texts:
I'm trying to increase my kanji and pretty much look up the kanji for everything these days.

I discovered that the kanji for ひらがな and カタカナare 平仮名 and 片仮名 respectively.

Any explanation for the choice of kanji ?

平 means flat/peace, while 片 means a sheet/leaf.

仮名 comes from the Chinese 假(false)名(name) alias/pseudonym/pen-name which means Kana in Chinese.

That's all I got.

Could it be that ひらがな is more smooth and curvy and hence more calm and ''peace-like''?

Whereas カタカナ is more sharp and cornery and hence more aggressive and ''sheet-like''?


texts: Receiving allowance / allowing others to do something using させて+もらう／くれる constructions

texts:
I have reached the topic mentioned in the title and found myself struggling to understand it.

First off, my textbook explained it pretty much poorly (but I guess that's enough to understand it at least superficially). It just gave me a simple AはBにCさせてもらった。 pattern that is pretty much understandable.

  学生は先生に漢字でなくてひらがなでその言葉を書かせてもらいました。

What I'm struggling with is when the almighty Japanese grammar starts working at its full power known to me. What I mean by that is that when different verbs start 'sticking' to each other forming additional/different meanings. The most difficult topic-related thing for me to understand is this:

  本を買わせてもらおうと思っている。

I had read a related topic and it kind of helped me a bit to understand it but then again, I can't seem to understand it very well. What I can't understand is how grammar in this sentence works and what is the actual direction of action. (I'd like to explain it a bit more detailed but I'm a bit dumb and find it difficult.)

Please, let me pin a picture of an exercise which contains Japanese sentences and put here my translations.

Warning, English is not my 1st language and I might've mistranslated them a bit but I guess it will be understandable where correct-ish translations are (if they are there.)

Buy a book, please. (For me).
Let me buy a book, please (for you).
Could you buy a book for me?
Could you allow me to buy a book for you?
Could you buy a book for me?　（more politely)
Can I have a permission to buy a book for you?
Can I buy a book? (for you/me)
I want to have a book bought for me.
I want to buy a book.
I want you to allow me to buy this book (for you)

Please, let me know which are the correct ones and give me some explanations using these very examples if it doesn't trouble you, of course (even if they're all correct by chance).

Many thanks in advance.


texts: What is the difference between the two kanji pairings for 'jellyfish'?

texts: I am aware that animal names are generally written in katakana (although sometimes hiragana), but kanji is sometimes used. I stumbled upon the Japanese word クラゲ, meaning jellyfish. The dictionary said that there were two different kanji combinations for the word: 海月 and 水母, both pronounced as クラゲ. The first means 'sea moon', and the other, 'water mother' (possibly 'aquatic mother'). What is the difference between the two and are they interchangeable? If not, which is more appropriate if either at all. Any dive into nuance (Why strange words like moon and mother were used) could be useful.


texts:
A couple of days ago I tried to express "I can ..." where "..." was some some verb or verb phrase.

I used the ～て form of the ... verb followed by 出来ます but was told instead to change the form of the ... verb from ～います to ～えます.

So now it seems to me that both 出来る and ～えます can have similar functions. What is the real difference and how can I know which to use when?


texts:
My (Japanese) friend gave me a suggested translation of this sentence:

普段ワインはなかなか飲まないのだけど、いろんな味、風味、渋味甘味が感じられて良き体験でした。
By no means do I usually drink wine but, it was a good experience because I drank various flavours, sweet/bitter flavours.

He told me he thought て was acting as なので. Is this the case?


texts:
The following is an excerpt from a reply from my language partner:
アンドレアスさんの試みでは、対比させるには、例文が少し難しいと思います。

For context:
 I tried out a rather overcomplicated structure in passive voice because I wanted to see wether this is still grammatical/understandable or not. I also wrote down the same sentence in the active voice and I asked for her feedback.

Here are the 2 sentences (ridden with awful grammar):

passive voice:

  例えば、チームのスパイ行為はチームにwhaleとsharkの言葉を選ばれるつもりだったら、「Fish, 2」という暗示を上げたらいいでしょう。この番号は代行者にスパイ行為が望言葉の分量を送ります。

Active voice:

  例えば、チームのスパイ行為はチームがwhaleとsharkの言葉を選ぶつもりだったら、「Fish, 2」という暗示を上げたらいいでしょう。この番号は代行者にスパイ行為が望言葉の分量を送ります。

So, back to the sentence in question, here is my attempt at translation:
"Concerning your experiment, ? comparison ? I think the example sentence is a bit difficult."

I don't know what to do with this causative verbform. I know it in context of sentences like these: 先生が学生に宿題をたくさんさせた。-> "The teacher made the students do lots of homework."
But in context of the sentence in question, I really have no idea how whoever has made whoever make a comparison xD
I also don't really know what to make of this second は in 対比させるには


texts:
This is more an observation on English, than Japanese, but the word "when" is used in quite a few different ways. And I've been wondering how to translate these different meanings into Japanese.
"when" as a conditional:

I will do it, when I can.

Here, "when" acts mostly as a conditional, with

I will do it, if I can.

having a very similar meaning. Though there is some difference in meaning, and that's what gives me trouble. How would one translate these sentences, and especially the nuance between them, into Japanese?
"when" to give a time point context:

When you come over, I will give it to you.

Here "when" provides a time context, specifically an approximate time point, at which the second phrase occurs. Would using 「ときに」 be correct here? What about 「時は」or a conditional？
"when" to give a times span context:

When you visit, we will visit lots of places.

Here the "when" phrase does not specify a time point, but rather an extended time span. A more sensible term would be "while", though for some reason that's not how one says it in English.
I think the way to translate this is using「間」, is that correct? What would be the difference between 「間に」 and 「間は」, would be also possible to express this using a conditional?
"when(ever)":

When I go to school, I bring an umbrella.

I'm not sure whether this is always an contraction of "whenever", but in any case, how would I translate this kind of "when", where not one specific point in time is meant, but rather a general, conditional time point that might happen never or many times? I've seen 「時はいつも」, 「conditional+いつも」and a plain conditional in this kind of sentence, but I'm not sure what the different nuance of each is.

If my categorisation is unhelpful or unfitting, alternatively, I would like to ask about the meaning and usage of 「時に/は」「間に/は」, and, in particular, when to use them and when to use some conditional.


texts: Why is the る left off すぎる in this sentence?

texts:
Here is my sentence.

  おしろ　あんたが頼みすぎなんだよ。

First, I'm not sure what おしろ means, perhaps somewhat could inform me since Jisho and google translate are both giving results that I don't think are correct. I'm thinking it's some sort of slang.

Now for the main question. I believe the なんだ to be the explanatory の and this sentence means, "(The thing is) You ask for too much." What's the reasoning for taking the る off here? すぎ would be the stem of すぎる. Every example I've ever come across of explanatory の with a verb has not used the stem. What's the difference here?


texts: Dissecting the sentence 自分がそうなってみて、実感としてそう感じる。

texts:
This serves as a follow up question related to this, with a focus on the last paragraph. Again, here's the passage:

物体は激しく動けば、それだけ摩擦が大きくなる。人間だって、激しく動くと熱を持つのだ。端から見れば、輝いている人間のことが、きっと羨ましく見えるのだろう。
だけど、輝いている本人は熱くてたまらないのだ。(中略)
これは真面目に、けっこう辛いことなのだ。
カッコつけているわけじゃない。自分がそうなってみて、実感としてそう感じる。

What makes this sentence difficult to understand is it introduces a subject 自分 and makes use of そう which acts like a 指示詞.
What I know so far
From broccoli facemask's (broc's) comment, I learned that 自分 refers to the author, and that it is the author's way of sympathizing with the 輝いている人.
What I don't know yet

What does そう refer to? Or even before that, do the two そう refer to two different things? At first I thought the first そう refers to 辛いこと but if I try to match broc's comment, it doesn't make sense that 自分 = 筆者 will become a concept: 辛いこと. So it must be that the first そう refers to 輝いている人. Then the second そう must refer to a feeling as hinted by the verb 感じる so it must refer to 辛いこと.
Knowing that 自分 = 筆者 and keeping in mind brocs's comment that "自分がそうなってみて、実感としてそう感じる means that he actually feels it, not only an imagination", I still can't understand the construction of the verb なってみて. As I understand it, this can be broken down to なってみても = なる + てみる + ても, where てみる is the grammar point explained here and ても is the grammar point explained here. If this is correct, I would translate this to "(Even) if I try to be like 輝いている人, I will really feel the 辛いこと."

So there goes my line of reasoning. Where did I go wrong?


texts: Japanese idiom equivalent to “Fat Fingered"

texts:
Is there a Japanese idiom equivalent to "fat fingered"?

In other words, an idiom which means "to make a mistake when performing a task that requires using ones finger". This is often used in reference to buttons, switches, keyboard keys, and more recently, touch screens.


texts: しばしばとたびたびの違いを教えていただけないでしょうか

texts:
しばしばとたびたびの違いは何ですか?

JLPT N2 の語彙の本でこの問題がありました。

  使い方が正しくない言葉の代わりに他の言葉を書きなさい。

    人というものは、たびたび自分の失敗を人のせいにする。

答えの本を見ると、たびたびの代わりにしばしばが正しいそうです。でも私はたびたびとしばしばは同じ使い方だと思いましたので、答えはさっぱりわからないです。違いを教えていただけないでしょうか。


texts: 「がる」と「と思っている」の違いがありますか

texts:
例えば、

その地方の人々はこの宝物が珍しがっている
その地方の人々はこの宝物が珍しいと思っている


texts: What's the difference between させていただけませんか , させていただけないでしょうか　＆ させていただきたい（んです）？

texts:
I've heard させていただけないでしょうか is a more formal version of させていただけませんか, is this true?

If so, what's an example scenario in which you would use the first structure

させていただけないでしょう and not させていただけませんか？

I've seen させていただきたい（んです） used for 'indirect use' but I don't really understand what that means. How does it differ to the previous structures and where can it be used correctly?

Thank you for any help!

Lois


texts: What is the difference between そうか and そっか?

texts: Is そっか just more slangy?  Is そうか the same as saying ああそう? Or, is this more a spoken thing? If so, what is used when writing?


texts:
Consider the following sentence.

  打った人は誰ですか。

How can I translate it in English? I don't know who gets hit or who hits.

Do I need to add something like below to make it clearer?

  私が打った人は誰ですか。Who is the person I struck?

  私を打った人は誰ですか。 Who struck me?


texts:
Are there any differences (nuances or usage) when using prefix 子, 小 or 仔 for denoting young animals?

Examples:

Kitten: 子猫 vs 小猫 vs 仔猫
Puppy: 子犬 vs 小犬 vs 仔犬
Pony: 子馬 vs 小馬 vs 仔馬
Calf: 子牛 vs 小牛 vs 仔牛
Lamb: 子羊 vs 小羊 vs 仔羊
Piglet: 子豚 vs 小豚 vs 仔豚


texts:
I understand もし寝過ごせば、起こしてください is wrong. I believe instead it should be 寝過ごしたら、起こしてください。

In "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar" it says the second part of the sentence "...can be a command, a request or a suggestion... in this case, however, [the first part] can not be an action".

As the second part of the above sentence is a request then I take it 寝過ごす「ねすごす」is an action? If I'm right can anyone give more examples of action verbs as I would not have thought of oversleeping as an action like coming and going. Is their any connection between transitivity and intransitivity of verbs and whether they are classed as an action?

Thanks


texts:
I know "koto" means thing, but I've seen it used like this in my Self-Study Japanese book:

Nihon no koto ga yoku wakarimasu ka.

and

Chiimu no koto o kangaete imashita.

Does this mean Japan's thing or Team's thing? I don't understand. Also I can't use Kanji, just Hiragana.


texts:
The questions is how to choose between 「いれる」 and 「はいれる」.

As far as I know, the same kanji is used for both (入れる).
How can one make the distinction when reading a text?


texts:
Recently I've been reading Michael Emmerich's "New Penguin Parallel Text" for Japanese short stories. In Yoshimoto Banana's "A Little Darkness," there's a passage that describes how the narrator's father didn't like planned birthday celebrations (he avoids them and gets dead drunk), to the point where the mother and daughter surprise him with a middle of the night birthday party while he's sleeping, and so in this case he comes home, not drunk, like a nice, regular day. At that point, Yoshimoto writes:

  そんなにしてまで、とは思わなかった。

In Emmerich's translation, the passage goes: "It never occurred to us that if we had to go to so much trouble, we might as well not celebrate."

In this thread, a seemingly similar use of -てまで has a meaning of weighing the worth of one's actions. Is that what is going on here, but the portion "we might as well not celebrate" is merely implied in the Japanese, and made explicit in the translation? If so, how can we reach that conclusion based on this short and seemingly simple phrase?

Is it common to drop that secondary clause? Or is this a sort of stock phrase? I'm having trouble understanding the leap here.

EDIT:

Here's the full passage for context:

誕生日の前夜には父が寝静まってからこっそりと支度をして、プレゼントをテーブルに並べて、音もなく調理をして、夜中の二時に父を叩き起こし、みんなでパジャマを着たまま乾杯をしたこともあった。そういう時、その創意工夫に父は本当に救われたと思う。そして、誕生日当日は寝ぼけて会社に行き、普通に帰ってきて、普通の夕食を食べていた。そんなにしてまで、とは思わなかった。それが愛情の示し方であったり、人間の弱さというものだと思った。


texts:
From: 声が出なくなったので、会社を辞めて二人暮らし始めました。
Context: Sora stayed over at Ema's house. Ema quit her job two weeks ago and has not cleaned up her house since then.The morning after his stay, Sora says this during breakfast:

「この家、物だらけで整理整頓されてないし、掃除もちゃんとできませんよね？というか、正直な感想を言うと、すごく汚いです。ナイです。」

At first I thougt 「ナイ」was more or less used to emphasize 「汚い」; however as Ema, comments (not in dialogue, but as narrator) with:

第三者に「ナイ」とまで断じられてしまうと、さすがにちょっとへこむ。

I kind of have the feeling that 「ナイ」has meaning on its own. From what I can guess it is meaning-wise related to 「汚い」and probably very casual.
In any case, what does 「ナイ」mean here and in general？


texts: I can understand モンスター娘 and 日常, but I can't understand モンスター娘のいる.


texts: When to use ください (kudasai) or お願いします (onegaishimasu) in requests?

texts: When asking for something I seem to hear sentences end in both ください (kudasai) and お願いします (onegaishimasu). Is there a difference and how do I know when to use which?


texts: Could one have more than one verb in the same sentence be converted to indirect passive?

texts:
I understand Adversity (indirect) passive are used to describe unfortunate event.

Am I correct in saying that the sentence patterns with transitive verbs of both adversity passive and simple (direct) passive are identical?

If that is the case, how would one know whether they are simply stating the facts (simple passive) or describing unfortunate events (adversity passive)?  Again is it simply subjective depending on the context?

When one is using adversity passive describing an unfortunate event where the sentence has a few verbs which could be transitive or intransitive, could one have more than one verb in the same sentence be converted to passive to convey the sense of being unfortunate

For example:

カエルはお腹が空きました。それで、カエルは虫をごくんと飲みました。
カエルは虫を食べ終わると、だんだん眠くなりました。そして、グッスリ寝てしまいました。

With the above two example sentences, could I convert any one or two or all the verbs to passive depending on which verb or verbs are deemed as an unfortunate events?

When the frog was hungry and when the frog ate the worms, they are all unfortunate for the worms.
When the frog finished eating the worms, got sleepy and fell asleep, these were all unfortunate for the frog itself as it was going to be eaten by a snake (not stated in the examples).


texts: Why are some loanwords written in kanji in certain manga?

texts:
In One Piece for example I've noticed that the word "Log Pose" is written as 記録指針｛ログポーズ｝. Another example, also found in One Piece, is the word "Poneglyph", written as 歴史｛ポーネ｝の本文{グリフ｝.

Why do words such as these have their own kanji readings despite being loanwords or katakana words?

I believe I've seen a similar case in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga but I cannot recall which word.


texts: Why use the kanji 伸 for "no" instead of the hiragana の, and the kanji 手 for "te" instead of the hiragana て?

texts:
In an anime opening song, at 0:08, I read the following sentence:

  omokage no naka te wo nobasu no
  おもかげのなか　手を伸ばすの

Please, can you tell me:

for "no", why is the kanji 伸 used instead of the hiragana の?
for "te", why is the kanji 手 used instead of the hiragana て?

Many thanks!


texts: What is the meaning of のか and how does it differ from か?

texts:
What is the meaning of のか in the following sentences? Does it have the same meaning as のですか?

漢字はどう正しく書くのか、どう正しく読むのか、彼らは時々迷います。
参加するのか、参加しないのか、ここではっきり返事しなさい。

Also, I have found sentences of the same structure but instead of のか, they contain only か. For example:

「白」という漢字はどんな時に「はく」と読むか、どんな時に「しろ」と読むか、首をかしげます。
彼はどの大学に入るかはまだ決めていません。

If I change the か in the above two sentences to のか, will it change the meaning?


texts:
Some sharks are seemingly named after birds:

great white shark: hoojirozame 頬白鮫 from hoojiro (meadow bunting)
sandbar shark: mejirozame 目白鮫 from mejiro (white-eye)
blue shark: yoshikirizame 葦切鮫 from yoshikiri (reed warbler)

Maybe a great white does have white cheeks, but I'm not sure if a sandbar shark really has white eyes, and I see no connection between blue sharks and reed. Is this just a coincidence?

On another note, the triplewart footballfish (箕作柄長提灯鮟鱇 mitsukuri enaga chouchin ankou) seems to be named after the long-tailed tit (enaga) which is equally baffling.


texts: Could someone please explain the meaning of 場面に合った?

texts:
I came across this sentence today and it stumped me a little.

  日本で色々な場面に合った話し方が出来るように、日本に行く前に色々なスピーチレベルの話し方を練習しておいた

The 場面に合った part I’m don’t understand, and why is it in past tense?

Thank you in advance!


texts:
上手く立ち回って、退学にならないようにしてね。

ようにする: 1. (following a verb) to be sure to; 2. to do (something) so that; 3. to make sure to; 4. to try to. (according to nihongomaster.com)

I was just wondering is it proper to apply ようにする on 2 verbs?

If it was based on the above sentence, the translation will be like:

"Well, make sure to deal with it properly, and try not to drop out of school"

It sounds much better and clearer.

Thank you in advance for your guidance.


texts:
This is a sentence from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, from the scene towards the beginning where Harry and Ron are flying the car and are just approaching Hogwarts.

  車は湖のほうに流されていき、ハリーは思わず座席の端をしっかり握りしめた。

Which I would translate as:

  As the car drifted towards the lake, harry instinctively gripped the edge of his seat.

Why is 流されて(which I assume is passive of 流す) used here, instead of just 流れて?


texts:
I understand that the dictionary definition of the expression いけません is "must not do", and that it can be used in conjunction with say なきゃ in a sentence such as the following:

試験があるから、勉強しなきゃいけません。
I have to study, because there will be an exam.

いけません seems to 'conjugate' in the short form present tense as follows:

毎日、練習しなきゃいけないんです。
I must practice every day.

And this is where I get a little puzzled. It seems like いけません would be a conjugation of いける (which presumably would mean something like "to not be permitted to"), but that doesn't appear to be the case. Is there any logic behind this, or is it just a peculiarity? Or am I missing something obvious?


texts: の (no) vs ~i for colors, can they be used indistinctly?

texts: There is this title of a manga called "Ao no Exorcist". Is this exactly the same as Aoi Exorcist? can they be used  indistinctly or there is a nuance or something?


texts: Why do people say 未知数 when it is not a number?

texts: Sometimes, people tend to use metaphors from arithmetics to refer to something in ordinary life. For example, to mention some claims or preferences common among people, the expression 最大公約数 'greatest common measure' is used even though it is not about numbers. I kind of understand that because there is no immediate counterpart that expresses the corresponding concept for non-numbers. But I don't understand why people say 未知数 'unknown variable' for some non-number that is unknown. There is a word 未知 'unknown' that is related to and is simpler. Why do people say things like これからの情勢は未知数だ instead of saying これからの情勢は未知だ?


texts: Is there a particular name for repeating-word adverb?

texts:
I wonder if there is any particular name for those repeating-word adverbs (such as すくすく or ころころ).
It seems to me that there are quite a number of them and they seem somehow special.


texts:
From the Progressive Japanese-English dictionary:

  彼を操縦するなどわけはない
  I can easily twist [wind] him around [((英)) round] my little finger.

Can you please tell me what わけはない means in this sentence?
Thank you


texts:
I looked up the definition of the word 預金{よきん} and my English-Japanese dictionary translates it as "deposit", "savings", and "account". One of the WWWJDIC definitions is also "bank account". I understand "deposit" and "savings", but "account" doesn't make sense to me. The Japanese translation doesn't mention anything about "account" either:

  金銭を銀行その他の金融機関にあずけること。また，あずけた金銭。

That seems to suggest that 預金{よきん} refers to the actual money in the bank, not the account containing it. However, I'm confused by words like 預金残高{よきんざんだか}, which is often translated as "account balance", and 当座預金{とうざよきん}, which is "checking account". If you add 口座{こうざ} (account) to the end, it becomes 当座預金口座{とうざよきんこうざ}, which is still "checking account", not "checking account account".

So does 預金{よきん} really mean account, or is that additional meaning tacked on in Japanese-English dictionaries to avoid awkward translations like "deposits balance" or "wire it to my checking"? Or is 預金{よきん} just a short form for 預金口座{よきんこうざ}?


texts: Translating contrasts with English expressions that not their naturally equivalents in Japanese

texts:
When translating how does one deal with contrasts best satisfied with English expressions that not the naturally translations from Japanese. In the following example:

  現在の株式市場は、日本企業の経営者の正しい戦略や従業員の真摯な勤労に対して*、不当に低い評価しか与えていません。*[したがって、株価は異常に低いと判断しています。]

  The current stock market is assigning an unjustifiably low value on the dedication of workers and the (correct) strategies adopted by the management of Japanese companies and therefore we consider stock prices to be anomalously low.

I wanted to structure  the sentence with "Given that A, B is..." because it allowed me to connect the full phrases before 「に対して」to the after it. However this is not true equivalent of 「に対して」.  Instead I have cheated by putting "correct" in parentheses but I am not sure what best practice would be.


texts:
A Japanese person that was born in Nagoya wrote on instagram a very short sentence: 年賀状に使えるな that I'm not able to translate. Different online translators give opposite results. The TanoshiJapanese dictionary doesn't help me distinguish between meanings 1) and 3).

How would you interprete the "な" at the end of the sentence?


texts:
Whenever I see vegetable translated, it seems to always be as 野菜{やさい}. But doesn't 菜 by itself mean vegetable? If so, why add the extra character?

I've noticed this in a couple of other cases as well, such as 言語{げんご} being used for language even though 語 by itself also means language (such as in 日本語).

Are these combinations done just for historical reasons, or is there a logic behind this that I'm missing?


texts: Please Explain Dictionary Form + って (いるって)

texts: I came across the sentence, ともだちがいるってすてきだなあ.  If someone could explain the いるって part, dictionary form+って, I'd appreciate it.


texts: The meaning of てくれん in 「アギマの領地を削り取ってくれん」

texts:
I came across this line recently and don't know how to interpret it. For context, the speaker is the commander of a foreign army and his forces have just met those of the アギマ王国 on the battlefield. He says this line to the アギマ army's commander before the battle.

  ついに追い詰めたぞ！この度こそワシが勝利し、アギマの領地を削り取ってくれん！

I initially assumed くれん was the shortened form of 呉れない but that doesn't make much sense, does it? Could someone explain what くれん is doing here?


texts: What is the difference between 傲慢、 横柄、 威張る、高慢、高ぶる?

texts:
All these words can be translated in English as "arrogant", but I would like more explanation as to which context each would be used in.

For example, I can't tell the difference between these expressions:

  傲慢な態度をとる

  横柄な態度をとる

  威張った態度をとる

This is my current guess of the differences based on what I read so far:

傲慢

To act like one is better than others by looking down on them. Used to describe the personality of a person as a whole.

横柄

To act superior by ignoring others. Used to describe the behavior and actions of a person. The antonym would be 謙虚

威張る

To behave like one is important (not too certain how this is different from the others)

EDIT:

As a user has pointed out, there are more similar words that can be interpreted the same way in English. If anyone can add as to how these words are different, it would be appreciated.

高慢 - From the kanji, I'm guessing this is based more on being too proud of oneself, hence being arrogant

高ぶる - Not too sure about this one


texts: What are the rules for reading numbers before a foreign counter-word?

texts:
Is there a rule of thumb for knowing the reading of a number when it is written in western numerals, and is followed by a loaned counter-word?

For example, how would you pronounce the "1" in １セット? My first thought it to say 「いっセット」, but as far as I know it could just as easily be 「ひとセット」 or 「いちセット」. The Wikipedia article does not cover loan-word counters, and I cannot find anything on this topic.


texts: What is the difference between V-あげる and V-たて

texts: Both of grammar are the same meaning:  something has “just” finished/done?


texts: what's the difference between 余地 and よゆう?

texts: I have been informed that よゆう is to do with temporal or physical room, while 余地 has to do with emotional room, but I might have misunderstood the explanation.


texts: I understand that the On- and Kun- readings are important to know and understand. However, what about the Nanori readings? Are they worth studying if I am aiming to just take the JLPT tests?


texts: Are there morphological rules to "build" transitive/interactive verb pairs?

texts:
教える/教わる、伝える/伝わる
届ける/届く、開ける/開く
預ける/預かる、見つける/見つかる
回す/回る、出す/出る、起こす/起きる
隠す/隠れる
乗せる/乗る
落とす/落ちる
当てる/当たる
決める/決まる、暖める/暖まる
冷やす/冷える、燃やす/燃える
消す/消える
降りる/降ろす
入れる/入る
... are pairs of transitive/intensive verbs with related meanings.
It feels like there are simple rules to "convert" from one verb to the other in such pairs... but not in all the cases.
Are there such rules? Or do we just have to remember arbitrary combinations?
What are the historical reasons of why those verbs "look" like this?


texts: How would you structure a sentence to say "someday I will go to Japan"?

texts:
I am trying to figure out the particle and order of words in a sentence to that says "Someday I will go to Japan". Would you say:

  私は日本がいつかに行きます。

or would I say:

  日本は私がいつかに行きます。

I really want to learn the grammar and structure. if you could help me that would be great!


texts: When using ka, is it acceptable to eliminate the question mark when ending a sentence?

texts: I am unable to find content addressing this question.


texts: How does ことし配信された動画配信大手 work as an attribute here

texts:
The sentence in question:
きっかけは、ことし配信された動画配信大手ネットフリックスの番組。

For full context:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20190314/k10011847731000.html?utm_int=news_contents_tokushu_004

My attempt at translation:
"The start, it was this years program of netflix, the big videostreaming company."

The problem is that I dont really know whether I connected ことし correctly or not. The boom started this year and it was because of netflix, that much I already know. But I'm still a bit uncertain because ことし is very distant from 番組 itself, positionwise at least, although it is in the direct vicinity of the phrase modifying 番組.

Also, 配信された動画配信 confuses me。動画配信 itself already contains the distribution of information. But then 配信された is used to express that it was distributed. It feels redundant and if I translate 配信された動画配信大手ネットフリックスの番組 in isolation it doesnt make much sense to me either:
"the program of the big video streaming company netflix which distributed."


texts: Can a verb end with 〜ます before the conjunction ので?

texts:
I know that you can end a verb with 〜ます at the end of a sentence. I also know that you can end a verb with 〜ます before the conjunction が.

So, what about ので? Can you end a verb with with 〜ます before the conjunction ので?


texts:
Using Hiragana, how would you write a word/transcribe a sound which ends in a consonant? Such as 'kon'.
Relevant to this, I don't understand why 'hajimemashite' doesn't pronounce the 'shi' in the word, and why in the phrase 'watashi wa ______ desu' the 'su' isn't pronounced, and in 'watashi wa _______ to iimasu', again, the 'su' isn't pronounced.
Is there a grammatical reason for this?


texts:
This kanji has : -
止(phonetic) + 寸(hand : semantic) and the 止 part became 土 later

But I found in some resources this interpretations which explain "止" function in the kanji so I wanna know which on from this interpretations right or not?

1 :
"寺　(6)　ジ；てら
The relevant oracle bone form of this character is 止# (stand straight) + 寸 hand/action indicator →
stand straight by in attending on a superior, then carry out orders → government office (← place
where official functions are carried out). (Buddhist) temple "

2:
Character decomposition 字形分解 [?]:
Component 寺 from (rem- 土 tǔ) from foot-moving-zhi 之㞢 zhǐ and hand-measure-cun 寸 cùn. (name- hand-foot-si 寺 sì)

Decomposition notes 字形分解说明 [?]:
(- measurement of time historically done at a temple)


texts: What is the meaning of いじります in Information Technology?

texts:
Wordpress team always uses いじります for fixing/editing code files. I somehow can understand it is "Editing", or "Fixing", or "Modifying".

But I just want to know it clear. Google translated to "messing around", or "playing toy" :D

Below is the sample WordPress team used to modify some files, they wrote this message to inform other members do not touch those files. (They are not good at git and they don't have good environment to develop and control source code!)

wordpress\themes\abc\header.php
wordpress\themes\abc\css\layout.css
いじります。


texts:
someone says this in a book:

でもスキルが生きるかどうかは人格ありきなわけだから

whether someone is skilled ... something to do with personality. what does ありき mean here? I found it as a noun meaning location of something but I don't see how it would work in this sentence


texts: So I'm working on translating a short recipe that I found online.  The title calls it バタコチーズライス.  I know that バタ is "butter", チーズ is "cheese", and ライス is "rice", but I can't for the life of me figure out what コ is doing in here.  Is バタコ referring to something else I'm not catching?  All the googling I can muster didn't yield anything useful for "batako" or "bataco", so it doesn't seem to be an ingredient on its own, and it doesn't seem to be acting as an article or particle.  Thoughts??


texts: How to say "Pretty women are not necessarily attractive, let alone ugly women"?

texts:
I want to say the following

  Pretty women are not necessarily attractive, let alone ugly women.

in Japanese. My attempt is as follows.

  不美人どころか、美人も魅力的だとは限らない。

Is it correct and natural?


texts: Does 京都 use じゃ、や、or だ？

texts: Also, is ね used at all in 関西？ I know な is at least more common, even among female speakers. And has どす fallen out of use?


texts:
I am currently reading a short Japanese novel targeted at learners of intermediate levels, entitled 野菊の墓. In this novel, multiple times a character is named only by お増{ます}。Based on the below examples I believe that this designates a specific character, probably the family servant/maid but looking for it in either the jisho dictionary or the goo dictionary did not yield more results that the typical "increase, multiply" sense of 増す。
Examples (taken verbatim):

ぼくの家には、母とぼく、兄と兄の妻、家の仕事をするお増{ます}~
ぼくはかばんを一つ持って、民子｛たみこ｝とお増{ます}と一緒に舟の乗り場へ行った。
きっと兄の妻やお増{ます}は、母やぼくたちがいないところで~

Is my understanding correct? What is the exact sense of お増? Is it a common word? Is it associated with a particular politeness level and/or era?


texts: When is 下 alone read げ outside of a handful of idiomatic usages (if ever)?

texts:
Dictionary definition:

  １ 程度・価値・等級・序列などが低いこと。標準より劣っていること。下等。した。「中の下の成績」⇔上 (じょう) 。

  ２ 書物や文の章段などで、二つまたは三つに分けたものの最後のもの。「下の巻」⇔上 (じょう) 。

Edit:
I think 巻 is not read かん, but まき. Sometimes, a word alone requires 訓読み, sometimes 音読み, because reasons. Please see the comment section.

There's already a question here about how to read 下 when it is used for book volumes, whose reading corresponds to the second definition above.

There's also 下{げ}の下{げ}, which I think is literally "the lowest of the low" (cf. Trainspotting). Definition 1.

Is there any other occasion where one simply has to read it as げ? Can I use it as some sort of adjective, e.g. 下の奴だ, like the example in definition 1?

Sorry for yet another newbie question, but お教えください！

TIL: Just realized that 中の下 is read ちゅうのげ, even when 中 seems to be screaming for 訓読み instead. Lovely.


texts: I was reading this page: http://helps.ameba.jp/faq/pigg/5301/post_362.html and I found そっくりな, however my dictionary says it's an adverbial noun... and I though those took の as their particle-Then again, I just use の whenever I read noun because I assume it's an apposition.


texts:
I want to say

  In Japan, I want to ride a bullet train.

I have

  にほん で ぼく は しんかんせん を のります。

Is 「にほん で」 correct? Should it be 「にほん に」? Or perhaps something else?


texts: Are "ピーナッツ" and "ピーナツ" both correct for "peanut(s)"?

texts:
I've just noticed that the usual word for "peanut" or "peanuts" in Japanese is "ピーナッツ" (pīnattsu), but the first spelling I found, from looking in the translation table in the English Wiktionary was actually "ピーナツ" (pīnatsu).

It turns out the first one has its own entry while the second one is just a redlink in the English entry's translation table. But both seem to get plenty of Google hits.

Are they both correct? Might they have slightly different usages, such as in combining forms or singular vs plural?

Since I'm asking, there is also 落花生{らっかせい}. Is it no longer used in favour of the English-derived term?


texts: Is there a keigo expression which can be translated as playing or pretending to do?

texts: I have heard that, in former times, there was a very polite form of speaking in the form of, e.g., "the emperor liked playing to die" instead of "the emperor died". Is this true that there is a style of japanese in which people speak about playing to or pretending to do something for reasons of politeness?


texts:
Evening,

like in the title, verb & adj conjugations are todays brain buster.

I find it hard to work out the right question to ask, so i made a  few simple ones (i think).

1: じゃ。why is is  only used in the な adjective?

2: です。in adjectives and　ます。for verbs. Why is that?

3: あるverb in ありません。why only in adjectives? (where verbs is only ます)

4: った。does it essentially indicate past tense for all adj?

5: ますーました。is it essentially ました =　ます＋した (from する). (same question for ません).

All and any thoughts appreciated.
Thankyou for your time, Shaun.

https://www.japandict.com/ was where i looked through the conjugations


texts: What's the kanji for "appointed location"

texts:
Can't seem to remember.

Kind of like how 当日 means "appointed day," I'm pretty sure I've seen a kanji for something like 当所 but I can't find one. I've found 当地 but I don't know if it has the same implication as 当日.


texts:
I do not know the grammatical meaning of "は" and when to add a "は" in between  the quotative particle and the verb, namely "とは思う".

Here is the example sentence without "は",

    拡大終了かと思われた西之島にまだ拡大の望みはある事が判明

And the example sentence with "は".

    Q: 売れない商品は削除すべき？

    A:削除される方も多いかとは思われますが、残しておくことをおすすめ致します！


texts: What's the word regularly used to describe "working from home"?

texts:
I've seen a few words in a cursory search:

[在宅勤務]{ざいたくきんむ}
テレワーク
[在宅]{ざいたく}ワーク

but I'm interested in the situation where your usual place of work requires commuting, but you are temporarily working from home just for the day, as opposed to a situation where you are based primarily at home.


texts:
Reading a manga at the moment and I encountered the following sentence:
オスといると、それこそネズミ算式に増えちゃいますから
If ねずみ算 means to 'multiply like rats' what is the significance of adding 式に増える?
I am also confused of what 式 actually means.


texts:
I’m having trouble figuring out how to translate “different.”
I know the words 違う and 違い but I don’t know how to incorporate those to mean “different” or if that would even be correct.

「違う色がきれいだね。」
“The different colors are pretty.”

or

「ううん、違う犬が持っている。」
“No, they have a different dog.”

I’m thinking it would be 違う used in a relative clause like “No, they have a dog that differs” (a different dog) but I’m not sure.


texts:
Context: From Yotsuba&, they went gathering chestnuts and one of them had a bug in it so they threw it away. But here the young girl is eating from the rest and her sister is saying that there were still bugs in them that morning.

My question comes from the use of てた in this context. Why is this used instead of the past construct. I can understand it, at least form the English point of view, why it would work if it were paired with まだ　or また, and think that the も, serves a similar purpose in this context, i.e. They were coming out this morning as well.

Are there certain combinations come together, or imply one another ?
What difference, if any, is there between the た and てた conjugations ?


texts: Whats the difference between 「睡眠不足」and 「寝不足」?

texts: Is there is any difference between the words 「睡眠不足」(すいみんそく) and 「寝不足」(ねぶそく)?


texts: Confirm if someone wants to do something

texts:
In English, you have some types of question formats such as:

Do you want to reserve a meeting room?
Is it correct that you want to ask about an employee?
Is it correct that you are sad?

With these types of formats, you can easily create questions such as:

Do you + {desire}
Is it correct that you {desire}

I have an application which need to automatically make those questions depends on the user's intents, but in Japanese. I want to know if there is any similar format such as those above. Assume if the user wants to reserve a meeting room, I can do something like 'Do you' + 'want to reserve a meeting room' in Japanese.

Thank you for your help.


texts: What is the subject of this sentence? It is omitted

texts:
それらは必ず母屋から離れて、青葉の臭いや苔の臭いのしてくるような植え込みの影に設けてあり、 廊下を伝わっていくのであるが、 その薄暗い光線の中にうずくまって、ほんのりや明るい障子の反射を受けながら瞑想にふけり、またはそう外の庭の景色を眺める気持ちは何とも言えない。

What is the meaning of the sentence written in bold here? Is the subject the light rays, the shadows or the bathroom itself? It's very confusing.


texts: contradictory evidence for 何に as (1) なんに and (2) なにに

texts:
is 何に pronounced (1) なんに or (2) なにに here: お飲み物は何になさいますか。?
(1) www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU-hnuSM098 @0:20 provides evidence (NB: despite the possibly incorrect ローマ字 (roumaji) found there and in the "show more" vocab list) "お飲み物は何になさいますか。Onomimono wa nanni nasaimasuka?"
(2) but evidence from my Japanese keyboard's programming would suggest なにに is correct because 何に doesn't pop up if I type なんに.
Finally, I thought even if it is なんに "nan ni", the mechanics of releasing the ん to transition to the articulation of に necessarily produces a sound similar to なにに
Please let me know, which is correct? (and if possible with a grammatical explanation to understand why) thank you all for your kind assistance!


texts: I have trouble to understand the meaning of "もこれで" in a sentence

texts:
I'm having trouble to understand もこれで in a sentence.

This is the sentence with もこれで:

たったひとり、命がけのしゅぎょうもこれで最後だ.

I will translate this by:

"this is the conclusion of a solitary life-or-death training." I don't understand which meaning to give to "もこれで". I don't know which additional information it brings.

Could someone help me ?

thank you


texts:
I've always wondered why the 音読み of the kanji 洗 is セン when, in all Chinese topolects I'm aware of, the reading ends in a vowel.

I always chalked this up to Japanese having borrowed a Middle Chinese reading at a time when 洗 still ended in a nasal (cf. the Japanese vs Chinese reading of 鳥), but I was surprised to find that this isn't the case, and that it's reconstructed as *sejX in Middle Chinese.

Why, then, is there a nasal in the Japanese reading (and according to Wiktionary, the Korean reading too)?


texts: What is the difference between kattan and kaimashita?

texts:
In Japanese the mashita ending is the past form of polite verbs.

For example:

To buy (root form) - Kau
To buy (polite form) - kaimasu
To buy (polite form, past) - kaimashita

In my Japanese text book it has the following example

Where did you buy it?
Doko de kattan desu ka?

Why is the speaker using kattan instead of kaimashita (especially as kattan is defined as coal)?
Could kattan be substituted with kaimashita?
How does the meaning change when using kattan or kaimashita?


texts: unamed subject in this conversation and use of ~のに... in this sentence

texts:
gossip among unnamed students while being made to run laps, about a time when the ゴリ男 gym teacher got really angry at something.Reader does not anything about what had happened.

  「これって、この間気持ち悪がったのを怒って仕返ししてるんじゃない？」

  「あ～、あのバレーの時の？」

  「そうそう。ゴリ男から渡されたバレーボールに毛が付いてて気持ち悪がった時のことよ」

  「そういえば凄い怒ってたもんね。もう顔真っ赤にしてさ」

  「あいつの触ったボールも嫌だっていうのに毛だもんね。しかもあれ、縮れてて陰毛みたいだったし」

this(running laps) is revenge, (ゴリ男) is mad at XX for showing signs of being disgusted.

that volleyball time?

yea, that time when the ball that XX got from ゴリ男 had hair attached to it,  XX was disgusted.

Speaking of that, (ゴリ男) was incredibly mad wasn't he,  his face was already bright red.

the ball あいつ(XX?) touched was pretty unpleasant のに毛だもんね. Cuz the hair looked like pubes.

How is ~のに毛だもんね used here?
is the も in ボールも... the 詠嘆の「モ」?
is the person (unnamed XX) described as showing 間気持ち悪がる the same person as あいつ in the last sentence?

I found this conversation quite hard to follow.

thank you


texts: 恐れ入ります correct "thank you" to use after customers make a purchase?

texts:
Is 恐れ入ります the correct form of "thank you" when used during a business transaction (for example, a sales person would say this when someone makes a purchase at his/her store)? In the context of an up-scale and expensive shop, the sales person trying to be very gracious to the customer.

Is there another form of "thank you" that would be appropriate in this context, or is this the most appropriate?

Is this the way it would be written out, for example, on a note of sales or a receipt, would 恐れ入ります be written out at the end of the bill of sale? Is there kanji for thank you in this written out sales situation?


texts:
断ち切るように言葉がきっぱりして適切なこと。

This sentence means: word like '断ち切る' is relevant to きっぱりして(?)(?)

I know that 断ち切る modifies きっぱりする but I don't get the meaning of this sentence.


texts: Had some trouble with the translation. I know that 気をつける means "to be careful" but I had trouble with the なさいよ part.


texts: I found this word today, and I thought it was pretty interesting. I read it in the context of "becoming and adult", or "coming of age", but I'd like to know the etymology of it. I could only find definitions for the word itself, not its origins. At first blush it looks like "one person before/ahead", but it also seems like 人前 can mean a portion of food. "One person's portion of food"? (Perhaps someone is now big enough to have an adult's portions?)


texts: Is it ok if I leave kanji I don't know out?

texts: So I want to write "I love you" but I see "aishitemasu" uses kanji characters for "ai" 愛 and I'm trying to stay away from kanji at the moment. Can I use あい instead?


texts: When would you use 30分 versus 半 for telling time?

texts:
I know telling time in English, you can say "It is 3:30" or "It is half past 3" and they can be used interchangeably.
When telling the time in Japanese, is this still the case? Can you use "今{いま}は3時{じ}30分{ぷん}です" and "今{いま}は3時{じ}半{はん}です" interchangeably? Or are there contexts where it is more appropriate to use one over the other?


texts:
From what I understand, 〜っぽい, 〜がち, and 〜やすい all seem to suggest that someone has a general tendency towards doing something. It seems that 〜っぽい and 〜がち can attach to a noun or to the 連用形 of a verb, while 〜やすい can attach to the 連用形 of a verb.

All three can be used in a sentence such as:

彼女は大事なことを忘れっぽい。
彼女は大事なことを忘れがちだ。
彼女は大事なことを忘れやすい。

Is there a difference in meaning between these phrases?


texts: の performing back referral? の used adjectivally?

texts:
Consider the following sentence:

その薬は去年期限切れのだったので、捨てました。

I'm trying to explain what the bolded の does in the above sentence.
This is what I came up with:

の is used as a back referral
The sentence would look like this :
その薬は去年期限切れの(薬)だったので、捨てました。
But because 薬 can be understood from context, it is left out in the same sentence.

When I looked up 期限切れ in the dictionary*, it is listed as (Nouns which may take the genitive case prt. 'no') I'm not sure what it means exactly so...
(Question): Is there something I need to understand differently because of this dictionary categorisation? How are "Nouns which may take the genitive case prt. 'no'" different from just nouns?
Would 日本語 in 日本語の先生 also be a "noun which may take the genitive case prt. 'no'"? Because so far many nouns are able to take の, and I dont understand the separate category for it.
EDIT: I think this was what I meant to ask - did the の in question come from elision or does it have something to do with 期限切れ being a no-adj ?
(Just looked it up in other dictionaries**, it's labelled as no-adj)
*taken from JMDict
**checked against WWWJDIC and japanese.nciku.com


texts:
Equivalent question: What Japanese letters won't equal 1?

From: the homophonic group: a mathematical diversion
 → This is an exercise from Michael Artin's Algebra on, well, abstract algebra. In this exercise for the English language, words are equal if they are homophones, kind of like a formalisation of the joke that sin(x)/n=6. So in English:

bee=be → This implies e=1 by cancellation of b and e.
buy=by → This implies u=1 by cancellation of b and y.
rase=raze → This implies s=z by cancellation of r, a and e.

canvass=canvas → This implies s=1 by cancellation of c,a,n,v,a and s. By canvass=canvas and rase=raze, we have s=z=1.

Eventually, all 26 English letters will equal 1. Apparently, this was done for French and Czech.


texts: in this sentence what function does と take

texts:
here is the sentence i know と can have multiple functions

ごめんね　私さごめんね　人に合わせないと不安っていうか


texts: Ordering a drink, conversational Japanese

texts:
Disclaimer: This relates to prose, I would never consider being intentionally rude in real life.

I'm currently writing a short-story, and in it there's a scene in a Japanese restaurant. It calls for one of the characters (female) to call the waiter over and request a bottle of Sake (nihonshu?), as per the chef's recommendation.

My own—slow but ongoing—study of Japanese, is of little help, because text-books has an awful tendency to mangle the politeness in these matters.  From what I understand of the politeness customs in Japan, a customer would probably not be more polite toward the staff, than the staff toward the customer.

So, how would one, as a woman, in conversational Japanese, bordering on being downright rude, order a bottle of the house's recommended rice-wine?

My own best guess would be "Oi, nihonshu kudasai!", but that doesn't sound right to me…


texts:
Sentence in question:
ほっくりしていて香りもきつくなく、おいしいですよ。

I cant find a translation for ほっくり on jisho.org. Anyone here who can help?


texts: Difference between 助ける【たすける】 and 救う【すくう】

texts:
What is the difference between the verbs 助ける【たすける】 and 救う【すくう】?

Apparently, both mean to save.

When searching on Google, I found the same question asked on Yahoo! 知恵袋:

  『助ける』と『救う』の意味の違いを教えてください。

I was able to understand the question, but my Japanese knowledge is far from enough to understand the answer. Anyway, it would be helpful to have this question asked in English so other beginners could have a chance.


texts:
I found 実践 in the context:

  月を舞台に居住環境を構築し長期滞在を実践します

I had some difficulty to distinguish between 実践 and 実施, so I checked a bit on the forum and found:

  実施, on the other hand, refers generally to putting some plan into
  action.

（Source: What is the difference in usage of [実行]{じっこう}する and [実施]{じっし}する?）

  実践 is practice as opposed to theory. It's practice as in "bring it
  into practice", "daily clinical practice", etc. It refers to actually
  doing something instead of thinking or simulating. 実践的 means practical
  as opposed to theoretical.

（Source: What is the difference in meaning between 練習, 訓練 and 実践?）

So I came to the conclusion that 実施 always refer to some kind of plan, policy, ... but not knowledge (put into practice what I have been taught)
you would use 実践 in that case.

Does it work like this ?


texts:
Can "みたい" mean "want to see", or does it always mean "looks like"/"seems like"?  If not, how would "want to see" be expressed?

Specifically, assuming it has both uses, it would seem ambiguous to me here:
なんだか違う映画みたいだなあ

Would that be "I want to see a somewhat different movie", or "That seems like a somewhat different movie"?


texts:
おはよう！

I came up with the stem of the ます-form while trying to read a book. I already checked the questions Connecting phrases with the stem of masu-form and なく vs. なくて and stem form vs. てform as conjunctions. So, from those I learned that it is like て-form except that it doesn't imply temporal order.

Now, as far as I know (which is not much yet...), the 〜たり、〜たりする form does the same thing, which is similar to using や to list nouns and imply that there may be others, and does not imply temporal order.

Example:
(1) 今朝{けさ}起{お}きて、シャワーを浴{あ}びて、朝{あさ}ご飯{はん}を食{た}べました。
(2) 今朝{けさ}起{お}きたり、シャワーを浴{あ}びたり、朝{あさ}ご飯{はん}を食{た}べたりしました。
(3) 今朝{けさ}起{お}き、シャワーを浴{あ}び、朝{あさ}ご飯{はん}を食{た}べました。

Could someone please explain the difference between the 〜たり and the stem of the ます-form when used as conjuction?


texts:
Could someone explain the construction v-ta no?
I saw it in the article title

  東京などで雪　１１月に降ったのは５４年前


texts:
相性がよければいいほどブッ飛ぶよ？

I don't understand the meaning of "ぶっ飛ぶ" in this sentence. After searching on Jisho I found "lack common sense" or "be extremely surprised" is that it ?


texts: What is the meaning of the word "ma" in this sentence?

texts:
The sentence is: まピンクの きのこが 生えた or ma pinku no kinoko  ga haeta.

(I think it means "A pink mushroom grew".)

What does the ま at the beginning of the sentence mean?

Thank you!


texts: Is it acceptable in Japanese to write kanji characters in the Chinese style?

texts: In Japanese, is it acceptable to write kanji letters in the Chinese style?  For example, is it acceptable to write 田 with the 3rd and 4th strokes swapped, or 着 with the 6th and 7th strokes combined?


texts:
I would like to know the difference between 平気, 冷静, and 穏やか.
They mean "calm" but what is the difference between them ?

  案外本当は平気なんじゃないの  I guess that means you're not that bothered by it
  after all?

  冷静に返されオレは言葉を詰まらせた。  She returned my words calmly and shut me up.

  なんていうオレの穏やかな気持ちはすぐに消し飛ばされてしまった。  My tranquility and peace was suddenly
  interrupted.

From what I guess,

平気 : not to be bothered

冷静: to remain cool

穏やか : related to peace of mind

Am I right ?


texts:
I have seen some cases where して is placed before a する verb:

  1) みんなしてお出かけですか？

  2) みんなして大好評だな

Is this regular practice? Is this grammatically correct? Can this be done with other conjugations of する?


texts:
I am familiar with the use of より in making comparisons. However, the use of より in this following context certainly does not mean "than" and so I would gladly appreciate if someone can help me provide a clarification of why より is used in this case.

  同僚や上司との関係を築くことは日本語の力より必要です。

Basically, this sentence is trying to say that having the ability to speak Japanese is essential in building relationship with co-workers.


texts: I was searching for the meaning of  "時すでに遅し。" but I couldn't find 遅し in the dictionary  goo.ne.jp and weblio tells me that it's おそい with 形ク in parenthesis.


texts:
長い首を振り回す小龍の背に調教師がロデオのように飛び乗る中、人々の興奮は最高潮に達しようとしていた。

What does ようとする do here? I know that it can mean "try to do something." But "The people's excitement was trying to reach a climax" doesn't seem to make much sense.

Thanks!


texts:
We all know that に indicates the position of the object (i.e. where it is). I just came across a sentence where の was used to indicate position with respect to objects.

  ねこはテーブルの上。In here the cat is on the table.

So, my question is shouldn't we use に instead of の as a position marker. Thereby making the sentence to :

  ねこはテーブルに上. The cat is on the table

like we do in other scenarios? (Eg. 店は角にあります "shop is on the corner"or あそこに家があります　"The house is over there"). In these scenarios (as that of examples), we are marking the position as well, like we are doing when we indicate the position of the cat.


texts: What are the names for the sets of kanji taught in secondary schools?

texts: I know that some kanji are educational and others are general use, with kyouiku (1006 characters) learned in grades 1-6 included in jouyou (2136 characters). What is the other set of kanji (1136 characters) learned in grades 7-12 called?


texts: Is it OK to have more than one が particle in a sentence?

texts:
If, for example, I wanted to say "I like the book that my sister gave me", would it be 姉がくれた本が好きです?

I'm using Genki to study, but they don't seem to have any examples of this particular structure that ends in "が好きです".


texts: Is there a term for words that share the same kana spelling?

texts:
I would like to know if there is a word (in either Japanese or English) that describes pairs of words that are spelled the same in kana. For example, 橋 and 箸 would be "homo-kana" words, because they are both spelled はし.

I'm not looking for the word homograph / 同綴異義語【どうてついぎご】. The term homograph would apply to pairs like 一日【いちにち】 and 一日【ついたち】, which are written identically, but have different meanings (I know this isn't a great example, since 一日【いちにち】 and 一日【ついたち】 are obviously related, but I haven't come up with anything better). The example I gave above (橋・箸) is an example of a pair of heterographs that are "homo-kana" words.

I'm also not looking for the word homophone / 同音異義語【どうおんいぎご】: words that are written the same in kana need not be pronounced the same, because of pitch accent. Again, 橋 and 箸 are not homophones (in 標準語 anyway) but are still "homo-kana" words.

I suppose I could just say something to the effect of 「『橋』と『箸』のカナ表記が同じ」, but I feel like this is the sort of thing for which a technical term would have been developed.


texts: Why is the particle に used between カツ and たべられない and what does 入った可能性 mean?

texts:
I know that 食べられない can be a passive or a potential verb, but in this case I think it is used like a potential verb, so I don't know why that に is there.

About 入った可能性, I think it is a relative clause so 入った{はいった} is modifying 可能性{かのうせい} but, I don't get what it means.

  ～は冷凍のカツに食べられない物が入った可能性があるため、捨てることにしました。

I saw this here.

Thanks for your help.


texts: Use of 間 to talk about a span of time (and connection to the verb)

texts:
My question is rather specific, but I have wondered about it since it would actually drastically change the meaning of what I'm trying to say.

Is 間 directly connected to the verb?

As this question sounds odd, I'll try to specify it with an example:

  「三ヵ月間、日本に行きます。」
  (I hope the sentence is actually grammatically correct whoops.)

If I use the sentence like this, does it mean

a) "I will go to Japan for three months."
b) "I will go to Japan and the process of going there will take me three months (but I'm not specifying how long I will actually stay there)."
c) It could mean both of the sentences above and depends on the context.?

Thanks for the help!
C


texts: Is 筆順 a more professional sounding term?


texts: Meaning of こんなところで眠ってる場合ではない

texts:
I am very confused by this sentence but looking at some google searches it seems like this is relatively common phrase, but I am having a very difficult time understanding its meaning and usage.

I understand 「眠ってる場合」, but its usage in combination with こんなところで and ではない is a little too abstract for me to understand why this is a natural sentence. I think I have trouble with more abstract notions of "place" in Japanese and that might be why I am so confused by this sentence.

I was told that this might be something that is said if you are sleepy but have an exam the next day, and the combination of words used in this phrase leads me to believe it is true, but I do not get that meaning if I try to break down the sentence using what I know about Japanese grammar.

Is it common to use this structure? こんなところで～場合ではない in other contexts? If yes, could you provide some alternative common phrases?


texts: Address someone by their first name, or their last name?

texts:
When addressing John Doe, would you say "John-さん", or "Doe-さん"?

Does it depend on how polite or formal you're being? Does it also depend on whether the person is a nihonjin, a kankokujin (who have their family name first, not last), or a westerner?


texts: Do Japanese people see ツ as a smiling face?

texts:
Tsu (ツ) kana is sometimes used on the internet as a smiling face, such as in the emoticon ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I'm wondering if Japanese people notice it or is just another character for them?

The reason I'm asking is that my native language is Arabic, and it has the letter Ta' (ت) that some people think looks like a wide grinning face, but I'm simply unable to see it. It's just a letter to me. Do Japanese people see ツ the same way?


texts: Is 株式会社 read as かぶしきがいしゃ or かぶしきかいしゃ?

texts: I've seen the reading of 株式会社 written both with rendaku and without.  I can't tell whether the version without rendaku is simply a typo, or a true variant of the word.


texts:
I understand how to say, this is better than that, with より and のほうが、but how can I describe a noun as better? For example,

”What is a better method to do this?”

Google translate tells me, より良い仕方はなんですか？But you know,
グーグルはちょっと。。。


texts: Is the function of this ある a pre-noun adjectival, or is it a verb that forms a relative clause?

texts:
I'm going over my previously done translations to see if any need further editing, and the following comes up.

  背後{はいご}で聞{き}き覚{おぼ}えのある声{こえ}がして、思{おも}わず一歩後{いっぽあと}ずさってしまった。

I relearned yesterday that a relative clause/qualifying phrase is made by placing a verb or adjective in front of a noun in Japanese.
In the above, the relative clause would be 背後で聞き覚えのある.
The noun being modified that makes up the main clause is 声.

The issue is that https://jisho.org/search/ある says that ある is both a verb and a pre-noun adjectival, both of which, to my meager understanding, would work in the above sentence to form a relative clause. How do you know if ある is a verb or a adjective in the above sentence?


texts:
The person said the following sentence after he was told to hurry up doing something.
Here is the full sentence containing the word.

そう あわてなさんな　おっちゃん まだまだ日は高いじゃござんせんか!


texts:
It's a weird question, but I gotta ask.
Let's say I keep sneezing a lot and want to explain to someone that it's because of the sun. So in English I'd simply say "It's the sun." as an explanation.
So how do I say something like this in Japanese? Which word for "sun" do I use? 日、太陽、天日?
Is saying 「日ですから。」correct?


texts:
1。本を六ページ読んだ。

2。本の六ページ読んだ。

Is sentence 2 the same as sentence 3？

3。本の六ページを読んだ。


texts: Can you make an adverb from a noun by adding に?

texts:
I think I understand the pattern　 ...を adverb する　e.g.

彼は彼女を幸せにする
He makes her happy
部屋をきれいにしました
I made my room tidy

I think I'm right in saying that the に in these sentences serves to turn the な-adjective into an adverb.
I got confused when I saw this sentence:

箸{はし}を櫂{かい}にして川{かわ}を上って{のぼって}いきました

This translates as something like "He used chopsticks as oars and went up the river" (not as weird as it sounds, in context). I don't really know how to translate nounをnounにする. Can you please break it down for me and provide some additional examples of this grammar?


texts: I have seen おすすめ品 written on stickers on doujins in Akihabara. In one shop this was literally on every single doujin. From what I know おすすめ品 means recommended goods, which makes no sense here, as its on every product... Does おすすめ品 have a specific meaning here?


texts: Does 連用形 always reflect the meaning of 連体形 of a verb?

texts:
The verb 調べる means

  to examine;  to investigate;  to check up;  to sense;  to study;  to inquire;  to search

The 連用形 調べ means

  investigation;  inspection;  examination
  tune;  note;  melody

In this case, why does 連用形 have meanings (tune, note, melody) that are not related to 連体形?


texts: What is the Japanese name for the conventional shoelace knot?

texts:
i understand that there is little standardization for the use of knots in Japanese, many incurring folk names. Even in English most knots have several different names, though there are monumental efforts to standardize them (such as Ashley's Book of knots).

For a translation project I'm trying to find the appropriate term in Japanese for this knot commonly used in tying ones shoes, or in this particular case the knot used in tying the fastening strings on the inside of kimono and martial arts training uniforms.


texts:
Observation:

The verb 好く exists.
好く is transitive.

By extension, "to like ~" is predicted to be:

  a. ~を好く。

However, empirical data shows that this pattern is the accepted form:

  b. ~が好きだ。

Question: Is ~を好く used and is it even grammatical? If it is not used, why is it so?


texts:
I'm having trouble understanding why "手紙がTofuguオフィスに届けられた" is translated into "The letter was sent to the Tofugu office". In my head it should be translated as "The letter was sent by the Tofugu office" because of the passive + に construction.

What am I missing here?

Thanks in advance.


texts: How to address / refer to a specific kanji in speech

texts:
Original Question

When talking about kanjis or trying to explain a certain kanji, how do Japanese people usually refer to that specific kanji in speech without having to write anything or point to any writing, yet still be understood as to which exact kanji character you are referring to?

Are there "official" names for each kanji in Japanese? If not then how would you address it?

For example the kanji 好, when talking about it how would you usually refer to that if it doesn't have a specific name? In fact it may even not have a single agreed pronunciation. For the same kanji it can be pronounced in different ways depending on the context. But in English we always refer to "b" as the letter "be". In Japanese, for a kanji, how would you do the same thing?

Updated Question

After reading some inputs from the comments and answers section below, and reading the links attached to them, I came to question on : How would a beginner like me know that the word that I'm using to refer to a kanji in a conversation is actually defined as "common"? The kanji may have a number of possible words that it's a part of, but which ones of these words ranks as the most "common"? I haven't found a popular global "ranking system" on how common a word is againts each other for the Japanese Language. Is there a site that has that?


texts: What's the difference between [剥]{は}がす and [剥]{む}く?

texts:
They both mean "peel." What is the similarity and difference between the two?
Can they both be used in peeling fruits and vegetables? If so, which one is more commonly used?


texts: "The eye (crust ?) laughs at the booger"?

texts:
What does this phrase mean?

  目{め}くそ鼻{くそ}くそを笑{わら}うだよね。

Is it some sort of idiom? Does it have a parallel in English?


texts: grammar of アンタに用事がある

texts:
アンタに少し用事があるからこの後付き合いなさい

in context it is one person asking another to go somewhere with them.

but with アンタに用事がある alone, what is it really saying?

用事 exists in you?

thanks


texts: When did 「ヤッホー」 become a popular greeting?

texts: The etymology of the very casual greeting 「ヤッホー」 appears disputed and undecided. Various theories and hypotheses have been suggested. This site lists German, Hebrew, and 山伏 as possible sources. A lot of places claim it was a mountain climbing term (this, this, and many others). My question is when did it become popularized among young people as a fashionable greeting? When did become a thing in Japan? Where did it start? Did it start among members of a subculture (e.g. various teen subcultures in 渋谷/原宿)? I know the term has been around for at least 10, 15 years.


texts: Difference between うまい and 美味しい when talking about food

texts:
What is the difference between うまい and 美味{おい}しい when talking about food? I suppose they can be used interchangeably in most cases, but when should I prefer one to the other?

I've seen a number of examples where うまい is translated as "sweet". Am I correct in my assumption that one should refer to, let's say, spicy food as 美味しい but never with うまい? Edit: in this assumption I must be confusing あまい vs. うまい when kanji is used.


texts: Pronunciation of long o (e.g. in Street Fighter)—"oo" or "ou"?

texts:
I have very little knowledge regarding Japanese, but I'm curious about the pronunciation of the long o. In Street Fighter, according to my basic research, the "ō" in "hadōken" is pronounced (roughly) like an elongated and/or doubled-up English "oh" (and, as such, the "ou" transliteration is considered suboptimal these days).
However, consider the Japanese localization of Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U. It seems to my (admittedly untrained) ear that Ryu pronounces it a la the English "oo" in this voice clip (whereas in the English version, it sounds to me much more like "oh"). For another example, consider Ken's English and Japanese voices in Street Fighter V.
Capcom and Nintendo are obviously much more qualified in terms of pronunciation than I am, so I'm confused as to where my understanding has gone wrong. Are there maybe unspoken rules that native speakers know intuitively but that educational material does't explicitly state?
EDIT I'm certainly no linguist, but here's my best guess at the IPA transcriptions of what I'm talking about. By "English 'oh'", I mean /o/. By "English 'oo'", I mean /u/. That is to say: In the English clips I hear /hadoːkeꜜɴ/, and in the Japanese clips I hear /haduːkeꜜɴ/. (These are very rough transcriptions, of course, but I hope they better illustrate my question.)
EDIT 2: I asked (IRL) another (General American) English speaker what they heard, and they heard the correct pronunciation both times. So... this might be a phenomenon with a sample size of one (i.e. me), in which case I'm really curious if that's even possible :-P
EDIT 3: I asked (IRL) two other (General American) English speakers what they heard, and they heard the wrong pronunciation both times. So... this might actually be a bona fide GenAmE phenomenon!


texts:
I want to translate this sentence
"ウチらの好きな男子同士なんだからさ!",but i don't understand "同士な"'s mean
Help me


texts: What does "itadakimashite" do in this case?

texts:
So on the shinkansen, the announcer says something along the lines of:

  Kyou mo JR wo goriyou itadakimashite, makotoni arigatou gozaimasu.

What does itadakimashite do in this situation?


texts:
I came across あっています in many places mostly in e-mail communication, but not able to get the exact meaning. I searched in jisho.org and found あっています is same as ある but not giving　correct meaning for below example?

What is the correct meaning for below sentence?

  マネージャーという認識{にんしき}であっています


texts: 別に恥ずかしいとか思わない。別に I dont get it

texts:
別に恥ずかしいとか思わない。

What is 別に? I didnt get it. Ive already read some articles about it, but sill..

The first article I read. I learned the meaning of it, which can be "not really, not particularly", and that the verb has to be in the negative form. Example "それはべつにわるいことでもない。""That's not particularly a bad thing."

But I can't get it here.


texts:
If both can express habits like things you tend to do, what is the difference between their uses?
examples:

イケメン*が通るとつい見ちゃう。
昔の話をしていると話がついつい長くなる。

Why was つい used here? Would 〜がち also make sense?


texts:
「なにしてんだよ。」
appears in this book ISBN-13: 978-0143118336
On page 61, the longer context is

  下の子どもの泣き声が聞こえた。いつの間にか、姿が見えなくなっている。あわてて辺りを見渡した私に、上の娘が、あの子、あんなところにいる、と笑いながら教えてくれた。はじめの仔猫のいた場所に、下の子どもはうずくまって泣いていた。仔猫を見つけて、勢いこんで茂みに飛び込んだのはよいが、仔猫はさっさとどこかに行ってしまい、残された子どもは茂みの外にどうやって出たらよいのか分からなくなって、泣きだしたのだった。
  なにしてんだよ。お前につかまえられるわけないのに。
  娘はしゃがみ込んで茂みのなかにいる弟に呼びかける。
  ばかみたい。早く出ておいでよ。

I assume that
「なに」 is 「何」
「だ」 means the past
「よ」 and asks for agreement
but how does the 「してん」 work?

I tried looking up the grammar in three places, but I can't figure it out.

https://www.edrdg.org/cgi-bin/wwwjdic/wwwjdic?9T
https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%AA%E3%81%AB%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6%E3%82%93%E3%81%A0%E3%82%88
https://www.imabi.net/theparticleshite.htm

I'm sure the answer is really easy; I just don't know it.


texts:
I just listened to 高気圧ガール by Tatsuro Yamashita and I came across 連れておくれ for the first time. So I was just wondering what role the おくれ part plays here.
First verse for context:

なめらかな白い 砂は 溜息の 照り返し
しなやかな南風は 舞い上がる 長い 髪
2000マイル飛び越えて 迎えに 来たのさ
"Come with me"
連れて行っておくれどこまでも


texts: is this sentence correct 会議は三時からでいらっしゃいます.?

texts:
会議は三時からでいらっしゃいます.
(I'm studying the honorific and humble forms)
Thank you


texts: What is the meaning of "...長く通用するはずもなかった" in this sentence?

texts:
The context is nothing of special: two girls are talking about a magician that in the past was famous and well renowned, but not anymore in the present days.

One of them tell to the other one:

  一時期、世間でもてはやされてはいました。しかし彼女の魔法が長く通用するはずもなかった

Maybe is (from shikashi, because the previous part it's clear):

"But was only a matter of time before her magic lose interest among the people. (the audience).

"長く通用する" is clear (Adv+Suru Vrb), it's about "はずもなかった" that I have perplexities.

Thk U in advance.


texts: What is exact meaning of きっと良い? The ～良い part is easy to understand, it means "good". But きっと～ part is not very clear to me. Also, could this phrase be used in official language?


texts:
彼女へのあげたプレゼントはご千円もした。The bolded part is も and した right?

Why is the particle も used there?
While も rarely poses a problem in understanding a sentence, I often feel like I don't really understand why it is there :(


texts: 帰宅すれば、必ずお風呂に入りなさい。'When you get home, be absolutely sure to take a bath' Why is this an incorrect usage of ~Ba?

texts: × 帰宅すれば、必ずお風呂に入りなさい。Why is this incorrect? Is it because it is non-volitional? takes out the decision aspect?


texts:
i have been wondering what is exactly the meaning of 寝取られ or definition of it. i tried to translate it using google translate to english and my native language and the result was confusing.

to english: to be taken off.

to my native language: husband who has an unloyal wife.

and if it's true the meaning is "unloyal wife", whats the opposite word of it, i mean the term for "unloyal husband"?


texts: Questions with 辞書形　and raising tone and 辞書形＋の？

texts:
I was tonight with japanese friends and I noticed they rather used a simple 辞書形　form along with a raising tone to ask a question, although we learned in class that "non-polite" questions were formed with 辞書形+の. Is there a difference between the two ? From this topic "Is ending question sentences with の really feminine?" I gathered that の might have a feminine touch when used along with statements, but what about questions in general ? Can I use の without sounding like a weirdo ? I also heard the two, along with no-verb questions in an anime I'm currently watching, Ergo Proxy, but I guess these are used whenever the verb and/or subject are well defined by the context... To summarize with examples :

どこへ行くの？
どこへ行く？
どこへ？

What's the difference between the above examples ? Can I use any of those in any given situation ?
Thanks, ウルカン


texts: Help understand how these two sentences link together

texts:
The context is that the person is struggling to figure out how he should respond to the affection from a girl he knows. She hasn't clearly said anything to him but has made her feelings obvious through her actions and what she says. In the below he is wondering how to respond, however I'm unsure how the end of the first part of the sentence leads into the second.

僕の方から思いきり甘えてみて(in the line before this he asks for a 膝枕)、それで気持ちが本当なら……
それはそういうことだろうと、僕は自分自身に答えを出せる気がした。

I've typed up my understanding of these parts of the sentences below.
それで気持ちが本当なら - If feelings are true ...
それはそういうことだろうと、僕は自分自身に答えを出せる気がした - This is split into two parts, それはそういうことだろうと which is his 答え (I believe meaning that he loves her), and 僕は自分自身に答えを出せる気がした which is him saying that he felt he would be able to come up with this answer.


texts:
For context: This is the last sentence in a small story about a man who has 2 boys in his neighbourhood which look very smilar to each other. He now tells us about the consequences of this:

  でも、二人は顔も髪型もそっくりなので、いまでもうっかり太郎君を次郎君と呼んだり、次郎君を太郎君と呼んだりしてしまいそうになる。

First, my translation:

  However, because the two, Tarou and Jirou, completely look alike, even now I become regrettably calling Tarou Jirou and Jirou Tarou.

I would usually interpret this X (Verb, adj etc.) そうに V like

  楽しそうに遊びます。
  "Someone plays happily"

However, なる after そうに seems to make this way of interpretation impossible.
"someone happily becomes" still makes some sense, although the object of this "to become" seems to be missing.

Also, if I follow the grammatical explanations from my textbook, this "...そうに Verb " further determines the verb following そうに. I think I already encountered such a case with そうになる in the past and it still confuses me a lot. Especially in the case in question, I just can't muster the understanding how this "I regrettably interchange their names" can further determine the process "to become". It feels overly complicated to me which is why I fear that I misunderstood something. Even more so because the translation I did above feels like it doesn't even reflect this concept: "to become regrettably doing X" doesn't seem to further determine "to become". "to regrettably doing X become" would reflect it, but it is ungrammatical. So I can't even think of a grammatical translation reflecting the concept I'm assuming we have here Oo ^^


texts: Meaning of ぐらいじゃ足りない

texts:
松阪牛ぐらいじゃ足りないよ。

I understand the general meaning that Matsusaka beef isn't enough, but I don't understand what ぐらい or じゃ are doing in this sentence.


texts: When do we use 〜どおりに instead of 〜のとおりに after nouns?

texts:
I noticed that in the case of nouns, we can use either of these:

Ｎのとおりに
Ｎどおりに

But this seems to be case-specific.

When or in which circumstances do we use the latter?


texts:
A friend of mine has a Japan pop-music CD and on the title there's the following:

ヒデとロザンナ (Hide & Rosanna) - 愛は傷つきやすく (Love is Free)

However, I believe 愛は傷つきやすく rather means "Love is Fragile" and not "Love is Free". Is this my thinking correct?


texts:
What is the function of を in the sentence:

あなたは何をしていますか?

Why can't it be written without it, like:

あなたは何していますか?


texts: Is there a っぱ suffix? If so, what does it mean?

texts:
I am trying to understand the lyrics to Matsumoto Bon Bon. Particularly the line in bold:

　松本　ぼん　ぼん
　城のまち
　山にみどりの　風吹けば
　杉っぱ　青っぱ　青山さまが
　堀のむこうから　町のつじ
　どっこい　じんじょ

I tried to look for 青っぱ but the only result is for あおっぱな, which is:

green snot (hanging from a child's nose, etc.)

I did not find 杉っぱ in the dictionary either.
Is there a "っぱ" suffix that has some well defined meaning in Japanese?


texts:
こんにちわ、

I am seeking some help to interpret the following bus schedule.  Specifically, I am interested in determining which section of this table deals with the travel times to 浄土ヶ浜ビジターセンター (Joudogahama Visitor Center) from 宮古駅　（Miyako Station).

If I'm interpreting this table correctly, the top row (C01,A01,C02,A02) are the bus routes?  Going down each column, taking the 9:00 column, the bus leaves 宮古駅 at 9:00 am and arrives at 浄土ヶ浜ビジターセンター at 9:13?

In the second table below, is it correct that the bus leaves the 浄土ヶ浜ビジターセンター at 08:33 and arrives at 宮古駅 at 08:50?

Thanks for the help.

Bus Timetable to Jodogahama Visitor Center


texts:
It is highlighted in the bold part of the below sentence.

さいきんじゃドヤ街【がい】のがきらをぞろぞろひきつれてそのへんばあねり歩【ある】いてよ。


texts: How to say "Hey hurry up! you'll be late!"?

texts:
When we want to say "Hey, hurry up! you'll be late!", which would be more appropriate? :

遅刻するぞ！
遅くなるぞ！
any other suggestions？


texts: How do you say (something) 'could be'/'might be' the cause/reason for a certain effect/situation?

texts:
I was searching for a way to say something like the following:

"I think that's why he was crying."

I remember かもね or simply かも being used to suggest something 'could be'/'might be', but I'm not sure if it fits in this context.

Would the following be a correct translation?

"泣いていた理由かもね。"

What are correct ways to say something 'could be'/'might be' the cause, in Japanese?


texts: 赤 is generally understood as meaning 'red' (which can explain combinations like 赤子 (red face of a crying baby)). However, I have seen some words with 赤 that have a negative meaning, 赤 possibly increasing this connotation. 赤裸裸 (blunt, frankness (赤裸 being nudity in Chinese)), 赤貧 meaning extreme poverty, 赤口 (赤日?) being one of the unlucky days in Rokuyo (lucky and unlucky weekdays in simple), meaning 'Evil day'. Why does 赤 appear in such morbid and negative words? Is 赤 simply 当て字 or does it have any meaning or semantic reason for being in words like these? Is it 虫 where the common understanding of the word (in the case of 虫 it would be 'bug') has a connection to the negative meaning, if this is the same for 赤 then how is it connected to the negative meaning?


texts:
Please, could you help me to translate the phrase in bold in the following sentence?

  I have plunged into my studies.


texts: "Te-form" versus "masu-stem + して" (消しているうちに versus 消ししているうちに)

texts:
Is there any difference between 消して and 消しして in the following sentences?
For example,

A: 手紙を書いては消し、書いては消ししているうちに、朝になってしまった。
B: 手紙を書いては消し、書いては消しているうちに、朝になってしまった。


texts:
I've been reading a book in Japanese in order to learn new kanji, words, etc., but I've come across something I can't seem to translate. The sentence is as follows.

  老人にも若者にも、富豪にも乞食にも、学者にも無頼漢にも、イヤ女にさえも、全くその人になり切ってしまうことができるといいます。

I'm familiar with all the words and grammar within the sentence, and, based on context clues, I think I have a rough understanding of what this sentence means. But I'm a bit uncertain of what なり切ってしまう actually means, as I don't think we're talking about the verb 'to cut'. It's my understanding that 切る has a good handful of other meanings, so I thought it must be one of those which I'm unfamiliar with.

And, to give a little bit of context in case that helps, this is from Edogawa Ranpo's novel「怪人二十面相」and the sentence above is describing the thief's ability to disguise himself.


texts: Meaning of なんか面白いことが起こりそうな予感

texts:
これって、古い文字で書いてあるみたいだけど、読める？
うん、古文は得意だから
えーと、「世界、闇に覆われし時、天女に導かれたる超魔神現れん」
――だって
うーん、よく分からないけど、なんか面白いことが起こりそうな予感

Looking at the above excerpt, I'm not sure whether I'm overthinking things or whether it doesn't mean what I think it does. On first glance I thought it might be just a shortened way of saying 予感がする but I'm not quite sure if this is right. Take for example, 今日も暑くなりそうな予感がする朝, which talks about a morning which gives that impression(as opposed to saying that is the premonition someone has). So my question is, does the statement mean that they have the above mentioned premonition, the message gives that impression, or something else?


texts:
A passage from the textbook I quoted in this question contains the following sentence (emphasis added):

  それでは助動詞に続かず不便なので、のちに、それを補うために、連用形のあとにラ変動詞「あり」をつけて、「高く＋あり→高かり」のように熟合させたのが活用表の左の系列の活用である。

I am unable to find the lexical item 熟合 (read じゅくごう? My IME won't convert that to anything useful, so perhaps not) in any of the dictionaries I have consulted, including goo辞典, kotobank, and Weblio EJ-JE. I think I can more or less guess at the meaning based on the kanji and the context in which it appears - 熟合する is probably something like "to combine" or "to merge" - but given that it doesn't show up in the online dictionaries I have access to, I'd like to double-check.

I presume 熟合 isn't a typo, given that I've found a few other uses of it online, including Weblio辞典's explanation of the etymology of さすが (emphasis added):

  副詞「さ」，サ変動詞「す」，接続助詞「がに」が熟合した「さすがに」から「に」が脱落したもの。


texts: What is the difference between "meshi" and "don" for the food sometimes translated as "rice bowl" in English?

texts:
I'm a big fan of the Japanese fast food gyudon (cooked thinly sliced beef strips on top of a bowl of boiled white rice) and its variants such as butadon (the same but with pork).

But why do some chain restaurants call it "gyudon" and others "gyumeshi"? Are both spelled the same?

Also at my local Japanese restaurant at home in Australia they seem to sell this dish but never understand me when I ask for gyudon. Does it have other names or are there simply dishes which seem alike to ignorant foreigners like me?


texts:
What is the とは in the below sentence? 　I was thinking that it could be something like 彼とは相性がいい but because he says 俺たち afterwards this doesn't sound right.

以前翔も言っていたが、打てば響くを地で行く可憐とは、本当に俺たち相性がいいのかもしれない


texts: Use of お in the beginning of these question phrases

texts:
Studying Japanese in a book, I saw this dialogue:

A:  お名前は？
B:  ペドロです
A:  お国は？
B:  スペインです

From what I know, the お works as an honorific of respect, then, it is used only in formal phrases. But these phrases do not seem to be formal.

What is the function of お? Is お名前は？ equivalent to 名前は？ ?


texts: Is there a difference between 出来る and 作る。

texts: I was in a discussion with someone online, and wanted to know if both terms can be used similarly. Thank you.


texts: 返{かえ}る / 戻{もど}る vs "come back" / "go back" / "return"

texts:
In English we have a generic and two directional ways of saying related things:

return - doesn't imply a direction, has other uses including transitive ones (I returned the book I borrowed)
come back - direction is toward speaker but sometimes toward listener, always intransitive
go back - direction is away from speaker, toward listener, always intransitive

In Japanese I know of two verbs but I'm not sure how to use them correctly:

返{かえ}る
戻{もど}る

I'm only interested in intransitive for this question. Here's some examples, possibly not the best ones:

I came back to Japan last week.
I have to go back to Australia next month.
I will return to Japan next year.


texts:
I guess it's a short for クソリプライ which literally means shit reply.

But what is "shit reply"? Is it similar to "shitpost"? I don't really understand its meaning along with where and when you would use this phrase.


texts: Is there a difference between 变 and 変 or are they different versions of the same thing i.e. traditional/simplified?


texts: How to sound more manly when sneaking popcorn into the cinema

texts:
OK, really esoteric question time:

So I went to the cinema with a female friend on the weekend.
I was going to buy some of the horrendously overpriced popcorn there, but then she said:

  持ってきちゃった!

And she had already brought some in her bag. Apparently, ~ちゃった is quite girly though. How could I say this in a more male (but still funny) way?


texts: Difference between ではありません and ありません. When do I need to add the では in front of ありません?


texts: In customer settings, is it ok to ask for keigo to be repeated in more "normal" Japanese?

texts:
In the context of restaurants, convenience stores and similar situations, is it ok for a customer to ask for something that was said in keigo (or in manual keigo) to be repeated in more "normal" Japanese? Or would staff rather speak in English rather than non-keigo Japanese?

Assume the customer is not asking because they want to be more intimate, but because the customer (an obviously non-native speaker) hasn't learnt Japanese in its entirety yet.


texts: How can I greet a person in a manner similar to "Nice to find you in here!" (— meaning meeting a friend by chance somewhere)?


texts: Question about the word 苦しみ抜いた in the sentence 苦しみ抜いた結果、勝利をもぎ取った

texts: Initially, I thought the word 苦しみ抜いた was just a typical verb that you can search up in the dictionary but apparently that is not the case and so my question is that how does that word come about ? Are there any grammatical rules behind that word or something ?


texts: 「〜といいます」 vs 「〜というものです」 when introducing oneself

texts:
When introducing one's name, I have seen both of the following constructs used.

〜といいます。
〜というものです。

Is there a difference between them? I get the hunch that the latter is perhaps more formal than the former, but just how formal is it?


texts: Is レリゴる likely to be understood, and what does it mean?

texts:
Last year, I heard from other English speakers about the katakana verb レリゴる. It's supposed to be a verb related to the movie Frozen (アナと雪の女王).

Is the verb generally understood by Japanese speakers? I tried searching weblio and jisho.org for レリゴる, レリゴ, or レリゴー, but couldn't get any relevant matches. Also, I tried doing a google search for レリゴる and the matches I got didn't seem to include the verb.

Also, what does it mean? Does it mean to watch Frozen (link to tweet pictured within the tweet), or to sing "Let It Go"?


texts: What does「新聞っぽい曜日」mean? Newspaperish? Commonplace? Routine?

texts:
This is a practice problem from a textbook on natural language processing:

やってみよう:ブラウンコーパスのニュースとロマンスの 2 つのジャンルのデータを利用して、どの曜日がもっとも新聞っぽく、どの曜日がもっともロマンチックかを調べてみよう。

"Which day of the week is newspaperish?"

I know what っぽい、新聞、曜日 all mean, but I don't know what 新聞っぽい曜日 means and
I know what the problem is asking, it's just such a strange phrase I can't make a translation out of it. You're supposed to count occurrences of the words [Monday, Tuesday, ..., Sunday] from the two text files, news clippings and romance novels, and then just see which genre has the larger relative count of a given 曜日語. I think the conclusion is supposed to be something like "月曜日はロマンチックではなく新聞っぽい曜日だ". But besides this mechanical understanding of the problem, the notion of 新聞っぽい曜日 is hard to translate. The best I can come up with is "the day of the week that is the most readily associated with the type of sentiment that might be typical of newspaper writings". Or maybe this just a poor choice of words on the part of the author?


texts:
Teacher has just calmed down the class:

  ...が、すぐにまたみんな口を開かずにはいられなかった。
  but immediately, again everyone couldn't enter without opening their mouth.

I can't understand the phrase in bold. I'm not even sure whether it's

  1) (口を開かずに)(は)(いられなかった)   or
  2) (口を開かずに)(はいられなかった)

I'm guessing that it's the first parsing and it's something like "Couldn't keep their mouths shut"/"Couldn't help but talk" etc. But if this is the case I can't understand how the grammar works. Could someone please break down the grammar and possibly give some other examples?


texts: What qualities characterise girlish Japanese handwriting?

texts: In English, handwriting is generally seen as girl is the mini. caps are almost as large as the maxi. caps, the edges are rounded out, and if the dots are replaced with little cirles reminiscent of the japanese period (。). What characteristics are common of handwritting considered 'girlish' in Japanese?


texts: Is the reading 腹【なか】 neither an on-yomi nor a kun-yomi?

texts:
currently trying hard to refresh my Kanji skills and stumbled over

お腹 == おなか

To my surprise none of the Kanji dictionaries list the reading なか for this Kanji. Only フク and はら. Is there a third category I am not aware of ?

Thx.


texts: 日本人は「面白い」と聞いて何を感じますか？

texts:
I am still a beginner at japanese and I have the strong feeling my title is incorrectly translated so here it is again in english:

What is the "feeling" a japanese person gets upon hearing the word 面白い.

To clarify: omoshiroi was one of the first japanese words I learned, and back then I was told it means "funny". Later "interesting" appended the list, and I never really understood the core of that word.

Lets say I want to express: "I think japanese is a very interesting language."

And I translate it to: 日本語が面白いと思います。

To me, the english word "interesting" feels very "serious", but the translations for 面白い don't suggest that very much. Jisho.org translates it to "interesting/amusing".

So, in that example sentence, did I rather say "I think japanese is interesting" ( in all seriousness ) or "I think japanese is a tad funny" ?
If its the latter, which word is used to express "interesting" in all seriousness ?


texts: Many subject and topic particles in the same sentence

texts:
I'm new here but had some trouble finding this so I am going to ask.

Is it OK to have more than one は or が particles in the same sentence, I've realized that in cases that there is a comma it is OK because the sentence is fragmented but I have no clue in cases where there no comma.for instance the sentence "I don't like people who like fish". I have come with three ways to write it and Google translator have the same translation for the 3 of them bUT I feel that only one is right:

1.私は魚が好きな人が好きじゃない

2.私は魚好きな人が好きじゃない

3.私は魚好きな人すきじゃない

For some reason I fell the third one is the correct, so I ask you, which one is the correct and why?

Thanks in advance.


texts:
Both of these translate to "well then", for example, both would be valid:

  じゃ、またね！

Well then, bye!

  じゃあ、パンをください。

Well then, the bread, please.

They are both more casual than でわ for example:

  でわ、さよんなら。

Well then, goodbye.

But which is more commonly used? Are there any nuances between them?


texts:
I found these two grammar points but I can't seem to be able to use them to express what I want.

くらい、ほど

Let's say I want to say "I'm so full that I will never walk again"
The closest I can think of is this

歩くことはないくらいお腹いっぱい

But is there a way to express the same idea but reverse the order?
I believe this one would mean something else

お腹いっぱいほど歩くことはない


texts: Who is receiving what in this sentence with に対し?

texts:
Context: property division between a couple that is divorcing. (Whole document is here: https://goo.gl/yVYQe7)

  甲は乙に対し，本日，離婚による財産分与として，下記物件目録記載の不動産の甲の持分全部を分与することとし，本日付財産分与を原因とする甲持分全部移転登記手続をする。

In this sentence, I'm not sure if it's A that is receiving his share of property, or if A is transferring (移転) all of his shares to B (乙に対し).

Judging from the context, I would say it's the former, but, gramatically speaking, the 乙に対し is confusing me, because it implies that A is doing something towards B. Also, 移転 implies that A is transferring something and not receiving it. My attempt:

  Today, as for the property division regarding the divorce, A's shares of the real-estate properties listed below will be established and, on the base of this division, the registration procedure of the transfer of all A's shares will be carried out.

Thank you for your help!


texts:
I have the following sentence to translate.

日本語というものは、むずかしそうですが、
私は、大学の時に、母に漢字を書かせられたりしていたので
今、思うと、たくさん勉強しておいて、よかった思います。

So far I have the following.

The thing called the Japanese language seems difficult but
when I was in college I was forced by my mother to write kanji so
now if/when I think I study a lot in advance and think was well.

I am having an issue with 思うと and よかった思います. I don't know what that と is doing with 思う if it doesn't mean if/when. And I thought 思います had to be proceeded with a と. Is this not the case and maybe it just means "I think it was good"?.


texts: Can 中型 be used to describe a room or building?

texts: Can 中型 be used to describe the size of a room or building?


texts: What is the real correct translation of "彼は好きじゃない"?

texts:
I found this sentence in Tatoeba, and, based on my understanding, the translation would be "He doesn't like", however everyone translated it as "I don't like him". Why??

The は  particle indicates that the main topic of the sentence is 彼. So "好きじゃない" is something that 彼 does, not "I". It should be 彼が if the meaning would be "I don't like him".

Who is correct?

Edit:
I found this sentence as is on Tatoeba, It wasn't me who created it. The culprit for the lack of context is the Japanese (or not) who created it.


texts: How to correctly analyse kanji from jisho

texts: I am newly learning Japanese , so I whenever I encounter a new Kanji I search for it on jisho.org , but then I find that there are given Japanese Kun Japanese on andJapanese names . How do I know which one is relevant ie , suppose the english meaning is middle then which one of them is the correct pronunciation ?


texts: Correct me if I'm wrong, but 通訳 is used for translating conversations(interpreting) whereas 翻訳 is used more for translating documents, right? I have a document that I had a Japanese friend translate verbally. Would that be 通訳 or 翻訳？ Or maybe another word I haven't heard of?


texts: Can eto be used to show doubt before speaking or it's another kind of interjection?

texts: In Argentina (I'm not sure if it counts for other spanish speaking countries) when we have doubts before saying something, sometimes we say "ehhhh", this can be done voluntarily or involuntarily, sometimes having doubts before speaking will trigger "ehhhh"'s without we want it to say it, not done purposely to express doubt. Is eto a word with a similar function? This looks so to me in films, but may be it's nothing like that. What is eto for or what does it mean exactly?


texts: Where does the いかない in ～わけにはいかない come from?

texts:
My first thought is that いかない in this phrase conveys the meaning of 行かない, that is, not progressing to something. But this is mere guesswork.

What is the history of いかない in ~わけにはいかない? Does it have roots in the verb 行く or is this way off base?


texts:
Can they both be interchangeable?

For e.g.　殺す気でやったんです　vs　殺す積もりでやったんです、


texts:
お酒直飲みしたくて
  いつもそんなに呷ってさ...

  俺に怒らせて...

Found it in a tweet towards a guy drinking. Does "いつも" describe "そんなに呷ってさ"? or "お酒直飲みしたくて"?

Is it something along the lines of

  You want to drink so much that you gulp down (your drink) like that every time.

Or is it connected to the 2nd line, like this.

  You want to drink so much and every time you drink like that it makes me mad.

Not sure if my question is clear but thanks.


texts: 形容動詞 attributively before a noun: な or conjugated だ

texts:
So, I thought I understood the use of the 連体形 of だ, な, after a "な-adjective" when used before a noun, however I'm a bit confused.  On IMABI and a number of other sites, I've found the suggestion to use the conjugation of だ　when using a "な-adjective" attributively before a noun.  Here is an example sentence:

  大切だった人だ。
  (was an important person)

So, why/when wouldn't you just use:大切な人だった。?

Here is a link of one such site.


texts:
I have the following text on some Sanuki Udon I brought home with me ;)
This is the part for ざるうどん:

  水洗いした麺をざるに盛り、あらかじめ用意したつけ用つゆに、生姜、ねぎ、ごまなどお好みの薬味を添えてお召し上がりください。

So, つゆ is the sauce or soup, あらかじめ用意した means "prepared beforehand". So what is the task of つけ用?
If I must guess I would say "prepared". Unfortunately Weblio doesn't have this in its data base.
But then, why not simply leave it with "あらかじめ用意したつゆに..."?

And is my reading correct?
I would say つけよう．

Many thanks!


texts: Should I use 無料 (muryou) or 只 (tada) for a free chatsite?

texts: I have a free chatsite, and people ask me if there is a charge. Should I use muryou or tada? I want to indicate that my site is free. I see the term muryou written on free weekly magazines. Is the term used determined by what type of item/service is being offered for free?


texts: Examples of Japanese nouns that seem like adjectives when translated into English eg 曇り

texts:
As above. This sentence came up in my test:

今日は曇りで、寒かったです。

and I was a bit puzzled why it wasn't kumokkute (I  translated it as cloudy = adj) until I looked it up on Jisho.com. But I'm still confused by this concept so I'm looking for examples of nouns like this so I can understand it better and know which nouns I should be aware of, if there are any. Unless this noun is an exception. Please list any common ones if you can think of any,

Thank you!


texts:
Is it okay to use に to mark the caller when using 電話がかかる? i.e. A received a call from B would be

  AはBに電話がかかった。

Google seems to indicate that から is a much more popular choice than に. I find it a bit strange, since I thought (whenever both に and から are viable options) に was preferred for agents and から for sources, and receiving a phone call seems more like the former case.


texts: What's the difference between "認められておらず" and "認められず"?

texts:
防衛省によりますと、日米地位協定では日本人従業員がアメリカ軍施設の外に銃を持ち出すことは認められておらず、銃刀法違反の疑いがあるということです。

Quoted from NHK Web News

Does it make any difference if I replace "認められておらず" with "認められず"?


texts: What does 「ここでこなんことをしてられない！」mean?

texts: The sentence 「ここでこなんことをしてられない！」comes from a book I'm reading. I have no idea where してられない comes from. My guess is that it's some colloquial potential form of する or something (there's a song named じっとしてられない), but I might be completely wrong. Can someone please help? Thank you in advance.


texts:
Plain and simple. The Jisho definition "by no means; never!; well, I never!; you don't say!" doesn't seem to coincide with any of the sample sentences I find either on Jisho or Tatoeba. Can someone please shine some light on the meaning and usage of this word?

ありがとうございます！


texts:
I need to know if this follows the rules of a traditional Japanese haiku as well as if it's any good. My Japanese is still very much at a beginning level but it's very important to me that this haiku be in Japanese and it will be read by a fluent Japanese speaker.
Thank you for any and all help

寒い夕方冬の月を見るや 一緒に太陽


texts:
When I saw that a fellow Japanese language student wrote: "僕は毎日に八時頃起きます。" According to Wiktionary 毎日 is already an adverb. I would personally say "僕は毎日八時頃起きます。"
Could you explain the difference between 毎日に and 毎日?


texts:
I came across this line today which left me a bit confused:

  彼らには子分を二人もやられてる。

The speaker is referring to men from a gang. I've struggled with the meaning of やる outside of its most basic usage, but I've got "They are deceiving two henchmen" and "Two henchmen were killed by them" and "They've got two henchmen with them."

Am I on the right track, or does this mean something else entirely?