texts: Help identifying low-res kanji (and perhaps words) on a low-res album cover

texts:
Listening to an ancient rip of Escaflowne soundtrack, I wanted to add artist information to one file. I managed to identify some things from context and matching guesses to dictionary entries, but not all, and the scan is low-quality.　So then I got curious and wanted to find the actual kanji and their meanings.

The song in question is nr 17: "If You".
* 作詞: ACEILUX is, I guess, lyricist.
* 作曲 is composer, but I can't identify the second word: [something]曲.
* 菅野よう子 is Yoko Kanno. That was the easy part, with two ひらがな and some anime knowledge.
* The last could mean singer, from context, but I didn't find the actual kanji using jisho.org, and the name is just illegible (to me).

So basically, I'd love it if someone who actually knows kanji could identify them for me, and maybe give a romanized version of the last name.


texts: Is there a reliable translation of the kangxi radicals?

texts:
Inspired by the Wikipedia page on Kangxi radicals I decided to study the meaning and writing of radicals before I tackle the much more numerous kanji. But in working my way through the list, I started doubting the translations of the radicals. Looking closer at the cited sources, I found them to contradict each other at several occasions. 癶 is translated as "foot steps" as well as "dotted tent", 冂 is translated as "down box", "upside down box" and "display case". These are only two examples out of many more contradictions.

Is there any reliable source to the meaning of kangxi radicals? I really want to learn the meaning of the radicals, but at this pace I don't even know where to start. Can we find a reliable source, as well as an indication to why it is reliable? Any help would be appreciated!


texts:
Here is a sentence taken from a manga:

その節は私にたくさんのエネルギーを提供して頂いてありがとう。
Thank you for having provided me with all that energy at that time.

I don't get why 私 is used with the particle に instead of が (or not being used at all). The way I see it :

AがBにCを提供する。
A provides B with C.
BがAにCを提供して頂く。
B is (receiving the favor of being) provided with C by A.

Is it the use of ～てありがとう that swaps the particles? Literally, something like:

AがBにCを提供して頂いてありがとう。
A is thanked by B (who is glad) for being provided with C.


texts: Would be correct to put だ in this phrase?

texts:
I was reading some online articles about Japenese Grammar and one of it's examples were:

  静かな人 meaning the quiet person

Although while I was reflectling about this phrase I was wondering if I could use だ in this exact same phrase. For example, let's suppose I'm talking about Erickさん, can I say:

  Erickさんは静かな人だ and in it's polite form Erickさんは静かな人です


texts:
皆には私の方から話しておこう。

Can anyone help me translate the above sentence? The ておこう is throwing me off as I'm unsure how it fits. From my understanding it's something like "Everyone should practice my advice?"　The context is a girl asking a boy for advice on what she should do to make someone like her. The previous sentence was:

  そう、プレゼントだ。彼が気に入るものを贈るとポイントが高いぞ！

Which I'm roughly understanding as "That's right, a present. You should give him something he likes."


texts:
I was looking through very old japanese travel blogs and reading comment sections for practice. I ran into this phrase that I can't look up anywhere.

Here's the full page if context helps. http://boniting.com/nappi/2009/10/dallas-world-aquarium.html.

This is the sentence that got me thinking.

  体張ってるかいがある

Google translate say it means "I have a physical fitness". I'm sure that's wrong, though, given how google is. "

"張る" seems to have so many meanings. So I'm not sure what it means if its attached to "体". Also, what's the function of かい here? Is it related to the counter 回?


texts: What the difference between saying さようならだ and さようなら? If it had to guess I would be what seems to be obvious, one is declaring it to be goodbye-but is this the case? I've never heard さようならだ used before.


texts: What's the Japanese equivalent of having a "F**k Buddy"?

texts:
Does Japanese have a word for someone who's your "fuck buddy"? You know, someone decently attractive with whom you have all the sex of a relationship without all the romance and rituals.

Does Japanese have a decent equivalent? Or is this one of those concepts that's too esoterically Western to find in an Asian culture like that of Japan?


texts: Where can I find full katakana combinations list?

texts:
Katakana have some combinations beyond low ャ, ュ and ョ that uses low ァ, ィ, ゥ, ェ, and ォ. But I can't find complete list of such combinations. Where are lists like http://goo.gl/Lai88W available, but some other sources like cram.com lists shows more combinations like テュ for tyu

Does such list exists or it's not standardised in any way and works on "common sense" basis?


texts: Why the same counter word is used for cups and octopuses?

texts:
Me and my fellow coworker have been discussing the article on Japanese counter words and this particular case has caught our attention:

  [Pronunciation]はい hai, ぱい pai, ばい bai; [Spelling]杯, [Use] Cups and glasses of drink, spoonsful;
  cuttlefish, octopuses, crabs, squid, abalone, boats (slang)

My question would be - why such different objects like cups and octopuses logically belong to the same category, what's the etymology behind this particular counter word?


texts: The dictionary gives both words to mean 'ominous' and they have the same pronunciation.  What is the difference between 不気味 and 無気味?


texts: Unable to interpret these sentences: 「まいばんくにのかぞくにでんわします」「このまちにはゆうめいな建物があります」

texts:
Hi there I was given a couple of exercises, from which I can figure more or less the right answer but I can't interpret it totally (I see no logic between the sentences and the possible reply)

First one:

  まいばん くにの かぞくに でんわしました

I understand it as:

"Every night, the family of the country was making a phone call."

I don't understand if it's referring to the country population, like in "country music", the family of someone or someone else.

The answers are:

So by using the context (まいばん) I chose the third from top to bottom, but I don't clearly understand it.

Second sentence:

  このまちには ゆうめいな建物があります

"This city has a famous building."

With the answers:

I think the first option is the right one, but only by the ビル word as a synonym, the others are tea, cake and park, but what's the meaning of the sentence and the answer?

UPDATE
As noted by Jarmanso7, the first sentence is in past while the answers are in present. I made a typo when making the post

Posted>

まいばん くにの かぞくに でんわしました

Should be

まいばん くにの かぞくに でんわします


texts:
I am translating a trip schedule for a group of Japanese people coming to visit my country. I translated "pick-up from the airport" as "空港へのお出迎え", but I think お出迎え can only be used when you greet someone the first time they have just arrived in a place. I don't think it can be used to translate "pick-up from the hotel" for a later moment. Is ピックアップ understandable by Japanese people? Also, I need a noun and not a verb, since the schedule is written as a list, something like this:

09:00 Pick-up from the airport
18:00 Pick-up from the hotel

Thank you for your help!


texts: Translation: あまり働きすぎないでください。

texts:
This sentence is from the Marugoto chapter on using V+ないで.

I am not sure about the role of あまり - I was told that it adds an extra emphasis? So how do you translate it? ("You really mustn't work too hard"?)

They also have
あまり むりをしないで which I find equally difficult to translate. ("You really mustn't overdo it"?)

Any suggestions?


texts: What is the meaning of あまり in this dialogue?

texts:
Is doesn't seem to be "not very much"...

A: 運転ができますか
B: あまり、うまくはないですけど

I would be grateful if someone could help. :]


texts: Is まい as in あるまい really only used in literary texts or TV?

texts: My understanding --admittedly limited-- is that in Japanese, people say as much as they can with as little words as possible. So I wondered why ないだろう　would be used in everyday speaking instead of まい? The latter seems shorter and easier to use than the former.


texts:
Hi I found this sentence while sentence mining and I can't figure out how と is used.

なんちゃってドッキリでした～ と出ていけば　それでＯＫだ

I assume it is the と used for quotes but I'm not sure.


texts:
I recently discovered the kana ゟ, which is a ligature of よ and り, so it's the comparison particle. According to a few sites it's obsolete, or 'dated'.

Why is ゟ considered obsolete, and why should I use it, or avoid doing so?


texts: Can someone explain me how this part of the sentence is connected to the other part?

texts:
I found this sentence from a text of a N2 book

自己と他者に対する信頼感を、かつての遊びは育てる機能を担っていた。

I have been reading it  and breaking apart the sentence several times. I think that, since 「かつての遊び」is the subject, it is doing both actions. But I still don't understand why the first half has the verb omitted.

Can someone explain me how this part 「自己と他者に対する信頼感を」is connected to the other part 「かつての遊びは育てる機能を担っていた。」?


texts:
This question showed the following:

言わない (negative)

言わなく・ない (negative+negative)

言わなく・なかった (negative+negative+past)

I've never seen this conjugation before. Why would you have a negative + negative? Where is that coming from? How does that work exactly?


texts: Please help with a headline for today's news article about consumption tax

texts:
This morning (at least where I live) the top headline when I got up to look at the TBS news was as follows (source). Please correct my attempt if there is an error.

【現場から、】１０％の暮らし、駄菓子の“おまけ”で苦肉の策
[Live on location...] The 10% consumption tax hike on the cost of living, cheap candy with "something extra" included as a last resort


texts: How do we use the word 短~ in a sentence?

texts:
JLPT 2 has this word 短~ (たん)

EDICT lists it as  fault; defect; weak point; or minor (music), however there isn't any examples at all on the usage of the word.

Does anyone have some example usages (applications) of the word ?


texts: I need help understanding a phrase: 「盗むとこは盗ませてもらえ」

texts: I don't know if it's an idiomatic expression or something, but I've been trying to get the meaning of this phrase 「盗むとこは盗ませてもらえ」. I've tried to search it but nothing would come up. Maybe it's supposed to be taken literally...? I'm really kind of confused.


texts: How do I express intention and ask about someone else's?

texts: How do I ask questions about someone's intention like "do you plan on coming back?" In Japanese?


texts: Questions about の→ん contraction, でござる→でございます shift

texts:
【原文】Original version

各これらの語の特徴はいつからなの？何時代ですの？

第一、「のです」と「なのです」を書いて「んです」と「なんです」を書かなかったことはいつからなの？

第に、「でござる」を書いて「でございます」を書かなかったこともいつからなの？

私の日本語がよくないですと、すみません！

Edited version

I have two questions about the expressions in Japanese:

When were the expressions "のです" and "なのです" replaced by "んです" and "なんです" respectively?

Similarly,

When was the expression "でござる" replaced by "でございます"?

In addition to the questions, I'd like to know the characteristic and the usage of each expression.

ーーーー
【編集後】

日本語の言い回しに関して２つ質問があります。

（１）「んです」「なんです」という言い回しは、いつから「のです」「なのです」に各々取って代わったのですか。

同様に、
（２）「でございます」という言い回しは、いつから「でござる」に取って代わったのですか。

また、各々の表現の特徴あるいは使い方などもわかったら教えてください。


texts: Difference between 少し{すこし} and 少ない{すくない}

texts: I know 少し{すこし} and 少ない{すくない} both as 'few', but what's the difference?


texts:
Facts

The noun はなし can be written 話 or 話し.
In colloquial contexts, you can omit 「を」 from 話{はなし}をする, making it 話{はなし}する.
There is also a 五段 verb, 話す{はなす}.
The continuative (連用形) form of both 話する and 話す can look like 話し.

The problem

From the facts, you can collect 3 words that look exactly the same but have a different meaning (grammatical function). You can probably rule out the noun 話し with the help of context, but you still have either 話し{はなしし} or 話{はな}し.

The question

How can I know when which one is meant? Or does it make such a big difference that I should even care?

Some examples:

  話しながら…
  何人に話した？
  明日お話します。← This must be する because of お-?
  彼は大声で話した。


texts:
私は、おまえに、殺されにきた

I've seen this sentence for a while and the translation is something like "I'm going to kill you"(The context implies that too). But I don't understand why に (In bold) is being used and not を.


texts: Politeness / political correctness and gender polarity of "plural" suffix -等(ら) for 彼 and 彼女 etc

texts:
The definitions on ejje.weblio:

彼ら
彼女ら

What I would like to know is:

彼ら is definitely gender neutral and 彼女ら can only have females in the group, right?
As explained in Why is “学生” made “plural” in this newspaper article?, adding -ら allows for a more precise statement. But I wonder, do they sound impolite and rough and would not be used in newspapers?
Is 彼ら rarely used in speaking? And  never in writing?
Is 彼女ら just never used?
Is あいつら not uncommon, but used in extremely informal conversations?
You cannot substitute たち for ら and say 彼たち, 彼女たち, or あいつたち, right?


texts: Are the expressions 桜咲くand 桜散る only used for exams?

texts:
Those expressions mean respectively to pass and to fail an exam. I have the feeling that those expressions convey something that is not in the neutral verbs to pass and to fail. That is to say that 桜{さくら}咲{さ}く seems to mean "to pass with flying colors" and 桜{さくら}散{ち}る to fail but the person who fail is a bit disillusioned because of his/her failure.

Are those guesses right ?
And could they be used in a general sense of "to success / to do well" and "to fail" at a task or are they reserved for exams.

I did some research and it seems to be that those expressions are used exclusively about exams (and especially university entrance exams) and nothing else.
According to my research, the expression was coined by the Waseda university in 昭和３１年(1956), if you passed their exams your telegram reads サクラサク and if you failed it reads サクラチル.

Some other universities borrowed a leaf out of Waseda's book and it seems that each university has its representative way to express "to pass" and "to fail" at their entrance exams (cf. this link)


texts:
As far as I know, both というのは and ということは can be used to give definition/explanation.

留学するということは、海外で勉強するということだ。
ユートピアというのは理想郷の意だ

And are also used to make inferences.

ご意見がないということは賛成ということですね。
ヨーロッパに留学するというのは、英語が第2外国語ということです。

Here comes the question. Are というのは and ということは totally interchangeable?
For example,

何事も最後までやり抜く(ということは/というのは)何事も決して放棄しないということだ.


texts: As in, the kind you would see in a video game. Do people just use カットシーン, or is there some specific term?


texts: Problem with choosing のは or は with と思います

texts:
So in my textbook there are examples like

あまり便利じゃないと思います
いいと思います

But I was wondering, how would you say something like "I think it's ok to eat food". From my knowledge it should be something along the lines of:

食べ物を食べるはいいと思います

But I'm certain that this is not okay, any help is appreciated.


texts:
Context: after winning a match, a boxer goes at the hospital to visit the opponent he defeated, but there he finds the loser's girlfriend too. The boy tries to ask how his opponent is doing, at which the girl replies that he can have a look at his face if he wants, and then adds:

  敗者をどういじるも勝者の特権。これから自分下した勝者【あいて】を忘れよーとしながらも背負ってく　…この顔拝むなら今しかないよ

Is 拝む being used with the meaning of to pay one's respects or to see? I think she's being sarcastic, but I am not sure. My transation attempt:

  Choosing how to treat the defeated is a special privilege of the winner. From now on, even if he will try to forget the one that defeated him, it will still be a burden for him. This is the only time you can see(?) his face.

I uploaded the whole page and the following one to provide more context. It would be great if you could also check the rest of my translation. Thank you for your help!


texts:
I recently heard my colleagues use ざっくり which I haven't heard before. When I look it up in dictionary it translates to 'roughly; approximately; loosely' or 'deeply (cut or split)' - very different meanings.
Could anyone kindly explain in what situations people usually use it and which meaning is the most common?


texts:
I cannot, for the love of my life, understand the difference between

下る{くだる}
下りる{おりる}
下がる{さがる}

Don't they all mean the same, basically? Is there a difference, and if yes, how could I proceed to get it?


texts: Combining に/で particles with 等【など】(or other "etc." stand-ins)

texts:
I was recently trying to make an open-ended enumeration of places in a construction that would require the use of a に particle. E.g.:

  AやBに行こう

or even:

  A[and the like]に行こう

Preferably using a stronger indicator of open-endedness, such as 等 (to me や only has a weak implication of other possibilities, whereas here I want to convey the idea of "places like A [or B]"). But then I realised that the combination of に and 等 did not sound quite right, and even if it was, I had no idea how it would go (Aに等? A等に?)...

Thus my question:

Can 等 (or a suitably similar word for "and the like") ever be used with a に/で construction? (not necessarily just locations... Tools or "means" as well: AやBで行こう)


texts: に usage and meaning in 旅行代金の請求書の控えを2枚目に送った

texts:
旅行代金の請求書の控えを2枚目に送った This に here, what does it mean.

Here's the context　(The question doesn't appear in picture below)

There's a context saying 枚数:　本状を含めて2枚 ,so I think the bill has 2 pages.

I tried translating 旅行代金の請求書の控えを2枚目に送った and it was like " sent travel bill duplicate as the second page"

PS. In this post I use "Travel bill" as 旅行代金の請求書, Duplicate as 控え because I'm not good at English. Sorry for that.

Thank you in advance


texts:
According to WWWJDIC,
ぬるい and ぬくい are both written 温い.
Anthy and the iOS Japanese input systems agree.

However a native speaker and the input of an electronic dictionary (広辞苑）say that

温い is read as ぬくい and means pleasantly lukewarm.
微温い is read as ぬるい and means "not warm enough" lukewarm.

There is a note in WWWJDIC acknowledging 微温い yet Anthy and iOS do not offer 微温い as an option for ぬくい or ぬるい.

I suppose I should be aware of all these different variations but

is there an "official" position on 温い, 微温い, ぬくい and ぬるい?
Does "微温い" have an alternative reading (e.g. that Anthy would map to 微温い)?


texts: Discrepancy between Tae Kim's Guide and Tobira in regards to 思われる。

texts: I'm just wondering if someone could help me with what seems to be a difference between Tae Kim's Guide and what I've read in Tobira. In grammar point 2 from chapter 4 in Tobira, it says that "考えられている usually indicates an opinion arrived through logic" and "思われている usually indicates an opinion derived from intuition", and that these two are used to introduce a "generally-accepted opinion." Further, it indicates that 考えられる and 思われる "indicated the speaker's/writer's opinion". Which brings me to Tae Kim's. On his page about Causative and Passive Verbs the following sentence is found: 光の速さを超えるのは、不可能だと思われる。(Exceeding the speed of light is thought to be impossible. ) This looks like it is referring to a generally-accepted opinion, and one that was derived through logic, but it is using 思われる, meaning that it is suggesting virtually the opposite of what is said in Tobira. I'm much more inclined to trust Tobira on this, but I wanted to ask this question because there may be something I'm not understanding here.


texts: What is the formula to say "I'm trying to do X regularly"?

texts:
I was trying to think of a way to say "I'm trying hard to read a news article every day" (in the sense that I'm trying to find the time to sit down and pay attention long enough to read, not necessarily that the material is very difficult).

What I came up with off the top of my head was an awkward-sounding construction of 毎日、ニュース記事ひとつを読んで頑張っている, but that sounds both a little strange to me, and also like it's difficult for me to read the material. (Of course, I'm not a native speaker so I can't say 100%...maybe it just sounds wrong, full stop.)
 I'm not proficient at reasoning out how grammar works (or should work) in my head, but as far as I can tell, in the phrase 勉強頑張る 「勉強」 is a noun, so I was wondering if it wasn't something like 読むの頑張る, but that sounds odd and received no Google hits.

I feel like 頑張る should be used, because it's such a great word, but I could be wrong.

My searches have turned up vague results and cultural essays.

Please note! I am much less interested in translating the phrase I mentioned above and much more interested in learning how to say things like:

  "I'm working hard at doing X every day."

or

  "I'm really trying to do X regularly."


texts: Can someone explain me the difference in nuance of these words? Both of them mean "weapon", but while I was reading the manga where I got these words from, most of the characters used 武器 and then there's just one character that used 兵器.I also want to mention that the furigana for 兵器 was ぶき and not へいき.I found a similar question on a Japanese site but I couldn't understand very well...


texts: Difficulty understanding the structure of this sentence

texts:
I have a hard time understanding this sentence from a manga.

最近｛さいきん｝じゃ恋人｛こいびと｝の存在｛そんざい｝を公言｛こうげん｝しながら活動｛かつどう｝してる女優｛じょゆう｝さんも沢山｛たくさん｝いるし

What the「じゃ」is doing after「最近」? Is it short for「では」?

The overall structure of the sentence is confusing. Why「ながら」is used there? Is it supposed to mean "In these days, while declaring the existence of their lover, there are many active actresses"? What's the role of「も」?


texts: What are the basic physical differences between japanese poetry and prose?

texts:
I am not asking about genre, meaning or anything other subjective issues.  I am talking about the following type of things in english:

English prose (no rhyme, no rhythm).  May also have literal devices (e.g. metaphor, simile).
English poetry (has rhyme and/or rhythm e.g. iambic pentameter).  May also have literal devices.

As we can see, putting genre, meaning and other subjective issues aside, in English due to the physical sound features of rhyme and rhythm, we can easily distinguish it from prose.

Normal prose can also be said to have prose with literal devise as in a novel.
Sometimes we may alternative between the two i.e. a book may contain both poetic sentences as well as prose. However the point is that there are some defining physical features e.g. rhythm, rhyme, literal devices which can be physically detected.

Thus I want to know, what physical features are there to distinguish between styles in Japanese.  For example I heard poetry is done on the basis of syllable number e.g. tanka (5-7-5).  However what is the point of this?  Rhyme and rhythm have a sound effect in English which is why they are distinct.

However what is so special about having a 5-7-5 syllable pattern? We can do that in English too, but it would still be prose, albeit maybe an artistic one e.g. it will perhaps contain literal devices. Although admittedly the flat, short words of Japanese are perhaps suited more for this type of syllable pattern.

So what does Japanese have?  Or is poetry and prose pretty much the same thing?  Why did they make tanka being 5-7-5 a big deal?  What's wrong with having longer syllabic sentences?

Also do Japanese novels use literary devices throughout e.g. simile, hyperbole and so on? Are these literary techniques in the Japanese language or not?  How important is rhyme in Japanese language; is it not as important as it is in English, and why?

What physical things does Japanese have, how is it measured?  Or is it just a sweet, nice and cute sounding language without much room for entertaining language or measurable sounds?  Btw I'm not criticising it, saying less is part of the beauty of Japanese culture, however I just want to know the difference i.e. if anything can be measured.


texts:
I first noticed this odd pronunciation in the second opening of code geass. The singer repeatedly pronounces the word かんかく as something that sounds more like かんかう, missing the 'k' sound.

I noticed it again more recently, in the opening of mondaiji, in which かすか is pronounced as かすあ.

I was aware that vowels could be skipped in pronunciation, but these are the only instances I've seen this happen with consonants. While there don't appear to be any other words you could easily mistake these two for when pronounced this way, I'd have thought it'd still cause at least some confusion to pronounce them like this, even if it may better fit the music.

How common is it to remove consonants like this? Does it happen with consonants other than 'k', and are there any words in which it's common to leave a consonant out (like how it's common to leave out the 'u' in 好き)?


texts: Using because when the reason isn't a sentence?

texts:
An example Because of the noise, she became startled/surprised.

Would it be something like おとから、かのじょはおどろきになった.? Where I use から for because.


texts: Is there a Japanese word for money/wealth that sounds like 'tuh ki'?

texts:
About 30 years ago, when meeting the famous George Takei, my friend accidentally pronounced his last name as 'Tuh ki' (rhymes with 'hi'). As an 11 year old, he had never really heard George's name pronounced out loud, so this was his best guess.  George corrected him and said that the way my friend mispronounced it was actually the word for 'Money' or 'wealth'. He joked that he didn't mind the mispronunciation because it was almost a compliment!
What is the word that my friend accidentally used?
Edit: I originally wrote 'Tuh kay', which is actually the correct pronunciation of the second syllable...  oops.


texts:
Currently I'm learning Japanese by discovering vocabulary and new grammars which I can find in Japanese Windows XP. I have some trouble understanding these grammar elements in the following examples :

ファイルを保存 (Fairu wo hozon)
保存するファイル (Hozon suru fairu)

Google translate says their meanings are "Save the file" and "The file to be saved" respectively. However, I'd like to know which type of grammar are they using. Could you please explain it in detail and give me some similar examples?


texts: 「だね」「だよね」と「のだね」「のだよね」の違い

texts:
以前、この四つの文の違いをネーティブに尋ねてみました。

「あまり好きじゃないね」
「あまり好きじゃないよね」
「あまり好きじゃないんだね」
「あまり好きじゃないんだよね」

その人によると、「ね」と「んだよね」の文は自分の好みを他人に話している感じで、「んだね」の文は話し相手から聞いた情報を自分で言い返している感じで、「よね」の文は他人の好みについて自分の推測か、相手の言ったことの解釈を話している感じだということです。さらには、「ね」と「んだよね」の違いを尋ねてみたら、「ね」の方が断定が強く、「んだよね」の方が柔らかいと答えてもらいました。

「ね」は自分のことを、「よね」は他人のことを話しているのは納得できますが、なぜ「のだ」を入れるだけでそれが逆になるのでしょうか。

よろしくお願いします。


texts: Why is it that some temporal nouns cannot be marked with に? And why do they become more acceptable with には?

texts:
Consider the following:

に here is used in its function of denoting the time where an event occurs (に1):

◯　一時に1
◯　一時半に1
◯　月曜日に1
◯　正月に1
*　昨日に1
?/◯　昨日には
*　今日に1
?/◯　今日には
*　明日に1
?/◯　明日には
*　去年に1
?/◯　去年には
*　今年に1
?/◯　今年には
*　来年に1
?/◯　来年には
*　最近に1

に becomes acceptable if dative(に2):

◯　最近に2なって

Why is it that に may not be used for the instances marked with * ?
Why is には acceptable? If に1 is prohibited but には allowed, does this suggest that the に of には is distinct from に1?

I think に1 may not be used to mark deictic (words which meaning depends on contextual information) nouns. I think that is what they have in common. It is not possible to have useful information about "yesterday", "today", "tomorrow" or "next year" etc. unless we have more information about the current time.


texts:
Both of these words can be used to mean 'new', but one is loaned from English.
I recall hearing somewhere that ニュー became a loanword because it has a slightly different meaning to 新しい, but what exactly is this difference?

The first thought that would come to mind for me would be that ニュー is slightly more casual-sounding, but that doesn't seem to me to be much of a reason as to why it'd become a loanword.


texts:
Can you do that, modify a noun by mixing modifiers?
Say, something like this:

昨日買ったきれいな白い夫子の帽子

昨日買った
きれいな
しろい
夫子の

each is modifying 帽子.


texts:
I came across this sentence:

I know that いくcould mean 'to go' or 'to move' but I don't think it means something like that here.


texts: Usage of と particle in this specific case

texts:
I bumped into this sentence recently "話し手から見て、聞き手の方に より近いと意識される物事を指す。"
I was wondering whether or not the と particle before "意識される物事を指す。" is the one which marks a quotation, meaning "that".


texts: Which alphabet should I use when combining a Japanese word with an English word?

texts:
I know Japanese words are written with kanji and hiragana, and katakana is for foreign words and exclamations.  But I want to write "yanderenee", which is yandere + renee (my name).  Which alphabet should I use for this?

The purpose is to be used as my blog title, which is written in English and is not likely to be read by Japanese speakers.  So it probably doesn't matter how I write it.  But I would like it to be correct, if there is a correct way to do something unconventional like that.

It could also be thought of as just yandere nee, as in, nee as an exclamation.  In which case it would be kanji/hiragana.  But does it change anything that this is supposed to be a Japanese+English word combined?  Or do I have freedom to choose how it should be written?


texts: の要領で as "in the same way as"/"in the manner of" vs. のように

texts:
Full text is over here.

This is part of the description of how 茄子餃子{なすぎょうざ} is prepared at a particular restaurant:

  天ぷらの要領で水で溶いた小麦粉をつけて中火の油で揚げる。

If の要領で was replaced by のように, would there be any difference?


texts:
I have this sentence as an example for the grammar point をもって:

I国が起こした戦争は、世界中に衝撃をもって伝えられた。

をもって　can either refer to [1] the means through which something is done, or [2] a point in time where something ends/begins.

I'm not really sure which usage this is. As far as I can figure out, it's either something like [1] "The world found out about the war in Country X with a shock/suddenly", or [2] "When the war broke out suddenly (with a crash/bang) in Country X, the world found out about it."

Or, more likely, none of the above. Can someone shed some light on what I'm missing?


texts:
So I am going through song lyrics, and the new grammar and vocab that I learn from them goes into my studying. One song I came across was “Wolf Boy” (ウルフボーイ) by Morning Musume (モーニング娘).

The first line of the song is:

  本気になれぬウルフボーイ

and is translated to be:

  "You don't show the real you, wolf boy"

Is this translation correct? Because I don't know what なれぬ means, and I don't understand how this translates. Someone please explain it to me. Maybe it's slang that I am not getting.


texts: Saying you'll do/have done something for a certain amount of time?

texts:
I wasn't sure how to properly word the question, but I'm asking how to make sentences such as:

"I have lived in America for 10 years."
"I will go to Japan for a month."
"I have had this job for a year."
"I left for a few minutes."
"I will leave in an hour."

And so on. How do I structure it?


texts: What's the difference between 予定 (Yotei) and 計画 (keikaku)?

texts:
予定 (Yotei) is defined as plans;
計画 (keikaku) is also
defined as plans

Please could you explain the difference by explicitly making reference to the following examples:

Example 1:

Kyuuka no yotei wa arimasuka?
(What are your vacation plans?)

Example 2:

Mada ryokou no keikaku wa arimasen.
I have no travel plans yet.

Please keep your explanation relatively simple as I am a beginner. Please could you make reference to the above examples.

Please also explain a general rule for knowing when to use one over the other.


texts: What are the differences? They both seem to be about naming things.


texts: Ambiguous/non-existen verbs in this sentence

texts:
The following is an excerpt from a dialogue between me and my language partner. For full context, I attach the full block about the topic "Your name (anime)" we were talking about at that point:

「君の名は」は、DVDを買って、家で観ました。海外での「ジブリアニメ」の定義はよくわかりませんが、日本で「ジブリ映画」というと、スタジオジブリが製作したアニメ映画のことで、その数はそれほど多くはありません。 http://nendai-ryuukou.com/article/030.html

でも「君の名は」は日本でもとても評判がよく、私もよくできていると思いました。ratwimps の歌を効果的に使い、テンポよく進んでいくのが良かったですね。 アンドレアスさんは字幕で観たのですか。私は、この映画では日本語の特性がよく表れていると思いました。男の子の一人称は「オレ」、女の子を呼ぶときの二人称は「おまえ」ですが、女の子の一人称は「私」、男の子を呼ぶときの二人称は「あなた」です。入れ替わっているとき、もちろん声や仕草でも区別がつきますが、どの人称を使うかでもすぐにわかるのです。画面に顔が映っていないときも同じです。 外見が女の子でも、「オレ・・・」とつぶやいたら、中身は男の子ですよね。 人称について話すと長くなるので、ここでやめておきます。

The sentence in question: (Here she responded to my personal experience with the anime "your name", because I told her that I first thought it was a ghibli anime due to the high quality of the animation.)
でも「君の名は」は日本でもとても評判がよく、私もよくできていると思いました。

My attempt at translation:
"But I think that 'your name' having much fame also in japan, I also can good."

So, what poses the biggest problem for me is that in the part 日本でもとても評判がよく、私もよくできている there is a lack of verbs.
I assumed that a て形-copula can be extrapolated in とても評判がよく, but I was absolutely clueless what to make of 私もよくできている. "Can do" for できる doesnt make much sense here, but "to appear" "to be ready" etc. also dont work well. Also, I think that "I" (meanig herself) is the subject to できる here, but in this context, where we were talking about the movie, I dont understand how she shall play a part in this.


texts: Why is わからない the wrong choice in this sentence

texts:
I came across the following exercise for JLPT N2:
親に本当のことを言おうか言うまいか＿
a　わからない　b　３日も考えている　c　関係ない
The right answer is b, which makes sense. Though I wonder why a wouldn't also be a reasonable choice here. Does わからない sound weird in this context, or is it related to the tense of the verb.


texts:
E.g.目の光つうのか、見ているさきつうのか。

Seems similar to ふうに？よう？

Edit: Seems つー is another ver of という.

But what meaning does the つー in this sentence mean? This isn't part of the "what someone said or what it's called" part of the meaning of という.
Is this the "emphasis" meaning of という?


texts:
I would like to know what the meaning of the word mononoke is? Of course it's the name of the princess in Miyazaki's wonderful film Mononoke-hime, but what is the deeper and actual meaning of the word itself and what does it mean to the ordinary Japanese? Does it have any positive/or negative connotations?

In Japanese I think it's either 物の怪 or もののけ. I obviously don't read Japanese so I have no idea.

I have read the Wikipedia material concerning the word, but that left me unsatisfied.


texts: What is the original Japanese for "It's always the darkest under the lighthouse"?

texts: What is the original Japanese saying meaning, "It's always the darkest under the lighthouse"? (reference)


texts: non sentence ending な in this comedic conversation

texts:
MC spots girls A and B who he recently got to know. C = childhood friend of MC.

  A「あ、先輩。こんにちは」

  MC「おう、A。Bも一緒か」

  B「何よ、アンタだってC先輩たちといつも一緒じゃない」

  MC「何だよ、仲良いなって意味で言っただけだぞ」

  B「アンタが言うとそう聞こえないのよね、不思議ー」

  MC「ヒネくれてんなー、さすがはレンチなだけある」

  B「ヒネる工具なだけに？って、全然上手くないわよ！！」

  (MC) おお、意外にノリがいいな。

MC:「おう、A。Bも一緒か」

B:「What about it, aren't you always with C-sempai?」

MC:「Huh、I'm only talking in terms of how close you two seem.」

B:「If you say that, I don't hear it that way (feels like you were insinuating more), strange.」

MC:「Rebellious aren't you, as expected of just a wrench.」 (a play on ひねくる vs ひねくれる)

B:「As expected from a wrench tool？ That was not a good joke at all!!」

(MC) Unexpectedly she got the joke.

"仲良いな"って意味 and ヒネくれてんなー are normal sentence ending な, but how was ヒネくれてん abbreviated?

What are the な in レンチなだけ and ヒネる工具なだけに?


texts:
On page 33 of the Lonely planet phrasebook for Japanese, 5th edition (ISBN 978-1-74104-231-3), the phrase given is

What does 'deguchi' mean?
「出口」はどういう意味ですか？

The pronunciation guide has

de-gu-chi wa dō yū i-mi des ka

I thought the いう should be 言う, because neither jisho.org nor the English edition of Wiktionary mention that kana should be used.
However, when I searched for "はどう意味ですか" (without いう or 言う to bias the search), I found most of the matches were for "いう".
Should I use "言う" or "いう"? Also, is use of "言う" or "いう" specific to this phrase, or is it normally written that way?


texts:
So, I'm reading this: http://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E5%86%A8%E6%A8%AB%E3%81%AF%E4%BA%8C%E5%BA%A6%E6%8F%8F%E3%81%8F

And he says this:

  背景も人物もなぐり描きです。 読み切りのツーショット。鴉ＶＳ蔵馬。幽助ＶＳ仙水。幽助と雷禅が対面する回はほとんど一人で描きました。
  後半の２話はあるハガキの批判の通り、落ちる寸前の半日で19枚上げたものです。

Is "後半の２話" supposed to refer to the latter two chapters he has named? It would make sense that way, but I feel like I've never seen 後半 used in this particular way before.


texts: How do you conjugate i- and na- adjectives (into the presumptive, imperative, conditional, provisional, and progressive forms)?

texts:
I feel like mastering conjugations is a major contributor to self expression in Japanese. I realized that some of the grammar points I have been working on have taught me new conjugations.

Usually its just a matter of explanation.
I am wondering how to turn adjectives into the above listed forms of non-past, past, non-past negative, and the negative. (Provision, conditional, presumptive, imperative, progressive.)
In the case of progressive I am only curious about na- adjectives and nouns. What should I do with da?


texts:
Are litotes and similar understatement typically used in Japanese?

The Japanese Wikipedia entry on litotes is no War and Peace, which makes me suspect they don't use them very often.


texts:
蘇る 思い出の歌
  この胸に 今も優しく

The song of returning thoughts or The song returning in [my] thoughts?
Does yasashiku at the end imply a verb or is it a sort of continuous form, as I sometimes seem to see done with -i forms of verbs? Maybe it is from yasashiku naru, so both things?


texts: What's the meaning of "て-form"思った in this case?

texts:
セクハラを受けて思った、社長はかっこいい (link to the article)

What is the meaning conveyed by the use of the て-form of 受ける followed by 思った?

I know that titles of article have generally an unusual wording but I want to understand the logic behind this use of verbs.


texts: Are kanji typically used in times and dates?

texts:
Are kanji typically for numbers used in times and dates?

For example, would "七" and "十五" in the first sentence, and "九" and "三" in the second sentence be normal Japanese? (I'm aware that the following uses hiragana instead of kanji in some circumstances, such as "いま" being used instead of "今")

  いま、七時十五分です。

  あしたは九月三日木よう日です。

About writing numbers using Japanese numerals vs using Arabic numerals implies that "十月九日", which uses kanji for numbers, would be typical Japanese.


texts: What's the difference between 豪華 and 贅沢?

texts:
While reading a scene about some people checking out the luxurious hot tub that is in their building, one of the character remarks:

  ご、豪華すぎるほどじゃないが、何とも贅沢極まるというか。。。

which I understand as meaning like: It's not at the level of being too 豪華, but it's extremely 贅沢.

Am I right in understanding that 豪華 is more extravagant that 贅沢?


texts:
Example sentences:

外の方が家の中より暖かそうです。
たいふうは西の方に去った。

ty!


texts:
震災で家族を亡くしたOtoyaは、売られた奉公先で暴行されそうになったところを、家の跡取りである一威(Kazui)に助けられる.

I was thinking that since 暴行 can be a する verb, that maybe され had something to do with that, but I'm really not sure. Can someone explain?


texts:
Is "夛" an alias for "多"?
For example, I suppose that "夛田" is one of family names in Japan, is it  the same as "多田"?


texts:
this may be a silly question. However, is there a difference between the following sentences (in terms of spelling):

1) Doumo arigatou gozaimashita.
2) Dōmo arigatō gozaimashita.

Is one sentence more correct than the other? I know that they are used for giving thanks (past tense). But I am not sure if "doumo" or "domo" and "arigatou" or "arigatō" are more correct.

Thank you for your help.


texts: When do you use the "な" version of the copula?

texts:
As I understand it, the copula "だ" turns into "な" in some situations. The most obvious one is after な-adjectives, but it often appears after nouns too, like in this sentence: "スミスさんは、将来日本の会社で働くのが夢なんだって".

Are there any rules for when だ turns into な? It seems to me that if the copula shows up at the end of a sentence it's "だ" and elsewhere it's "な", but I have no idea if it's that simple.


texts:
Sometimes I hear ''me zoo'' and sometimes ''me dzoo''.
Are both in use and acceptable? Is there a standard?
Any further info on this is welcome and appreciated.


texts: What are differences among 第一, 一番 and 第一番, all of which seem to mean "the first" in English? Are any of them more suitable for some specific scenarios than the others (e.g. 安全第一 but 世界で一番)?


texts: Transitivity of suru-verbs and the causative form to turn intransitive suru verbs into transitive ones

texts:
Recently came upon sentences where the causative form is used to make a suru-verb a transitive one.

eg. この城を完成させるのに、...

Are all suru verbs, intransitive by default? If so, does this use of the causative form apply to all suru-verbs?


texts: What part of speech is the 「〜たい」 form of a verb?

texts:
To say that one wants to do something, one uses the 「〜たい」 form of the verb, for example, 「日本に　行きたい　です」.

In the 「〜たい」 form, the word behaves like an adjective, using similar patterns such as 「〜くない」 for negation and 「〜かった」 for the past tense.

But what is the part of speech of the 「〜たい」 form word? Is it still a verb, albeit one that "acts" like an adjective? Or is it in fact an adjective, and if so, is there a grammatical concept that captures this "adjectivalization"?


texts: How would you say, "I am emailing you to confirm/remind you of the activity tomorrow"?

texts:
I was asked by my teacher to email a Japanese student and remind her that we have an activity tomorrow. I am not sure of the structure used to state such a phrase.

My attempt:
こんにちはMさん！
先生は私がMさんと明日の活動を確認しますと聞きました。
よろしくお願いします！

Because I don't want her to think that I'm a weird creeper, I'm trying to say that the teacher asked me to confirm with her.


texts:
I've been reading web novels and found the word "繋ぎ止める"here. https://syosetu.org/novel/47581/34.html. I'm not really sure how に and を can be used here?

  君に私を繋ぎ留められてる

Does this mean "I'm being bound/restricted by you" "I'm being bound/restricted to you"? or "I'm restricting you."?


texts: Time and duration problem from "Nihongo So-Matome N3 - Listening"

texts:
One of the questions from Nihongo So-Matome N3 - Listening:

男【おとこ】の人【ひと】と女【おんな】の人【ひと】が話し【はなし】ています。男【おとこ】の人【ひと】は、明日【あす】何時【なんじ】ごろ家【いえ】を出ます【でます】か。
女【おんな】：明日【あした】の飛行機【ひこうき】、何時【なんじ】？
男【おとこ】：えーと、１６時半【じはん】出発【しゅっぱつ】。
女【おんな】：国際線【こくさいせん】だから、２時間【じかん】前【まえ】には着いて【ついて】おかないとね。えーと、空港【くうこう】までここから２時間【じかん】かかるとして・・・
男【おとこ】：そんなにかからないよ。今【いま】、電車【でんしゃ】、速い【はやい】のがあるし。１時間半【じかんはん】あれば十分【じゅうぶん】だよ。
男【おとこ】の人【ひと】は、明日【あす】何時【なんじ】ごろ家【いえ】を出ます【でます】か。
１　午後【ごご】１時【じ】ごろ
２　午後【ごご】１時半【じはん】ごろ
３　午後【ごご】２時【じ】ごろ
４　午後【ごご】２時半【じはん】ごろ

Can someone explain why the answer is 1?
In my opinion, 男 said that the plane will fly at 16.30 pm. And, he also implied that it takes only 1 hour and a half to arrive at the airport. So I think that they will leave their house at 15.00 pm. (although it's not in the answer choices)


texts: Same person, two kanji spellings for the name - why?

texts: Is there a reason two different kanji sets might be used for the name of the same person? While trying to translate a little, and maybe improve my Japanese, I found two spellings for the name Ranmaru, and both are used for the same person (the historical figure Ranmaru Mori if it helps with the question). Although 蘭丸 is used, and shows as the normal spelling for him, I also saw 乱丸 used. I'm trying to figure out why.


texts: 「悪気があっての答え」 vs 「悪気がある答え」

texts:
Hi all I was wondering what is the difference between these two sentences:

  「決して悪気があっての回答ではないです。」
  「決して悪気がある回答ではないです。」

I can't really make out the gist of the meaning of 「あっての」.

WWWJDIC's explanation of 「あっての」 is "which can exist solely due to the presence of" (rather confusing..) and the example sentences do not really give much clue to the meaning/usage of the word.


texts: が vs を and the absence of a subject particle

texts:
I just read an article explaining that が should not be thought of as a subject particle, since it can also mark the object, which is fine and dandy on its own.

However, I also remember reading an article that explained that when certain transitive verbs (e.g. 話す) get conjugated into particular forms (e.g. potential), anything that would have been marked with を is instead marked with が.

At first, these two bits of information seemed contradictory (the fact that the latter was explained in terms of the object becoming the subject didn't help). In trying to reconcile them, however, I came to the conclusion that を can be replaced with が (with a change in nuance), but が can't (necessarily) be replaced with を. Does this seem accurate, or is one of the sources of information wrong?


texts:
Maruko's cousin is charging her money for dealing with her dead pets. When Maruko complains about an aditional charge he says:

  「あたりまえだ。さっきのは生きてるか死んでるか確認するためにもらったお金だろ。死がいの穴埋めとは別だぞ。」
  Of course. I got money just now for checking whether they were alive or dead, right? ****

I can't understand 死がいの穴埋めとは別**だ.

Despite the dictionary definition of 穴埋め (stopgap) I'm assuming its just a compound of 穴 and 埋め meaning 'burial hole'?

別 presumably indicates 'additional/separate', referring to the charge for the service?

Assuming I've got these parts right the bit I really don't understand is とは. I know two uses of とは. One is to define something, the other is to express surprise. Neither seems to fit here. It could just be two separate particles but then I don't understand the function of と if this is the case.

Overall I think I should translate as

  (digging) a grave for the bodies will (cost) extra.


texts:
I stumbled upon a sentence where I don't get the grammar:

  (括れは) 柔{やわ}らかなままに弾{はず}んだ力{ちから}をたわめていて

the topic being the waist of a woman.

What I don't understand shouldn't it rather be で instead of を (because the waist is bent with a springyness or elasticity)?

Or is it a case where で and を can be used equivalently similar like in this post here: Making sense of transitive usage of 行く and 来る - 「を行く」 and 「を来る」 ?

In my opinion it would be the waist that should be an object to たわめる.

BTW: is たわめる the potential form of たわむ? because my dictionary has two different entries for たわめる - one potential form of "to bend/たわむ" and the other "to bend (a piece of wood)" which is not potential. Is there any real difference?

Thanks a lot!


texts:
I know both of these particles are used to list items. So, I was trying to write the sentence "I like Japanese culture, history and stuff."

  私は日本文化と日本史といろいろが好きです。

But someone told me it is accurate to say

  私は日本文化や日本史などが好きです。

Why is this accurate? Is the first sentence grammatically incorrect?


texts: "あそこ" is for daily conversation? "あちら is for writing / formal speaking?

texts:
(-) Strictly with regard to meaning, "あそこ" and "あちら" are exactly the same, right? (of course, "あそこ" also has a slang meaning).

(-) Isn't "あちら" used more in writing? "あそこ" used in speaking?

(-) Isn't "あそこ" used in speaking because it sounds more pleasant? I am a native English speaker, and the "soft o" sound is pleasing to my ear and can be said very quickly. Does anyone agree, or am I crazy to say this?

(-) "あちら" would be the only appropriate option in formal conversations, right?

While I've heard "こちら" and "そちら" a lot, I've never heard "あちら". In fact, I had to check in my dictionary to verify it is even a word. Answers to these questions will help me decide about incorporating "あちら" into my speaking.


texts: What is the difference between 外科 and 手術?

texts:
What is the difference between 外科 and 手術 ?
According to 大辞林, they both mean "surgery".
I've seen 外科 being used as part of larger names such as 脳神経外科学, while 手術 used with の before as in:  父は胸の手術をした。So is 手術 used colloquially and 外科 only in formal occasions, or are they interchangeable?


texts: Readings of「乗んなかった」 and 「また来なね」

texts:
Could you please confirm the reading of what I think are two instances of a (Kansai?) dialect that I've seen in the same manga chapter today.  The first one (with a context):

  あの車ね、結局、私が買っちゃったんだ。マルコさん買ってもあんまし[乗]{の}[ん]{ら}なかったし。

Furigana is mine and shows the reading I would expect there (i.e. that 乗 is read 「の」 and that next ん is a dialect for ら (and the whole thing is a past negative of [乗]{の}る)).

The second instance is

  また[来]{き}[な]{て}ね。

I omit the context, but the meaning is unmistakably "come again".  Though this time it could be a contraction of [来]{き}なさい, it doesn't feel like a command in the context, so I suspect the same dialect again.

So, am I right about [乗]{の} and [来]{き} readings, or do I miss it entirely?


texts: Sentences consisting of only a long attribute and a noun

texts:
Take this one from 天狗 - Wikipedia  as an example:

飛鳥時代の日本書紀に流星として登場した天狗だったが…

Is it the same as
天狗は飛鳥時代の日本書紀に流星として登場したが…

Why do you use だった instead of だ here?

Thanks in advance.


texts: When is "事" used instead of こと for past experiences?

texts:
In the "ことがあります" construction about past experiences, when is "事" used, and when is "こと" used?

The textbook used in class uses "こと":

  六本木の おんせんに 行った ことがあります。

If it wanted to use "事" instead of "こと", it could have, as that kanji was taught in the same lesson. (Lesson 5 of "Japanese for Busy People II", revised 3rd edition)

However, Wiktionary says that the kanji form can be used, and "事があります" gets some hits in the Tanaka corpus on jisho.org

When is "事" used, and when is "こと" used?


texts: Grammar of なんで+verb in potential form+ようか

texts:
ダドリーの誕生日———なんで忘れられようか。
  Dudley's birthday — how could he have forgotten? (original English version)

The nuance of the English version is that he did forget the birthday, but based on some previous experience (in this case, unpleasantness) it seems unlikely that he would have forgotten and he feels foolish for forgetting.

I'm struggling with the Japanese meaning, In particular, why the volitional form? My literal translation would be "How would he be able to forget?", suggesting that he wants to forget but cannot (I'm assuming this is potential rather than passive. That's not clear to me either).

In summary, what is the actual nuance behind the Japanese sentence and how does that arise from the grammar?


texts: Help needed breaking down で + なんだっていう in this sentence

texts:
I have the following sentence from a manga, 「問題集作ったくらいでなんだっていうのよ。そんなの…いらないわ」, and I am not sure what 「でなんだっていう」 is doing here. I think I may be mainly thrown off by the 「で」 at the beginning.
Context:

「これ、フータローが私たちのために作ってくれた。 　受け取って」
「問題集作ったくらいで、なんだっていうのよ。そんなの…いらないわ」

Setting: 5 girls are being tutored and were each given a set of practice problems. One of the girls is upset that she has to complete the practice problems and study, so she is heading upstairs to her room. One of the other girls stops her on the stairs and attempts to hand the test back to her. The girl who is refusing to take the test then (I believe) thinks this sentence in her head. Also worth noting that she has an angry look on her face and is clenching her first.
Here's my attempted breakdown:

「問題集作った」 - Made collection of problems
「くらい」 - degree or extent of how lengthy the set of problems is. (maybe translated as "just")
「で」  - て form of copula ???
「なんだっていうの」  - なんだ is explanatory の + copula (the fact is/ the matter is) and っていう is quoting what was introduced before, allowing us to refer to that clause. Then の nominalizes all of this into a noun for us.
「そんなの」 - literally That kind of thing but meaning something like "c'monn"

So I think she is thinking something like, "(The fact is) it's just a collection of problems. c'monn"
Again, I'm not sure what form 「で」 plays in this, so I'm afraid my translation may be off. I'm also not sure if I properly understood what 「くらい」 is doing here either. I think my translation fails to capture the anger she has as well.
Any and all help is appreciated.


texts: How do you say "I already can tell (understand) X"?

texts:
I want to say the equivalent of

  I can already tell (understand) that game X is (going to be) harder
  than game Y.

For instance, I've already beat game Y. And even though I've only just started playing game X, I can already tell it is going to be harder than game Y. That's what I'm trying to convey in a sense.

I know that to say "game X is harder than game Y" you would say:

  ゲームXのほうがゲームYより難しいです。

But I'm unsure how to add on "I already know/understand/can tell that.."

My best guess is something like:

  ゲームXのほうがゲームYより難しいともうわかった。

But I'm not sure if that is right or if there is a better way to say it.


texts:
My grammar textbook contains the following sentence:

  子供のころから、周りのことを考えて行動するようにと言われてきた。

What is the meaning of 〜ように in this sentence? There are many grammar rules involving 〜ように, and I wasn't able to determine which one is being used. Also, I would like to know what the whole sentence means. Thank you.


texts: How to say Out of [a set or group] in Japanese.

texts: I'm not really sure, but after looking at some example sentences in Jisho.org, I came to the conclusion that in order to say, for example, "Out of all of the people that I know", you would say 「全部の知っている人たちの中で。。。」But is 「全部の知っている人たちのうちで」also correct? Also, why do we use 「で」instead of 「に」in these sentences and do we even have to put a particle after うち?


texts: か + と particles with a non-quotation verb

texts:
出口で不審な人物や娘が出てこないかと待ち伏せた。

Is that quotative 「と」 + 「か」 for indirect questions?

I'm not sure how to translate this sentence. I know that similar questions already exist but I don't understand the meaning of this particles before the verb 「待ち伏せる」.


texts: 会社での出来事を引きずったままだった私 passivity

texts:
speaker doesn't want to trouble her only family member, A, with her tough day at work. A however, does notice something wrong.

  会社での出来事を引きずったままだった私の様子がおかしいと、Aは気付いたようだった。

I find this statement is confusing since it 引きずる isn't used in the passive voice.

in other words: I who was tired out("influenced") by the things that happened at work

vs

what is actually written: I who "prolonged" the incidents at work

This doesn't really make sense since a lot of bs that was out of the speaker's control was thrusted upon her at work.

Thanks for any clarifications.


texts:
A Japanese teacher on Twitter posted that 化学 is pronounced かがく and means "chemistry".  I double-checked it on tangorin.com and it lists that pronunciation but says that it's pronounced ばけがく to avoid confusion with 科学 ("science").

I can't find any more info on the net about this... could somebody confirm this?

In particular, for my Anki vocabulary deck, which pronunciation should I learn?  Or should I shoehorn both into my deck somehow?


texts:
I couldn't get the expression below.

  彼女は英語を話すのが得意で、兄に勝るとも劣らぬくらいだ。


texts:
Form full context, see here:
https://www.docdroid.net/5vuuiCe/img-20170821-0002-new.pdf

Note:
While writing this question I noticed that there is a second way to interprete カラオケに合わせて. The reason I didn't settle for this second version, which seems much more correct from a grammatical perspective, is that it sounds odd to me "to match Karaoke". I must add now that I'm not very familiar with Karaoke and that I regard Karaoke not as "music" (which you could "match") but as a form of leisure activity in which music plays a major role.

The sentence in question:
世界中の町で、子供からお年寄りまで、家族や仲間と、カラオケに合わせて楽しそうに歌っている。

First, my first attempt at translation:
"In cities around the world, from children to senior folks, with the family and friends, one sings happily...
...joined in Karaoke (?)

according to http://jisho.org/search/awaseru is a transitive verb. It's semantical spectrum seems to be situated around the concept of "coming together", "being together" etc..
Basically, I interpreted カラオケに合わせて in an adverbial function to the predicative 楽しそうに歌っている. My problem with this is that 合わせる is transitive, and I can't help but think that I used 合わせる in an intransitive manner here :/ If it was in passive, 合わせられて, I wouldn't mind it, but since it is still in its active form I fear that did something wrong...^^

Second, my second attempt at translation:
"In cities around the world, from children to senior folks, with the family and friends, one sings happily...
matching Karaoke."

As mentioned previously in my note at the beginning of this post, this seems to solve the problem of my first attempt by simply using 合わせる in a transitive manner. However, I'm not sure wether this translation is legit since it requires a certain concept of the term "Karaoke" of which I can't say wether it is common or not.


texts: How does one use 「浮かべる」、「浮かぶ」、「思い浮かべる」、and 「思い浮かぶ」？

texts:
I've seen 浮かべる　used thus: 「してやったり！」の表情を浮かべる and 不敵な笑みを浮かべる. Given that it uses を with a noun, it would be a transitive verb, right? I'm wondering if the best translation would be "To show/to express". Finally, is it used with only facial expressions?

As for the rest of them, I'm struggling to properly distinguish them. I would like to be able to say "It makes me think of home" or something along those lines. If these words are uncommon or there are better words, then please let me know.


texts:
I usually see this phrase in Shonen manga from an antagonist, referring to a "persistent" character.
I remember a quote that goes like this:

ほう 大したもんだ。

It was from a character called "Ohm" from One Piece, when found that Roronoa Zoro was still alive.


texts: 女性の身体は本来美しいもの. Is this sentence grammatical?

texts:
I found the sentence:

女性の身体は本来美しいもの。
'The female body is a fundamentally beautiful thing.'

in the following passage:

毎食後2錠から3錠、油っこい食事のあとは少し多めに飲むだけと、とっても簡単にダイエットできてしまいます。
'An effective diet can be achieved simply achieved by taking from two to three pills after each meal, the number increasing with the oil content the cuisine.'
女性の身体は本来美しいもの。
'The female body is a fundamentally beautiful entity.'
私のお気に入りの『ハーモニー7』は、身体の機能を整えながら自然にバランスの取れたプロポーションに戻してくれる、ダイエットの強－－い味方です。
'Harmony 7 appeals to me because of its ability to arrange the body's functions while
returning to a natural balance of proportions, making it an ideal diet support.'

Is the quoted sentence grammatical? Is the verb hidden? I apologize in advance for my ignorance as this question has probably arisen before and been answered.


texts: What is different between 日本間{にほんま}、和室{わしつ} and お座敷{ざしき}

texts: Are they same meaning？ How to distinguish when using them?


texts: When can you use (masu stem) + (another verb)

texts:
Here are some examples of the grammatical structure I am referring to:
(verb A) to (verb B) = (masu stem of verb B) (sometimes に) (verb A conjugated normally)
I went to pick up = 取りに行った
I forgot to ask = 聞き忘れた
I started to eat = 食べ始めた
Right now, my (possibly incorrect) understanding is that you can use this structure with only the following verb As:
行く、来る、帰る、入る、出る、始まる、終わる(?),  忘れる(?)
Is this correct? And if so, what is the complete list?
this is the closest question I could find (which I don't think asks nor answers the question well): How to use に with "masu-stem (連用形 stem) + に + Verb" structure


texts:
I'm not sure if I'm just imagining things or if I remembered things wrong,

but is there some kind of colloquial dialect where sentences end in "-jai?"


texts: Difference between も and や particle when listing nouns

texts: They are both used on non-exhaustive lists but how do I know what particle to use? Is there a nuance?


texts:
While studying ばかりだ I found in a grammar book the following example:

  日本語の成績が下がるばかりだ。

It was also written that in this sentence ばかりだ cannot be substituted by 一方だ, but searching on the internet I found many sentences with 成績が下がる一方だ. Now, I'm not sure if I didn't understand the difference between ばかりだ and 一方だ, or I read the grammar book incorrectly. Can somebody clarify it to me?


texts: Understanding a JLPT practise question with ものなら

texts:
This sentence comes from a question in my JLPT practise book that is part of an explanation of the use of ものなら:

  一度{いちど}仕事{しごと}を手伝{てつだ}おうものなら、それをいいことにあの人{ひと}は何度{なんど}でも頼{たの}んでくるから、気{き}をつけたほうがいい。

My fractured translation is, "If helping out a little is something you intend / that's something good / asking that person's help / you should take care."

As you can see, though, I can't make the connection between asking for help and why one should take care.

What exactly is this sentence saying, and how does it relate to the use of ものなら?


texts:
I've been running into verbs such as 言わなくたって recently. I found these sentences using a sample sentence search and it seems to be a stronger form of ～なくても

見てなくたっていいよ。
You don't have to stand over me.
そんなトゲトゲしい言い方しなくたっていいだろう。
You don't have to use such a harsh tone with me.

Where can I find this in a dictionary? It doesn't seem to be [達て]{たって}, nor the たって in 雨が降ったって出掛けるよ


texts:
On Lang-8 I wrote I a journal entry.
I wrote

  その後で、兄が買ったトランプをしました。三回をして、三回を勝ちました。

This got corrected to

  その後で、兄が買ったトランプをしました。三回をして、三回とも勝ちました。

What does とも mean here? And how do I use this particle. Does it put emphasis or does it express something else? I tried looking it up but I could not find much.


texts: Equivalent of "Yes sir/ma'am" for children

texts:
I have taught my kids to answer adults with "Yes sir/ma'am" as both a sign of respect, and as confirmation that they were actually listening.

I'm wondering if there's an equivalent in Japanese.  My gut says

「わかりました」 is both fine and acceptable, but lacks any real element of respect.
「了解（です）」 seems too stiff and/or "military".
「承知しました」・「かしこまりました」 seem too "service industry" for kids to be using.

Is there something else that children use?  Is my gut feeling wrong about any of the above?  Or is this a social "level" that just isn't taught to Japanese children?

Here are a couple articles, though admittedly they are aimed at adults in the workplace, so not sure if it's also applicable to children.

「わかる」を敬語で表す言葉とは
「分かる」の正しい敬語の使い方とNG例【尊敬語・謙譲語】


texts: How to say please could I have my money back?

texts:
I paid for some lessons in advance but now it looks like I won't be able to do them all. So I want to tell the teacher to give me my money back (in a polite way).

My ideas are something like either お金を返して下さい　or お金を戻して下さい but I don't know if it's correct and polite.

How do I say

  Please give me my money back

in a polite way?


texts:
I am translating the following sentence I found in my workbook.

  美味しそうな写真を見て、思わず[涎]{よだれ}が出た。

美味しい is an i-adjective, so why is there a な?


texts:
I know 助かります (助かる)　means:　to be saved; to be rescued; to survive.

Imperative form : 助かれ

but people say  助かれます(i.e. Amazon.co.jp delivery man came earlier than specified time and i said 早いですね、he replied 助かれます, i did not understand)

N.B: I am learning Japanese (beginner)


texts:
The context is this tweet:

  セットリストに適当！って書いてます。笑

I could understand more easily if は was used instead of に. How does に change the meaning?

Does an inference have to be made here to understand what is appropriate?


texts: Do the terms 紅葉{こうよう} and 紅葉{もみじ} mean the same thing?

texts:
What is the difference between 紅葉{こうよう} and 紅葉{もみじ}?

I want to chat about the autumn colors of leaves and I found these terms in Jisho. The definition reads only こうよう or only もみじ which is confusing to me. I was directed to the same page for both terms. Can I use them the same way? Thank you for answering my question.


texts:
As a rule the Japanese verbs are connected by ~たり pattern.
For example:

  出社【しゅっしゃ】したり退社【たいしゃ】したりする。

But is it grammatically correct, when I connect these two verbs by 及び【および】?
For example:

  出社及び退社する。


texts:
"売春を行う女性は、古くから存在する職業とされる。職業とは、ヒトのみが行う社会的かつ文化的営為であり、富、付加価値の交換により形作られる経済活動の手段としては、売春がやはり人類最古の職業の一つである。"

I know that the meaning of 富 is wealth but it doesn't suit the context well, and I have the impression that this word could just be removed and it would be fine.


texts:
Consider these:

遅かれ早かれ

良【よ】かれ悪【あ】しかれ

What is the underlying grammatical make up of this ~かれ~かれ pattern (if any)? Is this pattern productive(i.e. can be extended to arbitrary words)?


texts:
I'm learning Japanese online and recently just learnt about making comparisons using 方 and より. However, all of the examples I've come across are in the form

  A より B の方が C です。

which to me appears to be limited to basic sentences making direct comparisons between two objects. How would I express a sentence like "I want a bigger car" instead? Does the adjective still come before the main verb? Is

  車の方が大きい欲しいです。

the correct translation?


texts:
I have the following sentence to translate.

家内は、
日本の海で
泳ぎたがっているので、
新しい水着を買わなければならないと言っていました。

So far I have the following.

My wife
in the Sea of Japan
... so
she was saying that she needs to buy a new swimsuit.

My problem is the 泳ぎたがっている. I think it means she is wanting to swim, but I would expect that to be written as follows.

泳ぐ - I swim
泳ぎたい - I want to swim
泳ぎたくている - I am wanting to swim

So I don't understand why it's がって instead of くて. I thought the たい form was considered an i-adjective. And I can't think of any way to get the て form used in the sentence.


texts:
So, I have the following sentence:

  私は World of Tanks をします。

I am certain this sentence is laid out correctly. However, I am unsure of how I would pronounce "World of Tanks". Should I simply pronounce it (and any other titles that appear in Latin characters) as I would in English or as if it were written in katakana?


texts: Would these uses of "ため” be considered unnatural in common conversation?

texts:
Tl;Dr: These are the sentences

"これは私のためですか？”
”私は里保さんのために何か買いたいです。”

Hello everyone! Recently, I've been using a program to help me with my Japanese grammar, as I still struggle with forming sentences.

However, I noticed that this program tends to have some phrases that I feel are unnatural in actual conversation, at least from what I've been told.

Right now, the program is trying to teach me to use the word "Tame", which I've always considered to be "For the sake of" or something of equal weight. This program is implying that it can be used as just a replacement for the English word "for," as in "I bought some candy for Suzuki-san." or "This is for you."

Have I been look at the word Tame wrong this entire time, or is this one of those cases of "Well, you're not technically wrong, but it's really unnatural."


texts: Where can I find the *actual* ideas/meanings behind common words (esp. verbs)?

texts:
For example, one definition for かける is "❶物をほかの物に取り付ける" (first thing「三省堂　スーパー大辞林」shows in the Yomichan browser plugin) . This definition is fine, but I might struggle to see the connection with metaphorical uses such as "迷惑をかける" or "魔法をかける". The dictionary just gives further definitions for this kind of usage: ❸他にある作用を与える。他に影響を及ぼす。The definitions go up to twenty or so, so now I'm stuck with ~20 seemingly unrelated concepts when a single concept would do if the metaphorical extensions are explained properly (e.g. found in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MbqmZPySPQ).
There are a handful of very common verbs, such as 差す、抜く、当たる、込む where I'm pretty sure a native would see 1-2 concepts, while it usually seems like 2-20 different concepts to me (depending on the verb). Unfortunately I only know dictionaries that list definitions, not the common idea behind the word.
Does someone have a resource explaining the central idea behind these kinds of verbs and their further metaphors? Ideally I'm looking for similar depth to the video linked above. A good dictionary would also do the job. I'm also happy if it's Japanese-Japanese.
(related: this question)

To be clear, I'm not expecting to magically be able to guess that we say 電話をかける ("hang an electronic conversation"). I'm fully aware that set phrases like these are arbitrary. Every language has those. But I expect to be able to tell what an expression means when I see it in the wild. For instance, I can understand 取り受ける without looking up the word because both　取る and 受ける are very clear to my English brain and context takes care of the rest. I don't have the same luxury with 差す and the combinations it appears in, because I don't understand the general concept behind the verb. So any time 差す　appears in expressions (e.g. 傘を差す) I have to look over ~20 definitions to be able to guess its meaning. Repeat this like 30 times, because it's hard for me to remember these seemingly arbitrary and unconnected uses.


texts: Can't find kanji for pictured characters

texts: I've tried finding the kanji by radical here using 广 but I can't find a match for the first and I'm not sure at all what the second is.


texts:
A man has just returned home to his wife and says:

  今日は、雀のお宿へ行って、おいしい料理や雀の踊を見てきたよ。

  Today, I went to the sparrow's house and (ate) delicious food and (came and) saw a sparrow dance.

In the first half of the sentence he moved away from his current viewpoint (行く）which makes sense, but in the second half doesn't 見てきた suggest that he is at the sparrow's house when he is speaking (I came and saw)? Why is it not 見ていった?

I also don't understand why either きた or いった is actually needed here. Doesn't 行く in the first half of the sentence provide all the coming and going information needed?

Lastly, I read the sentence literally to mean "saw both a sparrow dance and delicious food". I'm assuming that the "eating" is somehow implicit. But it could equally well be "cooked delicious food" for example. Am I missing any subtleties here?


texts: What's the difference between なさい and てください / でください?

texts:
What is the practical difference between なさい and ください? Is it only different in politeness or does it have a different meaning and application?

Also is なさい used the same way as ください? -te form plus the なさい?

Now there's this sentence I'm trying to come up with, could you help me? Is it right, does it sound natural? What could I improve on that? (I just making these sentence to exercise my grammar)

  俺は日本語をちょっと話せますが、のみ簡単の物を話せますのですよ。

In case it is not clear, my intention was something like:

  I can talk a bit o Japanese but I can only talk simple stuff.


texts: Takehiko to Takejiro different name or diminutive?

texts:
I am teaching"In A Grove" from Feedbooks http://www.scribd.com/doc/3682435/In-a-Grove-by-Ryunosuke-Akutagawa and have found that the same man, the samurai Kanazawa no Takehiko, as he is named by in mother in law, is referred to inside the story by his wife, Masago, as Takejiro.

A student pointed out the difference in names and has put forth that the wife didn't even refer to her husband with his proper name and using this for proof of her role in the husband's death.  I do not know Japanese and am teaching this story as a lesson in critical reading and argumentation, so I was unprepared for this question.  Before I posit an answer to the class, I am wondering if this could be a diminutive? Like Jimmy for Johnny or James and John, but I am not sure.

Short of this being a mis-translation, which it could be, is there another reason for this shift in names?

The quote from "The Old Woman's Testimony" aka mother in law is on page six with the samurai's full name  is "His name was Kanazawa no Takehiko, and his age was twenty-six." from the link above.

The quote from the Masago, the wife, is from "The Repentance of a Woman" is on page 10 and is ""Takejiro," I said to him, "since things have come to this pass, I cannot live with you. I'm determined to die … but you must die, too. You saw my shame. I can't leave you alive as you are.""

I look forward to any help you can povide.

Sue


texts: How do I connect verbs with nominalisation?

texts:
For example:
"I like dancing and singing"
"My hobby is studying Japanese and playing guitar"
How do I connect "studying and playing"?
Do I have to use te form? I'm really confused
Thanks!
upd. nvm,  you just connect it with と particle like 歌うことと踊るが好き


texts: I have seen NTT, OPEC, DIY, NHK, etc. used but are there any Kanji acronyms commonly used?


texts:
I came across this line of dialgue, and I'm wondering what the lengthened version would be. For context, the series is in the middle of a tournamet (there are teams, but players compete individually), and one player has just witnessed another player winning their match with incredible skill. The spectating player thinks:

  オレたちゃここまでだな

I've translated that as 'We're finished/this is it for us', going on the assumption that オレたちゃ is a contracted of オレたち and another word.

Could someone tell me exactly what the long form of 'オレたちゃ' is? Or am I wrong and is 'たちゃ' another word entirely?


texts: Are there rules for when pronouns in Japanese can be omitted?

texts: Are there rules for when pronouns in Japanese can be omitted or you learn that by experience only?


texts:
I am currently working on a certain game's translation. The dialogue goes like this:

  Sōsuke: それじゃあ、お互いに愛称で呼び合ってみようよ
      Riho: 愛称、素晴らしいですね。では、どのような呼び方をいたしましょう
      Sōsuke: えっと、俺のことはダーリンって呼んでみて
      Riho: ……やはり破廉恥なことではありませんか
      Sōsuke: お、お願いだよ……里穂に呼んでもらいたいんだ、いや、りほに
      Riho: それが私の愛称ですか？では……ダーリン

Which I then translated as:

  Sōsuke: Then, let's call each other by pet names!
      Riho: Pet names? That's wonderful. Well then, what should I call you?
      Sōsuke: Uh...call me 'Darling'.
      Riho: ....Isn't that too shameful?
      Sōsuke: P-Please...? I'd really like Riho to call me that...no, りほに
      Riho: Is that my pet name? Well then...darling.

I left the word to be translated as is.
Should it be translated as "Rihoni"? Is that how nicknames work? Please feel free to correct my translation attempt. Thanks in advance.


texts: Use of けど in a sentence from my textbook

texts:
I'm not interested in the translation as much as the use of the word けど in a specific sentence.  The textbook presents it as 'but' and 'so', and the dialogue where it appears is as follows:

  たけしくん、今度の休み、予定ある？
  ううん。別に。どうして？
  みちこさんの長野のうちにいこうと思ってるんだけど、一緒に行かない？

I understand the sentence in general, but not the use of けど. She explains what she's going to do and offers an invitation to たけしくん, but I don't get the けど at the end of the explanation of her plans.


texts: This might be a stupid question but... what symbol is this?


texts:
どこでかいますか。
  どこでかったんですか。

The meaning of the two sentences are same, right? Yet, in what condition I need to use～んですか。


texts:
I was re-reading my Genki text the other day regarding intransitive verbs and ている and it stated that when intransitive verbs take the ている form they exclusively refer to the state resulting from the change, i.e.

窓が開いている。
The window's open.
お湯が沸いている。
The water boiled.

However, with certain phrases such as 雨が降っている can the meaning be both 「It's raining/It has rained」 ?
Which interpretation would be more appropriate 「It's raining」 or 「It has rained」? I would interpret it as 「It has rained」.
Is it a set in stone rule that all intransitive verbs take the result of change form rather than the "-ing/progressive form" or is this just loose rule genki introduced with exceptions?


texts:
It is a basic grammar that「いる」is used to show the existence of something alive and 「ある」is to show  the existence of inanimate object in terms of 存在表現.
However, I found some people use "工夫がいる" instead of "工夫がある". Is it an exception?

人に伝えるコトって工夫がいるんです！
細胞内の物質を積極的に移動させる工夫がいる。


texts:
I have the sentence:

  この国に生まれ老い、良かったと死んでゆける高齢化社会。

This is the first time I've seen 「死んでゆける」 or 「ゆける」. What does it mean? Is this a grammatical form? I also tried looking up more examples with 「ゆける」here, but there are only a few, and I'm not able to derive the meaning yet.


texts: How to say "changed academic course" in resume?

texts:
I'm writing my resume in japanese, and I have a rather unusual cursus as a french student.

I spent 2 years doing my bachelor's degree in IT, then instead of finishing my degree, I changed my cursus entering a 3 years engineering cursus which leads to a master degree in engineering (in France it's called "Diplôme d'ingénieur").
In the end I will have a master degree without a bachelor's degree, and my parkour was 5 years long.
Generally, people who go to engineering school spend 2 years after high school to study intensively in order to pass an entrance exam for 3 year cycle "Grandes Ecoles" (or in my case engineering school).

I wonder how to write it in Japanese, is it how my resume looks so far but I've been told that what I wrote is wrong:

So I'm not sure what term I should use in 2013/7


texts:
部品が取り寄せになりますので、 少々お時間をいただきませんと。(We will have to order the parts, so it will take a little time.)

Is　と　at the end here some abbreviation of かと思います？ といけません？ just a question marker like か?


texts: What does this sentence containing 「犯人意識」 mean in Osamu Dazai's 「人間失格」?

texts:
また、犯人意識、という言葉もあります。自分は、この人間の世の中に於いて、一生その意識に苦しめられながらも、...

I understand this as,

  There's something called criminal consciousness. Even if I am suffering from this consciousness in this world of humans ...

What exactly does 'criminal consciousness' mean here ? If I simply club the meaning of 'criminal' and 'consciousness' would it mean the awareness of criminality or something similar ?

Why does the author say, I suffer because of this consciousness ?

Above sentence in a larger context:

  また、犯人意識、という言葉もあります。自分は、この人間の世の中に於いて、一生その意識に苦しめられながらも、しかし、それは自分の糟糠の妻の如き好伴侶で、そいつと二人きりで侘びしく遊びたわむれているというのも、自分の生きている姿勢の一つだったかも知れないし、...


texts: How can I express a "person has a desire to do something"?

texts:
Sometimes I want to tell expressions like:

  Mrs. Honda wants to swim in the sea.

All I have in my Japanese notes is:

私はケータイがほしいです。(Syntax used for expressing my personal desires for an object)
本田さんはケータイをほしがっています。(Syntax used for when a third party wants/desires an object.)
子どもはアイスクリームをほしがります。(Syntax used when a group of people wants something.)

As is noticed above the ほしい(です) part becomes ほしがる. Does this apply when talking about what a 3rd party person wants. either is an object or an action that wants to do.


texts: Different ways of saying "X continues / keep doing X"

texts:
I am trying to figure out the differences between all of these forms listed below. The examples are all part of these two pages:

http://japanesetest4you.com/jlpt-n3-grammar-list/
http://japanesetest4you.com/jlpt-n4-grammar-list/

-te + iku

  これからも頑張っていきたいと思います。
  I think I’ll continue to try my best from now on.

ippou da

  地球環境は、年々悪くなる一方だ。
  Global environment is getting worse year after year.

"Continues to" as in "more and more"
bakari

  赤ちゃんが泣いてばかりいます。
  The baby keeps crying.

Maybe more like: "The baby is only crying."
bakari da

  傷が深くなるばかりです。
  The wound keeps getting deeper.

"Becoming more and more"
masu-stem + tsudukeru

  歩き続けろ！
  Keep walking!

-te + kuru

  この伝統は百年も続いてきた。
  This tradition has continued for hundreds of years.


texts:
What's the difference between these words for 'priest'?

宮司 [ぐうじ]
高僧 [こうそう]
住職 [じゅうしょく]
神職 [しんしょく]
僧侶 [そうりょ]
出家 [しゅっけ]
禅僧 [ぜんそう]
神主 [かんぬし]
お坊さん [おぼうさん]
牧師 [ぼくし]
神父 [しんぷ]

Thanks!


texts: What does the expression "こっちはこっちで" mean?

texts:
I have a quick question about something I've come across in a piece of Japanese fiction:

  こっちはこっちで結構やばい橋を渡ってたんだぜ？

The "こっちはこっちで" I believe is an expression but it's difficult to decipher, can someone explain its meaning/how it's used?


texts: 日本語を勉強していて、楽しい？ meaning

texts:
日本語を勉強していて、楽しい？ (From Human Japanese Intermediate Ch. 24)

This is translated as "Studying Japanese, is it fun?" in the lesson which got me a bit confused. Can someone explain more about what the て-form here does for the sentence? Up until now in my studies, if I wanted to ask this, it would probably be something like 日本語を勉強するのは楽しい？ or 日本語を勉強することは楽しい？

I do know that the て-form can be used to link phrases like in  猫を助けて、家に帰ります where I'll help the cat and then go home, and this is the closest usage I can think of for this case.


texts: Please help me understand this words' meanings.


texts:
I don't really get the meaning of それまでなんだから in below sentence:

たとえ試験が全部できても名前書き忘れたら「それまでなんだから」、くれぐれも忘れないように。

Does it mean that there is no point in doing well in an exam if you forget to write your name down?


texts: Usage of を in 自らを豊作を司る

texts:
I came across this while reading 「狼と香辛料」and was confused by the usage of を in the sentence below:

  少女は狼の耳と尻尾を有した美しい娘で、自らを豊作を司る神ホロと名乗った。

In particular I'm interested in 「自らを豊作を司る」which I would normally expect to be written 「自ら豊作を司る」without the first「を」.

What is the meaning of the above sentence fragment vs. simply「自ら豊作を司る」?


texts:
私は帰国することに決めた

This is the original sentence, but shouldn't it be:

  私は帰国することを決めた

or

  私は帰国することが決めた?


texts: Break down the phrase "[失礼]{しつれい}しなければならないんです"

texts:
I've just heard the phrase [失礼]{しつれい}しなければならないんです (shitsurei shinakereba naranaindesu) used as Excuse me, I have to leave.
The explanation said it literally translates to If I don't leave, it won't do,
but I need help on breaking it down precisely.

What does each word mean and how does the grammar work here?


texts: Which particle to use to say, "for (occasion)"?

texts:
I want to translate:

  "I gave my little sister a doll for her birthday".

I do not want to use 私 but imply that I did it, so the right particles are crucial.

I've come this far, but I'm not sure about the particle は which I chose basically because it was the most likely one that was left.

  誕生日{たんじょうび}は妹{いもうと}に人形{にんぎょう}をあげました.

My original choice was 誕生日に but then I would have two にs.

How can I say "for occasion"?


texts: What is なんでって a contraction of in this sentence?

texts:
The sentence I am analyzing:

「今じーちゃんとこなんでって…」
"Right now I'm at grandpa's"
(source context)

In this case the speaker is on the phone so his speech is casual and fragmented.

I already have an idea of what the sentence means, what I am hoping to understand is:

What なんでって is a contraction of?
And what it is doing in this sentence grammatically? What nuance does it add?

I know that とこ is a contraction of のところ but what is なんでって, is it なので? I know って is often と or sometimes という but that doesn't seem to make sense in this context, at least to me as a beginner.

This is my first time asking a question on this site, I hope this is okay.


texts: Japanese joke explanation, brushing teeth in a narrow home

texts:
So I found a joke that goes like this:

  私の家はそりゃもう狭かったのよ。どれくらい狭かったかって？
  横に歯磨きができないのよ。

Now, if translated correctly, it should be saying:

  My house is like already very narrow. How narrow? From the sides you can't brush your teeth.

Is the joke just lame, did I translate it incorrectly, or is there a double meaning that I am not seeing?


texts:
行動に理由ができる。

Is it like: " I will find my reasons in my actions" ?


texts:
金銭のことで彼と争いになった。

Can someone explain what で does in this sentence? I don't really understand it.


texts: What search term(s) should I use when looking for a pronunciation guide of ancient kanji?

texts:
I've recently developed interest in reading/studying the 古事記{こじき}, and simply searching for the term「古事記」gives plenty of results with the original text. However, I am having trouble finding any results with ふりがな. I've tried searching using the following terms suggested by Google:

  古事記 読み方, 古事記 漢字 読み方

These only seem to produce results for interpretations of the text and not the readings of each character.

  古事記 読みやすい

This one seems to produce modern reproductions of the ancient text meant for casual reading.

  古事記 ふりがな

Nothing meaningful came out of this one either. I know that somewhere there's an edition with the ふりがな included but I just have no clue how to find it.


texts:
彼女は頰を紅潮させ歯を食いしばるという、駄々っ子のような表情を作りながら、肩をいからせるような姿勢でその場に立ち上がった。

Hi. What is the function of the bold part?
Can we omit it?
Thank you.


texts:
Context. Characters A and B have just gotten defeated by younger character C. And it has been about a year or so since they last met.

A: 若い子の相手は、そろそろキツいわー
B: 年だかんねえ、あたしたちも。

My problem in general with A and B is that they seem to tent to really colloquial language, especially A.
But anyway, first of, the problematic bit is そろそろキツいわー. I think キツい is きつい which was for some reason written using katakana. わー is likely some sort of untranslatable exclamation. My problem is そろそろ + きつい since it isn't excatly logical to say slowly formidable. So as of now I'm translating it as:

This young girl is steadily becoming formidable…

but I'm not 100% certain.
For the B's dialogue, 年だかんねえ is problematic. After some digging I was able to figure out that 年だかんねえ= 年だからねえ. So I'm thinking that she MIGHT be saying that their defeat and growth of C is because it's been a year. あたしたち is probably there to add that it's been a year for them too (since they were retired for that time). ねえ is just there to make it rhetorical. SO for now the translation is:

It’s been a year for us too.

So basically the question is am I right? Where am I wrong? And is there any special meaning behind using katakana instead of hiragana for キツ.


texts:
Assuming such a concept exists in Japanese, how do you say "tourist trap"?

Wikipedia describes it as:

  A tourist trap is an establishment, or group of establishments, that
  has been created with the aim of attracting tourists and their
  money. Tourist traps will typically provide services, entertainment,
  souvenirs and other products for tourists to purchase.

and Travel Stack Exchange describes it as "A disparaging term for places and attractions designed specifically for tourists."

While it's often used for describing attractions, it's also used used for describing cities or areas overdeveloped for tourism, for example:

  Unfortunately, many tourists believe the highrise buildings and crowds
  of Surfers Paradise make it an overdeveloped 'tourist trap'. Most of
  these buildings are however local residential. The city also has many
  services and industries not directly related to tourism.

I tried using 「観光トラップ」 to ask if Atami was a tourist trap, but that apparently didn't work well, as it attracted a few comments. One person mentioned 「ぼったくり」 (ripoff), which seems a little too vague.

The English edition of Wiktionary doesn't have a Japanese translation, and the Japanese edition doesn't even have an entry for "tourist". Jisho.org has 「観光都市」, but according to the Japanese edition of Wikipedia, 観光都市 is a city that's popular with tourists, rather than something dodgy or artificial. Oddly enough, the Lonely Planet phrasebook for Japan didn't have an entry for "tourist trap"!


texts: What's the difference between そして and そうして? Both mean 'and', 'and then' and are written with the same kanji. そして I've seen more often in texts, but そうして - only a couple of times. Is the difference only in frequency of usage?


texts: How do I know which radical in a character is the primary radical?

texts:
I recently acquired The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary, and all of the characters inside are ordered by radicals.  I understand what a radical is in the most basic sense--sub sections of Kanji Characters that reoccur in many different characters throughout the language.  I also understand that they often affect the meaning of the overall character.

I am largely self taught, with the exception of an advanced college course that I took. I have studied some kanji Characters, and can read about 400-600 characters. However, in my experience I have not received any formal training in radicals.

So, how do I determine which radical in a character is the primary radical?

Bonus:

I'm still studying this on my own, so you don't have to answer this if you don't want to. I think I'll be able to figure it out eventually. If you know a simple way to explaining the order of radicals, or the best way to study them, that would be welcome too.


texts: Does だけ necessarily carry a negative connotation?

texts:
I was praised by my tutor for the progress I'd made myself thus far, but somehow the message just seemed to carry a strange negative connotation to me. Here's the part where I found a tad off:

  今年二月から勉強して、それだけの長文を書けるのはすごいことだとおもいます。

This is part of his reply after I reached out to him for an offer to be my tutor in conversation yesterday. I am fairly certain he wasn't being sarcastic or anything. There was absolutely no need to.

The reason why I find the message ostensibly negative is that I usually associate だけ with a sense of negative exclusiveness. Therefore, "これだけの長文" just reads like, "an article only so long in length" to me.

Am I being influenced by my understanding of だけ, especially how it usually translates to "only" in English? If not, is there a better way to rephrase this to avoid any confusion?

For example:

  こんな程度の長文を書けるのはすごい…

Is this somewhat better than using だけ?

ご教授をいただければ、ありがたく思います。よろしくお願いいたします。


texts: Depending on the kanji face the left element 言 in multi-element kanjis like 語 is sometimes depicted with 丶 instead of top 一 . It makes me think that the same transformation occurs for : 云 changes to  in multi-element kanjis.  Is this true or not?


texts: Meaning of ほど in phrases like ご協力のほど , ご指導のほど, ご理解のほど (よろしくお願いします/ ありがとうございます) etc?

texts:
Some Japanese friends explained to me that adding のほど just makes the speech sound more formal/polite and business-like, but the logic behind the use of ほど (meaning "degree" or "extent", as I know) in such cases still baffles me.
Could someone pls explain? Many thanks in advance for your answers.


texts: Is it proper to thank waitstaff, cashiers, etc. for their service?

texts:
In my Japanese class we were taught that one does not need to thank a cashier when they check you out or a server when they bring you your meal, but I always feel awkward remaining silent.  Was my sensei wrong?  Specifically:

What is the usual exchange between customer and cashier when paying for an item?
What is the usual exchange when a waiter brings you your food?
When leaving a restaurant, is it appropriate to say ごちそうさまでした? 美味しかったです? ありがとうございました?


texts:
When looking up the terms "Employee retention" and "Employee turnover" on Google Translate I get the following:

Employee retention: 従業員保持

Employee turnover: 従業員の売上高

I'm fairly certain that the translation for "employee turnover" is not what I'm looking for. So what would be the correct term/phrase to use?

Like how would the following statement be said in Japanese: Company X's high turnover rate could imply they have a problem with employee retention.


texts: Is there any difference between 早く終われば and 早く終わったら?

texts:
Consider the following two sentences,

仕{し}事{ごと}が早{はや}く終{お}わったら行きます。
仕{し}事{ごと}が早{はや}く終{お}われば行きます。

Is there any difference between them?


texts: Meaning of かかした in this sentence さんざん無理な注文したうえに、恥までかかしたんだ

texts:
As per the title I am having trouble understanding かかした in this sentence:
さんざん無理な注文したうえに、恥までかかしたんだ
From my understanding from the context the sentence should mean something like:
"Not only did I completely get her to do something she didn't want, but also embarrassed her too."
All I can seem to find is 欠かす which according to jisho means:
to miss (doing); to fail (to do)
But this doesn't seem to fit in my mind.


texts: What does the little っ (tsu) signify when at the end of a word?

texts:
The small っ (tsu) is usually used before a consonant to indicate gemination, less technically known as doubled consonants, which is how they are transliterated in romaji.
I have seen it at the end of some of what I call "vocal noises" where I interpreted it as possibly a glottal stop. But the other day I saw it used on an advertising poster on public transport at the end of a word. At least so it looked. What does it signify in this case?
The text in the ad is:

お待たせっ!
新しいタフマン
参上!!


texts: What is the difference between these 2 expressions?

texts:
Whose car is it?

A: Kuruma wa dare no desu ka?

B: Dare no kuruma desu ka?

I'm just a beginner but I'm sure these two expressions mean the same thing.

viz. Whose car is it?

I feel that A is more colloquial than B, would I be right?

Version A is how I would have translated the expression.

How would you have translated it?

Is there a more of a nuanced different between these two versions?


texts: Undertstanding sleeping on 板 in the 雪女 story

texts:
船頭小屋には火もなく、畳二まいほどの板が敷いてあっただけでした。二人はその板の上に横になり、いつの間にか眠ってしまいました。
  There wasn't even a fire in the boatman's hut. Only 2-tatami-wide planks had been laid out. The two of them laid down on these planks and were asleep before they knew it.

I don't quite understand this sentence. I see two options:

1) These planks are something designed for sleeping on (maybe I'm missing a cultural reference). In which case, I'm happy with the use of 敷く.

2) These planks constitute the floor of the hut and are not specially designed for sleeping on. In this case I find 敷いてあった confusing. The translation of "to lay out" doesn't seem like a word that would be used other than when talking about building the hut. I feel that adding てある reinforces my thought that this is something that was done after the hut was built.

In summary, I would pick option 1) but I wonder if 板 is something more than just a plank of wood.


texts: Can いそぐ be used transitively, as in べんきょうをいそぎます?

texts:
Is

  べんきょうをいそぎます。

a proper sentence construction? Are there others way to use いそぎます in a sentence?


texts: Confusion with pronunciation in some words: 'm' and 'n' sounds when there is 'g'

texts:
It has been bugging me for a while; I'm using memrise for learning and for example:

ちゅうごく China → I hear it pronounced chūmoku
かがく science → I hear it pronounced kanaku

Is this an error from memrise's side or are there rules for pronouncing some hiragana/katakana differently?


texts: Clarifications on だって and って contractions

texts:
Inquiring about whether i'm interpreting the following correctly, and what だって/って is abbreviated from in these sentences

  誰だって知られたくない過去ってあるし、俺だってそうだから

Anyone has things in the past that they don’t want to be known, I am the same.

誰だって = 誰でも?　= no matter who/anyone

過去ってある = 過去___? = speaking of 過去, it exists

俺だって  = 俺___? = I ... too

  それだけじゃない、ほかの星座の神話だって有名なものだったらロマンチックに語ることができる。

Not only that, if it's other famous constellational legends , i'm also able to romantically recite them.

神話だって有名なもの = 神話という(の)有名なもの？

  オレ、ミステリーとの遭遇なんて夢物語だって心のどこかで思ってたんだよ

For things like mysterious encounters, deep down I thought it was just a dream

夢物語だって = 夢物語だと？= used just as a quote for 思って?

  ばいばいだって

It’s saying bye-bye ( refering to a pet)

ばいばいだって = ばいばいだといって？

  メアだって自分で自分の名前つけたんだろ

Mare, you gave yourself a name didn't you?

メアだって  = メア(というの)は? = = speaking of you, mare

But then what's the difference between using メアって and メアだって?

Compared to something like 新種のほ乳類ってほかに比べると格段にめずらしいらしい

(speaking of) a new mammal species, compared to (discoveries of ) other kinds of new species, it's much more rare.

Is the choice between って　and だって somewhat arbitrary in this usage?

Sorry for the long post, but i've been itching to get this ironed out for a while. Thank you.


texts: Can 案が検討されまして also be used to mean "implemented"?

texts:
I'm not sure how to make sense of this section of text.
Either it says that buses were considered for use but ultimately left without stranded passengers, OR that sightseeing buses were used and loaded up with stranded passengers who were taken to stay at hotels.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYzvLs9GEMM&t=0m28s

また、一時はですね、この立ち往生した人たちをバスに乗せてホテルに避難させるという案も検討されまして、そのための観光バスがですね、こちらに10台ほどずらりと待機していたんですけれども、こちらのバスも1時間ほど前に帰って行きました。

My attempts at making sense of this:

At one point, using sightseeing buses were considered to evacuate stuck people to hotels, but ultimately were not used, and left.

Or

At one point, sightseeing buses were used/implemented to evacuate stuck people to hotels. (and therefore departed with the stranded people)


texts:
Is the word 「奴」/「やつ」 (yatsu) ever used to refer to another female, or to refer to oneself if one is female? Or is it only used to refer to a male?

Answers to this question touched on the word 「奴」, but I'm wondering if a girl can refer to herself like 「嫌なやつ、あたし」 or 「生意気なやつだもん」 or something along those lines.

(I'm not referring to cases in which a young Japanese woman refers to herself as 「僕」 or 「俺」 as an unusual, intentional style, but rather to the case of the average woman or girl in casual speech or inner monologue.)


texts:
Today I came across this sentence: "見ていて難しくない？"
That question was used to ask an actor about his own movie. And when I used Google Translate it gave me this translation: "Isn't it difficult to watch?"
When I first saw it, I interpreted it from what I know of the て form usage, like "After watching it, difficult don't you think?" but I wasn't so sure so I had to check Google Translate for that result.
I tried some other examples that I made up myself like "聞いていて良くない？" or "やっていて簡単じゃない？" and they all resulted in a translation that has the pattern of "Isn't it ... to ...?"
So is my interpretation correct and this is just a way Japanese people use to express the idea "Isn't it ... to ...?" or it's an actual grammatical structure that I'm not aware of?


texts: When writing by hand, can kana be half-width and kanji be full-width?

texts:
Simply I find when I'm writing I can only make kanji so small before they become sloppy, but I can write kana nice and small. Is it allowed to write half-width Katakana/Hiragana alongside regular width Kanji?

If you can how would this work horizontally and vertically?
If not, what's the point of half-width?


texts: 私に消しゴムを借りさせて下さいませんか versus 私に消しゴムを貸して下さいませんか

texts:
Is there any difference between the following expressions? When do I have to use one over the other one?

A:私に消しゴムを借りさせて下さいませんか。

B:私に消しゴムを貸して下さいませんか。


texts:
Here's an extract from my fictional book;

  差し上げますけど、味見は自分でしない方がいいですよ？中村さんあたりならどんな凄い味でも文句言いながら解説してくれると思いますからオススメですね。

(Contextual summary - speaker has presented the person he's addressing with a top secret instruction manual on how to make special sugary confectionery which has some mysterious properties or effects after eating it)

I believe I have a general understanding of what the speaker is saying, however I am odds with myself as to how I would parse it in English.

Here's my attempt at parsing, I will also highlight areas which are particularly problematic for me:

  I am more than happy to give this to you but, you should not try it by yourself don't you think? [I think it will explain any kind of awful taste Nakamura san will complain about no matter what so my advice is to choose him.]

I admit the last sentence is half guesswork from the context and it doesn't make sense to me. There's a few things that confuse me here:

  1) あたり

What is the correct function of "あたり" here? To me it felt like "choosing"/"selecting" would be fitting.

  2) でも

Am I right in assuming "no matter what" is a correct way to parse this or am I think of the wrong usage of でも?

  3) ながら

I am very familiar with the usage of ながら in the context of "while" and "although/despite". What function does it have in this sentence? This one really confuses me.


texts:
I would like to know what もなほ here means and what it exactly did to the phrase?
I came across it twice and stuck with it, because I don't actually know if it's verb or noun or even adverb.

The other phrase was like this:

  闇もなほ、


texts:
There are a lot of ways to expres the English word “even”, but I am not sure which one to use in the meaning of:

What’s this? Is it even food?
Is there even a way get out of here?
Does such a person even exist?

It looks like neither も or さえ fit here as they correspond to a different “even”. I can only come up with plain unflavored sentences that don’t include the intended, slightly sarcastic doubt.

食物ですか。
ここを出る方法がありますか。
そんな人がいますか。

How can I change those to inject this meaning?