texts: Translation for book title "The Other Side", differences between capitalization

texts:
I'm writing a book called The Other Side
I was curious what the Japanese translation for the title would be. I tried Google Translate and got two different answers:
The Other Side -
向こう側 /
Mukō-gawa
The other side -
反対側 /
Hantaisoku
Which is correct? Are either of them correct?
Thanks in advance. :) I have no prior experience with Japanese, I'm just curious.


texts: What distinguishes the different ways to say something must be done? (E.G. しなくてはだめ、しなくてはならない、しなくてはいけない and so on)

texts: I've gathered a bit from the related questions I got, but I'm not quite 100% on what separates だめ,いけない and ならない each other, not to mention the differences between しなくちゃ、しなきゃ、しないと before the three verbs. Anyone know?


texts:
素晴らしい迷路庭園デス。

Isn't 迷路 a "no-adjective"? I would have expected the sentence to be: 素晴らしい迷路の庭園です。Are they both correct or is my version incorrect?


texts:
I would like to know when 粗い is used. According to the dictionary, it means "rough", but I'm not able to see the difference between 粗い and 荒い.

Is 粗い used only when a picture has bad quality? Or in what other cases can it be used?


texts: When is "na" used at the end of a sentence?

texts:
When is "na" used at the end of a sentence, is it like "ne" or "yo" and has no meaning really? For example:

  Mata Nihon ni ikitai na.
  また、日本に行きたいな。


texts: Why sometimes the same words are used in hiragana and katakana?

texts:
I saw on some restaurants ramen is written like ラーメン, but sometimes like らーめん. Seems like both are correct, but I'm confused which variant should I use when I write about this meal. Does it depend on context?
Also I saw the same about ぴかぴか/ピカピカ。


texts: Is the couple 解ける / 溶ける related to the English solve/ dissolve?

texts: I've noticed that  解ける which means 'to be solved' and 溶ける, 'to dissolve' are pronounced the same way. Furthermore the second one can be written using the kanji of the first one. That relation between both words is really similar to the one between the English word solve / dissolve, which made me ask that question: was the use of the words 解ける / 溶ける influenced by the English language? (e.g. solve a mystery as a metaphor coming from dissolving a chemical)


texts: Meaning of とっぴょうしもねぇ

texts:
Maruko stops a friend who is passing by and asks him if he ever receives year-end presents at his house. He replies:

  「なんだよ急に、とっぴょうしもねぇこときく奴だなァ」

I am completely stuck on nearly all of this sentence.

なんだよ is "what!?" and 急に is "rapidly/abruptly". I assume they go together to make a new meaning other than "What!? Rapidly ...", otherwise there should be some punctuation after なんだよ.
This part I'm especially confused about. とっぴ is a na-adjective meaning "erratic". What on earth is the ょうしもねぇ part after it?
Is the と in bold the quote particle or part of こと? I feel it's the latter and there's a particle (を) missing.

The sentence gives me the feeling of

  "What!? You certainly are a person who abruptly asks random questions".

But I'm not at all confident.

Please can you break down this sentence so I can understand it?


texts:
I was studying some radicals using an app and one of the radicals listed is defined as river and looks like this:

  巛

Yet I know the kanji for river looks like:

  川

Can anyone explain to me what the difference is?


texts: The other day, I went to a bookstore and saw that there was a "児童" section, which means children's section. But more often in books, I see "子供" used instead. When to use each of them?


texts: What is the correct way to say "Please select the best one from the available options"?

texts:
When I read some examination papers, I often found the following instruction.

  次の文の（　　）に入れるのに最もよいものを、１・２・３・４から一つ選びなさい。

My question is

Can I rephrase the instruction above as follows?

  次の文の（　　）に入れるのに、１、２、３、４からの最もよいものの一つを選びなさい。

Which is the correct format in Japanese for a list of number 1, 2, 3, 4?

  A: １・２・３・４

or

  B: １，２，３，４


texts: What's the ちゃうform doing in this sentence?

texts:
Basically, it's an actress talking about how she has kept in touch with one of her costars from a play they did together

... 終わってからも,
実は定期的に会っちゃったりして

What is the chau form doing in 会っちゃった? I know the 2 most common usages for this grammar are to say you have finished doing something or to talk about things done unintentionally, neither of those seem to be what chau is being used for in this sentence. What is the function and nuance in this context?
Thanks in advance


texts: Meaning of に in アルバイトの人などに売る数

texts:
From here:

  コンビニを経営している人は、売らなければならない数を会社から言われて、アルバイトの人などに売る数を言う店もあると話しています。
  Convenince store managers say that they are told how much they must sell by the company, and (there are even stores that say the amount to sell to part-time workers) / (there are even stores that say the amount for part time workers to sell).

The article is talking about how student workers are complaining about sales targets for 恵方巻.

I'm not sure about the last part. What does アルバイトの人に売る数 mean here? Does に mean to or for? Does the shop have a quota for selling 恵方巻 to its workers. Or is it a quota for the workers to sell? How can I know?


texts: "Once upon a time" is to "The End" as "昔々" is to "______"?

texts:
(Question A) "Once upon a time" is to "The End" as "昔々" is to "______" ?

Here are my thoughts and problems with some possible answers:

ザーエンド

using ザー as "the". But this seems problematic since I don't hear "the" having this pronunciation for this use. Usually it sounds more like the "the" in "these" such that it should sound like ディー or ズィー
it is problematic by virtue of being incompatible with 昔々 since using an English loanword is not compatible with the time/ambience that 昔々 creates

終わりです

Is this too literal? Or sounds too much like a complete sentence or a direct description to be an idiomatic ending.

おしまい
Null (∅)

The story ends without any idiomatic closing phrase

(Question B) In reverse, suppose we constrain the situation and use(enforce) a Loanword equivalent for example "ディーエンド"  as an ending, what would be the corresponding appropriate way to start the story.

Can 昔々 still be used and sound natural?


texts: Why would a Japanese adult be embarrassed to use the word "friends"?

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I am watching a current anime, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime ( 転生したらスライムだった件 ). The protagonist, now a reincarnated slime in the isekai story, is making friends with a dragon.  The specific conversation begins at time code 20:30 of chapter 1*. After they have agreed to be friends, he thinks to himself (sub, time code 21:17):

  いい年して『友達』って、ちょっと照れるけど…。
  It's a little embarrassing talking about "friends" at my age...

He was 37 when murdered.  Why would he be embarrassed to use the word "friends"?  Is there a better word to be used between adults?

* Link is to Crunchyroll, an American streaming service.  I don't know what other countries will be able to view it.

This question is a follow-up to What is Japanese version of the pun word, “slife”? … and term for adult friend?. On Anime & Manga SE. @кяαzєя answered it, and he suggested I post a follow-up question here.


texts:
An ex boxer punches a man and then says:

  おっと… 勢い余ってとどめ入れちまった。生きてる?

The man that was punched manages to stand up. At this point, a friend of the puncher says:

  マジか…　所沢さんのモロもらって…

I think that the sentence roughly translates as "Unbelievable... he is still standing after receiving a punch by Tokorozawa...", but I can't understand the exact meaning of モロ. Does it have a special meaning in boxing? Or it simply indicates a punch given with all one's strength?
I know there's another question about モロ, but in that case it is used as an adverb, while here I think it is used as a noun. Thank you for your help!


texts: What is a word for "participation" that resembles "kameseru"?

texts:
According to the article "On Being Late to Work in Japan | 遅出" (linked from this post at The Workplace):

  The word for participation – kameseru – has a special significance which also explains why Japanese bureaucracy is so overwhelming...

As far as I know, カメセル is not a Japanese word, and it doesn't look like any variations on the vowels (カーメセル or カメーセル or カメセール or カメセルー or some combination thereof) or gemination (カメッセル) give you anything useful either. Nor can I think of any near-homophones (コメセル? カメスル?) that mean anything related to "participation".

What word might the article have meant?


texts:
In 大辞泉 (via goo here) at the first line I found the phrase

  ［副助］種々の語に付く。

What is the meaning of 副助? Can not find it..


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I read this line from this blog: https://boundary.futureartist.net/diary/104512

  これはほんまにお酒入ってるのかと疑うほど、甘くて美味しくてなんともならんかった。

Does "酒入ってる" mean drink alcohol? Why not just use 飲む?


texts:
It is a situation which a salesperson announces to a group of people to attract them to buy his goods.

Here is the full sentence.

こんなお買【か】いどくはどこの世【せ】界【かい】へいったって ありゃしねえよ


texts:
さあ次もビーチバレーという名のウォッチング[に]勤しむぜ！- Ok, next,  lets endeavor to watch beach
  volleyball !

  それにしても、人間世界はじつに物[に]あふれておるな。- That being said, the world of humans is actually overflowing with things (this one in particular に over　が just feels strange)

  私は他動詞の使い方[を]本から教わった-
  I learned about transitive verbs from a book

  我が豪腕[に]奪えぬ物は無し！ - There's nothing my strong arm can't steal!
  (transitive verb for this one)

While trying to do some research I found the 3rd* sentence which feels like it's a similar use case but with を instead.

If I were forced to produce Japanese from the above English sentences, I would default to [が] in all of those brackets if I used that sentence structure. At the same time I feel like I can only interpret those sentences as if [が] were in the [] instead of [を/に].  At a glance it doesn't seem grammatically incorrect, but I don't know what meaning I am sacrificing by doing so.

Yet at the same time for something like this

  だから、もっと素直に私[に]甘えて…… - listen, be honest more honest and depend on me

In this case [が] would feel strange to me but there doesn't seem to be anything fundamentally different between 私[に]甘えて and ウォッチング[に]勤しむ / 物[に]あふれて

I have read Difference between に and が for intransitive verbs, but i don't think my issues boil down to false” transitive-intransitive pairs.

I would appreciate any clarification, thank you.


texts: 「覚える」と「思い出す」の違い - what's the difference of oboeru and omoidasu?

texts:
I hear both fairly often but i still can't tell the difference and when to use what.

I found this answer in yahoo answers but it seems like there is a difference in opinion (?) - not sure, didn't understand some of the answers.

I usually hear omoidashita (思い出した) when someone suddenly recalls something. And I am sure I heard oboetenaino? (覚えてないの) a few times and to me it seems like the person is saying: "you don't remember do you?".

So it seems to me that they both mean the same thing. Is this correct?

For example:

Person1: 覚えてないの?
Person2: 思い出せない

Is this valid?

So I guess my questions are:

Do they mean the same thing?
Are they interchangeable?


texts: Reason for と particle after adverb さっき in sentence about something previously mentioned

texts:
I came across this sentence and I believe I understand what it is saying, but I don't understand why there is a と particle being used after さっき. Why is it not just さっき言ってる? As there is nothing that comes after さっき here

Sentence:

  何？　さっきと言ってることが違う！

  What? That is different from what I was saying a moment ago!


texts: I do not understand the grammar behind 帰りや in 遅くなる前に、帰りや。The meaning I have for this sentence is "Please go home before becoming late." It looks as if it is a grammar form using verb stem + や, but I can't find anything about such a form. It also appears that it has the meaning of making a request. I'm hoping someone can point me to the actual grammar principle being used and/or explain it.


texts: How do you tell your parents and siblings you love them?

texts:
In English we describe the affection you have for your parents and siblings as "love", however this is vary different from the feelings of romantic love, things like limerence and sexual arousal, which (unless something's gone horribly wrong) you most definitely do not feel for your parents and siblings.

Thus I must ask; how is this expressed in Japanese? Not only in terms of whether they equate this affection with love or not, but also in terms of the terminology and set phrases most commonly used to express it.

You know, in English we equate this affection with romantic love, and use generic phrases like "I love you mommy!", with any more complex or poetic way of expressing it being incredibly rare, unlike with romantic love, where such poetic confessions are quite common.


texts: How to say 'X, let alone Y' in Japanese?

texts:
How to say X, let alone Y in Japanese?
For example, how would one translate:

I don't know hiragana, let alone kanji.
He couldn't boil water, let alone prepare a dinner for eight.
I haven't enough time to look in the mirror, let alone go to see you.

Would one use も? どころか? From Yahoo!辞書:

赤ん坊は走るどころか歩くこともまだできない。
The baby cannot walk yet, much less run.
野鳥観察に出掛けたが，つぐみどころかすずめも見えなかった。
I went bird watching, but I could not find even a sparrow, to say nothing of a thrush.

Is that the appropriate grammar pattern?


texts:
So I was wondering, pretty much all of the sleep related verbs switch meaning with まで and までに.

Was it always like that? Or was there a time when ８時まで寝る meant "going to bed at 8"?

Or take the even more obvious 寝入る, same story. ８時まで寝入る shouldn't mean getting up at 8.

Just curious where that original meaning went or if it was always like that.


texts: Do loanwords have quasi-phonemic vowel reduction?

texts:
I've started to notice this, and I'm not sure whether my eyes are deceiving me or not, but it seems as if several, but not all loans have a high statistical probability of vowels being reduced/devoiced in contexts where they would be very unlikely to in a native Japanese word, that place being fill-vowels being introduced purely to fit with Japanese phonotactics.
As an example, in the loan “dórama” [accute accent used to indicate accented mora] from English “drama”; the /o/ seems to be almost universally , somewhat, devoiced by many speakers, which would be highly unlikely for an /o/ in between two voiced sounds, in an accented mora in a native word.
I did a spectrographical analysis and it should be clear which of both spectrograms is from “dórama” and which from “dóreka”, by the same speaker:
[
Dark bands at the bottom indicate vowels or vowel-like sounds in spectrograms, for those not in the know of this. It is clear that the dark band in the bottom of the first mora in the first picture takes a far less prominent existence than in the second one, indicating a reduction of vowel-like qualities, as is common for Japanese reduced vowels — it should also be clear that the /m/ in “dórama” has some vowel like qualities, whereas the /k/ in “dóreka” does not.
I have used the speaker Skent from this list, which I also used for “dóreka”, as he was conveniently in both. One may listen to all the examples of “dórama” there and investigate whether one agrees with me that the “do” mora is uncharacteristically reduced with all speakers, and compare it with these readings.
I could find no research that investigated this matter — do any Japanese native speakers have any input on the matter whether they feel that not reducing the “do” in “dórama” would sound unnatural or something else?


texts: How to know the real eytomolgy for any kanji?

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When i ask on this site for the eytomolgy for any kanji .somebody comes (like user called droooze) and answer my question by explaining the eytomolgy and giving a pictures of the kanji in the seal script or bone script ... etc
My question is what is the source which those who answer my qustions take this information from?


texts:
I see there are many different words for bookstore: 本屋, 書店, 書肆, 書籍商 and even ブックストー. What is the difference between all of these bookshops?

I guess the most common word is 本屋, and ブックストー must be a slightly "cooler" equivalent (I hear that Japanese people, especially young ones, like to use such English borrowings because they sound more modern and "cool"). But I'm not sure about the other words. Also, could you please comment on the opinion, or rather observation, about the use of English borrowings. Does ブックストー really sound fancier than 本屋?

Thank you!


texts: Can ～て初めて grammar be used with negative verbs?

texts:
I found many examples for ～て初めて with positive verbs, for example:

  生まれて初めて寿司を食べた。It is the first time in my life I ate sushi.

  病気になって初めて健康の有り難さが分かってきた。I began to know the value of health only after I was ill.

Question

Can ～て初めて be used with negative verbs? Are there any examples?

Bonus question

Is it correct to use ～て初めて as follows?

  あの角を右へ曲がって初めて先生の家が見えます。The teacher's house will be visible only after you turn right at that corner.


texts:
Are there any hard-fast rules on when to use or not use the donojiten (々)? I find that it is used for repeating the previous character (e.g. 人々).

Other than helping me distinguish whether a text is Japanese or Chinese (never found it) I don't know where else it is used or when it shouldn't be.


texts:
My question stems from the last part of this excerpt where he says さっさとホームルームを終わらせて自由の身になりたかった. My question is because he is not the the teacher so he doesn't really have control over causing homeroom to end.
So I guess my question is, is he saying that he wants his teacher to end homeroom (obviously this is implied) but this doesn't seem like what is stated because I imagine it would say ほしい somewhere if this was the case e.g. を終わらせてほしい. So how does 終わらせて work in this case if he doesn't have direct control over the situation? Is having an indirect influence over the situation (he mentioned that he was interested in what type of school life they lead, but didn't ask any questions as he clearly wanted to go home instead) sufficient enough to use a causative form of the verb?
担任が過去にどんな学生生活を送っていたのかは非常に気になるところだが。今はとりあえずさっさとホームルームを終わらせて自由の身になりたかった


texts:
How should I understand the expression 自分への戒め?
The first part is quite clear (自分への), but what is the right interpretation for 戒め (since it has so many meanings)?

This really seems like an expression that may have a deeper meaning, since it is a popular hashtag at twitter!


texts:
資料が届いたようですので、事務室に取りに行ってまいります。
"Because it looks like the documents have arrived, I go to the office to fetch them."

This sentence is an example from the grammar section of my textbook.
I've encountered this 行ってまいります only once before (at least as far as I can remember), and I couldn't beat much sense into it. When I search for まいります/まいる on jisho, I find nothing. I can search for 行ってまいります and find this http://jisho.org/search/ittemairimasu  . But since the result is a set phrase which has a meaning which doesn't even apply in this case here, it doesn't help much.


texts: Are there any rules governing voicing in words formed via reduplication?

texts:
Consider the following words:

燦々 sansan
散々 sanzan

Both of them are formed via the reduplication of san, but the latter word has the second instance voiced, while the former doesn't.

Was there some sort of historical phonological rule that governed whether or not the second syllable would be voiced, or is this property of reduplicated words unpredictable a priori?


texts:
A quick Edict, Kotobank, Excite.co.jp, and Goo search on ガム shows that it is an abbreviation for チューインガム.

Google results for ガム also seems to suggest so. (Notice that the results only show チューインガム and no 風船ガム)

But can ガム be used to mean "bubble gum", or is it actually already a codified term for "chewing gums"?

Take for example we have both a chewing gum and a bubble gum on a table. Will "ガム持ってきて" be ambiguous because ガム can refer to both items? Or would it non-ambiguous because in that context, ガム will most surely be referring to the chewing gum?

Note: Bubble gums can be blown, like a balloon coming straight out of the mouth. Chewing gums can't achieve that, no matter how hard one tries.


texts: What is the difference between 役割 & 業務タイトル?

texts:
Both of these terms are found in the same 職務経歴書.

After attempting to translate the terms used in an example,
I've come to the following hypothesis:

業務タイトル - Department in a company

役割 - One's specific position

In English resumes, we usually refer to one's position as a [Job] Title, Position, Role.  Thus, the use of タイトル has caused me some confusion.

Is my conclusion correct?


texts: Are the province names of Japan translatable into English?

texts:
When I travelled, I found I could translate the regions or cities into names in English,

like in German Burg is "castle" so Hamburg might be "Castle of Ham",
Novi Sad in Serbia is "New Farmland",
Shanghai translates as "Upon-the-Sea".

Do the regions of Japan translate similar? Are there any references to their English names, for example "region of blossoms" or such?

By provinces I mean provinces like Hōki, Inaba, Harima, Bizen, Mimasaka, Bitchū, etc.?


texts: trying to understand noun + って in this sentence

texts:
だいたいスポーツ記者っていったって、ここんとこスキャンダルの取材ばっかりだ！！

I came up with something like "even though I say I am generally a sports writer", which sounds wrong.
what's tripping me up is the use of だいたい and スポーツ記者って.


texts: Needing quick help with grammar! Is this the correct way to phrase it? Does this sentence make sense?

texts:
Would 佑里子は私にを教えてくれました mean "Yuriko taught me"? Am I saying it correctly and using correct grammar? Otherwise, how would it be best to say "Yuriko taught me. She's a good teacher"
Would it make sense if I said "I am Yuriko's student", could I use 私は佑里子のかくせいです  ?


texts:
This bolded sentence is from Persona 4, from a random stranger:

  酔っ払い上司：ガハハ！

  何だお前、噂の幽霊が怖いのかぁ！？

  夜中、神社に立って魚を欲しがる白い着物の幽霊らっけかぁ～？

  そんなんガキが夜遊びする為の嘘っぱちに決まってんらろぉ～！

(transcript with this sentence)

What does the last part, 幽霊らっけかぁ～, mean? Is this slang?


texts: How do you say "just curious" or "out of curiosity"?

texts:
In English, I often say "I'm just curious, but...". The best phrase I've come up with for this in Japanese is

  「[好奇心]{こうきしん}だけですが・・・」

but I've never heard a native speaker use this.

I recently saw 「なぜなのか気になりますが・・・」, but that sounds strange to me as well.  Is this just something that isn't said, or is there a totally regular phrasing for this that I just haven't yet found?


texts: Should どれ always be the first part of a sentence?

texts:
I have two sentences:

どれがあなたのペンですか？
あなたのペンはどれですか？

Are there any differences between the two sentences? I've heard that Japanese is a flexible language structure so I'm wondering if they are interchangeable?


texts: Why is「伊藤さんは仕事が多くて休みすぎのようです。」Wrong?

texts:
How come 「伊藤さんは仕事が多くて休みすぎのようです。」isn't grammatically correct?
According to native speakers, this means something like:

Itou-san has a lot of work, therefore he seems to be resting too much

Which, yea, doesn't make sense.
But why does that not get interpreted as:

Itou-san has a lot of work and it seems like he's taking too many breaks.

Like even though Itou has a lot of work, he's still taking too many breaks, lazy bastard.
I've read this article titled "te-form (て-form) for Cause or Reason", where the author states that the constraints for using て as "therefore" is that the resulting sentence must not contain "volition or intention".
Does 休み contain volition or intention?
A friend tried to explain that it's about the のよう, so the sentence is more like:

Itou-san has a lot of work and it's like he is working too much

So if this were the case, て is "and".
But if I changed the sentence to:

伊藤さんは仕事が多くて、休みすぎです

This is still wrong? Even though there's no のよう
Can anybody explain to me what's going on here? How come Japanese speakers read the て here as a cause, but not in 「妹は８歳で、猫が好きで、かわいくて、優しい子です。」?
Made 2 posts on HiNative about this:
https://hinative.com/en-US/questions/18883561
https://hinative.com/en-US/questions/18896083


texts: Term for "maybe" when answering a question in conversation

texts:
If someone asks you a question, for example:

  明日、一緒に行く？

What is a natural way to say "maybe"?

I am familiar with various ways to express uncertainty:

  多分
  だろう
  かもしれない

However I think none of these may sound too natural, or at least express the same light(?) feeling of English "maybe".

The best I can think of is:

  うん〜考えとく。

Is there anything else that would fit here to express uncertainty?

  行くかもしれない

Sounds stiff to me.

  さぁ〜

Sounds too rude.


texts:
I know that nounss are listed with words like と, や, とか, and かつ, adjectives are listed with て-forms or the particle で, and that verbs and clauses are listed with the ます-stem, て-forms, and し. However, I can't find any sources that teach how  adverbs are listed.

For example, how would one say "slowly and methodically" or "fast and skillfully" in Japanese?


texts:
Is it

  太陽光線は暖かいけどまぶしく、肌に刺すようです

or

  太陽光線は暖かいけどまぶしくて、肌に刺すようです

What's the difference between くて and く?


texts: Is there a casual gender-neutral first-person pronoun?

texts: I know that 私, while being used by both men and women, is relatively formal or at least polite and so wouldn't necessarily be used when talking to a close friend, etc. On the other hand, 俺、僕、and あたし are all gendered pronouns. Is there a first-person pronoun that is gender neutral but still casual that someone who is non-binary or otherwise not wanting to express their gender could use?


texts:
What's the difference between 自分の and 自らの?

Both can be used to mean "oneself", but is there a difference in their nuances / usages?

(e.g. what would be the difference between あの子は、自らの命と引換に… and あの子は、自分の命と引換に… ?)


texts: How is に being used in おージャンボにもとーちゃんいたのか?

texts:
Slight disclaimer but I have come across some typos in this print of Yotsuba, the manga that this sentence is from. The sentence in question is

  おージャンボにもとーちゃんいたのか!

The following sentence is

  よつばにもいるよ?

so に's use is the same. I've understood に to be the target particle and も is the inclusion particle. I believe them to be separate in this case and to my knowledge, there is no  にも particle. The english translation for the first sentence is "Oh! Jumbo has a daddy too!?" I was wondering what に does here instead of the sentence being something like

  ジャンボはとーちゃんもいる。

That also brings me to a side question. In the first sentence, いた was used and the English translation given was as stated before, "Oh! Jumbo has a daddy too!?". Why is いる past tense here? Is the English translation off or perhaps the Japanese? ジャンボ 's dad is alive. I didn't think that warranted a second post, but i'd mainly like to know why に is used here. The closest reason I could think of would be that it is the "target of having" although that still doesn't make sense to me when I think you could just use the non logical particle は。

Thanks for any help that comes my way. It's greatly appreciated.


texts: Why is the が particle being used with these adjectives

texts:
I'm learning the use of なる with adjectives/nouns in my textbook. I was given two examples and in both the particle が was used.

  ex.1 にほんごのべんきょうがすきになりました。
  I have grown fond of studying Japanese.

  ex.2 にほんごのべんきょうがたのしくなりました。
  studying the Japanese language is fun now (though it was like torture before).

Due to the first example having the な adjective すきな in it, I came to the conclusion that が here was used to mark the object in this sentence. Since in an earlier chapter I was taught to use が with すきな and きらいな. The general sentences of both examples also look at extremely similar leading me to believe that the が particles used in both sentences might be the same,  but I don't want to throw them into the same category based on that alone and was never taught to use が with other adjectives like たのしい. Which leaves me uncertain as to why が was used in the second example.  In my textbook I found an example similar to the second although this one takes the topic marker は instead.

  にほんごのべんきょうはたのしいです
  Japanese language study is fun

This really only confuses me even more as to why が was used in the second example. Any explanation as to why が was used in these two examples is really appreciated.

Admittedly I did ask a similar question to this one a few days ago, but not wanting to waste other people's time and thinking I figured it out on my own I foolishly deleted the question. Apologies for that, and for wasting the time of people who read my question the first time I made it.


texts: On 原稿用紙, when are ゛ and ゜ (ten-ten and maru) supposed to occupy a square of their own?

texts:
I was intrigued by this question: What do you do if a genkoyoshi line ends with e.g. す。」? and its answer.

I'm not any good at this 原稿用紙 but I remember being told for some types of forms (which I thought followed the same rules) that you need to put the [濁点]{だくてん} (for some reason always called ten-ten and maru in the classes and contexts I heard them) into separate boxes. Was I being misled / is this still current practice for some sort of form?


texts: Sentence structure for "I have been ~ for X days"

texts:
I'm trying to say something along the lines of "I have been studying Japanese for 12 days". So far my research has led me to this attempt:

  わたしはじゅうににちにほんごをべんきょうしています。
  watashi wa juuni nichi nihingo o benkyou shite imasu.

I suppose my question is whether this is a valid sentence, and if not, how would I phrase this so that it makes sense?


texts:
This is the sentence in question:

寂しくはあったけれど...

My impression is that it means "There was loneliness but" or "He/She/It was lonely but". However I don't understand the grammar behind it. It looks to me like 寂しい is in it's adverbial form but I didn't think that adverbs could be subjects? It seems like 寂しく is modifying あった ?


texts: How can I differentiate if a word is (either fully or preferentially) used for spoken or written language?

texts:
Sorry if this has been answered before, but I couldn't find it.

I understand that when the on'yomi reading is used, this is associated with words with a more "literary" feeling or with written usage. However, I don't know if this is a relatively safe way to differentiate which usage is preferred of if it's just applied in some cases.

Thanks in advance!


texts: interpretation of 玉を落とす in this sentence

texts:
どうせ何【なん】かの玉【たま】を落【お】とすのは分【わ】かり切【き】ってる

This sentence uses 玉を落とす in a way that makes me think that 玉 is a noun being modified by を落とす to mean something like 'a ball intended to be dropped', in other words, a ball you'd play with in sports and the like.

Also, I'm not really sure about 何か being followed by の, is this a regular/fixed usage of 何か with any special properties?

If you need context for all this, let me explain a bit:

The person that says the sentence in question is skeptical about receiving the New Year's Gift お年玉【おとしだま】 from another person, and notices that other person is holding a ball, which turns out to contain money. Maybe it is a witty word game intended to show that the ball 玉 actually contained the New Year's Gift お年玉.


texts:
I'm struggling to understand what 言えば in a question. The sentence is:

  お前ら 何度言えば分かるんだ

I understand the general idea of what is being said, but I don't know which part 言えば relates to and I'm feeling rather confused.

Please can you help me understand / translate the sentence


texts: What is the difference between ホワイトシャツ・ワイシャツ and 背広?

texts:
How do we decide whether to call a shirt a ワイシャツ or 背広 ? What's the difference in nuance between the two terms?

Side question: EDICT
claims that a ホワイトシャツ is a white business shirt but even if it's a gray or black (or what-have-you) colored business shirt, we can still call it a ホワイトシャツ or ワイシャツ right?


texts: What does rubbing a finger under one's nose mean?

texts:
Ash Ketchum sometimes does this:

I'm sure this macro is simply ignorant of some Japanese body language he's using. Another example is here:

I can't recall any other anime character who does this, though, so it may be more idiosyncratic than I realise. What, if anything, does it mean when a person does this?


texts:
The sentence goes like this:

  ハジメの場合、単に面倒というだけでなく、学校の居心地がすこぶる付きで悪いが故の憂鬱さが多分に含まれていたが。

I know the sentence goes something like this

  In Hajime case, it wasn't just mere trouble, the reason he was not feeling good at school was due to feeling depressed.

But I still don't get the で in 付きで悪い


texts:
I saw this link - When is the correct situation to use 案外 or 意外?
It taught me a new word （案外） and explained its difference from 意外 well.

But it's other words that have me confused.

意外 and 驚くべき. Both mean surprising. When would each be used? What is the difference in meaning?

Also ブクリシタ (not sure how to spell it) - I'm told this is only used in spoken Japanese and never in written Japanese... is it dialect? Seems unusual that it would be never written at all. How does this one enter the mix?


texts:
Once again I have been stumped over the usage of particles in a passage from my textbook.

先生: 最近、アメリカでも魚や豆腐を食べている人が増えてきたらしいです。
学生: はい。
先生: アメリカでも、ヘルシーな食べ物[が]{L}人気[が]{L}出てきたということです。

The paragraph continues but I don’t see the point in typing out the rest as it won’t be relevant.
In the fourth line the there are two が‘s. I asked my japanese friend why this is and if one could be a は, they said it’s definitely が but they couldn’t explain why.
Please if someone could explain why it’s a double が and maybe a little additional work information that will help me to use が and は correctly.
Thank you !!


texts: Saying "as if to say" - What's happened to 言う in と言わんばかりに?

texts:
Can you help breakdown 言わん?

  彼女は当たり前と言わんばかりに答えた
  She answered as if it was a matter of fact.

Are these incorrect, have different meanings?

  彼女は当たり前と言うばかりに答えた
  彼女は当たり前なことばかりに答えた
  彼女は当たり前なんだとばかりに答えた

Do you know another way of saying "as if to say"?


texts: Why words having 'が' in between other letters pronounced as 'んが'？

texts:
I came across many cases where I found Japanese natives pronouncing some words containing が or ぎ letter with others (Example: かぎ, ちがいます) as んが or んぎ.

Are there any rules to do this in any particular context or something?


texts: How to interpret 礼にならない and ~にならない in general

texts:
Conversation after B saved A, A bought some drinks

A: それじゃ、助けてもらった礼にならない。
well, this is totally not gratitude for saving me (= i will do more to thank you?)
B: べつに、お礼して欲しくて、助けた訳じゃないし。
it's not like I want to you show gratitude, i didn't really save you

a long while later after A and B part ways, A reflects on the entire experience. A did not do anything special for B in particular while they were together, they just talked about their interests.

ちっともお礼にならなかったが、数年ぶりに女の子と話せて俺も色々と勉強になった。
(My interaction with B/her) did not show gratitude at all, but ...

I am confused because normally you would want to show 礼 after being saved,but the speaker is "denying 礼" , so that this my roundabout interpretation but it is probably incorrect.
After reading these:
よく色々と億劫にならないな。- It's amazing how he doesn't get annoyed at all that
提出に遅れた場合は減点にならない - In the event (case) of a late submission there will not be a point deduction.
I feel like i don't have a grasp of the distinction between ～にならない as the negative of ～になる and the ～にならない used in things like 話にならない, 洒落にならない, 問題にならない.
So when i read 礼にならない, i am not sure what is actually being implied until i read B's reply.
Even then, "助けてもらった礼にならない" and "ちっともお礼にならなかったが" still feels very awkward for me.
Thank you for any clarifications


texts:
In Season 2, Episode 3 of Shingeki no Kyojin at 12:30, I encountered this sentence:

その表層は硬化した皮膚で形成されていると考えていい

I understand its meaning literally is: "I think that this surface is constructed by harden skin."

But I searched everywhere and can't find と考えていい used anywhere.
What is the meaning of adding ていい? is it a little redundant?
Thank you.


texts: Business Japanese: what's the proper way to say "please visit [this URL]"?

texts: I'm writing a business e-mail to a Japanese speaking person, and I need to direct them to a certain URL. In English I would write "please visit http://www.example.com". I'm not sure the best way to say that in Japanese. My best guess is something like "http://www.example.comに訪ねてください", and if I was writing a friend I'd probably just try that figuring that they'd understand even if it wasn't quite right. But since this is formal business correspondence I want to make sure it's right.


texts:
I have come across this sentence:

  毎日同じ物を食べるのは、面白くない

And I'm unclear as to why the の particle is required here since the noun has been established using 物; is it okay to omit the の in this case or would that grammatically invalidate the sentence?


texts: Can ~ほうがいいですか be used to ask for recommendations?

texts:
So I would like to ask someone some book recommendations.
I've studied 「ほうがいいです。」but I'm not sure if 「何の本を読んだほうがいいですか。」would be OK.

Should I say it in another way?


texts: Does this sentence using も twice say that the speaker doesn't have 女子力?

texts:
I am participating in a relay manga through a university student group in Japan, and the previous member's contributed pages to the manga about a 女子力バトル introduced a sole male character who seems to be a team member in the competition.  I need to draw the next section of the manga.

The captain of the opposing team protests his appearance by saying, 「そっちだって男がまざってんじゃん。」

The next speech bubble is not clear as to which of the two characters is speaking, either the male or the opposing team's captain.
It says,

「女子力もクソもねーだろ。」

Is the male character replying to her that he doesn't have 女子力?  (Does ねー mean ない?)
Is it possibly the captain accusing him of not having 女子力?
Or do the も have another meaning?

Thank you very much!


texts: What does "ニセサマ" (nisesama) mean? It was in Chuunibyou

texts:
I was watching Chuunibyou and noticed this writing on Nibutani's back:
"ニセサマ". I looked up what that meant and found nothing, so my question is what does ニセサマ translate to?

Note: I know kana very well, but know virtually no kanji or actual grammar or anything (pretty much just [犬]{いぬ} and how to say what my name is).


texts: Identifying the meaning of こんなこと in this context

texts:
For the full text see here. A girl has had an argument with her boyfriend. On the way home she thinks that maybe she should have apologised. She's now changing the password on her room door.

ぼんやりと字をいじっているうちに、字は「悪かった、ごめんなさい。」と並んでいた。いまさら、こんなことを言っても仕方がないのに、あたしもばかね。だけど、あすから、この言葉を言ってすごすわ。
While absentmindedly messing with the characters, the phrase "It's my fault. Sorry."  was lined up. Even though it's no use saying such a thing at this late stage, I'm an idiot, aren't I? However, tomorrow I'll spend time saying these words.

I don't fully understand this passage. What does こんなこと refer to here? Is it the phrase 悪かった、ごめんなさい or is it あたしもばかね. i.e. Is she saying that there's not point in calling herself an idiot, or is she saying there's no point in saying it was her fault?
Presumably この言葉 refers to 悪かった、ごめんなさい? I'm not confident that I'm putting all this together correctly.


texts:
So I encountered this sentence in a manga

  泣きたい日もあるじゃない

and I thought it was weird but meant something along the lines of "I never feel like crying", because of the negation of 泣きたい日もある, which I understand as "There's (also) some days when I/you want to cry" (of course I'm imposing the first person pronoun, but you can change it accordingly).

Just to check, I looked up the translation of the manga, as well as used deepl.com and they both translate this sentence as "Some days you just want to cry", which is the opposite of what I thought at first!

I looked parts of the sentence up thinking this may be a usual grammar point but can't find anything. Could someone explain what's going on?


texts:
If ”かぶせる” is a "causative verb," what does it mean when a causative verb is conjugated in the causative form?

  プランターに生えているカタバミの葉を用意し、アルミホイルをかぶせさせる。
  http://www.city.obama.fukui.jp/~edu/rika/school/hamatyu2/jugo16/school_hamatyu2_a_1.htm

  ドルチェ・ガバーナのマネキンは、絞首刑になる人にかぶせさせる 目隠しがあった。
  http://perabita.seesaa.net/article/163983279.html


texts: I think できる in this sentence here means "begin to exist", am I correct?

texts:
"大阪ではタピオカを入れた飲み物を売る店がたくさん***できていて***、。。。”

I looked it up in the Weblio Japanese-English Dictionary (the most trustworthy one online I suppose) and found this definition of できる (as below) the most reasonable one for the sentence above.

To my confusion, the definition and its example sentence do not seem like the same thing.

The definition says "to come into being""to start to exist""to take form". But then its example sentence is more like "to conceive (a child)" rather than "to appear""to start to exist." Can it be applied to both physical objects and living things? Or is it restricted to the latter?

Thank you all for taking the time to answer my question! I deeply deeply appreciate it!


texts: Pitch accent in combination with the を particle

texts:
I learnt that a word like 花 (はな) is of pitch pattern (2), i.e. with a drop after the last mora in case it is followed by a particle. Yet, when I hear people use a word like this is combination with the -を particle, it sounds to me like it is of pitch pattern (0), i.e. with no drop at all (accentless). Take, for instance, the sentence 花を買いました, where I cannot detect a drop.

My ear is not very trained in that sense, so I might be mistaken; but I have heard a lot of similar sentences in which I cannot detect a drop.

Can somebody confirm/refute my hunch? Even better, does anybody know the general rule (assuming there is one) in relation to the -を particle, and perhaps even related to other very common particles, such as -が, -は and -に?

Many thanks in advance!

Yair


texts:
In this phrase I couldn't find another meaning of たら (I guess it's not -た＋ら）:

  自分たらの事しか考えてなかった

I'd translate it as "I think only of my own business" or "I think only of myself".

I found in Denshi jisho that たら　attached to someone name is used to express exasperation. What would a good way to translate this "exasperation" in English?

What about other particles like な,　that would possibly be misunderstood?


texts: What is the difference between 元気 and 元氣?

texts: Also can you explain what each kanji character means?


texts:
I often hear "ひとどうし" in casual conversation, and I am never sure of its exact meaning.

I am not talking about 恋人同士, 大人同士, 日本人同士, 他人同士, etc.

Surprisingly, 人同士 is not in my dictionary nor ALC, almost no examples show up on the web, so I am starting to believe that "ひとどうし" might be only the product of my imagination. I only found those examples:

A:

  そこでは、仮設住宅での状況とは逆に、知らない人同士が場所を共有し、対戦して楽しんでいます。

B:

  外国籍市民を取り巻く友好の輪が広がり、様々な 文化背景を持つ人同士仲良く暮らせるように本書が活用されますこ とをお祈り申し上げます。

C:

  比較的同じ世代の人達といっても、社会人と学生、フリーターや学校、仕事など、生活リズムが全く異なる人同士が一緒に暮らす訳ですから、同じ住居人のライフスタイルはある程度理解し合う姿勢が求められると思います。


texts: Meaning of フリッカー and ニュル in the following sentence

texts:
Context: a boxer is having a hard time understanding the punches of his tall opponent.

  ノッポのリード…　フリッカーでもねェのに　この〝ニュル〟……　読めねっ…

Does フリッカー refer to フリッカージャブ? If so, could the first part of the sentence be translated as "Even though he doesn't use flicker jabs to take the lead..."?

As for ニュル, I thought it could be the katakana for "null", but I am not sure how it could fit the context. Could it have something to do with the ニュル onomatopoeia seen in the same page?

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


texts:
オカダ１勝目バクステ「余裕の勝利。人間ってのはねぇ、余裕の時はこうやって、壁に手をついて立つんだよ

The translation for this sentence is:

  After finally winning his first match オカダ (leaning his hand against the wall) says:"A man stands like this, with his hands on a wall, when things are easy in his life"

If there was no ねぇ in that sentence it would make perfect sense for the translation.


texts: Is there some way that a Japanese (sur)name must be written for it to make sense?

texts:
I understand surnames and given names usually have some reason for existing, and have existed for several years. My question, I guess, really is: if someone were making up a completely different name for themselves and wanted to use kanji in their surname (or given name) could they use any combination of sounds (and any of their corresponding kanji) and still get a comprehensible name?

For instance, in English, I could say that Schterice is a name, but it really wouldn't make any sense and most people would think it was strange. It had no history and doesn't really seem to stem from any known names. Still, it would still be a valid name, yes? I would like to know if the same would apply to Japanese names?

It seems like a really strange question, but I am confused. Please and thank you, in advance.


texts:
Text: エンジン回転数/電気モーター回転数
My understanding: Engine rpm/Electric motor rpm
My Issue: 回転数 has different meanings such as "rpm", "number of revolutions of the engine", "Engine revolution speed", "engine speed". It will vary depending upon the usage in any sentence. So, in sentences like above, Do we use rpm or speed?


texts: Why can some words be written with or without okurigana? How do the uses differ?

texts:
What is the difference for word compounds that can exist with 送り仮名 and without and still retain the same pronunciation?

As an example:

  巻き貝　と　巻貝

  取り引き　と　取引

If I'm correct, both of these are pronounced 「まきがい」 and 「とりひき」. Do they mean the same thing? If so, what would be a good reason for choosing one over the other. Also, how did it come about to be this way?

The only reason I could guess that both exist is because 「取り引き」 makes the reader pronounce it a specific way without leaving anything to question, but please correct me if this is incorrect.


texts: Does 文 refer only to written sentences, or can it be used for spoken sentences as well?

texts: I know that this kanji is associated with writing and text, and can mean "sentence."  When using it to mean "sentence", is it only a written sentence? I can't find any examples that unambiguously demonstrate that it can be a spoken sentence as well.


texts:
Could you explain the difference between マネ and 行動 as in the following sentences:

  安心したまえ　この男のリスクリターンの計算と‌自己保身に関してだけはなかなかのものだ
  刑事罰に問われるようなマネだけは決してしない

  Don't worry about that. This guy's ability to evaluate risk vs. return and his sense of self-preservation are quite something. He wouldn't do anything that would get him charged with a crime.

  自分の信念を持って行動しているに過ぎないわ。

  I'm just acting on my own beliefs.


texts: Can "ケンカになったのよ" be talking about a hypothetical?

texts:
In the latest chapter of One Piece this exchange happens between おでん, a skilled swordsman wondering why his disciples won't learn his style and his wife, トキ:

おでん: "おでん二刀流"最強だぞ?なぜ受けつがない!!

トキ: ふふふケンカになったのよ。誰が一番弟子になるかで真剣の大ゲンカ。あなたが好きすぎて死者が出るとこだった

In the English version this was translated as:

Oden: But Oden Two Sword Style is the greatest there is! Why won't they learn it?

Toki: Because they would've fought. A great big fight over who would be your foremost disciple. They love you so much that they would've killed each other.

My confusion comes from the fact that the English translation states that a fight "would've" happened, not that it did happen.
"あなたが好きすぎて死者が出るとこだった" specially seems like something that would imply they did indeed come close to dying after fighting over who'd be the number one disciple.
Based on this context, is it possible that "ケンカになったのよ" is referring to a hypothetical situation?


texts: How to say that you "learned a lot" by doing something

texts:
I was wondering if there is a simple way to say that "I learned a lot" by doing something, e.g. "I learned a lot about how to work well on a team in my first job". I know that there are the words 習う and 学ぶ, but I thought that both of these related to more formal, classroom style learning as opposed to something more informal and life-skills-like.

Thanks!


texts: Why is 「～といわず」 the correct expression in this sentence?

texts:
The following question is taken from a JLPT N1 grammar/expressions prep book:

  彼女はよほど花が好きらしい。家の（　　）花でいっぱいだ。

  １　中といわず外といわず　　　　２　中といっても外といっても

  ３　中はともかく外も　　　　　　４　中外もかまわず

In the book, no. 1 is listed as the correct answer, but no explanation is given. I've asked my Japanese teacher why, but she was equally puzzled. To me it seems nos. 1, 2 and 4 are all equivalent or have the same meaning.


texts:
Is it possible to express the difference between the English phrases "I don't want to do that" and "I don't want to have to do that"?

Where I don't want to do that can simply be それがしたくありません。

I don't want to have to do that means that you don't want it to be the case that a certain action is necessary to accomplish something or resolve an issue, etc.

An example situation might be a strong fighter is somewhat of a pacifist but is told someone is coming to challenge him that won't let up until one of them dies. The fighter is confident in his ability to win, and so says "I don't want to have to do that (kill him)"

Grammatically, させられたくありません。should do it, but I can't say I've heard that in actual use. Is there a more common expression? Or does this want to have to way of thinking about things not work well in Japanese?


texts:
であればこそ、そうした課題の地平に、私たちにとっての「里」、そして、自然との折り合いかたをたえず模索する契機となりうる新たな《里山》 像という結実が期待されるだろう。

Can someone explain what であればこそ means?


texts: Were there any specifics rules that were used to convert Chinese vocabulary into Japanese? Are they still perceptible in Modern Chinese?

texts: I know that when Chinese characters were incorporated into Japanese writing/vocabulary their pronunciation changed to be easier for Japanese people to pronounce, but were there any specific rules? What I mean by rules is if there was a systematic approach where certain Chinese phonemes were always converted to certain Japanese phonemes. If so, is this still perceptible in Modern Chinese?


texts: (When) can you use dictionary form with 間? / 辞書形と「間」は（どんな時に）一緒に使えますか？

texts:
I've just learned 間･間に, as in:

私はビーンにいる間、写真をたくさん取りたいですよ。
ジョンは出かけている間、ビールを飲みました。

All the examples on my grammar sheet use present-continuous form (～ている) or いる. (These are my own examples, though.) So my question is twofold:

Can you use present-tense dictionary form (e.g. 出かける) with 間?
If so, what time-frame would it indicate; when would the action take place?

和訳
私はつい最近「間・間に」を習いました。例えば、

私はビーンにいる間、写真をたくさん撮りたいですよ。
ジョンは出かけている間、ビールを飲みました。

私の文法プリントに載っている例文は全部現在進行形（～ている）か「いる」を使っています（上のは自作の例文ですが）。そこで、二つの質問があります。

現在の辞書形（例：出かける）を「間」と一緒に使うことはできますか？
使えるとしたら、前後関係はどうなるのですか？動作はいつ行われるのですか？


texts:
やけに高く響くその靴音は、スバルにとって焦燥感の原因であると同時に、心の拠り所でもあった。

So I basically translate it as "For Subaru, those footsteps that echoed absurdly loud were, at the same time, the source of his impatience and also the one thing he could rely on."

What confuses me here is 「であると同時に」. It is the same as 「だと同時に」, right? Either way, I don't understand this construction/grammar.

I was thinking that maybe it would be ok to rephrase it like this:

  やけに高く響くその靴音は、スバルにとって同時に焦燥感の原因と、心の拠り所でもあった。

Also, despite the grammar points, is my translation close enough? Those are the first lines of a book I'm reading btw.


texts:
茶の初穂を飲むと憎まれる, 幸福は共有されることによって決して減少しない

cha no hatsuho wo nomu to nikumarer, Kōfuku wa kyōyū sa reru koto ni yotte kesshite genshō shinai'

One shouldn’t drink a good tea by oneself, it’s better to share it with others. Happiness never decreases by being shared.


texts: Meaning of 次の日はないようにする

texts:
The sentence is found in a monologue about a persons working habits, particularly how they don't have time to sleep, and are constantly working at their 3 jobs.

The paragraph goes:

  ほとんど寝てなかったね。朝帰ってきて、ちょっとベッド入って、また家庭教師行って。で、スーパー、その次の日はないようにしてたりです。

The part I don't understand is the

  次の日はないようにしてたりです。

I understand ようにする is to do habitually, but the 日は is throwing me off. Could it mean "working in a way so there there is no next day"?


texts: What is the meaning ウソ & 誰向 in this sentence

texts:
I've been wondering about the different usage for USO in Japanese.

Recently I bumped in this little text:

  多分いつも以上に誰向けだか分からない内容になってます　自分の好きなものにウソをついてはいけない松野で！

My only issue here is with 誰向 and ウソ.

As for the first one I know the meaning of both Kanji, it's just I can't make up what they mean together.

As for USO usually it would be something about "false" information but well I'm not too sure here either.


texts: Is there an easily accessible list of terms in the Japanese grammar written both in Japanese and English?

texts:
I am a native Japanese speaker with a casual interest in languages.  I sometimes have trouble explaining the Japanese grammar in English because I do not know the established English translation of some technical terms in the Japanese grammar such as joshi (助詞).  (In this particular case, it seems that joshi is usually translated as “particle.”)

I can look up a Japanese-English dictionary for this purpose, but is there any more easily accessible list of technical terms, preferably freely available online?

Added: I know several general Japanese-English dictionaries and translation services freely available online, which can be used to satisfy my need but not in the most convenient way.  I am looking for a simple table of technical terms in the Japanese grammar written both in Japanese and in English, which may look like:

  文: sentence
  段落: paragraph
  名詞: noun
  動詞: verb
  助詞: particle
  …


texts: Is it correct to say はい in this situation?

texts:
For example, let's say someone says

  いつでもいいよ！

In English I would just simply say, "okay, sure, alright" just to tell the speaker I heard what they said.

I initially thought to reply with はい but that doesn't feel right, it feels like はい is more of a confirmation than simple acknowledgement.

Is はい the proper term to use to acknowledge this kind of statement? What other ways can I acknowledge someone said something?


texts: Is the use of 先生 and similar titles context sensitive?

texts:
While it is generally safe to use -さん when taking to someone and the use of -先生 is appropriate for use in a school environment when talking to a teacher, would the use of -先生 carry over outside of the school environment if encounter the person under different circumstances?

For example, while the use of the honorifics is pretty obvious in a school environment, suppose the teacher of one of the classes starts to learn a new martial art where one of their students holds a higher rank within the art, how would this affect the use of honorifics?


texts: Help translating line from Japanese song

texts:
A line from a Japanese song that I am trying to translate into English is "たわいない 判らない 理由 存在".
Separately I understand these words to mean trivial, don't understand, reason, and existence, respectively, but I'm having trouble coming up with a semantic translation. The best I've come up with is "The trivial, incomprehensible reason for existence". I think what's throwing me off is the "理由 存在" part. I feel like "存在 理由" makes more sense.

For context, the rest of the verse is:
あなたと残す後悔
誰も読めないカルテ
不愉快　繰り返して

Which I have translated as:
The regret after leaving you
An inexplicable medical record
The unpleasantness repeats

Thank you!


texts:
I don't know how to translate this sentence. Can you help me?
Here is the sentence:

  頭に釘を打たれたかのような激痛が１日以上続きました。

I think it's really difficult to translate " 動詞+かのような+名詞 "


texts: How should the 貰っておく part be interpreted? What (I) can receive, I ... (?).


texts: Is There a Good Guide to Thinking in Japanese?

texts:
One of the struggles of learning a new language is learning to think in that language.

For example, when someone asks me "where did I you go?" I translate the answer in my head to:

  Speaking of me, the bookstore, I went.

And then answer in Japanese.

However, if I'm trying to express an idea I've never said before

  That was more difficult than I thought it would be.

or an idea that doesn't conform to "A は B です", I'm lost.

Is there a guide or ruleset to help guide English speakers on how to start arranging their thoughts in a more Japanese way?


texts: How to translate「じっくり見たことなかったですよね」?

texts:
I'm trying to translate a little snippet to practice my Japanese. However the sentence「じっくり見たことなかったですよね」is giving me some trouble.
A friend of mine said that it would be more literal to translate it as "I've never studied you before", though it doesn't exactly make sense in the context...
I think "I've never seen you like this before" would make more sense in the context? I'm not exactly sure how to translate it.
Here's the whole panel:

か: なんだ？
て: 眼鏡ないと印象変わるよな〜
つ: じっくり見たことなかったですよねー
か: ジロジロ見るんじゃない！

Any help would be greatly appreciated!


texts:
I've been having a play with Duolingo and I came across this utterance:

果物をお一つどうぞ。

So far I've come across some pretty unnatural stuff and it's left me rather skeptical.
I've never seen an honorific on a number before. Assuming this is natural how should it be used? Can I add お to any number plus counter, and when should I do so?


texts:
What's the best translation of "weeaboo" in Japanese?

I would define a weeaboo as a (generally derogatory term for a) non-Japanese person who is highly interested in manga, anime, Japanese video games, and/or Japanese culture in general.

Otaku (おたく/オタク) is somewhat a synonym of weeaboo in English, but apparently not so in Japanese, where it means nerd/geek more broadly, not necessarily in manga/anime/video games.

I wasn't able to find an entry on Jisho.org or relevant links besides two Reddit posts (link 1, link 2), which suggested the following:

ウィアブー/ウィーアブー
日本かぶれ
日本好き for a more neutral term

Which of these terms is most commonly used? What are the connotations of each of these terms, and where might they differ from the English term "weeaboo"? Are they established in any dictionaries? Are there any other terms that might be used?


texts: Is a sentence containing two similar kanji any known figure of speech

texts:
Searching for Japanese poetry or simply reading song lyrics, I can find very often some sentences that contain two kanji characters of specific properties: They are usually close to each other, one is a compound of the another one (or they can just look similar) but usually their meaning is different.
Some examples:

儚く夢 [hakanaku yume, fleeting dream]
救いを求めて [sukui o motomete, craving for help]
言ったこと信じられない [itta koto shinjirarenai, unbelievable what was said]

(the last one did not come from the real life but it is only an example so it can be grammatically wrong)
My question is: Is it some kind of identified figure of speech like alliteration or assonance in English? If yes, what is the name of it?


texts:
こんにちは！

I am currently learning the Japanese language (along with the Russian language) outside of schooling, and decided that besides reading raw text for practice I could use manga as well. However, I was quite confused when I began reading my favorite series 'One Piece'.
I noticed that while I could not read most of the kanji (along with most katakana), pieces were written in hiragana to the side (which is apparently called furigana). However, furigana only appears to be besides kanji and not most katakana (despite it "consisting of smaller kana").

Can someone explain the exact usage of furigana (why it is sometimes used in rather mature series too), and what the section without furigana says.

ありがとう!


texts: Dictionary form vs Teiru form for habits

texts:
Some people say the ている form can be used to talk about regular habits. I'm not sure, but sometimes the dictionary form seems to be used in the same way. Is there any difference between them in that context? Is there a way to know which to use? The sentence that made me think about it I found it in a grammar book. The sentence is:

  マヌエル君のお母さんはとてもきれいな絵を描きます。

Would it be possible to say the same thing with 描いています? Is it the same thing? If not, how can I know?


texts:
I was looking for some Evangelion merch on red bubble when I stumbled upon a cup on which was written the following japanese phrase:

何が怖いのか?

With the english translation below it, being "What are you afraid of?"
Which isn't exactly how my non-expert self would translate it. In fact, I would translate it very roughly like "Is anything scary?", because to me the structure of the phrase looks like 何 + subject marker が + adjective 怖い + doubt particle の and question transformer か. "What are you afraid of?" for me would be something like "怖いって何ですか" or something like that, but I might be missing some kind of rule/having some kind of misconception, since I'm a relative beginner.


texts:
I know it's a simple question but I want to be sure if the answer so I don't get confused. I know to search is 探す but what about "I found (something)"? Because 探した　doesn't seem correct and seems like it would mean "I searched".

メガネを見つかった？Or メガネを見つかっていた？


texts: How to convey the best possible word in japanese for 'I want to clobber him'?

texts:
I'm having difficulty choosing word for 'to clobber' in Japanese.

What I mean for this 'Clobber' is to beat thoroughly and conclusively in a fight competition. I wonder if I can use these words:

  殴られる (as in ぶん殴る)
  or
  鍛える
  or
  ぶとばす
  or
  潰す

Can I use these forms in formal situation? Or it's strictly used in colloquial terms?

Any help is really appreciated.Thanks! (especially native speaker who can understand the nuance/words difference)


texts: How is Japanese regulated by the Japanese government and any other organizations?

texts:
Some languages, but not English, have regulators such as the Académie française (French Academy). Amongst other things, it decides whether or not English words such as email, software and ウォークマン ought to be in the French language, or should be replaced with French-derived terms like courriel, logiciel and baladeur.

Wikipedia says the Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁) at the Ministry of Education of Japan (文部科学省) plays a role in language regulation. Previous questions have mentioned that the government has deprecated hentaigana and certain kanji. Does any other form of language regulation occur, either by the Japanese government, or organizations theoretically independent of it?


texts: Are you supposed to not pronounce the "い" in います when reading out sentences or speaking?

texts: New learner of two weeks. Noticed in my software course after hours of using it that the い  seems to never pronounced or maybe I don't hear it? Is this a rule that when reading only "mas" should be heard?


texts:
The following sentence stands isolated:

世界遺産とは世界の子供たちや孫たちに残していかなければならない自然や建物のことである。

First, my attempt at translation:
"With the world heritage, there are buildings and nature which we must from now on leave to our children and grand children."

I've no idea how to meaningfully translate this とは. と "adds up" with は here, but I can't make much sense of と in this position.

I must add that I feel very unsure about the whole sentence.
I just learned about the -ていく construction which expresses that one is entering  times of change from now on. I made 残していかなければならない an attribute to 自然や建物 because I couldn't muster an interpretation which would have made more sense. But I couldn't find a way to translate 残していかなければならない without 自然や建物 and this makes me doubt my understanding of the -ていく pattern...^^


texts: Do I need to use という in 「この話が事実に基づいているという証拠はある。」?

texts:
この話{はなし}が事{じ}実{じつ}に基{もと}づいているという証{しょう}拠{こ}はある。
There is evidence that this story is based on facts.

Does the meaning change if I remove という so it becomes as follows?

この話{はなし}が事{じ}実{じつ}に基{もと}づいている証{しょう}拠{こ}はある。


texts: Hello: I don't speak Japanese, so the only way for me to translate ホテルブレッド was using Google Translate, and "Hotel Bled" was the translation. Could someone please confirm if that's the correct translation? The words are printed on a snack label and it doesn't make sense to "name" a snack like that. Thank you !


texts: What nouns work with やめる when you quit doing something

texts:
８日、レスリングの吉田沙保里さんが選手をやめると発表しました。
  On the 8th, Wrestling's Saori Yoshida announced that she will quit the sport.

I'm not sure if my problem is with the use of やめる or with 選手 here.

I understand 選手 to mean a person who does a sport (let's use the word 'player'). But you can't quit player, you can only quit being a player, or maybe quit as a player.

If I was going to quit being company president would 社長をやめる be correct? This one sounds weird to me.

What about eating apples? Would both りんごを食べるのをやめる and ちんごを食べる both be okay? Both of these sound fine to me.

Basically, I think I'm trying to understand what kind of nouns I can use with やめる, but I'm not even sure I can explain how it works in English. If 選手をやめる is correct though, then it doesn't work the same in Japanese.

Please also see my comment below, which may or may not be related to the problem I seem to be having.


texts: What does the 「をな」mean in this sentence?

texts:
It is said by a boy who intend to train boxing by himself.

  あしたのために-その3" のひみつ練習をな！

I think that the 「な」 would be

1) Verb 為す but I don't have any idea why it does not include the part to indicate some forms of verb like なせ (imperative form)　or なそう (volitional form)

2) emphasis sentence-ending particle 「な」


texts:
I found it in a dictionary but I'm not sure if actually means money.

Do Japanese people use this word?


texts: I know the grammatical form ない+までも that means "not until that degree, but", however I'm not sure how to translate とはいかないまでも in English. I found this expression in the following sentence:"明日ハイキングだ。快晴とはいかないまでも、雨は降らないで欲しい". I translated it roughly as :"tomorrow we got to hike. I don't hope it's a clear day, but that  it doesn't (arrive to the point that) rain". Was I close?


texts: Meaning of この延長線上にこそ、

texts:
Does X。この延長線上にこそ、Y。 have the same meaning as XなのでY ?

Context: 今回、時間の制約が大変厳しい状況にありますが、[...]自動的なチェックのしくみを実現したいと考えます。この延長線上にこそ、新しい世代のより低コストな技術を安定的に評価できる体制が実現可能となります。


texts: Clarification on the usage of でも in this sentence

texts:
縁起でもないこと言わないでよ

I understand the gist of the sentence. The speaker is saying something like "Please don't say something so grim". But how does でも play into this? Why is it not 縁起ないこと instead? So it would be like "thing with no luck".

The closest definition which makes sense to me is "~or something" for でも. But, even if don't make sense because there is a lack of commas after でも


texts: Can someone explain this verb conjugation?

texts:
This is taken from a songs lyrics

  罪は忘れさられた

It translates to

The crime was forgotten

So I'd say this is in passive form except what is the さ doing there ?

Shouldn't it be 忘れられた ?

Then why is the さ there?


texts: How to say "items remaining from last meeting"?

texts:
I am setting up a meeting agenda and of the items is "covering the items left over from last meeting".

I though something like "前回のミーティングの残件” Would have worked but it turns out that 残件 isn't a word and I have having trouble finding alternatives.

Any ideas?


texts:
Came across this sentence in a memoir and I have a grammar question about it. For context, a person is thinking about someone sleeping nearby:

  さっき声をかけてきたヤツは当分寝ないだろ。残るは寝ているか寝ていないかわからない隣の隣。

Regarding 「残るは」, is this a set phrase or expression? It's not a nominalized verb, as far as I can tell, as those typically possess the particle の, or こと. And I've seen it pop up in other things I've read. I understand the general meaning as:

  The guy who spoke up earlier won't be asleep for some time. That leaves the guy next to him（隣の隣）, who I'm not sure is asleep.

Yet why is 残る left with は, as opposed to こと or の? Is it functioning in a similar way to には after a verb, whereby it doesn't need to be nominalized with こと or の? Given the very modern context of the memoir I'm not convinced it's a case of classical Japanese slipping in, but it might be a fixed expression used more generally in certain situations? It's hard to say.


texts: What are the meanings of おはようございません and ありがとうございません?

texts:
Nobody seems to say those things.

I want to know the meanings of おはようございません and ありがとうございません.


texts:
In my bank statement there  is the following line above transactions.

1-6件を表示(全6件中)

How is the above pronounced?

What is the meaning of 中 in 件中?


texts: What is the purpose of もの in this sentence?

texts:
In the sentence

  user3856370は鬼のおなかの中を、針の刀でちくちくと刺したものだから、鬼はたいへんです。

What is the purpose of ものだ? It seems to me that ...刺したから... (because he stabbed) would work on its own. I could also imagine that ...刺したのだから... might work where the のだ is the explanatory-の thing. But I can't make sense out of the whole ...刺したものだから... construction.

PS. I didn't really stab the ogre but I couldn't find the right kanji for the correct name.


texts: Is there a school definition of the word ミスター aside from "mister"?

texts:
The manga I'm reading is set in school. And the girls, who are looking at their crush (who is at that moment playing soccer) said: "さすが去年のミスター!".

If I'm going to translate this, it will be: "As expected from last year's mister!". Is my idea of what was said by the girls correct?

Although I already have this personal translation, I still can't understand what does "mister" mean. I'm doubtful if my understanding is correct, because the Japanese language have their abbreviated words such as "JK" and "全中", which are terms used in school setting. At the back of my mind I'm thinking maybe the guy is the winner of a popularity contest in their school that is why they're calling him "ミスター". But again, I'm not sure if I'm correct because when I searched it in google all the translation I got about it is that it means "mister".


texts: According to jisho.org, [大]{おお}[勢]{ぜい} means 'crowd of people; great number of people'. Yet I have seen '大勢の人' several times: is it redundant?


texts:
I have always wondered how to ask someone (like my Japanese teacher) to tell me how to say something in Japanese.  For example, I wanted to ask Kato Sensei how to say "Please send me a photo via Instagram DM."... If I were to ask her in English, I would say, "How do you say 'Please send me a photo via Instagram DM' in Japanese?"  But if I asked a person in Japanese "How do you say 〜?" in English, that wouldn't make sense, I guess.  So, my question to the Japanese masters out there: How do you say "How do you say __ [in Japanese]?" in Japanese??
Thank you, and I am eager for your replies!!


texts: Question about use of セリフ in Yotsuba vol 1

texts:
I was struggling with this part of Yotsuba vol1 and couldn't find any other questions on it so I thought I would post here to make sure I am understanding this right.

The sentence reads

  お？どこでおぼえたそのセリフ

And is a response from Jumbo after Yotsuba comments on how much he has grown since she last saw him.

Just from looking at an English version of the comic, I know that he is saying something long the lines of:

  Hah. Where did you remember that phrase from?

I know どこ means where, and from Jisho it looks like おぼえた comes from 覚える (to remember).

The last part, セリフ has a few translations on Jisho:

セリフ - serif (as in font/typography)
台詞 - speech; words; one's lines; remarks (Usually written using kana alone)
台詞回し - theatrical elocution

of which option 2 seems to make the most sense.

Does this all seem correct, and if so is there any reason why the last word is written in katakana?


texts: Help with a Japanese joke: the link between メダカ and 小学生

texts:
I was playing my Japanese version of animal crossing new leaf and when I caught a Killifish the dialog said:

  メダカを　釣{つ}り上{あ}げた！　まだ小学生{しょうがくせい}だな

I get the gist of what it says but I think it's some sort of joke as is the custom when you catch something in the English games. Would anyone be able to explain this joke (if it is one)?


texts:
(Names below have been changed.)

I received the following (partial) message from B先生, my previous teacher, after going through a JLPT class with C先生 and passing the N2 exam. How should I interpret the bolded sentence?

  おおお〜〜〜！Aさん、おめでと〜〜〜〜〜＼(^o^)／Aさんなら大丈夫だと思っていましたよ！次はN1ですか？C先生になんでも聞いて、合格できるように頑張って！

The って at the back confuses me. To me, it can mean either one of these two things:

Quotation particle って, in which case the quote doesn't make sense to me (shouldn't it be something like 頑張っていたって?)
Te-form of 頑張る, in which case it signals a request (so is she asking me to work hard for N1?)

Please advise.


texts: Question about repeating the object after だ

texts:
I am a total noob when it comes to Japanese, so I am reading　よつば　Vol.1 to try and pick up some simple words/phrases.

On page 4, Yotsuba's father says, in response to her asking if there is a festival that day:

  学校だ学校

I understand that he is telling her that there is a school, but is there a reason why he says this instead of just

  学校だ

I figure this may just be an expressive thing, almost as if to say "Calm down, it's just a school", but I wanted to check if there is some grammatical reason why he says this.

Apologies if this question does not belong here, or if I have misunderstood something!

The panel in question:


texts: When are 止める, 停める and 留める read as とめる, やめる or とどめる?

texts:
When are 止める, 停める and 留める read as とめる or とどめる (and in the case of 止める, やめる)?

I think 止めてください could be read as both やめてください and とめてください, which I think could maybe be translated as "cut it out" and "please stop" in English respectively, but what exactly is the difference in usage and meaning between やめる and とめる?

Is とどめる usually written in Hiragana, and if not in what contexts do you use that reading rather than the others?

What exactly is the difference in usage between the three Kanji 止, 停 and 留? (Looking at the Google IME explanation, I think the 止 is used for generic "stop", 停 when used in reference to cars stopping etc. 留 I'm not 100% on, but I think it might have something to do with "making something stay"/"detaining" looking at the Yahoo J-E definition.)


texts:
I came across this sentence:

「先月ケンカして　別れた　だけどあれだな　こう…弱ってる時　傍にいてくれたら　何でも許そうって　気になるよーな」

(The spaces marked where one line of the speech bubble ends)
The context is that two guys are talking about what they would do when they get really sick. After talking about how one of them wants to be treated by his girlfriend, he is asked whether they are still together and answers with the sentence above.
I was struggling with the meaning of 「気になる」in this sentence until I read this section from https://meaning-book.com/blog/20190122152525.html:
そして「気持ちになる」には、「その気持ちになる」という意味もあります。
例えば、「母親におだてられて、その『気になる』というフレーズを使う時、「母親のおだてに乗って、その気持ちになる」という意味があります。
「東大に行けると言われて『その気になる』」は、東大に行けるのではないかという気持ちになるという意味になります。
And I further found this definition: https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E5%85%B6%E3%81%AE%E6%B0%97%E3%81%AB%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B/
I interpreted this って気になる as some kind of the same expression (if I am wrong about that, please correct me!) and wanted to ask how frequent the use of this 「気になる」 is.


texts:
色白の肌に優しそうな目がほほ笑んでいる。
  Her light complexion ?? kind looking eyes were smiling.

Is this に simply 'in'? i.e. "Her kind looking eyes were smiling in her pale skin." That sounds a bit weird.

My other thought was that it might be "due to" i.e. the fact that her skin is pale makes her eyes stand out more.


texts:
In 部, the right side radical is called the large village radical.
For 陪, the left side radical is called the small village radical.

Why are their names different on different sides even though both are 阝?


texts:
Could you please explain me how could I distinguish the verbs 判断【はんだん】する, 判定【はんてい】する and 決定【けってい】する ? I tend to mix them, but could not find a could explanation of in which situations each of them could be used.

Thank you!


texts: I was wondering, what the difference is between 〜ておく and 〜っぱなし?  For example, how is the sentence お皿を洗いながらお水を出しっぱなしにしました。different from お皿を洗いながらお水を出しておきました。? Thanks.


texts: ロボットは人間に怪我をさせてはいけない＝robot must not make human do harm?

texts:
I come across this sentence in Tobira:

ロボットは人間に怪我をさせてはいけない。

I think it means "Robot must not do harm to human", but can it be understood as "Robot must not make human do harm" ?


texts:
In an email, I came across

  搭載されてます機能。。。

I understand how 「～ています」can get shortened to 「～てます」, but I thought this was informal (hence, contradicting the need for the 「～ます」 ending.

Also, I found it strange to be using a verb with a 「～ます」 ending as an adjective. What are the rules/nuances of using 「～ます」 like this?


texts:
I'm having trouble translating this sentence from a manga.
A guy who's already dead is talking to another.
He says:
私を殺したあの時と

And then the next page, it's only this speech bubble:
何一つ

I would have translated it as "You said you'd kill me that day" - "but you haven't killed anything at all" (from the context of the story).
But could the first sentence not also mean "When you killed me that day"? I don't really understand the meaning of と at the end. Is it for quotation or as when/if-indication (then と would be in the middle of the sentence).

Thank you for your help!


texts: Is this translation of "When are you going to that person's house?" correct?

texts:
あなたはあの人の家に行くことはいつですか

Is that correct or natural?

Some people translate it as

  あなたはいつあの人の家にいくんですか

or:

  いつあなたはあの人の家に行くんですか

I have trouble using いつ, is there any rule to it? you can put it in any part of a sentence?


texts:
My question pertains to the 拒絶したところで quote in the third panel:

薄っぺらい道義心で本能を拒絶したところで戦うお前は楽しそうだったお前の本能は血を求めてるんだよ神楽

The background is that the girl is from a tribe of bloodlusty mercenaries and has worked a few stints for this パンチパーマやくざ before deciding that she didn't want to have anything to do with mercenary work anymore and to turn over a new leaf.
I'm now trying to figure out the exact meaning of ～たところで here, as I've admittedly never come across it in this fashion. I assume the grammar used here is this one: https://nihongokyoshi-net.com/2020/01/20/jlptn1-grammar-tatokorode/
but I'm not sure. That'd make the translation following: Even with you rejecting (trying to reject?) your natural instincts with that thin line of moral sense of yours, you still seemed to enjoy yourself fighting. Your instincts are craving for blood, Kagura.
I know that there are a few other ところs that could work in this fashion, e.g. 今食べ終わったところで、今腹いっぱいよ and 昨晩いい夢見てたんだけどちょうど面白いところで目を覚めちゃった but none of those make sense in this context. Am I right with my interpretation here? And if yes, is the 'tried to/attempted to' (even if you tried to reject your...) implied here? I'd expect something more along the lines of 拒絶しようとしたところで in that case but I don't exactly know about the specifics on how this grammar is usually used and interpreted.
As always any input is greatly appreciated!
Edit: Sorry for the lousy picture, if there's anything that needs to be cleared up, let me know!


texts: About nine years ago I had a Japanese teacher from Osaka, and I'm pretty sure she pronounced 教室【きょうしつ】 as "kyoshtsu", i.e. dropping the "i" in しつ.  The reason I remember is that I had trouble learning to say it.  But my current teacher, from Niigata, distinctly says the "i". Is this a regional difference, something that varies from person to person, or am I just not remembering it properly?


texts:
「んー……駄目だねこりゃ。<囁告篇帙>自体は情報を検索してるっぽいんだけど、それをあたしに伝える機能が死んでるっていうのかな。……」

The speaker was talking to herself. I’m not sure why っていうの is used here. Usually というのか signifies a rhetorical question meaning “Are you saying ...” (which doesn’t fit in the context) and it seems feasible to just say かな in this sentence.
Could you please explain this っていうのかな?


texts: How to say "Do you want to know?" in Japanese 尊敬語?

texts:
In 尊敬語、we use 「ご存じですか。」to say "Do you know?".

Now, how do we say for asking 「知りたいでしょうか。」or "Do you want to know?" in Japanese 尊敬語?


texts:
僕の住まう差大角豆(ささげ)町の町並みは都会とは程遠く、木々が街道を飾り、町の至る所に雑木林があったりと、とても長閑(のどか)な町だ。

Is the あったりと connected to the last part of the sentence through the 〜たりする grammar? If so, what does "と" mean in "あったりと"?

I know that in 〜たりする its last use can omit the する, but since in this case the sentence ends with だ, is it the same thing? I mean, is it possible to use this grammar with the last part of the sentence being です or だ (which in this case the する has to be omitted)?


texts:
Take the following sentences. The context is, one girl talks to another after having been caught examining someone's collection of stuffed animals. (Very out of character for the second girl.) The first girl is the only one talking:

The first sentence is easy, though I don't know the purpose of the squiggly line:

  可愛いでしょ〜

Not, sure why the second is in カタカナ, but I believe it just clarifies the first sentence:

  ソレ〜

I'm guessing the の at the end of the third just softens the sentence, but I'm not sure. I also don't know why 飾る is in gerund form, or whether ーてるの is doing something else entirely. If I had to translate, I would say: "I will go shop and decorate(ing?)"

  私が時々買ってきて飾ってるの〜

The fourth sentence would seem to mean "Everyone is gathering things as well, but..."

  みんなが持ち寄ってるものもあるケド・・・

Or maybe the 〜 aren't meant to break up the sentence?

Edit

My questions are:

What does the ーてるの construction do?

How does the gerund work in the example (-ing doesn't seem to fit)?

Does the last sentence refer to people gathering for something, or gathering things?

What is the tilde doing?


texts:
In the famous story 風の又三郎, the sound どう is used to describe the wind in several places, including the song in the intro.

One such place is:

  青ぞらで風がどうと鳴り、日光は運動場いっぱいでした

I did some research, and it seems that 「どう」 is not a normal way to express the sound of wind in Japanese. I have heard that Mr. Miyazawa is "a master of onomatopoeia" so I guess he made this expression up himself.

However, no matter how I think about it I cannot seem to match any sound of wind I have heard before with "doh".

How to Japanese people interpret this? Is this supposed to be the sound of something slapping against something else due to the strong wind?

If it was "dooooooh" I might understand it as a blowing sound, but it is always short, especially in the introduction song, which I have heard read very quickly in readings. So it seems more percussive than blowing.


texts:
What are the essential Japanese counter words?

For example -dai for machines, -mai for papers and stuff like that.

What else to expect/know?

Thank you


texts: newbie trying to understand どの and くらい in the phrase どのくらい

texts:
どの seems to be most frequently glossed as “which (X)”. And I understand that くらい has the sense of “approximately”.
But when I read

ここからホテルまでどのくらいかかりますか,

rather than “about which”, どのくらい has the sense of something like “about how far”. どの seems to be covering a lot of semantic ground.
Am I confronting 2 different words?
Is there a more-encompassing way of understanding どの ?


texts: Difference between the particles で and に？

texts: I have noticed that both the particlesで and に tend to mean the same thing (in / on). What ous the exact difference between these two, how do I know when to usr I've or the other, and what are some differences between hire these propositions are used I English versus Japanese, and what are some of the most common gotchas/catches?


texts: Ending a phrase with なく instead of a verb

texts:
私はいつもハーブティーをティーバッグでなく、葉っぱ{はっぱ}から煎れて｛いれて｝いる。

From Jpod101. The meaning of the sentence is clear (I always make herb tea with leaves instead of a tea bag), but ハーブティーをティーバッグでなく doesn't sound grammatical with なく instead of a verb at the end. Is it just short form for e.g. ハーブティーをティーバッグで煎れていなく?


texts:
Can someone help me understand if the difference in use between the form ます and the form て in this kind of sentence?
魚が泳いでいます。
(It's the same as when we say in English that we're doing something?)
魚が泳ぎます。
(It's like attesting a fact?)


texts: Does 切った mean to "cut out" or "cut from"?

texts:
I was pretty sure that 切{き}った meant something was cut from something else. So ケーキから一人分{ひっとりぶん}を切{き}った would mean, "one piece was cut from the cake."

However, I came across a usage which, at least at first, doesn't seem to conform to that understanding. In my JLPT textbook, there is this graph showing the number of people in the farming industry (ignore the red line, it's just a pen mark):

One question asked which of four sentences best describes the change from the beginning to the end of the graph. This is the correct answer:

  一千{いっせん}万人{まんにん}を上回{うわまわ}っていたものが、300万{まん}人{にん}を切{き}った。

My erroneous interpretation was that the sentence meant something like "There were over 10 million people, but 3 million were cut." Or, in other words, 3 million cut from 10 million leaves 7 million remaining. But the graph shows it's 3 million remaining, not 7 million, so I didn't think this was the right answer.

Instead, after checking the answers and seeing that this sentence is indeed the correct description, I'm now guessing the sentence is supposed to mean "There were over 10 million people, but it was cut down to 3 million."

However, I can't see how in this sentence 切{き}った means "cut down to", and not "cut from".

What is it that I am not seeing in this sentence, or what am I not understanding about 切{き}る?


texts: How to look up for stems (in the etymological sense)

texts:
I find it helpful (and fun) to learn a group of words that are connected etymologically. For example, the stem うら(裏、心) is related to so many words ranging from JLPT N1 to N5 including:

うら(裏)
憂う
嬉しい
羨ましい　（うら　やむ　し）
占う　（one of the many なう words）
恨む

On the other hand, there are many words that can be seen as the stem + なう，the most common of which being 行う, which is intrinsically related to 起こる via the stem.

Some other なう words that are intrinsically connected with other words via stem include

失う　（薄い）
伴う　（共）
償う　（継ぐ）
担う　（荷）
商う　（秋）

For years I have been looking up the etymologies of these words individually, mainly through sites like gogen-allguide.com, but now I believe there should be a better way to arrange these things. I find 古文辞書s somewhat helpful, but not right to the point.

旧仮名遣い is not an issue for me so I also welcome suggestions based on it.

Edit

The above information is not completely correct, especially the part about なう words. Check the answer(s) before you memorize them. I have subscribed to KDJ following the suggestion in the answer and it is in indeed helpful.


texts:
そのきつねがなにかしきりと前{まえ}あしで顔{かお}をこすっているかと思{おも}うと、なにか草の葉{は}を頭{あたま}にのっけて、ちゅう帰{かえ}りのようなことをした。

How is なにか used in this sentence? It is used twice, but it doesn't seem to mean "something" in this case. The sentence is from a story called "小学生ときつね"

Thank you


texts: Having trouble parsing out 「私は今までの私ではない」

texts:
I've been struggling with the possessive and the statement of existence in the following phrase:

  私は今までの私ではない

The easy part is "I am until now"...but then I get stuck on 「の私ではない」. By itself, I understand「ではない」to mean "am not," but then「の私」throws me: "of me"?

How off-base is the following interpretation?

  I haven't been myself until now


texts:
Im having so much troubles trying to find a good explanation on how to use the て形 to express a cause, I saw that its more natural to use when the second part of the sentence is either a potential form or volitional, so I came up with the sentence :

喋らなくて練習できない。

Which sounded a bit weird to me and I had confirmation from a friend that it was better to use 【から】 here...
I have no trouble understanding this form when its used, but sometimes when I use it myself it doesnt feel right to my ear and often feel like I should use 【から】 instead of the て形
Here are two sentences :

車がなくて行けない。
車がないから行けない。

I asked him how he sees those two sentences and he said that the first sounded more like a condition than an explication of "why I can't go".
I really like to fully understand things but here I must admit I have no idea how this should be understood, like how japanese people understand those sentences and the nuance, and how you would translate them...
Thanks


texts: hontou nano ka , is "na" here part of the question marker or is it something else?

texts: I know that you can use ka, no, and noka as question markers. But what is "na" in "hontou na no ka" . is it another form of question marker altogether or what does it mean the "na" in that sentence?


texts:
I recently came across the phrase はいてなかったり which has me stumped.

For context, a character utters the phrase after dismissing the possibility of something:

Character: Oh, those guys? Yeah, they're pretty weird, but I don't think they're criminals. はいてなかったり...

EDIT: Below is the original sentence in Japanese. I decided to paraphrase a bit because it was talking about love-related stuff that I felt might add more confusion to the issue.

Character: いろいろ奇怪な行動が多いから... 恋とは無縁なのかなぁと... はいてなかったり...

A fellow translator translated it as I just don't see it... but I can't figure out how they got there.

I can't find the phrase in any online dictionary, but it seems to be a fairly common phrase online (e.g. はいたりはいてなかったり, スカートはいてなかったり～). I can't figure out the meaning of those examples either.

Could it be a form of はい which is being negated, as in something not there?


texts: What are the most common words made with numbers,aka 語呂合わせ (4649)

texts:
This is partly inspired by the recent question on words with both types of kana.

I am referring to words such as:

  39=さんきゅう＝Thank you
  4649-> よろしく、46 in internet slang
  5963->　ご苦労さん

I know these are often used in telephone numbers (so for example a florist would try to get a telephone number containing 8787, 花花）

It is part of modern vocabulary not something covered in text books. I found the following links but I have not found a frequency list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_wordplay

http://www.tofugu.com/2011/08/30/goroawase-japanese-numbers-wordplay/#disqus_thread


texts: The difference between 困る and 困った in this sentence

texts:
This is a multiple choice question and the correct answer seems to be 困った, but I wonder why 困る is not right.
The sentence is as follows
しまった!財布を忘れてきた。(困る/困った)なあ。
I do think Japanese tense can be quite confusing sometimes. I'll appreciate it if you can explain this to me.


texts: best phrase choice for a derogatory reference to the "young generation"?

texts:
which is the natural way to refer to the "young generation" (ex: now its the "millennial generation") in a derogatory way:
若い連中
若連中 // don't say the い
若者
若者達
若者ら

Maybe say something like:
今の日本の＿＿は前の経済的な習慣、例えば愛社精神とか集団意識とか年功序列など、を尊重するというより、給料しか考えずに適当に転職するわがままやつらなんじゃない。


texts: How to determine the meaning of a Kanji?

texts:
I just finished studying Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji".
I would often look up Kanji in order to figure out their meaning when the English keyword was ambiguous.
To my surprise, many of the keywords seem to not capture (what I think is) the meaning of the Kanji very well.

For instance, some keywords seem to have been chosen to match compounds containing the Kanji:

発 "discharge" as part of 発射 "shooting/discharge".
The actual meaning of 発 is probably closer to "emit/depart".
組 "association" as part of 組合 "association/union/guild".
The actual meaning of 組 is probably closer to "set/group".
旗 "national flag" as part of 国旗 "national flag".
The actual meaning of 旗 is probably closer to "flag".

I imagine that this might be on purpose, as the book does the same with primitive meanings.
For instance, the primitive 艮 "silver" is derived from the Kanji 銀 "silver".
However, I feel that both on the primitive and on the Kanji level, this leads to more confusion than it does good, at least for me.

Some keywords seem to have been chosen based on a fairly obscure meaning of the Kanji:

安 "relax" seems to more commonly mean "cheap"
印 "stamp" seems to more commonly mean "mark"
況 "but of course" seems to more commonly mean "condition"

Finally, there are some keyword choices which I simply do not understand at all:

RtK is the only source claiming that 氷 means "icicle".
Instead, it seems to mean "ice" with the word for "icicle" being 氷柱, which would make sense.
RtK is the only source claiming that 般 means "carrier".
Instead, it seems to mean "sort/kind".
RtK is the only source claiming that 采 means "grab".
Instead, it seems to mean "dice" or "form".
RtK claims that 娠 means "with child".
It only appears as part of the compound 妊娠 "conception/pregnancy", so it is hard to tell.

I know that RtK does not set out to teach words or capture all of the possible meanings of a Kanji with a single English keyword.
However, I feel like for many Kanji, there would have been better choices than the ones in RtK and that this would help with learning words later.
I found the examples above after looking up just a small fraction of the Kanji, so I imagine that there are many more like this.
I haven't heard many people complain about this aspect of RtK, so maybe I am thinking about all of this in the wrong way?

Trying to come up with better keywords, I have found it to be incredibly difficult to determine the range of meanings of a Kanji, and even harder to find a principal meaning.
Nearly all online dictionaries are based on KANJIDIC, which in turn builds on the RtK keywords.
I found this very surprising, given that RtK does not set out or claim to provide definitive meanings for Kanji, so it seemed very unfitting for a general-purpose dictionary.
Due to this, the strangely chosen keywords for Kanji like 氷 and 般 are presented as their primary meanings in many dictionaries.
Other sources like Duolingo, Wiktionary or the Kyōiku and Jōyō lists on Wikipedia often disagree with no way to tell which is correct.
Is there a definitive resource for looking up the meaning of Kanji?

Finally, I have tried to determine the meaning of specific Kanji by looking up all the words written with them on jisho.
However, I am not sure if this is a sound approach, as the Japanese word might have existed before the writing, with the Kanji being a merely adequate but not perfect fit for the meaning of the word.
For instance, I have found that in the case of 旗, many sources agree on the meaning of the Kanji being "national flag", while its usage in words suggests that it means "flag".

Which brings me to my final question: What determines the meaning of a Kanji?
Is it the Japanese words that are written with the Kanji?
Is it the Chinese word that the character represents?
How do Japanese people know which Kanji to use for which words?
Or are all of these issues and questions just a consequence of my misconceptions?


texts: What's the difference between 海洋 and 大洋?

texts: According to my dictionary they both mean "ocean", but I guess there is a reason for both words to exist. Am I right ?


texts:
How to say "a student essay"?
A simple text written of around 50 to 150 words for a foreign language class.
I found 論文 but I am afraid it means something longer, for more specialized fields like history, economics etc.
And there is the translation 文章*, but it also means "sentence" (?).
*What is term for the most general form of writing or text


texts: What does this sentence including もとで mean?

texts:
しかし、あの川のことがもとでじっさい兵太郎君は病気になったのなら、兵太郎君がそれをだまっているはずはない。

Short summary of context: Something happened with 兵太郎君 (heitaroukun) in the river, and his friends were there. The speaker is one of the friends, 久助君 (kyuusukekun). 兵太郎君 (heitaroukun) didn't show up in school ever since. Now the speaker asks himself why that is, or rather, if they (kyusuke&co) are the reason, Heitarou isn't showing up anymore.

I get the vibe of the above sentence somehow, which in my mind looks like this in English:

  But, if in fact Heitarou got sick because of the river-incident,
  there wouldn't be any reason for him to shut up about this.

Question:
How can I parse もとでじっさい in that sentence?
Did I understand the sentence correctly?

What I researched on もとで:

  下で: From a german/japanese dictionary: under, by, in. (I don't see the
  sense here if that would be it) 元で：I didn't find 元 with で, but I
  guess combining them the meaning becomes In fact(?). But then why is there じっさい behind it?


texts: ホワイトデー: use ハッピー or おめでとう?

texts: When wishing a woman a happy White Day, would I say ハッピーホワイトデー, or ホワイトデーおめでとう, or are both ok? If both forms are used, do they have a slightly different nuance, such as "have fun on White Day today [said to a platonic friend]" versus "I in particular am wishing you a happy White Day [said to someone special]"?


texts: As in "some one who plays video games". Could I just use ゲーマー?


texts: What’s the difference between 二親 and 両親?

texts:
I looked it up in my monolingual dictionary and I got the following:

  両親【りょうしん】 二親。父母。

Which seems pretty straightforward, but then I got this:

  二親【ふたおや】父と母。両親。(<>片親)

As you can see it doesn’t give a real explanation on the difference in usage between the two.

I know the difference between 親 and 両親 however. The first just refers to (a) parent(s), while the second refers to both parents.

Is their a difference in nuance like 二親 putting stress on the fact that you have (to consider) both parents?

Source:
Dictionary app I used


texts:
What's the difference between 事由 "jiyuu" and 理由 "riyuu"?  Both are translated to mean "reason", as in why something happened.

I even noticed in Tae Kim's Grammar Guide that both words are listed, and both are translated "reason", but no distinction is made between them.


texts: What's the difference between OO人もいる vs OO人がいる?

texts:
Recently I came across some lines and could not really understand what the "も" is doing in them.
Example:

私にクラスに鈴木さんという名の生徒が５人[も]{L}いるので驚いた。

vs

私にクラスに鈴木さんという名の生徒が５人[が]{L}いるので驚いた。

Thinking about "も" here as "even" or "also" in these examples don't really make sense to me here and I read in another post that it has a total affirmation usage but I can't quite grasp it.


texts:
Could anyone help me break down the grammatical structure in the sentence below? I understand 「~より」 indicates a superlative here, but I don’t fully understand how it combines with  「だれ 」. I am also not sure why 「なんだ」is needed here as well?

ぼくはだれよりかのじょがすきなんだ。

Thank you so much for your help!


texts:
うちで[子供]{こども}と[お母さん]{おかあさん}が[話しています]{はなしています}。[お母さん]{おかあさん}は[何]{なに}を[買います]{かいます}か。

  [男]{おとこ}：[お母さん]{おかあさん}、[今日]{きょう}は[僕]{ぼく}が[夕食]{ゆうしょく}[作る]{つくる}よ。[卵]{たまご}はあるんだよね。きゅうりとじゃがいもは？
  [女]{おんな}：きゅうりはある。トマトも。じゃがいもは・・・・・・１つしかないわね。
  [男]{おとこ}：ポテトサラダを[作りたい]{つくりたい}から、じゃがいもはもっと[要る]{いる}な。
  [女]{おんな}：わかった。[買って]{かって}くるね。
  [男]{おとこ}：[調味料]{ちょうみりょう}は[大丈夫]{だいじょうぶ}かな。[塩]{しお}、こしょう、[酢]{す}、[油]{あぶら}と・・・・・・あれ？[油]{あぶら}は？
  [女]{おんな}：えーと、そこの[戸だな]{とだな}に[新しい]{あたらしい}のが・・・・・・。
  [男]{おとこ}：それと、[忘れてた]{わすれてた}。ハムもよろしく。あれがなかったらおいしくないんだ。じゃ、[頼む]{たのむ}ね。

  [お母さん]{おかあさん}は[何]{なに}を[買います]{かいます}か。

  １　たまご　きゅうり　じゃがいも
  ２　たまご　きゅうり　ハム
  ３　じゃがいも　あぶら
  ４　じゃがいも　ハム

  答え：４

There’s one sentence saying 「それと、忘れてた」. What does それと here mean?

P.S. I did search それと’s meaning in this https://www.weblio.jp/content/それと.
I still don’t get it.


texts:
I have seen it from a sentence in an eye drop instruction manual.　Here it is.

かつてない気持ちいい、さし心地...それは、極小一滴だから！

In my opinion, I translate it as "the very feeling" by referring 「さし」from a source that it is a prefix used to emphasize the following word, in this case is 「心地」. Therefore, the whole word 「さし心地」　would function as stressing the previous one 「気持ちいい」to inform that it will really help making the user feel great after using it.


texts: Is there a difference on how these two words should be used? I see 「牛肉{ぎゅうにく}」 used a lot more than 「ビーフ」, but I'm wondering if there is a certain context for each of the two words.