texts:
As in the title, how can I say "I don't deserve your present" in Japanese? Google translate tells me it's あなたのプレゼントに値しません。First off, the verb doesn't seem to be correct. Secondly, can I use を instead of に here to get あなたのプレゼントを値しません？

If memory serves me right, I have heard "僕にはプレゼントをもらう権利がない", which translates to "I don't have the rights to receive the present", but that sounds a bit different than I don't deserve your present.


texts: How should I read the Kanji 「受」　in the word　「赤外線受発光部」?

texts: Should it be read 「じゅ」 or 「う」 or something else?


texts: What does どうも do when added to ありがとう or ありがとうございます?

texts:
What does どうも do when added to ありがとう and ありがとうございます?

What is nuance behind the どうもありがとう and どうもありがとうございます that's created?

Is it just more polite/humble? Or is there some more at play?

Also, slightly off topic, but could the polite prefix お be used with these?
Is おどうもありがとうございます valid?


texts: Do we really need to remember the kunyomi and onyomi reading of each kanji?

texts:
I am learning how to write kanji using the obenkyo app. I am trying to remember the strokes of each kanji and how to read them (onyomi & kunyomi).

But do I really need to remember the onyomi & kunyomi for each of them? I mean there are at least 4-5 different ways to read each of the  kanji, and I don't think I can remember the strokes, onyomi, and kunyomi all at the same time. That's too much for me.

How important is it to know onyomi and kunyomi readings? How is it useful?

Suppose we came across a word with new kanji somewhere, is there a way to know how to read it?

I mean it's confusing and the readings always change.

For example 人 can be read jin, ri, hito, etc.


texts:
Aがいくら強いといってもBやCとそれほど変わるもんじゃないはずだ。

Does や still imply other elements can be added here?


texts:
Does a verbal form like this exist.
I found this sentence while reading.

一体どこの誰に、今のこいつを黙らせられるっていうのか。
Or should I say, who the hell could be able to silence her.

I think the meaning is this, but こいつを黙らせられる is confusing.
Is it Causative-Passive or Causative-Potential?
I know だまらせる is the causative form of だます and it means

To make someone silent.

But what does だまらせられる mean in this sentence?

To be silenced or to be able to make silent?

If it were passive it should have been こいつが黙らせられる, or am I wrong?
But I also know that with potential the construction is the same.

僕に林檎が食べられる.

I read that depending on emotional attachment and other factors, at least for the potential form, が and を can be exchanged.
So I have 2 questions.
What form is this? Causative-Passive or Causative-Potential?
Why is を used instead of が?


texts: Politeness / Respectfulness / Humility / Formality

texts:
The wikipedia article "Honorific speech in Japanese" states that

  Japanese has grammatical functions to express several different emotions. Not only politeness but also respectfulness, humility and formality can be expressed.

After learning about the humble/honorific etc. forms, I am trying to wrap my head around these concepts. After checking some textbooks and websites, I came up with the following distinction, could someone please check, whether it is ok?

Politeness: this is expressed by using the です・ます forms instead of the plain form
Respectfulness: one can express respect to someone else's actions by using the honorific form (尊敬語{そんけいご})
Humility: one can humbly speak about one's own actions using the humble form (謙譲語{けんじょうご})
Formality: in formal writing, one uses the literary style by replacing だ → である and です → であります after nouns and na-adjectives. There is no difference for verbs and I-adjectives.

As far as I understand, one can combine most of these aspects, e.g.

not polite, not respectful, not humble, not formal: だ

not polite, not respectful, not humble, formal: である

not polite, not respectful, humble, formal: でござる

polite, not respectful, humble, formal: でございます

but respectfulness and humility are mutually exclusive.


texts: Which forms of a verb do I need to memorize to distinguish ichidan from godan?

texts:
Can I get away with memorizing only these two forms of a verb?

Dictionary form かえる ("to return")
Positive polite non-past form, like かえります

If I compare these two forms, I can determine whether it's a Type 1 ([五]{ご}[段]{だん}) verb or a Type 2 ([一]{いち}[段]{だん}) verb.
I can do this by checking if (for example) る gets taken off when I add ます, or if it gets changed to り.  Does this make sense?

I'm asking because this packet I got tells me to remember the dictionary and past forms, but I don't see how this is helpful.

In short, is my method of learning these verbs' types consistent?  Thank you in advance :)


texts:
仕事を抱え込んでしまって困った山田さんが、「なにを作るかよりも、いかに新しい作り方をするかです」と言ったって、説得力がない。

This means;
Yamada who dived into a new job and got in trouble said "its less what your make, but in what new way you make it", which was very unconvincing.

Is that right? im confused by the question followed by desu.


texts:
Does it exist as such, the double negation of an i-adjective, e.g.: おいしくなくない? I was told that I should use おいしくなく　は　ない instead. Is that right? Is it a rule? Would it depend on context which was a question like: Are the meals at that restaurant good? Or is it just the style of the person I talked to?

Of course, I could also use e.g. まずくない instead, but this is not the question here.


texts: I heard a word that sounded like psycho in English, what does it mean?

texts: The person that said it was very animated and happy, but it sounded exactly like the word psycho. Thank you.


texts: Ok, I see the word やる used in a lot of different contexts, meaning anything from "to kill" to "have sex with" to "make a vehicle go faster" to "give to someone of lower status". I am constantly dumbfounded but its use and I can't seem to see any correlation between these uses, other than that they may mean "to do". However, this is already covered by「する」so I'm not exactly sure what the definition is. Can someone give me a good general definition of「やる」and the ways it's mostly used?


texts: I don't understand this sentence 「自分は深く考えてなかった」

texts:
I'm lost, I think I get the general gist of the statement, but I'm unsure as to what the whole meaning is and while there's a few grammar points I'm unsure of (「とか」 and 「なんだな」 I'm guessing are a listing particle and a shortened version of 「なのだな」) I can't make sense of the 「自分は深く考えてなかった」 part.

(It's a comment on one of my HelloTalk posts. Basically me saying I think we learn a lot from your own and others' mistakes)

The post:

  私もそうおもいます ここは間違いやすいとこなんだな、とか自分は深く考えてなかったけどこういう理屈なんだな、とか。

What I think they said:

  I think so too. Here's somewhere you can easily make mistakes isn't or
  [This is the part I'm a little confused about] but, ["this is the
  reason"?]


texts:
After looking through a few questions on here, I came across the idea of the following being ambiguous.

私が好きな人

Apparently this can have the double meaning of 'the person I like' and 'the person who likes me'. Grammatically, I don't understand how this work. I was under the impression that が indicated the subject. Surely then the only interpretation is 'the person who likes me'?
As an additional question, if the above is allowed to have both meanings, then why can't 「私は猫がすきです。」 mean "I like cats" and "A cat likes me"?
So in summary, how do these meanings work grammatically?


texts:
Here are some natural ways to say "no" in English (please forgive the language):

No
God no
Hell no
F*** no

How to include the English nuances in Japanese?

Best attempts:

No - いいえ or ううん
God no - 絶対いや
Hell no - ありえへん or ありえない
F*** no - ??

Motivating examples:

Wanna eat soba again tonight? No.
Do you want to travel on Golden Week? God no.
Should we run another 10 miles? Hell no.
Want to go to a Justin Bieber concert? F*** no.


texts: Non conventional usage of the past tense

texts:
Why is the past tense used in this verbs (which doesn't make sense to me at least)

生きていた…？違うな…死ねなかったのだよ…！
再生機能を持ったこのアーマーに押し込みおった

and the translation uses present tense

Survive? That's easy... Because I can't die!
And switched my body for this armor with the power to rejuvenate me

Does it make sense to use the past tense? or it's just how the character talks?


texts: Difference between 禁 and 禁止 (and 禁じる/禁止する)

texts: Both nouns mean 'ban, prohibition' and both verbs 'forbid'. I expect that in set combinations, such as 禁煙 for 'no smoking', there is only one correct possibility. But, otherwise, what's the difference?


texts: Two-verb compounds: 振る舞う: plain-form + plain-form verb instead of masu-form + plain form?

texts:
I finished Core 10000 (an Anki deck) and 振る舞う (to entertain) was one of the last ones to pop up.

I find it interesting because to me it appears to be a combination of plain form 振る (to shake) + another plain form verb 舞う (to dance). This differs from all the other two-verb compounds I am used to such as 取り引き (transaction, noun in this case)、書き直す (rewrite)、やり直す (redo)、吹き出す (blow out), 話し出す (start talking)、飛び上がる (fly up), where the first verb is the masu-form instead of plain.

I cannot recall any similar plain-form + plain-form verbs like 振る舞う.

My theory is that either this verb is an exception to the rule or this verb is in fact, NOT a two-verb compound. It is simply ふるまう, a single verb, and the Kanji was conveniently added later to make it look like a two-Kanji compound.


texts:
Are there any tips for deciding to write みな or みんな? If I'm not sure can I just go with 皆?

Also, in speech is there a distinction made? If not, which pronunciation is more common in standard Japanese?


texts:
In the lyrics of 三十路岬,

みつどもえの泡と知りもせず
愛した罪は消えないの
誰を選ぶか決められないと 別れ上手なひとでした

There is this occurrence of みつどもえの泡, which I couldn't find a dictionary translation of. The first line seems to translate to

Without even knowing みつどもえの泡

(which is kind of ironic, since I don't know what みつどもえの泡 means...)
I do know what みつどもえ (三つ巴) means. It's this pattern:

But what does bubbles (泡) have to do with it?


texts:
I am reading Disney's Aladdin to learn Japanese. Here is a portion at the start:

  馬に乗って2人の男が、アラビアの砂漠のはずれで、約束の時間に、こっそりとあいました。

Two questions:

Just to confirm, はずれ means "on the outskirts", right? So they are meeting on the outskirts of the Arabian desert?
What is こっそりと？ I am suspecting it means "secretly" (こっそり)。But "secretly" being an adverb, why does it not use the particle "に", as in こっそりにあいました？


texts: Which particle do I use to express using a writing instrument?

texts:
"I'm writing with a pen"

"I'm writing with a pencil"

"I'm drawing with a blue crayon"

and so on.

  ボールペンでかいています。

or

  ボールペンをかいています。

or what do I use?


texts: Explanatory 「の」 particle being used twice in the same phrase

texts:
I was reading Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese on the explanatory 「の」 particle and was following it very well. I was able to understand the usage of the の particle in the end of sentences to add an explanatory tone. Then, Tae Kim explained that it's possible to conjugate the の particle itself, creating the following:

んだ (plain)
んじゃない (negative)
んだった (past)
んじゃなかった (past-negative)

Although confused in the beginning, I believe I was able to understand that as well. Except for one example:

                  (Taken from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obOAAmHHHVI @ 08:12)

Let's look closely to sentence A. (I have no problem with sentence B, I left it there for completeness.)

Why Tae Kim needed two の particles (separately highlighted in red)? Shouldn't one suffice? Worse, isn't using two wrong?

This seems like a double explanatory tone. In my point of view, the sentence A should be 日本 と 同じ なんじゃない instead of 日本 と 同じ なんじゃないの.


texts:
I was wondering, I learnt an う lengthens the sound before it. When I learnt the word みずうみ I thought it is a long u and saw it as a whole new word, but I noticed みずうみ exists of 2 words:　みず (water) and うみ (sea), the u does not function as lenghteing the ず but as the first syllable of うみ. I am a bit confused here: Do you say "mizu umi" or "mizuumi" as one word (with a long u)?

Thank you in advance!

日本語の学生より。


texts:
So, I'm the type to understand how languages work than actually speaking them. One thing which I really have a problem with is how で and は works. After a bit of searching, I learned that で meant にて, and that was fine and all, but that also complicated some stuff. Such as why is the て there relevant? Why not just use に and forget about で?

I then decided to look at other languages. One thing I realized, mostly in English, is how if you say "a is b," that doesn't mean "a == b," it means that "a is in the list of b." I also then looked at the uses of the て form of verbs and they seem to create a relationship between the two verbs, and from that, I decided that the て there would connect the に section to the verb. So, an example would be 「これはきれいである」 would mean that "This is in the list of pretty(things).

Then, I was pretty much satisfied with that, until 「ではない」. That pretty much made everything confusing to me again, on a large-scale. What I don't understand is how the は there is relevant, why would you just not simply use 「でない」 instead of 「ではない」? What makes them so distinguished?

I'm really having a hard time trying to understand this, it's been a month, and I still haven't been able to find and in-depth article about this, and decided to come here instead.


texts:
On a national gyoza festival:

  特に栃木県宇都宮市と静岡県浜松市の店には、たくさんの人が並んでいました。１つの家族が１年にギョーザを買う金額は、この２つの市のどちらかが日本でいちばんになっています。
  Lots of people lined up, particularly at the 栃木県宇都宮市 and 静岡県浜松市 stalls. The amount of money spent on gyoza by a family in one year has become the highest in Japan in either of these two cities.

Can 買う mean 'to spend on'? I'm having real trouble making a good sentence using the word 'buy'. Or have I completely mistranslated the clause?

I'm also not comfortable with どちらか here. My translation 'highest in either of these two cities' is bad English and bad logic. How should I understand どちらか in this sentence?

I think I may have got this translation very badly wrong.


texts:
I'm working through a translation for practice and in order to translate "spacious pockets" my two options are :

広々ポケット

or

広々としたポケット

I don't get where "とした" comes from and if it's necessary in that context. The examples I've found around the internet seem to relate to other instances, so I don't really get this one. Thanks so much in advance!!


texts:
目の不自由な方のものです。モノをおかないで!

The best translation I could come up for this is "It is your blind spot. Don't ignore it!"
おかないで confused me a bit. I don't know if it's 置く or 措く, but I also see that both forms can mean "to leave behind/exclude", which is why I thought that the phrase is referring to not paying attention to your blind spot. Is this accurate?


texts: What does this mean? - help with 続き and なら

texts:
日本語で[続]{つづ}きをよむならてつだいますよ！
  [続]{つづ}きをよんでほしいです

I'm confused about tsuzuki and nara. Going by it's definition of continuation... it doesn't really make much sense to me plus the conditional...

I get the sentence in essence is her wanting to help me learn to read but I don't properly understand it.

The context is; she is a penpal and is responding to a comment I made about why I want to learn to read Japanese.


texts:
I am having difficulty understanding this sentence. A comparison is being made to the effect that as the cruel feeling flowed out I washed the sea water out of the pants. But I am not sure about this. I understand that the だけ is the equivalent of ほど. But the sentence remains unclear to me.

  そうすればしただけ、リエを泣かせた昼間の残酷な気持ちが流れ出ていくかのように、私はできるだけ丁寧に海水パンツを洗った．


texts:
Good day. I have an inquiry regarding a line from Yotsubato, it reads:

俺は4分のところを6分待ってちょっとデロデロにするのが好きなんすわ

Which apparently translates to:

I like to wait six minutes instead of four so that it gets all nice and gloppy

What seems particularly strange to me is the のところ. Apparently, it behaved as some sort a comparative word, and if my translation is correct, the line can be taken as something along the lines of "In the place of 4 minutes, I wait 6 minutes."
I tried to do some research, but I cannot seem to find anything about this usage, so I am taking the question to this forum. Is my understanding of this usage correct?


texts: Are possessive particles implied in a conversation?

texts:
Today, in my Japanese class, my sensei presented a conversation which went as the following:

Person A: Bさんのせんこうはなんですか。
Person B: コンピューターかがくです。
Person A: わたしもコンピューターかがくです。

My confusion comes on the placement of も. Since the question is about the person's major, shouldn't Person A respond with "わたしのせんこうもコンピューターかがくです。" or even "せんこうもコンピューターかがくです" Otherwise, to my understanding, it assumes as if Person A is stating, "I am also computer science!"

Thus, this brings up my question, is the possessive (せんこう) obviously implied in this conversation?


texts:
I find that Japanese pitch accent seems to have some sort of interaction with the morphology. For example, 早い is pronounced [はやい]{LHL}, but 早く is pronounced [はやく]{HLL}.

Are these changes regular? No grammar book I have describes the interaction between accent and conjugation. I also find that the above pattern cannot be naively generalized ([すごい]{LHL} -> [すごく]{LHL}), but perhaps there is a deeper reason why the accent changes on はやい?


texts: 謝れとは言ってない　quoting someone's words or my own?

texts:
I'm having a little problem with some dialogue between two characters and I'm not sure about something. These are the lines in the dialogue:

  Character A: あの時の事は謝る。。。説明もするし。。。

  Character B: 別に謝れとは言ってない。

My first interpretation of B's line is "I didn't say (to you) to apologize.", but I'm not sure, so I could use the help. Thank you in advance!


texts:
While watching an anime, I took note of the phrase にげるんだよ！, which the character in question shouts as he is running away. From my research, the phrase can also be written as 逃げるんだよ！, but I haven't seen it as such in the native Japanese sources I searched.

I went on to analyze the sentence. にげる is a fairly straightforward translation to "run away" or "escape." However, I failed to understand the purpose of the ん character after it. だ also comes fairly straightforward, as the less polite form of です. Another particle I struggled with was the よ however, as from what I've found, it's a sentence ender that signifies the sentence contained new information or puts emphasis on it, which made little sense to me, given that the だ is already an emphasis.

My questions are:

What is the purpose of the ん character?

Did I assume correctly that the よ character is there because the speaker wanted to give the sentence additional urgency?


texts: A formal/informal way to say I don't want anything

texts:
I was told that is ok to use

  何でもないが欲しいです。

in an informal setting for "I don't want anything."

Is this correct? And what is an expression I can use in a formal situation?


texts: Why small version of katakana ヵ is used in a word 二ヵ国語

texts:
Why do they use sometimes small version of katakana ヵ 'ka' in a word 二ヵ国語
(nikakokugo -bilingual)?

For me, more intuitive form could be 二か国語. Katakana characters in small forms other than ya, yu, yo, shi + vowels should not even exist. ;)

Is there any significant reason for it?


texts:
二重敬語 is presumably considered bad style (or simply incorrect).

I hear/read 拝見いたしました all the time. Is it an example of 二重敬語?

I understood 二重敬語 to be a little more complex than "used a polite form more than once in a phrase".

To be a bit more precise, I think that to express a verb in 敬語, one should make the verb polite, but only once, so that

  お読みになる

is 敬語, but

  お読みになられる

is 二重敬語.

拝見いたす might be fine, because 拝見 is a (敬語) noun and いたす is a (敬語) verb; or it might be a problem, because 拝見する is a (敬語) form of 見る.


texts: Is this an expression and if so what does it mean?

texts:
I am wrestling my way through an recent article in the yomiyuri shimbun and I came across this sentence:

開催時期は６月から７月初旬を軸に調整する

My question is regarding this part: 軸に調整する

It really does not make sense to me, is it an expression and if so what does it mean?

Thank you


texts:
I have heard that Japanese adverbs usually occur along with particles in a sentence. Also, I perhaps simplistically consider particles to be the analog of prepositions in English.

In English it seems that there are often two ways to convey the meaning of an adverb, one with a preposition and one without: For example, "She sang enthusiastically." or "She sang with enthusiasm."

With that background, my question is whether it is reasonable to say that Japanese usually uses the "with enthusiasm" form of modifying verbs rather than the "enthusiastically" form?

This question and hypothesis are mostly for pedagogical reasons, and for the common case rather than a precise description of the language.


texts: Translation of "取り扱いを決めて物事の決まりをつけること。"

texts:
I searched for the meaning of 処分{しょぶん} in dictionary.goo.ne.jp and I come up with this:

  取り扱いを決めて物事の決まりをつけること。...

to me, it seem like "handling things" but I can't put above sentence into plain English.

remark, these are what I believe to be meaning of words in above sentence from Jim Breen's WWWJDIC

  取り扱い :(n) treatment; service; handling; management;

  決める : (v1,vt) (1) to decide; to choose; to determine; to make up one's mind; to resolve; to    set one's heart on; to settle; to arrange; to set; to appoint; to fix;

  つける (v1,vt) to turn on; to switch on; to light up; KD


texts: Can you use "anata" with people you don't know well?

texts:
I have read repeatedly that the pronoun "anata" (meaning "you") is very personal and should not be used.

But to say something like "Which car is yours?" I would say "Dono kuruma ga anata no desu ka?"

I don't really know a way around phrasing it that way. Is it rude / unusual to say something like that to someone you've only just met, like service staff, etc?


texts:
What does みてえじゃ in this sentence mean ?

  困ってるみてえじゃねえか。


texts:
I just watched an episode called:

  ハロルド王子{おうじ}さらわる！

What is this さらわる? Can it be written with kanji? Any reason why online dictionaries don't seem to understand its structure?


texts: The usage of が particle in linking nouns

texts:
This line is a lyric from a song:
「どっかから現れた 感情が僕だ」
What is the が particle here used for?
I've learned that the が particle would usually tie two nouns together as in, A is B, or something to that effect, but I can't see how it works in this sentence.


texts: What are the phonotactic rules of 促音 in lexical items?

texts:
In comparison to 連濁, finding rules on 促音 seems much harder. If possible, I would like to figure out what the rules are, that is, in which positions 促音 can occur, and in which positions 促音 is likely to occur. (Limited to Kanji-only words, that is ignoring phenomena such as っ for emphasis or elision in speech, e.g. っす)
For most words, these rules seem to hold:

促音 not in word-initial position
促音 only in the last mora of a morpheme
促音 only in two-or-more mora morphemes
促音 only rarely before some suffix morphemes (者, 的, the like)
促音 only in /u/ or /i/ based mora

I have also observed:

The rarer the word, the less likely it has 促音

It might be the case that:

More 促音 in 音読み words

The general pattern is: C(u/i)CV -> っCV
Seemingly, most consonants can only reduce in front of the same consonant (so がっこう), but つ and ち seem to be able to reduce in front of the same consonant.
つ and く seem to be the most likely to reduce, but perhaps only because they are the most common.
Incidentally, these rules seem pretty similar to 連濁.
Are there other tendencies that have been observed, e.g. via corpus analysis? Are there other rules?


texts: For 知る what is the difference between the simple present (知る) and 知っている forms?

texts:
あなたは電話番号を知りますか (anata wa denwa bangou wo shirimasu ka)?
あなたは電話番号を知っていますか (anata wa denwa bangou wo shitte imasu ka)?

In my book "あなたは電話番号を知っていますか" (anata wa denwa bangou wo shitte imasu ka) is translated as "Do you know the phone number?" instead of "Are you knowing the phone number?" But I'm confuse because I knew that to say "You are..." in a present form you have to use the standard form of the verb (shiru, taberu, miru) instead of the te form.


texts: Is 「出なくては。」 the same as 「出なくてはいけない。」?

texts:
I guess the novel I'm reading (「キッチン」 by 吉本ばなな) will be a source of many questions.

The part I want to ask about now is the passage where the main character is thinking about moving house. The passage is the record of her thoughts and contains some sentences that are not complete. In two places she's thinking:

  でも、ここを出なくては。

and later

  出なくては。

I'm guessing maybe 「出なくては。」 is a shortened, incomplete form and normally has something after は. Is it the same as 「出なくてはいけない。」 and the meaning is "I have to leave"?

(Let me know if I need to post more to give context.)


texts: If I want to learn to speak Japanese, is it vital I learn to write/read it too or can I just learn to speak it?

texts:
So I want to learn to speak Japanese, no deadline or anything that requires me to learn it, just want to know the world a bit better.

The biggest issue I've had when it comes to trying to learn is finding someone to answer my questions but that's another story.

My current question is that if I want to speak Japanese, is it required/vital that I learn to read/write it as well? I tried out lingualift's free trial for Japanese learning and it started off with having me write hiragana after some filler.

My goal is to just be able to have a simple conversation "How are you? That's good." "What would you like to eat?" "Where is the station?" with someone. It's not set in stone that I'll ever be engaged in Japanese much either, which is why I'm curious on if I really need to write & read it.

Anyone that can give me insight for this question; Thank you! It means a lot.


texts: It’s in an amazarashi song. When he sings, he says 僕ら but if when I look at the lyrics it says 僕等. Is there a difference in these?


texts: when to use 講座/ チュートリアル / 学習用

texts:
I have seen many websites use 講座 (to teach something) but generally aren't all 3 terms the same?

Can someone give example of each usage?


texts: What is the correct way of saying "see you"?

texts:
I've started learning japanese not long ago, from what I've learned the correct way to say "see you" is じゃ【ja】、また【mata】.

But I've just seen a show and a character said じゃね【ja ne】.

So I searched a bit and found that the translation is actually またね【mata ne】.

So could anyone clear this up for me? What are the differences, what is the role of また【mata】 and じゃ【ja】?


texts: Understanding 一番 when used with たくさん or 多い

texts:
My English-native brain is struggling to understand why 一番 is used with たくさん and 多い in sentences like these:

彼が一番たくさんのお金を持っている。
彼女が一番多いの食べ物を持っている。

I'm probably thinking about it wrong, but the first one reads to me like, "He has the most of a lot of money," and the second, "She has the most of a lot of food." In English, using two quantifiers ("most" and "a lot") to describe something this way seems very unnatural. Why wouldn't you just say「一番のお金」or「一番の食べ物」? Do you always need an auxiliary quantifier when using 一番 as a superlative?

I consulted this Japanese language English lesson that explains to Japanese speakers how to say things like this in English, but my Japanese isn't good enough to know if it even really addresses my question.


texts: How to parse 移民が多く働いているレストラン

texts:
首都のワシントンでは、移民が多く働いているレストランなどがたくさん休みになりました。
  In the capital -- Washington -- many restaurants where immigrants work took a break.

I'm not sure how to parse 移民が多く働いているレストラン.

Is 多く modifying 働く adverbially: "restaurants where immigrants work a lot".

Or is it two separate clauses i.e. 移民が多くて働いているレストラン: "In washington there are a lot of immigrants, and the restaurants where they work ..."


texts: How do you ask for ordinality (order in a sequence)?

texts:
What phrase do you use to ask for the n-th position of an object? Is there a straightforward and general way to do so?

  e.g. order of childbirth, place did the runner finish

Since you can use 3人目 for third, can you use 何人目 or 第何子 to ask, perhaps?

(This especially hard to ask since English has problems conveying this.)


texts: What's the difference between the constructs [adverb] なる (naru) and [adverb] する (suru)?

texts: For example, what makes 相手になる different from 相手にする. I know that 「～になる」 is to be/become something, and 「～をする」 is to do something, but what does each imply when used?


texts: Can 助動詞(auxiliary verbs) be used with other 助動詞?

texts:
I've been learning about these for awhile, but everything I've seen them used in doesn't use more than 1 at a time. Is there a reason for that?

Also my materials don't really explain the subtleties behind using 込む(to do something in an upfront way, i.e.聞き込む) and 回る(to go around doing something, i.e. 歩き回る) as 助動詞. Is there anything more I should know?


texts: Is あの人たちだけ魔法を使える。 correct?

texts:
あの人たちだけ魔法を使える。
Only they can use magic.

Is the above sentence grammatically correct? To be specific, I am trying to figure out if the word 'dake' (だけ) is put correctly after "あの人たち".


texts:
この部屋はシャワーだけでお風呂がないんですが。
  => "This apartment only has a shower but no bathtub"

This would be what I think this sentence says contentwise. I also think it could be a viable translation, but the way its expressed confuses me.

First, I'm not sure if I understood the overall syntax of the sentence correctly.
It seems to me that 部屋 is the topic here, but I dont think that it's the subject of the following clause.

  "Concerning the apartment, with the shower only there is no bath."

Second, I'm struggling with the connection of

  シャワーだけで

and

  お風呂がない

Since I assume that the sentence says that there is a shower, but no bathtub, attaching both nominal phrases (shower and bathtub) to the predicative ない gives me a headache.

And here, the third unclarity comes into play.

What is this で?
Is it the particle I was assuming? If so, are there any phrases omitted as well?
I just can't imagine how shower and bathtub shall be connected to ない, so there must be an omitted verbal phrase expressing the existence of shower.
Its either that or maybe you can explain how japanese can express the existence of something with a verb that's actually stating the non-existence of something ^^


texts:
What is the difference between

  第二回

and

  第二回目

It seems to me that 第二回 is more common and 目　is superfluous.
Are there any cases where not adding 目　would sound strange? Whats the difference in feeling between with and without 目？


texts:
A friend asked me to translate into English a short text. The context is Tokyo being a global city where people gather and experience a variety of lifestyles and values (価値観), and where art, culture, beauty, etc are combined together.

I came across this sentence:

  日常生活に+アルファのステータスや価値観を発信することが私達の役目.

I have never heard that "+ alpha" before. Doing a little research it seems to mean "something extra, a little more". I even found a short wikipedia page defining it as a 和製外来語 from the english "plus x". I understand the meaning I guess but I wonder if there is a better way to translate it into a more natural English.

I was thinking of translating that as a "enhanced status". Could that work?

Something like this:

  It is our duty/business to send out into everyday life that enhanced status and sense of values (or to enhance that status and values in everyday life?)

But I'm not very satisfied with it. Also I find 価値観 in general not very easy to translate.


texts:
The だけ meaning "only", and で being the "at/in" particle. When saying "only in/at", does the で　come before, or after the だけ? What does it mean, if anything, when it's reversed?

Example: "You can only get this plush toy in Japan". Is it,

  このぬいぐるみを日本だけで手に入れます。

or

  このぬいぐるみを日本でだけ手に入れます。

Side note: does the same principle apply to しか?


texts: Why use に in 元気にしてたか？

texts:
I learned that the particle に is meant to mark the place in a phrase, similar to in, on and at. But today I was reading Yotsubato and I came across this phrase 元気にしてたか and obviously this rule doesn't apply to 元気.

It didn't stop me to understand the conversation (at least I think so), I presume it meant something like:

  How you doing? Good?

Am I wrong in this? Why use the particle に in this phrase?


texts: How do you say "If only things were different"?

texts:
Context: Bob is angry that event X happened today. A series of unfortunate events throughout his life led up to this crappy day, and thus he thinks to himself, "if only things were different". How do I translate this line when 'things' refer to 'basically everything bad that has ever happened' and is so vague and all-encompassing that even Bob doesn't know what specific things he's referring to?

  thingsさえこんなんじゃなかったら


texts:
In books that I've come across and even in dictionaries, I've seen the word 「好きな」 translated as "favorite". I'm a little confused by this because 「好きです」 normally gets translated as "like", or in my mind, "is liked".

I'm wondering what is the Japanese idea behind the word 「好き」. For instance, in English, the ideas of "like", "love", and "favorite" all have a relationship, but at the same time are different. So I can say I like the colors red, blue, green, and yellow, and I love (especially like) the colors red and blue, but I can only say my favorite color is blue. There can only be one favorite since the idea itself implies that it is the #1 most liked thing.

When we were in school, if the teacher asked, "What is your favorite color," and you proceeded to rattle off a list of multiple colors, you would be corrected; the teacher would say, "Those are all colors that you like, but which one do you like the most?"

In Japanese, I understand that you have the terms 「好き」, 「大好き」, and 「一番好き」. When I look up 「好き」 on Kotobank, I see it translates 「好きな詩」 as "one's favorite poem". But how can this be translated as your favorite poem? Shouldn't 「好きな詩」 just be a poem that you like? Wouldn't your favorite poem be 「一番好きな詩」?

Returning to the color example, if someone asked 「好きな色は何ですか？」, would you respond with only one color, or would it also be acceptable to respond with more than one color?


texts: Does the term 女性語 identify words only used by women?

texts: Women speak with certain word differences when compared with men and I want to verify if this term is used to describe them. Thank you.


texts: Watashi versus Wataxi, are they different accents?

texts:
I've noticed after watching a lot of anime that sometimes "Watashi wa" sounds like "Wataxi wa" or maybe "Watakshi wa." The instances I've heard the latter were always from females. I was wondering if there's a different accent, dialect, or linguistic custom behind this pronunciation? Thank you.

For example, I heard it at 4 minutes 20 seconds into the video here:

http://gogoanime.io/basilisk-episode-14

(I used the top link). It also happens again at about 4m 38s.


texts: ７色 vs 七色 for rainbow (7 colors vs 7 prismatic colors)

texts:
虹は7色だ。
  Rainbow has 7 colors.
  There are 7 colors in rainbow.

Question:
how to pronounce 7色 to make meaning [7 colors]?

Problem:
七色 is not [7 colors].
It is a special scientific term, meaning [7-prismatic-colors].
We do not make [7 colors] meaning, if we pronounce this sentence like this.

  虹は七色だ。
  [niji-wa nana-iro da]
  Rainbow is the seven prismatic colors (thing).


texts: I need help with locating nuances in translation for the phrase 錆の浮いた

texts:
I'm trying to translate the following sentence, and I need some help with locating and understanding possible nuances for translating 錆の浮いた.

The two best possible translations of it ("become loose" and "to float") both work in the overall sentence; however, the issue is I don't know if there are any nuances that would lead to one being more accurate than the other.

Any advice or tips will be helpful.

  しかも、出入り口は錆の浮いた鉄扉がひとつだけ。

Possible translations I've come up with are:

  Furthermore, the exit and entrance to the room is only one iron door with floating rust particles.

  Furthermore, the exit and entrance to the room is only one iron door loose with rust.

  Furthermore, the exit and entrance to the room is only one iron door loose with rust particles.

Edit: The translation I am going with is:

  "Furthermore, the exit and entrance to the room is only one iron door peeling with rust."

Realized this is what the sentence possibly meant thanks to the very helpful suggestion via comment by sazarando.


texts:
I am reading a Japanese text, but i wonder how to read these set and function formulas:

A∪B={x|x∈A または x∈B}
P(X)={A|A⊂X}

How do you read these in Japanese?


texts:
As in the title: Are グラス and ガラス alternative spellings of the same word?

I'm going through a 2級 prep book for vocabulary and it has

ワイングラス = wine glass

but

ガラスのコップ = glass (for drinking)

and

窓のガラス = window glass

Are グラス and ガラス the same or do I have to be careful when to use which?


texts: Why many words (nouns?) end with つ？ Some examples include 寝室{しんしつ}、万年筆{まんねんひつ}. Is there some underlying patterns or rules that Japanese language learners should be aware of?


texts: How to find words you cant find in a dictionary? Help with translating Dragon Ball

texts:
I have been learning japanese for 6 months now and thought that I would have a stab at buying a Japanese comic book to try and read/ translate but I'm struggling!  There are many different words that are included in the comic that do not appear in the dictionary or in my Google searches.  One example is:

じいちやん - grandfather
エサ
とつてくる

These last two words I have no idea about.  I've spent my entire lunch break on just these two.  Any help on what they mean and how to better look up words like this?

Thanks


texts:
I understand that the word シクシク is 擬声語/giseigo/onomatopoeia equivalent to the English "boo-hoo/boo-hoo-hoo."

恐怖でシクシク泣く
: To whimper in fear
彼女はボーイフレンドに捨てられた時、あまりの惨めさにシクシクと泣いた。
: She wailed in misery when her boyfriend dumped her.

However, I also see it as a qualifier for pain, but I can't tell what kind of pain it describes. Is it a pain so "gripping" as to make one sob, or is it a "dull" pain (which implies something more to be inconvenienced or annoyed by)?

シクシクと痛みます
: It is a dull pain.
胃がシクシク痛む
: have a gripping pain in one's stomach


texts: Is there a triple vowel extension in this character name?

texts:
From the manga Hunter x Hunter, one of the character's Japanese names is ウボォーギン. It looks like the ボ is getting its お sound elongated twice, with the small ォ and the ー. In English it gets translated as Uvogin, but I would have thought the name would be ウヴォーギン then.

Is ボォー the same as ぼ、お、う? Is that possible?

Or maybe is this a slight pronunciation difference, like か and きゃ？


texts:
I am trying to understand the phrase 「想像をはるかに上回る」.
Here is the context:
There is an article / post whose contents are below.

私には夢があります。ずっと前から大切に持ち続けてきた夢なのです。
several lines later……
私も蝿に生まれたかったです！

In response to this, someone replied:

想像をはるかに上回る願望…笑

According to thesaurus.weblio.jp, among the synonyms for a similar phrase, 「予想をはるかに上回る」, is 「想像もつかない」. Looking at this, one might guess that the whole reply could be translated as "a dream that exceeds all imagination" or "a dream far beyond my imagination."
However, if this is correct, I am still not sure how that fits into the context. It seems to me that there are still several possibilities.

"I did not see (imagine) that coming."

"I cannot imagine why you would dream such a thing."

"I cannot imagine having that dream come true and living life as a fly."


texts:
ぼくらとちがったやつからみてもやっぱりこんな地層に見えるかどうか、あるいは風か水やがらんとした空かに見えやしないかということなのだ。わかったかい

1) 空か is some kind of strange lecture for 空 or it just plain 空 plus か

2) How do you take the second part of the quote, after, あるいは, 見えやしないか confuses me because it is a negative question.


texts: What's the difference between 風俗 and 売春?

texts: What are the differences between 風俗 and 売春? jisho.org simply defines the former as "sex service" and the latter as "prostitution", but I'm not sure how different "sex service" is from "prostitution" when both of these forms of services seem to involve women giving physical sex service directly to customers. Does it have anything to do with the involvement of coitus (vaginal or anal penetration)? How are they defined by law? Which one is illegal?


texts:
I'm reading the manga "Fruits Basket". On page 89 of the first volume, Shigure informs Yuki during supper that Kyo will start going to the same high school as himself and Tohru. Yuki responds with fury. He stands up, the background of the frame becomes stormy, and he lashes out at Shigure: "食べるな。近寄るな。出て行け…っ".

Above his head appears the description: 絶対零度の怒り

I looked for this phrase in Google and it seems to be relatively common. That is, not an invention of this particular mangaka. But of course I couldn't find a proper definition/explanation in any of the common dictionaries.

Now, of course this is a description of his anger, but I'm not sure whether it refers to the type of fury or the degree of fury. That is, does it mean "absolute, extreme anger" or indicates a specific anger that is not the usual kind of anger?

If it refers to the degree of anger, does this mean that in Japanese culture anger is perceived as cold? In my own native language as well as English, I think anger and fury are usually perceived as "hot" except particular types ("burning rage" vs. "cold fury"), so I'm interested to know if there is a cultural difference here.


texts: Popularity of ポッド as a abbreviation of ポッドキャスト

texts:
I know that many times loanwords are abbreviated in Japanese as a subset of their original length (ex: アイス for アイスクリーム).

Recently I heard someone say that ポッド was an abbreviation for ポッドキャスト and this surprised me since I don't ever remember hearing this word after listening to many Japanese podcasts (though much of this was years ago). Apparently it is a new trend.

My question is how common is ポッド and should I stick to saying ポッドキャスト?

To clarify, I am talking using ポッド as a noun by itself (as in 僕はポッドを毎日聞く).I think I have heard ポッド used as part of a compound word (I think there was a podcast-related site with a title like that, but can't remember it at the moment).


texts:
I've been studying Japanese for quite a while and I've realised lately that I didn't understand what the concept of the subject was in Japanese and even English too. As a native speaker of English I found this quite surprising but then again I don't remember much about my English lessons in school as it was a long time ago.
So I decided to search online first for what the subject is in English and I found a good definition which was:

A subject is the noun, pronoun or set of words that performs the verb.

And then I found the definition of what the subject marker が does:

"が" is the subject marker and marks a noun that performs an action

Are these the definitions of the subject in English and Japanese?
And if so, is it correct to say that the meaning of the subject is the same in both languages?
Also in this phrase

魚が好きな人。
Person who likes fish.

The fish (魚) is the subject here which is performing the action "to like"
(even though "to like" (好き) is an adjective in Japanese)
Is my understanding of this correct? Is it okay to use this idea when forming sentences/understanding them:

Person who likes Japanese, does not like English.
People who like Japanese language don't like English language.
日本語が好きな人は英語が好きじゃない。

Here, 日本語 and 英語 are both subjects performing the action "to like" ?
Can a sentence have more than one subject like above or is my thinking incorrect?
Despite the strange meanings you may interpret, the grammar is correct is it not?
If the sentences are strange or nonsensical, can you please explain to me why? I really want to understand.


texts: I saw it on a prep book and there says the meaning is to waste time and money, but I don't understand how.


texts:
I am still confused with whether or not there is difference between A and B given below.

A:　結婚に年齢制限がない。There is no age limit for marriage.
B:　結婚することに年齢制限がない。

Are there any difference between N and the nominalization of Nする?
The longer the sentence is, the politer it becomes, right?


texts: Use of Nagara if two people are involved

texts:
Can you still use nagara if two people are doing the actions? For example

  I was reading while he was making dinner.


texts:
What's the meaning of すます in 耳をすませば?

How would you translate this?


texts: Can 首 be used to refer to students who have just graduated and not  yet found a job?

texts:
The example sentences in WWWJDIC all use the word "首" in the "fire" sense (e.g. 彼を首にしてやる) hence I was wondering is the term only used to refer to "firing" someone?

Or is it also used to refer to students who have just graduated and not yet found a job (they have never had a job before so they can't be fired can they)?


texts:
I watch an animation called Detective Conan, which is about a detective. I read translations, but try to listen in Japanese. Sometimes, when he is asked "who are you?", the main character answers by saying "探偵さ" (or is it "探偵さあ"?).

In this case, what does さ means?

Thank you for your explanations.


texts: How to parse 友だちに〜聞かせられた?

texts:
芥川龍之介's story 片恋 begins with the following sentence:

  一しょに大学を出た親しい友だちの一人に、ある夏の午後[京浜電車]{けいひんでんしゃ}の中で[遇]{あ}ったら、こんな話を聞かせられた。

Perhaps because 聞く can mean both "to hear" and "to ask", and also because of the causative conjugation of the verb, I'm not too sure of the correct interpretation of 友だちに〜聞かせられた. Would anyone be able to provide some clarification on how to parse this word? My guess would be to translate the passage as follows:

  I heard this story one summer afternoon from a close friend with whom I had attended university, after we bumped into each other aboard a train from Yokohama.

聞かせられた appears to mean "was caused to hear". Is this as circumlocutious in Japanese as it would be in English? Could 聞かれた or 聞いた be used instead?


texts: Using いちばん、にばん (first, second, etc.) in a sentence

texts:
こんにちは　皆さん、

I want to use first, second, etc. in a sentence, i.e. say "first car, first love, etc". In this case, would using　の　be correct as the linking particle, e.g.　いちばんの車、　いちばんの愛?

ありがとう　ございます！


texts: Do [贈]{おく}り物 and プレゼント mean the same thing?

texts: The use of loan words such as プレゼント are used much more just like カメラ is and such. So should i just disregard [贈]{おく}り物 and focus my memory on something else or do you know if [贈]{おく}り物 is still used and is important till this day?


texts: Was クリスマスケーキ used metaphorically about women?

texts:
There's a belief that "Christmas cake" (presumably クリスマスケーキ) was used metaphorically about Japanese women over 25 - no-one wants Christmas cake after Christmas is over, and similarly men don't want to marry women over the age of 25. Sometimes it's qualified by saying that current generations don't use the phrase.

It's mentioned on the English language edition of Wikipedia, mostly citing non-Japanese people, but not the Japanese edition. Weblio doesn't mention in its example sentences or definitions of the phrase any cases of it being used metaphorically, and doing an image search doesn't bring up any non-literal cakes.

Was the phrase used metaphorically this way, and if so, do current generations understand, or still use, the phrase?


texts:
OK, this has been driving me nuts. My friend and I have been learning Japanese off and on for many years, though neither of us are fluent. We got into an argument about the pronunciation of 'え'.
My textbooks said it was an English "short e" as in "bet" or "step." In my opinion, that's the IPA [ɛ]. That's how I've always pronounced it (unless it's a long ええ　and then I use [e:]).
My friend was pronouncing it like the Spanish "e", closer to the English "long a" sound (although not a diphthong) and like the IPA [e].
The wikipedia page on this is inconsistent. It says it's the IPA [e] sound as in American English "bet," but that is definitely not the way I or anyone I know pronounces bet! Here's "bet" in wikitionary, agreeing with me.
When I play clips of Japanese audio and listen closely, I hear [e] in some words and [ɛ] in others. What the heck is going on here? Is there any kind of rule, does it vary by speaker, does no one notice or care?
This difference is very noticeable to me when my friend is pronouncing it. Possibly she's Englishizing the vowel a little bit. When listening to native speakers, I have to focus slightly to hear the difference, but it's still very obvious. What gives?


texts: Am I interpreting this 出てくる sentence properly?

texts:
The sentence is this: よく話で出てきます。
Here's how I looked at it:

よく is the adverb "well".
話で is something like "by means of a story", unless で here is the て form of the copula.
出てきます looks to be a compound of 出る and 来る, with ます for politeness. I looked up 出てくる, and it seems to mean "come out".
So reading literally, I get "it comes/will come out well by means of a story".

In a less literal, more English way, "it'll sound good in a story". Or maybe "it sounds good in the story", with the implication that in real life it actually doesn't sound good.
If the で is from the copula, then it could be "it'll come out well being a story". Less literally, "it'll be a good story". I know in the original sentence it can't be "good story", because よく isn't an adjective, I'm just trying to write it as I would in English.
I'm pretty rubbish at Japanese, and I'm a pessimist in general, so I'm assuming I'm wrong. Any help would be appreciated, even if you only write the meaning and don't explain.
Thanks!


texts:
On Denshi Jisho looking up "おとこのこ"　brings up two results:

男の子 and 男のコ

Edit: (child not boy)

I read the first one literally as "Male [possesive] child" or "Male's child" (or maybe の here is not a particle, just part of the word).  The second one is strange.  They have the same definition.  Why do we have a Katakana コ　here?


texts: Where can I find the nuance/meaning differences between words with different kanji options?

texts:
This question is related to the questions (here) and (here) regarding a word or verb with multiple kanji options, for example [作る、造る、創る] or [蔵、倉、庫]

Is there a resource somewhere that will tell me the nuance differences in between the kanji? This can be in English or in Japanese. Teachers will often give me a distinction, but I haven't found a way to look this up myself.


texts: Expressing that something is multiple things at the same time (e.g. "She is an artist and a poet")

texts:
How does one express multiple states of equality? (Probably the wrong terminology.)

For example, "She is an artist and a poet" in Japanese.

I know です can be used to show equality. For example:「彼女{かのじょ}は画家{がか}です。」

How to say both? Something like「彼女は画家と詩人{しじん}です。」?

TIA.


texts:
ジャックは誕生日会に行きます。
彼はメグのために誕生日のプレゼントを買う必要があります。
ジャックはあまり多くのパーティにはいきません。
彼は緊張し、 何を買おうかと思います。

What is the role of には in ジャックはあまり多くのパーティにはいきません? The only usage of には I know of is for contrast but I can't identify what contrast is being made here.
Secondly, I have trouble translating あまり多くのパーティにはいきません. Does it mean "doesn't really go to alot of parties"?


texts: Is there a Japanese phrase that gets translated into English as "Steel and rice" coalition?

texts:
In a course I attended about Japan, there was the mention of a "Steel and rice" coalition. I don't understand the concept, so I can't define it.

When searching for the phrase, one match was for the following, in "Japan Transformed: Political Change and Economic Restructuring" by Frances McCall Rosenbluth and Michael F. Thies:

  The result was a "steel and rice" coalition backing the LDP, whereby
  heavy industry provided money for campaigns and farmers turned out the
  vote in large numbers.

The book compares it with an "iron and rye" coalition in nineteenth-century Germany. This makes me suspect that there is not a Japanese phrase that gets translated into English as "steel and rice" coalition, but instead English-speakers merely made a snowclone based on "iron and rye".

Is there a phrase that exists in Japanese that gets translated into English as "steel and rice" coalition?


texts: When is this kanji 区 used in an "area" context?

texts:
I've been studying kanjis for the JLPT and I still can't understand when 区 is used. The textbook only said that that kanji means area but it doesn't have examples. I found one like this on the internet:

  東京23区


texts: Am I right about the use of the causative in this sentence?

texts:
A man says this to someone that attacks him and his family:

  妻にも娘にも手は出させん！

AもBも means both A and B / neither A nor B, so I get that part. And 手は出す means touch here I think. I'm not sure about the tense though. It might be a shortened version of the negative of the causative form of 出す (出させない). If that is correct, then it would make sense that the "let s.o. do X" meaning of the causative is used here, and not the "make s.o. do X" meaning.

So then it would mean something like:

  I won't let you touch my wife and daughter!

Even though it's not really a difficult sentence, in the sense that you can guess based on the context what he's trying to say, I would like to know if I interpreted the use of the causative correctly or not (if it is indeed a shortened version of the negative causative).


texts:
I'm struggling to understand this definition:

  ［名・形動］他人の意見を無視して、自分だけでよいと思い込んでいること。また、そのさま。どくぜん。「―な（の）言動」. 「デジタル大辞泉」

Namely this part:

  自分だけでよいと思い込んでいる

I am not sure what "thinking that only yourself is good" (can't find a less awkward literal way to translate) would mean in Japanese.

Arrogant? (e.g. giving advice in a patronizing manner)

Or acts only out of self interest? (e.g. not giving advice thinking it would be a waste of time but being humble about it)

Or - only values his own opinion (short-sighted, myopic - disregarding any opinions that may be contrary to his own).

Could someone please help me clarify how someone would use 独り善がりの考え to describe someone?

お助けください


texts:
Two characters are playing a game and talking about some more serious stuff at the same time. They both think the game is kinda crappy, and in particular they get to a scene that's trying to be emotional, but they feel it's just trying too hard/poorly done. However, one character then thinks:

  そんな、エセ感動シーンの力を借りて、今だけ、ちょっと真面目モードに移行する。

From what I can tell, this seems to be saying: Drawing power from the (crappy?) scene, he moves into serious mode.

However, I'm not sure exactly what エセ means. I suspect it's some slang.


texts: How do you say there are "x" number of days until some event or something?

texts: How do you say something like: "There are 8 days until I go on vacation"? I'm pretty much confused on the how to say "x days/hrs/weeks until blank".


texts: 第 [dai-] vs 目 [-me] in forming ordinal numbers

texts:
As I understand fo now 第 [dai-] and 目 [-me] both turn 5 to fifth.

  五匹の犬  [go-hiki no inu] five dogs
  五匹目の犬 [go-hiki-me no inu] the fifth dog

Here everything is clear.
Articles and books say you have to use counters in Japanese.
匹 is counter for small and middle-sized animals.
Manuals say, that you can not use numbers without counters

  五目犬 [gome inu] the fith dog - illegal
  五犬目 [go inu me] the fith dog - illegal

They say, that you must use some counter here like this.

  五匹目の犬 [go-hiki-me no inu] the fith dog - legal old school, classics

Ok, everything is clear to me.

But here comes 第 [dai]...

  (Opt-1) 第五犬 [dai go inu] the fifth dog
  (Opt-2) 第五の犬 [dai go no inu] the fifth dog
  (Opt-3) 第五匹の犬 [dai go-hiki no inu] the fifth dog
  (Opt-4) 第五匹目の犬 [dai go-hiki-me no inu] the fifth dog

OMG!!! WHAT THE HELL?!

My questions:

Q1: Which of these 4 options are legal?
Q2: Does all 4 have sence?
Q3: If yes, if there any difference between them?
Q4: If Opt-1 is legal and ok why it is allowed to use numbers without counter?! In every article on counting there is info, that you always have to use counters. But what, if you use [dai] no counters for [inu] is allowed?!

第 [dai-] as [The fifth dog] vs [The dog #5]

I know, that 第五犬 have additional meaning for [Dog #5]
It is equvalent

to 第5犬
and to 五番の犬
and to 5番の犬

As I understand all these "number"-forms does not relate to the "fifth dog"-meaning.
Therefore my questions are about [the fifth dog], not the [dog #5].

Q5: What options in Japanese to say "the fifth dog #5"?

  (Opt-F5-1) 第五第五犬 [dai go dai go inu] the fifth dog #5
  (Opt-F5-2) 五匹目の第五犬 [go-hiki-me no dai go inu] the fifth dog #5

The meaning of the imaginary situation:
there are 5 dogs, each of them has #5 on the badge
we see the first dog #5
we see the second dog #5
...
and finally we see the fifth dog #5.

A screenshot from new anime "OVA Re: zero "Memory Snow" which shows example of using dai with counter but for some reason without の [no].
I thougt that の [no] MUST ALWAYS go after counter, but here we see real example without の [no].
Strange thing....


texts:
From the lyrics to 'indigo love story' by indigo la End:

  僕らは命を取っ替えた

Can't find this in the dictionaries I have access to (takoboto android app and jisho.org - also let me know any dictionary reccomendations if you like)


texts: So I've come to learn that something + だね means something along the lines of "Is it __?" with an expected yes answer. I received this kind of comment as a response to a photo I posted on the internet. What are some common/friendly ways to respond to this?


texts:
The archaic Japanese word bateren 伴天連 / 破天連 (referring to a missionary [Jesuit] priest) is derived from the Portuguese padre.

The Portuguese word notably does not contain or end in a nasal consonant, and all other Portuguese loans to Japanese I'm familiar with only end in ん when the Portuguese word itself has an n/m or nasal vowel.

Given this, why was it adapted as bateren as opposed to the expected *batere / *patere?


texts:
There's a JP musician whose work I really love. He sells his songs for $2 apiece online. This is all well and good.

But a while ago, he uploaded an alternate version of one of his songs, and I've found I like it way more than the original. Problem is, he never put it up for sale (and also the quality is low.) So, I want to send him a message on Twitter and ask him if there's any way I can buy it in high quality.

The only thing I can think of is asking him if 買い方がありますか, but that really doesn't sound right at all.


texts: What is the difference between 義務and 本分?

texts:
Now, I try to brush up my vocabulary in Japanese.
In dictionary, both 義務 and 本分 mean "duty". Is there any differences in usage?
And can I use 本分 instead of 義務 in following sentence?

私の公の行為を当局者以外に説明する義務はないと思う.

with regards,


texts: What's the difference between 折【お】る and 折【お】れる? According to my dictionary, they both mean to break or to fold. When would you use one over the other? These verbs are on the JLPT N4 vocabulary list.


texts:
What is 女子力?

I see it often recently, and understand that it does not worth discussing seriously about it. I know it is a stupid word. Just curious how people are interpreting it.


texts:
ufotableが書き上げた脚本を、奈須きのこが原作者としてリライトしたのが本稿である。

My question is according to this sentence what happens to the written text of the film. Sorry for my low japanese knowledge but I started 2 months ago.

Edit (this edit was made after the answer had already been given): I found another sentence which is more relevant as this time it is said by the author himself in his blog

http://www.typemoon.org/bbb/diary/log/201506.html

  #25の制作は「ほぼオリジナルなので、まずは原作サイドで書くべし」と始まりました。
  そしてできあがったきのこによる脚本モドキを前に頭を抱える制作陣。

It was answered (to make sure) here: Understanding the true meaning in this sentence

A good translation would be:

The production of episode 25 began with "since it's mostly original content, it should first be written from the original author's standpoint". And then the production team clutching their heads at the completed so-called script by Kinoko.

So basically, as Naruto says at the end of the comments in that question: The sentence in this question says "Kinoko wrote it first as an original work, and ufotable modified it"


texts: Could you explain to me the meaning and grammar of this sentence?

texts:
The sentence is:

今回もそうなるのではないかと心配している。

I know the words but I don't quite get the meaning.
This is the whole writing:

今日、兄が新しい自転車を買った。問題は、住んでいるところが少し治安が悪くて、盗まれるかもしれないことだ。前にも、兄は自転車を買ったことあるが、残念ながら盗まれたので、今回もそうなるのではないかと心配している。

I don't quite get what is "のではない" doing in there. 今回も means this time, too. そうなる means something like become so or be the case and 心配 is to worry. I think it'd be logical to think that it means something like "I'm worried it will happen again this time" but that is just my guess based on the context.


texts: The role of か when 行こうか is not a question

texts:
In the sentence:

  よし じゃあ　行こうか

When the intonation of 行こうか implies an invitation and not a question, what is the grammatical role of particle 「か」?


texts: Unifying concept for noun-adjectives of the pattern Xかな

texts:
Consider these:

～か：

静か

愚か

厳か

～やか:

穏やか

鮮やか

賑やか

～らか:

柔らか

滑らか

明らか

There are many more that I've not listed.
The か/やか/らか at the end of these words seem to suggest that they stem from a common grammar construct. What is it? And does it mean anything?


texts:
I came across this expression in my JPLT N2 study materials.

I deciphered the parts as

可哀想{かわいそう} means pitiable, pathetic
でならない　means can't help feeling

so does it mean "can't help feeling pathetic"?
How is this used in context? Does it mean "I feel very pathetic" or when I look at someone or something, I'm thinking "that person/thing looks so very pathetic"?


texts: They're both "price", but I don't see the difference. Even the Kanji appear to suggest similar meanings. Thanks for any advice!


texts:
This is the whole phrase and the sentence I don't understand is in bold:

  そして、コルド大王の息子で
  悪の帝王と呼ばれるフリーザは
  千年に一度あらわれるという
  「超サイア人」のウワサを不快に思い、
  サイア人を、 彼らが住む惑星ベジータごと、
  宇宙から消滅させてしまうーーーー。

So "消滅させて" being passive and "サイア人" is the direct object, then "彼らが住む惑星ベジータごと" it's a clause that explain what the Sayajins are/were.  ごと could be a nominalizing suffix like:

  As to Furiza (...) the sayajins, they who living in the Vejita planet, were sadly extinguished from the universe (by Furiza?).

I don't undestand what they are using the dictionary form for 住む、 and if it's referring to "彼ら", the sayayins or modifying "惑星ベジータ", and i dont understand the use of ごと here.

Thanks form your help.


texts: Trouble with Specific lines, possible series of puns

texts:
I'm having trouble with a specific set of lines in this song.

  本当は噛み締めてなんかいやしない

  I really didn't understand it

  明日の日付も今日も飲み込んじまえ

  But I understood it completely today and tomorrow

  咀嚼の時間も　緊急停車にも気付きはしない

  When I understood it, I hadn't realized (I had understood it) when we
  were at an emergency stop.

This is my best guess, but I'm not sure about these lines, especially the last one ("The time of understanding, and at the emergency stop, the realization was not there" is what I took from it literally) and also since every word I translated "understand" could also mean "chew," which confused me, although I went with understand since in context chewing wouldn't really make sense.

I guess what I'm asking is this: Is my interpretation correct? Am I missing something about the whole "chewing" thing?

Thanks!


texts: ここんとこ (ここん所) and other "every now and then" adverbs

texts:
I have been in the market for some good synonyms for ときどき, and I encountered one today that I wanted to share, and also ask for some opinions, since I can not find a correct definition online.  The specific use I encountered is:

俺実はここんとこずっと同じ夢を見るの subtitle: "Lately I keep having the same dream"

Context:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/a-dark-rabbit-has-seven-lives/episode-1-900-seconds-of-after-school-part-one-580756 (4 minute 6 second mark)
The entry in the Jim Breen dictionary is:

此処ん所; ここん所 【とこ】 (n) this place; here

And I think this is wrong, I think it is of the same general variety as ときどき, ときに, and たまに.  However, I think it probably has a bit of a different nuance as well.  I think that the use here, as well as uses I find in Googling for it, are showing that ここんとこ is good for showing that a phenomena has started happening and is currently still happening on and off.  I should qualify that observation by noting that I just totally made that up myself.  I also see some uses that might be referring to something physical, simply as a replacement for このところ, but I'm not entirely sure.  Oh, and ここんところ seems to substitute without any real difference in meaning.
Obviously I want to ask if anyone can give a definition with confidence.  I would also like to know how this word would fit into your arsenal of words to express occasional occurrences, which is something I'm always wanting more precise words for.  If I had to express the idea in my example I might have said 最近ときどき, which sounds kind of clumsy now.
Thanks in advance!  I'm new here, and I'll be taking a stop by meta soon to ask some more questions about how to use Japanese SE effectively.


texts: How to say ,"Stand up for yourself" and "take advantage of"

texts: I have a younger friend that I want to use these kind of expressions with, but don't know how to say it in Japanese. I want them to do their best and not have people take advantage of them. I feel they might be the kind of person, that would take negative things from other people to their detriment. So, I want to say something like, you have to stand up for yourself sometimes. If you don't people will take advantage of you. Any ideas?


texts: ～てあげます versus ～ていただきます

texts:
What's the difference between these two sentences?

リサに道を見せてあげました

リサに道を見せていただきました

I'm studying the structures ～てあげます and ～ていただきます, but I can't understand the difference, they both look the same to me. Can you help me please?  I'm going crazy.


texts:
The sentence in question:
運転再開の見通しは立っていないということで、ＪＲ東日本は止まっている列車の乗客を別の列車に移して運ぶとともにトラブルの原因を調べています。

For full context:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20180617/k10011481821000.html?utm_int=news_contents_news-main_001

My attempt at translation:
"About the forecast for the resumption of service, none is standing so far and JR EastJapan is investigating the problem while also carrying over passengers from the stopped train to another train."

My main issue here is the 移して運ぶ because it seems to me that these two words basically form "one word"/"one meaning", but jisho doesnt list any entry for such a composition. Therefore I wanted to ask wether Im correct or completely misinterpreted it.

Furthermore, I also feel rather unsure about my understanding とともに. I read about it here http://japanesetest4you.com/flashcard/learn-jlpt-n3-grammar-%E3%81%A8%E5%85%B1%E3%81%AB-totomoni/

"年を取ると共に体が弱ってきたようだ。
As I become older, my body becomes weaker."

And to me it seemed like the only viable option here, but I might be wrong of course.


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

texts:
While translating Kanzaki Iori's song '命に嫌われている', I've found strange the following sentence:
...誰かを嫌うこともファッションで...
Isn't が used in sentences like "I like/hate sth"? Please explain why here it is like this.
Thank you.


texts:
I would like to say the following in Japanese: contact, contact me and email here.  Would the following suffice:

"Contact" as in: contact:abc@mail.com.  Is it simply: コンタック / Kontakku ?

Contact Me as in contact me:abc@mail.com. Would it be Watashi ni renraku shite is there a simpler way to say this?

Email Here as in email here:abc@mail.com  メールはこちら / Mēru wa kochira


texts: なので relationship does not seem to match in そうじが楽なので、部屋にはなるべく物を置かないようにしている

texts:
This is one of the questions taken from the book 「N3文法スペードマスター」:

  そうじが楽（　）、部屋にはなるべく物を置かないようにしている。

The blank in the bracket is to be filled with one from this set of choices:
はず、のに、ため、ところ、べき、なので

I'm not too sure if I'm right or not, but I translated the second half of the sentence as this: I make it a point to, as much as possible, not leave stuff lying around in the room.

After translating that, I proceeded to translate the first half as: cleaning is easy ( ), .
From there, I thought of there being a relationship between the two halves as such: In order for cleaning to be easy, I make it a point to, as much as possible, not leave stuff lying around in the room.

However, I cannot find any answer from the set of choices that could possibly fit that description, and the answer from the book was なので, which, as I would translate it, makes the sentence something like: Because cleaning is easy, I make it a point to, as much as possible, not leave stuff lying around in the room.
(Edit: I chose ため as my answer. I kind of forgot that that answer seemed logical to me before I checked the book's answer and got confused.)

That didn't really seem logical to me, and after pondering for awhile, I reasoned the answer as: I make it a point to, as much as possible, not leave stuff lying around in the room, because cleaning will be easy then.

However, that brings up another question, which is how the discrepancy cleaning will be easy instead of cleaning is easy came about. Perhaps my translation of そうじが楽 is wrong?

Thanks in advance! Hope my question is clear enough and doesn't sound lame.


texts: What does the 'ga' at the front of 'ga hanasemasu' do?

texts: I have just learnt that 'hanasemasu' means 'to speak' and that 'ga hanasemasu' means roughly the same. On Google Translate, 'hanasemasu' comes up as 'able to speak' and 'ga hanasemasu' comes up as 'I can speak', but as far as I know, there is no conjugation in Japanese, so if you want to specify 'I can speak', you would add 'watashi wa' at the start. I have also seen it written as 'wa hanasemasu'. So my question is: what does the 'ga/wa' mean?


texts:
I have the following sentence, extracted from a textbook,

  こちらからお願いに伺うべきところを先方｛せんぽう｝からお出｛い｝でいただき、恐縮した。

This sentence feels a bit overly polite which does not help me. I think that こちら is the one who speaks (it could be a legal entity but since the verb is お出でいただく I assume that it is an actual person), 先方 is the one who did the favor to the subject here omitted.

So I understand “お願いに伺うべきところを” as “at a time where you should have asked me a favor”. 先方 seems to means someone else in one's in-group (内).

If I understood correctly, here, the speaker explains that he/she feels sorry for not having been the person to come while he/she feels strongly he/she should have been asked.

Is this interpretation correct or did I fumbled my way around with 先方 and お出でいただく?


texts: 「人はだれしもが、…」and「人はみんな、…」

texts:
The first sentence is from a book synopsis, while the second one is from the preface.

ひとはだれしもが、心に灯台を持っている
ひとは皆、心の灯台を持っている

They both seem to mean the same thing.

Are there two subjects in these sentences (ひと and みんな)?
Is it optional to use が after だれしも or みんな? I mean, is it correct to use it?
What's the meaning of が in this specific case?


texts:
Sentence:

全員のオススメを食べて事なきを得よう

what does なき mean here? Also what difference would it make if I replace 食べて事 with 食べる事?


texts: How does present tense work in Japanese narration?

texts:
Novels in English are generally completely written in past tense, but Japanese narration is quite confusing because they constantly switch between past and present tense. For example, take this excerpt from a light novel I was reading.

  加藤は、泣かない。
  英梨々みたいに、泣く訳がない。
  けれど、いや、だからこそ……
  その、初めての叛逆が、まるで尖った木の枝で刺されたかのように、鈍く痛んだ。

From an English reader's perspective, such a paragraph is bizarre since it's a mix of present and past tense despite describing events happening at the same time. I have heard of sentences such as 私の言うことを誰も信じなかった, where only the end part of a sentence is past tense, but I am unsure if this applies to an entire novel. If I wrote an entire novel in present tense and only made the last sentence past tense, does that retroactively make the whole novel past tense?

There is also how the present tense of a verb often expresses something different from future tense or habitual action. For example:

  まだ日も暮れない夕方の通学路を、駅に向かってゆっくりと歩く俺と加藤

A sentence like that is quite confusing because 歩く seemingly means "walking," the progressive form of "walk."

There are also many sections in songs where present tense is used. For example*:

  諦めかけた夢がまた　波打つあの日のままで

It doesn't fit the usual definitions of the Japanese present tense. The best fit, I found, was wikipedia's definiton of the simple present tense for English where it says "In providing a commentary on events as they occur."

However, now I am in a conundrum. Is Japanese narration done in past tense, like English is usually done, or are they narrating as the event happens? In addition, now it is very difficult to distinguish between describing habitual actions and providing commentary as an event happens when reading Japanese.

*Link to song lyrics


texts:
留守番電話に伝言入れたのに、それを 聞かなかったそうです 。

So, the problem I have is the following:

In my textbook, I learned that ます-stem + そうです means "to seem", like "雨が降りそうです。"

Then, dictionary form + そうです means hearsay, like:

  田中さんは出張するそうです。

In this sentence we're talking about, strictly speaking we have neither dictionary form nor masu-stem. We simply have non-polite past.
So, does this construction even express one of the two things I explained, or is そうです in another function here?


texts:
In a video game I'm playing, the main character, who is a middle-aged man, and his child-like young friend meet a farmer, who seems to address the younger of the two as 「ボクちゃん」.

An example:

  オレは ピーター。この はたけの オーナーだ。オヤジと ボクちゃんは どうして ここに?

What exactly does ボクちゃん mean here? What does his choice of words tell us about his opinion of the other two men?

Is the word possibly related to 坊ちゃん, or does the "manservant" meaning of 僕 come into play here?


texts:
I'm analyzing the subtitles of the first episode of an anime entitled "Bleach."

During the opening there are subtitles for the theme song. There is a line that is read as such:

"物語のような石が沈く" translated as "As a story tells, the rock will sink..."

I am only aware of the verb shizuMU (沈む) not shizuKU

Is this a different form of the verb? Or is it an irregular reading of the kanji used?

Because I am aware of 滴 (雫), a suru verb and noun, but that is for a drop of water, or dripping.

Anyone have any idea? Is it just a regional accent?


texts:
I am reading Yotsuba&! manga Ch.82, Pg.12 (source)

What does the last bubble on the lower left side (おまえすがすがしいな) mean? What does すがすがしいな mean in this context?

Dictionary meaning is

  refreshing; brisk; bracing; fresh; refreshed (source)

How is the dictionary meaning used in the above context? Is there some other meaning to すがすがしい?


texts:
Is ありす, or a name pronounced the same as "ありす", a traditional feminine given name? (If I have to define traditional, then pre-dating the end of the Sakoku policy)

I've heard about parents naming their girls ありす because they like the foreign name "Alice", but does the name actually pre-date the event of Japanese knowing the word "Alice"?


texts: How do ように and 基本的に work in this sentence

texts:
The following is an excerpt from a dialogue between and my language partner.
I asked her about the use of ところどころ and wether particles need to be attached at the end or not.
For context, this is the full block in which she replied to me concerning this topic:

  「所々（ところどころ）」の使い方です。
  これが意外と難しいです。助詞がつく場合とつかない場合があるのです。
  「所々」は「あちこち」を意味する名詞ですが、それ自体で副詞のようにも使えます（in places)
  「所々、原作と違ってもいい」 は正しい使い方です。
  「所々に、原作と違う部分がある」 も正しい使い方です。
  「所々で違う場面展開がある」 のように使うこともできます。

  使い分けを説明するのは難しいのですが、基本的に「所々」だけで使える場合が多いように思います。
  上の３つの文章はすべて「所々」だけでも使えますが、「所々に、原作と違ってもいい」 という言い方はできず、「所々で、原作と違ってもいい」 という言い方はできます。
  つまり、助詞を使うことで意味を限定しているのではないでしょうか。
  わかりにくかったらごめんなさい。

The sentence in question:
使い分けを説明するのは難しいのですが、基本的に「所々」だけで使える場合が多いように思います。

My attempt at translation:
"Though it is difficult to explain the proper use, I think..."
I can't really translate any further without relying on mere guessing.

First, 場合が多いように really confuses me. Im sure ように is in the "like X" function here, however the reference point is not a noun since it is ように and not ような. This reference point must be 思う since there is no other verb or word at all in succession of ように. The problem is, I really cant think up any meaningful connection between the phrase  場合が多いように and 思います. Not with ように in the "like" function, and even if it was in the "in order to" (final) function, I wouldn't really know how to put together 場合が多いように with 思います in any way which would still make some sense. Oh and it seems like と was omitted before 思う. Does that in any way change things in this sentence?

Second 基本的に「所々」だけで使える. This is obviously the attribute to 場合 but since I can't make any sense of the phrase 場合 is embedded into, I'm asking about the two parts separately here.
=> "Basically, being 「所々」 only usable (cases...)."
My main issue here is で. I can't really see if it is the continuative form of the copula or the particle で. However, in both cases I'm still clueless how to properly translate it...


texts: Whats the meaning of the structure てたって?

texts:
I saw this structure on the caption of the anime Batman Ninja, when Joker is speaking:
そこの猿野郎が俺たちの頭をいじくってたってわけで
I think the only thing I don't understand there is the たって, after the verb いじくる in the て form.
I think the translation is something like this: This stupid monkey (gorilla Grodd) tampered with our heads. (I think there is no translation for the words わけで in the end. They are just there to show that his afirmation is a conclusion of what he had seem happening on the moment.)


texts: Trouble with もう二度と列車や車には乗らん

texts:
I've been trying to read a manga book and there's one bit that I can't get my head around. The sentence:

  もう二度{にど}と列車{れっしゃ}や車には乗{の}らん

I'm fine with most of it but I'm confused about why the は exists and why the verb ends in らん. Please help me, thanks a lot :)


texts: Sushi wa sukidesuka vs sushi ga sukidesuka?

texts:
According to Google, I should use ga:

(Anata wa) sushi ga sukidesuka?

Why ga and not wa?


texts: What are the colored borders of a tatami called?

texts: I researched several dictionaries and I am unable to precisely identify the term. Thank you.


texts: are the usage of うるさい to mean "fussy" and the usage of 草 to mean "substandard" archaic?

texts:
I was thinking what things could be described with  草 (3) not genuine; substandard;)

Can we describe someone who is a ゴミ as 草? Like say:

アイツはどうおもう？ くさだ！

Or is the　"substandard" meaning of 草 already "phased out" ?

Also, is the usage of うるさい to mean "fussy" archaic / "phased out"?

Like let's say I say メシにうるさくするんな！

Does it simply sound weird (like i'm some old grandpa)?


texts: Is there any difference between 使ってみましょう and 使いましょう？

texts:
使ってみましょう and 使いましょう

Do they mean the same thing?


texts:
俺はさ、お前らにお友達になれって言ってんじゃないのね。中学のときにネットを挟んだ敵同士だったとしても、今はネットのこっち側同士だってことを自覚しなさいって‌言ってんのね。

Official translation: Do you get it?
The source is from Haikyuu season 1 episode 2 (around the 10 minute mark). The line is said by the club's captain, who is generally patient, responsible and understanding but could be scary when he gets angry (like in this moment). Does this info affect his choice of words and fit into the image of a typical male captain?
When I read the translation at first, I was a bit taken aback by how much it differed with my own interpretation. But after thinking it through, I wonder if the translation provided above is not a literal one. Could it be that the sentence also means "...is what I am saying" (lecture about rules and such) and the translator tweaked it a bit in a way that still fit the context?


texts: Please can someone explain the use of こと and ことに in these sentences?

texts:
Can someone explain the use of こと and ことに in these sentences please?

  しかし、たくさん歩いても、動物を見つけることが出来ません。
  However, even though they walked a lot, they were not able to come across any animals.

  二人は山を降りることにしました。
  The two men went down the mountain.

Many thanks!


texts:
永沢君たちって、...なんていうかジメジメしてるところが怒られるもとになってるでしょ？
  As for Nakasawa's crew,...how do I put it? Their gloominess becomes the source of them getting told off. Right? (my best-guess translation)

I thought してるところ was "in the middle of doing", but I can't get the sentence to work with that translation. "The source of being told off is 'in the middle of'/while/during being gloomy"? The implication seems to be that they only get told off when they are gloomy.

Have I totally messed up the overall translation? Could you please clarify how ところ is working here? Many thanks.


texts:
I feel, that 市の名前 as [name of the city] is somewhat unnatural, but I can not explain to myself why I should use 都市の名前 instead. Jisho says that 市 is a noun and no restriction to use it.

Maybe the problem is just in sounding?

For example, if we use 市の名前 it is ok in written text but in speech it becomes [shi-no-namae] = [name of death] or [itchi-no-namae] = [name of one], and only for that reason Japanese use 都市の名前 which produces nicely [toschi-no-mae] = [city's name] = [name of city].

Is that logic right?


texts: Usage of する for the five senses - 音がする, 匂いがする, etc

texts:
Do these type of expressions mean that something is being perceived or that something is producing said sound/smell/etc?

For example, in the Weblio website I saw "門を叩く音がする" translated as "There is a knock at the door". But "足音がする" is translated as "I hear footsteps."

So does "音がする" mean "(I) hear a sound" or "There is a sound/(Something) makes a sound"?


texts: What is the difference between 〜ないではいられない and 〜ずにはいられない

texts:
I was taught that these two phrases are interchangeable and have the same meaning.

However, I recently wrote a few practice sentences using this grammar point and they were corrected to use ずには instead of ないでは

The sentences I wrote were:

  知り合いにそっくりだったので、話しかけないではいられなかった。
  まだ子供なので、許さないではいられなかった。

However, both of these were corrected to:

  知り合いにそっくりだったので、話しかけずにはいられなかった。
  まだ子供なので、許さずにはいられなかった。

I was under the impression that both were acceptable and can't find anything stating otherwise. Is there something in particular with these sentences that they can only use ずには？ Or am I completely missing something?


texts: What's the function of the particle も in 「かわいい写真たてもうれしかったけど、…」?

texts:
If you look at my translation of the sentence below from a text book (総まとめ N3 読解), I think you will agree that I have guessed the meaning correctly but can anyone explain the grammar to the first phrase in bold?  The particle も seems to have a wider usage than that given in most books or perhaps there is an omitted phrase?

  「かわいい写真たてもうれしかった けれど、それより、
  黙ってプレゼントを用意してくれていたことに感激した。」

  "I was very happy with the photoframe (?) but more than that,
  I was touched that she prepared a present secretly, without revealing anything."

Context: This was an entry to a young woman's diary, trying to think of a nice birthday present for her friend.


texts:
Let's say I want to call a policeman, or I am in a n-person conversation involving a policeman and I want a word to refer to the policeman. And let's say I want a respectful word.

I believe おまわりさん could sound a bit insulting (low rank).
Should I say 警察さん?
Is there a more respectful way to call a policeman, who actually might be an officer?


texts:
Started learning Japanese two weeks ago and don't know which one is more natural.

雨が漸く止めた。

OR

雨漸くが止めた。


texts:
I'm struggling to understand how to translate "Last Edited By", for an online document.

I think there must be another english phrase to use, and translate that, but I just cannot think what it could be.

先の編集者 (previous editor)  ?

and subsequently the "Last Edited Date"


texts: S1 と S2 conditional S2 being in past tense

texts:
ごんは、家に着くと、ウナギを家の外に置いて、言いました。

In this sentence, a fox called ごん has run all the way home to escape an angry fisherman who he stole an eel from.

Why is と the conditional used here?
I could understand had it been たら because that one is like sequential, but と isn't is it?
I thought that if you had a conditional with a past tense S2 (Sentence two) then it was meant to indicate a surprising result. What is と doing in this sentence?

Thankyou


texts:
This disaster response website has a map with a checkbox that visitors can click to display all the 避難所{ひなんじょ} in the area. And then there is another checkbox to display all the 避難場所{ひなんばしょ}:

Both translate as "shelter" in my dictionary.
What is the difference between the two?


texts: 「何かあるごとに」Not quite sure what it means or how to translate

texts:
What does 「何かあるごとに」 mean in this sentence, the best i can come up with is, "every time something happens", but it doesn't seem quite right.

  何かあるごとに姉がこうしてくるので「抱擁」しているのですが・・・違いましたか？

context, is that one is hugging the other, and the one getting hugged is slightly flustered.

The best guess i can come up with for the whole sentence is, "each time some happens, a big sister does this, so i'm hugging (you), but... was i wrong?"


texts:
I understand this sentence as meaning "Touya will lose! At this rate he will not last 5 minutes" but I am puzzled as to why と is used here

With a direct search i see that "と持たずに" is not only a used phrase, but it seems to always be used with time expressions. However I don't know what sort of と this is, and a phrase like （５分）と持つ doesn't seem to exist. In fact a phrase like 'last 5 minutes' seems to be ５分持つ without any particle, so I am a little lost.

I wondered if I should interpret it as a conditional と, so that the meaning is something like "five minutes like this and he will not last" but I am pretty sure that is not right.

Any help would be appreciated.


texts:
In my Japanese book it lists the following:

  Hutsuu, bejitarian muke no oishii shokuji o mitsukeru no wa muzukashii
  desu. = It is normally hard to find good vegetarian food

  Supein ryouri wa donna kanji desuka? = What is Spanish food like?

  Sono tabemono wa oishikatta desu. = That food was delicious

What's the difference between shokuji, ryouri and tabemono? They all refer to food, but is there any difference between them or rules as to when to use one over the other?


texts: Sentence patterns for starting a picture description

texts:
I'm trying to do some picture descriptions to practice my Japanese (which is quite at a beginner level), just to avoid to focus only on grammar and 漢字 memorization, which can become really boring sometimes.

So my question is, how could I express something like This picture is about xxx or In this picture, (you can see/there is) xxx in Japanese?

My attempt at this is

  このしゃしんの中に、ｘｘｘいます。

  (xxx = the main object in the photo)

Any comment or suggestion about this?

I was looking for easy sentence patterns. I don't aim at building complex discourses, I'm just trying to keep the level slightly higher with respect to what I can achieve without consulting a dictionary or grammar.


texts:
Translation: I'm a busy man
I got this from the manga "Blue Period". The translation provided above is from the official translation. From my understanding, 付き合い indicates a relationship, specifically the state of knowing someone, so it does strike me as odd how the words (in the trans) was phrased. I guess it is kind of a paraphrase, but even then I don't understand what the original sentence mean and how it fits into the context.


texts: お父さんの無念を引き継ぎ糧にすることが出来る。 What's the meaning?

texts:
お父さんの無念を引き継ぎ糧にすることが出来る。

I tried to understand what this sentence means, but I am totally confused.
It was related to an assets that left behind, but there was 糧 character which means food or provision, it's really confusing.
Please kindly help. Thanks.


texts: Is the book Genki wrong about volitional + と思っています?

texts:
I've been looking for this on the web but can't find my specific doubt.

I just read the Genki 2 chapter about volitional + と思っています to say you are planning on doing something. The book is pretty clear that this grammar can be used ONLY to express our own opinions or intentions and not other's.

But right after the lesson, the first exercise says: "Describe what each person is planning to do" and the example follows:

  メアリーさんは日本でいろいろな経験をしようと思っています。

The book just said is used for our own intentions but then the example is trying to tell us that another person is intending to do as if we know other person intention.

So, can this grammar be used to express other people's intention?
Thank you beforehand.

よろしくおねがいします。


texts: Which is more formal/polite: 大いに or ずいぶん?

texts: I know とても is not very formal, but what about ずいぶん and 大いに? Are ずいぶん and 大いに interchangeable, and if so, which is more formal?


texts: 休んだほうがいい仕事ができます translation

texts:
長い時間働き続けるより、少し休んだほうがいい仕事ができますよ。 I'm not sure about translation of this.
In my opinion, I think it is " I got a job that I should rest a bit than to continue working for a long time" but I think mine is not correct and sounds a bit confusing.

Actually I don't know how to translate"長い時間働き続けるより、少し休んだほうがいい仕事" properly. I can only translate as "A job that (I) should rest a bit than to continue working for a long time.


texts: What is the function of で in this sentence?

texts: If the purpose is to have the meaning "unlimitedly", Since 無制限 is an adjectival noun we should use に to turn it into an adverb instead of で if I'm not mistaken... ?


texts:
今更何を知ろうというのだ。早く『シン』を倒せばよかろう。

It's from a video game Final Fantasy X. These are the words of the Grand Maester Maika, the party comes to him, but he didn't expect their arrival.

My translation:

  What would you like to inquire about now?

The volitional form 知ろう in this case defines their will to know?


texts: Negative verb form vs Verb + ない stem + ぬ

texts:
What's the difference?

For example: 気付かない vs 気付かぬ


texts:
I was reading the sentence:
'大勢でレストランへ行く時は、前もって予約をしておいたほうがいいと思う。' ,
but I have not understood what this expression means.


texts: What is being omitted in this advertisement sentence?

texts:
Here is the sentence.

  部屋の数は六畳二間に、八畳とDK。

To give more context, this refers to residential sales advertisement. DK stands for dining kitchen.

  部屋の数は六畳二間に(あり)、(他のは)八畳とDK(である)。

Is my "fill in the blanks" correct? Or perhaps there is nothing omitted.

I'm not sure I fully understand the sentence. What I got is "There are 2 rooms with 6 tatami mats, an 8 tatami mat area(?), And a dining room + kitchen.". Now, my teacher told me that there are only 2 rooms, the 8 tatami mat one is not a room. I don't know much about Japanese rooms, so I got confused.

Furthermore, is this 間 a counter for space?


texts: How commonly is てめぇ used as a synonym for 自分?

texts:
The following exchange happens in One Piece:

ブルック: い...行くんですか！？サンジさん！！！
サンジ: 行かいでかてめぇの問題だ！！男サンジやらねばならぬ！！！

I found the sentence kind of baffling at first because as far as I know  行かいでか is Edo dialect for 行かないでいられるか, meaning he feels he needs to go, but then てめぇの問題 seems to imply he thinks it's not his problem.
I then looked up 手前 in a dictionary and saw this definition:

一人称の人代名詞。自分のことを謙遜していう語。

Is this the meaning being used here? How common even is this use nowadays? Would you see it used in real life or just in fictional media?


texts: 嬉しい vs 幸せ. Which one to use in this case?

texts:
Both mean happy. 嬉しい is an i-adjective, and 幸せ is a na-adjective. If I want to say, "The happy boy studied at the library", which one should I use? The boy in the sentence is feeling happy at the moment.

  嬉しい男の子が図書館で勉強しました。

or

  幸せな男の子が図書館で勉強しました。


texts: Ambiguity issues with と when performing multiple roles

texts:
My understanding of と:

と performs listing

と indicates reciprocal action

The above two uses are indivisible from each other. That is to say that this particle is special in a sense that it always works in both senses. (I would like to assert a homologous relation to と to its Chinese counterpart 跟[gēn])

Consider:

AとBとCと会った

AとBとCが会談した

For the cases above, is it:

A with B with C

A with (B and C)

(A and B) with C

If all three are possible interpretations, how is the ambiguity resolved?
Can I resolve ambiguity by:

Using a pause when speaking. E.g. "Aと(pause)BとCと会った" to mean "A with (B and C)"

Using と again. E.g. "Aと[BとCと]と会った" or "Aと[BとC]とが会談した to mean "A with (B and C)"


texts: What does the phrase 落し物をされる mean in this sentence? It doesn't sound like correct passive voice

texts:
The context is that someone has lost a present and the main character goes to look for it. He goes up to a shopkeeper who asks him what's wrong and he responds with

ええ、少々探し物を。昨日チャミーさんが落し物をされたらしくて。。。何か気づかれませんでしたか？

This looks like the passive form. I'm confused because if Mrs. Chammy is the subject here, then what is being done to her and who is doing it?


texts: Can anyone think of a "greeting" (older man to younger woman he's never met) that is funny (but not impolite) because it contains mispronunciations of a normal greeting? It would be mimicing a genuine attempt to greet someone but unintentionally saying something else. An example would be if "Are the Shogun's tennis shoes purple?" (in Japanese) was a mispronunciation of a recognizable real Japanese greeting. (I would need an English transliteration of it, if anyone can think of anything, along with Hiragana or Katakana.) Thanks!


texts:
During reading a book in Japanese I stumbled upon a sentence impossible for me to translate

  そこでは、すべての条件を彼の御都合的な権力目的の方向へ手段づけて行く極端な目的合理主義が貫徹された結果、一定の究極価値から行為規範を演繹してくる価値合理性は、種類の如何を問わず蹂躙され尽して、遂にニヒリズムが生み出されたのであった。

I fully understand the second part, but I just don't get the grammatical connection between 「結果」 and the second part of the sentence. I also don't understand the phrase 「手段づけて行く」 at all.


texts:
As I understand it, それゆけ is an interjection that might be translated "Go!" or "Go get 'em!"

While the second component is clearly 行け, what is the intended sense of それ here?


texts: How can I use the conditional ～ば and desiderative ～たい together?

texts:
I think the title is self-explanatory.

I've been wondering how to combine the desiderative (たい) and the conditional (えば/たら).
For example, if I want to say "Excuse me, what should I do if I want to smoke here", it thought it would translate to "失礼{しつれい}ですがここでたばこを吸{す}いたければどうしたらいいですか", however I'm not sure whether that's correct or not. Also, if possible, could someone also provide a few examples of how to use both たい+えば and たい+たら so I could grasp the difference and meaning properly?
Thank you in advance.


texts:
For full context, see this document:
https://www.docdroid.net/CAEv4Gb/img-20170726-0001-new.pdf

The sentence in question:
赤と白のしまのセーターにジーンズをはいた女の子ですね。

1) Is it necessary to write い-adjective + の here, or would 赤くて白い work as well?
Is there a difference in meaning?

2) why is there this に? I can’t make any sense of it. To me the sentence says: „It is a girl wearing jeans and a sweatshirt in red and white stripes.”
What function does に have in this context? Oo


texts: という used right before comma: What does this mean, and how is it grammatically possible?

texts:
Finding questions about the meaning of という isn't too hard, but the answers tend to revolve around its usage before a word particle or something, such as in ということ.  However there's a sentence in a children's book - おむすびコロリン - where several words are said, then という, then a comma, then several more words:

  おじいさんはごちそうになったうえに、ほしい物をなんでも出してくれるという、打ち出の小づちをおみやげにもらって帰りました。

という doesn't seem to be a special expression unto itself, not without help.  But if you try to treat it as と and then 言う, how is that grammatically possible right before a comma?  i.e., why wouldn't it be といい、 というと、 or といって?

EDIT

Something that just occurred to me: could it be that, despite where that comma is placed, いう is still ultimately modifying 打ち出の小槌, as in "a nursery-tale-magic-mallet that is said to bring forth anything which one desires"?  If so, the comma seems kind of surprising, but they are used a little bit differently.


texts: Why is "学校があるからお休みが染みるんだなあ" a poem?

texts:
I was reading a web manga, and came across this panel:

The spring break (春休み) has just started for this character, and apparently she refers to the following as poem (as in 詩を詠んでしまった):

  学校が

  あるから

  お休みが

  染みるん

  だなあ

My translation:

  It's because school days exist that holidays make a deep impression on you.

Which I understand.

But from the way the lines are broken, I can't see a 5-7-5 syllable pattern, so I'm not sure what distinguishing feature this thing has that makes it a "poem". It could have been some random text that someone has written and signed with their name, right?

Is there some kind of rhythm to read this that makes this particularly poetic or something?


texts: how can I use japanese pronouns if I am beginner in the language japanese?

texts:
hello everyone I am very beginner in japanese just I have 2 day learning japanese then I am not expert in this language yet I saw in Wikipedia this japanese pronouns:

watashi わたし
watakushi   わたくし

there are more way but I think this first two are fundamental if I want to learn japanese.

as say in its description from every expresion say this:

in watashi say this:

  In formal or polite contexts, this is gender neutral; in casual speech, it is typically only used by women. Use by men in casual context may be perceived as either stiff or feminine.

I understand is only used by women but it is saying that : perceived as either
   stiff or feminine?  then I can not say if I am man this  word is only for women in
   informal way? or what?

in the second word say this :

  The most formal personal pronoun.

but in much book I see alway say that is more common say watashi?

my question is: what japanese pronouns should I use first if I am beginner A1 in tje language japanese.

I hope my question is not noob but I am new in this language and I try learn well this language I hope you opinion,suggents,critical,etc.

PST:Merry Christmas


texts: What is the difference between ある日 and 一日

texts: Based on what I was able to find, both means "one day" except ある日 is used when referring to a certain day. Could I use these words interchangeably? or are there situations where using one is unacceptable/improper?


texts: Could someone help me with this word (や)やかん please?

texts:
The full text can be viewed here: じゃあるまいし
https://www.docdroid.net/XIK9pCk/img-20171020-0001-new.pdf

The sentence in question is from line 8:

  おかしなことですが、実は、日本へきて受けたカルチャーショックの一つは、子供のサンダルややかんのピーピーなる音だったんです。

My attempt at translation:

  It is a weird thing but, well, concerning one culture shock I received coming to Japan, it was "peep peep" ringing sound of the sandals of the children.

In my translation, I simply left out ややかん since I have no idea what it could mean.

I couldn't find anything for ややかん, since I guess the first や is the enumerative particle. However やかん didn't render any useful results on jisho as well, at least not from my perspective on the full sentence.
So maybe someone could solve this riddle for me?^^