form
命令形 = imperative form
可能形 = potential form

etc.

what is "progressive form" in japanese?
What term is used by Japanese textbooks?


texts: The potential form 思う and 思える are two different things?

texts:
The potential form of 思う is 思える. If 思う is "to think", then 思える is "can think", right?

Well... at tangorin.com 思える is translated as "to seem" and "to appear likely". So 思える is different verb or there is a translation problem here?

Thank you.


texts: Is it allowed for しち reading of 7 to be used in compound numbers?

texts: I thought that [七]{しち} (7) and [九]{く} (9) readings could not be used in constructing compound numbers, like 71 or 19, and unlike their alternative readings, [七]{なな} (7) and [九]{きゅう} (9), can only be used for numbers 7 and 9. But now I noticed that both readings of 7, [七]{しち} and [七]{なな}, can describe 17th and 27th day of month. What's more, only [九]{く} (9), not [九]{きゅう}, is used to describe 19th day of month. What am I getting wrong?


texts: How to apply more than one adverb to a verb

texts:
無料か安いお金で食べることができます。
  You can eat for free or with cheap money/cheaply.

I'm finding 安いお金 a bit strange. If I wanted to say "You can eat for free", I'd write:

  無料で食べることができます。

If I wanted to say "You can eat cheaply", I'd write:

  安く食べることができます。

Are these both correct?

安いお金で reads to me like "with cheap money". I'm guessing you have to do this because

  無料でか安く食べることができます。

is ungrammatical (at least it looks ungrammatical to me). It's hard for me to see how you would get from 安く食べる to 安いお金で食べる. Is there are more general grammatical transformation going on here, or is it just specific to this example. If there's a more general principle, could you give some other examples please?

Maybe my most general question is how do you say

  (adverb A) or (adverb B) verb  e.g.
  Run quickly or slowly (you'll still get there in the end).

or maybe that's totally unrelated to the problem above. Sorry for rambling.


texts: How do you say "if and only if" in Japanese?

texts:
I would like to know how to express mandatory conditions in Japanese. Since Japanese distinguishes between different types of languages, I should probably ask more precisely:

What is the right way to express equivalence statements (the kind a mathematician might make) such as "The equation is satisfied if and only if a>b"?

How do you express that you're going to do or that something will happen, only if some condition is satisfied? ("I'll only go if you buy me an ice.", "The plant will only grow if it is watered regularly.")


texts:
I've always wondered why「ん」is the only kana without having a vowel sound attached to it. The only thing I've ever heard is that 「ん」 is a special kana that can be the last kana in some words.

I've also heard something about a discrepancy between ん and む regarding 変体仮名. Does this factor into the reason at all?


texts: meanings of 曖昧{あいまい} between Japanese and Chinese

texts:
曖昧{あいまい} is a shared term between Japanese and Chinese.

As far as I know, they can both mean vague, ambiguous, obscure, or something that cannot be published into light.

But there's another meaning I haven't often seen in Japanese, but in Chinese:

  A special association, friendship or status between boy and girl. They
  may feel more than or not only friends but not so sure about it.

To be more specific, in Chinese, 曖昧(的關係) the words inside brackets can be completely ignored and has this meaning.

But for Japanese, does Japanese have this meaning without brackets 曖昧{あいまい}(な関係{かんけい}) ? In daily use, will Japanese native speakers think of or associate to this meaning?


texts: 油断させる, who is being careless/unprepared?

texts:
In 暗殺教室 chapter 3, the students try to assassinate the teacher and fail and the teacher remarks:

  笑顔が少々わざとらしい
  油断させるには足りませんね

But im a bit confused about whether 油断 here refers to the students carelessness about hiding their true intentions ("such carelessness will not be enoughj (to catch me)") or if it refers to the teacher's own carelessness/unpreparedness.

I think since that the subject seems to be the students that 油断させる would then refer to the teacher's own unpreparedness, but i'm not 100%


texts:
I've come across two similar examples of a usage of の I am not familiar with.

彼は運のいい男だ
意志の強い人だ

I kinda understand how it is supposed to work but feel like I could parse it better if I were to hear how they are supposed to be broken up mentally.

Like this （運のいい）男 OR like this 運の(いい男)

In other words... I want to know if it is saying that he is a man of good fortune or saying that is is a man good of fortune.

ALSO:
How often does this come up? Is it any different in meaning to 運がいい男だ? Is it more polite or something?


texts: Which particle(s) can be used to list nominalised verbs?

texts:
Here's the sentence I'm trying to express in Japanese.
"I have changed my life, I've become a cheerful person, all because of him!"

And this is how I would translate it.
僕の人生が変わったのや、明るい人になったのは、全部彼のおかげなんだ！

Am I using the right particles? My intuition says that the sentence is wrong.


texts: 使ってみなさい, and 使っても意味のない場所

texts:
After a brief hiatus I'm getting back into my Japanese study. I've hit a roadblock straight away ;-)
I am having trouble with the use of '使ってみなさい' here. I don't think I've seen it before. -なさい means "please don't do ".
Then the sentence after that, I am confused by the use of 'ない’.
Could somebody help me with the translation please?
(context: Zelda guide book talking about using new items that you find)

ちなみに宝箱やツボの中から入手できる矢束、爆弾などは、「その場で使ってみなさい」という、さりげないヒントであることが多い。
(By the way, inside treasure chests and jars you can get arrows, bombs etc. [that place please don’t see and use ] there are many casual hints。)
使っても意味のない場所やタイミングでアイテムが手に入ることはないのだ。

I'm sure it ends with saying "there is no need to obtain items" but that makes little sense. The beginning of the sentence is confusing to me, I cannot even guess at what it is trying to say. The meaning of [their] use... not at this place?
Really struggling...


texts: trouble understanding phrase 設定のイメージに近い仕上がり

texts:
I'm having trouble with the following passage in the sentence below.

設定のイメージに近い仕上がり

Google translate gives me "a finish close to the image of the setting".

I've tried looking up 近い仕上がり and it gives me something like "to the point of" or "near ____ quality", but up I'm still unsure of 設定のイメージ. Does it mean something like "visual scenario" or more generally "visual diorama (out of your favourite anime or manga)". Maybe image has a different nuance meaning in Japanese?

Here is the full sentence below

キットのランナーは6色成型。また、フェイスパーツや瞳パーツなどの合計11パーツが塗装済みの仕様で、組み立てただけでも設定のイメージに近い仕上がりをお楽しみいただけます


texts: How do you say "once every x days/weeks/etc"?

texts: Could anyone help me with this translation? I think once per week is "shuu ichi" but with days in particular I really don't remember how to say it.


texts:
Among these phrases which is the correct one?

  今日は雨が降るかな

or

  今日は雨が降るだろう／でしょう


texts:
I'm not interested in translateling just the literal meaning of FYI. I'm interested in if there is a phrase that fits the same nuance.
Some English examples.
To Spouse: "Oh, FYI, Jill is bringing the wine".
To Co-Worker: "FYI, that meeting has been moved to 4pm"
To A Friend: "FYI, the Toyoko-Line is closed for repairs so you should probably take the Meguro-Line"
"FYI" is a very casual phrase in the situations above.  Maybe "ところで。。。。”? Although I don't know if you can use "ところで。。。” at the start of the conversation. Every example I've been taught is always in the middle of a conversation when wanting to suddenly switch topics.
I came here because I typed "FYI" into Google translate and it said "ご参考までに” was the "community verified" translation but that seems not to fit the same nuance as FYI.


texts: のんびり vs ゆっくり vs くつろぐ

texts:
どのように使って
どう違いますか？

I do not know how difference this meanings and how can i use in what situations ?


texts:
Edit: This question has been reworded as much as possible from the original to try to make it a question about Japanese. Also, adding the IME単漢字辞書 fixed the IME problem (thanks to Tsuyoshi Ito for pointing that out). Quote about 単漢字辞書: Microsoft IME単漢字辞書には、マクロソフトで読みが確認できたJIS第三・第四水準漢字が登録されています. However, it looks like 鎗 is part of JIS第一水準漢字, so I still don't understand that part.

If I look in the dictionary, やり has three versions: 槍／鎗／鑓 (I understand they are not standard).

When I type やり, my windows IME shows me the following:

Question

Why is 鎗 not on the list? It seems 鎗 is considered to be different than 槍 and 鑓. What is special about the character 鎗?

CLARIFICATION ON ENCODINGS AND IME DICTIONARIES

MS IMEs 標準辞書 is based on jis x 0208 which includes JIS第1水準漢字 and JIS第2水準漢字. 鎗 is part of JIS第1水準 and this is why it comes out why you type そう with the default dictionary on MS IME. 単漢字辞書 is a separate dictionary based on JIS X 0213 which includes 第3水準漢字 and 第4水準漢字, if you add it, it shows 鎗 in the 変換リスト when you type やり. Now, why exactly this behavior occurs to me is a mystery (perhaps its just a bug), but I know that other dictionaries for other non-microsoft IMEs do not exhibit this behavior. I am assuming this is because they include all characters in the BMP and do not divide things up according to shift-jis taxonomy. Also, perhaps the dictionary implementors decided that 鎗 is 異体字, so they left it out.


texts:
みなさん、夏休みのすごし方で注意することを発表して下さい。
  Everyone, please present the things you would advise for ways to spend the summer holidays.

I often get confused with the meaning of 注意. Given that 注意 can also mean 'warn/caution' etc. I assumed that when it means 'advice' it is in the sense of 'if you don't take my advice it would be a poor decision'. But, this sentence just seems to be asking for suggestions on nice ways to spend the summer holidays. Have I misunderstood the sentence? What does 注意 actually mean?


texts: Mostly why 細 is read じ? In every list I looked up 細 can only be read サイ and 亜細亜 is never referenced as 難読 in the entries (about 細) I looked up. What was the reason to pick 細 for the じ sound? Can we see 細 as じ in other 当て字?


texts: What is the meaning of いくらもしないうちに from Spice and Wolf?

texts:
I have been reading Spice and Wolf with relative ease. Alas, I understand everything in the following phrase

  ヤレイと酒が飲めないことは残念だったが、どの道ホロが出ればいくらもしないうちに部外者を追い出して祭りは佳境に入る。

except for (most especially the bolded) "どの道ホロが出ればいくらもしないうちに"

How does one go about thinking through this phrase?


texts:
I ran into this japanese medical site. http://www.kojinkai.or.jp/msc/outpatient-selfcheck18.html

The title "意識が遠くなる" stumps me. Best I can guess is "Consciousness is fading." Is that right? "Consciousness becomes far." sounds weird.


texts:
今回は、町の主だった幹部は、全員顔を揃えていた。

How would you read 主 here? And does 町の主だった幹部 mean "the main leaders of the town"?


texts:
I'm a bit confuse while trying to read a few sentences.

離れて見ると、彼は実際よりずっと若く見える。(離れる + 見る）(I understand the first phrase mean "from distance view")
相手の名前をなかなか思い出すことができなくて困った (this is either "2 verbs link together "できる + 困る or the "て" here mean "when/because" and not a modifier for "困った")

So i translate the 2nd sentence into this:

=> It's troublesome when cannot remember your partner's name (i think this one is correct)
=> It's cannot be trouble ... (this sound so wrong)

I only learned that "て" mean "when/because" when you use it with a comma to separate 2 sentences.

eg: 事故があって、バスが遅れてしまいました。

I feel like I'm missing somethings during my Japanese's studying progress.. Is this a grammar structure or is there a way to call this type of combination ?

Thank you, sorry for my noobness !


texts: Most natural way to use the negative with つもり

texts:
Which is more natural to say in Japanese? Do they have slightly different connotations?

食べないつもりです。 (I intend not to eat.)
食べるつもりはないです。 (I do not intend to eat.)

Also, are those translations fairly accurate?


texts: I am interested in the literal meaning of くすぐったい. If くすぐったい is equivalent to the English expression, "That tickles!" (said by someone being tickled), what is the literal meaning of this word? If it is an adjective stemming from the verb くすぐる, would it literally mean "I want to tickle!"? Is there a logic behind the use of the -tai form adjective ( expressing desire ) that I am not getting?


texts: When should one add さん at the end of a name?

texts: I've heard some names pronounced with 〜さん added to them (such as 佐々木さん) and some without it.　I believe it is related to respect or the age of the person named. What would be the guidelines or general principles to follow regarding 〜さん?


texts: The French language, furansugo vs futsugo

texts:
I've always used ''furansugo'' to express the French language.

But I've noticed another word, namely ''futsugo'' which also means French.

My guess is that ''furansugo'' is used in normal speech whereas ''futsugo'' is only used in very formal speech.

Any insight into these two words?

When do I use each and is one older than the other?


texts: are there any concrete rules for using いっぱい　たくさん　and よく？

texts:
Of course I can use these but sometimes I am corrected by Japanese people when I use them in the wrong circumstance.

For example,

「よくしってるやん」 = "You know it quite well don't you!"
「よくいきます」＝ "I go (there) a lot"
「皿がたくさんあります」=　there are a lot of plates
「人がいっぱいいる」=  there are lots of people

Just wondering if anybody has any concrete rules that I can follow so that I don't make any (or as many) mistakes in the future.


texts: What's the difference between まで and までに?

texts:
I'm studying for N3 Japanese test. I'm stuck in a sentence of an exercise in which is written

  帰国{きこく}するまでになんとか日本語{にほんご}を習得{しゅうとく}したい。

Why is it wrong to say

  帰国するまでなんとか日本語を習得したい。?

I really don't get it, if someone could teach me the difference I would be really happy. Thanks!


texts: Question about だれが「おまえを好きだ」と言った

texts:
As it was discussed here, the particle を may sometimes be placed in front of 好き as long as the main verb of the sentense does not take anything else to be its を.

  だれがおまえを好きだと言った。

My question is whether I can view this as

  だれがおまえを「好きだ」と　言った。

with the おまえを part outside the quotation, and corresponding to "did anyone say to you / tell you << .... >>". Does the verb 言う ever attach an を to itself, or if it does, is it different to this?

I hope I am clear with my question ^^'


texts: Difference between intransitive and passive?

texts:
I was thinking about Japanese passive and made the following example

壊すー>壊される which means to be broken

But looking at the English definition of "to be broken", isn't there another Japanese word for that being, 壊れる？ How are these two different in meaning and use, and are the differences the same in all verbs that can act like that, e.g 汚される and 汚れる？

Thanks!


texts:
I found a difficulty to determine the scope of modifiers in long sentences. To make it clearer, see the following sentences. My translation may be wrong.

Sentence 1

  新しい工場を建てるに当たって（は）、環境への影響などを調べ、地域の人々と話し合う機会を持つ必要がある。

  Prior to building a new factory, it is necessary to have an opportunity to

  investigate things like its effect on environment, and
  speak with the people in that region.

Here I assume that 環境への影響などを調べ、地域の人々と話し合う is the modifier of 機会.

Sentence 2

  進学に当たって（は）、学校を見学したり、先輩に話を聞いたり、先生に相談したりして、できるだけ選択肢を広げて考えることが重要だ。

  Prior to entering a higher school, the necessary things are

  to do things like observing the school, listening to stories from seniors, discussing with teachers,
  to widen the alternatives as much as possible, and
  to think.

Here I assume that 学校を見学したり、先輩に話を聞いたり、先生に相談したりして、できるだけ選択肢を広げて考える is the modifier of こと.

Questions

How to determine the scope of modifiers in  long sentences?


texts:
I don't really get the meaning of this line 'すれ違う赤の軌道'
Could it mean 'Crimson path crossed' or 'The crimson path i crossed' ?


texts:
There is a grammar rule in DoBJG which looks like ◎ことは◎, where both ◎ are the same verbs (or adjectives). But there is no examples with する-verbs in this book.

Which one is correct?

私は日本語を勉強することは勉強しましたが不合格でした。
私は日本語を勉強することはしましたが不合格でした。

If none, how should I construct a sentence using said grammar?


texts:
ちょっと忘れ物を届けてくるから、待ってて。

This て in bold, what does it express?
I'd translate the sentence like this:
"Because I just deliver lost articles, wait."
I can only think of the imperative making sense here, but I still don't know what this additional て does.


texts: It seems too formal for casual use, but too casual for formal use. In what sort of situation would anyone use あたくし?


texts: I'm having trouble translating this sentence

texts:
By now I can usually understand even small texts, but I am having trouble translating this one sentence. I think it hast to do with wrong parsing.

彼が注目を浴びるのを避けたということは、人々が知っておくべきだと私が思うほどには、彼について知らない、ということでもあります。

My attempt:
The fact the he tries to avoid attention is that, The more I think I come to the conclusion that people must know it, because they don't actually know about him.

彼が注目を浴びるのを避けたということは The fact the he tries to avoid attention is that
人々が知っておくべきだと私が思うほどには The more I think I come to the conclusion that people must know it
彼について知らない、ということでもあります because they don't actually know about him.

This sentence for some reason is very confusing for me, what you think of my translation?
Thanks!


texts: What is the proper Japanese word for the germ theory of disease?

texts: I was looking for a Japanese word for the germ theory of disease. I found an article in the Japanese Wikipedia that uses the word 細菌説{さいきんせつ} for what essentially is the germ theory. Is it the correct word or there is some other alternative?


texts:
I found this line in the song,”三年目の浮気”:

  よくいうよ 惚れたお前の負けだよ
  How can you say that...you fell for me and lost

At first I thought it was the よく meaning often, but someone told me it was an abbreviation of よくも (善くも), which is translated as "How dare you?"
If this is true, why does 善くも mean this?

If this is not the case, what does the よくいう mean here?

Here are some of the other lyrics:

  (男)馬鹿いってんじゃないよ お前と俺は
  ケンカもしたけど ひとつ屋根の下暮らして来たんだぜ

  Don't talk like that...
  Yes we fought, but we've been living under the same roof.

  馬鹿いってんじゃないよ お前のことだけは
  一日たりとも忘れたことなど なかった俺だぜ

  Don't say such things...
  It's not like there has been even one day where I forgot you.

  (女)よくいうわ いつもだましてばかりで
  私が何んにも知らないとでも 思っているのね

  What are you saying?.. you're always deceiving me...
  And you think that I don't know?

  (男)よくいうよ 惚れたお前の負けだよ

  What are you saying?.. you fell for me and lost

  もてない男が好きなら 俺も考えなおすぜ

  If you really liked guys who saw no action, I'd have to think you over too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgBvi-cZbJM


texts: Does the Japanese word for "love" have different connotations than it does in America?

texts:
I've been watching a lot of anime lately, and in nearly all the anime where a character proclaims that they "love" another character, I am confident that an American in the same situation would say they have a crush on someone or that they "like" someone, rather than "love".

I doubt this is a simple translation mistake, as it's consistently occurred in at least a dozen different anime.

So, in Japan, can "love" mean something slightly different, maybe something along the lines of "I'm attracted to you and I want to become closer to you"?


texts: Ambiguity in giving suggesting and asking for suggestions?

texts:
When giving/asking for advice using a conditional (Such as たら) can there be ambiguity as to if the speaker is giving or asking for advice?

For example

  1.) アルバイトを探したらいいですか？

Could the above sentence share the dual meaning of "Should I look for a part time job?" (Asking for advice) and "How about you look for a part time job?" (Giving advice) while leaving the actual interpretation to the context of the conversation? Or do they just simply mean one or the other?

  2.) アルバイトを探したらいいですよ

I'm assuming changing the sentence final particle to よ like in the sentence above would clear up this ambiguity by making the suggestion obvious and blunt is this correct?

  3.) アルバイトを探したらどうですか？

  4.) アルバイトを探したら？

Also, is there ambiguity when following the conditional with a question word (I.E.どう) or simply ending with たら and a questioning intonation?


texts: Diffeence between てばかり(は/も)いられない and てはいられない

texts:
I would like to know the difference and usage (frequency, oral/written) for てばかりはいられない with regards to てはいられない

Both seem to be pretty close:

  人生そんなに長くないのだから待ってばかりはいられない。 Life is short so I can’t wait forever.

  どんなに辛くても、泣いてばかりもいられない。 No matter how tough it is, I can’t keep crying.

  明日は早く起きるので、いつものように遅くまでテレビを見てはいられない。I have to wake up early tomorrow, so I can’t watch TV until late as usual.


texts: Does anybody know anything about astrology to figure out what 優先度 has to do with the following sentence?

texts:
https://cocoloni.jp/fortune/1362383/
英国占星術で占う「あの人の今、あなたに対する優先度」【無料占い】
I think its trying to ask, "How important is this persons whereabouts in regards to your priority" or
"His priority of you for now." or "Where does this person place you in regards to your priorities? Who on earth can correctly figure this out? I mean, this sentence can mean 1 of a thousand different things...
All I know is that the below definitely means:
『あの人の今！？』"Where are they now?"


texts:
Sentence taken from this question：

  「そうねぇ、私も考えていたのよ。捨ててしまうんなら取っておいたらどうかしらって。」
  "Yeah, right. I , too, was thinking that it would (probably) be just as good to keep it as to throw it away." (translation thanks to l'electeur)

I'm more interested in the part in bold. I'm very confused by this double conditional construction AならBたらどうかしら. Literally I'd translate this as "If you were to end up throwing it away, I wonder how it would be if you kept hold of it". Whilst my translation is clearly gibberish, I can see how it might turn into the good translation, but only because I've seen the good translation. I certainly couldn't have worked that out for myself.

Could you provide some clarification (perhaps with simpler examples) on how to parse this sentence and on how the grammar works here?


texts: Why do we use 楽しめそう and 楽しみ rather than 楽しい・楽しそう in these sentences?

texts:
Could someone explain why we use 楽しめそう instead of 楽しそう in the first sentence and what exactly 楽しみ means and why?

(The translations are my best guess at what the sentences might mean.)

  この本は高いことは高いが、写真が多くて楽しめそうだ。
  It is true this book is expensive but it has lots of photos and looks like fun.

  子供を育てるのは大変なことは大変だが、成長が楽しみで大変さを忘れる。
  Bringing up children is hard work terrible but you forget that because you look forward to when they grow up.


texts: Is usage of ように appropritate in "Offer to do something"?

texts: One of the options in LastPass.com is "Offer to generate a secure password". In Japanese version it is translated as "安全なパスワードを生成するように提案". Is the usage of ように here delivers the meaning of "offer to do something"? Would it be more accurate to translate it as "安全なパスワードを生成することを提案する"?


texts: What is a good idiom for 'not being invested'?

texts:
In English there are a few idioms that are variants on the phrase,

  I don't really have a horse in this race, so...

which essentially means "I'm not invested in the outcome of the current debate/issue/conflict."

It's not difficult to imagine a non-idiomatic translation like 「結果はどうあれ、私には関係ない」, but that is pretty direct and lacks the softer indirectness of the original idiom.

What equivalent idioms exist in Japanese to choose from for this?


texts: Use of non-polite form between Japanese companies

texts:
I'm reading the novel 下町ロケット now and one part that really surprised me is when several of the members from one company speak to members of the other company without using 敬語 (for example "やめた方がいいよ”).

The overall context is that one company is being forced to use the other company's technology because the second company patented the technology first. They are in the process of running tests against the part (a valve) and want to see it fail so they can barter to just pay the patent fees and use their own technology.

I know that using non-polite forms to someone on a 'lower' level of the same company is common, but I thought that between companies polite language was almost always used.

Is this dialog exaggerated for effect, or does this really happen in real Japanese business interactions?

Edit:  With regards to broccoli forest marking this as a possible duplicate: While the referenced post is informative on its own and is about the same novel, it doesn't answer my question of how common this sort of thing actually occurs in real life. Also in the dialog I was reading there was neither 丁寧語 nor 尊敬語 (it was with a different company [帝国重工] than the one referred to in that post).

I know that speaking in non-polite Japanese can be considered rude, but I want to know how a realistic depiction that is compared vs. an over-dramatic one. Basically I'd like to ask: is this something I would ever experience in real life, in particular with regard to two companies in a business relationship?


texts:
I used to always use 訂正{ていせい} rather than 添削{てんさく} to mean "correction", but recently I haven't really seen 訂正 being used. When used in the context of correcting English translations etc, it seems to me 添削 is used almost exclusively.

What is the difference in nuance between these two words?


texts: Where did the terms 「口ばっか大臣」「口だけ大臣」come from?

texts:
I just heard the term 「口ばっか大臣」in『荒ぶる季節の乙女どもよ』. Story

菅原：体だけで見られてたって…今はかまわないです。だって…性欲と感情は切り離せないものだから
和紗：ちょ…ちょっと待って！男子は性欲と感情を切り離して考えるって、菅原氏言ってた！確かに言ってた！
菅原：だから、私は口ばっか大臣だったの

It seems another similar term「口だけ大臣」is also in use. I may be under the wrong impression they were idiomatic phrases. Are these terms idiomatic? If they are where did these terms come from? Who were the terms first used to talk about?
Twitter has a lot of similar tags pointing to 安倍晋三 (examples: 1, 2), which is understandable since he is the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history and the most recent ex-prime minister. But some online articles seem to point to 西村康稔.
But if this is just an idiosyncratic expression, why does she say 「大臣」? Is it a (obscure) historical reference?


texts: The verb after conjugation in たり compound sentence, is still a verb? And if so, why is it despite する being the verb？

texts:
雨の日は滑ったり、転んだりする。

If する is the verb, then what is the role of the 転んだり in the grammatical sense? I understand that it is a verb which is transformed into 転んだり in a compound sentence but is it still considered a verb?


texts: How would you write/pronounce the Japanese version of the following Chinese name?

texts:
This is the name: 陳威穎 (Chen Wei-Ying).

I've always been curious about this topic because Japanese names are written in Kanji. However, they usually have 4 characters.

So I wonder how would that Chinese name above be transformed into Japanese?

I consulted Jisho. And I'm pretty sure 陳 would become Chin.

As for 威穎, I get something not very Japanese sounding on Google Translate: Gi Ei (at least, when referring to Japanese names).

However on Jisho I get:

  たけし 【威】 Given name, gender not specified
  1. Takeshi

  さとし 【穎】 Male given name
  1. Satoshi

So I'm very confused. What the Japanese version of the name is supposed to be? At least, the Japanese-sounding version?

(I'm a bit new to this site so I'm not sure if this question is off-topic. If it is, Sumimasen.)


texts: What is the difference between てくる/ていく and 〜始める/〜続ける?

texts:
In my grammar book, it says that てくる is used in two ways:

1) It is used with verbs that indicate a process that takes time to complete (e.g. 太る ---> 太ってきた = started to gain weight).

What is the difference between this and the 〜masu stem form of a verb + 〜始める? Don't they both mean begin?

2) It is used with a non-punctual verb (I don't know what that is) to indicate a continuation of sth. up to a current point in time e.g. 今までたくさん本を読んできました.

I don't understand the difference between using 読んできました and 読んでいました. In the above sentence, 読みました (read/have read) seems more fitting than either of them (Up to now I have read quite a few books).


texts: I still can't understand how to use でも (and what it's supposed to mean)

texts:
Basically, I still can't really understand how to use でも and how I should translate it.
Before doing the right thing (aka linking me another similar question), please keep in mind that I'm asking this because apparently I couldn't understand with the other examples; I hope this won't be annoying.
I'll introduce the context and then the sentences in which でも has been used by the person I've been talking with:
the context is us, talking about how we're learning languages (I'm learning Japanese, he's learning Italian), he asked how I'm studying Japanese (どうやって) and I've replied that I go to my local JP school once at week, then I asked for how long he's been learning Italian and I got this kind of reply:

たしかに週一だけだと覚えづらいかもです。。。毎日５分でも少ない時間でもやった方がいいですよ！

I can understand the first part of the sentence:

たしかに: obviously/certainly
週一だけだ: just once at week
と覚えづらい: it's a pain to remember (learned づらい from videogames just a week ago; awesome timing ^-^)

While I'm having issues with the grammar (だ after だけ and と before 覚え: is that supposed to be like "I think"?) and (かも before です too, I have no idea about that), which I think it's understandable since I'm not even an N5 yet (we're still stuck with directions in class), I could understand that part of the sentence just by reading it.
The hard part it's that one that comes after:

毎日５分: everyday 5 minutes
でも少ない時間: no idea: as soon as I saw でも plus a negated adjective, my brain stopped working:
でもやった方がいいですよ！: ignoring でも; I would translate it as "it would be better if you did"

Now, I've read some stuff about でも and I usually remember it as "even if": I initially thought his reply was something like "once a week? sure that's bad, but not as 5 minutes everyday!", but then I looked at the sentence and I couldn't find the comparative [より], so I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be the correct translation.
However, going by the "even if" narrative, mixed with his other reply

俺は毎日少ない時間でも毎日やってます！

made me think about another way of translating it:
"it's certainly difficult to remember if you go there once at week, it would be better if you could do it for 5 minutes everyday"
And his other reply as something along the lines of "I don't have time but I do it everyday".
I'm..not really sure though, some of those grammatical forms (especially でも) are completely foreign to me as I'm stuck with the basics right now.
Could anyone help me understand how to translate and use this one?
Thank you very much for reading and for your patience.


texts: How to say "Please correct my sentences"?

texts:
Is it: 文章を治てください？

There are many words for "correct' including 改める, 正す, 訂する, but it's not clear when to use those words or which is "correct" in this context.

Off topic, does anyone know a similar resource to this site for Korean?

Thanks!


texts:
With verbs that don't take に, the matter is simple: わたしは彼に食べてもらった means 'He ate it for me', with a favour being explicit. But how would handles things with verbs that do take に? Would you say わたしには彼に任せてもらった 'He left it to me'? If not, how would you say it?

(Please feel free to edit this question if you feel it is poorly worded.)


texts:
I have noticed a recurring sentence pattern of Xのどこが好き/嫌い e.t.cですか？ meaning what do you like/hate about X. I was just wondering if anyone knows what exact function どこ is performing in this sentence. I think it means something like "What do you like in X" for example:
犬のどこが好きですか？:What do you like in [or perhaps more accurately about] dogs?
Just looking for a little bit more clarification and confirmation of my suspicion. Any help would be much appreciated.


texts: What are the purposes of としたら, とすれば, とすると?

texts:
Taking 3 examples from my textbook:

車を買うとしたらどんなタイプがいいかしら
お友達が来るとすれば５月でしょう
もしハワイに泊まるとすると一晩だけでしょう

What are the differences between using the above versions and using たら, ば, なら, and と? My guess is that using the forms in the example sentences are more emphatic and emphasize the "if" aspect. E.g.

車を買うとしたらどんなタイプがいいかしら
= If I WERE to buy a car, which type would be best?

Right?
Also, I cannot use たら to ask for advice like this, can I?

車を買ったらどんなタイプがいいかしら

What can I use instead?


texts:
This should be a rather straightforward (if a bit specific) bit of translation, but I cannot find a form that makes sense to me and gets corroborated by Google.

How would one translate the typical phrase structure:

  Send him up/over [to the nth floor, to my office etc]

Such as spoken to an office receptionist over the phone, to ask them to have a visitor go up to a certain floor/office.

More specifically, I am wondering what verbal form would be appropriate. My two inclinations were to go with either:

  渡してください

... but I am pretty sure this could only apply to an object, not people.

Or:

  行かせてください

... but this sounds more like "allow them/me to go" than "have them go" (and so do most usage examples I can find in Google).

Does anybody know what the definite way of expressing this would be?


texts: What I'm getting wrong on this sentence? あそこに立っているのが、あなたのみらいの子どもです

texts:
I translated the following sentence

  あそこに立っているのが、あなたのみらいの子どもです

Into:

  "Your future child will be standing there."

But the correct translation according to Wanikani would be:

  The person standing over there is your future child.

What I am getting wrong? Also, what would be the correct translation of "Your future child will be standing there" in japanese?


texts:
I'm reading Yotsuba and I came across this sentence, これよつばがつかまえに. They have the english translation as, "This is the one I caught." My question is why is に used here instead of つかまえた? In the picture that goes along with the sentence, she is pointing at the bug she caught. Could this be a target marker and the use of いる was omitted since これ was used? If so, why is the verb stem of つかまえる used here with に? The only other time I have seen a verb stem and に used together is when you go somewhere and state a purpose for doing so. I don't think that reason would apply here although I could be wrong.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!


texts: 誰か being used as topic, but without topic particle

texts:
Reading Tae Kim's guide, I've seen the phrase:

  誰が盗んだのか、誰か知りませんか

Where (I think) the term 誰か is being used as topic for the verb 知る.

Is that grammatically correct ?


texts:
The sentence is taken from a fantasy visual novel.

  現の神と古の神が相克するこの世界でも類を見ない、 双方にとって、 忌み嫌われる世界の敵

It's a bit unclear for me which clause is modified by the word 「忌み嫌われる」
Does it mean: "The abhorred/detested enemy of the word" or "The abhorred/detested world's enemy"?

Edit 1: Full sentence provided


texts: Can verbs be both transitive and intransitive?

texts:
In English, there are many verbs that can behave both transitively and intransitively without appreciably changing the meaning of the verb. Just off the top of my head

I ate a sandwich. (vt) -- I ate at noon. (vi)
I'll write a book (vt) -- I'll write in a book. (vi)

There are also verbs that can only behave transitively (requiring a direct object to make sense) or intransitively (do not make sense with a direct object):

I am sitting. (vi only)
I opened the door. (vt only)

My questions are:

Is it possible for a single verb in Japanese to have both transitive and intransitive uses?

If a verb is marked transitive in a dictionary, is that a guarantee that the verb has a specific object (that would be marked with を, か, or と) somewhere within the context of the conversation (it may be unstated).

This question was brought on by an answer I received to Transitive verbs where the direct object is a clause. In the answer, it was implied that my sentence fragment 本に書いた was unnatural (or not grammatical) and suggested that I used 本に落書きした instead. It occurred to me that this might be due to 書く a transitive verb, being used without a clear direct object.


texts:
I am somewhat confused about the meaning of へりくだった態度.

The へりくだる means being humble. So I'd assume that へりくだった態度 means humble attitude. However, most of translations I found give the condescending attitude — that is quite the opposite meaning from what I've expected. Condescending does mean lowering oneself (so it is somewhat related) but is generally used for people displaying their superiority when dealing with other.

So, what does it actually mean? Does someone exhibiting a へりくだった態度 is humble or condescending (as in patronizing)? Has this word a good connotation (like humble) or bad (like condescending)?


texts:
I noticed that 谷{たに} and 谷間{たにま} both mean valley in the dictionary. However, when I Google 谷間, I get a bunch of pictures of cleavage.

Should only 谷 be used to describe "valley"? And, can 谷間 also mean valley but is basically slang for cleavage?


texts:
Can anyone please explain the nuances between ～てばかりいる and ～てばかりだ?
I've come across several sentences like:

カップラーメンを食べてばかりです。

カップラーメンを食べてばかりいます。

and

ゲームをしてばかりだ。

ゲームをしてばかりいる。

but don't understand what the difference is.
Someone told me ～てばかりだ is rarely used. Someone else said that one is more formal and objective than the other. Websites have said that they're both the same. I'm so confused.


texts:
I found this phrase

  約束リゾートへ! ベジータが家族旅行!

translated as

  Vegeta Goes on a Family Trip?!

I was wondering if here 旅行 is a verb or a noun. Is the literal translation of this phrase "Vegeta goes on a family trip?" and the "goes" is assumed, is "Vegeta (and) family travels?" or is the literal translation something different to the former options?


texts: How to say "person A is in a particular place" in japanese

texts:
I was going through my Japanese language course book and it had sentences like:

さとうさんはじむしょです
さとうさんはロビーです (lobby)

But it seems like "Satou is an office" and "Satou is a lobby" because I have read sentences like これは本です
Is it the correct way to say it? To be more specific, can the は particle be used like the above 2 sentences?


texts: What is the meaning of それで in this sentence?

texts:
彼女が好きだから、僕に嫌がらせをしたんだ？僕が彼女を取ったように見えたの？それで彼女を巻き込んでたら、意味ないだろう。

Is it "then" or "because of this"?


texts: Is this sentence correct. (Beginner sentence.)

texts:
私は　二　猫を　います。　猫は　一　なまえ
シャドち。　猫　二　なまえ　ランジち。

I'm attempting to say, "I have two cats. cat one is named Shadow. Cat two is named randy."


texts: First time asking a question here. I was curious if there is any relevant distinction between these two words that mean receipt: 領収書 and 受領書.


texts:
I am reading a little text, and I have some difficulties to understand. My Japanese level is far from JPLT5 to give you an idea.

This is the beginning of the text : (I used google to write so I hope there is no mistakes)

  ムスヤさんは写真家です。日本の山の写真をたくさん撮りました。

  うちはどちらですか。

  長野です。長野で日本の古いうちを買いました。畳の部屋はとても便利ですから、好きです。 同じ部屋で仕事をします。食事もします。そして寝ます。ムスヤさんのお国はタンザニアですね。

This is what I tried to translate from the beginning:

  Musuya is a photographer. He took pictures of mountains from Japan.

  Where are you from?

  I'm from Nagano. At Negano I bought an old Japan..

Well obviously something looks to be wrong, I hope he didn't buy a Japanese.. well so I suspect うちはどちらですか。 may means "where did you buy your camera" but there is not 買 in the question so I'm absolutely lost.

Can someone help me please. I would be glad.


texts: Why do not all かな get dakuten? And why only the は ひ ふ へ ほ へ kana get handakuten?

texts:
Can anyone answer the questions above? Because this really confuses me.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Bajiru


texts: What is the とも in this sentence? 日本人は英語を学ばずとも暮らせる環境に居ます。

texts:
日本人は英語を学ばずとも暮らせる環境に居ます。

  Japanese people are in an environment where they can live without
  having to learn English.

Is the とも in this sentence one word or is it two words: と and も ?
I guess it is one word as I see it in this sentence as well:

  一方、日本語の文字は、漢字を学ばなくともよいなら世界でもっともやさしいといわれています。 On the other hand,
  written Japanese is one of the easiest in the world if you do not have
  to learn kanji.

Would anyone care to explain the とも and how it is used in these sentences?


texts: What's the meaning of なんや in the end of sentence?

texts:
Here's the full sentence.

うちっちーの中にはグロスやらなんや

What does なんや mean? Also, about particle "やら", does "グロスやら" means "lip gloss and things like that" or does it denote uncertainty about the gloss?

Here's the link for the context. https://twitter.com/Saito_Shuka/status/903899104664731652

Thanks!


texts: Is there a good way to translate the Japanese comic book title “乱飛乱外” to English?

texts:
Some Japanese comic book titles are a challenge to translate to English, and this one might be the most challenging title I have come across so far.
I looked around on the Internet in the hopes of finding something that would explain what it means. This is what I found.

乱飛乱外 (Reading) らんぴらんがい
Carefully selected edition Japan National Language Unabridged Dictionary’s explanation
らんぴ-らんがい…ラングヮイ【乱飛乱外】
[[N.]] (Adjectival Noun) (also “らんびらんがい”) The act of flying around in confusion. The state of moving around here and there. Incidentally, the state of being disorderly. Moreover, the state of being lawless. The state of being violent. らっぴらんがい. らっぴらんごく. らんごく. [Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam (1603-04)]

Source: https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%B9%B1%E9%A3%9B%E4%B9%B1%E5%A4%96-2092323#E7.B2.BE.E9.81.B8.E7.89.88.20.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E5.9B.BD.E8.AA.9E.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E5.85.B8

らっぴ乱外 (Reading) らっぴらんがい
Carefully selected edition Japan National Language Unabridged Dictionary’s explanation
らっぴ‐らんがい ‥ラングヮイ【らっぴ乱外】
[[N.]] (Adjectival Noun) A corrupted word for “らんぴらんがい (乱飛乱外)”....

Source: https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%82%89%E3%81%A3%E3%81%B4%E4%B9%B1%E5%A4%96-2092202

らっぴらんごく
Carefully selected edition Japan National Language Unabridged Dictionary’s explanation
らっぴ‐らんごく
[[N.]] (Adjectival Noun) = らんぴらんがい (乱飛乱外)....

Source: https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%82%89%E3%81%A3%E3%81%B4%E3%82%89%E3%82%93%E3%81%94%E3%81%8F-2092203

らんごく
Carefully selected edition Japan National Language Unabridged Dictionary’s explanation
らん‐ごく
[[N.]] (Adjectival Noun) (abbreviation of “らっぴらんごく”) = らんぴらんがい (乱飛乱外)....

Source: https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%82%89%E3%82%93%E3%81%94%E3%81%8F-2092259
It turns out that Weblio does not even have an entry on “乱飛乱外” (らんぴらんがい/らっぴらんがい). Still, thanks to Kotobank, I was able to find out what the word is supposed to mean. Not only that, but I found out that らっぴらんがい, which is the reading of the comic book title, is a corrupted form of らんぴらんがい.
For those of you who have not read this comic book, please allow me to summarize the plot. It takes place during Japan's Warring States Period (or Sengoku Period, if you prefer). A young boy named Raizou is an outcast due to the horn on his head. One day, he finds an unconscious young lady in a river and nurses her back to health. She is a female ninja named Kagari, and she has been searching for him. Raizou is the heir of a fallen clan and she is his servant. After that, they meet two more female ninjas (well, one of the two is actually a young man dressing as a young lady...long story) and work to restore his clan. The plot focuses on them travelling to various parts of the country and try to get Raizou married to more than one princess. Oh, and they fight against a group of people who are trying to take over the other clans.
Like I said, I am trying to translate “乱飛乱外” to English. Right now, I think the title might be something like “The State of Being Lawless and Violent”.
I hope native Japanese speakers can help me with this. I look forward to your help!


texts: Did I interprete this sentence correctly?

texts:
I'm trying to understand the question and answers in this thread:
Question to relative clauses

One sentence OP asked about is this one:
ちょうどこれまでとは対向線路にあたる闇の向こうから、眩いライトの光が浴びせかけられた。

With the help of narutos answer on this thread I think I understood the ちょうどこれまでとは対向線路にあたる闇の向こうから part to a degree, however I think I didnt understand it completely and I fear that I cant translate it correctly yet. Here's my attempt at translation of the full sentence.

"From the opposite side, which precisely so far was dark as the oncoming lane, a beam of dazzling light was thrown."

I don't know about my translation of http://jisho.org/search/%E6%B5%B4%E3%81%B3%E3%81%9B%E3%81%8B%E3%81%91%E3%82%8B because "to throw" should be associated with liquid. Since I assumed that a ray of light was cast through the dark, the meaning "to throw" was the only one fitting though.


texts:
よこす, 渡す, 送る/贈る, and 届ける. So far these words have cropped up here and there during my study, and all of them have at least one dictionary entry that says "to send," or "to hand over." The fact that they are all transitive verbs compounds my confusion further. How exactly do they differ from one another?

Below are what little possible nuances I have gleaned from various sources (links at the bottom):

1. よこす
A.) This is only applicable when the speaker is the recipient. You cannot describe your own action (i.e. sending) using よこす.

B.) It has a somewhat negative connotation, so you should not use it when you receive something from 目上の人.

2. 渡す
A.) Only applicable when the speaker is the *provider.
(*Is "giver" a better term?)
B.) This is only suitable for face-to-face exchange.

3. 送る/贈る
Unlike the abovementioned, these work both ways. You "give" someone something, or someone "gives" you something.
*The nuance between the 漢字 has already been discussed before on this platform.

4. 届ける
A.) Mostly used when the delivery of a lost article is involved. E.g. あの財布が落ちてたので、交番に届けた。
B.) The recipient's expectation is implied.
C.) I do not know if one can say 警察官が僕に忘れちゃった荷物を届けた, since the subject is the officer instead of the speaker.

N.b. Words in italics are done on purpose to reflect the fact that they are most likely overstatements. If anyone could disprove any of them, I would really appreciate it.

Reference:
What is the difference between 渡す and よこす?
What is the difference between 送る and よこす?
What is the difference between 送る and よこす?
What are the differences between the words 送る, 出す, 届ける?


texts: Why is it incorrect to say 「寒くて、窓を閉めてください」?

texts:
寒くて、窓を閉めてください

I thought it can mean:

  Since it's cold, please close the window.

The book said we cannot use words that express speakers intent in the form of requests, order, permissions, or invitations such as てください、しろ、ませんか. So the above text is a wrong sample.

I have a hard time understanding what is wrong with it.


texts:
Context: in the manga Rikudou, Riku follows his trainer risky instructions in order to win (the trainer had told him to take a lot of punches in order to understand his opponent's fighting style). When, after risking his life, Riku is finally going to land a punch, his opponent thinks:

  許す
  打たせてやるよ
  勝つために他人【セコンド】に自分の命全部投資出来る
  お前の覚悟…
  買ってやる！！

What is the meaning of 買う in this case? My guess is that the opponent is envious of Riku's determination end wants to "acquire" it himself by letting him beat him. Is it correct?

Here you can see the whole page. Thank you for your help!


texts: What's the difference between じき and すぐ?

texts:
すぐ, and especially 今すぐ, is my habitual way to express "soon", or "right after this".

I know that じき means more or less the same thing, and when I hear it or see it written, I get the general meaning of the sentence.

However, I don't feel comfortable saying it myself because I'm unclear on how they differ and what the nuances are.

What are the conditions in which to choose one over the other, and do they differ in meaning?


texts:
What does うぃーす exactly mean? (I vaguely hear it when people greet each other.) How is it different from other greetings?

Is it correct to write it as うぃす too?

How to properly type it on a Macbook?  The い is a smaller font, and I don't know how to type ー.


texts: Why is 何が used to mean “sorry for what?” instead of 何で?

texts:
I was watching an anime where character A apologizes to character B  after trying to kiss her:

  A: ごめん！I’m sorry!

  B: 何が？言ってみて！For what? Just try to say it!

My question is why was が used after 何 instead of で, when usually the て-form precedes apology words like すみません and ごめんなさい? You would usually say 〜してごめん！and not 〜がごめん when apologizing, am I correct? So why didn’t B say 何で instead of 何が?


texts: What's the difference between に and を in these phrases?

texts:
I found these two phrases:

彼らは熊を[触]{さわ}る。
彼らは熊に触る。

I don't see the difference between them, since both mean "touching a bear."


texts:
How would I write "red pill" or "red pilled" in Japanese? I'm having a conversation with a friend overseas about different weird current stuff in US politics on youtube and I was just wondering how this would be written because I don't know if I'm coming across clearly with them or not with the written form of it.

I don't really know Japanese and I tried google translate and it gave me "赤い丸薬" but I'm wondering if that's correct? Thanks!


texts: Can ようにする be used without する in colloquial speech?

texts:
I came across the following sentence:

  ご家族とよく相談して書いてくるように。

For context: A teacher is talking to a class of students concerning a report they have to write.

I know that ように is often used at the end of a sentence to express a wish (especially in combination with どうか). However, I don't think the teacher is expressing a wish here. Could this ように be part of the expression ようにする ("to make sure that", "to try to") with the する missing? If so, is this a common pattern in colloquial speech?


texts:
I've provided the context of what made me ask this question below, as it could just be that I am misunderstanding the passage.
If I understand correctly, the first person is explaining that their friend has a めがねコンプレックス because she was teased by one of her classmates about this when she was younger(she is in high school now). The second person responds saying that's childish (I believe referring to the complex). The third person then responds saying they are just a kid so it can't be helped.
「あの子、めがねコンプレックスらしいからね。小さい頃、同級生の男子にからかわれたとかで」
「子供っぽい」
「実際子供なんだから仕方ない」
However, they are all in high school, admittedly the person they are discussing is 1 year younger than them, so I'm not really sure that 実際子供 makes sense unless I am misunderstanding things.


texts:
While reading an article, I came across this sentence (the article is describing people's reaction to a movie):

若い女性は「泣きそうになりました。すばらしかったです」と話していました。
A young girl said, "I started crying. It was amazing."

I was under the impression that the ます形＋そう is used to guess or describe based on appearance and is usually translated as "seems" or "looks". It seems odd to me that someone would describe herself as having a "crying" appearance rather than simply stating that she was crying. Is this a different usage of そう that I am unfamiliar with? Is she perhaps stating that she actually did not cry and only looked like she was about to?
Finally, just to solidify my understanding, would the meaning change significantly if instead of 泣きそうになりました she said something like 泣きました or 泣いてしまいました?


texts:
There are several different words for “clothing” in the dictionary. Kimono is a type of traditional Japanese clothing, while fuku refers to Western clothes. Hifuku is more general and covers all clothing. Koromo is a less commonly used word than the others.
At least I think this is right based on what I read in the dictionary. Are these definitions right, and are there other words that also mean “clothes”?


texts: What does this ごにゃごにゃ onomatopoeia mean?


texts: How to construct potential form for adjectives

texts:
I could not help but notice that adjectives cannot directly conjugate to have a potential form:

E.g. 赤い does not become 赤られる for (can be red)

(Question) Which of the below are acceptable forms to convey a potential for adjectives? What about な-adjectives?:

赤く出来る (using potential-form of する)

赤くなれる (using potential-form of なる) (This seems to mean "can become red" which is so very different from "can be red")

EDIT: 赤いがなり得る (I found this construction, I'm not sure what it does and how different it is from 赤くなれる and 赤くなり得る)

赤いことができる　(Using the sentence pattern ～ことができる)

I also thought about using the copula but there isn't any potential form for だ/です. Unless it's であられる?

Would 赤いであられる make sense for "can be red" ?


texts: Can 自己{じこ} mean self in the sense that someone does something for herself? Or does it mean ego? I was thinking about using the word in a make-your-own art business. Does that make sense?


texts: Is there any difference between writing the katakana カ and the kanji 力?

texts:
The two characters I'm talking about here is the katakana "ka" (カ) and the kanji 力 as in [入力]{にゅうりょく}.

Just by looking at the two characters in digital text form, they seem to be written in the same way, except that the katakana version seems smaller. Does this mean that when I am writing Japanese I should also make it smaller? (Note that by smaller I don't mean this small: ゅ)

Also, in some fonts, I have seen the first stroke of the katakana version written without the tick at the end. It just draws a horizontal line then a vertical line like this:

  |
------
  |  |
  /  |
 /   |

instead of this:

  |
------
  |  |
  /  |
 /  \|

Can I consider the first way shown above as a "sans serif" version? In handwritten Japanese, can I write that as well?


texts:
Reading the lyrics of the song 化粧直し by 東京事変 the first sentence says:

貴方が去ったあとのこの部屋　白く濁っていく

So I translate that to:

You left after this room  白く濁っていく

What do 白く濁っていく means?


texts: What would be the difference between というのであれば and であれば?

texts:
1.放課後。一度帰路に就いた折紙は一人、来禅高校へと戻ってきていた。
理由は一つ。下校している途中、いつもつけている髪飾りがなくなっていることに気ついたのである。
別に小さなピン一つ、なくしたところでさしたる痛手にはならないのだがーーそれは昔母に買ってもらったものであるというのであれば話は別だった。
2.まあ普通の女の子が対象、というのであれば間違いなくそちらが正解だ。

Hi. Could you help me understand the expression というのであれば? It seems we can just say ものであれば and 対象であれば respectively in those texts. What would be difference between というのであれば and であれば?
Thank you.


texts:
Just curious about this one.  I'm never sure what to say when I ask for chopsticks in Japanese.  I know that "by-the-book", you can count them with ～そろい　（揃い)　or ～ぜん　（膳）.  So I always say 「お箸を　一揃い（ひとそろい）／一膳（いちぜん）　お願いします。」 to ask for a pair.  But as with other things I say in Japanese, I'm afraid that this sounds too "textbookish".

So I'm just wondering how native speakers ask for chopsticks (if they ever need to).  Do they use these counters, or the basic ひとつ／ふたつ／．．． counters, or something completely different?  I hate sounding too textbookish.


texts:
I came across the following sentence:

  駅の近くで食事をした。

Does it sound unnatural if I were to use the following (or rather, is it incorrect)?

  駅の近くで食事を食べました。


texts: Why is the meaning of人一倍 opposite of what it seems to say?

texts:
This could be just me, but at first glance the word (phrase?) 人一倍【ひといちばい】 looks like it would mean "one's own share of the work". I assumed 人 to mean one person, and 一倍【いちばい】 means "one share, one amount". I was a little confused to find out that 人一倍 actually means "more than others, redoubled, unusual". (For example, 人一倍働く【ひといちばいはたら】 means " to work twice as hard as others".)
Does anyone have any insight or explanation for this, or have I completely misunderstood the whole thing?


texts:
It's taken from ひぐらしのなく頃に　OP (lyrics can be found here
)

I know the meaning of each individual word, but I can't really understand how it works in this context:
鏡の中で蠢き伸ばしてくる無数の手で


texts: A name for common words that use uncommon kanji?

texts:
I didn't see a duplicate for this in the similar questions, so here goes. Is there either a list of words like this, or a name for this type of word (made of two very rare/complex kanji, but the word itself is fairly common)?

These are the ones I have so far, for reference:

  癇癪{かんしゃく}
  躊躇{ちゅうちょ}
  顰蹙{ひんしゅく}

These two are just plant/mineral names, but are also somewhat common/Jouyou kanji:

  薔薇{バラ}
  瑠璃{ルリ}


texts: Based on my understanding, it seems that "な-adjectives" and "nouns" both function as nouns in the grammatical sense with the exception that "な-adjectives" are linked to other nouns with な and "nouns" are linked to other nouns with の. What is the origin of this distinction? How has it come to be that we have a "な class" and "の class" of what otherwise seem to be the same part of speech?


texts:
As I was studying vocabulary today, I happened to come across the titular 十干 which are as follows:

[甲]{こう}　•　[乙]{おつ}　•　[丙]{へい}　•　[丁]{てい}　•　[戊]{ぼ}　•　[己]{き}　•　[庚]{こう}　•　[辛]{しん}　•　[壬]{じん}　•　[癸]{き}

There's a somewhat lengthy definition near the middle of this page.
I happened across this while looking up the word へい（塀 - wall), and the first entry in my プログレッシブ dictionary was 丙（へい）- showing the definition as "3rd rank" or a "grade of C (in school)".  I proceeded to find that 甲 and 乙 are also used to mean a grade of A and B respectively.
My questions are:

Are these used in modern Japanese for ranking things???  If so, all of them, or just like the first 3???  And what kinds of things are ranked this way???
Is this a part of 尺貫法 or is it something completely separate???

[Side note: would anyone be interesting in making/helping to make a community wiki on 尺貫法?  I find it strangely fascinating for some reason.]


texts: Does 「わるいところ」also have the meaning of "negative aspect of X"

texts: Does 「わるいところ」　also have the meaning of "negative aspect"? This I heard from a Japanese friend. If not, how would one say "the negative aspect of X"?


texts: What's the natural way to say it sounds + adjective in Japanese?

texts:
So for example:

That sounds scary to me.

Google translates it as

それは私に恐ろしいと思う。

Does that sound natural in Japanese?

Thanks.


texts:
While looking at example sentences, I came across this on tangorin:

彼{かれ}は視力{しりょく}を失{うし}った。

My understanding is that this is still the verb 失{うしな}う. Searching for the kana form うしった hasn't led to any results.

If all this is true, why is part of the verb being truncated? Is this a common shortening?


texts: Does this dialogue imply Trunks has fought the Androids before?

texts:
Japanese manga:「母さんはっきりいってこんどはオレ自信があるんだ！」

Viz manga: "I can beat them now, Mom! I know I can!"

TV Special: "Quite frankly, I know this time I can take them!"

In Viz, 今度 is translated as "now", but in the TV special, it's translated as "this time". The former translation doesn't necessarily imply Trunks fought the Androids before, whereas the latter does. Could someone clarify which version is more accurate?


texts: I am reading a book where one character describes another's reading habits, and the person she is talking to says 「らしいと言えばらしいな」.  From context, he seems to be saying that her reading habits are unsurprising given her personality, but why not just say 「らしいな」?  What does the 「らしいと言えば」 part add?


texts:
語学学習は私の新しい習慣の一部になりつつあるのでしょうか？
"Is learning languages becoming a part of my new daily routine?"

なりつつある here seems similar to なっている... are they often interchangeable? Would I be able to change them back and forth without changing the meaning of this sentence much?
This is my first contact with this suffix so if anyone has warnings about its usages or beginner's mistakes, please feel free to espouse.
wwwjdic defines つつある as :to be doing; to be in the process of doing
http://nhg.pro.tok2.com/qa/kousei-7.htm


texts:
I read a comic where a character is being scolded by her mother for binging tv shows but she says this line which confuses me.

  大体 全８シーズンある ドラマを鑑賞するとして

(My translation is something like "To begin with, I'm here to appreciate all the 8 seasons of this drama.)

  どうして観終わるまで度を立てるのかしら

The second line I'm definitely confused with. Is "観" separate from "終わる"? I'm also asking about the meaning of "度を立てる". Since it looks like there' different usages of 度.


texts: "私が知っている人" or "私の知っている人"?

texts:
I have been reading What's the difference between wa (は) and ga (が)?
In the "contrastive wa" section, there is this example sentence:

  わたしが知っている人はパーティーに来ませんでした。

As 7600+ people have read that posting, surely that is grammatically correct. But, isn't using が with 私 a little unusual? So, what about the following sentence:

  「わたくしの知っている人はパーティーに来ませんでした」

Is this also correct grammar?
Does it sounds more natural?


texts: Can その程度 be used for a high degree or with a positive connotation?

texts:
Recently I have heard that the collocation その程度【ていど】 always implies a low degree, or rather a degree or level of something the speaker or author feels is insufficient or too low.

For example:

その程度の不幸しか知らない (implying they don't know what true misfortune/unhappiness is)
その程度の地震で、そればかりで、あの種類の構造物が崩壊するのは少しおかしいと思った (implying the earthquake was small enough it shouldn't have destroyed it)
お前のご奉仕はその程度か？ いいかげん、ご主人様の気持ちに気づけ！ 良太にはご奉仕の精神が足りない！ (implying she isn't doing much for him)

It seems that その程度 often carrys this connotation, but I've been wondering, does it always? See below for a few examples I've collected where it expresses a rather high degree, albeit never with a positive connotation. And admittedly, they are from older books. So the question is:

Can その程度 be used to talk about a (subjectively) high degree of something?
Can it be used with a positive connotation, for a degree that is considered to be good or desirable?
How common would this usage be nowadays; or is it be limited to a few special situations?

Here a a few examples I believe exhibit either a high degree. While looking for examples, I did notice that this usage seems to be less common.

  遊ぶのは勿論もちろんならんし、話をしても不可いかん。今後、この規則を破るものがあったら、発見次第それぞれの所属チイムの責任者によって、処分して貰もらう。尚【なお】、その程度によっては、ホノルルなり、サンフランシスコなりに、船が着いたら、下船させてしまうぞ。

  ――田中英光【たなかひでみつ】 『オリンポスの果実』

Judging fron the context and considering the consequences --having to leave the ship-- this 程度 of violating the rules seems to be rather high.

  ある年の秋だった。Ａ工場のあるＮ市は、日本全国を襲った暴風雨の襲撃をこうむった。その程度は日本の諸都市中で最もみじめな部分に属するほどであった。

  ――葉山嘉樹【はやまよしき】 『海に生くる人々』

This paragraph is rather explicit about the 程度 of the damage being anything but low.

  Ａの研究によると、高齢者の肉体は常に衰耗の一路を辿るにしても、その程度はひとによつて違ふばかりでなく、同じひとりについて、部分的に遅速の差があり、その結果、ひとによつて、ある部分は既に老境に入り、ある部分は未だ青春の名残りをとゞめてゐるといふ現象がしばしばみられるといふのである。

  ――岸田國士【きしだくにお】 『老病について』

Here the 程度 of aging seems to be styled as neutral.

  われわれの現在もっている（現在のみならず将来にしても）育児の知識をさきにたてて赤ん坊を取り扱うということは、また一つのまちがいのもとです。すなわちはじめにいった通り、子供を育てるにはまず何よりも子供自身の生きる力を尊重しなくてはならないからです。子供自身からその力その生命の真の要求が強くあらわれるようでなければ、親々の詰め込み養育詰め込み教育になってしまって、その程度その種類こそちがえ、子供をいろいろの邪道に連れこんでゆくことになります。詰め込み養育や教育がもっともよくできた場合にも、盆栽や箱庭式の健康と人物をつくりあげるだけのことになってしまいます。

  ――羽仁【はに】もと子【こ】 『おさなごを発見せよ』

I don't think the author would have bothered to write this if she didn't believe the 程度 of raising children the wrong way weren't too high, at least in some cases.

  若きダルガスはいいました、大樅がある程度以上に成長しないのは小樅をいつまでも大樅のそばに生【はや】しておくからである。もしある時期に達して小樅を斫【き】り払ってしまうならば大樅は独【ひと】り土地を占領してその成長を続けるであろうと。しかして若きダルガスのこの言を実際に試【ため】してみましたところが実にそのとおりでありました。小樅はある程度まで大樅の成長を促【うなが】すの能力【ちから】を持っております。しかしその程度に達すればかえってこれを妨ぐるものである、との奇態【きたい】なる植物学上の事実が、ダルガス父子によって発見せられたのであります。

  ――内村鑑三【うちむらかんぞう】 『デンマルク国の話　信仰と樹木とをもって国を救いし話』

I'm not quite certain, but as the idea is that the 小樅 support the growth of the 大樅  until they grow too big and now hinder its growth, I think it qualifies as an example.


texts: How often does Japanese use present perfect tense?　My friend has been asking to watch a Japanese anime movie called 風たちぬ, this is the first time I have ever seen this 'nu' particle usage. Before I only have encountered the 'nu' as in 待たぬ for negative sentences. It seems the meaning of the title is 'The wind has risen'. Is it normal to say that in daily life? If not, what is the normal way to say it? would it be 風をもう立った？


texts: Hierarchy of management titles in Japanese companies

texts:
In typical Japanese companies, all managers have a title defining where they stand in the hierarchy, for instance 課長 and 部長, both of which can be translated as "section chief", so sometimes it is hard to tell who is higher or lower.

So, what are the usual titles, in approximate hierarchical order?


texts:
I want to write a small dialogue.
How do I say "the other person says/answers etc."?

Then, one said...and the other replied...

When names are available I usually use those to indicate who says what, but when there are no names available, what do you do?


texts: I came across this in a manga, and I still can't figure out what the ちゃいない means. Does any help please?