texts:
I encountered the word 「鏡越し」 while I'm reading a web novel, titled 『とある殉教者の訃報』by 鼠色猫／長月達平

Here is the full sentence.

  「もし、これが鏡越しの会話じゃなかったら、今頃、君はバラバラだったよ。そうならなかったことを、僕に感謝した方がいいんじゃないかな」

I googled 「鏡越し」 and still I couldn't find the meaning of this word. The closet meaning I got when I used google translate was "Glanced up from glasses" and I don't think it is the right translation for this sentence.
How should it be translated?
Thank you in advance for your help.


texts:
To say for instance 'a 30-year-old female Japanese doctor', is there a rule as to the order of complements?

日本(人?)の３０歳の女の医者
医者の３０歳の女の日本人

Are all orders created equal? Are some allowed and some not? Does changing the order change the meaning (a little, a lot)?


texts: How do you translate "Bavarian Bierkeller" into natural Japanese rendition? (and more)

texts:
Here is what I think the translation of Bavarian Bierkeller:

  1.Bavarian => Bayerische (German) = Of or relating to or characteristic of Bavaria or its people.

  バイエルン  (translated from German - Bayerische) - Example: Bavarian State Library = バイエルン州立図書館. Source

or ババリア（人）の ... (translated from English, I suppose) -
ババロア / ババリアの / ババリア人の

  Bierkeller => bier + keller (German) => beer cellar (English)

  ビアケラー(パブ/バー)  ** (literal translation and 'more **foreign feeling').

Is it okay if I use pub here because in Oxford Dictonary, bierkeller means a bar or pub in Austria or Germany, especially in a basement.

Or should I use the Japanese version, 酒場 or 飲み屋 (source):

ビアケラー(酒場/飲み屋)

Conclusion of Bavarian Bierkeller translation:

Variants:

1.>バイエルンビアケラーパブ

2.>ババリア(の) ビアケラーパブ`

3.>ババロアビアケラー酒場'

4.>ババロアビアケラー飲み屋'

5.>バイエルンビアケラー酒場'

6.>バイエルンビアケラー飲み屋'

Questions related as follows:

  1.Should I use the katakana from German or English or use the Japanese equivalent for faithful translation, or can I use both?

  2.Is there any guide intended for faithful translation from various languages adapted into Japanese language and vice versa (especially English) that can be used for legal or official document translation in Japan? How do you know which is which?

  3.Which of the six do you think is the best translation that fits naturally into the sentence provided?

Source 01

The sentence context in question:

  The Bavarian Bierkeller, the best German beers served in two pint
  steins, all brought ice cold to your table by waitresses in classic
  Bavarian dress.

Thank you very much!

本当にありがとうございます。


texts:
I was speaking with a friend of mine and said I learnt Japanese using some dictionaries and websites. But I forgot to mention that I also use grammar books, so I said:
忘れてた！日本語の文法書たくさんよんでいますね。
I forgot! I read many Japanese grammar books.

She then corrected me saying it should be 見忘れました instead, hinting that with 忘れてた (or 忘れました） you can't drop what was forgotten (i.e. it needs to be explicitly said e.g.
〜を忘れてた
I forgot .

Does the 見 at the start of the verb make the transitive verb (requiring an object) into an intransitive verb (not requiring an object)?
The dictionary definitions I have don't show much difference:

見忘れる【みわすれる】 v1,vt +
(1) to forget/to fail to recognize/to fail to recognise/EntL1641770X
忘れる【わすれる】 v1,vt Pop +
(1) to forget/to leave carelessly/to be forgetful of/to forget about/to forget (an article)

Possibly related: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/15118/10888
EDIT: Full conversation below (please ignore spelling mistake of 見忘れました as みわせれりました


texts: Why 親切 is not usually used when referring to one’s own family or close friends?

texts:
"Like 優しい, the na-adjective 親切(しんせつ) means “kind,” and it is used to evaluate someone who does something kind for a person in trouble or is considerate to others. However, 親切 is used to describe the character of someone based on his/her action, and is not usually used when referring to one’s own family or close friends. " source

Why  親切 is incompatible with "describing the character of someone based on his/her action" when referring to one’s own family or close friends ?


texts: Why does ～なんてもんじゃない / ～のなんのって mean とても？

texts:
Both the following two expressions from my text book　完全マスター聴解N１ are explained as とても（高い／人が多かった）:

高いなんてもんじゃないよ
人が多かったのなんのって

Could someone explain what they are based on/where they come from because although I can try rememeber them as colloquialisms, they ought to based on some conventional grammar.


texts:
Based on the pronunciations here, what I hear in Anime, and the way I hear kana pronounced in Japanese class, it seems to me that Austin should start with ア rather than オ, but it is clearly spelled with an オ (reference). Why is this? Am I somehow seriously misunderstanding the way kana are pronounced?

I am assuming that the reason for this has to do with cot/caught merger in English. It seems to me that British people would very likely pronounce words like "Austin" with the オ sound. On the other hand, I pronounce Austin much like this guy.

This issue is particularly important to me because my last name also contains this same sound, and in class, I've been spelling it with an ア.


texts: Use of 「～ておりますしょうか。 」

texts:
I came across this construct that I'm not familiar with:

  「。。。推移しておりますしょうか。」

What is the use of the ending　「～おりますしょうか。」
I assumed it to be a shortening of 「～おりますでしょうか」 seeing as the meaning seems to be the same. Is this correct?


texts: How can I say "I speak very little Japanese"?

texts: If someone asks me if I speak Japanese, in English I would answer "I speak very little Japanese", but what would be a proper way of saying this in Japanese?


texts:
What is the reason/meaning for cashiers to use ちょうど when accepting money?

  500円ちょうどいただきます。

This I understand, since 500 Yen are a "round" amount. "Exactly 500 Yen."

  812円ちょうどいただきます。

If I'm supposed to pay exactly 812 Yen, I understand this, too. "Exactly 812 Yen, [as required]."

What I don't understand is the usage when it's neither the amount required nor a round number. Say I'm asked to pay 612 Yen and I'm giving 1,112 Yen to get a 500 Yen coin in return. The cashier will still often say

  1,112円ちょうどいただきます。

Is it just the habit of saying ちょうどいただきます, or is there a different meaning behind this ちょうど than "exactly"?


texts: 「かしこまる」と言う自動詞について / About the verb "kashikomaru"

texts:
皆さんこんにちは、
日本語で質問がお聞きしてみたいのですが、言葉や文法を間違えたらお許しください。

では、「かしこまりました」とは誰かに命令や注文を頼まれた場合などの返事とすることもよくありますが、「かしこまる」と言う自動詞がこの表現以外で使われる場合はありますか？

"kashikomarimashita" is usually used as a response to somebody's order or request, but are there places where the verb "kashikomaru" is used other than in this expression?


texts:
I came across this sentence:

だけど ─ ─ こうして輪を作って連むのは、それ以上の贅沢だと思う。

What does 輪を作って mean in the sentence? Surely it can't be "making a circle/ring"?


texts:
ひとまず心を落ち着けようと、飲みかけのオレンジジュースに手を伸ばす。

Please help. I came across this line and I don't really understand use of と here. How exactly does と work here?


texts: How is the Kanji of 口実 related to the meaning?

texts:
口実
noun:
excuse;  pretext

Literally translated it seems to mean mouth-truth.
Most excuses seem to avoid the truth, so what is the logic here?


texts: Does the use of は or omitting は affect the listener's reply?

texts:
This is a question taken from a JLPT excercise workbook.

Person A: 新聞をよく読みますか。
Person B: そうですね。毎日は[Fill in this blank]。

I am given 4 choices, of which only 2 are conjugated correctly.

Choice 1: 読みます
Choice 2: 読みません

To me it seems both options answer the question, since そうですね in this case should be just a 相槌 (interjection used to indicate that the listener is still participating in the conversation), and should not be a consideration factor between Choice 1 and 2.
According to the workbook, Choice 2 is the correct answer. Is there an explanation for this? Or can I just dismiss this as a poorly constructed question in the workbook?

After considering what Dave said about は. I've come up with some explanation.
This question should have been about the disambiguating function of は.

Person A: Do you read the newspapers frequently?
Person B: 毎日は[Fill in the blank].

The domain that A establishes is "frequently"
B is using は to extract 毎日 from "frequently" as a given premise. (Since the concept of "everyday" is a subset of "frequently")

This begs the question of why it's wrong when B says the following:

毎日読みません

毎日は読みます


texts:
僕だけがいない街 anime shows the children saying したっけ! translated as 'See ya!' and other terms, these are from Hokkaido dialect.

I guess you can switch したっけ to other forms to say 'See ya': じゃあまた また明日

Anyway, there's any relation with 明日? What is the etymology resulted in したっけ?

The way that したっけ sounds, it's like an affirmation than a question.


texts:
I'm confused at the use of 投げ槍 here. There are definitely no javelins/spears in this scene, so wouldn't 投げ遣り be correct?

  アクアの、面倒臭そうな投げ槍なその態度に、流石に俺もカチンときた。


texts: How do I write "Let us not watch Titanic,"?

texts:
Hi I am currently doing a Japanese task about inviting people to a birthday party. I want to write that we will watch a movie but it will not be titanic. Is のはタイタニックを見ないようにしましょう right or did I get it wrong?

What would be a good way to write the details of the party on the invitation?


texts: Problems understanding なの in this sentence

texts:
I remember once I have seen 「なの」 was not placed at the end of a sentence (meaning it was not a question) ever since then I wondered what it meant but didn't have any clear examples. Today I saw this sentence in my textbook:

  男の子なのは知ってる

The textbook translates this sentence as "It is a boy, I know". The topic of the chapter is not about the 「なの」 part, so no explanation is given about it.

What does 「なの」 mean here?

Edit 1: Got the comma right in the translation. Sorry for misunderstanding!


texts:
I was wondering if there is any context implied by a sentence like "6時に起こしてください。"

I have read it translated as "Please wake me up at 6." But is "me" implied? Could it also mean "Please (will you) wake up at 6."?


texts: 「時間」「約束」「用事」の修飾 (Noun modification for these 3 nouns)

texts:
日本語
動詞で修{しゅう}飾{しょく}するときには、「た」や「ない」などの形の動詞が使えるでしょう。

ミラーさんが　住んで　いた　うちに　ねこが　いました。

でも「みんなの日本語」（第22課）によると、「時間」や「約束」や「用事」の場合はいつも辞書形の動詞で修飾します。

朝ごはんを　食べる　時間
映画を　見る　約束
市役所へ 行く 用事

辞書形を使わなければならない名詞は、ほかにありますか。
以下の文章は全部おかしいですか。

朝ごはんを　食べた　時間
映画を　見た　約束
市役所へ 行った 用事

English
Noun modification can be done by verbs that aren't in dictionary form.

ミラーさんが　住んで　いた　うちに　ねこが　いました。

However Minna no Nihongo (Lesson 22) says that the following nouns take on dictionary-form verbs:

朝ごはんを　食べる　時間
映画を　見る　約束
市役所へ 行く 用事

Are there other nouns like these?
Are these wrong?

朝ごはんを　食べた　時間
映画を　見た　約束
市役所へ 行った 用事


texts: way to use さっぱり (sappari) and すっかり (sukkari)

texts:
Maybe it's just me, but I keep mixing up
As in

すっかり忘れてた
I've completely forgot

and

さっぱりわからない
I haven't the faintest idea / I really don't know

are there other expressions to use them?


texts: "もを" is too unnatural, so use a comma instead of "も" in this list?

texts:
Can I re-write this sentence:

  このクレジットカードは国内、国外を問わず、いろいろな場所で使える。

as

  このクレジットカードは国内も国外もを問わず、使える。

A good reason to have replaced the first "も" with "、" is to avoid the unfortunate, (but grammatically correct?), "もを" string of particles?


texts: Many Usages of the term "you ni" in conversational speech

texts: I am having trouble in using or interpreting a sentence that uses the japanese grammatical term 'you ni". Please don't confuse it with other grammatical structures such as 'no you ni" or "you'. This is quite confusing for me due to the fact that "you ni",based on my searches, means "so that" or something similar to it,but i listen to a sentence that uses "you ni" but i believe that the meaning "so that" doesn't fit properly.Thanks for your help!


texts: What's the difference between 「お昼前」 and 「午前」?

texts:
Is there any difference between 「お昼前」 and 「午前」 in both meanings and the circumstances used?
The same question for 「お昼過ぎ」 and 「午後」.
Thanks in advance.


texts: Did "soshite" develop from an overused "te"-form?

texts:
I'm helping out as a tutor for Japanese in my university and a student asked me, if "soshite" may be derived from a verb in "-te" form.

Now, I know that there are a lot of similar-sounding words in the Japanese languages, but since the "-te" form is used to connect two sentences and so is "soshite" it got me thinking.

Maybe there's anyone out there with helpful insight :)


texts:
What is the なのは used in "なかでも にんき なのは ポケモンどうしを たたかわせて".

I know にんき is a na-adjective but i don't understand the use of なのは.


texts: why is "円滑" an Adjective not an Adverb in this sentence?


texts: What is the function of よ in this context, and is this よ a deliberate imitation of "feminine" てよだわ言葉?

texts:
In the Ghibli film The Castle of Cagliostro, there is a scene where Lupin, a male character who mainly makes use of stereotypical-masculine language throughout the whole movie, utters the following line:

  それがコテンコテン
  しっぽ巻いてよ　逃げちゃった

I have seen uses of ね as an interjection in the middle of utterances, so I thought that this use of よ was a similar case, but while doing research for a school assignment, I encountered readings on the "teyo-dawa speech (てよだわ言葉)" (https://content.ucpress.edu/chapters/10494.ch01.pdf, https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A5%B3%E6%80%A7%E8%AA%9E, etc), which made me wonder if the above utterance should be counted as an example of "teyo-dawa speech."

Since it is my first time seeing よ following a non-request -て form, I am confused whether or not this interjecting よ should be considered a deliberate use of "teyo-dawa speech" by the character to exaggerate his speech for the purpose of mocking himself for running away. If this should not be considered "teyo-dawa speech," what is the function of よ in the utterance, and what are other examples of よ being used this way?


texts: Is it possible to begin a sentence with または?

texts:
Japanese uses ’or’ less than Western languages, and I sometimes feel that I’m using または or あるいは an awful lot more than I should. Especially, is it legit to begin a sentence with these words?
Let’s consider the following conversation.

When shall we meet?
How about today? Or maybe Wednesday?

Can it become:

いつ会いましょうか。
今日はどうですか。または、水曜日でも...

Another example:

My name was not on the list.
You must have signed up too late. Or maybe it was just a mistake?

Is this correct?

僕の名前はリストに書いてなかった。
遅れて申し込んだでしょう。または、何かの間違いだけだったかも？


texts: What is the point of 一名 in this sentence?

texts:
(Taken from ジョジョ６部)

  「女性受刑者が一名頭部を砕かれ変死をとげたというのに…」

I don't really get the point behind 「一名」in this sentence.

My guess is that the sentence (badly) translates to something like: "And although one/a female prisoner got her skull broken and died an unnatural death..."

So what does 「一名」add to the meaning? Is it used as "count-word", in order to specifically point out that it was one prisoner or is there something wrong with my interpretation of the sentence?
Or is it in the end a grammatical necessity?

(To give some context: The sentence (in my opinion) literally states what happened. Due to an incident one prisoner was brutally murdered before above-stated sentence was uttered)


texts: What meaning does としよう have in this sentence?

texts:
邪魔な住民どもを排除するとしよう

This is a sentence from episode 1 of "働く細胞", that's airing this season. What's the difference from just saying 排除しよう？


texts:
I recently started learning Japanese before my friend suggested I try out this cool app that lets me meet people from Japan to talk to.

I get a lot of japanese messages and in some requests the first word I notice is 「フーホり」. I looked it up in my Japanese dictionary but nothing pops up. If anyone know, please tell me.

Thank you.


texts:
What do the kanji in the Fox Engine logo mean?

Is it a single kanji meaning "fox", or is the logo made by two (or more) kanji? What is their meaning?


texts: What conjugation is 助けて, when used as an interjection?

texts:
According to Wiktionary, the only conjugation I can match this to is the conjunctive form, but that doesn't make any sense, given the context (as in "Help me!"). What would the equivalent conjugation of other verbs be here?

(Note: my background is perhaps equivalent to 1/2-year's worth of Japanese, gleaned through osmosis via animes and some books.)


texts: What is the difference between すみませんが and すみません?

texts:
I'm still a beginner with japanese.

Here is the example that I foud: すみませんが、さとうをとってください

I'm not completely sure about the meaning of が in this sentence, since the teacher told me you can both use it or not. What is it for?


texts:
ロレンス：　俺、いや、俺達は商人だ。儲かれば何でもいい、笑うのは金が入ってから、泣くのは破産してからだ。そして俺達は笑うんだ。
ホロ：　ああ　すっとした。ま、ここ数百年まともに会話しとらんのじゃ喜怒哀楽に脆くなっとる。これでぬしの前で二度泣いたがな、ぬしの前でなくても泣いたじゃろう、何か言いたいか分かるかや？
ロレンス：　勘違いするなと
ホロ：　うむ
ロレンス：　俺も稼ぎのために相手してやってるんだからな。ミローネ商会が話を持ち掛けてくるまで逃げることが俺達の仕事だ。その最中にめそめそされると、足手まといになる。だから泣いてるのがお前じゃなくても、俺は…
(ロレンス sees ポロ's cunning smile)
ロレンス：　お前…ずるくないか (conversation interrupted; new scene)

I think I understand everything in this dialogue except why ロレンス comments that ホロ is ずるい. The 役割語 and style of speech are clear; so is the story context. ホロ's 口癖 and 語尾 are uncommon and somewhat difficult but don't really affect comprehension.
ロレンス comforts ホロ, telling her she shouldn't be sad that she is no longer needed by the villagers, and then says "We are business people, so we only cry when we lose money." (paraphrased) But I am not sure what happens in that moment when their eyes meet and ロレンス notices a crafty grin on ホロ's face. Why is ロレンス embarrassed in that moment? What does ロレンス say in the line immediately prior to that moment that could be the reason?

This is from the anime, so there isn't any descriptive text. Also I unwittingly cut the last line 「ん、雌の特権じゃろ」from ホロ. In order to avoid contradicting @cats' answer (@cats' answer mentions "your last line"), I will leave that line here.


texts: How do I say "He already went to do X for me", implying he is still in the process of X, not finished?

texts:
The other day at some festival a few japanese friends asked me something to the effect of

アイスを買ってくるけど、行く？

But I had already asked a friend, who had not yet returned, to get some for me.  So I said

ジェームズがもう買って来てくれたので大丈夫。

What I intended to say in English was "No thanks, James already went to get me some."
But it seems that the japanese version of that statement could have multiple meanings.

How do I differentiate between "He already bought it for me (and has completed this process)" and　"He has already gone to buy it for me (and has not yet completed this action)"?

(もう買ってきてくれている could be a possibility, but for some reason doesn't sound correct to me.  )


texts: At what time did furigana start being used?

texts:
I was wondering if anyone could tell me when furigana started being used in Japan? I'm writing a research paper, and I've been searching and digging around for the answer but can't find it anywhere.

Thanks!

-JB

(Also, I'm sorry if this isn't an appropriate question for this site— I don't know if all questions having to do with the Japanese language are welcome, or just ones about the actual speaking/writing of the language.)


texts:
My grammar book says the もいいですか is used with verbs, adjectives, and noun+copula. But will something like this be understood?

東京へもいいですか

With the omitted verb (行って) being understood from context somehow.


texts:
僕は山崎先生が昨日何を言ったか忘れてしまった

I don't understand what is that か doing in this sentence I mean, It should be an を but there's already one but anyways I don't think this is related to the problem


texts: Is there a difference between saying この時計は 高いです。 and 高い時計です。

texts:
Hello as the title says I want to know if there is a difference between these two sentences :

この時計は 高いです。
高い時計です。

Thanks


texts: What means 手伝いのしているのですか

texts:
I find this in a manga I understand that is "help doing" but have some questions

1) している is the verb します? If is, in what form are?
2) the か at the end of the sentence means that is a question?
3) why use です at the end of the sentences?

In advance thanks so much for the help.


texts:
Context: a girl from an upper class family has met the man her parents want her to marry. At the end of the evening, she tells him:

  この度のご縁ありがたく思っております。

I get that this is a super polite way of saying thank you, but I don't quite get what she is thanking him for. Something along the lines of "this wonderful occasion/evening"?


texts: Asking the best method or way to  something

texts:
In English we say things like:

  What is the best way to <verb> something?

I understand 方法{ほうほう} as a method and 方{かた} after verb stem. The sentence that caused me to contemplate was (in English):

  What is the best way to ask for directions in Japanese?

Or

  "What is the best way to say weird/strange in this sentence?"
   (Sort of assumes the listener knows the English words strange or weird.)

My thoughts were something like:

  ”weird/strange” という[一番]{いちばん}いい[方法]{ほうほう}なんですか。


texts: I frequently see this construction in manga books, but can't understand the meaning. What does it mean? Is it colloqualism?


texts: Parsing help, (understanding 肝心の~/ ~のは基本 / target of Xを喰らう)

texts:
I'm reading up on some lore in piece of Japanese fiction, and I'm finding it rather difficult to parse the short paragraph below due to confusion on two specific points.
To add a little context, a character named レーミhas abilities/powers that can cause a man to collapse and lose consciousness by scoping out (観察) weaknesses in the opponent's エーテルのパターン (their power source) and intensifying the weakness, he's done this before with powerful opponents but when he tried it on a guy named アンソニー  the following happened:

だが、肝心のアンソニーに対して行おうとした結果『観察しても無駄だよ。エーテルのパターンなど秒単位で変化させるのは基本だろう』と断言されてしまう。
実際、変化し続けるパターンに観察が追いつかず、アンソニーがレーミの身体に仕込んだ装置による電気ショックを喰らう事となってしまった。

My questions are:
(A) why is there an 肝心の~ in front of the guy's name? I've seen this in other writings too but I didn't think much of it.
(B) is the ~のは基本 equivalent to the word "basically" in this passage? Or something closer to "it's a basic thing", e.g. however, as a consequence of attempting to use it against アンソニー , he got the assertion that "it's pointless to even scope me out. It's a basic thing to make changes to things like エーテルのパターン in seconds."
(C) who is receiving the 電気ショック?  I'm not sure if the subject is omitted or if it's アンソニー, a friend tells me the subject is omitted but I'm quite doubtful.
I would be very interested to see how a more adept or native speaker interprets this passage, thanks!


texts:
No, this is not about any Buddhist chant or mantra that can be used to call forth Japanese gods or heavenly spirits, but rather about any specialized words or interjections that attract attention of the God/spirits that we want to communicate with. Similar to the following equivalent interjections in some languages I know:

English: 'O'
e.g: O The Great God
Arabic: 'يا' (pronunciation: Ya)
e.g: ياربي
Malay/Indonesian: 'Wahai'
e.g: Wahai Tuhanku

Does Japanese have such words/interjections? Even though 神様へ might be serving the purpose, へ lacks the glorification that 'O' has. Note that 'O', 'يا' and 'Wahai' are not restricted to God/spirits/heavenly beings only since they can also be used towards people, for example in a sermon, so the Japanese equivalent(s) must also have to have similar scope in order to qualify.


texts: Few hard to recognize handwritten characters in miniature umbrella

texts:
There are a few characters handwritten in a miniature umbrella acquired in Hakone mountain in the mid 60’s that I don't understand. Could you please help me with those characters?

I’ve transliterated most of the writing and it is shown below the image of the miniature umbrella. In the image, each line is sectioned in alphabetic order and then shown in type where「・」indicates an unknown character.

The full resolution image can be viewed here (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/127548755/20140627-133555-%5BFw%5D.jpg)

（a）箱根山

（A）箱根の山は
（B）天下の岐
（C）・谷間ヲ・ならず
（D）万丈の山干・の谷
（E）前に・びえ
（F）雲りえに友ら
（G）雲は山・めぐり
（H）霧は谷そとざす
（I）昼なそ暗さ
（J）杉の並木
（K）着物の小径は
（L）莟・らか
（M）一天関に当るや
（N）万天ヲ・くな・
（O）天下に・する
（P）剛毅のヲののふ
（Q）大刀・に足・がけ
（R）・・の岩根
（S）踏みならす
（T）斯くこそありしか
（U）往時のヲののふ

On the other hand, the umbrella’s package shown below has one unknown character also indicated in the type by the symbol「・」。

（a）番傘

（b）天下の・

Dictionaries referenced.

The following dictionaries have handwritten capabilities, search by kanji within words or by radicals.

Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten DS (Nintendo DS, ジーニアス Jīniasu)
Apple dictionary (OS X, Mavericks)
http://jisho.org/kanji/radicals/
http://kotobank.jp/
http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/sinograms.html?r


texts: What is the difference between ギャンブラー, 博徒, and 博奕打ち?

texts:
I was looking up a character from a Japanese game whose profession/specialty was gambler and saw that the word used in Japanese was ギャンブラー. My general distaste for katakana-English inflamed, I looked up the word to see if it truly was the only word for gambler in Japanese, but then saw 博徒 and 博奕打ち being translated the same, with the latter even being "professional gambler." But  ギャンブラー seemed more common.
So, now I'm curious. What are the differences between these three words? Which one is more commonly used and in what contexts may all three be used? Why is ギャンブラー more common?
(EDIT: OK, so, looking into the bio of this character, their Wiki reveals that they wish to keep up a "Western masquerade" and thus likes to be referred to by the ギャンブラー rather than 勝負師. But my above question still stands and now I'm wondering where 勝負師 plays into the mix, too.)


texts:
In a manga I'm reading a boy accidentally broke a friends toy, after which he says in an apologetic fashion :

あなたの言う事何でも聞くよ！
このとーりよ！

I understand the first part, but the second part which apparently means "like this" or "in this way" doesn't really seem to fit. Does anyone have a better translation?


texts: Express 'I feel..' Esp for phrases: 'I Feel like puking' or 'I feel old'?

texts:
I find myself in situations where I wanna express 'I feel like.. Puking(verb), eating(verb) pizza, I feel old (adj), etc'

How are these best expressed in Japanese?


texts:
I learned hiragana in memrise.com which Ri (り) has (like in ありがとう) a continuous form .

But in most of the devices Ri has a discreet shape like below:

So I am confused which one is true for handwriting? Are their usage is different?

Thanks for  any help.


texts: What does the te-form + motion verb mean in 広がってきています?

texts:
I came across the word 広がってきています. The sentence is

日本では脱プラスチックの取り組みが広がってきています.

I believe this is the verb 広がる, to spread, in its て-form plus the continuous form of 来る. Is that right?

So, if this is the case, what is the meaning of 広がってきています? I thought this form was used to describe the action of doing something and then returning. Like  食べてきました, I went and ate (and then came back). This motion suffix related to a trend is a bit confusing to me.

Thank you very much.


texts: What would させずにすんだはず mean in the following context

texts:
Person A is reminiscing and beating herself over her supposed failures at not saving some people including B who had to go away.

  Bさんの時もそうだった…

  もっと強くもっと早くこの手を伸ばせていれば

  ようやく巡り合えた愛しい相手を残し瞳の奥に涙して笑顔で空に還ることも

  母のように娘のように大切にしていた相手を見送るしかない強く哀しい選択も

  させずに…すんだはず

This is the provisional translation without the end bit which I don't get.

  That also happened with B-san...

  If I had reached out with this hand of mine more quickly more strongly...

  1: Finally being able to meet the one you held dear and return to the skies with a smiling face while concealing tears in the depth of your eye...

  2: And also the really sad choice of having no option
  but to part with a person you cherished like a mother, like a daughter…

  ???

Given the context, I'm assuming the entire thing is basically an elaborate "If I tried harder the bad things 1 and 2 wouldn't have happened", but I don't really get how させずに…すんだはず works or what it means.

I do get that すんだ = するのだ and that させずに is kinda an adverb (?) meaning that without doing something A expects something happens? But yeah, I don't get this part at all really.

I guess the question would be what does this part mean, and how would one translate it?


texts: 'Who got it right?' '3 people got it right'

texts:
みなさん、こんばんは！

I was just wondering how you would say the phrase or phrases:
"Who got it right?" or "who is correct/right"
"'Tom got it right" or "3 people got it right"

To give some extra context, some Japanese language students and I have started meeting up to play games in Japanese. At the moment, we're playing 'Dixit' (super fun game in a group). At the end of every round, one of the players from the group has to determine who got the correct answer. It would be nice to be able to ask the question and respond accordingly.

Here are the attempts we came up with in our group:
"だれが正しいですか" "だれが当たりましたか"
"三人は正しいです" "Tomは当たりました"

Thanks in advance for any answers. Also, I would definetely recommend playing Dixit if you've never tried :).

よろしくお願いします！


texts:
I just read a manga where by context a girl broke up with her boyfriend. She says this.

逃げられたの 彼氏に！！
仕事に入れ込みすぎだって

Why is 彼氏に used alongside the verb?


texts:
The following sentence was translated in the following ways:

  窓を開けたままで寝るんじゃなかった。
  I shouldn't have slept with the window open.
  I regret (that) I was sleeping with the window open.

But why does ～んじゃなかった make the meaning "I shouldn't have slept" rather than "I hadn't been sleeping"?


texts: What are some well known exceptions for 居る (いる) and 有る (ある)?

texts:
Today I heard 人形がいる, so I googled around because I thought 居る was only for living things, but I found many examples of this usage. Many for 人形がある as well.

Are there other exceptions for いる／ある？


texts:
I've read at other sites that "don't work too hard" isn't something that's generally said in Japanese. Is there any truth to this?

Are there any alternatives if that is the case? In which circumstances would 無理（を）しないで（ください） and 働きすぎない（で／ように） be appropriate?


texts:
In the grammar explanation for なりに on japanesetest4you.com, I ran into the following sentence:
私には私なりの理由があっての事だったんです。
I am curious about one part in particular:
があっての
Is this any different than がある? I know の makes it so that あって describes the following noun instead of the following verb, but why not just use がある instead — which already modifies a noun by default?
The one reason I can think of for using があっての is in conversation when the speaker is not yet sure what they will say next and needs to tie the って to a noun. But I am unsure if this would be the main for using or if this would work with every verb.


texts: Having trouble identifying a kanji character in a comic strip

texts:
I'm "reading" a cute comic about a cat that has por luck, at the top of each strip is the title of the comic, but I can't identify this character:

The closest I can find is 生 (life), which might make sense in context, but is not all that close visually.

For context, this is the entire comic:


texts:
I'm stuck with the construction of 居る/いる in the following sentence (Botchan, I)

  小学校【しょうがっこう】に居【い】る時分【じぶん】学校【がっこう】の二階【にかい】から飛【と】び降【お】りて一週間【いっしゅうかん】ほど腰【こし】を抜【ぬ】かした事【こと】がある。

My translation (excuse my poor English) :

  Being at the elementary school, it happened that I jumped from the second story of the school, my back broken for about a week.

I understand this 居る as if it was a determiner, linked to the word "時分". But I can't figure out how 居る時分 is linked to the sentence : does 居る somehow introduce 小学校に (confer my translation) ?


texts:
一人【ひとり】だけ来ました【きました】

is translated as

  only one person came

on page 6-14 of "Learn to Read in Japanese" by Lake and Ura.

Could this also be read as "he/she came alone?" or is there a phrase that is more suited to that purpose?


texts: What are the particular words for the first iteration of things?

texts:
Does anyone know the sorts of items for whose first iteration Japanese people have special names? The only example I can remember at the moment is for the first leader or, to be precise, (and reveal the place I learned it), the first Hokage, 初代. Google Translate gives me a vast number of words, all essentially forms of "progenitor," for that particular kanji combination.

So, are there other "first" things for which Japanese people have special names? I'm aware that the Japanese culture places special importance on the first of anything, e.g., the first sunrise of the year, so I was hoping someone could list the Japanese names of a few of the more famous such things. Looking at counter dictionaries online hasn't helped me find any, and I've now (possibly mistakenly) come to realize that these names are independent of the counter system.


texts: What's the difference between 同然 and 同様?

texts:
As in the title, what is the difference between these two?
dictionary.goo.ne.jp says:

同然: 同じであること。また、そのさま。同様。
同様: 同じであること。ほとんど同じであること。また、そのさま。

and on the 類語 page these two are listed under one entry:

「同様」「同然」は、「同じ」「一緒」より、差異についての基準が緩い場合にほぼ似たような意味合いで用いられる。

yet, according to the table at the bottom there, their usage seems to differ


texts: What is the meaning of として in this case?

texts:
When I watched Death Note, ep.1 with Japanese subtitle, I came across this sentence:

  「同居している25歳の女性に暴行を加え殺害したとして, 35歳の男、兔富士直樹容疑者が 殺人の疑いで逮捕されました」

In the above sentence, does として means "to assume that", "to consider ~" or "to view ~ as ~" ? But with these definitions, the sentence's meaning is rather weird.

So please explain the using of として　in this case, and Is it necessary to have the comma「、」 after として　？

Thank !


texts:
フェイズスキルにはいたらねど

And the next sentence

  それゆえに「螺旋撃」は武の極致

I don't know how to break up the hiragana in the first sentence.


texts: If my business card says 〇〇さん, does that mean I'm referring to myself with an honourific?

texts:
My company (a Japanese startup) issued me a set of business cards. The information on the card is almost entirely in English. Except for the company address, the only other bit in Japanese is「ムルさん」in small font beneath my English name.

When I was asked for what to mention on the card, I'd only specified my preferred English name (I assumed they'd pick the Katakana version from my contract and related forms). However, I do generally ask people to call me ムル.

I have never seen 「ーさん」 in a business card before, and find it surprising. It feels like like saying "I'm ムルさん." Is that the case?


texts: Can someone transliterate this artist's name?

texts: This is a placard next to a work of art from a museum in Japan. I'm curious as to what it says—particularly, what the artist's name is.


texts: What means お before person's name and how to read kanji after お?

texts:
I'm reading Kidou Okamoto's Japanese novel right now. It was written in 1950 and its title is "半七捕物帳　01 お文の魂". I noticed that in this novel there are lots of female names that starts with お.
Here are examples:
お文
お道
お春
What means お before names?
Is it still common in Japan to give names that starts with お?
Was it used only for female names or for male names too?
How to read kanji after お - in 音読み or 訓読み?
Thank you in advance! It's really important for me because I'm trying to translate this novel to my native language.
Here is novel's link:
https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000082/files/1005_14977.html


texts: How common is this sentence pattern in Japanese?

texts:
Once in a while, I would encounter "reversed" sentences like this:

お腹が痛くなったのは食べ過ぎたせいです。

In my head, I would translate this to English to

That my stomach hurt is because I overate.

Not the most natural way of saying things, but still acceptable. But recently, I have been seeing sentences like "~のは、〜から・ので・ためです" more often, and it got me thinking, how often do Japanese say things this way? How does this affect the emphasis in the sentence if it is written this way:

食べ過ぎたせいでお腹が痛くなりました。


texts: Rules or criteria for 連濁: Voiced or unvoiced syllables in compound words

texts:
Examples first.

空 {そら}.
Almost all compound nouns for which 空 is the second component pronounce it as ぞら zora:

青空 {あおぞら}
夜空 {よぞら}
星空 {ほしぞら}.

There is at least one exception though: 美空 {みそら}.

蕎麦 {そば}.
All compound nouns I found so far retain the そ so syllable as unvoiced:

狸蕎麦 {たぬきそば}
月見蕎麦 {つきみそば}
焼そば {やきそば}.

心 {こころ}.
Many change it to ご go:

物心 {ものごころ}
乙女心 {おとめごころ}

But some can be pronounced both ways:

恋心 = こいこころ / こいごころ
真心 = まこころ / まごころ

This also extends to the on'yomi: 用心 {ようじん} vs 欲心 {よくしん}.

Finally, the question: what are the criteria that determine whether the second component's first syllables get voiced or remain unvoiced in compound words?


texts:
「こうして、あなたのことを奪い取って、
でも、さくらが逃げ出すのも許さずに、
一生、地獄を見せるつもりなのかも…」

In this sentence X is talking to Y and Sakura is the third person.

My question: who is going to suffer? Sakura or Y?


texts:
Today I was practicing Japanese with my friend, and I was writing an imaginary letter to send to Japan. I wanted to write:

  I can't wait to hear from you, but please do what you like // I can't wait to contact you, but please do what you like

He told me that in Japanese you don't really say 'I hope this' or 'I hope that' and instead I should say: お楽しみおしています.

I came up with the final sentence:

  僕は連絡を出来ますとお楽しみおしていますでも、お好きなよしてください。

Firstly, is that correct?

Secondly, could someone explain the usage and proper meaning of お楽しみおしています? I'm not even sure if I've written it down right, because he said it and I wrote down what I heard.


texts:
Recently I was listing a youtube video and I found a song that blew my mind. I can understand almost every word, but no matter how hard I try, I can't understand the construction: 覚えちゃうくらいの距離で.
If you could, explain me the use of ちゃう and くらい because I think the definitions I have of them are not correct. I really appreciate any help you can give to me. Thank you!

Lyrics.

  キミの体温感じてる　いつも口ずさむあのメロディー
  覚えちゃうくらいのキョリで　同じごはん食べてても
  どうしてこうも違うのかな　今は何考えてるの？

  この部屋にひとりは広すぎるみたい
  ねえ早く帰ってきて　My Sweet Prince

  ふたりのセカイ　ふたりのミライ
  一生のお願いはイラナイから

  溢れる想い　溺れそうになったら
  わたしがそこから救い出してあげるから

  いつかおそろいで買った　色違いのクッション抱いて
  寝てるキミを抱きしめる　ベッドははんぶんこ
  ずっとぎゅっとくっついてたら　同じ夢まで見ちゃうかもね

  「このままセカイが終わりませんように」
  「このセカイがずっとずっと続きますように」　願うの

  思うだけじゃ伝わらなくて　声に出さないとわからなくて
  もどかしくて　わかってほしくて　無理しちゃって　ケンカもして
  離れてって　寂しくて　苦しくって　泣いちゃって
  それでもずっと一緒にいたいの　好きだから

  ふたりのセカイ　ふたりのミライ
  一生のお願いはイラナイから

  溢れる想い　溺れそうになったら
  わたしがそこから救い出してあげるから

  キミのこと守るから


texts:
This is relatively simple sentence, but one part contradict another, so I don't understand what it should mean:

  「なによこの気持ち悪い生き物は。海の生き物？気持ち悪すぎて、一周回って可愛いわね」

My attempt to translate it is:

  It's too gross and cute all around.

But this doesn't make any sense...


texts:
入学当初よりも学力を伸ばし、そして精神面での成長も覗かせている須藤は、2年次から記録されていく成績を大きく伸ばすことになりそうだ。

I'm a bit confused with the meaning of 「覗かせている」 in this sentence.

覗く: jisho.org

to peek (through a keyhole, gap, etc.),
to look down into (a ravine, etc.),
to peek into (a shop, bookstore, etc.),
to sneak a look at; to take a quick look at,
to peep (through a telescope, microscope, etc.),
to stick out (a scarf from a collar, etc.); to peek through (sky through a forest canopy, etc.),
to examine (an expression); to study (a face),
to faceArchaism.

Based on the structure of the sentence, I have a feeling that the word 「覗かせている」 means the subject (須藤) shows his growth, rather than other people see his growth.

Please kindly give me your guidance, thank you.


texts:
I'm currently in the middle of reading this one magazine feature, and I came across this sentence --

  " [...] 多くの方にも認めてもらえるような。そのために、"個"　としての自分をもっともっと磨いていきたいですね。”

I know that "個" is kanji for a generic counter, but I've never encountered it being used on its own in a sentence before.


texts: Can someone help break down this sentence?

texts:
I don't really understand this sentence:

  僕が同一人物だと確信に踏み切れないのはこの子の顔が半分しか見えていないからだ。

Could someone help break it down for me?

From the way I interpreted it, it would have a meaning similar to:

  The reason I can't boldly believe she is the same person is because I can't see more than half of her face.

which I do not think is correct.

Thanks!


texts: I was wondering if anyone knows the etymology of this kanji 湯. I'm specifically looking for the Japanese variation of Bath or "yu". My wife's last name in kanji is 湯上 (Yugami).


texts:
I'm confused with this sentence.

  顔はやや仰向きがち に、天の栄光をながめやる 目が、深くやすらか にみひらかれて いた。

I would like to understand how it's constructed.

I think 目 is the passive subject of みひらかれて いた as が is its particle, but the problem comes with the first part of the setence.

Verbs suffixed by がち and then followed by に may function as an adverb, but then how does it relate with 顔, which is followed by は?


texts: Does ご無沙汰 imply guilt for not staying in touch?

texts:
I have heard from someone that phrases with ご無沙汰 imply "guilt for not staying in touch".

While I know this can be the case if words like "申し訳ありません" are used, is it true that ご無沙汰 always indicates guilt?

My feeling is this word is more neutral and does not necessarily indicate guilt.

For reference, this comment was made in context of comparing ご無沙汰 to 暫く and 久しぶり.


texts:
When using frequency adverbs like ぜんぜん,あまり,よく and so forth. Where is the correct location in the sentence to structure it?

In my Genki I textbook it says the sentence structure is Topic Frequency Time Goal Verb such as

  私は よく しちじに うちに かえります

But I've also seen in my book:

  スーさんは、 しゃしんを ぜんぜん とりませんでした。
  わたしは、こどものとき よくハンバーガーを たべました。

Where the frequency adverb is not following that structure and is sometimes before or after the particle. It's looking like I can stick it almost anywhere. Thanks.


texts:
What is the difference between 生まれてくる and 生まれる?
I looked up くる in 大辞林 and found the following:

ある事態が出現し，またある現象が現れる意を表す。 「生まれてくる子供のために」 「なくした本が出てきた」

But this still doesn't help me understand the difference in usage.
Take the examples:

早く生まれてくるといいね
早く生まれるといいね

What is the difference between these lines?
Based on guessing I'd think the first line is more personally involved and would be something like what a husband/wife might say about their baby and the second one would be what an outside might say to that husband/wife.
Can anyone explain the difference?


texts:
I came across this phrase in a story book:

  エスカレーターを乗りつぐ

It puzzled me because I thought 乗りつぐ meant 'to connect with (flight/train etc)'. Is this the normal way to talk about getting on/riding an escalator? If not, what nuance does it convey and what would be a more typical verb to use?


texts:
Regarding a fossil that was dug out of frozen ground in Russia:

  眠っているように見えるぐらいきれいでした。
  (The cave lion fossil) was so neat that it seemed like it was sleeping.

I'm struggling to translate きれい in this sentence. Neither clean, neat nor pretty really seem to make sense. To be honest, I can't think of any English word that would fit this sentence well. Is there an obvious translation of きれい that I'm missing, or am I just over thinking it? It is from an article for children after all.


texts: What is the difference between アジア and 大陸?

texts:
Particularly I was looking at how I might express the idea of "asian pop culture" アジアの大衆文化 or 大陸の大衆文化. Having looked in the dictionary these two seem valid ways of communicating "asia" but I was wondering if there was a nuance difference?

Also, it occurred to me that writing about "asian pop culture" for a Japanese reader as I understand it might not make much sense, as I think in the English speaking world in general, the whole gamut of chinese, korean, thai, taiwanese and japanese culture can be grouped together under something that is distinct and yet might appear absurd to insider, like implying that "European Pop culture" could lump Polish and British culture together etc. So I was wondering if there is a more appropriate way to communicate this concept to a Japanese person, or if just using "pop culture of asia" will get the idea across for speaking in general terms.


texts:
Speaker talking about a painting with a goddess and an owl

  「ミネルヴァの梟は夜に飛ぶ──と記したのはヘーゲルでしたか。知恵の女神の聖鳥である梟もまた知恵の象徴」

  「そんな梟が夜に飛び立ったのを人が知るのは、夜が明けて朝になってから。いつの世も人は起こったことしか知ることができないのです」

  「未来のことがわかれば……なんて、誰しも思ってしまいますけどね。ふふ」

The people who know that the owl flies off at night, after morning dawns. いつの世も people only know that this occurs.

I find it difficult to follow the middle statement in terms of how to interpret ...が知るのは、夜が明けて朝になってから。with a period. and what いつの世も is describing.

Along with what any of this has to to with knowing the future.

Thank you


texts: How do Japanese make language sound old (e. g. in historical dramas)?

texts:
When English speakers try to make a text sound old (like in historical dramas), they for example use "thou" together with the "-st" verb ending.

What's the equivalent in Japanese, i.e. what kind of old fashioned grammar and vocabulary are used in works of historical fiction, irrespective of whether they are actually accurate?

What immediately comes to my mind is the use of が instead of の, as well as old-fashioned personal pronouns like [身]{み}. Furthermore, usage of ござる seems to be a characteristic of ninja-like speech.


texts:
What is the difference between この and こちら/こっち

(こっち is the informal form of こちら)

The definitions my book provide are as follows:

(この = This)

(Example = (この子 = (This is) my child))

(こちら/こっち = This(person))

(Example #1 = (こちらは本堂さんです = This (person) is Mr Hondou))

(Example #2 = (こっちは家内です = This is my wife)

Please help!


texts: Japanese automatic subjects (Omitting pronouns)

texts:
In Japanese, you can often omit 私, あなた, and friends in sentences, then rely on context to get the correct subject.

However, without these words, I have no idea how to differentiate between sentences that apply to me and ones that apply to others.

For example:

らいねん　日本　へ　いく　と　言いました

Translates to (He/She) said that he will go to Japan next year, whereas:

トマト　や　りんご　を　なげた

...translates to I threw a tomato and an apple (and some other things).

What hints that the first applies to someone else? What hints that the second applies to me?

I came across this answer already, however it leaves me with more questions than answers since it says to use a "background context" that I have no idea about. It also says that assuming an omitted context is "I" will usually be safe, which has not been the case a good chunk of the time in my study material... It also says that using "I" by default in the subject sometimes "feels" wrong, which I have no intuition of.

I know I am missing something, but after much research, I still have no idea what.


texts: how can I analyze "満ちたりていたりした" to make sense?

texts:
I found the meaning of the phrase in the translated version. But I could not understand the structure of the sentence.
If you have some idea, please toss me some hints.

Thanks for your reading.


texts: Adding でしょうか to ます to further emphasize doubt and politeness?

texts:
Let's use できる as an example.

できる (I) can do (it)/possible (action/event).
できるか? Can do?/Possible?
できますか? Can do?/Possible? (polite)

Believe it or not, できますか? still sounds too direct to me.

Now here's my question, is this dekimasuka?:

(もし)できますでしょうか? Possibly can do?/Perhaps possible?
and
(もし)できませんでしょうか? Can't (you) possibly do?/Isn't it perhaps possible?

If the above statements are grammatically sound, how about natively? When a native person hears it, what is their average response to such a statement/question?

Another related question: according to some teachers of Japanese, the か at the end of a question could be considered harsh, too direct or unnecessary. For example, what is the difference (if any) between [たべる?] (with question mark) and [たべるか?] (with question mark and か)?

Optional question: Where does だろうか? and でありますか?/でありませんか? fit into all of this?


texts:
So I was watching 女が階段を上る時 by Mikio Naruse late at night, and heard something that sounded familiar. Alas, I fell asleep and returned the movie before checking (yes there is still a rental store in my hood).

Anyway, in the movie a hostess from a rival club walks into a bar, and receives the 『いらっしゃい！』greeting. However, I remember hearing her respond to the greeting with another set phrase that sounded familiar yet was one I haven't learned. Does anyone know if there is set response to 『いらっしゃい！』? I think I might have heard it in another old movie before, but not irl.

Edit; the character say ごくろうさん, but this is not a phrase with a specific relation to  『いらっしゃい！』. Thanks, all!


texts: Is reasonable to assume that the 食 in 月食/日食 can be interpreted as the sun/moon being "eaten" during an eclipse?

texts:
So I'm quite new to Japanese, and I'm having a blast being able to understand some basic compound words based on individual kanji, and in some cases the process is quite straightforward. However, I don't want to get carried away because I understand that of course kanji can have, in some cases, many readings, so I could sometimes end up with complete nonsense.

That being said, in the particular case of my question, is it reasonable to assume that the 食 in 月食/日食 can be interpreted as the moon/sun being "eaten" during an eclipse or is there another reason to use this kanji? I have read that a different kanji was used before (at least for lunar eclipse, 月蝕), but I haven't been able to find an explanation about the etymology itself or to verify that it is indeed as simple as it looks.

Thanks in advance !!


texts: Is there a lingustic term for okurigana omission?

texts: Is there a (Japanese) linguistic term for okurigana omission (cases when 問い合わせ is written as 問合せ, etc.)?  If not then what would be a concise way to refer to the phenomena (in Japanese)?


texts: What are the general principles of using verbs to modify nouns (e.g. 焦げるトースト/焦げたトースト)?

texts: In all the time I've studied the language, I've never heard or seen anybody even hint at whether the principles from a given language (like using “burnt toast” vs. “burning toast”) carry over, or if the language has its rules with how that works. Anyone know?


texts: How is this verb being conjugated and contracted?

texts:
" こんな馬鹿みたいな帽子かぶせやがって！！”

  " こんなくそみたいな帽子かぶせやがって！！”

  " こんなくそみたいな帽子かぶせんじゃねーよ！！”

I believe I'm looking at a conjugation and contraction of the verb かぶる. What is the original conjugation and what is taken out in the contraction?


texts: What's the difference between 折衷 and 妥協?

texts:
They both refer to a concept of "compromise"
According to this, it 妥協 has some negative meaning in the sense that one is left with no choice but to compromise, but 折衷 is more like taking the good aspect of each thing (e.g., proposal).
I would like to know if I have the same understanding as a typical Japanese speaker.


texts: Meaning of なろうとなんだろうと

texts:
In a manga I found the following sentence:

  ボロボロになろうとなんだろうと自分で気づくしかない

What does the なろうとなんだろうと means? The remaing part should mean something on the lines of "She must notice by himself [...] if she hurt herself", and the given translation is something like (I'm translating a translation, sorry for any inaccuracy) "Even if she will hurt himself, he must notice it by himself".

I found a couple of questions (here and here) in which part of that expressione appears, but they doesn't really seem to apply; a Google search wasn't helpful, either, and my grammars doesn't have that form, which maybe is a mix of multiple forms?


texts:
I've read that ったって can mean 'even if' but I'm not sure how the grammar fits in the following:

  良く解ったって話だ。

Is it saying "I'm talking about, even If you understand well"

Also is there a difference between ったって and たって?


texts: What makes に基づいて instead of に応じて the correct choice for this question?

texts:
I'm working on some example questions from my grammar textbook. One of them I listed below:

  　税金はこの表（　　）計算されています。

  　ア）につれて　イ）に応じて　ウ）に比べて　エ）に基づいて

I'm unsure why 「に基づいて」is the only correct answer. What is the reason that 「に応じて」is inappropriate?


texts: Why is the English word "studio" transcribed as スタジオ?

texts: So I'm aware that transcription into Japanese is not always clear-cut, and there are plenty of exceptions. It sort of makes sense that "Australia" is オーストラリア not *オーストレリア and "stadium" is スタジアム not *ステージアム, perhaps because those are partial transliteration, not pure transcription. But why is "studio" スタジオ? Shouldn't it be at least be something like *ストジオ? Or are dictionaries wrong about its actual etymology (i.e. from English)?


texts: Why are equal signs used to substitute an English hyphen?

texts: I was reading an article about Idlib and the groups that were there on Wikipedia, and hovered to the language setting to gloss at the title translations. For Japanese, I saw something unusual in its format. For example, the rendering of the name of one of those groups is 「タハリール・アル＝シャーム」instead of the usual 「タハリール・アル・シャーム」. I also saw this in manga character names such as「キルシュ＝ワイミー」. Is using the equals sign in place of nakaguro common and is it acceptable? If so, is it solely at the author's discretion?


texts: Is it used in the positive sense "you should do good things for others! good things will happen to you as well" or rather, negative "good things are rooted in selfish motivations", or something else?


texts:
There are a number of Japanese words which have distinct compounding forms:

-a/-e alternation: 天・雨、酒、上、風、目 — many examples.
-u/-i alternation: 神（[神]{かむ}[集]{つど}ふ）、月（[月]{つく}[読]{よみ}）
-o/-i alternation: 木（[木]{こ}の[葉]{は}）、火（炎【ほのほ】）
-a/-o alternation: 白（[白]{しら}[雪]{ゆき}）

This BBS post has more examples. There is also another kind of alternation I know of, even rarer:

s-insertion: 雨（[春]{はる}[雨]{さめ}）、青（[真]{ま}っ[青]{さを})

I have three questions:

Are there any other alternations I have missed?
Is there an exhaustive listing of words with exceptional compound forms somewhere?
To what extent is this process still alive? For instance, [風]{かざ}[車]{ぐるま} is a comparatively recent coinage.


texts: Difference between って and は as topic marker

texts: I often see って being used to mark a topic, such as in the sentence 新宿ってどこ？ I'm aware that this is more colloquial compared to the topic marker は. Other than the formality aspect, are って and は completely interchangeable in meaning when used like this?


texts:
Is there a kanji form of ああ, like there is for [斯]{こ}う, [然]{そ}う, and [如何]{どう}? I've searched online, but neither Jisho.org, Wiktionary, or Weblio list a kanji version for demonstrative ああ, like they do for [斯]{こ}う, [然]{そ}う, and [如何]{どう}.
I would assume [彼]{あ}あ, but the う/あ series of demonstratives break the [此]{こ}[其]{そ}[彼]{あ}[何]{ど} pattern and use different kanji from the rest of the demonstratives, so that's probably wrong.
I know there is [嗚呼]{ああ} and [噫]{ああ}, but those are use to describe the sound "aa" than the demonstrative.
Is there a kanji form of ああ? Or is it safe to assume that ああ has no kanji form?


texts:
I'm trying to understand the opening of an anime song, but I'm stumped on a couple of parts by (I think) a similar doubt; this is the lyrics.
Here's what I don't understand:

夢を持ってきた
言葉じゃ足りないユメのアリカ

While sung, the parsing seems like 夢を持ってきた言葉じゃ / 足りないユメのアリカ, with a pause after じゃ; I understand that could just be for musical reasons, but when I first heard this song I thought 夢を持ってきた modified 言葉, and 足りない referred to 夢, giving something like “The words that brought dreams are the place [where] dreams aren’t enough”, which doesn’t really seem to make sense; the translation I found is:

You brought a dream here,
The place of dreams that can't be expressed with words alone

which makes sense, but I can't really understand how that translation comes from the original lyrics.
I have similar doubts on 色が乗ってきた / 心を広げるイロのキセキ, which sounds to me like "The miracle of the color expanded by the heart on which the color is", but my doubts here could just be like those on the previous verse. Edit: I wrote about this too not as a separate question, but because I think it's another example of the same doubt.
It's quite a while I'm trying to understand this; if the translation parsing is right, and 夢を持ってきた is to be translated per se as "You brought a dream", without the lyrics I didn't understand the parsing; I also asked to a friend of mine who is fluent in Japanese, but no luck.


texts: What does a Japanese person mean when they say 「熱い、熱い!」 in the following situation?

texts:
I was looking through an article of The Japan Times and the comments on it. There was this one comment that caught my attention. The commentator was talking about a popular sports club and gym in Toukyou (Tokyo) that he goes to and he apparently has to put up with bad attitudes from the members and the staff. He followed it up with a timeline of a typical visit to the gym in question, and the part relevant to my question is as follows:

  3:00 pm: I check in at the front desk and go into the locker room to change into gym clothes. Being early afternoon, the entire locker room is pretty much empty, so I choose a vacant locker in the corner. As I am in the middle of changing, another guy comes in, looks at me and loudly utters, “atsui, atsui!” (it’s really hot!) in Japanese. Then, despite the whole place being empty, he selects the locker right next to mine while pinning me in the corner. I finish changing and leave.

As you can see, the commentator romanized 「熱い、熱い!」 into “Atsui, atsui!” and translated it as “It’s really hot!”

But I don’t understand. What did the guy mean when he said that? I get the feeling that he wasn’t talking about the weather.


texts: How to properly express my happiness - しあわせになりました。

texts:
So pardon for this being quite a specific question, but I'm trying to communicate this idea in a letter:

Looks like you had fun, so I'm glad.

Actually I'm finding it difficult to get my Japanese right in expressing this.

This is what I have so far:

Emilyさん は たのしかったのようなですねから、わたししあわせになりました。(name changed to protect the innocent ;))

I'm unsure of whether it would be なりました or なる. In fact, I'm unsure of the sentence in general - the ような part is important because I don't want to say 'you definitely had fun!', but I'm a little confused about how to structure it. Does it sound unnatural?

I would appreciate any help, thank you for reading. :)


texts: What is the difference between ～みたい and ～らしい when expressing similarity or resemblance?

texts:
According to this HiNative question, ～みたいだ tends to be used subjectively, whereas ～らしい tends to be used more objectively.

This seems to indicate that the difference is the same as that between the 2 senses of ～そうです, i.e. deduction vs hearsay.

Is the distinction as simple as this?


texts: meaning of つかなく and can word ending in ない be conjugated as i adjectives?

texts:
Hi i was trying to find the meaning of つかなく used in this sentence
this is from oregairu ep 11 of the 1st season they are talking about how the line towards the theatre is getting out of hand

あのままだと収拾つかなく なるんじゃねえのか

but since it has more than one meanings i can't seem to decide and also is it possible for verbs ending in ない be conjugated like an i adjective? because i parsed the word as つかない+く conjugation to make it an adverb =つかなく


texts: What are the ways to express someone's condolences?

texts:
All is in the title, what are the ways to express someone's condolences when somebody died.
I know お気の毒に but is there something else?
What can/should you say to friends? To collegues? To bosses? etc.


texts:
I've noticed that some studies are named with a 論 suffix in Japanese, and effectively in Korean as well. They are otherwise simply suffixed with 学 in Chinese and Vietnamese. Compare these examples:

Japanese 宇宙論 vs Chinese 宇宙学 (cosmology)

Japanese 音韻論 vs Chinese 音位学 (phonology)

There are also words like 集合論 (set theory) that are used in both Japanese and Chinese, but the English translation is more likely to contain "theory".

So I wonder what makes some studies 論 or 学. Do 論-studies involve much more theories or suggestions, and those theories or suggestions are, well, prone to being debatable? For instance, phonologists have had different opinions on the number of phonemes of Japanese, which makes their study (phonology) the 論 type? And cosmologists only speculate about the Big Bang theory, and no one has ever witnessed the creation of the universe since we didn't exist then, which makes cosmology the 論 type? I also wonder why studies like archeology (考古学) or paleontology (古生物学) are the 学 type, since they surely involve a lot of theories. We have yet to be able to travel back in time to confirm what dinosaurs really looked like, haven't we?


texts:
I wish to say the next phrase:

  Employers can take part in English lessons on the costs of the
  employer's budget.

Do you think I could express this idea with "生かす｛いかす｝" or it is not appropriate here?

  従業員｛じゅうぎょういん｝は英語｛えいご｝の授業｛じゅぎょう｝に雇用者｛こようしゃ｝の予算｛よさん｝を生かして｛いかして｝参加｛さんか｝できる。

Thank you so much in advance !


texts:
goo辞書 entry for 本土

１ その国の主な国土。属国・離島などに対していう。

The country's main territory; the country proper. Used in contrast to vassal states, outlying islands, etc.
I know about the different kinds of usages for ～に対して (対象、対比、割合) and its various forms, but this sentence kind of threw me for a loop. From the description, it is obvious that it must be the usage of 対比 here, contrasting the 'mainland' with 'vassal states' and 'outlying islands'. But I've never seen the 対比 usage used in the form of ～に対して～ but rather N＋であるのに対して／N＋なの対して. Is the form as it is given in the dictionary entry above a commonly used one and if yes, one could only guess from the context itself which usage is intended, right?


texts:
I've got a copy of "オ・ヤサシ巨人BFG", Taeko Nakamura's translation of the famous children's book by Roald Dahl, The BFG.

The story concerns a friendship between a little girl named Sophie and a friendly giant (the titular BFG). In one chapter, the BFG introduces Sophie to a delicious fizzy beverage, called "frobscottle". This drink has bubbles which flow down instead of up, and make the drinker fart in a way that propels them around the room (yep, it's a pretty silly story).

In the original, this action is called a whizzpopper (a made-up word), and in Nakamura's translation, it is ゴナラ.

My question: Where does this "ゴナラ" come from? There are no results for it in http://jisho.org/, and various google search terms fail to turn up anything relevant for me.

I would suspect that it is simply a made-up word, except that Nakamura's translations of Dahl's other made-up words all have some structure / come from existing words, e.g.:

"Frobscottle" (the fizzy beverage) is 泡立ちエキス, "bubbles extract".
"Snozzcumbers" (unpleasant tasting vegetables eaten by giants) are お化けキュウリ, "ghost cucumber".

So, is ゴナラ pure onomatopoeia / a fabrication just for this story, or does it have some external meaning that I am missing?


texts:
Is it

みたことがない

or

みたことはない ?

I'm not sure about the particle for this. Can both be used?
Or which is better? (And why is it so?)
Thanks!


texts: Does あたかも only add emphasis to a sentence?

texts:
Does あたかも only add emphasis, without introducing any new meaning to a sentence? Would the sentence mean the same without it? It's translated as as if, but most sentences I find it used with already use よう（に）, which expresses such meaning already (as far as I'm aware):

  彼女【かのじょ】はあたかも幽霊【ゆうれい】でも見【み】たかのように見【み】えた。

  彼【かれ】らはあたかも蟻【あり】のように働【はたら】いた。


texts:
大丈夫だ、この程度……

My guess is - It's okay, I know my limits……

Context:

「いい加減寝たらどうだ？ カレル……。 一咋日からずっとなんだろう？ 体がもたんぞ。

「大丈夫だ、この程度……


texts:
「ぐっ、これは‥
「呪いか！？
「の、呪いなどと‥
「自らを‥　滅ぼしかねない‥　ものまでを‥使うと‥いうのか‥‥‥ヒトは‥？

It's a monologue from the game. That's the role of の in this sentence「の、呪いなどと‥ ?


texts:
Why is 中 used in:

送信中...

to mean that something is happening in the present moment. I see examples like this a lot.

Why 中 and not "-te iru"?


texts:
Imagine you have a list of small square representing different languages where each symbol is using the language itself that it represents. For roman languages it is mostly language codes in roman letters like "DE" for German, "EN" for English and "ES" for Spanish as they do well fit into square boxes. But if you have to use just one symbol to represent the Japanese language (in Japanese), which would you choose so a Japanese person recognizes their own language as fast and distinctly as possible?
I think fitting 2 or more Kanji into the small square symbol is not a good option. Here are some options I thought about (though, I am only at a beginner's level of learning the language and don't have much experience using it):

I thought about "和" but to my understanding it represents the country, not the language.
Another option I thought abhout was simply "あ" because there is no other language than Japanese where Hiragana exist and therefore it can only represent Japanese, but then again it is not meaningfull in Japanese on its own.
Lastly I thought about "語", which could be missinterpreted as selecting "language" but just in Japanese.

Any suggestions and especially experiences are welcome!


texts:
A little while ago I was in a shop, and about 5 minutes after I left, they phoned me to tell me I had left my USB stick there. I said I would head back and pick it up.

I used 戻{もど}って行{い}く to mean "I'll go back", but I wonder if 戻{もど}ってくる would have been better, as in "I'll come back".

Japanese has always tripped me up a bit in terms of which point of view one refers to when describing direction. Am I coming to where they are, or going from where I am? Or are both okay?

Now that I think about it, English can be flexible on this as well, so perhaps there aren't strict rules. Maybe I'm over thinking it...?

In any case, does anyone have any pointers which can help determine when one comes to where the other person is, or when one goes from where the speaker is?


texts:
どうしようかと相談しているところに知らせが届いた。
While discussing what to do...


texts:
What does this grammatical structure/pattern mean?

I am trying to understand the meaning of the following sentence where the VerbてのNoun pattern appears.

  "昭和64年に起きた誘拐事件を巡る物語だけに、“昭和な顔”を買われての起用だったという"

How do you translate the aforementioned sentence?


texts:
Should I use "doko wa otearai desu ka?" Or "otearai wa doko desu ka?"
Or are they the same?


texts:
〇〇さんにプレゼントをもらいました。　〇〇さんからプレゼントをもらいました。

I feel it is more natural to use particle に, but I'm not a native speaker. Can someone please help me out on this? Both these options are listed in the current text I'm using to teach my students, but I want to be able to explain in further detail. I also wish to advise them of the difference between the use of the two and which is more common.


texts:
この施設の出入口は、天宮市の一角に建った雑居ビルの中にあるため、比較的気軽に外に出ることが可能なのである。
まあ、無論一般市民に<ラタトスク>のことを知られるわけにはいかないため、そのビルの中には適当な会社が入っていることになっているし、中津川たちも今は<ラタトスク>の制服ではなく、会社員然としたビジネススーツの上にコートを羽織り、ついでに首から社員証を下げていた。この姿を見て彼らを秘匿組織の一員だと思う者はまずいないだろう。

Context: <ラタトスク> is a 秘匿組織.
Question: How should I understand the bold ことになっている? My grammar book says it refers to some rule, law or discipline, etc. But this 「ことになっている」doesn’t mean that in the context.
Or does it just mean “a decision was made some time ago”, as explained in this thread?

「ことになっています」 means that the decision/plan/rule was made some time (or a
long time) ago. The news is no longer new to the speaker and s/he is
more "ready" for the event.

https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/57863/ことになった-vs-ことになっている


texts:
うわ！　ととと……

Is it something like "oh oh oh"?


texts: What is the difference between 越える【こえる】 and 超える【こえる】?


texts:
噂の広まりようから考えても、飛鳥の意見には同意せざるを得ない。

Even if (i) consider how the rumours spread , (I) can't help but agree with Asuka's comments.

What is the function of ようから, and how does it differ from 噂の広まりようと考えても？

Thank you.


texts:
Is there a sound difference between イオ and イヨ (I can't hear a difference)?

When asked to spell baiorin in katakana I tend to mistake バイオリン with バイヨリン.


texts: Is it normal to use ただいま in situations other than ただいま戻【もど】りました?

texts:
By itself, I would say that 「ただいま」 means something like "just now". I've used it a few times in sentences like this, but it feels somewhat awkward, as I am always reminded of  ただいま戻【もど】りました.

So, for example, would ただいま in the following sentence sound unnatural/awkward?

  ただいま、面【おも】白【しろ】い事【こと】に気【き】づきました。


texts: I came to this colloquial expression 住んでんだ from One Piece.


texts: How to differentiate between references in past to mean "last time" or "earlier"

texts:
I asked my teacher how to say "last question", to which she responded by "前の質問【しつもん】". However somehow I feel, 前の質問 refers more like "question that was asked earlier". Can anyone please explain how I can express and differentiate between the two expressions?

Some examples:

Type 1:

The last time I gave you a chocolate, you said you didn't like them. (what happened now?)
Did you complete the last book you took from the library?
Have you guys figured the answer to the last question I gave you?

Type 2:

I have shown you earlier how to solve this problem.
Earlier you said you like her. (what happened now?)
Earlier I used to do that too. (but not now)

More specifically, I am trying to differentiate between references which can mean "a time in the past without any particular reference as to when", and "a specific point in past where the last occurrence of something was there".

Additional Notes: I have read about using 最後【さいご】 to express "last time", but I believe it has a meaning of doing something for the last time (as in when did you meet her for the final time?). Here I do not mean any of the activities mentioned above, is for the final time only.

Edit: Any examples and explanation of 最後 usage to distinguish the nuances will also be highly appreciated.


texts:
I came across a cartoon of a Japanese lesson with

  こんにちは？

On a blackboard. Is the greeting actually a question? The impression I have (eg from https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/今日は ) is that etymologically speaking it's derived from a question, but wouldn't be regarded as a question nowadays.


texts: The different types of pain and injuries

texts:
I'm lacking a range of vocabulary that allows me to express different kinds of pain. And since I'm on this theme I might as well included injuries in this question. It seems that everything can be contained in 痛み and きず but I would like to be more specific.

I shall list down the different types of injury and its corresponding pain (Not the instantaneous pain felt at the moment of injury, but the pain that persists afterwards) that I think deserve a different description because they just feel too different from each other:

Bruise; aching, tender(pain upon pressure)
Cut/Gash; sharp pain, prickly sensation
Abrasion; tingling/prickly sensation
Muscle strain; dull and sore aching (Like after rigorous exercise the muscle feels sore)
(For various injuries); Throbbing pain

What are their Japanese counterparts?


texts:
Was practicing and came across some examples of saying what you are.

看護師をしています
学生です

However, they explained that you cannot say the following:

学生をしています

It would have to be gakusei desu. Why is that? they are both nouns correct?
If i were to guess, it would be because if you are a student, it is constantly, where as if you are a nurse, its something you only do a few hours a day for work?


texts:
Sorry if something similar has already been asked, but I can't seem to get my head round translating this sentence.

  好きな人に告白したら、サインを貰いました。(This comes from a manga xD)

I get the gist of the sentence, in that it means something like "I confessed to the person I like, but I received his signature instead" or "Even though I confessed to the person I like, I received his signature instead". Any idea on how to interpret the use of 〜たら here? Because I don't think that's a conditional sentence...

Thanks :)


texts: Does 考え方 usually refer to the "methodology" of one's thought process, or can it also refer to something more subjective?

texts:
Weblio states that 考え方 is 思考の傾向...but when I look up 思考 I get confused because now I'm not sure if I'm dealing with an objective thought process or subjective feelings.

I get the feeling (no pun...) that 考える refers to a more objective action than 思う, which refers to one's subjective thoughts/beliefs.

So, can things like 世界観 (world view), 価値観 (values), 意見 (opinion) also be included to any extent within one's 考え方 (thought process, method of thinking, way of thinking?)

Maybe I'm over thinking this?


texts: Difference between ～そう and ～見える when saying "how something looks" / "what something looks like"

texts:
Difference between 大きそう and 大きく見える when saying "how something looks" / "what something looks like"

When talking about how something looks we can use ~そう. However, I have realized that the verb 見える can also be used to say how something appears or what it looks like. What is the difference between them? When can each be used and not used?

e.g 大きそう and 大きく見える both mean that something looks/appears big. What is the difference between them?


texts:
そして、施設内で生活するに従っての約束事、その約束事を破った場合のペナルティー、そういうことも記されていた。

I've come upon unusual (at least for me) usage of に従って and can't figure out how it works.
As far as I know, に従って should be used with verbs when there's some gradual change or be used with a noun in the sense of "according to". However, neither of these meanings seem to apply in this case. I tried to search for more meanings or some exceptions, but wasn't able to find any. My best guess with translating 施設内で生活するに従っての約束事 is something like "rules you should follow while staying at facility", but even if it's correct, I don't understand how に従って works here.

Could someone tell me how to interpret this に従って?


texts: Is there a semantic difference between 恋しい and こいしい?

texts:
In the context of someone passing away, would あなたがこいしいです convey the same meaning as あなたが恋しいです

Or does the use of Kanji over Hiragana imply something more?


texts: How to express conditional prefernces: "If you like X, I think you will like Y"

texts:
I'm trying to say "If you like men in suits, I think you will like the U.K.," but I'm struggling with it.

This is my attempt so far:

「あなたがスーツの男の人が好きであればあなたがイギリスきっと気に入ると思います。」

(1) Is this grammatically correct? If I were only translating the first part of the sentence, I would say 「あなたはスーツの男の人が好きです」, but I was worried that using the topic particle in a conditional construction might apply to the whole sentence, not just the first clause, i.e. I would be saying "You think if..."

(2) Is it kosher to say 「イギリス気に入る」, or do you need to somehow explicitly indicate that you might enjoy being in London?

(3) Is it possible to drop either of the explicit subjects (「あなたが」)? Even if the sentence is grammatically correct, it feels relatively clumsy as is.

On an tangentially related note, is there an idiomatic way to say "under-dressed" in Japanese, as in "I always felt under-dressed in London"?

Thanks in advance for your help!


texts:
Japanese For Busy People volume II, revised third edition, on page 23 has

  To state or ask how much bigger, you use other words.
  ワンサイズ大きいのはありませんか。
  Do you have one that is a size bigger?

However, the word (as of today) doesn't exist on forvo.com, on jisho.org (either as a word or in its corpora), the English or Japanese editions of Wiktionary, and on weblio it's only mentioned in sentences.

Is ワンサイズ a valid Japanese word, in that it's easily understood, unambiguous, and the most common way of expressing the concept of a difference of one size?

The only explanation I can think of as to why it's valid but not in dictionaries is that it's merely regarded as a combination of the words "ワン" and "サイズ".


texts: Who decides what katakana will be used to form English loan words?

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I love katakana, mostly because of how the characters look. But I am constantly baffled by why certain loan words from English are constructed using certain katakana sounds.

For example, if someone asked me to say "energy" in Japanese, I would have guessed エナジー or maybe エネルジー...but definitely not エネルギー. Same with "cake": ケーク sounds more natural than ケーキ. I understand that there are clearly many cases where there isn't an obvious "best fit" for certain words, but often it feels like some loan words pick the worst or least-likely sounds.

Who or what decides what loan words will sound like? Is there a governmental office that takes part in this? Seemingly, since a lot of loan words are from English, a Japanese-English speaker would be able to best form a loan word.

Am I reading too much into this? :)

EDIT: To be clear, I don't want to come across as, "How dare Japanese not try to perfectly pronounce loan words from my language!" It's more like, "Hm. I wonder why they say it this way when it's pretty easy to make a more accurate-sounding word."


texts:
For full context go here.

I have problems with Sentence 3, Exercise 7:

  いろいろ考えてみると、ふだんは田舎の自然を楽しみ、時には町の楽しみも味わうという生活が理想的なのではないだろうか。

I filled in the gaps as the accompanying solutions manual suggested it.

Here’s my attempt at translation:

  When you try to think about it (=these various things?), don’t you
  think that in the normal case one enjoys the homelands nature, and at
  times the life, which is the towns pleasure and taste, are not ideal.

It definitely feels like  somethings off. いろいろ in the first part seems to be in adverbial use, but I can’t figure out how to translate it in a meaningful way. Then, ふだんは, well I just improvised ^^ I have no idea, same goes for 時には. The worst thing is 楽しみも味わうという生活. も seems to indicate that たのしみ is a noun here, but あじわう definitely is a verb. In the end,  the connection of the two words isn’t transparent for me.

Yeah, I just have major problems here ^^


texts:
What is the difference in nuance between the various words used to describe the concept of "being free"? I have encountered these two:

明日ひま
明日空いている

but there are probably more alternatives (and I'd like to know about them too).


texts:
My friend sent me an email saying her mobile phone is having problems. Specifically, she said this:

  携帯{けいたい}の電池{でんち}が電話{でんわ}すると5分{ふん}でなくあっちゃうようになった

I get the overall meaning, which is that when she makes a call, the battery runs out of power after only 5 minutes.

However I can't parse でなくあっちゃうようになった, specifically the あっちゃう part.

What is going on here, and how is it different from　携帯{けいたい}の電池{でんち}が電話{でんわ}すると5分{ふん}でなくなる?

(Please no overly technical linguistic terms. Thanks!)


texts: How to say, "I made/wrote this based off _____"?

texts: To clarify, using "based off" in a way that's citing inspiration for a creation (vs. backing something up with a fact). I found にもとづいて, but I'm not sure if it's the most natural choice for the phrase.


texts: In what contexts can "始{はじ}める" be an intransitive verb?

texts:
"始める" is transitive while "始まる" is its intransitive form. In a textbook, I discovered:

  (1) 知らないうちに、雨が降り始めていた。
   (2) 明治時代の初め、日本は急速に近代化しつつあった。
   (3) パーティをやっている最中に、急に雨が降り出した。

In each of those sentences, shouldn't an intransitive verb be used? Transitive verbs require direct objects. And, direct objects do not make sense with regard to "falling rain" and "the beginning of an era".

Are these sentence grammatically correct (but perhaps might sound unnatural)?

  (4) 知らないうちに、雨が降り始まっていた。
   (5) 明治時代の初まり、日本は急速に近代化しつつあった。
   (6) パーティをやっている最中に、急に雨が降り出た。

In the same chapter, I read this sentence which makes total sense to me with regard to using the intransitive "始まる":

  (7) 決勝戦が今、始まろうとしている。

How can I understand the use of transitive verbs in an intransitive context?


texts: Can you leave a kanji as hiragana in a haiku?

texts:
In my Japanese class, we are writing haikus on Japanese American history, and I decided to write about the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombs. In the third line, I wanted to leave し as the hiragana because jisho.org shows し as having many different meanings. Many of the first meanings listed have interesting interpretations I thought of, but my Japanese teacher says it wouldn't make sense to a native speaker if I do this, that they'll just think it was a mistake rather than being left for interpretation.

TLDR: Can I leave the し in the third line of this haiku as hiragana to leave it open for interpretation, or is that not an option in the Japanese language?

原爆や / 夕立が落下 / 極暑のし

Nuclear Bombs / Evening Rain Falls / Intensely Hot Death/City/Poetry


texts: 仁義【じんぎ】 and 正義【せいぎ】 both involve justice but 仁義【じんぎ】 says "justice and humanity" while [正義]{せいぎ} is only "justice". I've always believed that 仁義【じんぎ】 was "moral justice" while 正義【せいぎ】 is "lawful justice". So, what's the difference?


texts:
Is 来る strictly for coming to a physical location, or can it be used to describe a product a product release.
For example:

来月映画は来ます。

The movie will be coming out next month.

これは先月来た映画の写真です。

This is a photo of a movie that came out last month.


texts: Meaning of long horizontal bar in Japanese

texts:
―――――

What does it mean when there's very long bar? I've encountered this many in novels etc. Also, can someone write the long bar correctly? For some reason there are spaces in my version (5 different parts) and there should be just 1 long part.

For example (I've seen longer ones, but here we have examples of a normal bar, and then bars that are 3 times that size). This is just so that you understand what I mean, unfortunately I don't have scans for the ones that are longer than that.


texts:
Some nouns take the 「ご」 prefix:

  ご両親 {りょうしん}
  ご家族 {かぞく}
  ご無事 {ぶじ}
  ご安心 {あんしん}
  ご丁寧 {ていねい}

While many others take the 「お」 prefix:

  お母さん
  お仕事 {しごと}
  お月 {つき}さま
  お家 {うち}
  お客 {きゃく}

In general, what are the criteria that determine whether a noun takes a 「ご」 or an 「お」?


texts:
I understand that polite forms like yomimasu are actually (or originated as) infinitive yomi + auxiliary verb masu in its plain non-past form. Then past form yomimashita is just infinitive yomi + plain past mashita.

So I wonder what is the origin of the negative form, such as yomimasen. Given the above, one might naively expect a plain non-past negative form of masu, which would give yomimasanai. Is -masen "explainable" in terms of other forms? Is it a contraction from an originally longer form?


texts: この下の文章の「は」はどういう意味ですか。

texts: 「そりゃあ、人間だって勉強しなけりゃ、字を読んだり書いたりできるようにはならない。」


texts: Question about a possible meaning of "この先も"

texts:
So in English, you can say sentences like-
"I think I'm still gonna fail the test even after this." (With the "this" being a long study session or something")
or
"Do you think I can still make the team even after this." (With the "this" being an injury or something)
or
"It still might've worked out, even after all this." (With the "this" being steps you took for it to work out.)
In some cases, can "この先も" mean "Even after this" in this sense?
I looked at some example sentences with this phrase, and it was translated like "in the future" or "forever," and that made sense, but honestly I couldn't find enough example sentences to rule out any other possible nuance in certain cases.
The reason I'm asking this in the first place is because I'm trying to translate a song for practice and this sort of nuance seems to make sense in the lyrics.
The lyrics in question with my attempted translation- (Please note, the translation is just for personal use/learning sake, and so it's not that polished.)
泣いても泣いても流せない　傷があるよ

There are wounds that you can’t wash away, even if you cry, even if you cry
誰にも気づかれることなど　この先もきっと無いけど

They’ll surely go unnoticed even after this, but
(lit. The thing of people noticing them, even after a point with X action, will surely not happen)
薄っぺらいこんな歌でも　もし良ければ

If you don’t mind, let even this sort of shallow song,
あなたのその傷も隠させてよ

hide those wounds of yours
So I'm thinking that the "this" refers to the action of the person letting the song hide their wounds.
Of course, if "この先も" were to be used in this sense, it would literally mean something more like "even after this point in time (in which somebody did X action.)" In other words, the English expression is more direct, with the "this" directly referencing the actions taken.
Okay, sorry if I'm just tired and missing something obvious. This line is sort of giving me issues because, if this nuance really isn't present, I don't really know how this line fits in with the other lines. Like, it's odd to just plainly say that X will definitely go unnoticed and then offer to hide it. The "even after this" nuance adds the meaning of the singer just wanting to help in some way, even if it's futile; so it gives the line a purpose.
Anyway, any feedback/help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.


texts: に迷う vs で迷う, に悩む vs で悩む

texts:
I have seen a lot of older posts about the differences between the particles に and で. But I am surprised that neither pair in this question seems to have been asked before.

道に迷う

進路に悩む

セックスレスに悩む主婦

森で迷う

人間関係で悩む

ケーキを食べるかどうかで迷ってる

拒否と受容の間で迷う

仕事のことで悩む

「Xで」implies X is the reason for the confusion, puzzlement, or troubling. This seems an easy enough criterion. I feel roughly 60% confident about picking one over the other. But there are still cases where I am not sure about the particle.
For example, why doesn't 「人間関係に悩む」work? This may not be the best example, because I probably wouldn't make a mistake here, but I can't articulate the reason for で over に either. How about this 「セックスレスで悩む主婦」?


texts: Are Japanese terms for the United States and the Soviet Union likely to be confused by native speakers of Japanese?

texts:
In the comments section of Do the Japanese believe that USSR dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?, it's speculated that Japanese people agreed with a statement that the Soviet Union carried out the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, because the respondents were thinking of the United States, but were confused by the similarity between "USA" and "USSR".

Assuming that the survey was made in Japanese, is it plausible that "USA" and "USSR" was used, and that a large number of native speakers would confuse which country "USA" and "USSR" refer to? Alternatively, are there other terms for the Soviet Union which could be mistaken for the United States?


texts: ならば vs なら. both are totally interchangeable without affecting the nuance of the sentence?

texts:
is it true that なら is merely a short form of ならば and as such, both are totally interchangeable without affecting the nuance of the sentence?

Also, a second question is is ならば more "formal" than "なら" ?


texts:
Does anybody have a clue what こまけー might mean? Below are some sentences for context and the phrase as it's used:

  まじめでおカタい感じの女子大生は、やたらとわたしを目を敵にしてきた。わたしが何をやっても文句をつけてくる。「しょうゆの向きは、こうじゃなくてこう！」って こまけー んだよ!


texts: When is the correct situation to use 案外 or 意外?

texts:
I think this is a question I should have asked a long time ago.. What is the difference between 案外 and 意外? What does the correct situation look like when using either?

Example with 案外:

  人生は案外短いものです。ですから、こんなにも貴重な人生を、自分が満足できない仕事で無駄にしているなんて、驚くべきことです。

Example with 意外:

  意外なことに、とてもうまくいってます。

The English translation definitely didn't help me with this one, as both are "unexpectedly". Is there a certain degree that is associated with each?


texts: Japanese idiom for "don’t get your meat where you get your bread"?

texts:
There is an idiomatic expression in Portuguese:

  Onde se ganha o pão não se come a carne

Literally, it would translate to "where one earns their bread one does not eat the meat" and it relates to a common sense advice against trying to woo/seduce/conquer someone whom one meets on a very frequent basis (esp. at the workplace). The closest English equivalent seems to be "don’t get your meat where you get your bread".

Is there an equivalent idiom or perhaps yojijukugo in Japanese for this?


texts:
I found the following sentence in a Japanese textbook:
"明日の試合に勝ちたいなら、きっと練習しなければ。
If you want to win tomorrow's game, you must practice."
This was in a section to do with なら, there was no explaination provided regarding the second half of the sentence. However the second half confuses me. Why does 練習しなければ mean 'must practice'?
I understand that 練習しなければ　is the negative conditional form of 練習する, which should mean "If I don't practice" or "unless I practice". Is this just an additional way to use this form (i.e. the negative conditional form for X can also mean 'must X')?
Is this a shortening of 練習しなければならない? This makes sense to me, but I can't find any info online that suggests it's grammatically correct to shorten/contract '練習しなければならない' in this way.


texts: How to differentiate when に is a target vs. an adverb

texts:
先生が来たらみな静かになった

I understand that 静か is a noun

Will this ALWAYS mean quietly or is it a target, for example

私は静かに友人に手紙を出しました, i quietly gave a letter to a friend, i understand it means quietly, making it
静かに
and target is 友人に

but for this example

みな静かになった, is this a target or an adverb?
I know its super basic but something that still confuses me, thanks in advance!


texts: What is the learning curve for learning Japanese writing?

texts:
What is the learning curve like for learning Japanese writing?

Are you able to use what you've learnt as you're progressing, or are you only realistically able to start reading real text once you've learnt about two or three thousand kanji?

Related question: What are the advantages/disadvantages of writing in romaji instead of in kanji and kana? has a few answers on the merits of learning Japanese writing.

Edit: By "real text", I meant text you'd encounter in real life, not learning text that has had its grammar artificially dumbed down. As an example of "dumbing down", I've heard that texts deliberately made up entirely of kana is only for children too young to know the kanji. By contrast, signs and menus, even if they're not literary masterpieces, haven't had their grammar artificially changed. Would learning the kana be enough to identify a few gairaigo items in a fast food restaurant menu, for example?


texts:
I came across this example about "けど":

野菜{やさい}は好{す}きじゃないだけど体{からだ}にいいから食{た}べる。

This example feels wrong to me because the "だ" before "けど" doesn't have to be there; indeed there is already "じゃない". Can someone can confirm that for me?
By extrapolating is it true that putting "だけど" (or ですけど、だが、ですが) instead of "けど" (or が) after a "conjugated" adjective (しずかだっただけど...,しずかじゃありませんだけど..., おもしろくないだけど..., おもしろかっただけど..., おもしろかったですだけど...) is wrong ?
Thanks you in advance for your help !


texts:
Yesterday, I mentioned the fact that I was grateful for having someone play music for me, and letting me play music as well.  I first said something like:

  ピアノを弾いてもらったり、弾かせてもらったりして、嬉しいです。

Then, I thought that since I was using twice "もらったり," I should be able to factorise it and express the same opinion:

  ピアノを弾いたり、弾かせたりしてもらって、嬉しいです。

Then, I was told that the sentence was now incorrect.  It seems to me that this is perfectly correct, as far as grammar goes. So, is it correct/acceptable, or is it again one of those "no one says it, so it's not correct" sentences?


texts: The meaning and tense of できるはず in this passage

texts:
A and B were involved in negotiations. A was in a superior position, but there was one and new unfavourable condition that if B knew about, would put A in a huge disadvantage. This was kept secret and agreement has been made.

The story was casually retold in Kansai-ben:

  誠に楽な条件でええ塩梅に協定ができた。
  それ、できるはずや。 「description of the unfavourable condition」のにそれをおくびにも出さずにやったからです。

I assume dialect is irrelevant here and the speaker would make it できるはずだ in hyōjungo. From the context I guess it is used to mean something like "it couldn't have failed" (because the disadvantage was kept secret) rather than "be able to".

What I am confused is the discrepancy in tense here: できた - はずだ - やった. Why wasn't it できるはずだった?

Is it a more general statement? Like "it always works out if you keep your mouth shut"?


texts:
What dialects change ます into やす, as in these examples:

  「何が出やしたか…？見ておくんなせェ」
  「そう決めやしたね…？」
  「ならあちらさんの勝ちだ…今夜は逮捕しやせん」

It appears to be Edo dialect.  Is that correct?


texts:
Can あわれむ be used as the Sanskrit “hare”? My dictionary gives “enjoy the beauty of” as an obsolete definition. However, compassion, mercy, and sympathize are also listed, so it’s not clear to me. Most uses of this word may be more polar from what I understand.
I suppose the title of this question, awareme, would be the greeting form, although I have yet to see this in Japanese.


texts:
I'm looking for Japanese word for window sill, specifically the interior one.

There is a specific word for a wide interior window sill in Russian (подоконник). Is there an equivalent in Japanese? I googled a little and found:

窓{まど}の下{した}
嵌{は}め込{こ}み窓{まど}の棚{たな}

I also found:

窓{まど}の桟{さん}

but it appears to refer the outer window sill, the one facing the street.


texts: 「春じゃもの」の「じゃもの」はどういう意味？

texts: What does the じゃもの in 春じゃもの mean? The phrase is a koto song title, so I can't give much context. I think my teacher said it meant something like "clearly", or "the essence of". But I can't remember, and I was wondering if the じゃ was では and if the mono was 物.


texts: Doubts about some sentences - は usage in combination with other particles

texts:
I'm studying for JLPT4 and i'm trying to understand the questions on the test sample of the official page.

My doubts(bold words are the correct answer, i've checked it in the answers document):

誕生日に　田中さんから　何を　もらったんですか。
田中さん　からは　腕時計を　もらいました。

The listed answers are: からが　からに　からで　からは.
Why is the answer からは and not just から?

next:

すみません、山田さんは　どこですか？
山田さんは　会議中ですが、会議は　１１時半　までには　終わると　思います。

Answers: までは　までには　までも　までにも

Why is it までにも and no までには? I can understand までに but i can't understand the last は.

That's all, thanks in advance.


texts: What's the role of the と particle in this sentence?

texts:
ずっと前から東南アジアを旅すると言っている。

I'm sorry if this is badly formatted, this is my first question. Thanks.


texts: Can "furigana" be used to refer to ruby that isn't kana?

texts:
In English, the term ruby refers to small text set above the main text (in horizontal writing) or to the right of the main text (in vertical writing).  From Wikipedia:

  Ruby characters (ルビ) are small, annotative glosses that can be placed above or to the right of a Chinese character when writing languages with logographic characters such as Chinese or Japanese to show the pronunciation. Typically called just ruby or rubi, such annotations are used as pronunciation guides for characters that are likely to be unfamiliar to the reader.

As I understand it, this is mainly a typography term, and it's likely that many speakers are unfamiliar with it, but web developers probably know the term due to the HTML <ruby> tag.  Students of Japanese are more likely to know furigana than ruby.

In Japanese, although ルビ is used, I think that 振{ふ}り仮名{がな} is a much more common word.  Taken literally, 振り仮名 appears to refer specifically to kana, as in hiragana or katakana.  That would make ルビ a more general term, including small kanji or rōmaji used as ruby.

In fact, I've seen the term 振{ふ}り漢字{かんじ} used on occasion, in contrast to 振{ふ}り仮名{がな}:

  kanji printed as ruby, usually to explain kana

My feeling is that taken strictly, 振{ふ}り仮名{がな} should only refer to kana used as ruby, not to kanji or rōmaji.  But I'm not sure if that reflects actual usage, so I've decided to ask this question:

Is it common to use the term 振{ふ}り仮名{がな} for ruby text, even when the characters aren't kana?

(And if so, would that be considered sloppy usage, or would it be perfectly normal / acceptable?)


texts: これ・それ・あれ when referring to products in a store

texts:
I am generally familiar with the usage of こそあど words, however I wanted to verify which would be best to use in a store when asking you want to purchase something.

I assume if you are pointing at a menu, you would use "これください", but if you are pointing to something a few meters away (like something behind the counter) you would use "それください".

My main question is whether it would be appropriate to use "あれください" in a restaurant? I know that あれ can have a strong connotation and wanted to see if it is safe to use, or if I should stick to これ or それ.


texts: Why would you use 好き to describe a favorite object?

texts:
After taking some notes from various classes, I have come across some of the same translations:

好{す}きな音楽{おんがく}：Favorite Music

好{す}きな人{ひと}：Favorite person

etc.

Why would one use 好{す}き instead of 大好{だいす}き　or 大事{だいじ}? Are all correct, and its just a personal choice? (with the occasional exception of 大事{だいじ})
Thanks!


texts: Understanding ものだ to make general statements

texts:
I'm trying to understand the use of ものだ to make generalised statements. I think I failed to use it correctly in this sentence (note that this question has a different emphasis from the link).

I'll start with a use of ものだ which I know is correct, so you can understand what I'm getting at:

  だれでも新しくて便利なものに興味を持つものです

Suppose I want to make the statement that cats are not friendly. Here are my two attempts:

  A) 猫が人なつっこくない。
  B) 猫が人なつっこくないものだ。

What changes between A) and B)? Without further context if I say sentence A) will the listener start looking around for the particular cat I'm talking about? Or will they take it as a general statemement that I think all cats are unfriendly?

Is sentence B correct? In the linked question I was told to use 生き物 (in a different position) but I think that's because I was unclear in my question.


texts:
The particle も is usually explained as similar to also. However, examples also always leans towards too, and always in the context of the sentence's subject (and always referring to the same subject).
Me too
I like cats too
However, I've always wondered if it was valid to use it almost like an interjection, to change the topic:

A: 今日の授業を欠席しました I didn't attend today's class
A: 月曜日の宿題も忘れました I've also forgotten last monday's homework

So when the subject is different, can you still use this particle?


texts: Fooling honest people, or honest people look foolish?

texts:
Clearly I'm still struggling with the use of ばかを見る, which I have asked about before.

This sentence appears in a question in my JLPT textbook:

  正直者{しょうじきもの}がばかをみない 社会{しゃかい}であるべきだ。

Based on the help in that other question, I think my understanding of the sentence is close, but I'm not 100% sure.

Two ways I can translate this are, "It's desirable for a society to not fool honest people," or, "It's desirable for a society to not have honest people look foolish".

Is either of those right? Is it something else?


texts: Trouble with sentence structure and particles

texts:
I've been having a hard time understanding how to construct a sentence. If I were going to say something along the lines of: "Learning Japanese on your own is difficult." Would this be grammatically correct:
 自分で日本語を学ぶのは難しい。


texts:
恐怖せず

I think it means “fearless”, but I don’t know the particle sezu. Is this old-fashioned?


texts: Reason for using じゃないですか in this sentence?

texts:
「えとー、隣に人乗る時ありますけど、なんかこう前が壁じゃないですか。」

The translation in the subtitle was “Because, sometimes people do sit next to me but there’s a sort of wall in front of you.”

I don’t understand where the じゃない fits into the translation of where “because” is in the sentence either.