texts: How can I improve my Japanese vocabulary, grammar, and listening skills?

texts:
I consider myself at a lower intermediate level. I want to improve my Japanese vocabulary and grammar in order to expand my reading and speaking skills. I know enough Japanese to get around and have a small conversation. However, reading grammar books is not cutting it and I dont feel like making flash cards from index cards with vocabulary to memorize (though if it's necessary, I will).

Eventually, I would love to take the JLPT. For now, the only thing that is helping me a little bit is listening to music in Japanese and looking over the lyrics. I came to the point to replace the lyrics from romaji to kana and kanji. I sometimes try to read news articles in Japanese as well. "Thinking" in Japanese grammar certainly helps a lot. Somehow, if I listen to music and repeat the lyrics over and over again to myself, I begin to know their meaning. When I was a kid, I know realize the meaning of Japanese children's songs I've been singing.

What do you suggest?

PS: as a funny note, upon waking up one morning, I was thinking of this person I really like(ed) and somehow, my mind said 「I miss your 事」because I could not find any other way to express this feeling in English (or my native language).

Thank you!!


texts: How to say "Borrowing something from someone and not returning it by exploiting unawareness of its owner is the same as thieving. "?

texts:
I want to say

  Borrowing something from someone and not returning it by exploiting unawareness of its owner is the same as thieving.

My attempt is as follow. Is it grammatically correct and natural?

  物を人に借りたきり、その人の無自覚を利用することで返さないのは、泥棒と同じだ。


texts:
I'm not quite sure how to understand the second sentence below as it looks incomplete to me. If it was because the speaker interrupted what he was saying with the next line then I would have expected something to indicate this. Could someone help me understand which of the following this is:

There something implied after the は
It is incomplete because the speaker interrupted what he was saying.
Something else I haven't thought of

「ねえ、このあとメロンパンを買いに行くの。一緒に行かない？」

「メロンパンかあ、確かに甘いものは」

「あ、悪い。このあと引っ越しの片付けなんだ。荷物をほどかないと」


texts: Is 海は青くないです less correct than 海は青ではない? I am just starting to learn and someone said my basic sentence was not polite. I'm trying to practice conjugating adjectives. My goal was to say ”The ocean is not blue".


texts: What's the difference between 理系{りけい} , 理科{りか}, and 科学{かがく}?

texts:
In my dictionary, 理系{りけい}, 理科{りか}, and 科学{かがく} are defined simply as "science".

What, if anything, differentiates them?

Especially in terms of the feeling or nuance when used in everyday conversation.


texts: 「んだ」の使い方について質問させていただきます

texts:
I would like to ask you a question about the usage of んだ.
I know that it can be used to explain a situation, but I have noticed it can be used to bring up a topic as well, is it true?
I heard the following sentence: 仕事やめたんだ
In this case I do not think んだ is used to explain a situation because the speakers were talking about a totally different topic.
Also, what is the difference between 仕事やめたんだ and 仕事やめた when you want to bring up a topic?

Thank you in advance!


texts: I came across this phrase but I can't find in the internet what it means. At first I thought 全中制覇 is an idiom but there was no result when I tried searching for it in the net.


texts:
ただでさえ子供みたいなのかもっとそう見えてくるから

I asked this once in some other site. Basically, this is a dialogue from 2 old ladies complaining about their husbands. Here's the full dialogue.

Lady 1: ろくな稼ぎでもないくせにメシだお風呂だウルセーんですよ
Lady 2: 紗月ちゃんは子供がいないだけマシかもね...
Lady 2: ただでさえ子供みたいなのかもっとそう見えてくるから

I think I understand what the 2nd and 1st line mean. (Though I'm not sure if the 2nd line implies that Lady 2 has children.)
It's just the 3rd line that's giving me trouble. I've learned how to use たださえ and みたい but the "なのかもっと" in the middle is confusing me.
Is "のか" separate from the "な" or is just "なのか"? What does it do in the sentence?


texts: I was studying kanji, and this word came up. I know the romaji is nikagetsu, meaning two months, so I was a little confused as to why it has a little "ケ".  Do you know if this is correct, and if it is, why it's spelled 二ヶ月 instead of 二か月?  Thanks.


texts: Academic/historic attempts to create an alternative writing system similar to Hangul?

texts:
I was reading upon Japanese writing system history and found out there were several attempts to abolish the use of 漢字 in favor of kana or romaji, e.g. after the WWII. All of those failed, and the only big thing which happened to Japanese writing system since the adoption of Han characters is the invention of kana. However, I couldn't find information about any attempts to construct alternative writing systems, analogous to Hangul in the Korean language.

The main problem with kana/romaji approach is homophonic 漢字 and words. I can see why this could prevent the adoption of kana/romaji-only writing with additional spaces b/w words: it may be enough for video games but is problematic for news, scientific, and legal documents.

The other thing which strikes me is that hiragana and katakana do not exactly match the phonetic structure of the language. For example, the word 漢字 consists of 2 syllables "kan+ji", but in kana, it is written as "かんじ", which is 3 moras. In Hangul, each symbol encodes exactly one syllable, which seems to the language phonetic system much better. This makes me think that Japanese can be encoded in a similar way. This may be just my personal quirk, but I feel like many 音読み kanji should have been a single kana character, e.g. "かん", "ほん", etc. (However, I do understand why it is not so, so don't bother explaining this.)

All this makes me wonder if the invention of kana was the one and only attempt to address the problems related to the use of 漢字. Are there any academic/historic attempts to invent something akin to Hangul for the Japanese language? If there are, how do they address the homophony problem?

Related question on linguistics.SE: Why was Korea able to remove kanji but Japan wasn't when both languages use homophones?

To clarify: I'm not saying or implying that 漢字 is a bad thing which should be replaced. I'm just curious if there were any "creative" attempts of doing that since obviously there are supporters of such ideas even among Japanese people.

Also, I'm not saying that Korea did a better job (compared to Japan) by introducing Hangul, either. Hangul is used as an example only. No comparison intended aside from purely scientific.


texts: I was just wondering what the essential differences are between these and how I would use them in everyday speech.  Thank you.


texts:
大切にされるタイプってのもあるんだね。
  Type who is prized ?????

I can't figure out what the particle soup after タイプ means. I'm assuming that って is the colloquial topic marker. If so, then I'm really confused about what の is doing.

I'm guessing that the overall meaning is "There are also types (of people) who are prized, aren't there?". But I can't break down the grammar.


texts:
I saw a usage that defied my understanding of なり:

  ことねは彼が話すサッカーの話をわからないなりに相槌を打ちながら聞いていた。

As far as the definitions given here: なり, I don't think any of them are a perfect fit. Is there another meaning to なりに when used in a context like this? I would guess "although", but if it's that, what's the nuance?


texts:
In English, it is common to count beats of music using numbers for the beats and certain filler syllables for further subdivisions. What is the most common way to count beats in Japanese?

Adding some clarification from my comment below: For example, the bottom staff in this image shows sixteenth notes with the words "1 e & ah", and English speakers would chant "one e and ah, two e and ah..." along with the beat of the music. Is there a comparable set of syllables Japanese speakers say when counting, like "一 e and ah, 二 e and ah..."?

(Image from http://www.tigerbill.com/graphics/da000814notes5.gif)


texts: Answering ___もいいですか with すみません, ___ ですから

texts:
I don't think I fully understand the answer in this conversation:

Q: ここにくるまおとめてもいいですか.

A: すみません, みせのまえですから.

It seems to me that the answer states that it is OK to park in front of the store. But what is the role of すみません and から? If we label すみません as "I am sorry" and から as "because", then "I am sorry, because you can park in front of the store" doesn't make sense. Does すみません mean something like "I am sorry, but no" in this sentence?
I am also curious why the answer simply uses みせのまえです. Shouldn't it be something like みせのまえにいいです?


texts: What does ほど mean in these sentences? Also I would like translations for them

texts:
男の人は息子さんほど大きいケーキを持っていません。

女の人は息子さんほどたくさんのジュースを持っていません。


texts:
I'd like to use ikigai ("something one lives for; purpose in life; raison d'être") for a calligraphy (shodō) work.

According to Tangorin there are three possible ways to write this:

生き甲斐
生きがい
生甲斐

It's shodō, so I'd prefer to use a purely kanji version (i.e. #3) but I wonder if these are absolutely interchangeable or if there is a "preferred version" (and in that case, which one and why).


texts: Sentence withても which might not mean "even if"?

texts:
I have a character that says this phrase, he (A) fights with an enemy (B), where B doesn't put a lot of effort to go against A (he uses magic from a distance to fight.

  A says: 楽しくねえだろう。片手間に遊んでもらってもよお。

A's sentence that I can see has てもらう just sounds very odd to me here and I cannot understand properly...
A is the one receiving the action of getting fun/entertainment, right? I don't quite understand what he is trying to express. Also, his sentence ends with もらってもwhich confuses me a bit, and he also has the ’よお’part which gives me the feeling that he says 'come on/will you'? as if to express his dissatisfaction with this fight, that it's not fun (like he said before).
If anyone can provide with any kind of interpretation I would be grateful.

EDIT: I was thinking if this could be an inversion? I didn't consider it because it wouldn't fit the speech style of the character. Even so, if it would be:

  片手間に遊んでもらってもよお楽しくねえだろう。

I still don't quite make sense of it. So in this context fighting is 'fun' for A and if A is the one 'receiving the favor of getting entertained' (sometimes I do understand better with very literal explanations), then, can it mean something like " Even though you are playing with me in your spare time, it's not fun, y'know." I really have doubts about my interpretation...


texts: Is ま (ma) related to ほ (ho) or は (ha) related to よ (yo)? What does adding a bar to the left mean?

texts:
I understand these character similarities might be arbitrary, like M and W being flipped. But it's tripping me up enough times that I thought if I knew a reason, perhaps it would help me memorize these characters.

ち (chi), き (ki), and さ (sa) are also similar, but they are actually different. Though I think I would have preferred ち (*sa), き (ki), and さ (*chi) so the direction of the 5 would characterize the "i" sound. Sadly, it isn't consistent. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So, is ま (ma) related to ほ (ho) or よ(yo) related to は (ha)? It seems the bar means the "h" consonant but the musical note does not vocalize consistently (it either means ("a" or "o") or ("m" or "y") by itself).


texts: Is there a background to the phrase 「熊出来てる」?

texts:
I was watching a TV drama, and one line was:

「熊出来てる」

I would translate it as "seems like a bear is coming out". In context, it seems to refer to a person who has rings under their eyes, due to not getting enough sleep, working too late into the night, etc.

But I am wondering how a bear relates to the meaning of this phrase. Thought I would ask at the risk of it being too narrow a topic.


texts: の or は, which particle would be a better choice in this sentence?

texts:
才能がないことはないけど、私（の or は）才能があまりすごくない。
  "It's not that I don't have talent, but my talents aren't very cool."

Which particle would be more acceptable? I ask this because in Japanese there are phrases such as 頭がいい (smart) and in sentences with this it would be, for example:

  彼は頭がいい。He is smart. ("his head is good.")

With は as opposed to の because while の is not technically incorrect は in that place sounds more natural to Japanese speakers. When describing attributions of something one uses "Topic は Noun が Adjective です", right? Can I use this pattern in this case?


texts:
So, if we were talking about "this is the Year of the Dog", I think the correct rendering of that in Japanese would be 戌年, with the reading いぬどし. But does that extend outside of the astrological sense?

For example, if TIME magazine declared that "this was the Year of the Selfie", would that seem naturally phrased as シェルフィ年? Would it be better to render it as　シェルフィの年? Is there some third, more idiomatic way, to phrase the sentiment "the year when X was prominent"?


texts:
English
I have heard following sentence in video.

さっきの手紙に何で書いてあったかな。

I’m not able to understand, why で has been used.
Why not following statement is correct?

さっきの手紙になにを書いてあったかな。

日本語
ビデオで以下の文を聞きました。

文：さっきの手紙に何で書いてあったかな。

「で」はどうして使っているのかわかりません。
以下の文は正しいですか？

さっきの手紙になにを書いてあったかな。


texts: In what ways is the Japanese used in anime different from real world Japanese?

texts: I've heard/read countless sources explain that the Japanese used in anime is quite different from real world Japanese. However, I haven't seen an explanation of what ways it's different (at least, not beyond pointing to specific phrases/words that people in the real world rarely use, or simply saying that it sounds "unnatural"). Is there an analogous English way of speaking that is used in places, but normally sounds unnatural to English speakers? Is there a more general explanation as to how Japanese in anime is unnatural sounding? Or is it really just common phrases/words that are rarely used in the real world?


texts: I am a Japanese learner and I would like to know how my name is in Japanese. My name is Bill and I have seen the translations "ビル" (biru) and "バジル" (bajiru). I am aware that バジル means "basil" but I use it most of the times. Can you please help me?


texts: As sentence-ending feminine particles, what is the difference between の and わ?

texts:
So according to Denshi Jisho, it says the following on these two particles:

の: Indicates emotional emphasis.
わ: Indicates emotion or admiration.

Those definitions sound similar. But there must be a difference between the two. Otherwise, there would be no need for two particles.

So, does anyone know the difference?


texts: "I went for a run" - how to say this in Japanese?

texts:
I'm an amateur runner and I'm struggling a bit with Japanese vocabulary on the topic of running. The phrase that gives me special trouble is "go for a run". I'm not sure how to convey the meaning of running as training in Japanese. Let's say I want to say

  I go for a run every morning.

So far I tried:

  毎朝ジョギングしている。

Well, in English jogging is a slow run, not really training. Is it the same in Japanese?

  毎朝走っている。

Is 走る suitable here? Isn't it just describing the action of running, not conveying the idea of training?

  毎朝走りこんでいる。

Someone told me 走りこむ is more suitable to describe training. Is that true?

What would be the best phrase to describe "going for a run"?


texts: "I moved two years ago" would be 二年前に引っ越した I think, but if I want to say after x time, would I use に？E.g. 四日後に, or is it not required?


texts:
I went through this thread Relative clauses types and confusion
where the 4 different types of relative clauses are discussed.

First, I'd like to know wether I understood the 4 example sentences which the OP of the linked thread gave us.

1) "A)“Cased Head” Type (Relative Clause): the head noun bears some case relation to the predicate in the modifying clause 犬を飼っている木村さん。"
=> "Kimura who keeps a dog."

B)" “Adverbial Head” Type: the head noun bears an adverbial relation to the information expressed in the modifier
財産をなくした賭け事。"
=> "Gambling where you lost property."

C)" “Relational Head” Type: the head noun and the modifier form some sort of interdependent relationship
太郎が東京へ行った翌年。"
=> "The following year where Taro went to Tokyo."

D) D)" “Content Label Head” Type (Appositive Clause): the head noun serves as a label for the content expressed in the modifier In other words, content nouns are those nouns which have the potential to be further commented on for their content.
犬が赤ん坊をかんだ事実。"
=> "A truth which bites babies."

Second, Concerning Narutos answer to the question:

"C: (no original sentence; 翌年に太郎が東京へ行った would mean something different)
D: (no original sentence; 事実 does not bite a baby)"

=> Does the fact that he left out the original sentence mean that these example sentences were not types of the sort described by OP (Here: C = Relational Head; D = Content Label Head)? Or in other words, does it mean that these 2 examples given by the OP did not represent the categories of relative clauses they were supposed to and/or were 'wrong' (e.g. D, since facts don't bite babies?)?

I ask because I wondered wether the examples given by OP in this thread could've been textbook examples, where I usually would expect that they are correct/fit the category they are labeled with.

If the examples C and D were not representative of the category they should stand for, what would be good examples for them? For example, I dont really understand what in “Relational Head” Type: the head noun and the modifier form some sort of interdependent relationship" is meant with "interdependent relationship"?


texts:
The following dialogue:

  A: 将棋がお強いと伺いましたが。
  B: いやあ、人に自慢するほどじゃありませんが、始めてもう40年になりますね。

First, I have problems determining the meaning of 伺う. Does it mean "to ask" or "to be told" here?

Second, I just learned about the comparisons with ほど.
There are two patterns I learned:

  八ヶ岳は有名な山だが、富士山ほど有名ではない。

and

  田中さんほど仕事がよくできる人はいません。

Now, in context of the dialogue in question, I think that pattern 1 is at play here.
Still, considering that I don't really know what the first sentence says, I wonder what to make of this :/
I also can't find what いやあ means.

Here's my attempt at translation:

  A: Have you been told that you're strong at shougi?
  B:  ? , while I don't boast towards people like that, for the first time already become 40 years.

Oh and I also can't make much sense of the second part in the second sentence as well :/


texts: Why is this で wrong, and を preferable? 「信号を左です」

texts:
日本語
知り合いに道案内していた時に、

次の信号で、左です

と言ったら、

次の信号を、左です

という言い方のほうがいいと言われました。
「です」は本物の動詞ではありませんし、「を」と繋がっているのは間違いではないのでしょうか。省略された動詞があるという分析のほうがいいのですか？そして、どうして「で」はだめなのですか？
English
While giving an acquaintance driving directions, I said:

次の信号で、左です

but they corrected me, saying that:

次の信号を、左です

is preferable.
です is not a real verb, so thinking that を links to it would be a mistake, wouldn't it?  It seems like the view that there is an implicit (abbreviated out) verb is probably a better parsing. Is this correct?  Also, why is で incorrect in this case?


texts: が in: 彼はその子供がついてこられるようにゆっくり歩いた

texts:
reading this sentence confused me (it's not that hard to do actually XD).

彼はその子供がついてこられるようにゆっくり歩いた。

Can i ask if the が in this sentence is actually acting like けど, a ぎゃくせつ if thats the word?


texts: Why are greetings commonly written in hiragana when kanji is available?

texts: Good morning, good afternoon and good evening are seldom written with kanji is there a reason for this?　Are the kanji readings considered outdated?


texts: When did 全然 get restricted to the negative?

texts:
全然 means "completely" in Chinese, and also in Classical Chinese. Why does 全然 only go with negative conjugations in Japanese? My teacher also says that you cannot say とても with negative things in Japanese either.

Why is this so? I suppose when the Japanese originally borrowed 全然 it would be used with both positive and negative things.

Aside: does the current usage of とても and 全然 reflect Japanese evolving a negative concord system, which otherwise doesn't exist? I presume in normal Japanese a double negative resolves to a positive?


texts: Why is 「プールで人がいっぱいです。」 wrong?

texts:
Anki deck gave me 「プールは人でいっぱいです。」
Why is it not 「プールで人がいっぱいです。」or 「プールで人をいっぱい」？
From my understanding, で marks the limitation where an action or state of being takes place.
So wouldn't プールで mark the limitation as the pool, just like how これは世界で一番おいしいラーメン has で marking the limit as the world?
人がいっぱいです marks the state of being as a lot of people?
I understand why 「プールは人でいっぱいです。」 works,
プールは as for the pool
人で limited to people
いっぱいです the state of "a lot"
So as opposed to other things like dolphins and cats of which there are not a lot of, there are a lot of people at the pool.
But why doesn't 「プールで人がいっぱいです。」or「プールで人をいっぱい」work then?
What about 「プールは人がいっぱいです」or 「プールに人がいっぱいです」/「プールに人でいっぱいです」
教えてお願いします！
EDIT: IME kept changing いっぱい into 一杯 + clarified the question a bit w/ example of 世界で.


texts:
I was reading a manga and a character said this:

  詳しくは俺から言う事ができない

I'm pretty sure it means "I can't go into details", but I've never seen the structure 「私から言う」 before. When is it acceptable to use?


texts:
まあ、新居で邪魔になりそうなものはゴミとして引き取ってもらったけど。

An internal remark from a couple moving into a new place.

well, 新居で邪魔になりそうなもの -> the people visiting new place, aka me/us

ゴミとして -> me/us as garbage

引き取ってもらったけど -> ?? , we're receiving care from ...? (the new place?).

We, the new inhabitants of this property, are gratefully being taken care of as garbage (???)

probably not right haha, they did move some boxes from the old place and that could also be the new visitors/garbage (?)


texts: Should I say 午後 once, twice or something else?

texts:
Class is from 6 to 8 pm.

授業は午後六時から午後八時までです

授業は午後六時から八時までです

How should this be expressed ?


texts: Nuance: Using the negated adjective versus using the opposite adjective

texts:
As far as I understand, the following two sentences functionally mean the same thing, "It's not easy" and "It's hard"

やさしくないです。
むずかしいです。

My question is, do these statements have any subtle nuances? Do the Japanese have a preference for either negating an adjective or using its opposite adjective, or are both methods used indiscriminately?
Please reply using kana only. すこしかんじがわかります。


texts: Is 目を覚ます being used in a personification-style manner in these lyrics?

texts:
these are the lyrics-
胃がもたれるような不快感
Nightmareに目を覚ます

Should I treat 胃がもたれるような不快感 like a "floating" noun and translate this as-
Discomfort that feels like an upset stomach
Because of a Nightmare, I wake up

Or is the 不快感 being personified and the translation should be-
Discomfort that feels like an upset stomach
Wakes up because of a nightmare

I tried to find examples of 目を覚ます being used for subjects other than humans but could not, so I feel like this second one is wrong.
If the first one is correct, can I translate it sort of like this to fix the "floating" noun issue?
My discomfort feels like an upset stomach

I would greatly appreciate any feedback. Thank you.


texts: Positioning of Particle の in the Noun Phrase

texts:
Hi I was revisiting Noun Phrase, and I wanted to cover up several aspects of の using a single noun phrase, but I was getting a bit confused with that regard.
So, following is my sentence: (Please note there maybe other ways of describing but I want to make it using particle の only to check out the order of positioning of particle の, which involves different modifier)
日本の山田さんの日本人の友達の田中さんの赤い木の家は高いです。
What I want to say;  Yamada san's Japanese Friend Tanaka san's red tree house in Japan (location of house in Japan) = Noun Phrase
...is expensive.
In this sentence multiple uses of の are involved
日本: Positioning Modifier for House (in Japan)
山田: Possessive Modifier for Tanaka san (山田's Friend)
日本人: Noun Modifier for Friend (Japanese Friend)
友達の田中さん: Apposition Modifier for Tanaka san (who is a friend or my friend Tanaka san)
赤い: I-Adjective for Modifying the Colour of the House
木: Noun Modifier for House (as in Tree House)
So, following are my 3 questions:

Is it Grammatical? As I was getting confused with the position of Positional Modifier (of where the house is) and Possessive Modifier i.e. using 山田さんの日本の。。。

Is this a natural order I.e. Position (Place) -> Possessive Marker -> Noun Modifier (optional) -> Apposition -> Adjective -> Noun Modifier -> Noun (Main)?

Is there any difference between 赤い木の家 or 木の赤い家 in the following sentence?

Thank You
(FYI - I tried using Google Translator, but it was showing different results each time I tried to put this in)
教えてください


texts: Dictionary with high low pitch intonation reading?

texts: Forgive me if there is a more appropriate technical term for the thing I'm searching for. When I studied Japanese in Taiwan a few years back, I learned that it was important to learn the right high low pitch intonation for new words. This was usually noted by a number between 0 and 6 (I think), as in おはよう０ or 犬（いぬ２）. The Japanese/Chinese hardbound dictionary I still have from then has these numbers for all entries, but now that I'm trying to get back into Japanese study, but with my cell phone and computer, I can't find an online dictionary or app (android preferably) that has them. I looked through all the suggestions on the resources page here, but none of them seems to have them. Am I missing something? Thanks!


texts:
I found the word 性故か while reading. I tried to look at the dictionary but found nothing.

Here is the entire sentence:

  それとも逆らえぬ性故か

I don't really understand, please help!


texts: How to denote the object and the subject of potential form verbs clearly?

texts: The source in where I studied told me that you mark the object of potential form with が particle instead of を particle because potential form is just a state, no actual action is taken. It specifically told me that を can be used but が is better. I know how to make sentences where I'm the subject. 山が登れない : I can't climb the mountain. 彼が言っていることが聞こえない : I can't hear what he is saying. But what if I want to say "He can't eat apples" or "Alice can't go to school" or even "Bob can't kill Tanaka". With が、を、は I could be mistaken in saying "Tanaka can't kill Bob" instead of "Bob can't kill Tanaka". Can が also denote the subject or only the object?


texts: How to understand (and translate) this magic spell?

texts:
Currently I am trying to translate a video that's supposed to be a parody of some Japanese kids show.

At some point the character uses a magic spell and it gives me a hard time on more than one level: https://vid.me/necA

I can't really hear what the girl says exactly.
I came up with

  じゃあいつもの魔法を使うよ：テラ、テラ、テラ、くるりんパ。

Here, "Terra" is the place where they are teleporting, but it's the final part that puzzles me.
For more context, here's the full video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTwLaJhmr40
I can't really tell if it's supposed to be a reference to pop culture or some other well-known thing in Japan and finally, I feel like it's a little bit harder to translate these special phrases compared to the sentences we generally hear, so I could greatly appreciate some help.


texts: Help me translate this (particle で, etc.)

texts:
Here is the question: how to translate the following sentence to Japanese.

Inform that the hospital is located between the supermarket and the hotel over there:
病院にあそこでスーパーとホテルの間があります。

I want to know if it is right that I use the particle で after あそこ and if I committed any other mistakes.


texts:
this is a sentence in Natsume Sōseki's novel 門
「おい、好い天気だな」と話しかけた.
細君は、「ええ」と云ったなりであった。
my question is what is this なり here ?


texts: Can が be replaced by something else in this structure?

texts:
So reviewing basic grammar I've come across a structure where you use は and が to show contrast in the following way:

(私は)土曜日は暇ですが、日曜日は忙しいです。

This sentence sounds right to me, but it would sound right like this as well:

(私は)土曜日は暇ですけど、日曜日は忙しいです。

And I'm a little confused because all the books and websites I see explaining the 〜は 〜が 〜は structure make it look like an exact sentence pattern that you can't change, and I'm not sure if that's because it's incorrect otherwise or because they don't want to make it too complicated for beginners.
So is this a closed structure that can only be done like that or can you insert any other linker to show contrast in the middle?
Apart from that, something else that confuses me a little bit is the double は in the sentence. I'm not talking about the two はs after each contrasted element, but about the は after 私. I've never quite understood if a sentence can have two topics or not, or under what circumstances. So if you're familiar with the topic, even if you can't explain why, could you please confirm if that's correct?


texts:
I am confused about the usage of two words 満足 and 円満. According to dictionary 満足 is satisfaction and 円満 is perfection, peace, harmony and satisfaction.

So I used it in a sentence :

  今の収入で円満じゃありません。

And my teacher corrected it as:

  今の収入で満足できません。

Can anyone explain the situation when I should use 満足 and when to use 円満.


texts:
I recently wanted to say "The Japanese counting system does not make sense." However, I could not figure out how to communicate the full meaning of "does not make sense". I don't want to say that it is good, bad, difficult, stupid, weird, etc. I want to express the closest approximation to the abstract meaning of "does not make sense".

I found "理{り}にかなう" in a dictionary. I've never even heard「理」used all by itself. I've only heard it in words such as  「理屈」 and 「理由」. So, I'm not so sure that that phrase is a natural thing to blurt out in a conversation.

Is 「理にかなう」 actually a natural thing to say in daily conversation? Does it have the meaning I want?
The phrase "makes sense" can be used in many contexts, and most of the time it can be talked around using Japanese I somewhat know. But, in the specific case of "The Japanese counting system does not make sense.", how do you capture the nuance?


texts:
I know that for emphasis, the construction is N + こそ, such as
この本こそ私が探していた本です。
I also looked up examples that has に before こそ, such as
ここにこそ真の人生があった。
I'd like to know which of the following is/are correct:

私は、彼ではなく、自分こそ驚かされた。

私は、彼ではなく、自分こそに驚かされた。

私は、彼ではなく、自分にこそ驚かされた。


texts:
After missing an appointment, which would be more appropriate for asking for forgiveness or apologizing?

  ごめんなさい でした

or

  本当にごめんね。ほんとうに　ごめんね

In particular, considering the difference between the two, which would be better to use for a 先生?


texts: How would I write Animal in Japanese when it refers to the Muppet's character Animal

texts:
I am creating a present for a Japanese Taiko drummer. He is my teacher and is celebrating his birthday tomorrow.

The present will be the Muppet character Animal sitting at a shime daiko, his bachi at the ready. I would like to add a kanji to those bachi to mark them as Animal's.

A taiko drummer considers his/her bachi as an extension of themselves. They mark their bachi (drum sticks) with a kanji representing their name. This is a solemn act by which they put their own soul into the bachi.

I have googled for the translation and have been swamped with a lot of alternatives and can't make out which one would be best for me to use given the above scenario. Considering the symbolic nature of marking the bachi, I'd rather leave them unmarked than make a mistake.

Questions:

which translation for animal would best fit the Muppet character Animal?
which kanji from that translation would you use if you could only use a single character?


texts:
In this answer it is incidentally mentioned that よほどのこと means "something very unusual/extraordinary". I'm struggling to find this definition in a dictionary, no matter whether I look up the whole phrase or just よほど on its own. Though I did find it in a thesaurus with a synonym of 珍しい quite some way down the list.

It seems to come up most often in a Google search as よほどのことがない限り. Would it be safe to say that this can be treated as a set phrase? I see in the answer I linked that it is used as よほどのことがあった so I guess that's not quite the right answer.

In summary

How does よほどのこと come to mean "something very unusual"?
In which contexts/grammatical constructs is it safe to use?
Is it a common phrase?


texts: How would one say 'hearty' in Japanese? As in hearty meal, for example.


texts: What is the meaning of なす? Specifically when preceded by a color

texts:
I came across this phrase in a book:

  緑なす半島

Obviously (and also confirmed by Weblio) it is describing a quality of the peninsula, but I'm curious as to what exactly it means, and how/when it can be used.

I found a forum discussion on its use as compared to なる, but it doesn't seem to me to be used in the same way as where I found it. (It generally concluded that is was a transitive version of なる...which I can't say is wrong, but I don't think I really understood what they were trying to say, and I think it requires a particle {を?} in order to be used like that.)


texts: What is the difference between 前にある vs 手前にある?

texts: What's the difference in meaning between 前にある vs 手前にある?


texts:
Looking at past questions I am still confused with the answers given:

The answer to this
post
suggests that 寝る is a continuation of some state.

  昨日も全然寝てない。 Yesterday I didn't sleep at all.

Instead of

  昨日も全然寝てなかった。 Yesterday I didn't sleep at all.

The answer to this
post suggests that 寝る is an active verb

  寝てろ Keep sleeping (keep doing the action of sleeping)

I want to confirm my understanding of active vs stative verbs:

Active

書いている - (I) am writing [present progressive]

書いていない - (I) am not writing [negative present progressive]

書いていた - (I) was writing [past progressive]

書いていなかった - (I) was not writing [negative past progressive]

Stative

帰っている - (I) have (already) came home [present progressive]

帰っていない - (I) I have not come home (but I might be in the middle of coming home) OR I didn't come home. (also in the past?) [negative present progressive]

帰っていた - (I) I had come home (sometime in the past I came home) [past progressive]

帰っていなかった (I) had not come home (sometime in the past I didn't come home)
 [negative past progressive]

I escpecially have trouble differentiating (for stative verbs) between 帰っていない and 帰っていなかった。

Because of that I also cant understand why 昨日も全然寝てない。 is not 昨日も全然寝てなかった。If it was a stative verb.

If 寝る is an active verb in this scenario it also wouldn't make sense at all because I would translate it as "yesterday I am not sleeping".

This post may be related but I only see examples where it is used as an answer to a question.

I would appreciate an explanation of the grammar behind this.


texts:
Example:

Let's say I want to reference "the bridge that I ran underneath".

I would presume that the sentence would be:

  下に走った橋

I feel like there's a lot of ambiguity here, but I guess that's sometimes the nature of Japanese, and immediate understanding of what part of the relative clause the noun refers to would come with fluency.

Anyway, is this right? What general rules are there for nouns referring to different parts of the relative clause?


texts:
G'day guys, i'm back trying to learn a bit of japanese again. haha, i've lost count how many times it is now
変な質問があります。。。
多分
Is there ever a time you can say it like, where there is a slight pause?
E.g.　例え
A:  余裕がないか。。。も知れないから
Maybe, the couple are looking at buying a new car. But with the information they have, it’s uncertain if they can afford it.
B:  その余裕がないか。。。hmmも知らないから
Maybe, the couple are looking at buying a new car.
But. The husband, is BAD at math/numbers(俺も). So he doesn't really know.
The original example was just 余裕がないかも知れないから on it's own with no sort of context.
Please let me know if you want me to Del/or relocate this.
(It's actually pretty intimidating attempting to search through the previous questions. That's just me though).
Thank you for your time and patience


texts: What's the significance of this female character's use of おまえ?

texts:
I'm accustomed to thinking of おまえ, in modern Japanese, as a second-person pronoun and form of address that is used by men and boys with their inferiors or equals. But in 『少年と犬』, by 馳星周, there's a forty-year-old female character, 紗英{さえ}, who uses おまえ at least twice in addressing the dog of the title, whom she and her husband have adopted at this point in the novel. She has given the dog the name クリント, and she calls him that sometimes, too, but on page 139 she rhetorically asks the dog

「おまえは本当にどこから来たの？」

Then on page 141, after the dog's calming presence has helped her keep her cool while speaking with an angry and unreasonable customer on the phone, she says:

「ありがとう。おまえがいなかったら怒鳴り返しちゃったかも。」

I'm wondering whether it's common for women and girls to address dogs and other animals as おまえ. If so, are there other contexts in which they might be likely to use おまえ? And if not, does this character's use of おまえ reflect some regional usage (she lives outside 富山市), or is it perhaps meant to convey something about her personality? So far, it's clear that she's a very capable, hardworking person who is unhappily married to a feckless and self-centered man, but we don't know much about her beyond that. (She hasn't had occasion to wear makeup in a long time and isn't stereotypically "feminine" in dress or affect, but that's more the result of her circumstances than anything else, and she doesn't seem particularly "masculine" either. Nor does she seem to be eccentric, in her speech or in any other way.)
I did look up おまえ in 大辞林, and the relevant part of the entry there (多く男性が用いる) does seem to leave plenty of room for use by women. However, it doesn't say anything about when such exceptions to the general rule occur, or what they might mean. My efforts to find an answer here on JLSE and elsewhere on the web have also proved fruitless.


texts: Why do song lyrics frequently include rare kanji or kanji where kana would usually be used?

texts:
Rather than alternative readings (as seen in manga etc.) I mean deliberate use of a more complex kanji in place of a simpler one, or use of kanji when kanji would not normally be used. A few examples:

  赤く腫れた目 掠れた聲

(Smile by BUMP OF CHICKEN) 聲 used instead of 声; 'hard' kanji used in other words.

  微睡みの淵で目蓋に揺蕩う

(空想メソロギヰ by 妖精帝國) Words that the goo.jp dictionary has an 'x' next to the kanji for...

  是程多くの眼がバラバラに
  何処に行けば良いのですか
  此処に居れば良いのですか
  此の先も現在(いま)も無いだけなのに…

(アイデンティティ by 椎名林檎) Lots of kanji here, notably for いる、ない、この and それ.

  日々淡々と腐にふけながら...

(Diabolos by DIR EN GREY) This appears to be a bit of kanji wordplay; 腐 is read 'ふ’ here, and appears to have no real meaning unless you look at the lyrics?

This (in my experience) appears to be ubiquitous, even for songs targeted at younger audiences (e.g. a 少女時代 song used 侮る, and I know at least one native speaker who can't read that - maybe a rare case). But of course natives are exposed to so much kanji, so can it be assumed that they can handle pretty much any ateji or rare kanji thrown at them?

And what is the effect that the artist is trying to achieve? I have been taught so far that using kanji unnecessarily comes across as either pretentious or overly formal (such as 有り難う御座います and the like)...

宜しくお願いします！:)


texts: Normal is the most difficult" -- origin in Japanese?

texts:
I'm looking for the Japanese origin of the saying

Normal is the most difficult.

I believe the longhand version would be

Normality in life is the most difficult state/condition to attain/sustain.

Any idea what the original in Japanese may be?
I've heard this sentence in English many times from a Japanese person from Nagasaki area (Kyushu), so I guess it was a translation of a Japanese saying or a proverb. Would be great to know what the original sounds/reads like.


texts: How do you use comparatives for Japanese adjectives?

texts:
I am currently writing a section about the Japanese writing system. I have previously stated that Japanese was originally written completely in Kanji. However, people found it very difficult.

Therefore, the simpler Hiragana and Katakana was introduced in the ninth century.

How would I write this sentence in Japanese? If "simpler" was replaced with "simple", I would say:  だから、単純なひらがなとカタカナが九世紀に導入されました.


texts: Is を[noun]に, as in を条件に, a common construct?

texts:
I was a little confused by the following sentence because 条件 is a regular noun, but looking at examples I see that it means "on the condition of [object]": 財政危機におちいっているギリシャは、 緊縮を条件に、ヨーロッパのほかの国から支援を受けています

I'm wondering, was there a verb that just isn't said anymore?

And I'm trying to think of other example constructs like it, but haven't come up with anything. Is this a common construct?


texts: What is the meaning of this (義兄弟) combination? Are there any cultural connotations?

texts:
Quick one, I have heard a few interpretations of this and had some suggestions that there might be some cultural usage that isn't immediately obvious, hoping to get some clarity.

Please forgive the poor drawing, hopefully it is clear enough!


texts: この道をまっすぐ行ってください。 Why を and not で?

texts:
In a quiz, I got a question where one had to complete with に、を、で or が the following sentence:

  この道（？）まっすぐ行ってください。

The correct answer being:

  この道をまっすぐ行ってください。

It always seems more natural to me to put で here instead of を as 道 describes where the action will take place.

Could anyone please give me the reason behind this choice in Japanese?


texts: What is the meaning of いて in this sentence?

texts:
I understand that いて is the て form of いる but I'm not 100% sure what exact purpose it serves in the following sentence:

"こんな私でも奥さんにしてくれる人がいて...今本当に幸せなの"

Any help would be much appreciated.


texts:
I was reading a picture book, and there was this sentence:
アオくて　ちいさな　ぼくのイス。

Why is "ao" and "isu" written in katakana and not hiragana?


texts: When is the onyomi reading " ゾウ " for the kanji 三 used?

texts:
The only example reading I could find for ゾウ is on Jisho.org where 三蔵 ( さんぞう ) is actually using the "サン” reading for 三.
What is the point of having ゾウ as a reading for 三? When is it used?


texts:
What does

  母と慕う彼女は

mean?

I posted the question on HiNative to no luck and Google Translate is definitely way off. The use of the と particle has me a bit confused.


texts: What is the difference between "河" and "川"?

texts:
I saw the first (河) used for "Hippopotamus", literally mimicking the Greek name (River Horse) but I expected to see 川 in its place...

Also, apparently you can use "河川" to mean river*s* (plural)?

But when would you use one and when the other? Or are these completely interchangeable?


texts: ~なけりゃ or ~なきゃ, how to know which one to use?

texts:
風邪を引いたから薬を早く飲まなきゃ

I know that generally, eba contracts to ya
(答えれば　→　答えりゃ）
(おけば　→　　おきゃ）

If the original form in this sentence is 飲まな[ければ]{ll}ならない.いけない
how shall we choose between  飲まなきゃ and 飲まなけりゃ?


texts: What is the difference between Nippon and Nihon?

texts:
I don't know much about the Japanese language, but I do know there two different words for to say Japan in Japanese. Nippon and Nihon, I noticed because the are is chemical company called Nippo Shokubai (https://www.shokubai.co.jp/en/) and there is a chemical element in periodic table (https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonium). Previously called ununtritium, the latin name for its atomic number 113.

So my question is where are the two names for Japan Nihon and Nippon come from?


texts:
A couple of weeks ago I learned in my course the usage of the て-Form which were:

Chaining verbs together , all of which are written in the で-Form and the last one is written with the polite form. The last verb can indicate if the action happened in the past or present/future (ます／、ました)
Asking someone to do something, for example: まって　ください
Saying that you are currently doing an action: アメリカに　すんで　います

I want to learn about the other usages of the た-Form since I know that both forms are written very similarly.
I tried to search online about the Usage and no luck.
All I know about it is that it's the plain past form.

So, in practice, all I know is the I can write in two ways something I did in the past:

ビルを　のみました.
ビルを　のんだ.

My main question is what are the main usages of the た-Form?
Is it like the て-Form ?
Is there a site that explains it more deeply ?


texts: Can 方 be taken out of some sentences without changing the meaning?

texts:
I've often found 方 to be quite abstract sometimes, and I've been thinking about it more when I saw this:

  ……杉山さんって、こういう感じの方なんですね……

To me it looks like the sentence would mean exactly the same thing if I took out の方 - "I can say with confidence that it feels like Sugiyama san"

Is this true or is 方 actually changing something here?


texts: What's the difference between the に祈る【いのる】 and を祈る【いのる】 forms?

texts:
What's the difference between the に祈る and を祈る forms?

Like what's the difference between (1.) and (2.):

うまく行くのに祈ってくださいね。
うまく行くのを祈ってくださいね。

EDIT: What's the difference between the ように祈る and のを祈る forms?

Like if what I want to say is "I pray that he will recover quickly", what's the difference between (1.) and (2.):

早く治るように祈ります。
早く治るのを祈ります。


texts: What is the difference between しかも and それどころか?

texts:
しかも is pretty straight forward:

今度、「一番」ってお店のランチに行こうよ。あそこ、すごくおいしんだよ。しかも量もおおいよ。
Let's go get lunch at Ichiban next time. The food is great, also the servings are big.
うちの子は天才だよ。ピアノを弾くのが上手だ。しかも先月、英検２級を取った。
My kid is a genius. He's great at playing the piano. What's more, last month he passed the 2nd grade of the Eiken.

I think of しかも as 'Also', 'What's more', or 'On top of that'.
The thing is I don't see how that is more different than それどころか. For example:

この間食堂で食べた親子丼はひどかった。まず、にくはちゃんと焼いてなかったし、それどころかごはんは少なかった。
I had a oyako-don at the dining hall and it was terrible. To begin with, the meat wasn't cooked properly, what's more, there wasn't a lot of rice.

I have a feeling that the translation of the two phrases is not going to change very much when put into English, but that is not really important. What I want to know is the correct time to use each respective phrase. Or, are they not as interchangeable as I am thinking?
Thanks!


texts:
警視庁は１２日、父親を鈍器のようなもので殴ったとして東京都中野区に住む少年を、傷害の疑いで逮捕した。

Tell me please, what does として mean in this sentence?


texts:
If I'm not mistaken, にせよ is more or less にしろ and they can be used like にしても.

The thing I don't understand is that normally in Xにする, X is a noun but in this sentence にせよ is used right after a verb in dictionary form(without よう or anything like that) :

  何をやるにせよ、ベストを尽くしなさい。 No matter what you do, do your best.


texts: Why does 「右」 start with vertical stroke and 「石」 starts with horizontal one? What kanji-writing rule prescribes it?


texts: How to reply to 「いま、すごく幸せです？」

texts:
I have a colleague who is blessed with a girl child and I posted a greeting saying

  おめでとうございます

In reply to this, he said

  ありがとう。いま、すごく幸せです？

I guess he is asking me about my well being. How should I reply to such questions in Japanese if I want to politely say [I'm good thank you!]?


texts: The origin of one of the usages of 狼{おおかみ}

texts:
I was watching the anime かんなぎ, and heard the following line:

  男はみんな[狼]{おおかみ}だわ！
  "Men are all wolves!"

I was curious as to what it means to call someone a "wolf", so looked 狼 up in Daijisen and it came up with "someone who feigns being gentle, but in reality is a terrifying person" in the 2nd definition.

But why exactly did 狼 come to have this connotation? Does it have similar origins to the English phrase "a wolf in sheep's clothing"? Or something else?


texts: How to use 十分. Differences from ずいぶん、けっこう

texts:
while studying japanese grammar I bumped into this expression that I've quite understood, but it isn't clear to me enough yet. It's 十分 (じゅうぶん).
These are the phrases in which I've found it:

今日の授業は午後からなので、今から行けば十分間に合う。
この冷蔵庫は中古品だけど、まだ十分使える。
江戸東京博物館は歴史を知らない人でも十分楽しめるということですよ。
いいえ、もうけっこうです。十分いただきます。

It's clear that its meaning is "enough"/"plenty" (in the last case), but as it is proposed with other two words, that is けっこう and ずいぶん, I got confused about its use. When is it better to use 十分 instead of the others?


texts: Meaning of と in this sentence from BKB Lesson 9

texts:
I'm unsure on what the と in this sentence means:

山田さんと電話で話します。

I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean ''and'' like it usually does so I just wanted to know.


texts:
This phrase of a Japanese song "Ai to iu namae no hoshi de" is translated as
"made on the star called love". Now "namae no hoshi de" would be something like "in the star of name..." , but I can't make sense of "ai to iu".

I know ai is love, and iu is "to say", but how exactly "ai to iu" translates?


texts:
Going through a passage and 大事にしなければいけないとの意見も多数。is written, and I don'tknow how to interpretthe との here.

Plz help :P

Thank you! That seems so obvious to me now...


texts: Kanji for みない　in 調べてみない

texts:
詳｛くわ｝しく調｛しら｝べてみないと分｛わ｝かんないって

In the sentence above, what is the kanji for みない?


texts:
The word "should" in English has these uses when not used as a question:

To express the expectation of the speaker (Probabilistic reasoning).

The train should arrive in 10 minutes.

To express a condition

Should it rain, the event will be cancelled.

To express obligation or the duty of ~.

I should go home.
You should study hard for the exam.

To indicate an ideal state perceived by the speaker.

Everyone should have equal rights.

From my understanding, I use ~はず for 1., ~ば(or other conditionals) for 2., and ~べき for 3. .

(Question) What can I use for 4.?


texts: Are there any godan verbs ending in nu besides shinu?


texts: It seems that 渡る is categorized as 自動詞 (intransitive verb), yet it is frequently used with を. Why?

texts:
Jisho says 渡る is an intransitive verb, and ALC says it is sometimes 自動 and sometimes 他動.

In either case, the particle を can be used. What's going on here?


texts: Talking about system scalability in Japanese

texts:
I work at a big IT company in Japan.
I'm currently working on a scalability project, that is a project to increase the capacity of a web application.

1) How do express "scalability" in Japanese to a non-IT person? If I say "スケーラビリティ" then pretty much no one except computer science people (an English speakers) know what I am talking about.

2) Related to that, how do I say something like "By the end of the year the traffic to our website will increase 500%". like what words should I use for "internet traffic" or "number of visitors" or "number of transactions".


texts: What's the meaning of という in this sentence?

texts:
I'm going crazy over this, i would like to understand the meaning of という in this sentence and i can't find anywhere a specific answer:

昔の中国 では、珍しい貝殻がお金として使われていたということである。

I know the meaning of という but i can't understand its role in this sentence, could someone help me? Very thank you!


texts: Differentiating between the many words for bullying, teasing and tormenting

texts:
In the course of my study I've come across several words which all seemed to have a high degree of overlap, in that they all essentially meant 'to tease, to bully, to torment'. If possible I'd like to know if the following words really are as similar as dictionaries would make them seem:

[苛]{いじ}める
[虐]{いじ}める
[苛]{さいな}む
[甚振]{いた・ぶ}る
[焦]{じ}らす
[揶揄]{から・か}う
[詰]{なじ}る
[嬲]{なぶ}る

Many thanks.


texts: Translating a sentence with a complex causative

texts:
I'm currently reading Yoshimura Tatsuya's 危険なふたり, which I randomly bought at a Book-Off recently.
So far I've been able to cope with the help of a dictionary, but I've come across a sentence that I cannot wrap my head around.

  二年ほどのちに、その言葉を皮肉な思いをもって脳裏によみがえらせることになるとは、そのときの[豪太]{ごうた}は想像していなかった。

I'd translate the last part as:

  At this moment, Gouta could not imagine [that ...].

But I'm stuck with the first part of the sentence.
So far, I've gotten the following bits:

のち means "later", so 二年ほどのちに means "two years later"
皮肉 means "irony", "sarcasm", so 皮肉な思いをもって means "with a sarcastic thinking", which probably translates into "half-sincerely"
脳裏 means "one's mind", since there's 裏 I guess it has the nuance of "the back of one's head"
よみがえる means "resurrect"

But I just can't put it all in order.
Could you please highlight the structure of this sentence, and explain me its meaning?


texts: Is 靜目 夏樹 a valid name in Japan? Also, I am just curious, but how do you generally check the validity of a Japanese name?


texts:
I have come across this line in a book:

  それは秘密にしといてくれてもよかったんだぜ…？

However I am unsure what しといてくれて is supposed to mean and what the above would therefore translate to, I've tried looking online but I couldn't find an explanation.

I have read about くれて and I understand that carries the meaning of having something done for you/to give etc. but I have to understand しといて as well to apply that knowledge.


texts: In Japanese, what does the word "kimashita" mean and how does it work?

texts:
In my text book it says “kimashita” is the past form of “to come”.

But then in the textbook it says:

How long have you worked here?
Koko de wa dorekurai hataraite kimashita ka?

How does “kimashita” mean “come” in this context?

In this question/answer it says that -ていく (te iku) and -てくる (te kuru) mean a change in state. That would explain the use of te in hataraite, but I am not sure how the information in that question/answer relates to the use of kimashita in the example phrase (in the textbook kimashita is described as meaning the past form of to come. What does came having to do with working?)


texts: How to express the subjunctive mood in Japanese

texts:
I recently learned the Vばよかった construction, which roughly means "it would be better had I done V". This got me curious about how to construct a sentence in subjunctive mood in Japanese, or even if it is possible to do so.
After some googling, I found that there are three types of subjunctive mood in English, depending on whether the action happens in the past, present or future. Here are three example sentences, one for each tense.

Present: If places were alike, there would be little need for geographers.
Past: If he had known your phone number yesterday, he would have called you.
Future: If he were to leave today, he would get there by Friday.

It seems that the ばよかった form is a narrow type of the past subjunctive mood.
So I guess my question is twofold:

How to translate those three sentences into Japanese?

What Japanese grammar is equivalent to the subjunctive mood? Do there exist separate grammar forms for each tense?

Edit. I found this article online: http://ezproxy.lib.hit-u.ac.jp/rs/bitstream/10086/27040/1/HJart0550100450.pdf
This seems to be exactly I need, but it is very long and academic, so it is difficult to go through. Also it is written in rōmaji only. I will try to go through it tomorrow. In the mean time, someone please provide a succinct explanation.
Edit 2: According to my understanding so far, apparently there is no special grammatical construction in Japanese that corresponds to the subjunctive mood in English, the way to express counterfactual meaning is simply the if construction (ba/nara/tara/to), with time of action indicated by the tense of the verb.


texts:
Context: (think you can skip to 0:28 and still get the full context)
https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/gk6iha/it_can_fall_off_clannad/

What's the usage of「とりあえず」in this context? The subtitles translate it as "I guess", but I'm not sure how that fits in with the usual meaning of "first of all", "for now", etc.


texts: Why is "Wikipedia" written as ウィキペディア instead of ワィキペディア?

texts:
The free online dictionary Wikipedia is called ウィキペディア in kana.

Why is it not called ワィキペディア? Which string of kana provides a pronunciation closer to the English word?


texts:
I found this phrase in a movie:

今年　最初のセーターをおととい私は出しました

What does 出す mean?
返事してくれてありがとう。


texts: What is the correct Kanji for かける in お手数をかける or 面倒をかける?


texts: Is it 自転車に乗る or　自転車を走る? I know I've read the latter somewhere before. But I just came across the former today and didn't know if there was a difference.


texts: Is there another term for "in fact", "actually"?

texts:
I feel like I am blanking on a very common conjunction word. よく聞く言葉みたいな気がしますが、どうしても思い出せないんです。I am looking for a word that means "in fact", "actually", as in:

You can call me by my first name. Actually, please call me by my first name.
ファーストネームで呼んでいいぞ。______　ファーストネームで呼んでくれえ。

I don't think it is a good idea to go into the school building at night when nobody is there. In fact, it is illegal if you do and I am going to call the police.
夜に誰もいない校舎に入るのは良くないと思うよ。______　入ったら違法行為で、通報する。

Dictionaries and Google Translate have been of no help at all, because these English phrases have multiple meanings, and the dictionaries all give me words for one sense of these two phrases: 「実際に」, but these phrases mean something totally different in the contexts given above, more like "on the contrary".
I can only think of 「それどころか」. But I thought there was a more colloquial, informal phrase/word for it. I seem to vaguely recall it was something shorter, crispier. Is there such a word? For some weird reason I keep thinking it sounds like 「もはや」...


texts: What's the difference between 滞在する and とどまる

texts:
They can mean "stay" as in "I stayed in Tokyo the entire month." I would like to know the following:

Which is more common in spoken Japanese? In written Japanese?
Is there a slight difference in terms of length of stay? (That is, とどまる gives the impression that people would stay for a little while longer but 滞在する doesn't not.)

Thanks in advance for any input you'd give regarding this.


texts: Difficulty understanding the sentence: 私たちは生命の危険を失うおそれがあった。

texts:
私たちは生命を失う危険があった。
  私たちは生命の危険を失うおそれがあった。

These two sentences are translated the same way over various databases.

I can properly understand the first sentence as: "We were in danger of losing our lives".

But I don't understand how the sentence below can be translated with the same meaning. I can't see the correlation between 生命の危険 "danger of life"(?) and を失うおそれ "fear of losing"(?)


texts:
I was studying some particles and I already understood the difference between of が and は. Also the function of the particle を and its usage. I wonder if it is possible to NOT use it in a phrase? Take a look at the example below.

  ねこがこいぬをいじめていた。- A cat was bullying a puppy

Do we really need that mora を after the puppy object there?


texts: What's the difference when using と and を to mark a spoken sentence

texts:
What's the difference between using と and を in the sentence below:

「食べる」と紙に書いてくれた
「食べる」を紙に書いてくれた

They both mean, He wrote "eat" on the paper


texts:
I always use this in English to excuse myself from a planned meeting/meet up (professional or personal).
Basically, I don't want to bother the interlocutor with the details and notify them I am busy.

I am not happy with what I can currently produce:

新しい予定があります
いけなくなりました

Could you suggest more natural ways and idiomatic ways to express the same idea?


texts: When writing the Kanji 丼 (bowl), do I start with the horizontal lines first or the vertical lines?


texts:
また首負傷しためっちゃ痛い.

What does this 痛い mean? It sounds like someone is in pain physically? Can it be emotional?


texts: Help to understand what words fit in the sentence

texts:
I am not posting the entire paragraph. Instead, this is only small part that I was confused about.

しかし、実物を手で触ることが

A.できても

B.できなくても

C.できる場合

D.できない場合

The answer is できなくても. I wonder why the answer isn't できない場合.

、人の所有物として守らなければならないものがある。文学や音楽などの作品とか、デザインや発明などである。これらのものは作った人、考え出した人の大切な財産である。実際に値段は付いていないので、売ってすぐにお金に換えることは

A.できるにしても

B.できるとなったら

C.できないにしても

D.できないとしたら

、お金や土地と同じように、「持ち主は私です」と主張することができる。

The answer is できないにしても=although cannot ...

But what is the different between できないとなったら and できないとしたら？


texts:
Is this how you combine words together using で for なまえ、せんこう、がくねん、たんじょうび、しゅっしん、and ことば。

  私はoscarです。せんこうはcomputer scienceでにねんせいです。たんじょうびは十二月三十日でにじゅうさいです。しゅっしんはoaklandでcantoneseをはなします。


texts: What term do you use to find Japanese e-cards

texts: I can parse simple Japanese websites but can't find the term that I need to search for e-cards. e-card apparently has no translation so what would should I use to search for?


texts: The use of -さん when answering about oneself

texts:
If someone says,

  あなた は Chris-さん です か。
  Are you Chris?

Do you answer

  Chris です

Or

  Chris-さん です


texts:
The full sentence:
息子はなんでもやりっぱなしで、困っています。彼が出ていった後の部屋を見ると、大変です。パジャマは脱ぎっぱなし、タンスは開けっ放し、テレビは付けっぱなしです。どうしたら、きちんとした子供になるでしょうか。

My attempt at translation:
"I am concerned about my son because he leaves everything unfinished.
When I look at his after-he-moved-out apartment, it is terrible.
His pyjama is lying around, his chest of drawers is left open and his television is constantly left on.

how can he do something precisely did sure becomes a child"

Basically, I can't translate this last sentence at all.
I can still make some sense of
子供になるでしょうか
"he sure becomes a child"

But I can't in any way connect this to どうしたら let alone どうしたら、きちんとした
to the rest of the sentence since I have no idea what to do with this した.  According to jisho, きちんと is a suru verb, so I guess きちんとした should work like an attribute to こども, but taking this route my translation made no sense at all. If I assumed that

どうしたら、きちんとした

and

子供になるでしょうか

are two parataxes, then it could somehow work out:

"How can he do precisely (like) he did"

"He sure becomes a child, doesn't he?"

However, this requires quite a lot of assumptions and one extrapolation ("'like' he did") which aren't backed up by anything.


texts: What does this expression mean in this context?

texts:
For full context, see here:
https://www.docdroid.net/dEbqqGI/img-20170816-0001-new.pdf

The sentence in question is from line 13-14:

  ほかにいいの、ありませんか。

In context of this dialogue, there's a high amount of uncertainty on my side about the possible meaning of this sentence. xD
I could imagine that it's something like "Don't you have one which is good besides that/good in other aspects as well." Something along these lines.
This ほかにいいの is just too cryptic for me...^^


texts: Translating for the phrase ”The most popular game in the West, now available in Japan!"

texts:
I’ve been trying to find a translation for the phrase, but I m not very sure it sounds natural in Japanese. It also has to fit quite a tight space, so I can't really make the text too long.
If anyone can help with some advice, it would be really appreciated.

This is what I have so far.
西部で一番人気タイトルは日本へ！


texts:
how do you say "Refugees are humans too" in Japanese

Would it be なんみんも　にんげんです。

(My Kanji is quite limited, so that's why I've written it in Hiragana)


texts: Why do we use 〜ないで instead of 〜なくて before auxiliary ください?

texts:
I was taught in college that the 〜ない verb conjugation behaves like an i-adjective, thus it has 〜く form, it takes 〜ければ for "if" scenario, it modifies the noun that follows it etc. Also, I know that the 〜くて form of i-adjective has overlapping roles with 〜て form of verb, such that it can be used to combine the i-adjective or verb with the next predicate, e.g. 滑りやすくて転んだ and 転んで泣いた. However, while 〜て form of verb can be used before auxiliary ください, for verbs that have been conjugated with 〜ない, instead of using the 〜なくて form with ください, we have to use 〜ないで form instead.

I just learned from sawa's answer for my previous question that i-adjective (even with 〜くて form) cannot be followed immediately by ください for the reason that the main verb is missing, but 〜なくて conjugation is attached to a verb so the issue of missing main verb should not be there anymore. Yet, why is it still not 〜なくてください, but is 〜ないでください instead? Where's the missing link in my reasoning? And finally, how does the 〜ないで form match with ください?


texts:
I see the ending ～まい all over the place in the JLPT books and in example phrases but I can't actually think of an example of somebody saying it or writing in an email (from SMS style messages to work messages of varying formality). (I live in Tokyo, to rule out dialect issues)

e.g.

  仕方あるまい

Do people actually use the term まい in everyday speech / writing?


texts: What does the word 「きりねえ」mean in this sentence?

texts:
Here is the sentence said by an old man who got only one eye visible.

教官先生...わしの目を見てくだせえ　たった一つっきりねえがなまじの肉親以上に本人のためを思っているこの目を！

In my opinion, he probably talked about his only visible one eye. If it means 'not only', I still have no idea how to use it in my translation below.

Is it a predicate to the noun 「たった一つ」?

If I'm correct, can I translate it like this,

Teachers, please look at my eye, I myself use it to looking for being more than his real parent regardless that I have only visible one left.

P.S. I translate the word　「なまじ」 as "regardless or thoughtlessly".


texts: What are the differences/characteristics between katakana, kanji and hiragana?

texts:
I know that romaji is the conversion from those to the roman alphabet, but what are the differences or characteristics between katakana, kanji, and hiragana?

Are they used on a different context? Is one of them more formal than the others? Do they have something in common?


texts: What is the phrase for "the amount of time for paid activities"?

texts:
It might vary from company to company. When we work as a part-time employee, most companies usually pay only for the time we work. It means that we don't get paid for the break time in between.

For example, if we work from 11:00 to 17:00 and there exists 1 hour break time in between, the companies will pay only for 5 hours rather than 6 hours.

Is there a special phrase to convey the meaning of "the amount of time for paid activities"?


texts:
I have the following bit of dialogue:

儚くて優しい――
どこまでも母親を愛する女の子の事を、
私はとても好きだったから。

Basically this dialogue is composed of 3 parts, which I have helpfully split into different lines.
First bit is an adjective nominally meaning "fleetingly kind" which I'lll get back to.
Second bit describes a daughter that loved her mother despite everything.
Third bit is almost irrelevant to the talk at hand, where the narrator expresses how much they liked that girl (BTW, the narrator is not the mother).
My question here is, who does the adjective bit (the first bit) refer to? I'm assuming the mother, because it certainly would fit the context of the mother who was kind, for only a short while to the girl.
Also am I right in my interpretation of 儚くて優しい that it means to be short-lively kind to the girl.
EDIT: Additional context.
This line is part of recollections of a nanny/teacher of the girl in question. (well she is actually a magical being that... but that's besides the point, since her role was to teach the girl) Girl's mother hired her to teach a certain type of skill to the girl, at which point her contract would be over and the teacher would depart. The mother in question, never really took to the girl, and was REALLY cold towards her, even though the girl loved her very much. So, since the girl was lacking motherly role figure, the nanny, while she was with the family, kinda took the role of the mother and got attached to the kid. Which is hardly surprising given that the girl was honest, hard working, strong etc. But even though she REALLY liked the girl, once her job was done, once she had taught the girl what she was contracted to teach her, she HAD to go away.
So now, you might think of this as her end of the line thoughts, she is looking back at the time with the girl, she is remembering how much she loved the girl, but is also being sad and worried. Sad that she was never able to repair the bridge between the mother and daughter, and worried because she was not given the time to learn what happened of the girl.
OH and YEAH. One kinda important note, the girl DOES/DID remember of a time, before the nanny when her mother was kind and nice to her, but then suddenly she almost discarded her and put the teacher to be in charge of her. Note, the change of attitude happened BEFORE the teacher came. And this weighted heavily on the girl, who at the time didn't know what caused the change in her mother's behavior, yet still earnestly wanted to please her despite the cold treatment. Which is why I thought fleetingly kind was a better description of the mother than the daughter.
The daughter herself survives it all, despite the abuse that is going to get worse later on, and escapes and becomes strong, caring and kind individual.
The nanny doesn't know this eventual fate (or about the later abuse, since while she was there she was a buffer and the mother was just cold, not outright physically abusive), but saying that girl was insubstantial and fleeting would be doing her a disservice.
The problem in my mind is that between this adjective and mother is the adverb どこまでも and it didn't feel right grammatically that the adjective could be describing an object of an action THROUGH the adverb. Even though context wise the fleeting bit doesn't really apply to the daughter.


texts: Blue blistering barnacles, what is Captain Haddock saying?

texts:
For those who might not be familiar with the series Tintin (soon to be in a major motion picture, by the way), there is a character named Captain Haddock who is famous for shouting out colourful exclamations when he gets upset.

His signature exclamation when he's surprised or angry is "Blue blistering barnacles!". At least, that's what it is in English. I don't know what the original French would be. In any case, it's just sort of an arbitrary thing to shout.

In Japanese, his trademark exclamation is made into 「コンコンニャローのバーロー岬！」.

(In the panel above, he is looking at a ship in the harbour, and the ship has raised a flag saying it is in quarantine, and he's just shouting his surprise, the same way one would yell "Oh no!" or something like that.)

This is obviously not a direct translation of the English (or the French, I assume), and I know it's just an equivalently arbitrary colourful thing to say. However, I'm struggling to parse exactly what he is saying.

I know the last バーロー is probably just a katakanization of the name "Barlow", and 岬【みさき】 is "cape," as in the coastal geographical feature. So it ends on "Cape Barlow".

I'm thinking the コンニャロー is an abbreviated この野郎【このやろう】, which translates to something like "you rascal", or worse, depending on how severe you think the context is.

The first コン really throws me. I don't think it's just a stutter, because he says it this way each and every time. Even in some other cases where he does clearly stutter, this repetition is still preserved.

The use of の throws me a bit too, as I struggle a bit with the use of の in general.

I can't make it come together. What is he shouting?


texts: How to express the "Bias for action" concept

texts:
I was wondering how could someone express the idea of "Bias for action", especially in the sense of it being a specific character trait for someone.

Here is a succinct description of what I mean with "Bias for action" from defmacro.org:

  Bias for action – in daily life many important decisions are easily reversible. It's not enough to have information – it's crucial to move quickly and recover if you were wrong, than to deliberately indefinitely.

  Idiom: One test is worth a thousand expert opinions.
  Idiom: The best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
  Note: The best people do this naturally, without brooding, and with a light touch.

My Calligraphy teacher (who is Japanese) suggested "即決即断" (which is close enough, and has also the nice benefit of being expressed using Kanji alone, which is a plus for me) but I wonder if there is any alternative that may be even more appropriate.


texts:
The speaker has just decided what route to drive:

  「よし、次の交差点を渡ったら、右折して路地の方を回っていきましょう」
  Right! When I cross the next junction I'll turn right and ???

I don't understand the part in bold. Literally, I have something like:

  I will keep turning through the direction of the lane.　or,
  I will turn through the direction of the lane and go.

I can't understand what 'turn through a direction' 方を回る means.
I'm also not sure what the function of いく is here. Hence my two alternatives.


texts: Is it appropriate to say "Konbanwa" when ending a conversation?

texts: I just talked with a Japanese speaker, and in ending the conversation I used "Konbanwa" - as in good night. I was just wondering if that was appropriate for ending a conversation as saying "good night" would be in English.


texts: How to write the passive form of the potential form?

texts:
I am curious about the passive form(受動態) of the potential form(可能形).

I thought about using

  （先生に）褒められられる

but it seems awkward, and there are no search results in Google for it.

So is

  （先生に） 褒められることができる

the best form of the expression above?

(for example, 先生に褒められる事が出来るかどうか分からない)

In conversations, how do Japanese people express this meaning?


texts:
I was reading a short text on Aozora:

  お星さま
  小川未明

  澄{すみ}ちゃん、澄{すみ}ちゃん、なにあげよう。
  あのお星{ほし}さま、とっておくれ。
  あんまり高{たか}くて、とれません。
  そんなら、あたいがとってみよう。

  お星{ほし}さま、お星{ほし}さま、なにあげよう。
  のどがかわいた、水{みず}おくれ。
  あんまり遠{とお}くて、いかれません。
  そんなら、わたしが下{お}りていこう。

I found the phrase あたいがとってみよう。 I suppose the original expression must be あたいがとる。

My question is about とる.  Isn't it a transitive verb?  It doesn't make sense to me in this expression.  Please help me understand the meaning of the expression.


texts:
So I'm playing Pokemon Alpha Sapphire in Japanese hiragana (no kanji) to help with my reading comprehension. I've been noticing some of the characters will use words that I normally see in hiragana (like きみ) in katakana.

The question is why some of the words are being used in both hiragana and katakana. So far, most sources I've seen say that katakana is used for names and foreign words, so I'm confused on why I'll sometimes see the typical Japanese word in katakana instead of hiragana. Is it common for the katakana spelling to replace a typical hiragana spelling? Additionally, what exactly is changing when the typical hiragana word is written in katakana?


texts: Polite Way of Saying "I can't...(answer the phone)" (しかねる vs. できない)

texts:
I'd like to ask about a polite way to say "I can't (do something for you)". I'm sure the answer will depend on the context, so specifically, I'm curious about how to convey "I won't be able to answer the phone from..." over email in a business setting.

My attempt is:

海外旅行のため、1月10日から21日まで電話で対応しかねますので、大変ご迷惑をおかけしますが、メールでご連絡をお願い申し上げます。

My specific questions are:

Is しかねる valid for politely giving this type of "excuse" for why you can't do something?
Can できない also be used for politely giving this type of "excuse" for why you can't do something? (e.g., "電話で対応できませんが…")
If neither of these are polite/appropriate in this case, what is a better alternative?


texts:
I have seeing in some song this:

いつもひとりで歩いてた

How was this form formed? (歩いてた) Explain tocme please.


texts:
When can I use こいつ, あいつ, etc?

I’ve seen that they can mean he/she/this/that in various contexts but when is it appropriate to use them versus 彼 or 彼女？


texts:
When are なんて and なんか used as emphasis in casual speech? Are they used when you're surprised, angry or can it be both? What sort of feeling does it convey to the listener compared to a normal sentence without it.
For example, in the following 3 sentences I'm not entirely sure what the "なんて” and ”なんか” are expressing.

こんな[所]{ところ}におばけなんていねーよ。
There are no ghosts in a place like this.
[彼女]{かのじょ}が[結婚]{けっこん}したなんてちっとも[知]{し}らなかった。
I had no idea she got married.
[私]{わたし}なんか3[枚]{まい}のレポートも[書]{か}けない。
I cannot even write a 3 page report.


texts: Why are the katakana important to learn?

texts:
I've just started, and everything says learn your hiragana and katakana first.

The hiragana, very clear. I guess you can say an awful lot of things in Japanese with hiragana. But everything I've been reading all seems to say that katakana are mostly used to form loanwords from other languages. I don't see how a beginner would need to use loan words early on.

So what is the importance of the katakana? I have absolutely no doubt I'm badly underestimating them.


texts: What is the difference between 受{う}ける and もらう? Both translates as "receive"..


texts: ちいとばかし苦しいから extra cash to make ends meet

texts:
ティーゼル:

  うぐっ！まだ潰れちゃいねえよ
  今月の運転資金が、ちいとばかし苦しいから
  軽くバイトするだけのこったよ

Teisel: Gaahh! No, it hasn't gone under! We're just, a little in the red this
month, that's all! Just need a little extra cash to make ends meet!

Response I received from someone:
Guuu! I’m not bankrupted yet.

I’m just having a bit of a hard time getting some working capital.

I'll just do a bit of part-time work.

軽く = light, a little

バイト = part time job

するだけのこったよ（= するだけのことだよ） = only just do

So I'm only just confused about
ちいとばかし苦しいから
I've never read or heard ちいとばかし before so please explain this.


texts: How is suicide bombing justified by a divine breeze?

texts:
The word for 'suicide bombing via crashing your plane into something'(which most people will use in a broader sense that drops the plane from the equation) as seen done by the Japanese during WWII is 神風, who's kanji translates to 'Divine/God's wind'.

Could someone explain the etymology of this to me. What exactly does 'Divine wind' refer to? How was it meant to help justify this suicide mission to the men who did it? And is it connected to the State-Shinto they had at the time?


texts:
I cannot get what な means in the following sentence.

  彼女はそれがいくらなのかわかります。

Couldn't it be written 彼女はそれがいくらのか分かります?


texts: Use (or meaning) of masu form of verb plus つく

texts:
What is the use and/or meaning when adding つく to the -ます form of a verb?

Here is a sample sentence ...

たぬきは　なんとか　浜辺に　泳ぎつくと、
すたこら　さっさと　逃げていました。

”Tanuki somehow swam?? to the beach (then) helter-skelter quickly escaped."


texts: Is "あら” a feminine expression? Can I use it as a guy?

texts: あら as in the expression of surprise like "oh my".


texts:
i was reading a news and I saw that sentence: 警察は誰かが女の子を殺したあと、線路に置いたと考えて調べていました。

I can understand the most part of the words, just that "と", in "線路に置いたと考えて調べていました", is not understandable for me.

Can someone help me? :x


texts:
I am not sure about the first part of

  「中３の２５％、短文も理解困難」

Do you read 中 as ちゅう here?
25% of 3 would be 0.75% if I am not mistaken. Therefore does it mean something like 「around 0.75% of the population does have trouble with reading and understanding short sentences」? But then... wouldn't one just write 0.75% in the beginning?


texts:
I'm having trouble with this one.

For context, this is from a manga wherein two characters just ran away from a fight before saying. Also, it's a battle royale.

  向こうからこっちを狙ってきてくれりゃぁ
  相手探す手間も省けてちょうど良い

My bad understanding of this is, which is probably wrong is.

"The others are aiming for us too, so if others find that one and saves us the trouble, then great."

Feel free to correct me.

My question is why くれりゃぁ used here? I can't find a good explanation of it online in english. Also, is it something only spoken in a country accent? Because the guy saying it has one.


texts:
What does the なのに mean in this sentence from Makino and Tsutsui's A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar:

  アパートの家賃を払うのが精一杯なのに、まして（や）家を買うなんて夢物語だ

Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar translation:

"I am just managing to pay the rent for my apartment; how much more of a dream it is to imagine buying my own house!"

This entry is teaching まして which I understand, I fathom that the なの is simply used for emphasis, and the に in its use as a sentence final to indicate sympathy or regret (Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar p. 234).  Am I right in thinking this or is it something else?

Many thanks in advance :)


texts: How to interpret 同情 in the following sentence

texts:
Context: in the manga リクドウ, the boxer that will win the Level A Tournament will get the chance to challenge the Japanese champion. Some journalists are interviewing the champion about this and one asks him if he is keeping an eye on one of the participants:

  Journalist: 注目―――又は警戒しているボクサーはいますか？

  Champion: …俺のキャリアの中で今のライト級は…　黄金期と言える程選手が揃っていると思います　　むしろトーナメント勢の連中に同情しますねェ…

I know that 同情する means "to sympathize with, to feel bad for", but considering the context, I am a bit confused. Does he mean that he feels sorry for them because fighting in such a golden era will be hard for them?

What confuses me even more, is that むしろ. Does it express a contrast to what he has said before?

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


texts: Are 万葉仮名 (man'yōgana) chosen consistently?

texts:
This answer got me wondering how relevant the presentation in 万葉仮名 is to finding a 漢字 for a given word.

As far as I understand, 万葉仮名 are used largely for phonetic value. Knowing that some word was written with some combination of 万葉仮名 would only carry any significance if words were written consistently with the same characters. Do texts in 万葉仮名 indeed choose 万葉仮名 consistently or is a lot of the choice a stylistic choice on part of the author?


texts:
What does お察しいたします mean?

The context (manga) is that a family's son is about to die; I think the speaker is trying to express condolences. However, the dictionary meaning seems to be "I make a guess", and I don't think that can be right in the context!


texts: I am writing an essay and I need to say, "From here, I would like to talk about my family"

texts: I'm writing an essay, and to lead into the next paragraph I need to start with, "From here (which is "korekara" I believe) I would like to talk about 2 of my family members, my brother and my mom." I need it in Romaji because I can't read some kanji very well.


texts: How did コンセント come to be used for an "electrical outlet"?

texts: Saw this on a charger I bought online and was really perplexed. What foreign word does it represent? "concentric"? What does that have to do with electrical outlet and where did it come from?


texts:
I have a quick question about something I've come across:

  中村さんだけでもいいんだけどねえ。

I'm at a loss as to what it could mean, and I wonder if it might be an idiom of sorts? If so what is its meaning?

What I have learnt is that だけでも can mean "even only…” and "いいんだけど" means "I hope/wish".

But it doesn't seem to make sense if I try to put it together:

For example:

  Even Nakamura san only I hope.

That doesn't sound right to me. Any help is appreciated!


texts: What is the difference between the conditionals なら & ば?

texts:
Examples:
なら：
みんなが行くなら私も行く
ば：
楽しくなければ、私も行かない
What is the difference between the two?
なら says it's used to represent what will happen in a given context. ば says there is no condition. I understand と (natural consequence) but I don't understand the need for a distinction between なら & ば.
tldr;
what would be the difference between
みんなが行くなら私も行く
&
みんなが行けば私も行く
Google translate says both mean "if everyone goes, I'll go."


texts:
This kanji "ask" when I researched on it I found that the 門 part is a phonetic and this common with kanjis contain 門 .. but i found this site which says that this part 門 in kanji 問 not a phonetic but it has the meaning "to hide something behind the gate" and this meaning + ロ kanji meant that to "ask" about something which hidden behind the gate or the door.

Is this etymology right?
And if it's right how did the author know this information about the meaning of "門 part using" in the kanjis?


texts: What would be the difference between 〜ようというときに and 〜ようとしたときに?

texts:
電車に乗ろうとしたときにドアが閉まって乗れなかった。

電車に乗ろうというときにドアが閉まって乗れなかった。

ちょうど彼が出かけようとしたときに大地震があった。

ちょうど彼が出かけようというときに大地震があった。

Hi. I have found some sample sentences on the internet. Are all the above sentences fine?
If so, can I think 〜ようというときに and 〜ようとしたときに are usually interchangeable, if not always?
And could you show me the occasions where the two patterns are not interchangeable?
And generally what would be the difference between 〜ようというときに and 〜ようとしたときに?
Thank you.


texts: How would I say "and here I thought you didn't understand sarcasm"? I was also wondering if there is any difference between using 皮肉 and 風刺 for meaning sarcasm.


texts: Meaning of まん in ほっとかれちゃたまんない

texts:
あんなところにいつまでもほっとかれちゃたまんない

I can't understand what まん means in this sentence. Literally I'm reading

  There is no まん that got neglected forever in such a place.

which is gibberish.


texts:
Would you please tell me what あの子、あんなんだしさ means?
and then she said あの子を理解してあげられる人なんて　たぶんごく僅かだと思うのよ。。。
The person who said this phrase is a mother talking with her son's friend about her son.

Thank you in advance


texts: What is the equivalent Japanese term for "Anthropomorphize/Anthropomorphic"

texts:
In English, we have two distinct concepts "Anthropomorphization" and "Personification".

The former, meaning to impart some human traits onto an object or animal is often seen in Japan/Japanese media:

On the other hand, "Personification", which is to go "bottom-up" and make an object or animal into a complete person is also often seen in Japanese media,  and after consulting my Japanese friend they taught me the word for it is 擬人化{ぎじんか}, which is basically this:

While the two concepts in English are distinctly different, I could find no Japanese language version of "Anthropomorphization" as either a noun, verb, or concept.

Considering how prevalent the former is in Japan, why isn't there a word for it and why does our concept of "anthropomorphize" always imply "Personification" in Japanese?


texts:
I'm working on noun modifying clauses so this sentence is a little basic. However would から be the appropriate word to use to express that I have bought something from a particular place.
Where would it go in this sentence:

  これは、私が毎日コーヒーを買う、きっさてんです。


texts:
Both are used to mean equip right?

Any difference in meaning or are they interchangeable.

I noticed Japanese superhero shows seem to use both interchangeably, with Justirisers using 装着 and others like Gogov and Tomica Hero Rescue force use 着装.


texts: On a kanji reading exercise I read 金田 as kin-den because the on-yomi of 田 is デン. Is that correct?


texts:
I have seen the literal translation of the phrase 「つかみどころがない」, somewhere along the lines of being either slippery, vague or elusive. I encountered this phrase

  立花｛たちばな｝さんつかみどころないんだよなぁ…

I cannot seem to extend the translation into this sentence. The context suggests that it means the person is kind of hard to talk to (awkward silence), but maybe that's irrelevant for this sentence.

UPDATE: I wrote "literal" translation, but really it's not literal and it's simply the definition given by dictionaries. Apologies for the confusion.


texts:
I've heard that it is supposed to be "less demanding" (or something in that regard) to ask a negative question when you're asking for a favor or anything alike.

Let's say I want to turn this sentence into a negative one:

  スカイプで話しましょうか？

How do I go about doing it? I want to convey the following meaning: "Should we talk over skype?"


texts: Understanding 生まれ変わることがあるなら

texts:
I'm a bit stuck on how to understand 生まれ変わることがあるなら in the line below. The speaker's girlfriend has passed away.

もし届くなら、
この星のどこかにいる、アイツに届くなら、
生まれ変わることがあるなら、
言いたいことがあった。
遅刻すんなよ、って

At first I read it as him saying if he was reborn but then that didn't make any sense to me in context as it is his girlfriend that has passed away.
In this case then, what is the correct way of understanding this phrase in context? Is it "if she is reborn". or something more like "if reincarnation exists".


texts: Is it possible to distinguish between 'cannot'/'does not' and 'will not'?

texts:
As practice I have been alternately translating short bits of writing both from Japanese to English and from English to Japanese. When most recently attempting the latter, it occurred to me that I have never (that I can recall) seen a way to specify 'will not' that isn't ambiguous with 'cannot' or 'does not'.

For example, the stock translation of 'I will not forgive you' (許さない) is distinguished from 'I cannot forgive you' (許せない) but not from 'I do not forgive you' (許さない again).

Some of the time this isn't a problem, but especially when writing in a 3rd person perspective, the implications of doesn't vs won't can be significant (i.e. 'The man didn't tell her his name' implies nothing in particular, but 'The man would not tell her his name' implies that the question of the man's name was explicitly rebuffed, suggesting suspicion, secrecy, or just plain rudeness).

In that specific example, the distinction could be made with a sentence like '彼女は尋ねたのに男は名前を言わなかった', or '男は彼女に名乗らないと言った', these approaches cannot always be used and require more information than might be available. Is there a more general way to distinguish between 'cannot'/'does not' and 'will not' in Japanese, either explicitly or by changing the sentence structure?

EDIT:

Since the current answerers seem to have misunderstood my question, I will attempt to clarify here. Firstly, I am not intending to conflate or group together 'cannot' with 'does not', except in that they are both alternatives to 'will not'.

Secondly, the distinction I'm trying to make between the two and 'will not' is not one of tense (present/past vs future) but one of intent. 'I cannot tell you' implies a very different intent than 'I will not tell you', and it is this difference which I am trying to express in Japanese.


texts:
I'm reading the university journal article 『カタカナ英語{えいご}と和製英語{わせいえいご}：最近{さいきん}の傾向{けいこう}を中心{ちゅうしん}として』, and the following sentence came up.

  以下{いか}は日本語{にほんご}と英語{えいご}では意味{いみ}が微妙{びみょう}に大{おお}きく異{こと}なる和製英語{わせいえいご}である

My reading of this would be:

Below is waseigo where the English and Japanese meaning is very different (in a complicated/doubtful/tricky way?) The juxtaposition of 微妙 and 大きく is confusing since they seem to carry opposite meanings (big and small/subtle). Can someone give me a better explanation/translation so that I can understand this sentence.


texts: multiple たとえ even if (in a compound sentense)

texts:
たとえ夏にあなたにあえなくても、たとえいっしょに旅しなくても、まだもっと待ってるよ。

The question is how to link two "even if's" in a compound sentence, as in the example above. Perhaps, You don't need two たとえ and if you only conjugate the て, adding the も to the second one, will it be clear enough? Or is there a better way to express this kind of sentence?

Thank you very much!


texts: 気力がつきかけていた: What meaning does かける have here? And which つき is this?

texts:
頭のどこかで諦めてしまっている。体に力が入らず、何より気力がつきかけていた。

I'm not sure how to interpret the meaning of かける in this sentence. What meaning does it have here?

Also, is this つき 尽き or 付き?


texts: 困っている usage / different meanings depending on context?

texts:
私は困っている。

I've seen the sentence translated as "I am in trouble", however depending on the context is it possible that it also could mean "I am troubled" or "I am worried"?


texts:
If I want to say, "you look tired", 疲れそう doesn't work, as that is "looks like I/you will get tired", but is 疲れたそう a thing? feels wrong...

Is it possible to use ~そう past tense? past negative? Is there a better way to say this?


texts: Is this が at the end of the verb conditional ?

texts:
だが[殺]{ころ}したが[最後]{さいご}きさまあの[世]{よ}いきだ！

I understand this sentence as,'if you kill him, you are following him to the netherworld'.

I intuitively understand this が as conditional but I am not sure. I haven't found anything which ascertains or confirms this. But I have a strong feeling of it being a conditional. What kind of が is this and what is it called ? Also, is this some kind of polite form of たら・なら・ば ?

I've tried searching for this but I think I am missing its name or I am not searching it right. Any links relating to this would be awesome.

Thank you!


texts: Similar example sentences give different meanings

texts:
I was looking for the verb しゃべる in the dictionary, as it got me curious since I've only known 話す for a while.

In the dictionary there are two example sentences which look the same, but the dictionary gives two different meanings:

  彼女はよくしゃべる。
  She talks a lot.
  彼はよくしゃべる。
  He talks well.

What? They look exactly the same to me, except the personal pronoun but why does the meaning changes? Is it a matter of "having both meanings" or what?


texts:
Most of the Chinese, Korean and Japanese people that I speak to say that there are only two strokes in 子 and 辶, saying that nobody does it using three strokes. Yet, on every single official source (Chinese government sources, Japanese dictionaries, online dictionaries) it shows each element with three strokes.

If the people do it one way and the official sources do it another way, what is the correct way to do it?

In Japan, there is no official government-mandated stroke order for each character, which means that the official stroke order is decided by the collective will of the people. Does this even matter?


texts: Forming a "habitual" sentence: "I usually get up at 7.15"

texts:
私は大抵七時十五分に起きます

Would this be a correct way to say 'I usually get up at 7.15'? Not sure 大抵 is correctly placed before the time+に


texts: What's the difference between より and よりも?

texts:
I came across this sentence:

光{ひかり}は音{おと}よりも速{はや}く進{すす}む

And I don't understand the purpose of the word よりも. I have a feeling that より and よりも have basically the same meaning (more than) and も is used to emphasis it.

Is there any difference between より and よりも?

Thanks, Or


texts: What is the difference between these two sentences?

texts:
1)

  元々恋愛と結婚は別のものと彼女は考えていた。

and

2)

  元々彼女は恋愛と結婚は別のものと考えていた。

Would I be right in saying that

1) focuses on the fact that she thought marriage AND love were different

2) focuses on that it was HER who thought love and marriage were different

Also a little confused on the usage of particles at the end because 1) has は考えていた. What is the difference between は考えていた and を考えていた?

Thank you :)


texts: ~から ~まで for sizes and other non-time related subjects

texts:
I was writing a text about sumi-e pencils and I came up with this sentence:
筆のタイプには、ほうきの大きさからえんぴつの大きさまでがあります。
Trying to convey "As for pencil types, there are pencils from the size of a broom to the size of a (writing) pencil". Can I use ~から ~まで like this?


texts:
傷つけられ追い詰められたノラ犬は、人に襲いかかることだって、ある。
  There are even times when a wounded and cornered stray dog will attack a human.

In my TL I have guessed that ことだって、ある is ことがある (there are times when...) with the が being replaced by だって to give the meaning "there are even times when...". Is this correct? Why is there a comma here?

My other thought was that って might be quoting the stuff before it, but I got stuck with that line of reasoning.


texts: How to understand japanese sentence step by step

texts:
野菜を食べることが大切、と言われる理由は大きく三つあります。

  一番目は野菜に含まれる成分のうち、体内に吸収されて重要な役割を演じる物質が摂取できるからです。ビタミン類やミネラル類はもちろん,最近はこれら以外のわずかに含まれる成分にも注意が集まっています。

一番目は野菜に含まれる成分のうち

First component that was contained in vegetables
体内に吸収されて重要な役割を演じる物質が

So I cut this part 体内に吸収されて / 重要な役割を演じる物質 -> is it true(?)

And this mainly talk about 物質 as subject.

The substance that was absorbed into the body which plays an important role
摂取できるからです-> I'm a bit confused because 摂取 and 吸収 have pretty same meaning -> but I think refers to 野菜含まれる成分(？) and there is "から" at the end, so it means a component (成分) that intake.
The component that intake The substance that was absorbed into the body which plays an important role(?)
It refers to vitamin and mineral

I don't know if this true or not, and I'm pretty confuses about who is the subject in this sentence.

If it's wrong please help me revise it.


texts: Confused on use of ため in article about Honda's robot Ashimo

texts:
I'm reading this article about Ashimo the robot made by Honda and I don't understand the use of ため in this sentence. I have usually seen ため followed by the particle の or に, but in this case no particle is following it. Why is that? How is ため being used here?
I know ため can mean 'the benefit of' and the の or に give direction of who/what is getting the benefit, so I believe something similar is going on here. I'm assuming ため is pointing back to the portion about Ashimo, but I'm not sure.

アシモは２本の足で歩くことができて、高い技術を使っているため、世界が注目しました
Ashimo has the ability to walk using 2 legs and this is due to the use of expensive technology which the world has noticed


texts: What to call the characters-based decoration found in many announce emails

texts:
Many emails received from Japanese companies contain characters-based dingbat-style ornament like this:

■□■□■□────────────────────────────
blablablablablablablabla
────────────────────────────■□■□■□

■blabla
｜　bla：blablabla
｜　bla：blabla

■┓　　bla 　　┏■
┗┛━━━━━━━━━━┗┛
...

It seems to be a particular case of Shift_JIS art (which I don't know how to say in Japanese either, by the way).

What do you call this type of email decoration in Japanese?


texts: When is it appropriate to choose にわたって or を通じて in regard to time?

texts:
I seem to have a hard time recognizing when to choose either にわたって or を通じて in the following question:

  この地方は一年（　　）暖かく、とても過ごしやすい。

The correct answer is を通じて. My idea is that を通じて would make this say "throughout this year". With にわたって, I thought that it would be "Over the course of one year". Yet, I'm thinking that these are incorrect. What is the difference between these two words with respect to time? Also, what would be the correct translation for this phrase?


texts:
Recently I was studying the use of から and だから as conjunctions. Could anyone explain why one is used in these examples while the other is not?
Are there rules as to whether から and だから can follow a phrase or a clause?
I am pretty clear as to why から and だから are used in the first two examples, but in the last three, in examples 1 and 2 I am confused as to why the answers provided to me are the correct ones. I understand the second example.

  これは僕のお気に入りだから、気をつけて使って下さいね。
  It's my favorite, so please be careful.

  私は、日本語を学んですでに4年になるが、自分の日本語の不十分さから、日常生活で面白い失敗を起こすことは珍しくない。
  It has been four years since I began learning the Japanese language, but since my Japanese is not proficient, it's not unusual for me to make some rather interesting mistakes in using Japanese in my daily life.

  １．最近寒い（から・だから）身体に気を付けて下さい。

  ２．最近寒くなった（から・だから）身体に気を付けて下さい。

  ３．例年以上の寒さ（から・だから）身体に気を付けて下さい。

Answers:

  1．寒いから

  2．寒くなったから

  3．寒さだから


texts: いる or ある for things attached to living beings

texts:
I have been searching the Internet for an answer to this question for while now, but to no avail.

If I walk into a room and there's a person there among my friends that I don't know, in English could say something like "Oh, there's a new face" and go and greet him or her.

In Japanese, should I use "ああ　新しい顔があります！" or "ああ　新しい顔がいます！"?

The face is attached to a living person, but the face itself is not a living thing in the same regard.

I would be most grateful for an explanation.


texts: I understand that キモい comes from 気持ち悪い and I have only heard it used by women. I am wondering if it is exclusively used by women like how ending sentences with わ or かしら is only used by women.


texts:
I have just come across the phrase 知っての通り〜 (as you know...)

I have never noticed this usage of て-form before and can't find an explanation.

What is the difference (if any) between this and 知っている通り?

I have also seen 見ての通り used in a similar way.

If possible please provide a more generalised explanation of the grammar at work here, and examples of other ways it may be used.