texts: Who would あやつ reffer to in this context and other considerations

texts:
I have the following scene. Three ancient persons were roused (by persons K and I) from a place they were resting in for a LOOONG time. Specifically the logical/knowledgeable one mentions that it seems that "2-3 cycles of reincarnation" have passed (２～３回は輪廻が巡る月日). I should note that the franchise in question is not religious at all so I'm just assuming this is a fancy way to say that entire eternities might have passed.

The same person also notes that it's likely that given the time that has passed that they themselves have changed/were tampered with during all that time.

To this all the leader comments:

  まったく… ”あやつ”に関わると摩訶不思議な事ばかり…

at the last ellipsis she cuts off because she is suddenly struck with an kinda unrelated vision/memory.

From what I was able to determine あやつ is the kinda old timey third person way to speak abusively or disparagingly about someone. The old timey aspect fits because this character does have a tendency to mix in arhaic expressions.

What I'm wondering is who does the word reffer to. And how to translate this.

I have a feeling that she might be trying to say:

  Good grief, whenever you tangle with the rabble/those bozos, mysterious things (are bound to happen).

with the bit in the parenthesis being what I think she might have said if she wasn't cut off.

I also think that she isn't directly reffering to K and I, given that they just roused them, and have only now met them so they kinda don't fit.


texts:
I have noticed that some verbs have this "rare" or old form that is no longer used much (if at all).  Here are some examples.

  おそる：　おそるべき者　→　One who is feared
  ほむ：　ほむべきお方【かた】　→　Seen often in my Japanese Bible describing God; "The one worthy of praise"
  求【もと】む：　店員を求む　→　Help wanted

Were these forms prominently used at some point?
Why (and possibly, when) did their current forms (おそれる, ほめる, and 求める respectively) become the "standard" and overtake the older forms?
Are they used in other ways in modern Japanese, or only in fixed sayings/situations like these?
Can you list any other verbs like this? (I know this part is a little open-ended and thus is discouraged according to the site's acceptable questions, but if you know any, and answer the other questions above, throw it in with your answer)


texts: plain continuous form of a verb vs appending ところ

texts:
What's the difference between the following 2 sentences:

今料理を作っているところだ

今料理を作っているんだ


texts: What's the difference between 勇ましい, 勇気, and 勇敢?

texts:
In English-Japanese dictionaries, they are all defined along the lines of "brave" or "courageous".

Japanese dictionaries describe all of them more or less as "not fearing danger", using a phrase similar to「危険や困難を恐れない」for each of them. Adding to my confusion, they seem to follow a circular logic: the entry for 勇気 uses いさましい; the entry for 勇ましい uses 勇敢; and the entry for 勇敢 uses 勇気.

Of the three, 勇気 seems to be the most common while 勇ましい is by far used the least. On 少納言, 勇気 had almost 25 times as many hits as 勇ましい.

Ignoring grammatical differences (I'm aware of their parts of speech), what is the difference between them? And if they really are close synonyms, how come 勇気 is used so much more than 勇ましい?


texts:
Take the following sentence:
"I knew that you were/are an angel"
For fun, and since I happened to know the one word of vocabulary required for this, I tried to translate it.

To do so, I thought about using the te-form and then simply chain the two sentences "I knew" and "you are an angel" together.

That resulted in the following :
"( 私は)知りまして、君は天使です"

Putting the polite form of to know into the past with the te form seemed easy enough. I'm not quite sure for the casual form, but my guess would be 知て. (shiru, drop ru, add ta, drop ta, add te)

However, google translating that back into english yielded "I know that you are an angel", which is the present tense form, and with this kind of sentence just happens to have a completely different implied meaning.

Google translating the english sentence into Japanese however, yielded the following, which I do not understand: あなたが天使であることは分かっていた.

I get that "あなたが天使である" includes the "being/are" meaning of the sentence, while I above only ended with "です". So the difference in meaning when using desu and aru would be my first question.

Furthermore, there is no te form or sentence chaining involved here - From what I get, こと converts the whole previous verb into a noun, so now we have this huge "you're an angel" - noun?

Then, the 分かって part seems more intuitive, simply being the past form of I understand. (although I'm not sure why we aren't using shiru here).

Finally, the last part, いた, has me lost, to be honest.

So, my second question would be on how I can properly understand the googletranslate translation, whether it is right or not, and whether there are any better alternatives or not.

Finally, my last question is about sentence chaining in general: How do we know what part comes first? Assume my translation above was correct for a moment, instinctively I put the "I know" part first. But I can see that in fact, the know part should come last as it is the true verb of the sentence. What about more complex sentences? And finally, why would the following be wrong/unnatural: 君は天使でして私は知りました

Thanks!


texts: Are there many words that have the same pronunciation ambiguity as Nihon/Nippon?

texts:
Wikipedia says that 日本 can be pronounced either [にっぽん]{nippon} or [にほん]{nihon}.

Does this ambiguity in pronunciation happen with other words? If so, does it only happen with words that originated before handakuten (the circle symbol in ぱ ぴ ぷ ぺ ぽ) were added to the "p" sounding kana? (By Portuguese missionaries, according to the tv series Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo, at 5:00 of the link)

(Nihon and nippon has slightly different nuances according to the article, but that's not what I'm interested in)


texts: Why is the も particle used when asking to borrow something?

texts:
If I ask, "Can I borrow a pencil?" I might say: エンピツを借りてもいいですか？

Why do we use the も particle here, since we're not saying also this or that? To express also is the main usage of mo I'm familiar with.


texts:
I'm having trouble making sense of the sentence below. (It's taken from 『いつかこの恋を思い出してきっと泣いてしまう』.) I would appreciate anyone's help.

  休み取れたんだったら、有給取ったのに
  私これからぎゅうぎゅうの地下鉄乗るっちゃん


texts: Which is correct for the bushido code, 誠 or 真?

texts: Which one is correct for being used in the bushido code as makoto, 誠 or 真?


texts:
ビルの工事の騒音で、電話がよく聞こえません。
=>"With the noise of the multi-floor buildings construction work, you can't hear the phonecall well."

What is meant with "noise" here? I guess it is the interference of the steel constructions with the radiowaves of the mobilephone?
Since there is no 携帯電話 here and since there is no explicite reference to noise in sense of interference with electromagnetic waves, I wanted to ask for your opinion. It seems very unlikely to me that actual sonic noise caused by the buildings structure is meant. Because in that case, I would assume that the building is about to collapse...^^


texts:
From the manga yotsubato!, casual conversation:

  早く寝るのはいいけど、せめて晩飯食って風呂入ってからにしろ

In this sentence how does からにしろ at the end change it? I know the full sentence means this:

  It's ok to go to bed early, but at least eat dinner, and take a bath.

But wouldn't that be

  早く寝るのはいいけど、せめて晩飯食って風呂入る。

I'm guessing that しろ is the imperative form of する, から is from, and に is the directional particle. But I don't see how that changes the sentence.


texts:
For full context, see here:
https://www.docdroid.net/hK45eJm/img-20170916-0001-new.pdf

its taken from line 20:
城には金銀が保管してあったはずだ。
=> "In the castle, surely the gold and silver did a custody."
This translation of course makes little sense. However, I've no idea how else I should do it. I don't know in what other way I should interprete が here than in the function of the subject marker.


texts: What is the proper form of "In the beginning" for this sentence?

texts: Okay, so I fixed my first problem. Now, I have to find the proper form of "in the beginning." Should it be はじめに、すなおだった (hajime ni, sunaodatta,) or はじめは、すなおだった (hajime wa, sunaodatta?)


texts: Difference between 今週の週末でもいい? and 今週の週末はいい?

texts:
What is the difference in nuance between using でも　or は in the next sentences?:

今週の週末でもいい？
今週の週末はいい？

I got several and different replies about this topic, so I don't know what to think about this.
One of these replies said that in the first one, only this weekend is available to me. "(The weekend that is available tome is only this weekend, but) Is it okay for you?". In the second one, I don't say so. You're just asking if this weekend is convenient for him or her.
Is that true? How would you explain the difference? I find myself kind of confused right now.


texts: と indicating a condition that results in an inevitable outcome

texts:
The japanichiban.com has a list of all Japanese particles and one of the uses of the と-particle is "to indicate a condition that results in an inevitable outcome".

Can someone give an example sentence of this use, please?

Thank you very much.


texts: what did they mean to use くる in the past time?

texts:
I think くる in this sentence is supposed to be in past tense, right ? then why did they use くる here ?

  戦後、経済の高度成長とともに、生活にも少し余裕ができてくると、欧米の生活様式や考え方がたくさん入ってきた。


texts:
The full sentence:

  藤木がハッとしたように言った。
  「thing Fujiki said」
  Fujiki said with surprise ...

How does this differ from just saying

  藤木がハッと言った。

Is したように necessary, and if so, why, and what extra is it adding?

Note, I'm happy with how the するように construct works normally. I'm just asking about whether it might be redundant in this sentence since ハッと is already an adverb.


texts:
山下さんはその映画を見ようと思う

is the speaker here Yamashita-san?

Does this sentence mean:

  "Yamashita-san thinks he(Yamashita-san) will see that movie"

or

  "Yamashita-san thinks I will see that movie"

Shouldn't it be 山下さんはその映画を見ようと思っている for it to mean the former?


texts: What is the Japanese song-metric filler?

texts:
In English we have some common sounds that are used to fill spaces in songs like "ah" "la" "nah" "oh" "yea".

What do we use for Japanese songs?

So far I think I have only heard る used.


texts: What does して have to do in [駅を降りたら、どこからともなく美味しそうないい匂いがしてきた。]?

texts:
Why wasn't it just [駅を降りたら、どこからともなく美味しそうないい匂いがきた。] without adding して? What is the role of して in the sentence?

that して is supposed to be the 'te' form of 'suru' verb right? What is the closest English meaning of that して in the sentence?


texts:
最新技術をもってすればその開発も難しくないだろう。
最新技術をもってすればその開発が難しくないだろう。

Since 2) is a complete sentence and doesn't need any more context to perfectly/accurately understand it(i think).
Can 1) also be considered a complete sentence which doesn't need any more context to perfectly/precisely/accurately understand it?
If YES, What nuance does も add instead of が?


texts: Which ように is it 落ち着かせるように?

texts:
In the sentence below, I am not sure whether it is saying "so as to calm me down" or "as if to calm me down". I could imagine 落ち着かせるように being used to mean either of these meanings, so I am not sure how to distinguish between the two.

そんな私を落ち着かせるように、肩に手を置いてポンポンと叩いてきてくれる


texts: What does 良いところだったりする mean in this sentence?

texts:
ちなみに今は２３巻で、これからが良いところだったりする。

I'm having trouble understanding ところだったりする in this sentence. From what I know ところ can mean 'place, spot, area etc.', 'just about to do something' or describe a state when modified by another word. たりする is usually used to list inexhaustive example.

With just these definitions it doesn't seem to make sense to me, so I searched around for だったりする and found that it could mean 'to happen to be' (from this question here) or 'probably'.

I think it's likely to mean something like this: "By the way, right now I'm at volume 23 and after this (it happens to be / it's probably) a good spot." but I'm really not sure about that.

For more context this was said previously: "全３０巻もある漫画を読んで、つい徹夜をしてしまったってことか。"

Thank you for the help!


texts: The difference between using 元気 and 宜しい/宜しく

texts:
As the title hints, I'm wondering what the usage differences are between these.
I've suggested to myself that it may just be a difference with nouns and adverbs, or maybe that 宜 is just a Japanese reading of the similar meaning that can be interchanged with saying you are 'well' or 'good'.

I'd like for someone to clear this up just so I know for other examples in the future, and what sort of context they'd be used in if they are meant for different occasions.


texts: Could someone tell me if the phrase 'mono no aware' should be written in a certain way for example hiragana/kanji and if so why? Could you please show me the correct way it should look? Thanks


texts: Katakana Combination for Song Titles - Where is the の?

texts:
I have the following translation. The speaker just got done saying they were going to sing a certain song first in a karaoke bar.

二曲目は、
アメリカのスピリット、
ジョンデンバーのカントリーロードがいいかもしれませんね。

So far I have the following.

As for the second song,
America's Spirit
John Denver's Country Road might be good huh?

I looked up John Denver. He had an album called Spirit and a song called Country Road. But it doesn't look like the song was on that album.

I do not know why there isn't any particle between the second and third lines of this sentence. Nor do I know how the whole sentence comes together.


texts: How to represent percentage and ratio in Japanese?

texts:
For the sake of simplicity, assume that there are 60 women and 40 men in my class.

I want to say the following statements. Are they correct?

The ratio of men to women is 2 to 3.

クラスの女性に対する男性の割合は２対３だ。(Type A)
The ratio of men to women is 2 to 3.

クラスの男性の女性に対する割合は２対３だ。(Type B)
Women is 3/2 of men.

女性の割合は男性の割合の２分の３だ。
Women is 60% of the class.

女性はクラスの６０％だ。(Type C)
Women is 60% of the class.

女性の割合はクラスの６０％だ。(Type D)
Women is 60% of the class.

女性は６割だ。(Type E)
Women is 60% of the class.

女性の割合は６割だ。(Type F)

Any other possible proportions are also welcome.


texts: Differentiate between usages of 全部: all or completely?

texts:
Relatively new learner here. In a forum on Duolingo, as the app itself only teaches by example, there's a discussion regarding translating this phrase:

窓{まど}は全部{ぜんぶ}閉{し}まっていますか？

Without「全部」it seems to be: "Is the window closed?" or "Are the windows closed?"
With the introduction of「全部」however, how would you distinguish between:

Are all the windows closed? / Is every window closed?
Are the windows completely closed?
Is the window completely closed?

And if some of these are invalid, how would you rephrase / translate them?
Edit: Duolingo's suggested translation was: "Are the windows all shut?", which just adds to the confusion. Here, "all" could be being used as an adverb to mean, "completely shut", or as a predeterminer (I think that's the right term) as in, "all the windows".
Someone left an answer indicating that they thought 全部 was acting on the verb, & I added this comment; however, they then deleted their answer. So now I'm back do being uncertain, lol.


texts:
I am going through 'All About Particles', and came across the following two sentences:

なぜ彼がそんなことをやったか、わかりません。
どうして彼女がそんなつまらない本を読んでいるのか、不思議です。

What is the difference between using か in the first one and のか in the second? I have searched online, and のか seems to carry a sense of 'questioning the former'. Does that mean I could also use のか in the first sentence?


texts: How to say "I hope I can" in this situation?

texts:
I would like to say:

"I'm not very good, but I hope I can help you."

My first thought would be to translate this as

「下手なんですが、手伝えるといいんですが。」

because in my Japanese class, we were taught that "hoping for one's self" should end in といいんですが. However, is it awkward to have the particle が at the end of both of these clauses?


texts:
When I order something in a restaurant, I'd like to ask without spicy.

I hear I have to use : 辛【から】いのぬきで or 辛いのなしで.
Why 辛くないで is not correct?

Thank you !


texts: How to understand the contractionしていて、/-てて

texts:
I am trying to better understand this sentence:

金さんは、微妙なニュアンスまで気にされてて、すごいですね。
It's amazing how interested you are in these subtle nuances.

Is the following an accurate understanding of this contraction?
Written in what I perceive as basic, plain Japanese (without honorifics), perhaps the sentence would read as thus:

金さんは、微妙なニュアンスまで気にしている。それは、すごいことだ。

Then the " いる。それは、" can be contracted to

金さんは、微妙なニュアンスまで気にしていて、すごい。

Then the する is put into 敬語 and further contracted.

金さんは、微妙なニュアンスまで気にされてて、すごいですね。

I know the order of this process is arbitrary, but is my understanding correct?
If anyone could explain what the していて、/-てて is doing specifically, I would appreciate that as well.


texts: What is the difference between the words for wife, tsuma and okusan? Is it a formal vs informal?


texts: For example, Jisho marks 医者 (doctor) as sensitive, as does the flashcard set I've been using. I don't understand what this annotation means; "doctor" doesn't seem like a particularly sensitive term to me, but maybe that's just a cultural difference.


texts: Problem in understanding math problem in japanese

texts:
I got question like this maybe some math question in japanese

179からある数これを引いたら、残りは12になりました。ある数はいくつですか。

Suppose x is the number that the question ask
First i thought like x - 179=12
Somewhat confuse with'これを引いたら’
Is this mean there is a number and it is substracted by 179 or the number itself 179??
Particle を makes 179 like an object..
Its ambiguous for me
But the correct one is 179-x=12?


texts: I know I can say ときどき for sometimes and よく for often, but would よくじゃない be a correct way to say “not often”? If not, how would one say “not often”?


texts:
After looking on an online dictionary I figured out that we can add する to 表紙 meaning "To appear on the cover". However, after talking with a native Japanese speaker, she told me that this verb doesn't exist and they use another expression to mean the same thing.
So my question is, does 表紙する really exist and if yes, how can I use it?


texts: Confusion on usage of か marking alternatives with verbs

texts:
Most textbooks note that using か to mark two noun alternatives, the last one can be omitted. However, what about verbs?

Would a textbook sentence such as

  今晩の食事はステーキにするか、すしにするかまだ決めていません。

Stay grammatical as

  今晩の食事はステーキにするか、すしにするまだ決めていません。

In other words, I've been coming across this single か after verb structure and I wonder if it serves the same disjunctive purpose or if it's something else?


texts: How impolite is it to call a waitress お姉{ねえ}さん?

texts:
Were I in a situation where I want to get the attention of a waitress in a noisy restaurant, I  kind of feel like calling-out: "お姉{ねえ}さん、すみませんが、ビールもう一本お願いできますか？". I think that I've seen this done in a movie, as well as seen native speakers do this in front of me (but only at a bar where everyone was pretty drunk).

However, I think I've been told that addressing a waitress, or waiter, as お姉さん, or お兄{にい}さん, is impolite. Is this correct?

Addressing a waitress as お嬢{じょう}さん is off the charts impolite, right?

Say that I am at a beer garden and want to get the attention of one of the waitresses by saying お姉さん, what would be an appropriate substitute? Is just not addressing her at all the only way?


texts: Who belongs to one's "group" in business?

texts:
I understand that family members are considered to be inside one's group, allowing for sentences such as: 先生は母にレポートを送ってくれた。/ The teacher sent my mother a report.

Now, in the world of business, who belongs to one's group, exactly? One's company, colleagues, outside contractors hired for a temporary two-day assignment??

Examples:

Company:　お客様は弊社にお支払いをしてくれた。/ The customer paid our company.
Colleagues:　お客様は同僚にお支払いをしてくれた。/ The customer paid my colleague.
A contracted consultant servicing a customer on behalf of the company: お客様はコンサルタントに要件を提供してくれた。/ The customer provided our consultant the requirements.

Can the three receivers (弊社、同僚、and コンサルタント) be thought of as part of one's group? (or is one's group restricted to only direct family members?)

I'm trying to practice the use of くれる, and need to understand who exactly can be the receiver.

Thanks in advance.


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

texts:
I am reading a passage, the first line is as follows.

自治会から、留学生数人との交流会があるとの連絡を受け、行ってみた。
I got a message from student association that there would be a gathering with some exchange students and I went to check it out.

What I don't understand is the purpose of と in the second line as follows. I don't think と in this case is to construct a conditional phrase.

自己紹介が終わると、司会役が「日本に来て、驚いたことは」と質問した。
Having self-introduced, the moderator asked, "What stroked you when you arrived in Japan?".

Why did the author use 「自己紹介が終わると、」 rather than 「自己紹介が終わって、」?


texts:
千円、ここに置いておくからね。

For this sentence may I know what kara at the end of sentence means? As I understand, the whole sentence means "I will leave 1,000 yen here for you"


texts:
窓をがらりと開ければそこは一面の緑。

I'm not sure what the end of the sentence means. I can guess that when he opened the window, there was some vegetation but I don't understand how the last part (一面の緑) works. What exactly does that mean and why does it make sense?


texts: Can desire be expressed for entities that do not hold volition?

texts:
We can personify things. By using "want" with an inanimate object, it is personified:

An object with inertia wants to maintain its state of motion.

(Question) First, is it possible in Japanese for this kind of desiderative sentence to be formed?
If it is possible, do I use ～たい or ～たがる? Because according to Derek Schaab's answer to "When to use 欲しがる instead of 欲しい":

you cannot presume to know the intimate details of a third person's mental state

and even if you're 100% certain he wants, you can't say this directly.

Will an entity that does not hold volition take ～たがる when personified?


texts: Is Japanese really an agglutinative language?

texts:
In the linguistics topic of language typology, Japanese is often included in lists of agglutinative (or agglutinating) languages, but when learning or reading about Japanese grammar exclusively this is rarely if ever mentioned. Other examples of agglutinative languages are Turkish, Finnish, Hungarian, and Basque.

Languages always considered agglutinative usually talk about things like lots of case inflections on nouns or lots of "slots" for various infixes and affixes in the potentially long endings of both verbs and nouns. Japanese in contrast usually talks about lots of particles and lots of verb endings only.

So is it true that Japanese is an agglutinative language and how should we regard this in relation to how we normally discuss Japanese grammar?


texts:
I would like to know how to express "I was supposed" in japanese

For example, in the sentences :

- Did you meet John yesterday ?
- I was supposed to but he cancelled

OR

- I am supposed to do my homework but I really don't want to.

Is there a generic way to translate that idea ? or is it case by case ?
I am thinking maybe using ようになる but i am not really confident.
somthing like :

会ったようになったが、結局キャンセルされた、

or using べき maybe

宿題をやりべきだけど、やりたくない

Am I on the right direction ?


texts: Questions regarding the pitch accent of 僕

texts:
First: When you call a young boy ぼく, is it LH or HL?

Second: When do boys saying 僕 move from LH to HL?

Third: When voice actors voice young characters, do they use HL or LH?


texts: Meaning of 「この調子で頑張って」

texts:
Context

I wrote and submitted text in Japanese to be corrected, and received a correction from an acquaintance followed by 「この調子で頑張って」.

Question

I understand 調子【ちょうし】 to be something like "condition" or "state of affairs", but I am not sure I understand this sentence clearly.

Is it perhaps something like "Keep going at this pace!" or "Keep it up!"?

What is 調子 referring to?


texts:
Is だと used similarly to って or は but it also largely emphasises what's has come before it so that you can commented?
This is why I get a feeling of it meaning something along the lines of "This flavour I'd assumed it would be until now has a certain (strong) emotional touch to it." - emphasising the fact that (unexpectedly) the flavour gives a strong emotional impression despite it being what they had assumed; please correct me if I'm wrong.


texts: Would 日末 be a reasonable opposite to 日本?

texts:
As Japan is 日本, the origin of the sun or "Land of the Rising Sun" as it's sometimes put in English, would 日末 make sense as the "Land of the Setting Sun" as a west to Japan's east?

For instance, British Columbia (the westernmost Canadian province) is on the opposite side of the Pacific and does has a setting sun on its flag to represent being on the west coast of North America in the same way Japan's rising sun flag derives from being on the east coast of Asia.

Would it make sense to use 日末 as a figurative way to refer to British Columbia or some other place associated with "west" such as Portugal, Peru, or California?  Or do native Japanese speaker not think about the implicit association with "east"  in the name of their country in a way that would make sense to think of a western counterpart (Japan obviously isn't east or west to anyone who lives there)

If it does make sense, what would be the correct reading of 日末?

If a different kanji in place of 末 would better convey the sense of a setting sun counterpart to 日本 instead, that's a reasonable answer too.  I only arrived at 末 by looking up 本 in Wikitionary and checking its antonyms.


texts: I can't recognize anything in this sentence

texts:
For context, see this document:
https://www.docdroid.net/uHP3GDN/img-20170622-0001-new.pdf.html

Counted upwards from the bottom of the text, it is sentence 4.
でも、学校は6時からって なってますが 、仕事のほうは大丈夫ですか。

So, contentwise, I guess his boss asks him wether it will be okay if this seminar starts at 6 o clock.
But I'm so irritated by the morphology of the words in bold and their placement in the sentence, I can't tell what they do grammarwise Oo

First, からって. I just learned about て and って being able to mark a quote in place of と.
Whatever, in this case って in からって is a quotation marker, right?
Well, then what for christs sakke is なってますが ? Oo
I once learned that まして is possible to be more polite, but I've NEVER before encountered て form followed by ます Oo
Furthermore, I don't know what this て form in なってますが　does grammarwise.
I can't see it acting as a connector here, but I can't see how it should be a second quotation either Oo

Finally, I also have problems with the meaning of 仕事のほう. I currently would say its something along the lines of "the field of work". At least I can't find any other translation on jisho for ほう　which would be suitable in this context.


texts: What is the difference between 「食う」 and 「食べる」?

texts: I've often seen 「食べる」 used, when should we use 「食う」 ? Are these two interchangeable ? Can you provide examples ?


texts:
In a telephone register, 万寿一 was behind a surname. What does 万寿一 mean when written behind a surname?

And second, I came across this sentence.

  つうさんのこと未だ引きずって、マイナス思考が激しいね。

What does つうさん mean? Is 'tsu' a syllable (mora) and is san a suffix in this case?


texts: If 鳥肉 is chicken meat, what is duck meat?

texts:
鳥 means bird or poultry. It's understandable that 鳥肉 would be chicken meat since chicken is the most popular "bird meat".

But in this case where chicken has monopolized the meaning of bird, how would you express duck meat?


texts: "Sunday this week" or "Sunday next week"

texts:
I am wondering about the history about the beginning of the week. Although some recent calendars start their week on Monday, "traditionally", the Japanese start their week on Sunday (so that 今週の日曜日 will always be in the past). But this is a fairly new tradition.

Why was Sunday made the beginning of the week when Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar?

There is a lunar calendar (睦月, 如月, 弥生, etc.) and a solar calendar (七十二候). Furthermore, there is the concept of auspicious days, in which a week has 6 days and a bunch more of calendar-type conventions.

Do any of these contain a "Sunday" as beginning of their respective concepts of a week?


texts: Why do people romanize 五兵衛 as "gohei" instead of "gohee"?

texts:
I will see 五兵衛 (a name) romanized as "gohei" in almost every English source and even some Japanese sources I can find with the name, even though I am pretty sure it is actually ごへえ. Why is this? Is there a romanization rule I don't understand?

Examples:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeniya_Gohei
http://www.sobaya-gohei.com/
http://www.sugigohei.com/

The bottom two being Japanese websites.


texts:
Just wanted to check something with a use of に I came across.

ぎゃーぎゃーわめく蝉の声もあいまって、暑苦しさが何割増しにも感じる.

I am a bit unsure about the purpose of に in this sentence, and want to confirm my interpretation of it.
Would I be correct in saying that に turns 増し into an adverb in this sentence thus making it modify 感じる? The 何割増しにも is confusing me a little bit. The way I see it is that the 割増し is "a 10@ increase", the 何 and the も change it to "a certain percent increase",  and then the に makes it an adverb to modify the 感じる. So a direct translation would be something like "The swelter feels a certain percent increasingly" Am I interpreting this correctly, with respect to the role of に?
Any help much appreciated and thanks a million in advance


texts: The significance of 前 {まえ} in Japanese language and culture

texts:
I noticed that the 前 is a handy kanji character in Japanese language. It is used in many words including but not limited to:

名前 {なまえ} : Given name
手前, お前 : You
[当]{あ}たり[前]{まえ} : Natural, obvious matter
出前 : Meal delivery
[建]{た}て[前]{まえ} : Public facade
男前 {おとこまえ} : Handsome, manly, masculine
不足前 {たらずまえ} : Deficit, shortage
[持]{も}ち前 {まえ} : Characteristic, nature
[分]{わ}け[前]{まえ} : Share, quota
板前 {いたまえ} : Chef, cook
朝飯前 {あさめしまえ} : Very easy, a piece of cake

To my knowledge, a kanji character is used in a word because of how the kanji's meaning relates to the word's meaning, except for the case of [当て字]{ateji}, so I imagine that there must be a reason why each of the words above (and many others) uses 前 as the ending kanji character. Does Japanese language and culture have any concept that centers around 前?
EDIT:
It seems like people are misunderstanding my question here. I am not asking how to relate the meaning of the 前 characters to the meaning of the words I listed above. I am asking why are those words built up using the 前 character? While we can easily see the relevance of 前 in some of them like 名前 and 建て前, the relevance is not obvious in some others like 出前 and 板前. Does 前 have any significance in the language or culture, that somehow influenced how those words are coined?


texts:
A character asked her what she was doing "here", and she answered :

  捜査中に誰かを1人にするのは、極力避けようって話だったでしょ？

I don't understand the part with にする, what does that mean ?


texts: How often does gairaigo （外来語） get bikago （美化語）?

texts:
How often does gairaigo get bikago?

おトイレ is mentioned by Wiktionary, and Wikipedia mentions it being used ironically in o-kokakōra, but I haven't come across any others.

One case where its absence is noticeable is referring to someone else's partner as a パートナー without an お before it (or a さん afterwards, for that matter)

Are there any words other than トイレ that often get お (apart from in the speech of teenage girls)?


texts:
三時ちょうどで = at 3 o'clock sharp
百円ちょうどだ = its exactly 100 yen

I get this sort of usage for 丁度、but if I want to refer to the exactness of something, how would I do that?

eg.
丁度じゃなくてもいいですよ Its fine if its not exact (in reference to anything really, for example, cooking and ingredient amounts)

丁度同じです its the exact same

丁度正しいですか is that exactly right? (maybe this sentence is a bit weird...)


texts: 「～がる」と「～そう」の違いは何でしょうか。感覚的に同じではないことは分かりますが、説明はできません。どうも「～がる」形はもはや口語ではあまり使われないように感じます（「怖がる」「怖そう」などの完全に意味が変わる形容詞を除く。）。そういったレジスター(言語使用域)の違いも含めての回答を期待しています。もしこの質問がDuplicateであれば、元の質問を教えていただければ幸いです。


texts: What are the origins of the words ぐう、ちょき、ぱあ in the context of じゃんけん？

texts: Self explanatory. I've read that they stand for rock, paper and scissors, but I can't find any ultimate origin of why these terms are what they are. Thanks!


texts:
I was wondering if someone could help me with the kanbun reading of this text:

  這箇是誰誰是我. (It is an expression used by Dôgen in Eihei kôroku 9, 55).

Although I am unsure, I figured one possible reading might be:

  是【これ】這箇【しゃこ】は 誰【だれ】是【これ】我【われ】は 誰【だれ】.


texts:
I’ve encountered this sentence in a novel:

  「私はもう助からない。だからよいか、［名］…」

Followed by some instructions what to do after the speaker’s death.

What is puzzling me is the よいか at the end. From the context and also from some translations I’ve found, this would mean something like “Listen!”:

  I can’t be saved any more. So listen, [name]…

That would make perfect sense. But I am unable to figure out, how can this よいか carry such meaning. What is it composed of actually? Is the よい the plain old 良い and the か is a particle? Even if so, how come that connected this way it becomes a call for an attention?

Even though looking up よい is almost hopeless, all the other possible meanings are fit even worse.


texts: Nuance of ないようにしないと and a potential relative clause

texts:
I have a following line from a manga

  せめてお願いをする / あの子たち以外には

  できるだけ迷惑をかけないようにしないと

which of course means punctuation is lacking, hence / to indicate where a line break was, which might indicate a comma.

Context: This is being monologued by a person who intends to take something from one of "those girls" which is of course likely to involve all of them and get a fight started.

So here (and before a bit) she is I think deciding that she wants to do things as peacefully and quietly as possible so not to bother other people.

What I'm wondering is:

1) ないようにしないと. I know しないと is one of those "must" forms only with the negative state missing which is common. So that alone means "must do". I wonder what additional meaning is added with the inclusion of ように. With just ように I'd say that segment means "So that (people) other than those girls aren't troubled". Adding しないと seems to turn this just into "I must not bother other people as much as possible". I'm just then wondering why use ように at all? Couldn't  をかけないと have conveyed the same? Or in other words, is there a more nuanced meaning added with that ように?

2) せめてお願いをする, does this describe the girls? Or is this maybe a separate sentence segment. Is this:
"I wish at least, not to bother anyone except those girls as much as possible"
Or is is something like:
"I'll at least ask the girls (for what I need), and endeavor not to bother anyone else".

Sorry for the two-fer :D


texts:
A certain dialog in my book has a man describing the symptoms of his cold to the doctor.  It reads thus:

  医者：熱はありますか。
  患者：はい、きのうから。夕べはぞくぞく寒気がしたので、高熱が出るんじゃないかとひやひやしたんですが、今のところ７度８分【なな・ど・はち・ぶ】くらいでおさまっています。

The English translation on the next page read, "Doctor:  Do you have a fever?  Man:  Yes, I do, since yesterday.  Last night I came down with the chills and started shivering, and I was afraid I'd get a really high fever.  Now it's only about 37.8°C though."

My question is, was the original Japanese sentence a typo and should have said 37度８分 instead of just ７度８分, or do Japanese people commonly just refer to body temperatures by the number of degrees over 30?  Although if it's the latter, how would you refer to a body temperature of 40 or more (for argument's sake; ignoring the fact that you'd probably be dead)?


texts: I am wondering about the long vowel e, and whether it is -ee or -ei.  Let's use hē as an example, is hē written as へい or へえ?


texts: Saying “that” like “It’s nice that...” or “It makes me sad that...”

texts: I understand using relative clauses like 私が食べた食べものはおいしかったです but how do you translate “that” for expressing emotions?


texts: Nuance of 「～なくても仕方ない」

texts:
I came across the following sentence:

  「私の技が未熟なうちは伝わらなくても仕方ないと思っています」

I understood 「伝わらなくても仕方ない」 more or less as the need to carry out the action determined by the relevant verb (伝わる); however,  I was wondering whether 「伝わらなくても仕方ない」 carries the nuance of (or maybe even non of the ones listed below):

a) "one is obliged to do so"

b) "it is better to do so"

c) "it is of no use not to"

If my general understanding of this phrase is wrong, please let me know. Besides, it is the first time I came across this construction, so I want to know whether native-speakers would concern this "pattern" common.


texts:
In the Kanzen Master N2 listening textbook, there's the following sentence:

  女：　昨日、はっといたんだけど。

Of which in the answers the correct reply was specified as:

  男：　その壁に？
  Man: On that wall? (?)

But I'm not sure what the first sentence means or how to break it up, let alone why that's the answer.

What exactly does the first sentence mean? Is it はっと + いた to mean "I was taken aback"? If so, why would it be done on a wall or is that some kind of an expression, e.g. "Because of that obstacle/barrier"?


texts: What makes using ある for people okay in this context?

texts:
Yep, I'm reading a lot of Tintin in Japanese recently, and he keeps throwing me curve balls with the language. Here's another one.

The situation is that the car he was in has been run off the road into a small lake. A few people have gathered around to see if he's okay, and he asks if there is anyone in the group who can drive him the rest of the way to Nyon (a small city in Switzerland).

Here's how he asks:

The part I'm wondering about is where he says 「ところでみなさんの中{なか}にニヨンにつれってくださるかたありません？」

Unless I'm missing something, he is using ありません, the negative form of ある, to refer to people. I was taught that one should use いる for people, and that it would be rude to use ある, because of the obvious implication that you are referring to them as inanimate objects.

Especially since he is asking for a considerable favour from strangers, shouldn't Tintin use いる?

Why did the translator opt to use ある?

Bonus question: Could Tintin have used おりません in this situation? Keigo always trips me up, but I thought おる was a more polite way of saying いる...? I'm not sure if おる is humble or not, and if it would imply he was being humble or if it would impose humbleness on the people he was talking to (and therefore not fit).


texts: I'm aware this is more of a StackOverflow question. If any of you are computer programmers who speak Japanese: how does hexadecimal work? I mean the system of numbers which is counted 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F. Do you use Roman letters and Arabic numbers? Is it all in kanji?


texts: What is the difference between 人気のある, 人気がある, 人気の, and 人気な?

texts:
As 人気 is a noun and な-adjective, it can be used in these phrases:

人気のある映画
人気がある映画
人気の映画
人気な映画
人気映画

To me, they all mean ‘popular movie’, but the first 2 literally mean ‘movie that has popularity’ because of the relative clause. Is there any differences/nuances between these phrases, or are they all identical in meaning?


texts:
私は作った料理を一口食べるなり、父は変な顔をした

The action 'to eat' is before the obvious change on the father. In the clause '父は変な顔をした', the verb changes into た形. Why is the front phrase '食べるなり', not '食べたなり’?


texts: Why is が used instead of を in this sentence?

texts:
From Shin Kanzen Master JLPT N1 Grammar:
あ、本が出しっぱなしだ。
I thought that 出す always follows を, i.e. you (subject) take out something (object).
Is it because 本 is emphasized in this sentence, similar to how が is used instead of を with the potential form of a verb?
Or is it because 出しっぱなしだ as a whole acts more like an adjective that describes the book?


texts:
I found a sentence:

  キップを連想するもんだと思うが

What does mean? I found it could mean 揉う but I am not sure if it is correct.


texts: Meaning of そう in そう、とんでもないことをさらっと言ってのけた

texts:
「て、ていうかっ、鍵閉めてたのに、どうやって入ったんですかっ！」
「うん？　鍵？あぁ、それなら私、合いカギ持ってるから」
そう、とんでもないことをさらっと言ってのけた。

I read this and it looks like he is saying "yes", but I'm not really sure.
Looking at the definitions here
［副］
１ そのように。「私も然う思う」
２ （あとに打消しの語を伴って）それほど。そんなに。「然う大きくない」
［感］
１ 相手の言うことに肯定・同意するときに用いる語。「然う、そのとおり」
２ 相手の言葉に対する問い返しや、半信半疑の気持ちを表すときに用いる語。「あら、然う」「然う、信じられないな」
３ 過去の出来事を思い出すときなどに用いる語。「然う、あれは去年の夏のことだ]
I think it must come under one of the definitions below ［感］ however #1 does not seem correct.


texts:
While studying for JLPT N2 I came across this expression の折に.  It appears to be almost identical to の時に.  My reference suggests that it's basically the same, but simply less polite.

What I find suspicious is that I've been studying Japanese for quite a number of years, and I have never seen or heard of this until now, and dictionaries such as アルク suggest that it is not very common.

Is there a difference in meaning / nuance?  Is it actually common and I've just been blind all this time?  (I wonder why it's not taught in any normal textbook / Japanese course in that case).  Should I avoid it?

I would appreciate if anyone can shed some light onto the usage.


texts: I'm confused about the English title for the movie "Kaze tachinu"

texts: 風立ちぬ has just been released where I live.  I'm a bit confused about the translation of the title, "The Wind Rises".  I would have thought the title should have been translated "The wind doesn't rise."  Can someone clarify what I'm not understanding?


texts: What does 次第だ means at the end of a sentence?

texts: I have studied that 次第 can be used to say "as soon as" and "depending on", however these two meaning do not seem to fit when it is at the end of the sentence. According to my book, in this case, it has the meaning of わけだ. I guessed it means "because" and gives the idea of explaning why something was done. Did I understand it correctly?


texts: What is the radical which is written by two dots on the top of a Kanji?

texts:
I have seen a lot of kanjis with two dots on the top as in 前、咲く、呼ぶ、etc. What is that radical? In http://jisho.org/kanji/radicals/, I see they have mentioned this two dot radical in their list, but when I look it up in any proper Kangxi radical chart, I see no such radical.

Is it a combination of two ´「てん」? If it is, how do such dots make any meaning? Another similar example in this regard would be the "diagonal sweeping stroke" in kanjis like 呼ぶ and 町. How to arrive at meanings with such radicals?


texts: If I wanted to sound more like a Samurai, what words and phrases should I learn?

texts:
Having watched jidai-geki for a long time, I have come across many Samurai-isms, but I can recall only a few. I would like to be able to do this more believably the next time I'm at the Izakaya.

What words and phrases are most commonly heard in jidai geki or period anime that would achieve this goal?


texts:
The word きりん appears to mean either a giraffe, or the Qilin.

I've noticed that it is written 麒麟{きりん} when it means Qilin, and キリン when it means giraffe.  Is it a mistake to write 麒麟 if I mean giraffe?  What about キリン if I mean Qilin?

My guess is that キリン giraffe should not be written with kanji, because it differs from their original meaning, while 麒麟 Qilin could be written either way.  I also guess this because animal names tend to be written in katakana.  Is this guess correct?

(What about the beer, Kirin?)


texts:
I'm facing some Language encoding problem in Ubuntu 15.04 Chrome 60.0.3112.90 (Official Build) (64-bit) and I use ibus-anthy as my IME (added as this blog). I have faced similar incidents previously.
The Below kanji which you can see like this in http://jisho.org

Looks like below in Google Translator,

https://translate.google.com/#ja/en/%E7%9B%B4

I'm beginner in Japanese so I wonder whats wrong in Encoding. Is there a way to fix this? ありがとうございます


texts: What difference in meaning does 本/実 give in words like 本物 and 実物?

texts:
They both mean "real/actual thing" (as opposed to some imitation), right? Breaking apart these kanji compounds, it is apparent that 本 and 実 give the meaning of "real." How are these two "reals" different?

Does this difference in nuance also apply to other 本-実 pairs like 本質 and 実質?


texts: Please help me with this sentence "細かいところは後で決めましょう"

texts:
I got bumped into unknown sentence

細{こま}かいところは後{あと}で決{き}めましょう

It suppose to mean "Let's decide the details later"
I don't know what's ところ mean. I read around here on the forum and apparently a lot of meaning, like "place", and "about to" but its still doesn't make a lot sense.

Please help me clarify that, thanks :-)


texts: Can anyone tell what that kanji is? The left part looks a bit like 禽 but trying to use its radicals for searching isn't giving me anything close to resembling the one in the image.


texts:
In this sentence (psycho-pass's line):

  私は議長の身柄を押さえます

The 身柄 can be omitted and thereby result:

  私は議長を押さえます

I really wonder the use of 身柄 and if it is really necessary.


texts: How do I type the kanji for ちゆうごく (China)?

texts: I am very new to Japanese. I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this question, but I am using Mac OS and for some reason, whenever I type ちゆうごく　I am suggested something like 治癒動く as opposed to 中国 (I had to look that up and copy and paste it to type it here). How do I type this kanji?


texts:
I want to make a question within a sentence using か, but it’s weird for me.
I don’t want to use か at the end of a sentence. もう知ってる


texts: How does this sentence fit into context?

texts:
Context: This happens in the main character's dream. He sees some weird person and he can't clearly see their face (so he doesn't even know if they're a man or a woman). The person gives him a magical box that can grant wishes. After they hold out the box:

  そして確か僕は、「どうして僕にこんなものを？」なんてつまらない質問をした。

  「君が実におもしろいからだよ。私は個性のない君たちの些細な相異を区別できない。その人をその人と認識できない。

A couple of things. First, こんなもの here is the magical box. Then there is my attempt at translation of this paragraph:

  And then, of course, what a boring question I asked!

  "Such a thing? To me? Why?.."

  "Because you're quite amusing. I can't tell apart the slight differences in your kind's colorless personalities.

However, I can't seem to bind the sentence in bold to the context and the previous text here. If translated literally, I would do this as "Can't recognize/realize such people from such people". I'm almost sure the "person" is talking about the whole mankind (because there's no others who could fit into 君たち near the main character). Then if they're indeed talking about the entire human race, who are その人 (such people)? And the question that bugs me the most is: how does 認識できない fit here? 認識 is literally "recognition/realization/knowledge", and I don't have a slightest clue about how you can "recognize/realize その人 from その人". So any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I would like to ask if I understand the "と" particle correctly and it indeed means "...such people from such people". Because if it means and as it usually does in such a case, then I don't have a slightest clue how to interpret it, either.

Thanks.


texts: How to say "a very adult answer for a very adult question"?

texts:
I watched Vladimir Putin do Q&A with high school students. One asked him

  What event most impacted your life?

Putin gave a very genuine answer related to the collapse of the Soviet Union that went way over the head of the 16-yr old. He then apologized and said:

  Forgive me. A very adult answer for a very adult question.

Is it correct to say:
大人的な質問 or 大人みたいな質問

and would the whole translation be

大人的な質問によって、大人的な答え、すみません。


texts: For natives, is 署名 beginning to supersede 判子 with regard to signing official documents?

texts:
For a native speaker, with regard to legal documents, are 判子 and 署名 becoming substitutable? Japan likes to westernize, so are people beginning to just sign stuff by hand?

Myself a non-native, I had a choice. HR made me a 判子 to use for work documents. For other documents like apartment, bank account, etc. I just signed them.

update:
A pro-translator wrote:

  最終書類に署名することを拒否した。

I think that is a fail.
That seems a good way to express a refusal to agree to the final terms of a legal document but isn't the meaning murky? Is this a
(1) flat-out refusal of the terms,
(2) or an agreement to the terms, but refusal to use a signature. He / she wants to use a hanko.

In fact, digital signatures have already changed how we think of signatures. Surely, the legal implications "署名" and "判子" is becoming unclear.


texts: What do 「生業とし」and「究極」mean in this passage?

texts:
While watching Konosuba, when Megumin will do her self-introduction (she speaks in an archaic way) she says:

我【わ】が名【な】はメグミン! アークウィザードを生業【なりわい】とし、最強【さいきょう】の攻撃【こうげき】魔法【まほう】、爆裂【ばくれつ】魔法【まほう】を操【あやつ】る者【もの】。あまりの強大【きょうだい】さ故【ゆえ】世界【せかい】に疎【うと】まれし禁断【きんだん】の力【ちから】を汝【なんじ】も欲【ほっ】するか？ならば我【われ】と共【とも】に究極【きゅうきょく】の深淵【しんえん】を覗【のぞ】く覚悟【かくご】をせよ。人【ひと】が深淵【しんえん】を覗【のぞ】く時【とき】、深淵【しんえん】もまた人【ひと】を覗【のぞ】いているのだ

The words/expressions that I didn't understand are "生業【なりわい】とし" and "究極【きゅうきょく】", I researched a lot, but I couldn't understand their meaning in the sentence.


texts: Use of で in 小川さんは語学が得意で、フランス語もイ夕リア語もできます

texts:
In 'All About Particles', I have come across the sentence:

小川さんは語学が得意で、フランス語もイ夕リア語もできます。
(Ogawa is good at languages, he can speak both French and Italian.)

What is the use of で in this sentence? I can kind of understand it as placing the second part in context, however I would have used です, would that also work?


texts:
What are the different ways to produce nouns from other parts of speech and how are they different?

For example, 高い has these nouns produced from it:

高さ
高み

For 近い :

近く

Also nouns can be formed by adding もの or こと to verbs in 終止形 and 連用形:

笑い物 (using 連用形)
笑い事 (using 連用形)
笑うこと (using 終止形)

And also from just the 連用形:

笑い

What is the difference in:

the type of nouns formed between ~さ, ~み and ~く .
between [Verb-連用形]＋もの and [Verb-連用形]+こと?
between [Verb-終止形]+こと　and [Verb-連用形]

What are the other ways to produce nouns that are useful to know?

Like adding 主義 for example:

資本(capital) turns into 資本主義(capitalism).


texts: Can “The thing is (that)…” be translated as 〜のです, 〜のだ, 〜んです or 〜んだ?

texts:
As the Weblio entry for the thing is explains, it is an idiomatic and colloquial expression used to introduce the main point or issue. It gives a translation of ということです, but I am not entirely sure about that.

The Denshi Jisho entry for nda gives the translations for the four expressions as “The expectation is that...”, “The reason is that...”, “The fact is that...” and “It is that...”. Logically, “The thing is that...” would qualify as a translation.

Am I wrong here?


texts: How do you differentiate between "I have" and "There is"?

texts:
My confusion surfaced when I came across a song named 「君がいるから」which I could either interpret as "Because you are mine." or "Because you are here."
Is there a different way to say "You are mine" in Japanese, so this sentence isn't ambiguous to speakers?

I could use a different sentence:

  「犬がいます。」

My understanding is that this can mean both "I have a dog." and "There is a dog." Is the only way to tell through context?


texts:
What's the most natural way of saying "I can't look anywhere (without getting embarrassed)" Both polite and casual?

  どこでも見ちゃだめだ (casual?)
  どこでも見ちゃだめです
  どこでも見てはだめ
  どこでも見てはいけない (polite?)


texts: Why are the names of plants and animals often written in katakana?

texts:
I was wondering why fruits, vegetables, animals and plants, are written in katakana? Often, there exist kanjis for those, so why aren't they written with those kanjis instead? For example:

カマキリ instead of 蟷螂
ヒマワリ instead of 向日葵
シイタケ instead of 椎茸
バナナ instead of 甘蕉


texts:
Im reading this article and I don't think I fully understand the use of the と in this context. My translation seems off with it being converted to an "and". What is the と really supposed to represent here?

  イスラム教の人がサウジアラビアのメッカとその近くへ祈りに行く「ハッジ」が始まりました
  My Translation: Hajj has started, which is where Islamic people go to pray at a vicinity and Saudi Arabia's Mecca.


texts:
The kids have decided that they don't like their new teacher:

  A.「ああいうタイプは気取ってやがるに決まってるんだ」
  It's certain that this kind of person acts like a snob
  B.「決まってるっていうのも強引だけどたいていそうだよね」
  The thing you call certain is just pushiness, but it's usually like you say.

My translation doesn't quite make sense. I assume the meaning is "What you see as snobbishness, I see as pushiness". But if so, why is it not 気取ってやがるっていうのも. Does っていうのも refer to the thing described as 決まってる or to the phrase 決まってる itself? Or have I completely misunderstood?

Also what nuance does っていうのも give rather than っていうのは.


texts: What does 送る mean in this sentence and is it similar to 生活を送る?

texts:
幻聴？あたし妄想見やすいタイプなのかな？父親の愛情なき幼児体験おくってっからな…
(first sentence for context)...because I experienced childhood without my father's love.

Would it work to also say 「幼児体験で育ったから」?
I'm also wondering if it is similar to 生活を送る, to lead a life.


texts:
so the sentence is this :

せっしゃは…！！ひっく
いつかこの国を！！

Why there is a を there!? Is it a word or does it have a specific structure!?
I would appreciate your help ♥♥♥


texts: What is the best way to express the concept of "accountability" in Japanese?

texts:
I am teaching a class at church on the importance of having an accountability partner to check on our goals, growth, and see whether or not we are fulfilling our plans. Originally, I found that 責任パートナー could be a translation for accountability, but then my students seemed to be very confused. What would be the easiest way to express the ideas of "accountability partner" and "accountability meeting" in Japanese?
Thanks in advance.


texts: What particles can be used in the ～よう〇　～まい〇 pattern?

texts: In the pattern ～よう　～まい, I've found from several sources that you can use が and と (i.e ～ようが　～まいが), and using one over the other doesn't change the meaning or have a particular nuance. What's confusing me is that I've found one instance of this pattern using か, and I can't find if there is anything in particular that distinguishes it from the が / と version or not, or if it's a typo, or what. Can anyone shed some light on this?


texts:
I'm currently doing a study on Japanese homophones and came across 柔らかい and 軟らかい. Most other homophones seem to have noticeable differences in usage (or have explanations online), but I can't seem to find any English explanation for this pair.

Jisho gives the same definition for each:

  soft; tender; limp

so I'm not completely sure what's going on.

Examples would be appreciated, too!


texts:
Speaker talking about his new classmates on on the first day of a new school year.

  男とは追々仲良くやっていくとして、やはり気になるのは女子陣だ。

  Getting on good terms with the guys _____、 as expected, what i'm really interested in are the girls.

What does として mean here?

"Under the assumption" that [男とは追々仲良くやっていく], doesn't really have the 逆接 feeling that makes [やはり気になるのは女子陣だ] intuitive to read. Furthermore "男とは追々仲良くやっていく" is a future development, where as "警視庁は１２日、父親を鈍器のようなもので殴ったとして" is referring an accusation about a past occurrence. I could see it making more sense if it were ...仲良くやっていけるとして as an assumption. But just ...仲良くやっていくとして doesn't really make sense.

What does verb+とする mean?

According the answer in this link, [男とは追々仲良くやっていく] would be the "new action" but what is actually happening is that the speaker is going to focus on the girls instead of [男とは追々仲良くやっていく]. So i don't think it applies.

Speaker has just asked his partner to seal(封印) away an enemy that was just defeated, his partner says that there is no point as the enemy used a self-destructive technique and will naturally wither away shortly (……いえ、封印は無意味です。魔力の過剰注入で限界に達しています。もうすぐ、その肉体も精神も消失します。)

  無事であったとして、両方お断りなのは変わらん事だ。

  "under the assumption" that thing are all good now, both parties (speaker's partner and the enemy) refusing (the sealing procedure) means that nothing has changed!

This is also a bit unintuitive read, although i might be interpreting the 2nd half of the sentence wrong. Normally sealing away the enemy after defeating them would be the most "無事" (this was already done several times with other bosses), so this may be why sentence is going is hard to pinpoint.

How is として used in these instances?

Thank you


texts: Equivalent of 【一人で】for a multi-person group unit

texts: I am trying to translate the English expression "left to their own devices"/"left to themselves"/"in a vacuum" into Japanese, and the best I could come up with would be something involving 「ひとりで」, but I am trying to describe a group of people who I am treating as a unit (effectively 一族). Is there any way to say "alone" when talking about a group of people (in this case 四人), as in "without the influences/presence of an out-group"?


texts: Does the ゛ have any meaning in the hiragana alphabet?


texts: Do 食べないです and 食べなかったです have the same level of politeness as 食べません and 食べませんでした have?

texts:
Up to now, I am still confused with this very basic grammar.

Non-past

Informal : 食べる (+) and 食べない (-)
Formal : 食べます (+) and 食べません (-)

Past

Informal : 食べた (+) and 食べなかった (-)
Formal : 食べました (+) and 食べませんでした (-)

Surprisingly, in order to upgrade the level of politeness (or formality), we can only append です to the negative of the informal form.

Non-past: 食べないです
Past: 食べなかったです

The following are not allowed (I don't know why):

Non-past: 食べるです
Past: 食べたです

Questions:

Does 食べないです (and 食べなかったです) have the same level of politeness as 食べません (and 食べませんでした) has?
Bonus question: Why 食べるです and 食べたです are not allowed?


texts:
しやすい　to effortlessly do something.
できやすい something is easily made.

Then, how  are フランス料理が作りやすい and フランス料理ができやすい compared?
Would they have a similar connotation?

I understand for the fact that they are different.
So, if anyone can point out a major idea in usage of both, it would be really helpful.


texts: Does or can 中村 mean "villager" (person) or only "middle village" (place name)? Would alternate Kanji make a difference in meaning, i.e., 中邑 仲村 仲邑 ? Thank you.


texts: What is the difference between 特殊 and 特別?

texts:
I've got two questions. Firstly, what is the difference between 特殊{とくしゅ} and 特別{とくべつ}?

Secondly, is it true that all these grammar forms are correct:

特殊{とくしゅ}な ＋ [noun]
特別{とくべつ}な ＋ [noun]
特殊{とくしゅ}の ＋ [noun]
特別{とくべつ}の ＋ [noun]


texts: Confusion between もらいます and くれます when used as a post-fix to te-form verbs

texts:
I was at Japanese class today and I heard these phrases while I was listening to chokai:

休んでくれますか (Can you give me the favour of resting for today)
休ませてもらいませんか (Can you let me rest for today?)
休んでもらいますか (Can I receive the favour of resting for today?)

From my understanding, these phrases mean the same thing (Translation as per my understanding as of above). However, I was told by my japanese teacher that they all mean different things but I could not understand his explanation on why they were different. Can anyone explain why they are different in all 3 cases?


texts: How to say "trying to get someone to look at something"

texts:
What is a good way to express the idea of "trying to get someone to look at something", for example "She's trying to get me to look at her". I tried typing this into Google Translate and got this:

  彼女は私に彼女を見させようとしている

That doesn't sound right, it sounds like she is a flasher or something, but I'm thinking of someone who keeps trying to get someone else's attention or to appear charming to someone.

Other expressions I thought of are "目を引く", for example

  彼女は僕の目を引こうとしている

or 注目を浴びる

  彼女は僕の注目を浴びようとしている

or even

  僕にみられたがっている

(this is probably completely wrong Japanese though!)

How do these sound, and what is a natural way to express this thought?


texts:
The pronunciation "みやげ" does not correspond to on'yomi nor kun'yomi of 土産, so I thought it was a gikun (義訓), but the combination of kanji 土 and 産 does not seem to provide the meaning of "souvenir" either. Based on the pronunciation, I previously thought that it was taken from the verb stem of 見上げる and the meaning "to look up at" does sound like it's related to giving souvenir, but the slight difference in the second syllables of "みやげ" and "みあげ" has a lot to say against this theory.

So what was the origin of the word and kanji 土産{みやげ}?


texts:
I've checked plentiful translations but none of them fit this word. They keep showing "Pulled out" but it's more of a word that means annoying or distasteful, I think. Can someone please clarify and direct me to a translation tool with accurate sentences?

Basically, it was two people chatting about pineapple on a pizza. One of them goes, "引いたか" and the other one says, "もちろん"


texts: 貸してもいいですか versus 借りてもいいですか

texts:
According to my teacher who is a native Japanese, the second option cannot be used even though it is grammatically correct. What do you think? Any comments are appreciated.
Option 1

彼：すみません。消しゴムを忘れたので、「私があなたに」消しゴムを借りてもいいですか。
彼女：ええ。どうぞ。

Option 2

彼：すみません。消しゴムを忘れたので、「あなたが私に」消しゴムを貸してもいいですか。
彼女：ええ。どうぞ。


texts: What is the Japanese word for a track beaten in the woods? "A beast road"?

texts:
One of my Japanese classmates was having a hard time understanding the phrase "off the beaten track" and came to me for help. I told her that "beat" could also be used as "to make a path", as in "a well-beaten track". It got through to her eventually and she added that in Japanese they called it "a beast road".

I should have asked her more about this "beast road" but somehow I wrapped it up by simply saying "Ohh!Good to know!"


texts:
What is the difference between

  貴方{あなた}には、会うべき御方{おかた}がいるはずです。

and

  貴方{あなた}には、会うべき御方{おかた}がいる。（or います for politeness）

?

According to Jisho.org はずです means "be supposed or expected to (do)" but that does not go in my head for some reason.

Without はずです the sentence means: "There is someone you should meet."


texts:
In this Bump of Chicken song, the line 笑えないかな is used a number of times.

For example:

  全て受け止めて笑えないかな

  If only I could just accept everything and smile.

  誰かに優しく出来ないかな　全て受け止めて笑えないかな

  If only I could be kind to someone. If only I could accept everything and laugh.

  笑えないかな

  If only I could laugh.

The translations are a combination of those provided online, my native speaker friends and mine.
If I translate 笑えない literally I come up with "I can't laugh."
With 笑えないかな, I get "Can't I laugh?"
So how does "Can't I laugh?" become "If only I could laugh." I see the correlation in meaning but I am not 100% there in understanding it. I guess verbない + かな has this nuance of "If only.."

The more literal way of saying this phrase would be
”笑えたらいいのになぁ” "If only I could laugh."
But how does this colloquial version work?


texts: Asking how to say something, why do we say 何といいますか?

texts: Why do we say 何と言いますか as opposed to どうやって言いますか or something along the those lines when asking how to say something? The first seems to be "Say what?" while the second would seem to me to say "How to say?"


texts: Do speakers that distinguish all four yotsugana in speech preserve the non-rendaku ぢ and づ in writing?

texts:
According to Wikipedia (and some posters here), Kagoshima Japanese resists the じ・ぢ and ず・づ  mergers, much in the same way that various English dialects retain differences between words like meet and meat:

But the gendai kanadzukai (or rather kanazukai) has flattened out the orthographical distinctions between these kana. Is this just a "sucks to speak a nonstandard dialect!" sort of situation? I believe I remember reading in a different Wikipedia article (although I can't find it now) that said that ぢ and づ were "not completely obsolete" because of the Kagoshima dialect. Of course, the incompleteness of their obsolescence follows easily from their use in the context of rendaku, but the article specifically mentioned dialect resistance to the yotsugana merger. Do Kagoshima speakers, when writing in their own vernacular, still use the ぢ- and づ-based spellings of words that they pronounce differently?
Also... what's that little speck of purple on the edge of Yamanashi?


texts: I need help with the translations of the word Seido 精度

texts:
I am planning to start a small business in the art industry in the UK. I was brainstorming ideas for business names some time ago and I started typing in translations of English words I found relevant to the business goals.
I found that accuracy and precision both translated (through google translate) to Seido 精度.
I experimented with many other words but I kept returning to Seido as it is a short word, with few syllables and has a good ring to it.
Recently I was researching for website domain names and I found Seido is taken in many domains across the world for schools of karate. From my understanding Seido is not a traditional form of Karate and instead was a school created in 1976 in the USA and has expanded to other schools internationally. I became concerned that my interpretation (via google translate) was incorrect and that people could be associating the use of Seido with karate. On one of the karate websites they have quoted "'Sei' means truth, honesty and sincerity. 'Do' means Way". I would like to know if this is a more accurate translation of Seido (than accuracy/precision) or if they have interpreted the structure of the word in their own way?
I want to pay homage and respect to the Japanese values of workmanship, detail and precision with my choice of business name.
But I want to be careful that I am not naively using a word that may have other meanings or may be more commonly known as a form of karate, and would be detrimental to my businesses identity.
Thank you for any advice you can give me.


texts: How would you write exaggerated emphasis?

texts: In textual conversations in English, one might write “I’m sooooo excited for the concert tonight!” or similar statements where typically a vowel is repeated for the sake of “exaggerated emphasis.” Is there a similar method for displaying this sort of thing in Japanese? For instance, the above phrase is translated (via google) to “今夜のコンサートにとても興奮しています!” Varying the number of Os doesn’t seem to impact the output. How would one represent this?


texts: noun が、noun が、verb (multiple が in a sentence)

texts:
Is it possible to grammatically combine two separate sentences Xがverb。Yがverb。into just one sentence Xが、Yが、verb。? For example,

料理ができる。掃除ができる。→ 料理が、掃除が、できる。

My original motivation is to understand the role of が in the more complex sentence:

ただ喜びと悲しみのあいだにある多くの事象が、その互いの位置関係みたいなものが、まだうまく見きわめられなかっただけだ。(村上 春樹. 一人称単数 (Japanese Edition) (Kindle Locations 23-25)

I found many questions regarding multiple use of the が particle in a sentence but to the best of my knowledge they concern the case in which one of the が is on a relative clause which I think it is not the case here.


texts:
when i was reading Rosario+vampire s2  manga i read this sentence
''血液を媒介にしてのみ真祖は継承されるの”

血液＝blood

媒介＝Intermediary

のみ＝Only

真祖＝term in the manga indicates vampires ancestors

継承＝Inheritance

then what does ''媒介にして" mean ? its not ''媒介する” right ?
and is "継承される" the passive form of "継承する” ?


texts:
In my JLPT workbook, I have the sentence:

  就職活動で携帯電話を重用する学生が増えている。OB, OG訪問で約束を取り付けたり、採用担当者から面接日の連絡を受けたりするのも、常に持ち歩いている携帯の方が確実とみられているからだ。

I'm not sure what OB, OG訪問 means.


texts: What are the pitch-accent rules for compound nouns?

texts:
I've been trying to learn the pitch-accent of standard Japanese, but this is more difficult as it should be as it's hard to find good learning resources that provide proper descriptions of how the accent works. For many words, this isn't too much of a problem, as I've found that good monolingual Japanese dictionaries use numbering notation to mark the location of pitch-accent. However, dictionaries don't tend to include many compound nouns, as their meaning can readily determined through their constituent parts.

I've been trying to find what rules govern the location of pitch-accent in compound words, but have found various conflicting descriptions.

One approach says that:

  If N2 is three morae long or longer, a compound noun accent falls on the initial syllable of N2; e.g. 携帯電話 is pronounced けいたいでꜜんわ.

But another approach that I have found says that:

  The compound accent
  falls either on the rightmost, nonfinal foot of the compound, or on the original accent position of the second noun; in which case 携帯電話 would presumably be pronounced either as けいたꜜいでんわ, or else without any downstep, as 電話 is unaccented.

These two descriptions seem to be conflicting, so I'm not sure what the actual rules are here. Would anyone be able to offer any advice on this matter? Thanks!


texts: 食べたそうだ vs. 食べそうだ, 静かだそうだ vs. 静かそうだ

texts:
I saw this as a comment on this question, Why does そう in 「美味しいそう」 not mean "seem" the way I think it should?「美味しいそう」-not-mean-seem-the-way-i-think-it-should,

and would love to understand the differences.

I am sure I will mangle the translation, so forgive me.

  食べたそうだ  Looks like he ate it.

  食べそうだ  Looks like he will eat it.

  静かだそうだ I heard that it's quiet.

  静かそうだ  Seems quiet.

If anyone would be kind enough to explain the differences in meaning and usage, I would greatly appreciate it. I didn't learn how to embed the quoted question, so sorry again for that.


texts:
I'm currently reading a Japanese children's book, and a character says
    「金色の葉っぱだ」
I'm assuming the 「っぱだ」 is like saying 「たくさん」 or 「いっぱい」, but I don't actually know. Any help is appreciated!


texts:
I'm learning how to introduce myself and am trying to figure out the basic grammar. I know that in Japanese the subject is often left off if it's clear what is being spoken of. I'm not too sure, however, whether it's unambiguous in this instance - do I need the subject for '(Senkou wa) bungaku to kogaku desu'? Here is my passage:

わたし の なまえ は ハリエット です。二十 さい です。さんねんせい です。ぶんがく と こがく です。しゅっしん が オｸランド です。

Sorry, I know very little kanji.

I have a few more questions. I'll put them below, but let me know whether I should remove them and make separate posts.

Is 'bungaku' correct for an English major, or should I say 'eigo'? Does 'eigo' make it sound like I'm studying English linguistics / English as a second language?
Can I say 'bungaku to kogaku sannensei desu', or do I need to have separate clauses for my year and major?
Is 'shusshin ga okurando desu' correct? I've never encountered this phrase before now, when I was trying to find a translation for 'My hometown is Auckland'.

Thank you for any help!


texts: Why is the place's official name written as "なら工藝館" (rather than "奈良工藝館")?

texts:
When I visited Nara, I noticed that on the bus stop lists, the Nara Craft Museum's name did not use Kanji for "Nara" but spelled out with hiragana, as "なら工藝館".  As it turns out, in almost all other references to this place (Google Maps, museum website, etc) it's written the same way.  However, this doesn't happen to the other places with "Nara" in the name, such as Nara National Museum ("奈良国立博物館") or Nara City Museum of Art ("奈良市美術館").  Any reason for this?

From Nara city's website:

  奈良市はシルクロード東の終着駅と言われ、古来より日本の文化と伝統工芸の発祥の地として栄えてきました。

  なら工藝館は、ならまちの古い町並み保存と町の活性化を図るために平成4年に策定された「ならまち賑わい構想」を実現するため、平成12年に開館しました。長い歴史の中で研ぎ澄まされてきた奈良工芸の一層の振興発展を図るために、「（１）受け継ぐ（２）創作する（３）開放する」の三つを基本理念として建てられた施設です。

My suspicion is that it has something to do with "奈良町【ならまち】", versus "奈良市" or "奈良県", as the former isn't a name of an official administrative region. See how the title is written in this Wikipedia article:

  ならまち（奈良町）は、奈良県奈良市の中心市街地東南部に位置する、歴史的町並みが残る地域の通称。「奈良町」という行政地名はない。狭い街路に、江戸時代以降の町屋が数多く建ち並ぶ。ほぼ全域が元興寺の旧境内にあたる。周辺を含む49.3ヘクタールが奈良市により奈良町都市景観形成地区に指定されている。


texts: Is the first stroke in the Kanji 文 a short vertical line?

texts:
The first stroke in the Chinese character 文 is a dot-stroke (点).

It is not a short vertical line.

But all my dictionaries show the Kanji for ぶん as 文 with a short vertical line as the first stroke.

Is the Kanji the same as the Chinese character or not ?


texts:
Context: Person A has been talking about how they will spend their life making better some wrong by dedicating their life to helping others. In fact it's not really A's fault but something their subordinates did without their knowledge, but A is still accepting responsibility for it. In the course of the incident in question B also did bad things to A as part of trying to stop what A is now taking the blame for.

Person B is, I think, not impressed with it, and might think A is dishonest. So B says:

  そんな綺麗事、通じない奴の方が多いぞ。 大人の社会にはな。

As far as I can figure out this means more or less:

  Such whitewashing. There are so many people who simply aren't open.
  In the world of the adults.

But I'm not sure about this at all. For one, the A is really young and could not be considered adult. So I'm not sure what that part is supposed to indicate? That there are people who are dishonest in the adult world too?

Also I'm not sure what the 奴{やつ}の方 construct is supposed to mean. Right now I consider 方 to be used here in it's "side of argument/group" type of meaning. So "other group of people" would be the meant meaning here. Possibly indicating that the speaker is not one of these people. But I'm not sure at all.

And I assume 綺麗事 is just B saying to A that they are whitewashing events, that is they aren't being honest.


texts: Is "煽りを喰らう" an idiom/set-phrase? If so what does it mean?

texts:
I came across the phrase in a novel, I've never heard of it before and am curious to know if it's an idiom/set-phrase and what context it could be used in.

In this novel for example two characters are having a conversation about higher-ups suspiciously intervening in the business of the agency they work with (科学技術庁), one calls the higher-ups arrogant and says they are incapable of outwitting him. The other responds with the above aforementioned phrase.

  "巫山戯た事を抜かす連中だ、まったく。たかが100年程度の歴史を支えてきたというだけで、己以上の才覚を意のままに操れるなどと思い上がっているのだから"

  "その煽りを喰らった科学技術庁も大変すね"


texts: What is the grammar form with "にした" in this sentence?

texts:
I have another sentence from 合格できる、日本語能力試験N２:

  そこで私はいつも考えるのだが、各国にある日本大使館は日本人旅行者のため、こういう留学生、研究家を講師にした講座を現地で開いてくれないだろうか。

The part in the sentence where it says 「講師にした講座」 is hard for me to understand. I wondered why it cannot be 「講師にして講座」. Is there some grammar form in this sentence that explains why it should be 「講師にした講座」?


texts: Saying something is like/not like something else

texts:
How does one say "this is like/similar to that" or "this is not like that" in Japanese in essence? An example sentence is

"In this way, the English are like the Japanese"

; I have not been able to find any materials detailing this (but a whole lot on how to say something is better/worse, which is not helpful!).


texts: Can I use もしもしif I want to get someone/group to pay attention?

texts: I want to ensure that people are listening to what I am saying, when they may occasionally get side tracked. I hear the term used on the phone regularly, but wonder if the term can be used with groups of people. Thanks.


texts: How to say "I need more of X"? - usage of 「ひつよう」

texts: For example, for "I think I need more teachers" - would  「私は先生が多いひつようとすると思います」　be the correct usage for 「ひつよう」？


texts: What is the origin of けれど, ければ, けど, etc?

texts:
In Classical Japanese (correct me if I'm wrong; all my CJ was from Wikipedia and linguistic papers), the 已然形 could attach a lot of things: ど, ば, ども, etc. So I would be able to say 会へども話せず rather than 会うけれど話せない?

Anyways, where does the ker- part come from in all these supplanted forms of the 已然形? Is there once some helping 四段 verb ける? If so, what would it mean?


texts:
ダメだよ花咲、先生に見つかったら色々ヤバいんだからさ

So from what I understand the に takes the meaning of "by" only when used with a passive form. That is when used with passive form the person/object etc marked by に is the one doing the action directly or indirectly.

And when there's no passive form the action is being directed toward the person/object marked by に.

In this case however there is no passive yet it still takes the meaning "by"


texts: What is the difference between 〜と呼ぶ and 〜という?

texts:
Both 〜と呼ぶ and 〜という can be translated as “to call...”.

Examples of 〜と呼ぶ.
Examples of 〜という.

So, for situations where something is given a name, what's the difference between the two?


texts: Is there a convention to always place yourself last in a list of people?

texts:
In English, a convention is to always say yourself last in a list of people:

  (1) Mr. Tanaka and I drank tea. // <--- natural
  (2) I and Mr. Tanaka drank tea. // <--- grammatically correct but extremely unnatural

what about Japanese?

  (1) 田中さんと私がお茶を飲んだ。
  (2) 私と田中さんがお茶を飲んだ。

How does #2 sound?

I was instructed to form English lists this way out of deference to others. Same idea as let guests sit-down first in a meeting, let guests begin eating first if you are the host, etc. Yourself is always last.

Does Japanese have this convention with regard to lists of people? For the same reason?


texts:
Here is the sentence spoken by Kansai speaker.

  そのフォークみたいの貸してください。

Other than the question I put on the topic, if the 「の」 is not used instead of 「を」, I would like to know if I can omit the 「の」 in the sentence?


texts: What kind of script is it? (photo attached)

texts:
The marker is on the top of a hill on the way to Yawata Hachimangu in Kyoto Pref. The site seems rather not significant historically, there were no other related signs around.

The top character is Sanskrit (probably), four kanji look like 國分寺跡 (although I am not sure of 分 as the strokes do not follow the regular order).

The real question is: what kind of script is the second character from the top written in? Is it somehow compressed 山号?


texts: Why is "Yamata no Orochi" written in katakana?

texts: In the game Okami, the demon Yamata no Orochi is written here, and also in a separate game here as ヤマタノオロチ, not やまたのおろち. Even the particle の is in katakana. I'm curious as to why this is. I know that it derives from a Japanese legend of Yamata no Orochi, so why is it written in katakana?


texts: Interpreting the use of "お日柄もよく" on this scene

texts:
I'm talking about this scene: https://youtu.be/e7E2AQQ6lGQ?list=PLxWrrb3wgaZ0RZAgITSqwGrWBsuur1lxz&t=670
Context: A yakuza sees some delinquents beating up a guy. The street happens to be his crew's territory so he teaches them a lesson. The guy who was being beat up then tries to thank him and an awkward moment happens where the yakuza glares at the guy as if to say "I didn't do this to help you". The man then awkwardly says: いや,えっとこのたびはどうも...お日柄もよく
From what I gather, お日柄もよく is a phrase often used in weddings and other events to refer to the day in question as an auspicious or lucky day. How does that apply to this specific situation?


texts: Help translating とってもまずしくて明日食べるパンもありません

texts:
The sentence is

  とってもまずしくて明日食べるパンもありません。

I know all of the words, but the grammar is confusing. Why is ashita taberu in the middle of the sentence?


texts:
For full context see here:
https://www.docdroid.net/XIK9pCk/img-20171020-0001-new.pdf

The sentence in question is from line 21-22, top of the second page in the PDF:
テープレコーダーを使った放送に加えて、駅員が同じことを言ったりして、同じことを3回ぐらいアナウンスする。

My attempt at translation:
"Adding up in a broadcast using a prerecorded tape, the station attendant says the same thing and announces the same thing 3 times."

First, I decided for 加えて to be the て-form of the verb instead of the conjunction because I couldn't make any sense of this first part テープレコーダーを使った放送に加えて without a verbal expression. I might've overlooked something, but I just couldn't find a solution for this approach.

Second, the way I translated and integrated テープレコーダーを使った放送に加えて seems kind of wrong. The following 駅員が同じことを言ったりして、  同じことを3回ぐらいアナウンスする already repeats that the same information is given (italic part) and is given multiple times (bold part). This in itself feels redundant.
Then, in additon, I give the information that this information is "adding up" (stacked?) in a prerecorded tape.

If I translated the part 駅員が同じことを言ったりして、同じことを3回ぐらいアナウンスする。 a bit more creatively, I could make it into something like:

"The station attendant says the same thing and the same 3 times over."
The repetition of "the same thing" in the full sentence could be interpreted as a way to mimic the repitive character of these announcements. However, if that should be the case, I'm having a very hard time to put enough trust into this interpretation of mine since it renders a good portion of the full sentence "redundant, repetitive" information...^^
(Note: I left out the additional アナウンスする on purpose in this second translation, since the intent of this translation was to show what I deem to be the essence of this construction of repetitive expressions).


texts: 皆さんはどんな字を書いていますか？ / How do Japanese speakers write kana or kanji by hand?

texts:
日本語

この頃メタの方で「手書きの文字をチェックしてください」という質問は受け付けるべきかという話題がありました。個人的には受け付けてもよいと考えているのですが、何人もの学習者がわけもわからず同じような質問を繰り返すのでは生産性がない、という意見があり、これはその通りだと思いました。学習者は教科書などから字の書き方を学ぶと思いますが、初学者用の教科書体といえども、毛筆の運筆を残していたり、規範的すぎて普段自然にみる文字とはかけ離れた部分があると思います。

また、今まで漢字・仮名のような独特の書き方の文字に接してこなかった人にとっては、教科書を見るだけでは、何に気をつけて書けばいいかわからないこともあると思います。

そこで、学習者にまず日本で行われている普通の手書き文字はどんななのか一定の認識を示し、そのうえで疑問点を明確にして質問を投稿してもらえるように、日本語の手書き文字のサンプルを集めたいなと考えています。

自分はこういう字を書いている
こういう字が一般的だと思う
こういう書き方もアリだと思う

など、皆さんのご意見を募りたいと思います。よろしくお願いします。

（これはメインに置くべきかメタに置くべきか正直わかりません。移動すべきであればフラグを立ててください）

English

Recently we have a topic on meta about whether asking for checking handwriting is on-topic or not. I personally think those questions are not necessary to be ruled out, though I have to agree with an opinion that it's not productive to allow many learners to submit similar questions totally cluelessly. Who'd learn to write Japanese would refer textbooks or other resources, on which might be printed 教科書体 characters for novice writers, which is still somehow detached from what we see in the outside world by being too prim, prescriptive, or carrying over brushstroke style.

Moreover, those who haven't ever come into contact with peculiar writing systems such as kana and kanji would have difficulties grasping the gist however they stared at the textbook.

So I'd like to accumulate living samples of ordinary handwritten Japanese so that we can provide a certain reference point to possible questioners to help them know well what they're going to ask. Any suggestions e.g.:

I write Japanese this way
I think this is a typical example
... or an edge case

are appreciated.

Thank you for your cooperation!

(I'm not sure if this belongs on main or meta. If you think it should go meta, please flag it.)


texts: What's the difference between 「うまく」, 「上手に」 and 「よく」?

texts:
What's the difference between 「うまく」, 「上手に」 and 「よく」, all seemingly meaning "well" in English?

Someone said that I should use 「よく」 rather than 「うまく」 in the following sentence. Can anyone explain why?

  この文の意味は　うまく　よく　分からなかった。

I'd really like to know the difference between the 3 words, or maybe just some examples of where one is more suitable than another if possible.

Edit: Doing some digging through many e-mails, it turns out it wasn't 「うまく」 vs 「上手に」 at all as in the original question, but I think the other person clearly preferred 「上手」 over 「うまい」:

  ～さんのクラフトは うまそう 上手。


texts:
How would you translate 「腰掛で仕事をする」in this sentence.

「男が奢るのは当たり前で、まだ女子は腰掛で仕事をする人も多く、24歳25歳が結婚のリミット？！」


texts:
好きな本を教えてください。僕のは春の雪です。

got corrected to

  好きな本を教えてください。僕の好きなのは春の雪です。

Why is it not possible to replace all of 好きな本 by の、given that the context makes the intended meaning obvious?


texts:
I want to buy new phone but I am unable to understand the meaning of 実質負担金額.

Please help me to understand this.


texts: オレンジ色のズボンを履きます　vs オレンジ色ズボンを履きます

texts: I came across this simple definition in my lesson, and I was wondering what the difference between these statements is. Both of them have the same meaning, "I wear orange pants". Is it a difference in assignment, or is it negligible?


texts: Difference between してください and なってください in this sentence

texts:
Is there a difference in translation and meaning between these two sentences or are they practically interchangeable?

ギターのボリュームを小さくしてください。
ギターのボリュームを小さくなってください。

My translation: Please can you lower the guitar volume.


texts: Why 一番星 read as Ichibanboshi instead of Ichibanhoshi?

texts:
Why do they read as Ichibanboshi? Isn't the Kunyomi of 星 is hoshi?
Moreover, why do 星 is read with Kunyomi? Isn't supposed to be read with it's Onyomi considering that 一番星 is a bunch of kanji without any okurigana?


texts: Looking for an explanation of the usage "あったものじゃない”

texts:
I'm looking for an explanation of the usage "あったものじゃない”.
例文

１）ムードも何もあったものじゃありませんね (context:Girlfriend and boyfriend were out on a date and the boyfriend's stomach made a large noise because he hasn't eaten all day)
２）心の準備も何もあったものではない
３）美しい景色も何もあったものではない

Looking at these expressions in context they seem to strongly deny the part before も何もあったものではない, but can someone explain the way the grammar is used here?


texts:
Someone described climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge as "すごく怖". Is that supposed to mean cool, awesome (in the modern day positive meaning), and great, or does it mean terrifying?

Weblio doesn't have a dictionary definition, but the corpus examples given seem to suggest it means terrifying.

The main reason I'm wanting to check is that すごい itself used to mean terrible, but now means amazing.


texts:
彼女は今になって到着し、廊下からひょっこりと顔を出す。

This と looks like it comes from the word behind, so ひょっこり but when looking at a dictionary I found that ひょっこり is not an adjective which can take と. Why is と placed after this adverb, then?

For instance, it is specified that ゆっくり is an adverb which can take the と particle, however, there is no mention of that regarding ひょっこり.


texts:
At the moment I can only remember 気持ちいい and 気持ち悪い, but I am sure there are more adjectives like this. They consist of a noun and then an adjective. I'm confused about them because I've seen 気持ちの悪い and I don't know how this would translate (feeling's bad?).

If I wanted to use adjectives like this on their own, do I just say it like 「それが気持ち悪い」? Also, if I wanted to modify a noun, would I then use it like so: 「気持ちの悪い人」?

Thanks


texts:
Building on from Zhen Lin's answer to "The grammar of ~かれ~かれ",
Brief explanation of Zero-nominalisation:

Nominalisation refers to the process of turning a word, or more generally a phrase, into a noun or noun phrase. For example, こと and もの are nominalisers for verb phrases. Zero-nominalisation is when the nominalisation happens without an overt word.

Previously being examined:

良かれ悪しかれ has a modern grammar rendition:

[a] よいにしろ悪いにしろ

It is observed that the declension of the adjective is い instead of く as one would normally expect of い-adjectives when used with a verb.
Zero-nominalisation accounts for this idiosyncratic behaviour.

Question:

Why does zero-nominalisation occur?

Why do the adjectives in [a] not take on the く declension (along with deletion of the に　particle)? Would よくしろ悪くしろ still be grammatical?

In what other instance(s) (if any) is zero-nominalisation appropriate?


texts:
The example sentence in Why is も used instead of が in the sentence 「日本ではクモを見ると良いことがあると言う人もいますよ」,

  日本ではクモを見ると良いことがあると言う人もいますよ

got me thinking "Why is it using で, not に?". I.e., why not

  日本には、クモを見ると良いことがあると言う人もいますよ

It seems obvious that 日本では is intended to modify います. If it were modifying 言う, the meaning would be roughly "There are people who - when in Japan - say that ...".

Although I would personally use に in this sentence, it doesn't sound completely ungrammatical to me as it is. So why is that, given that いる usually takes に, not で?


texts: Usage of ゃ で, when buying countable nouns

texts:
パン屋{や}でパンを買{か}います。

Not sure what ゃ で means here. Noun, ゃ で, noun.


texts: What's the difference between が and を here?

texts:
What is the difference between using が　and を here?

  あなたは私のことを好きですか？

  あなたは私のことが好きですか？

I've never seen the structure nounをadjective before.


texts: How can I ask for "two of each" (cream and sugar) at a cafe?

texts:
I've had some trouble communicating I want '2 of each' or '2 more of each' at cafes.
It happens when I order a coffee and receive one stick of sugar and one creamer and I try to ask for 2 more by saying ２つもうお願いします but then I just receive 1 more of each.
Any suggestions?


texts:
What does 下一桁２ mean? In context, it is referring to some quantity and seems to mean under half, but not too low.

In this usage, why is ichi in kanji while 2 is a numeral? Can I replace the numbers with other numbers and get a different meaning? In the real world, when would someone want to use this phrasing instead of "x to y"?


texts:
This sentence is from Doraemon:

そんなのめずらしくもないよ.

I think it means "It is not that rare/uncommon".
But I don't understand the use of く も here. Should it be interpreted as めずらしく + も?

Why did they use めずらしく here? I thought i-adjective + く = adverb while it should be noun in this case.
Why did they use も instead of は?
Thanks


texts:
I recently started learning the causative form of a verb combined with the もらう or くれる. I am a bit confused on this and would like further clarification as to whether my understanding is correct.

The 「させて　(て form of causative)」+「もらう」 is, if I am not mistaken, a very polite form of "I will do" in English. This means exactly the same as「する」, with the only difference being the former being polite and the latter casual.

Is my assumption above correct?

Now, if I am to replace「もらう」with「くれる」 (ie: 「させてくれる」),the sentence will then become "Can you let me do?" instead of "I will do". If I want to imply the former (in this case "can you let me do?") with 「もらう」, it would become「"させてもらっていい?"」. The reasoning behind this is 「くれる」 is really 'asking' someone for the permission, whereas「もらう」isn't 'asking' for any permission, it is just the act of doing.

Is what I have written above correct?

Adding on, if I instead want to say the firmer "please let me do", it will then be 「"(私に)させてください"」, or the「もらう」form「"(私に)させてもらってください"」.

Again, is the above correct?

And of course you saw this coming, next will be the「あげる」. 「させてあげる」 means "I will let you (second person) or someone else (third person) do". It means the same as「させる」, with the only 2 differences, the first being the action of letting someone do is actually in favour of the person receiving it (the person is happy that I let him do, for example: "I let my son play games (and he is happy because of it)"), and the second difference, the sentence becomes more explicit. And lastly, if I am to say 「させてあげていい」 instead, it will mean "Can I let you do?".

Is my understanding on the above paragraph right?


texts: 動物を使った言い方 or 動物を使う言い方?

texts:
In this comprehension passage that I'm reading about figurative speech, I came across this sentence:

  猫だけではなく、犬、牛、馬など、人と昔から生活してきた動物たちを使った言い方がたくさんあります。

Why is 使う in past tense here? Not only in this sentence, but throughout the comprehension passage and its questions, "phrases that use animals" also use the past tense. Surely animals are still "used" today in speech right?
Edit: Sorry I blatantly mistook 「た」as past tense. Please teach me what it otherwise stands for.

I asked my teacher about this, and while she said both 動物を使った言い方 and 動物を使う言い方 are grammatically correct, she added that 使った is more common (but never explained).

Why is this so?


texts:
Good morning,
My first post here - I would like to say "we are allowed to do exercise outside" - I had a go, is it correct? そとたいぞおうをゆるされる - or do I need  します　in there too?
What is the structure grammatically for "be allowed to + verb"?
Many thanks in advance,
RA


texts:
I'm surprised I haven't been able to turn up anything, but I'm sure you'll notify me if there's a dupe I missed.

Did the verbs ある and いる ever have kanji? I recognise that it won't be in use today.


texts: Do loanwords have a more formal/technical/"soulless" feel compared to their native counterparts?

texts:
Among Russian speakers, there are some rather strong opinions on loanwords. It is often said that they ruin the beauty of your speech, obscure the meaning of what you're saying and just generally seem inappropriate and unnecessary when you can say the same thing using only words of native origin (plus maybe loanwords that "already became a natural part of the language").

Is there anything similar going on with loanwords in Japanese language? Will using them frequently make you sound like a try-hard that wants to seem "advanced" but just ends up being really silly and awkward? If you're, let's say, writing a fairy tale, is it recommended to avoid loanwords due to their modern, "less human" feel? Any other situations where they are more inappropriate than usual?

I'm sorry if this is off-topic and/or too opinion-based. I just feel like people on here could write some very insightful answers, but if this question gets closed I'll totally understand.


texts: Has a noun been dropped here? 「お店で食べた奴のがおいしかった」

texts:
I was reading a manga where the character brings back some food as a souvenir from a recent trip. She is eating it with her family, but in the margin she makes a small comment: 「お店で食べた奴のがおいしかった」

I am confused by this statement because normally の is used to nominalize a verb phrase. Since 奴 is already a noun, it doesn't need to be nominalized.

This leads me to think that some noun is being dropped from her sentence, which could make sense since she is talking casually with her family.

My best guess would be that the noun is 方, because then the complete sentence would be「お店で食べた奴の方がおいしかった」, or "the one I ate in the store was more delicious."

Is this the correct interpretation? Or am I way off? And finally, is it common for Japanese people to drop nouns like this when speaking casually?


texts: What's going on when a -ku godan verb like "叩く" gets conjugated to "叩かれ"?

texts:
Like what's the exact conjugation breakdown going on there? I've spent days scouring various things and I can't for the life of me figure out the exact breakdown causing a "かれ".
I'm not leaving off any conjugation bits, so it's definitely not me misreading something like 叩かれた.
If you could explain what's going on in general terms rather than specifically -ku verbs, that might be more helpful, but I'm at my wits' end and will honestly take anything at this point.

力いっぱい背中を叩かれ、大介は思わずよろめいた。

Two friends, the person strongly hitting 大介 on the back is a friend trying to cheer him up. He did it without warning, but it's not aggressive. The sentence is narrative and describing the situation, non-spoken.


texts:
There are several words that have a common etymological origin but are sometimes pronounced with a 'b' and sometimes with an 'm'. Here are some examples:

おもえる、おぼえる　（思える、覚える）

さむらい、さぶらい　（侍）

ぶ、む　（無）

ばく、まく　（幕）

ば　（馬）

There are many more examples. For 馬, I'm almost certain it is pronounced with an 'm' initial in every dialect of Chinese but its onyomi has a 'b'.

Is there a reason why these two similar, yet definitely distinct, consonants are related in this way?


texts: Is the use of 真面目な a modern way to refer to sentimental relationships as "serious" or has it always been standard?

texts:
If someone can think of a better title, please edit or suggest a better one.

Recently, I have started noticing some Japanese people using the adjective 真面目な paired to words such as 出会い, 関係, etc, when referring to relationships. As opposed to casual ones I suppose.

I have a strong feeling that this is some kind of modern thing. Maybe an adaptation deriving from the fact that other languages commonly refer to relationships as "serious" or "casual". In the past I may have attempted to use 真面目 this way. If memory doesn't trick me though, that resulted in a sort of "understandable but odd" Japanese. Just as it often happens when someone lacking better options, tries to translate literally from another language.

So I wonder if over the years something like 真面目な関係, for example, became actually more common just as a result of that "understandable but odd" usage I mentioned above.
Could this have also been aided by the internet age and the advent of popular dating apps, in which obviously this constitutes base terminology?

I may be completely wrong though and 真面目な has always been used like that or simply some Japanese people use it on purpose as an "odd but easily understandable by foreigners" kind of Japanese. This is all based on a limited personal experience and a hunch after all and that's why I wanted to ask here.


texts:
I could not find anything about it. What does it mean?

  崇君は漫画ばっかり読んでてさ。


texts: Is it ever right to use ば conditional to mean 'when'?

texts:
「だっ大丈夫よ、まるちゃんだってわたしたちのタイプだと思うよ、ねぇ」ととし子ちゃんがなぐさめれば、「そうだよ。さくらはぼくらの方の仲間だよ」と長山君が笑顔で言い、「そうよ」とたまちゃんが優しくうなずく。
  (When?) Toshiko comforted her, saying, "It's alright. I think Maru is our kind of person", Nagayama smiled, saying "That's right Sakura is on our side" and Tama amiably nodded her head in agreement.

I've only ever seen the ば form used to mean 'if' rather than 'when'. But 'if' certainly doesn't make sense here. How should I interpret なぐさめれば in this context?

Edit: I understand that in general the distinction between 'when' and 'if' is a bit blurry in Japansese, but I was under the impression that the ば form always meant 'provided that...'. The 'when' in this sentence seems to be a definite 'at/after this point in time something definitely happens'. There doesn't seem to be any hint of a conditional in it. I would have thought とき would have been better here. I must be missing something.


texts:
Hope you are fine. Maybe you can help me with my problem. Would you mind letting me know what the text on the shirt translates or what it means in english please? (see attachment)
Thank you so much!
James Galea


texts: How is the adjective 多い being used as a noun 多く here?

texts:
I know 多い means 'many' but I don't really understand how it's being used in the sentence below as a noun 多く.

  多くの人々がすべてを失い、多くの人が亡くなった。

My best translation - 'Many peoples have lost everything and many people have come to lose someone'.

I'm not happy with my translation either.