texts:
I don't know if "part-of-speech" is the best term here, since it generally has a Western language orientation, but I am curious as to what function the word gegege has in reference to the TV show title GeGeGe no Kitarō. I asked my grandma—a native Japanese speaker—what exactly this meant. She said that it didn't really have a lexical or direct meaning in the same way a noun would. I take this to mean that the gegege is kind of there for the sake of being there and for how it sounds.

I've noticed that Japanese seems to have lots of interjections or onomatopoeic words which don't always have a direct and easily definable meaning (e.g. ねー, as in, ちょうっとーまってね), but gegege seems to be even farther along the spectrum of easily definable words. Is there a grammatical category for such a word?


texts:
I just started learning Japanese and I recently learned something like:

  このかめらと、あのらじおをください。
  (Please give me this camera and that radio.)

Note that I have not learned Katakana yet so sorry for the Hiragana up there.

So, what if I want three or more objects at the same distance. For example, I want the camera, TV and the radio that is right in front of me.

Can I say something like:

  このかめら、てれびと、らじおをください。

To omit some "and (と)"?

Thanks in advance!


texts: Is the particle を in をでる comparable to elative case?

texts:
I remember that Estonian has multiple grammatical cases marking some kind of location. I recently learned that the particle を can be used to mean something like "out of" or "from", for an action that involves continuous movement, such as,

  うちをでます。

This reminds me of the elative case, which marks "out of" or "from", e.g. maja is the Estonian word for "house", and majast means something like "out of the house". Is this case comparable to the function of を in the above sentence, or are the concepts too different for this analogy to be useful? The reason I ask is because I suspect I haven't fully grokked this particle usage.

Please could you use furigana for any kanji you write in an answer.


texts:
どうして田中が好きなんですか

From what i understand, the sentence above doesn't have any subject, so depending on the context, it can be both Why do I like Tanaka? or Why do you like Tanaka?

Is this correct ?


texts:
もう学校始まってから二週間もたってるよ

Please verify because I've seen in some dictionaries it's already an obsolete word, it means mota-"having done"

Some dictionaries don't have a word mota so I can't see the conjugations on this one.


texts:
"盛りなる御代..."
It's from Genjimonogatari.

My two cadidates are either もる ·さかる, so "mori-naru" ro "sakari-naru".

I can tell the meaning of the word, but I'm not sure which way I should read in this context, and in this specific book.


texts: What is the grammar behind 'te' 'soshite' and 'to'?

texts:
I want to know which 'and' to use in this context:

I went out today and it was fun.

I don't know for sure if it is 'te'.


texts: How do I make sense of the calligraphic characters for 六波羅坂東寺会戦?

texts:
Hi

Can anyone assist by shedding light on the way that hiragana/kanji characters have been historically used in this 1850’s title cartouche? The catalogue raisonné for the artist simply records the work as: Rokuhara han Tōji kwaisen, and it is usually seen translated as The Fight at the Eastern Temple, Rokuhara in Kyōto, though there is no actual mention of the word Kyōto in the title.

Might the title translate as The Battle at Tōji in the Domain of Rokuhara? My best transcription of the Japanese characters is 六波羅坂東寺会戦, or 六はら坂とち[とぢ/とじ?]会戦. My inclusion of alternative hiragana in square brackets will be obvious in a moment (see point no.4).

In trying to make sense of the characters I have a few observations and questions.

It is difficult for me to read because characters are written in a calligraphic form that is--as I would describe it--an ‘intermediate’ style between hiragana and kanji. For instance, the second character ha は is derived from 波, and the third character ra ら is derived from 羅, constituting part of the word “Rokuhara.” Likewise, I think the fifth character to と is derived from 東, written in an intermediate form, forming part of the word Tōji (東寺).
The first three characters of the title can be read as “Rokuhara”; two of these are in sōsho, if my understanding of that word is correct. Rokuhara (六はら or 六波羅) was a south-eastern district in Kyōto that functioned as the Kyōto headquarters for deputies of the Kamakura shogunate.
The fourth character appears to be a cursive form of the kanji han 坂. The usual kun reading of 坂 is saka, meaning a “hill” or “slope.” References seem to indicate that the Goon reading is ben べん or hon ほん; the Kan’on reading is han はん; the Kan’yōon reading is ban ばん; and the Kun reading is saka さか. The title does not appear to make sense if the meaning is “slope,” so I wonder if han 坂 is being used phonetically in substitution for the character han 藩, a Daimyo’s “domain” in the Edo Period; a precursor to current prefectures. This is why I questioned whether part of the title would be read as “the domain of Rokuhara.” Does anyone have observations on han being read phonetically (in the context of ateji or man'yōgana)? Is this far-fetched?
My big question is in relation to the word Tōji (東寺). The fifth character to と is derived from 東, and is written in an intermediate form, however, it looks like the sixth character is a ち hiragana character, which would be pronounced chi. For it to be pronounced ji it should, I'd have thought, be written as ぢ or じ. The kanji 寺 can have a Goon reading ji じ, a Kan’on reading of shi し, and a Kun reading of tera てら; chiefly, a Buddhist temple. I have not been able to find an old cursive form of じ that looks anything similar to the form ち as written in this cartouche. Can anyone shed light on this? I’m confused by this, as Tōji (東寺, literally "East Temple", first known as Kyō-ō-gokoku-ji, 教王護国寺, “The Temple for the Defense of the Nation by Means of the King of Doctrines”) makes absolute sense in the context of the image, and being in Rokuhara.
Finally, there are the characters 会戦, read as kaisen for “battle,” but also written in an older form as kwaisen. I assume I have these right?

Any observations appreciated.


texts:
I was wondering for this line:

  緊張してるの？準備は丸一日しただろう。

Let's say A says this line to B. Does it sound alright id I say:

"You prepared the whole day, didn't you?." (so, why are you nervous?).
If I rearrange the sentence as 丸一日準備をしただろう is it the same meaning?

Is 丸一日した an adverb here? Kinda feel that maybe the に particle was left out, is it the case? (the character A who speaks has a colloquial way of talking, with many informal, shortened phrases, so I'm thinking that leaving out some words is appropriate for him).


texts:
Okay,first off:I am not really someone who studies japanese or is a native speaker but I am doing karate1 for some years and I hear some words or phrases here and there.There is one common saying from Shoshin Nagamine:

  Once when asked for a brief definition of a good Karate person, Osensei Shoshin Nagamine replied: Kisshu fushin, Oni te hotoke kokoro. A demon's hand, a saint's heart.

This is mostly abbreviated with Kisshu fushin.As per online tools,there are no translations available that would explain this.
As far as I can see, "Oni te hotoke kokoro" would pretty much mean "Demon with the spirit of a saint"(as I know that Onis are some sort of japanese demons and the rest of it got translated to somewhat related things).But what does Kisshu fushin stand for?

Plus:explaining the whole sentence would be very nice ;)

1) I hope that you are not tired of explaining language to some ordinary karateguy :D


texts: What is the difference between higashi (ひがし) and touyou (とうよう)?

texts: It says that higashi is translated as "East" , and touyou is translated as "the East". But since I can only find books with Japanese - English and I'm not native English speaker, I still don't understand.


texts: In the next sentence she wants to heal her wounds herself or she wants them to be healed?

texts:
The sentence is as follows:

私が付けた傷が、少しでも癒えますようにって。

In hopes that the pain I've caused you will be eased, even if it's only by a tiny bit.

Or

Let me heal the wounds that I caused you, even a little.

The previous sentence was あなたのことを気遣ってると思いこむことで、逃げてるんだよ。


texts: What is the difference between 蔵, 倉, and 庫?

texts:
The word 【くら】 can be written with any of the kanji 蔵, 倉, or 庫. However, WWWJDIC lists them all under one entry, defined as:

  (n) warehouse; cellar; magazine; granary; godown; depository; treasury; elevator;

Is there a difference in nuance or usage between these three kanji, and if so, what?

Update: @istrasci points out that:

  [When] 蔵 is used as【〜ぞう】in compounds, it's used to denote ownership or possession.

  Whereas compounds with 庫 seem to refer more to a physical storage facility.

Does anybody know about different nuances of the word 【くら】 itself?


texts:
I have 2 older sisters. When talking to other people about them, do i refer to them both as 姉 or do i refer to the younger one as 姉 and the older one as 姉上?

Thanks!

P.S I thought this question would have already been asked, but couldn't find any. Even Google didn't have much on it.


texts:
The English Wikipedia page for Kyūjitai kanji begins with the following line:

Kyūjitai (舊字體/旧字体, literally "old character forms") are the traditional forms of kanji, Chinese written characters used in Japanese. Their simplified counterparts are shinjitai (新字体), "new character forms".

However, comparing some Jōyō kanji to Hyōgai kanji, some characters with the same component are written slightly differently, where the Hyōgai kanji will match the standard Korean form (and the Kangxi dictionary form). An example for some characters from the phonetic series 「翟」 is given below:

Jōyō kanji: 曜 濯 躍
Hyōgai kanji: 翟 戳 趯

Notice that for Jōyō kanji, 「翟」 looks like ⿱⿰ヨヨ隹, rather than how it is normally displayed as a standalone character. Some other examples include characters with the components 「兌」/「兑」, 「{{ko:包}}」/「包」, etc.

On the Japanese Wiktionary page, 「{{ko:曜}}」 is listed as the Kyūjitai form of 「曜」, but on the 常用漢字表, 曜 is not considered to be simplified from anything (i.e. there is no character in brackets listed next to 「曜」. This can also seen in the list of Shinjitai kanji with their Kyūjitai counterparts in the Wikipedia page for Kyūjitai kanji). Are changes like these considered to be a Kyūjitai/Shinjitai difference, or are they classified as something else?


texts: As time goes on in our age of increasing reliance on computerized kanji input, this question may become increasingly irrelevant, but when I'm writing a sentence with (gasp!) pen and paper, I have always struggled to remember where the dividing line between kanji and okurigana lies with each character. Is there any way (aside from brute-force memorization, which I'm attempting at the moment) to learn and reliably recall okurigana? Are there any patterns I can rely on?


texts: Particle と as a standard of comparison with まで

texts:
Referring to the sound of an extreme megaphone:

  地上なら、何十キロと遠くまで達する音だ。
  If it's above ground it is a sound that will reach as far as several tens of kilometres.

I'm pretty confident I've translated this correctly but I don't understand how the と particle is working here.

My guess is that it is being used to mark a standard for comparison. So in really bad English I have "The sound reaches distantly, as much as compared to tens of kilometres".

If my above assumption is true then what happens if I remove まで? My guess is that the sentence becomes ungrammatical. So I can have 地上なら、遠く達する音だ.
But neither 地上なら、遠くまで達する音だ nor 地上なら、何十キロと遠く達する音だ make sense on their own.

In summary I feel that the と and まで particles are teaming up in this sentence. To give AとBまで with a meaning "As much as characteristic B when compared to A".

Could I rephrase it as:

  地上なら、何十キロほど遠く達する音だ。

Would that be wrong? Have a different feel?

Is my analysis correct? If not please enlighten me.

Edit:

The suggested duplicate explains と. but it leaves me more confused, because I thought まで was playing the part of 'as much as'. What is まで doing? Can it be removed? I still don't understand the overall grammar of the sentence.


texts:
あとな、わしの名はバルタザールだ。

Is it "And my name is Balthazar" or "My last name is Balthazar"?


texts:
I'm still learning how to write Japanese, but I feel like I'm starting to get a feel for the rules of stroke order. However, the stroke order for ヲ (katakana wo) baffles me.

According to everything I find, it's 3 strokes: The two horizontal stokes, and then the down-left stroke. However, フ and all the other katakana that have フ as a subunit write it with a single stroke. Why is this single stroke split for ヲ?


texts: ~を出る vs. ~から出る: Grammar rule not consistent

texts:
In 初級を教える人のための日本語文法ハンドブック (pg. 24), an attempt is made to distinguish between ~を出る and ~から出る (also applied to 出発する or other "leaving" verbs), but the description seems inconsistent:

「を」vs.「から」

離れる対象を表す「を」と「から」は、次の場合、どちらも使える点で似ています。

「その船は2日前神戸港｛を / から｝出発した。」

しかし、「大学を出る」のように物理的に離れるのではない場合にはカラ格は使えませんし、次のように無生物主語の場合にはヲ格は使えません。

「煙が窓｛x を / ○ から｝出ています。」

The second part clearly states that sentences with inanimate objects as subjects must use 「から」as the particle for "leaving" verbs, but the first part says that either 「を」or「から」can be used for a sentence with 船, presumably an inanimate object, as the subject.  This seems contradictory.

What am I missing here?


texts:
what is the meaning of the expression すげえまずい alone?

I've never read it before.

Thank you.


texts:
One of the kanji we recently learned in class was 着. We learned it could be used for to wear [着]{き}る, to arrive [着]{つ}く, and as either a "classifier for arrival" or a "counter for jacket".

In our homework, we have the following 2:

[六]{ろく}[時]{じ}[着]{ちゃく}
[六]{ろく}[着]{ちゃく}

I am not sure how the classifier and counter work. This is what I think they mean:

6 o'clock arrival (like as in an appointment)
6th arrival (as in the 6th person to arrive) or 6 jackets

Is this the correct way to use the kanji?


texts: 「なのだなと理解する」- what does the second な mean?

texts:
For context: Person A brings up something about a club they are in, to which person B wonders whether it is a problem for person A. A third person (female, usually speaks formally) then chimes in, referring to person A:

[A]も一員なのだなと理解しました

I think the first part is a sentence ending in 「なのです」, with 「です」 becoming 「だ」 for 「と臨海する」, but I can't figure out what the 「な」 between these two parts means. Without it, I would loosely interpret the sentence as something like

[A] would not be a member of the club if it was a problem

But I am not sure whether the 「な」 carries some extra meaning I am unaware of. Is it something like a prohibitive form? Is it a variant of 「ね」? Or am I parsing the sentence wrong in the first place?


texts:
I had asked my friend what uses of 「ご無沙汰」exist and the situations people use them in. Among others, she had remarked that it could mean something along the lines of "not having sexual intercourse for a long time". Is this really the case?

If so, who uses it and in what way? I have tried to find some source explaining this, but haven't as of yet.


texts:
I'm learning Japanese, N5 level. I wonder why Japanese verbs have so many forms. For example, to say that we are doing something, we use "te" form (which I am learning right now). To say we are able to do something, we use another "potential" form. When we say somebody must do something, we use another "imperative" form.

So, I guess for each meaning/variation of the verb, we need a new form. If the pattern continues to grow, there must be hundreds of forms? But I read that there are only about 10 forms(!?). I really don't understand. Can anyone explain to me what a verb form is? What is its role in the sentence?

I will list some use cases. Please let me know which form I should use:

should do something
need to do something
want to do something
hate to do something
like to do something
being told to do something
afraid of doing something
regret of having done something

Thanks.


texts: It's listed as being borrowed from English, but even if it were the case that it had been borrowed from Portuguese, it's still pronounced /ɡwɑɹ/ and not /ɡɑɹ/. Japanese phonology is also perfectly capable of handling this--it could have been ジャグアー or even ジャグワー. But in every single instance I've seen, it's ジャガー. Why did they borrow it like this?


texts:
When expressing "It takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes", would it be best to say

１時間１５分掛かる。

or

１時１５分掛かる。

or maybe

１時１５分間掛かる。

?


texts: Is 「老い」 in the common lingo? How does it differ from お年寄り and 年配の方 ?

texts:
Here is the listing from jisho.org:

お
老い
common word jlpt n3
Noun
1. old age; old person; the old; the aged

Does anyone have any usage cases for this word and/or any info on it's commonality? This would also help to better understand this word, thanks!


texts: Meaning of, Transitive verb in "te form" + iru vs Intransitive verb in "te form" + iru

texts:
When I learnt Japanese I was taught that a transitive verb in its "te form" followed by the verb "iru" represents a continuous action. However, this is not the case with intransitive verbs which instead represent a state when used this way;

Therefore 開けている means that a subject is opening the door, the action of opening is taking place and perhaps the subject has its hand on the handle of the door and is pulling it. However, 開いている means that the door is open rather than an action in which the door seems to be "automatically" opening.

This creates a confusion in my mind for example, 死んでいる　means dead rather than a thing in the process of dying but not yet dead.

Why does the meaning differ so much for the two type of verbs?
So, how does one represent continuous actions when using intransitive verbs?

Also, using ところ with a verb, one can present an action which is taking place "this instant". Does the transitive verb in "te form" not do this already?


texts:
This is the first sentence of an NHK article published today (September 2, 2016) discussing the high number of typhoons in waters near Japan.

気象庁によると、ことし６月から８月までに７つの台風が日本の近くに来ています。
According to the Japanese Meteorological Agency, this year between June and August, 7 typhoons approached Japan. (I omitted near because I think approach implies it).

I'm wondering why the article chose to use 来ています to describe what the article itself implies is a past action.
I understand that the ～ている form describes continued state when used with momentary verbs like 来る.  However, I don't see why a typhoon approaching is considered a continued state since the typhoon is currently not still there. I would have assumed it should be either a completed past action or a completed past state that is not currently continuing.
My question explicitly is, could someone possibly contrast the meanings of the above sentence if 来ました or 来ていました had been used instead?
Full article: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10010664611000/k10010664611000.html
Thanks


texts: What is the basic knowledge before starting Japanese language lesson?

texts: I am trying to learn Japanese from the start. I live in Penang, Malaysia. We have the Penang Japanese Language Society (PJLS) here but before I join, I would expect some basic course or level that I can fit into. Also, what are the hierarchy of the levels for Japanese language learning?


texts: How should かしら be used in the middle of the sentence?

texts:
Original sentence in the novel is:

  何かしらの手は打ってくるだろう

A post in this site shows that it is a particle used more by females, while tangorin also shows it to be used as the meaning of "head", aside of the usage as a particle to mean "I wonder".

I think I'm supposed to treat it as a particle, but then there is the の particle that just confuses me. Can someone please explain the usage of かしら with の in this context?


texts:
Can you tell me what is this means? It's on my T-Shirt.
https://gyazo.com/3736d4a55d523b427086f5c531271556


texts: Romanizations of Japanese using consonant diacritics?

texts:
The Hepburn romanization, to express the different realizations of some consonants before /i/ or /u/, uses different spellings from the other syllables in their groups:

/si/ > "shi"
/zi/ > "ji"
/ti/ > "chi", /tu/ > "tsu"
/hu/ > "fu"

Other romanizations, like the Nihon-shiki or Kunrei-shiki, avoid this altogether sticking to one consonant symbol for each group.

Have there ever been any romanization standards which instead used diacritics to express this difference in pronunciation? E.g. something like:

sa ši su se so
za ži zu ze zo
ta ťi ţu te to
ha he ḩu he ho


texts: "見てみて" , why is the second 見て in hiragana?

texts:
Apparently it's a common way to write this phrase, at least on the web.

見てみてください

What's up with that?
I first encountered it on weblio
https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%22%E8%A6%8B%E3%81%A6%E3%81%BF%E3%81%A6%E3%81%8F%E3%81%A0%E3%81%95%E3%81%84%22
Some examples, the first results from google
https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1443775544
https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q11197208331
https://hinative.com/ja/questions/13962808
https://hinative.com/ja/questions/3923425


texts: What's the proper way to use 先 versus 前に or 以前?

texts:
I'm trying to understand why 先 is not the best choice to use in these sentences. Is it wrong to use it in this way?

×　先、学校で何かが起こった。
○　以前、学校で何かが起こった。

×　先の書いた本から十年間が過ぎました。
○　前に書いた本から十年間が過ぎました。


texts:
I'm confused on this picture.
The question is, my teacher told me that

  来ない時は(約束した日時または時間)

  分かっておるであろうな(あなたはどうなるのか分かっているはずだ)

But I don't understand how can it change into this?
I understand about the translated version from my teacher now but when I was trying on translation on the first time it went like this.

  "The time that you doesn't come, You're understand?" It's weird right?

But from my teacher, I can understand it now.

Except I don't know how to change 来ぬ時間 into　約束した時間.

Is it some kind of grammar?

Especially 分かっておるであろうな into あなたはどうなるのか分かっているはずだ

I can understand that わかっておる can translate into わかっている but It's followed by であろうな.

What does it mean, and how can it turn into あなたはどうなるのか分かっているはずだ?


texts:
I am reading the Fullmetal Alchemist manga and came across the following in the first volume:

祈り信じよ
されば救われん

The subtitles of the anime translate this to be:

"Pray and you shall be saved."

The translation work on Viking Anime has this:

"Believe in your prayers, and you can be saved."

The first part is easy (about the prayers), but the part I can't figure out is the "われん" ending. The base verb is 救う, so is 救われん a contraction? If so, of what verb ending?


texts: I don't get the meaning of this sentence おや、変だぞと振り返ると乗っている。

texts:
In the previous part of the text the author says that a taxi driver picked up a young girl. While he was driving, he looked at the rear mirror but he could not see the girl. Then there is this sentence: おや、変だぞと振り返ると乗っている。
What does it mean?


texts: む verbs and corresponding ましい adjectives

texts:
In studying words like 羨ましい and 勇ましい, I've noticed that there are almost always corresponding (mostly transitive) む verbs:
羨む -> 羨ましい
勇む -> 勇ましい (transitive version seems to be archaic)
好む -> 好ましい
etc.
Is there any information on the background/connotation of this pattern? How far does it generalize?


texts:
I was just wondering if anything like the english expression "sth is love, sth is life" exists in japanese.

Preferably as close as it gets to the english wording.

Edit
It seems like my question wasn't clear enough so i'm going to try and clarify with an example:

Some people say for example "Stackoverflow is love, stackoverflow is life" to express how much they like stackoverflow.


texts: What is the 「ひ」 in 「ひづめ」（蹄）？

texts:
The word 蹄 (ひづめ) means hoof in Japanese.  Since the meaning is similar to つめ (claw), and since it's spelled specifically with づ, it seems like this word is made up of two parts:

  ひ　＋　つめ

I can't figure out what the ひ part might mean, though.  It would make sense if it meant a large four-legged animal, or if it meant horse or something else along those lines.  But I can't find any information about it in dictionaries or by searching on Google.  (Has the origin of ひ in this word been lost?)

I also looked through lists of kanji by on and kun readings looking for reasonable candidates for ひ, but I wasn't able to find anything that seemed appropriate.

Is it possible it comes from a shortening of 扁爪 (ひらづめ)？


texts: 社会 【しゃかい】 and 世間 【せけん】 -- what is the difference?

texts:
Is 社会 【しゃかい】 interchangeable with 世間 【せけん】?
from Jim Breen:

  社会 【しゃかい】 society; public; community; the world
  世間 【せけん】 world; society; people; the public

Here is an example sentence from Jim Breen:

  紛争のない人間社会はありえない。
  There can be no human society without conflict.

Here is the quote from Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human that made me wonder:

  「世間というのは、君じゃないか」
  ‘It’s not society. It’s you, isn’t it?’


texts: Can't understand why this sentence is written this way

texts:
The sentence I am talking about is ジュースが出る大きいな桃 .
I don't understand why 大きいな桃 is written at the end. I would say something like:
ジュースが大きいな桃から出る
Thanks


texts:
”正直友達が死んだらこんなにへこむなんておもってみなかった”

I cant understand this sentence.


texts:
I don't understand what the -化 suffix in the following sentence means for a word like カリスマ, or why fearing it can lead to early retirement. Can anyone shine some light?

  52歳の若さではあったが、カリスマ化を恐れて早々に身を引き、...


texts: Emphatic / Focus loss upon translating between active and passive sentences?

texts:
Background information
(Do point out if I got anything wrong along the way)
So I'm working through Jay Rubin's Making Sense of Japanese, and I've familiarized myself with the concept of zero pronouns, and his aversion to the "passivication" of active sentences.
From what I can gather, zero pronouns are used when the context makes it clear. Following that, Rubin warns against overlooking a zero pronoun subject, and interpreting an active sentence as a passive one.
For instance, when answering questions about what I had for lunch,

Original text: 犬｛いぬ｝を食｛た｝べた。

should be translated actively as

I ate a dog.

and not passively as

A dog was eaten.
A dog was eaten by me.

Because that would shift the focus of the statement from the agent on to the patient, by changing the subject from 'I' to 'a dog'. (Is this a kind of a semantic loss?)
Question
Conversely, in a English to Japanese translation from an active sentence

I ate a dog.

to passive sentences such as

犬が食べられた。
犬が私に食べられた。

is there a similar loss in emphasis or topic focus along the way?
According to Earthliŋ here, "in Japanese, the passive voice leaves the focus of the action on the person performing the action", which I take to mean that the focus is still on the agent of the passive sentence, and not the subject. Is that interpretation right?
If so, does that mean that a passive Japanese → active English translation should be avoided because the initial focus is lost, but an active English → passive Japanese translation is alright?


texts:
One of the first things people learn in Japanese class is the old 私はケーキを食べます。
Once you begin to get more experienced with Japanese you soon learn that the initial watashi wa is not good form and is always dropped. Fair enough.

But I am now living in Japan, getting rather solidly into intermediate Japanese and encountering more and more ‘real’ Japanese. It seems to me that examples like I eat cake just aren’t said very often and as a result を is sparsely used.

When I come to write I seem to have lots of がs and とs, a few はs, and the occasional に, but を and へ seem to not be needed so often.

Am I just a little crazy here or is my observation right? Is を truly a sparsely used particle? In most common examples where the newbie may think to use を I increasingly see と (reported speech and the like. を is of course wrong) and に (I guess people like the vagueness of going towards something and not actually 100% doing it).


texts:
The title of a piano arrangement of a Touhou song (Hakurei Reimu's Theme) is:

  「東方永夜抄 - Imperishable Night.」 より 博麗霊夢のテーム

(Question) What does より do in the title?

If it were to mean "from the game "Imperishable Night"", would から be just as suitable?


texts: Why does this sentence mean what it means?

texts:
なんて言えばいいのか分からない

Means "I don't know what to say" but why does it mean that?

Is there an explanation into why this means that.


texts: What is the correct way to say: "where are you going?"

texts:
What is the correct way to say "where are you going?"?

Is it:

  あなたはどこに行きますか

or

  あなたはどこに行くの

Also, can someone please explain that の in "あなたはどこに行くの"?


texts: Is there a Japanese equivalent of knock-knock jokes?

texts:
For those (non-natives, etc.) who maybe aren't familiar, knock-knock jokes are one of the lowest, most basic forms of American "comedy".  They follow this format:

  A:  Knock, knock
  B:  Who's there?
  A:  [Something]
  B:  [Something] who?
  A:  [Dumb punchline]

Here's an example:

  A:  Knock, knock
  B:  Who's there?
  A:  "Boo"
  B:  "Boo" who?
  A:  It's just me, you don't have to cry.　→　さぁ〜〜〜むッ！
  注：「"Boo" who」とは「Boo hoo」の同音で、「Boo hoo」とは英語の泣き[喚]{わめ}きの擬声語。

You can make up just about anything and fit it into the format of a knock-knock joke.

So does Japanese have some similar ubiquitous format for making easy "jokes"?


texts: How do you write "translation mine" in Japanese for academic writing?

texts:
When you translate a quoted citation, how do you write "translation mine" in Japanese to let the reader know that it is your own translation rather than an official one (or, to contrast yours to the official one when you think the official one is inaccurate)? In Western academic writing, the customary marker is

  [translation mine]

directly following the quote (basically meaning "my translation" or "I translated the aforementioned myself").

I checked アルク and Weblio and did a Google search but didn't find a translation for this.


texts: 「写真は良い思い出になります。」 "Pictures make for great souvenirs"?

texts:
I was going through some Japanese phrases when this came up： 「写真は良い思い出になります。」

According to my limited Japanese knowledge, that means "Pictures become great memories."
However, the translation present in the source material is "Pictures make for great souvenirs."

I looked up 思い出, but couldn't find "souvenir" as a definition. I was just wondering which of the translations are correct, since the disparity of meaning between them is too big for both to be correct.


texts: How can I say "With the passing of time..."?

texts:
I am writing a text and I want to say:

  With the passing of time, I have understood what he wanted to say.

I have written:

  時間がたつにつれて、彼が言いたかったことが分かってきました。

Is my sentence completely wrong?


texts: 「私は日本語会話を分かってみますからTwitchに日本のゲーマーズをみます。」

texts:
I wanted to  write a short biography on my twitch account which I'm going to use to get used to spoken Japanese, but I am a beginner so I had to write this sentence with my Japanese grammar handbook and a French-Japanese dictionary open, and I wanted to be sure there was no mistake in order not to develop bad habits.

Basically, what I want to say is :

"I watch Japanese gamers on twitch because I try to understand spoken Japanese."

Which I wrote :

「私は日本語会話を分かってみますからTwitchに日本のゲーマーズをみます。」

And there are a few things I wonder about :

「日本語会話」 means "Japanese conversation" if I got it right, but does it really convey the idea of spoken language ? Or is it rather to be used in the sense of a dialogue between two people only ?

In that last case, should I use「口語」? Jisho org says it's a No-adjective, so from what I understood, the resulting sentence would be :

「私は口語の日本語を分かってみますからTwitchに日本のゲーマーズをみます。」

About the particle 「に」I used it as if Twitch was a physical place, is it okay, or is there another way to say "on Twitch" ?
To express the cause I've chosen to use 「から」, because it seemed to me that the form 「-て + みる」 wasn't a neutral form of the verb 「分かる」. But now I wonder if I could have used 「ので」had I written 「分かってみる」 instead of 「分かってみます」. Is it the case ?
A closely related question : is a place like Twitch, which is mainly used by people between 15 and 30 years old, a place where I should stick to the 「-ます」 form because don't really know who we are talking with, or would it be okay to use neutral forms as people there are still young and are here to share video game experiences which is not such a serious subject ?

Voilà.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my questions, I hope you have an answer or two for me ;)


texts:
These word pairs both seem to mean "Convenient/Inconvenient". But what is the difference between them and usage cases?

From looking at their kanji and a few example sentences, this is what I've come up with. Is this correct?

便利/不便: A physical object is convenient. e.g., "This tool is convenient"
都合がいい/悪い: A situation is convenient. e.g., "That day is convenient"


texts: So I came across the following phrase: それが、どうしてこんなことに……　and I feel like the second part of it means something along the lines of "How did it get like this?" (I could be totally off of the mark, I'm far from sure), but what I'm most curious is what the それが means in this context. There doesn't seem to be anything before the phrase comes up in what I was reading that gives any clue to what それ could be referring to, and in fact the phrase seems to be something that stands on its own. Also, what is suggested by the に at the end? I realize it's an incomplete sentence, but does it seem like the next part of the sentence should be obvious? Thank you very much for any advice.


texts: Can 考える be translated to "overthinking"?


texts: 「膨張した人口」&「その始まりの時と同じく」

texts:
「大破壊」と呼ばれる、最後の国家間戦争によって、人類は地上からその姿を消した。
災厄を生き延びた僅かな人々は、破壊されつくした地上を捨て、
その住処を地下へと移していった。
膨張した人口を支えるべく、各地に建造されていた地下都市が、
人類に残された大地となったのである。
人はその始まりの時と同じく、自らの過ちによって楽園を失った。 (source: ARMORED CORE atwiki)

My questions pertain to the bolded parts.
「膨張した人口」
In order to support the growing population, the underground cities erected in various places have become the last lands (bastions maybe?) left to mankind.
I assume this is viewed from the future, a bit after mankind has already moved underground and is saying that the population is now growing again. Why is it 膨張した and not 膨張している? It seems kind of weird to me to juxtapose 僅かな人々 with 膨張した人口 back to back like that without anything inbetween to segue back into the growing population.
「その始まりの時と同じく」
Mankind has lost paradise due to their own mistakes, just like during the beginning of that time.
What is the その referring to here exactly? Of what time?
Sorry if this seems a little trivial but I'm really confused.
Thanks in advance for any input!


texts: Write the reading of the following kanji in hiragana!

texts:
I just started learning Japanese and I'm trying to understand the whole kanji thing. The book I'm using gives some kanjis and then some exercise of the type: "Write the reading of the following kanji in hiragana", follows. I don't really get them. Like this example:

男子トイレ and according to the answer sheet the book provides, the reading of this word is だんし.

Can someone please explain what is going on here, what is happening with the extra katakana there is in the word? Are these two different words or are they together. And how do you decide which reading (Chinese, Japanese, irregular) you use? Or, is it by pure memorization?


texts: What is the difference between て phrase ending verbs and nominalized verb-stem phrase ending verbs?

texts: For example in the sentence 政府は学校や病院を建設し、教師や医療スタッフの訓練も始めた。What's the difference in the first phrase ending in 建設し rather than 建設して?


texts: と's role in 「それは触ると柔らかい」

texts:
I found out this sentence:

それは触{さわ}ると柔{やわ}らかい

and I don't understand と sentence in here. I know と is related to "and" and "with". But what's its role on this sentence?


texts:
I am struggling to understand the word "とりあえず". It seems to mean 'as it stands'.
Here is an example sentence as I understand it:

  とりあえず計画がありません
  'as it stands we have no plans'

Is this correct? Also, I'm sure I've heard it with the imperative.


texts:
I was wondering if stating facts in an essay was usually done by using the ます form of an verb, or the ている form?

I learned that the て form is, among other things, used to describe state of being of something but I'm unsure if that also counts for recurring actions.

For example, if I were to talk about flowers in an essay, would I say

春は花がたくさん咲いています。
or would I say
春は花がたくさん咲きます。

to express that flowers (for a fact) bloom in spring?

I feel like the problem I have is that I equate the て form with the English progressive form of an verb while I equate the ます form with a kind of future, which means that neither of them fit for expressing facts.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read my question!
C


texts:
I found this in textbook.

  チェックインタイムが18.00からだから安いお得なプラン！

I think I can translate it to this:

  "Get special deal if you check in after 18.00"

but I don't get it, why would textbook use "だから” after から


texts: How to parse 見ないでもすむようにしていた

texts:
I am trying to understand how

脚を見ないでもすむようにしていた

could translate to something like

so that he would not have to see the legs

It's part of Metamorphosis by Kafka. A guy wakes up as a bug and trie to get out of his bed.
My guess so far is to parse it like the following:

脚を見
ないで can be used to forbid something but with proper context can mean "without"
As explained here

もう when used in conjunction with a present tense does have that connotation in Japanese that the action should not be continued anymore [...]describing the situational/contextual setup or "feeling" of the situation

すむ means "to end"
ように is used as ように "trying to do something"
していた is just past progressive する. I suppose "past" because we want to achieve something ie being in a situation where something is done and "progressive" as a way to make the sentence more emphatic

I'm not sure to understand it right because the use of ないで + すむ sounds like a double negation to me.


texts:
When writing in some formal Japanese CV (学歴/職歴), it is common to be asked to put each job/university/etc. on a single dated line, with a second line to indicate when one quit/graduated/dropped-out/etc. E.g:

平成２０年　４月　１日　　東京大学情報学部入学
平成２４年　３月３１日　　同上卒業
平成２４年　４月　１日　　松下電器産業株式会社入社

etc.
University enrollment will be 入学/卒業, post-grad would be 進学/卒業, job would be 入社/退社...
My question is then:
What is a proper equivalent to indicate a research internship?
That is a non-paying, temporary research position in a public (government-run) lab facility that is not a university (国立研究所). In such a case, it seems that both 入社 and 入学 would not fit. 入所 sounds like it might be a possibility, but also may be a complete mistranslation (since the word also exists for completely different situations).
I would welcome any suggestions, (preferably) with pointers to approved examples or other authoritative sources...


texts:
Why is 覚せい剤 a common variant writing of 覚醒剤? 醒 is a Joyo kanji and wouldn't pose any recognition problems.

Example:
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/覚せい剤取締法


texts: Question about original meaning of primitives in Heisig method

texts:
Hello I'm currently learning Kanjis ( well I had already JPLT N4 level but I want to speed up my learning ) so I decided to learn meaning and writing of Kanjis through Heisig Method. I'm learning the primitives first on an anki deck ( I also got the books) and sometimes I'm a bit puzzled about the primitive meaning.

Why did he invent the primitive meanings? I have come across meanings such as teepee ( I doubt Middle Age chinese civilisation was aware of American Indian...), scrapbook, missile, staple gun, thanksgiving... he came up with those meanings and that's really too bad, we don't know the true meaning of primitives though I'm sure they exist...Do you now where I could find the true original meaning of the primitive

Also I'm a bit confuse when I see a primitive constructed from other primitive with a '"strange meaning" like "child" made of "hat" and "elbow". How did the guys came up with a construction like that? Where could I find real explanations for the construction of primitives?

Thanks for your enlightenments!


texts: に行く grammar with 行く replaced by other verbs

texts:
I wonder if I can be more creative and replace 行くwith other verbs.

  トニーくんは皆さんのためにコーヒー準備しに部屋を出ました。(1)

  トニーくんは部屋を出て皆さんのためにコーヒー準備しました。(2)

Tony left the room to prepare coffee for everyone. (1)
Tony left the room and prepared coffee for everyone. (2)

The first sentence sounds more natural if 行くcan be replaced with 出る, since both Japanese verbs express direction. I want to know if I am doing it the acceptable way. Thank you.

EDIT: I meant, the meaning will change depending on the last verb used.

に行く: Go to do something
に出る: Leave (a place) to do something

A demonstrating example with 行く even though it is irrelevant :

  昨日 トニーくんは勉強しに図書館に行きました。(3)

Yesterday Tony went to the library to study.


texts: Most often お is pronounced [ō], however sometimes I hear an [ä] instead. It might be arbitrary, but it sounds so consistent to me, thus I ask, are there? And if so, what are they?


texts: What is a good strategy to make sure my Hiragana proportions are correct?

texts: I am teaching myself Japanese. To begin learning how to read and write in Japanese, I have started my studies with Hiragana. I know that I need to have specific proportions to make sure what I am writing is accurate and legible. However, the only paper I have at hand is lined, and I am not sure how I should know if my proportions are correct. Should I start getting graph paper to practice?


texts: Question on Japanese words that are similar to English ones

texts: I know that Katakana is used mainly for words for that originated from the west. I was wondering why don't the Japanese pronounce those words just like the Western ones? For example there is the word Zombie which is ゾンビ in Romanji it's Zonbi, is the ン pronounced as an English "n" or "m"?


texts: Why is タバコを買ったつもりで、お金を入れるわけだ translated to "Basically it's the money I planned on spending on cigarettes"?

texts:
タバコをやめてからは、毎日300円ずつ貯金箱に入れている。タバコを買ったつもりで、お金を入れるわけだ。お金がたまったら自分へのプレゼントとして何か買うことに
している。

My own understanding was:
{although the intention to buy cigarettes, (it was concluded that) i insert money in (the saving jar)} .

Or with a rare meaning of 入れる=to pay(one's rent, etc.), i translate it as:
{with the intention of buying cigarettes, no wonder that one would pay/waste money}

Why would 1) and 2) be wrong and {Basically it's the money I planned on spending on cigarettes.} be CORRECT??


texts:
Someone who can't eat piping hot food can be referred to as a 猫舌{ねこじた}.  Is there an analogous word/idiomatic expression for someone who can't eat very spicy food?

The closest related word I could think of is 甘口{あまくち}, but I think I've only heard it used to refer to the spice-level of a food, rather than the tolerance of a person.  (From this dictionary entry my understanding is when 甘口 is used to refer to a person, it means someone who likes sweet food.)  Is this correct?


texts:
Bashō:
ふつかよい ものかわはなの あるあいだ.

I’m completely lost by ものかわ. Any idea?


texts:
Can somebody provide a explanation of the meaning of the term モロ as used in the phrase 「モロです」?  I see references describing もろ/モロ as an adverb meaning "completely" or "totally" but that doesn't seem to be the sense of the word being used here.

Example sentences gleaned from the web:

1) 「先生! モロです！」 (in reference to an element of a drawing that is mildly scurrilous and presumably is unacceptable)

2) 「いきなり異動にモロです！」

From the above, I infer that the meaning is something similar to ダメ or いけない but it would be nice to have a more solid definition.  My thanks to anyone who can help!


texts: Why choose 念入{ねんい}り over まともに in this question?

texts:
My JLPT book has this question:

  ドライブの前{まえ}に（a.まともに b.念入{ねんい}りに）車{くるま}の点検{てんけん}をした。

I chose a, thinking that a reasonable translation was, "Before driving, do a proper check of the car."

The answer turns out to be b, which I guess means, "Before driving, do a careful check of the car."

I suspect that part of the problem is that my English definitions for "proper" and "careful" are close enough that I'm translating まともに and 念入{ねんい}りに too closely.

Even still, the two words are pretty similar. What differentiates まともに and 念入{ねんい}りに that should make b the clear choice in this question?


texts: I am trying to understand what chara ito means

texts:
I am currently translating a Japanese text in English and I have trouble understanding this text.

  貴族的というのか、イケメンだけどチャラいとは程遠い

I get and can make out some part of the sentence like 'he looks like an aristocrat' but after the chara ito part starts I don't get it.


texts:
Noticed a word さらさら appearing on various products' packaging I've got from Japan. The main translation ("rustling sound") doesn't seem like something you'd ordinarily expect to see there... Especially on such a variety of products as tea, nappies and books (admittedly, might have been an ad on a plastic packaging for something else in the latter case). It is shown on front title side alongside the product description and brand name.

Here are a couple of examples I found around the house:

Nappies

Tea

So, what does this mean?


texts:
Sometimes I'm having trouble choosing the reading for 入る.  There was a related question about the reading of 入れる, however my JMdict-based dictionary marks both 入る{はいる} and  入る{いる} as intransitive verbs (自動詞) - is it correct?  If so, then how to choose among them?  My particular sentence in question this time is

  ためしに、ドアと窓をはずしてみたら、風がどどっと入{?}ってきて、一瞬で空気が入{い}れかわった

The second reading is certain (from 入{い}れ替{か}わる), but I'm not sure about the first one: the dictionary has "to enter/to go into/to break into" among the meanings for 入る{はいる}, and "to come in/to flow into" for 入る{いる}, and both seem to fit here.

And BTW, is どどっと an onomatopoeic word?  Failed to find anything close in the dictionary.


texts: I don't understand a definition of one of the meanings of 途方?

texts:
From goo:

１ 多くの方向。向かう方向。
「―を失へる敵どもを」〈太平記・一〇〉

I don't understand how 多くの方向 (that I think means "many directions") means the same thing that 向かう方向(that I think means "direction to follow")?


texts:
I want to say, "Are you sure you want to remove Alex?" Do I use を or は?

    アレックスを削除してもよろしいですか。


texts: Is there really any difference between だなんて and なんて?

texts:
1.「精霊の力を封印できるだなんて規格外の能力、持っているのはこの世にあなた一人だけよ。ーーそのあなたが嫌だと言うのだもの。もうどうしようもないじゃない」
2.「む……そうか。そうだな。シドーから鳶一折紙の匂いがするだなんて、私はどうしてしまったのだろか。シドーがあの女をおぶったりでもしない限り、匂いが付くだなんてありえないというのに」
Hi. I’m reading a novel and I’ve come across these two examples. I’m interested in the bold parts.
Are the bold parts used to bring up something unexpected or surprising? If so, can we omit だ and just say なんて in those examples?
But according to this link, there is such a rule as follows:

(2) To bring up something unexpected or to re-quote what you have
found out with surprise.
Although there is a slight nuance difference, なんて  ( = nante) and
だなんて  ( = danante) are exchangeable in many cases.（Usually we use だなんて
( = danante) when we quote what someone has said and we use なんて ( =
nanate) to refer just the fact you have found out. )

In my examples, according to the context, だなんてs aren’t quoting what someone said but just refer to an expected or surprising fact. So does it mean this rule is invalid and we don’t need to obey it? Or the examples are just the exceptions to the rule? I’m confused by the difference between だなんて and なんて. Please shed some light on it.


texts:
I was wondering if anybody had any references (preferably freely available) or insights that explain 標準語 (or should I say 関東語) sentence-level pitch accent.

I already have a dictionary which describes pitch accents on individual words, but there seem to be cases where the rules change when the words are used in sentences.

To illustrate with some examples:

"日が" (as in "日が昇る") has no drop in pitch, but in "あの日↓は", I hear a drop after "日".
After "あの", the pitch usually continues where it left off, but in certain combinations, like "あの↓人", I hear a drop after "あの".
For non-single-mora words that usually have a drop between the last mora and a following particle, like "橋" ("橋↓が"), "の" seems to be an exception ("橋の上" with no drop). However, "次" seems to be an exception to this exception. I hear a drop in "次↓の".

(I could be wrong about some of these, if so please correct me.)

I hear good things about the NHK pitch accent dictionary, but does it describe pitch accent at this level as well?

I'd be thankful for any information that can bring insight on this.


texts: When is disjunctive-が appropriate in connecting sentences?

texts:
Consider the following:

[1] 僕は日本人ではなく,　シンガポール人です。　(I'm not Japanese, I'm Singaporean)
[2] 僕は日本人ではないが, シンガポール人です。 (I'm not Japanese but Singaporean)

Comparing my sentences to the worked examples in my grammar practice workbook, [1] would be correct while [2] would be wrong.
(Question) Is [2] a valid sentence?
(Side Question) Can I read ではなく as じゃなく?


texts: Why is coffee with shochu or awamori called コーヒー割{わ}り "split / divided coffee"?

texts:
About five nights ago I went out with a local friend to a traditional Okinawan club in Naha.

We were of course drinking 泡盛{あわもり} (awamori) with water and ice.

But the girl working there had a drink with us and poured in a bit of a can of coffee into her awamori.

Tonight I'm trying it myself in the guesthouse after asking the owner if it's a normal thing here and not just a peculiarity of that girl in the club.

He tells me it is popular in Okinawa and called コーヒー割{わ}り (kōhī-wari). Indeed I get Google hits and it seems the same is done with condensed milk in place of the coffee and/or 焼酎{しょうちゅう} (shochu) in place of the awamori.

None of the hits were in English or if they were don't provide much information. There's nothing in Wikipedia or WWWJDIC.

I don't understand why the name uses ～割り which seems to mean "split" or "divide"? This makes it sound like the coffee is "cut" or watered down with the spirits.

What am I missing? Could it be one of those Japanese abbreviations where half a word is missing?


texts: Is there a particular name for the rows and columns of the hiragana/katakana charts?

texts:
When i see Hiragana/Katakana Charts i see them always take a form similar to this

i see a logical pattern here (except for ん but it's a one off). i am wondering is there a particular name for the rows and columns of the hiragana/katakana charts? ie. row = あ, か, さ etc, column = か, き, く etc.


texts:
I'm reading a book that contains this sentence:

  携帯やパソコンでのメール等｛とう｝のやり取りすらしていない・・・

My first instinct is to read 等 as など, but it has explicitly been given the pronunciation とう via the ruby characters in the text. Of course, とう is a valid reading for 等, but usually only in compound words. Is this a typo, or am I missing some hidden meaning?

This context perfectly fits with the following dictionary definition (デジタル大辞泉), hence my inclination to read it as など:

  など【▽等／×抔 】

  １ 一例を挙げ、あるいは、いくつか並べたものを総括して示し、それに限らず、ほかにも同種類のものがあるという意を表す。…なんか。「赤や黄―の落ち葉」


texts:
So there I am again, asking a question from the book "Sword Art Online 1".

This time it's about the sentence: またの名を≪ソードアート・オンライン≫。

What is the meaning of を in this case?


texts: Why is using the particle 'wo' now seemingly optional?

texts:
Why is using wo, now seemingly optional? Now I tend to only see noun suru opposed to noun wo suru/shimasu. What are the implications/ connotations of using or not using wo? Are there times where you have to use it or is it now down to formality?

(sorry my Japanese keyboard isn't working)


texts:
In the sentence:

  田中さんは諦めきれなかった。

what is the function/meaning of きれる? I assume the sentence means "Tanaka didn't give up", but how does it differ from 諦めなかった？


texts: is 指関節{しかんせつ} a "normal" japanese word or a rare technical one?

texts:
I was doing my vocab training and added a few body parts.

Then I noticed that the word I had found in the English Wiktionary for "knuckle" seems to be untypable with my Windows Japanese IME.

This made me wonder if it's yet another case of learners "using too much kanji", etc. Is this a rare or unusual word, a word usually written in kana, or just a mistake in Wiktionary or of my own making?


texts:
I'm puzzled by the appearance of 参る in this dictionary entry.
The example sentence is archaic:「こなたにてみぐしなど参る程に」
In the modern language, this becomes: こちらでお髪などおととのえになるころに。
Notice that the modern version uses an honorific verb おととのえになる. As I understand it, 参る is a humbling form in the contemporary language. Was it an honorific form in the past, or is there some other way to understand these sentences?


texts:
I was wondering if someone could explain the difference between 働くvs 勤める. They seem to both be used to indicate work. As in "I work at Nasa" or something like that. But they have different pronunciations and slightly different kanji. Is there a difference in usage? When would I use one vs the other.

Thank you in advance.


texts: I've learned from textbooks and online sites like Duolingo that "no" is いいえ, but I've rarely heard native speakers say that.  I learned さあ today as sort of an "I don't know" response.  I saw a subtitled film that translated "no" as いや.  Are there more simple responses like these that can represent "no," and if so, can you include how common or polite they are?


texts: I know おう sounds like a long o, but does おお sound the same, or should it be pronounced differently?


texts:
I have 3 sentences, each with relative clause as follows. By considering the English translation, is my understanding correct?

  A: 私が好きな女性はたばこを吸わない。

  A': The woman who likes me does not smoke.

  B: 私は好きな女性がたばこを吸わない。

  B': The woman I like does not smoke.

  C: 私はたばこを吸わない女性が好きだ。

  C': I like women who don't smoke.


texts: Why is this JLPT(N1) question a matter of practicality, not futile effort?

texts:
Here is a snippet of text from a JLPT(N1) question:

  「俺{おれ}は料理{りょうり}が得意{とくい}なんだ」と自慢{じまん}げに語{かた}る男性{だんせい}の頭{あたま}に、素材{そざい}の値段{ねだん}やかかる時間{じかん}、そして誰{だれ}が後{あと}片付{かたづ}けをするか、などという問題{もんだい}は存在{そんざい}しません。あくまで趣味{しゅみ}なのですから、高価{こうか}な肉{にく}や滅多{めった}に使{つか}わない香辛料{こうしんりょう}を駆使{くし}し、無駄{むだ}をいっぱい出{だ}しながら料理{りょうり}するのです。そして使{つか}い散{ち}らかされた道具{どうぐ}を洗{あら}うのは、奥{おく}さんだったりする。

And here is the related question:

  筆者{ひっしゃ}は男性{だんせい}の料理{りょうり}をどう思{おも}っているか。

  1　無駄{むだ}な努力{どりょく}である。

  2　家族{かぞく}を満足{まんぞく}させている。

  3　実用的{じつようてき}ではない。

  4　自立{じりつ}のために不可欠{ふかけつ}だ。

I chose answer 1.

However, according to the book, the correct answer is 3. But I just don't see where the issue of practicality, 実用的{じつようてき} is made clear within the text.

Also, isn't saying something is impractical another way of saying that the effort is useless, as in 無駄{むだ}な努力{どりょく}? Is the distinction being made a subtle one, or am I not seeing something obvious in front of my face?

Why exactly is 3 the correct answer?

Please note: I am hoping that someone can point out the specific key words and phrases that I should be focusing on in order to help me see the meaning, not just summarize what the text is saying. I'm trying to understand the language of the text in the question, not just it's premise. Thanks!


texts: The meaning of そんな気持ちはなくて in this context

texts:
Context: Girl B was in trouble and was also causing trouble. Girl A comes in and over a period of time fights with girl B trying to save her from her torubles and get her to stop. In the end girl A (あ) succeeds and B becomes her friend, standard Anime stuff.
Later B talks with A's mom (Mom A) expressing her gratitude to her for raising A to be someone who despite all persevered and saved her. Now Mom A is recounting this to B's mom (Mom B) and she then says the following:

きっと娘{あ}は…困っている子を助けてあげたい
そんな気持ちはなくて
友達になりたいと思った子が悲しい想いをしていたから
「まっすぐに向かっていっただけ」

Literally this would translate to as roughly:

Certainly my daughter (A) wanted to give aid to a troubled child
Such thoughts/intentions isn't
Because girl/child she wanted to become friends with was having sad thoughts so she just went straight for it/her.

While the first and last line fit together, the middle one feels out of place for Mom A to say there. Unless that's not te-form ない (well I also kinda wonder why use that form) but something else.
One interpretation that I have is that Mom A doesn't think her daughter is that high in noble goals. She thought that for her daughter things were much more simple. She just saw someone she wanted to be friends with being sad and went for it to fix it.
Soo, what's your opinion on this one? On what そんな気持ちはなくて means in this context?

Additional context as requested by Naruto.
Mother A is recounting the meeting she had with B, to Mother B.
Mom A said: "At that time B explained to me the story of the incident when she met A (her daughter) and how A wanted to become friends with her (B) and in order to make it happen she (A) gave it her all".
Then we get a short flashback to that time when Mom A and B spoke and B saying: "Because A persisted, because she saved me, I exist now...Such A was born by and brought up by you. I thought/felt/wanted (omou) to thank you for that."
As for A's character she is the person who would help if she can. Later she joins an organization specifically to save people and like. But in this specific case, the first time she ran into B she was in no position to do any saving since B kinda trashed her in combat. But also A saw that she felt sad and decided she wanted to become her friend.


texts:
I was translating some stuff and ran into this line: 私の言葉を曲げて捉えていると思ってな.

Now, as the title said, my main issue here is the "曲げて捉えて" bit; would it be correct for me to read it as something like "misunderstanding"?

As in: "It seems you're misunderstanding (the point of) my words"?

I went with that because it seems like the 曲げて+捉えて would work as the point of the speaker's words being distorted and THEN wrongfully grasped? So, misunderstanding seemed like the proper choice.

Any confirmation or clarification is appreciated.

Thanks for the help!


texts: Is '愛したら解放させ' a correct phrase? Is it's meaning clear?

texts: I think I've read picked up the sentence '愛したら解放させ' somewhere a long time ago. It is supposed to mean 'if you love something then set it free'. Is it a correct sentence?


texts:
These are two lines of the song "believe" of Kalafina...

1-what means 巡{めぐ}り来る時の中{なか}で?

  巡{めぐ}り来る時の中{なか}で出{で}会{あ}った君といた僕を信{しん}じている

2-it is normal to change the order in songs (蒼{あお}い日々を切{き}り開{ひら}け)?

  切{き}り開{ひら}け蒼{あお}い日々を


texts:
What is the つく used at the end of this sentence?

友人の仕事は危険で、汚くて、おまけに きついらしい。ちなみにそういう仕事は俗に「３K」と呼ばれている。要するに「き」、すなわち「K」が３つつくというわけだ
My friend's work is dangerous, dirty and tough. It is incidentally the kind of work referred to as 3K because, without going into detail it has the characteristics of the three きs　or Ks.

(The content of this sentence provide provide challenges for translation but I want to focus on the つく, which could be a big subject in itself but to make this question striaght forward, I wondered, is it 付く as in the following example?:

この書棚には二つ引き出しが付いている｜This bookcase has two drawers.


texts: Don't understand the situation in a shin chan comic strip

texts:
I'm reading Shin Chan and there's a situation I can't quite understand. His mother says they're going to the bank, and Shin Chan starts packing his toy. Then his mother says おもちゃはいいの！！おもちゃは and after that she says something about wondering what Shin Chan understands by 'bank'. Shin Chan runs away and brings back a knife. And his mother says, with a shocked look, where did you learn such a thing about banks?

I don't get why after saying おもちゃはいいの！！Shin Chan runs away to get something else.  Isn't she saying that the toy is OK?  From the context it seems that Shin Chan understands the toy is not something you would take to a bank.


texts: What's the meaning of 私でもたまに in the following sentence?

texts:
I'm a bit confused about this sentence:

  斜陽の日本語は、私でもたまに難しい

This part is easy: 斜陽の日本語は. It means "the Japanese (language) in (the book) The Setting Sun ..."

But this second bit confuses me a lot: 私でもたまに.  I read it as: "I ... but occasionally ... difficult." What?

What's the meaning of 私でもたまに in this sentence?

(Maybe it means "but occasionally, I find it difficult?" If that's the case, shouldn't でも be placed before 私?)


texts: What word can I use for 'they', when referring to a mixed gender group?

texts:
I.e. for a group of guys, you have: 彼たち、かれら

and for girls it's:　彼女たち　彼女ら

So if you have a mixed group, which one should you go with? Is there a different word?


texts: Is a sentence ending with "か……。" a question or a questionative statement?

texts:
I came across the following line inside a Japanese book I'm reading.

  しかし、　アインにツヴァイか……。

My understanding of the line is different depending on whether it would be a question (because of the か),.

  For example, "However, why Ein and Zwei...?"

Or would it be a ellipsis statement, (idk what the proper terminology is for this kind of statement) where the question is implied through the contemplative format of the sentence, but not stated outright:

  Example: "However, Ein and Zwei..."

TDLR: is a sentence ending with "か……。" a question or a questionative statement?


texts: Sorry if this is a very basic question, but I'm trying to understand everything in my first lesson (online, Rocket Japanese).  I don't understand what the purpose of お is in the phrase お元気ですか, which is explained as how I ask someone how they are.  I believe 元気 refers to well-being or health, です is roughly the verb "to be," and か is added to turn the phrase into a question.  But nowhere is お explained.  Is it actually required, and if so, what does it add to the question?  On the site it is translated to "how are you?"


texts: 番組のタイトルに「踊る」、どういう意味を表していますか？

texts:
踊る大捜査線

踊る！さんま御殿

この２つのテレビ番組だけかもしれませんが、タイトルの最初の言葉として、また、意味的に一見つながっていないようにも思ってしまうこの「踊る」は何を表していますか？そのまま踊ることではないことは間違いなさそうです。

私の推測としては、さんまの番組の場合、賑やかさを意味していると思います。しかし、踊る大捜査線の場合は違う気がします。紆余曲折を表しているかなぁと思ったけど、連想に過ぎないので、確信が持てません。

これに関しては日本語での説明をお願いできれば幸いです。


texts: I've started to begin writing hiragana but I've seen many ways of writing them, usually I'm able to read the different ways of writing them but it keeps bothering me sometimes how mine and what I see don't look similar and would like to know if my writing is understandable. Thank you in advance


texts: IPA for ふーん/んふふ pronounced with your mouth closed

texts:
I know that ふ is normally pronounced as [ɸɯ]. But ふ is sometimes used to represent a clearly different sound that occasionally appears in spoken Japanese, and I'm having trouble identifying its IPA representation.
The following is what I know about this sound:

It does sound like the h consonant to me, but it can be produced with your mouth completely closed.

No normal Japanese word contains this sound, but a few interjections and onomatopoeias like ふーん, ふふんっ, んふふ, ふっふっふ, ふがふが are often pronounced with this "sound".

It's the very first sound in this video. It's written as ふーん but it's obviously not [ɸɯ].

Japanese Wikipedia suggests this sound is 無声鼻腔摩擦音 ("voiceless nasal fricative"?).

無声鼻腔摩擦音を「ふ」で表すことがある（例：「ふん」と鼻で笑う）。

But the article gives no IPA representation, and this term appears nowhere else in Wikipedia.

I think English "hmm" and "humph" have a similar sound, and some sources including this suggest this sound is [m̥] (the voiceless version of [m]). But other sources including this and this seem to suggest [m̥] is a rare consonant.

So what is this sound in IPA? How do you transcribe ふーん and んふふ said with your mouth closed?


texts:
I always found it funny how the counter for people, 人, has the special cases [一人]{ひとり}, [二人]{ふたり}, but then continues [三人]{さんにん}, [四人]{よにん}, ...

However, this summer I came across a neat bit of info. If you go to bunraku plays or similar performances, like Doh theatre performances, they will say [四人]{よったり} instead. I heard this phrase also survives in some regional dialects in mordern Japanese, although I don't know which ones. This has lead me to conjecture that in the past, people were counted as the following, or a variation thereof.

[一人]{ひとり}、[二人]{ふたり}、[三人]{みったり}、[四人]{よったり}、[五人]{いったり}、[六人]{むったり}、[七人]{ななたり}、[八人]{やったり}、・・・

Does anyone know whether there is any evidence for this in old Japanese?


texts:
I'm currently studing from Genki-1 and I would like to know if I understand these sentences correctly, thank you :)

あなたの町に日本のレストランがありますか。- Do you have a Japanese restaurant in your town?

あなたの学校に何がありますか - what do you have in your school?

この教室にだれがいますか - Who is in that classroom ?

あなたの国に何がありますか - What is in your country?

日曜日に何がありますか　- What happens at Sunday?


texts: What are the meanings of ました, ます, and ません?

texts:
What are the uses for ました, ます, and ません? For example with the word, ありがとう, what are the differences between ありがとうございました, ありがとうございます, and ありがとうございません?

Also, is it possible to properly use どうも as a prefix of any of these? (I've heard doumo arigatou before, which is why I was wondering.)


texts: Translating "(action X) as (event Y)" - what grammatical structure fits best? (line in a song)

texts:
I'm a relative beginner to Japanese. I was trying to translate some song lyrics, and I got stuck badly on "shows fear as he turns to hide". If you don't know the song, we are told of one man on a lonely platform with a case by his side. He reveals his fear as he turns to hide from two eyes staring cold and silent at him. As he's turning, a momentary expression of fear crosses his face.

How would I best express this fleeting moment during a larger action in Japanese? I looked up a few things and none of them seem to fit exactly.

Maybe I want -ながら except every example I've found has talked about actions simultaneous with persisting states (watching TV) instead of events (turning to hide).
Maybe I want "turn to hide" in a とき clause, except every example seems to be events from the past. The song relates events in the present.
Or maybe I want the man on the lonely platform to "怖がって", changing it to  before he turns to hide. This makes two simultaneous actions into sequential ones but for me it alters the nuance of the original lyric.

What do you think?


texts: Does さえ mean "even" in the following sentence?

texts:
I encountered the following on our daily reading.

どのような企業{きぎょう}も、創業期{そうぎょうき}には全社員が昼食をとること さえ 忘れてしまうほど、忙しくフル回転していたものです。
In a business, a person was so busy that he forgot to eat lunch even lunch. (Not sure if translation is correct.)

From what my friend explained, the さえ means "even" or similar to ほど. Using a similar sentence he explained that さえ was only.

私はお酒 さえ あれば、幸せです。
Even if I have I only have sake, I am happy.

How is さえ used? I think it is synonymous to ほど.


texts:
I came across 2 sentences that include the repeated words.

1) 流れ流れたドヤ街で へんなおやじにつきまとわれて...

2) マスコミ利用し世間からせしめた黄金百万両！　御用御用とむらがる捕り手あたるをさいわいぶったおし...

I would like to know if there is any meaning other than their literal meanings.　Or is the purpose of repeated words just emphasizing their original meaning?


texts: Why does the kanji for coffee have a king 王 radical?

texts:
The Chinese character for coffee is 咖啡 while the Japanese kanji is 珈琲.

The mouth 口 radical seems more appropriate than the king 王 / jade 玉 radical.

Most kanji come from Chinese characters and are sometimes altered in some way, but I suspect coffee entered the Japanese culture and lexicon earlier than Chinese. So I suspect the king/jade version existed before the mouth version.

Any story behind why the Japanese kanji has a king/jade radical ? Maybe only royalty could afford it at one point or something.


texts:
Today I wanted to express that it hurts when my cat jumps on my stomach, so I said:

"猫がお腹の上に跳ね上がるとすごく痛い。"

but my friend corrected me to 上で. I asked another friend, who also said で makes sense. While I understand the difference between で and に, this didn't make sense to me at first because I thought で should be where the action takes place, not where the action is resulting. And even if one couldn't use に directly, I was thinking there should be at least some phrase like に向かって that could be used. Or maybe 跳ね上がる was the wrong word to use from the start, and I should have used another word like 飛び上がる. Could anyone enlighten me?


texts: What is the difference between　借りる and 貸す

texts: I've seen them before used as borrow and lend. So I've been a bit confused on when to use which verb? What's the difference? Is there a difference?


texts:
I came across a sentence which had かぶらず. As, per the picture, the meaning is nothing to wear on head. However, I was trying to figure out whether かぶらず is part of conjugation of the verb かぶる, however, many websites were not showing such conjugation, and the meaning of word かぶらず for that matter. Thereafter, I googled it and found it meant not wearing.

So

  my question is; whether is かぶらず is the conjugation of かぶる or is it
  something else?

  Is it some sort of a negative form to be used with particle も which also has the function of showing nothingness?

Secondly, I just wanted to seek clarification on usage of particle に, are we using this particle and not が, because if we use that particle it would me, my head has nothing to wear, which can also be misunderstood as, my head, literally has nothing to wear, which would be different from there is nothing to put on my head, which the author is trying to show.

Thanks :)


texts: I've seen both of these used about equally, and they seem to have similar meanings. Are they entirely interchangeable?


texts:
調理用のアルミボウルを用いて、より半球に近づけるためにゴム製ハンマーでひたすらたたき続けた。

Using aluminum foil, (より?) to make it hemispherical, a rubber hammer was repeatedly tapped.

If not for comparison, what is the purpose of より?


texts: Does 同級生 mean "classmate" instead of "batchmate" despite the meanings of the individual kanji?

texts:
I was looking for the word "batchmate" (entered the same year as you/in the same school grade, i.e. in between 先輩 and 後輩), and found some answers (1,2) on this site that gives 同級生 as a translation to "classmate". Can this word also be used for students not in the same class but in the same grade? For example, students in a club of the same grade but in different classes.
For context, the sentence I am trying to build is

先輩にも、＿＿にも、後輩までも笑われた。
I was laughed at by my seniors, my batchmates, and even by my juniors.

This is in context of club activities.
The answers on this site linked above translate 同級生 as "classmate", and so do some Japanese-English dictionaries. That surprised me because of how breaking up the kanji would literally give "same-grade-students". Can 同級生 also be used in the example above?
Or... does the Japanese concept of "classmates" extend beyond classes and include everyone in the same grade? I have no idea.


texts:
If I researched correctly (and with that I mean reading a bit of Wikipedia), the plant name ワスレナグサ, or 忘れな草 when written with Kanji, is a calque of German "Vergissmeinnicht" ("forget-me-not" in English) from the early 1900s. I know that グサ is just 草 having gone through Rendaku, but what kind of grammar is behind the rest of the construction? I wondered because 忘れな reminded me of a positive imperative rather than a negative one.
If anyone has an answer, I would greatly appreciate hearing it!


texts: Difference between verb types (verbal nouns, transitive & intransitive: eg 開始, 始める and 始まる)

texts: All three of these words mean "to start", but what's the difference between them and where are they used?


texts: What do the triangles, circles, and squares mean in the context of manga?

texts: I was reading Crayon Shin-chan—a Japanese manga—and came across a frame where the characters' speech bubbles contain circles, triangles, and crosses where words should be. I asked a couple of my Japanese friends about what the shapes meant but none of them could tell me what they meant or why they were used.


texts:
So in this song (full lyrics: http://vocaloidlyrics.wikia.com/wiki/%E5%8F%8D%E8%8A%BB%E3%81%AE%E5%8D%B0%E8%B1%A1_(Hansuu_no_Inshou) ) I ran across this line, and the use of 紡がれない confuses me here:

紡がれない墨染めホーム瑠璃の空に消え行くひつじ雲

(From) the (not being spun?) black platform, (I see) the cloud disappear into the lapis-blue sky.

I feel like I'm missing something crucial here, but no dictionary I can find lists 紡ぐ as anything besides spin (though some list it as "spin a tale," but I don't know how that's applicable here.)

Could broken-down work here for 紡がれない? I know that strays from the literal meaning a lot, but it would make sense in context. Or should I just translate it literally - is it just a more poetic choice by the writer?

Thanks for your help!


texts: Meaning of しかも and それで in Yes-No question

texts:
I see that しかも and それで usually connect 2 sentence together. But I see them place at the beginning in Yes-No questions.

1)"しかも歌うんかい"

2)"それで上手いんかい"

Does it mean 1) "(Moreover) is he singing?" and 2) "(So) Is it good?" ?


texts: Is there any relationship between the verb 死{し}ぬ and the 音読み 死{し}?

texts: I noticed that both 死ぬ and the 音読み of 死 share a し sound. Is this a huge coincidence between Japanese and Chinese, or is there some sort of relation? I guess the former, because I don't know any function ぬ may have after a borrowed noun, but I don't know much about etymology.


texts:
Is the function of と in this sentence kind of like the "if" と where there is an initial condition, that is followed by resulting condition?

この手紙から察すると彼は立腹してるようだ。

For example, "I gathered from the letter" RESULT -> "He seems angry"


texts:
What is the meaning of 「さいってー」 in the following dialogue?

Context: before this scene, the character on the left has just explained to his accomplice on the right why he decided to betray and kill some of their friends, the scene ends after the dialogue above. I know that さ means something like "well" when used alone, but I've never heard of さいってー. Is it a synonym of さて?. Thank you for your help!


texts: What is the use of the particle "の" and "ある方"?

texts:
I am a bit confused about this sentence I came across while studying:

質問のある方はどうぞ。
"Please feel free to ask any questions."

I'm not sure about the "のある方" part of the sentence.

My guess is that it would have to mean "to ask" in some way, but I can't figure out how. Is the の possessive?

Thank's for the help.


texts:
I have the following from a tourism article:

ただ、2018年｛ねん｝に築地｛つきじ｝から豊洲｛とよす｝に市場｛いちば｝機能｛きのう｝が移転｛いてん｝したことをご存知｛ぞんじ｝の方｛かた｝もいらっしゃるでしょう。「築地｛つきじ｝は今｛いま｝も観光｛かんこう｝に値｛あたい｝するスポットなの？」。そんな疑問｛ぎもん｝を持｛も｝つ方｛かた｝もいるかもしれません。

In the first case, it uses いらっしゃる, a respectful version of the second case's いる.
Yet, both uses 方{かた} as a respectful way to refer to a person, so I assume that the general nuance of the sentences is respectful. If that's the case, why doesn't the second case use いらっしゃる also?


texts:
I was reading

  Japanese:Revised edition by Shoichi Iwasaki

And he talks about 4 types of relative clauses.

A)“Cased Head” Type (Relative Clause): the head noun bears some case relation to the predicate in the modifying clause

  犬を飼っている木村さん。

B)“Adverbial Head” Type: the head noun bears an adverbial relation to the information expressed in the modifier

  財産をなくした賭け事。

C)“Relational Head” Type: the head noun and the modifier form some sort of interdependent relationship

  太郎が東京へ行った翌年。

D)“Content Label Head” Type (Appositive Clause): the head noun serves as a label for the content expressed in the modifier
In other words, content nouns are those nouns which
have the potential to be further commented on for their content.

  犬が赤ん坊をかんだ事実。

This looks pretty straightforward, but when reading is not always so easy, at least for me.

For example I found this sentence today.

  ちょうどこれまでとは対向線路にあたる闇の向こうから、眩いライトの光が浴びせかけられた。

Is 闇 a type D(“Content Label Head” Type) noun in this sentence?
Is it there a way to easily spot if it's a type A or Type D?
I don't have problems with B,C types but as for A,D I can't seem to grasp when it's A or D.

He also goes on saying this:

  In English, noun phrases within a relative clause cannot be further relativized, but this is allowed in some cases in   Japanese.

Is this referring to nesting?

Ex
>
可愛がっていた犬が死んだ子供


texts: What てやったら in のませてやったら mean?

texts:
What てやったら in のませてやったら mean?
Is it some conditional form of のませる verb? I can't find it in dicts.

And how would i translate the whole sentence:
おちちでも  のませてやったら  どーだ?

All i can assume is "How do you drink anything but milk?"

By the way, is どーだ equal to どう and means "how"?

And why だ is in the end of question sentence?


texts: （ものか）そんなばかなことがあるものか — such a stupid thing or not stupid at all?

texts:
The full sentence is:

  会社が業績不振で給料が30％カットされるなんて、そんなばかなことがあるものか.

Does it mean "such a stupid thing" or "not a stupid thing at all"?


texts:
Let's assume that I want to define the concept of injective function:

  A function f is said to be injective if each element of the domain has at most one image.

which would become something like that:

  函数{かんすう}fによって定義域のおのおののxに対して像が一個以下であるなら、函数fが単射であるという。

But is there something like 少なくとも一個 (at least one) whose meaning would be at most one. By something like 少なくとも I mean that the word order should be the same (ie. (expression whose meaning is “at most”)一個).


texts: What about these words without transitive/intransitive mark?

texts:
For example this one:
http://jisho.org/search/yorokobu

It appeared in this sentence:

  「両親{りょうしん}が生{い}きていたら、孫{まご}の誕生{たんじょう}をとても喜{よろこ}んだだろう。」

"If my parents had still lived, I think they would have been very pleased by the birth of their grandchild."

Are these verbs suitable for both transitive and intransitive use?
And do they "prefer" certain particles, or is that mostly determined by context?
In this particular case, I'm a bit confused by the use of を since it is in most cases reserved for the direct object, and at least in my attempt at translation, this isn't reflected at all...^^


texts:
結果はホームページにおいて発表されます。

  結果はホームページで発表されます。

Both of these sentences seem to translate into "As for the result, homepage on will be posted," or more naturally, "The result will be posted on the homepage." What does において actually add to the sentence compared to when で is used?

Another example is shown below.

  ロンドンにおける国際会議が行われた。

This sentence translates into "The international conference took place in London." Can't the sentence be written just as well as "ロンドンで国際会議が行われた"? Again, what does おける add to the sentence?

(Example sentences taken from this link.)


texts: Help translating この姿なら異国人も怪しまれない. Why も instead of でも?

texts:
この姿（すがた）なら異国人(いこくじん）も怪（あや）しまれない is a phrase said to someone disguised as a catholic missionary in medieval era in Japan, so he is not suspected by having a western face in the asian country.
I saw a lot of questions here about も vs でも, but generally speaking, the answer of the questions is that も means  "also" and でも means "even", with the も particle playing the role of the が or を particle, including a subject or object in a list to interact with the verb, while the でも particle ephasizes an element on a list as being against the odds.
But in the phrase この姿なら異国人も怪しまれない, using that logic, も does not seem to fit. It does not makes sense if 異国人 is a subject of the passive form of the verb 怪しむ, because then 異国人 would be the person being suspected by someone, and not what someone is being suspected of, what makes more sense by the context.
An user in another japanese language forum translated it as "with that outfit, you won't be suspected even being a foreigner", what for me would make sense if the phrase had a でも instead of も.


texts:
This is from a light novel I'm reading. Here's the part that I'm having trouble with this sentence:

  オレは痛みを訴える頭を巡らせ

Based on what I know regarding the rest of the sentence, I believe that this translation should be something like:

  I developed a headache as I thought it over.

According to my electronic dictionary, 巡らせ should be the imperative form of 巡らす.  But I'm having trouble reasoning out why the imperative would be needed here since he's thinking it over himself and not being commanded by someone else to think it over.

If you need more context, here's the passage that I'm looking at:

  どうして、こんな事になったのだろう……。

  オレは痛みを訴える頭を巡らせ、こうなってしまった原因を思い返した。


texts:
In the sentence:

  君が僕と結婚してくれたら、残りの人生ずっといい気分ですごせると思うよ。

Who is the person who will be able to live their whole life feeling good? Is it 君 or 僕?


texts:
When I encounter these two, I usually don't have a problem understanding their meaning in the given context.
Still, I don't really know what makes them different from each other xD
-なくて still is relatively easy for me to determine, since its the negated て form.

  その人がすきじゃなくて、会うに行く。
  "Not liking that person, I go meet him/her."

I can't really determine what ないで is though, and therefore the difference between the two isn't completely clear to me.

  留学するつもりだったんですが、母に行かないでほしいって言われたんです。
  "I wanted to study abroad, but I was told by my mother that she wishes that I don't go."

So I do see that it is something along the lines of negation, but I still can't thoroughly classify it's exact form and function :D


texts: What are some other common dialect suffixes in Japan?

texts:
What dialect is the 'わ' suffix from and what are some other common dialect suffixes?

For example, from manga and anime I come across people saying things like わからないわ or はやくしようぜ and some Japanese friends have told me these are usually based on prefectures.


texts:
I encountered the following passage in a mystery manga. The detective character is explaining the evidence the "true" criminal (as opposed to the puppet killer described earlier in the book) left behind. The evidence had to do with computer data that the killer did not verify.  I've done my best to reproduce it in the layout it originally appeared in

このアンタにとって
不運な偶然としか
言えない
データ入力ミスと

それを
確認しなかった
アンタのイージーミスが

真犯人は
アンタ以外にいないという
決定証拠を

与えてしまったんだ。

Could someone please explain the function of the bold と that doesn't seem to have a いう or equivalent after it and the bold が that doesn't seem to be functioning as a subject marker or a sentence connecting particle. Part of me suspects that the が is marking the subject of 与える and I would be satisfied with that explanation. I'm very uncertain about the と though.


texts:
Excuse my seemingly dumb question. I was reading a fan comment: (please feel free to read just the first paragraph, i just put the rest for some context but it may not be necessary)

第40話では、「わけがわからない『好き』」を侑も求めていたのに、
燈子はそれを知っているなんて「ずるい」と侑はこぼす。

かつての侑にとって、「好き」、「誰かを特別に思う気持ち」は、どこかから降ってくるものだった。
まるでそう、このコマで描かれている流れ星のように。
だからこそ、侑にとっての「好き」は手の届かない「星」としてずっと表現されてきた。

でも、それは違った、と侑は話す。
「わたしの『好き』は」「自分で選んで手を伸ばすものだったよ」。
そして侑は、何度も、何度も燈子を選んできたことを話す。
「先輩がたくさん好きって言ってくれたから、選べた」と。

The わけがわからない in 「わけが わからない『好き』」  here seems to be describing  『好き』. I know わけがわからない is a set phrase to mean "I don't understand the reason of this", "nonsense" but  I haven't found something in Japanese online dictionaries of an use like this one. In this context, I understand it as "unreasonable" love, or love "that happens without a reason". Is it correct? Can it be used as an adj.?


texts:
I recently heard about a manga entitled つっぱしり元太郎, and I'm slightly confused about the meaning of the 「つっぱしり」 in its name. I've looked the word up in several dictionaries, but have gotten no results.

From what I know and have seen, it seems that it is derived from the verb [突っ走る]{つっぱしる} (which would make sense given the apparent nature of the manga.)

Thus my question is: What is 「つっぱしり」 in this context? Is it an independent noun or adjective (if so, what is its meaning?), or is it grammatical-form derived from the aforementioned verb (if so, what is the grammar behind it?)


texts:
Okay I read a light novel and found a phrase that seems nonsensical to me.

The sentence is: "私を見ながら背中に嫌な汗を掻いた。" The context is that a character in the story just realize something about the Main Character.

The phrase that confuse me is "背中に嫌な汗を掻いた。"

Is "getting your back wet with sweat" an idiomatic phrase in Japanese? Does that means he was fear or afraid?

What does it really mean? I try to search the dictionary that I have but I don't find the relevant meaning.


texts: "手が折れた" a natural way to express that the bone in a hand is broken?

texts:
Is 手{て}が折{お}れた a natural way to express the situation where I broke a bone in my hand?

In English, saying "I broke my hand." and "I broke a bone in my hand." is pretty much the same to me (unless of course I gotta express which bone).

Maybe is 手が折れた an unnaturally sounding direct translation of English? Maybe 手の骨が折れた。 sounds more technical?

thanks.


texts: What does "なのか" mean in 彼女 が 誰 なのか わかりますか?

texts:
彼女 が 誰 なのか わかりますか。is a question which has 2 "ka" question markers? or is it 2 questions? (Could it be translated as who is she? you know? )
And what does the "なの" means here? I think I've heard other phrases with "なのか" and I dont know when it has to be used


texts: What is the difference in usage between [問]{と}い[合]{あ}わせ and [依]{い}[頼]{らい}

texts:
Both 問い合わせ and 依頼　can mean to ask, but my co-workers are using both words in the application we are working on as if they are two different words.

I have a suspicion one is transitive and one is intransitive in their usage, but not entirely sure.

Edit: From the comments an enquiry and a request are both asking for information. That is where i was getting confused.


texts: 「こわいだから。」 versus 「こわい、だから[...]」

texts:
In an answer on another question, @TsuyoshiIto wrote:

  [U]nlike commas in English, 読点 in Japanese is rarely (if ever) grammatically required. Authors are free to use 読点 wherever they feel that it makes sense to make a pause when pronounced.

And in a comment on yet another question, @dainichi wrote:

  I think [こわいだから] might exist in some dialects, but in standard Japanese, it is ungrammatical regardless of formality. Unless it's こわい、だから[...] which is something else. (emphasis added)

What is this "something else?"  According to answers on two other questions (this one and this one), だから is simply だ + から.  Therefore, I would expect *こわいだから to be ungrammatical because *こわいだ is ungrammatical.  In fact, I would expect だから to only follow things that だ can follow.

However, I'm having trouble reconciling what @dainichi and @TsuyoshiIto wrote.  If *こわいだから is ungrammatical, and 読点 aren't required, how can こわい、だから be grammatical?

Perhaps my confusion stems from the difference between these forms:

*こわいだから。
こわい、だから[・・・]
こわい。だから[・・・]

Can だから be explained as だ + から in all three cases?  If so, does that mean だ can begin a sentence or clause, or is だから somehow special?  What is the "something else" referred to by @dainichi?

In short: how can I make sense of this?


texts:
I've got a task in uni today to put either と or たら. And there's a sentence I can't comprehend:
箸で食べて（みると、みたら）どうですか。
I don't quite understand which form I have to use here, so it would be great if I could find some help!


texts: Does Japanese have short versions of weekdays?

texts:
Like in English we could type the days of the week as "Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat."

Does Japanese have shortenings for weekdays? Like:

日,月, 火, 水, 木, 金, 土

Instead of:

日曜日, 月曜日, 火曜日, 水曜日, 木曜日, 金曜日, 土曜日

Or:

にち, げつ, か, すい, もく,きん, ど

Instead of:

にちようび, げつようび, かようび, すいようび, もくようび, きんようび, どようび

Or do the short versions not make sense?


texts: sentence ending と for third person narrators

texts:
通常なら流せる発言も、あるいは飲み込める怒りも、慣れない自給自足の生活でささくれだった神経では不可能になる人間がいるのだと。

context is about a group of people, trapped in the wilderness for a while.

To be able to talk normally, or to to be able hold back anger, due to this unaccustomed self-sufficient lifestyle, their  nerves deteriorated, things are like that became impossible for some of them.

  彼女の心のどこかに、歪んだ贖罪の心がわき起こる。こんなになってしまった先生を受け容れるのが、私に出来る数少ない贖罪の方法なのではないかと。

Marginally related to the first context

...To accept this disheveled sensei’s demands, would one of the few ways she can atone for her sins right?

Speaker a 3rd person narrator of the story for both sentences. Is this just to express a degree of uncertainy as if the narrator only thinking "___" is the case? The narrator is omniscient, is this just to tease the reader?


texts: What does the word 小吉 mean in this context?

texts: My grandmother went in Japan 50 years ago. During her travel, she collected a note concerning her future, but she didn't speak any words of Japanese. She has kept the note in her wallet for all these years. Now I would like to tell her the meaning of this old note. Could someone please help me? Unfortunately there is a missing character due to a small hole in the middle, I hope it is still undestandable. Thank you.


texts: I came across this word in a manga page, on the top right speech bubble. I'm not sure whether this Kanji should be read as なつく or いだく. Moreover, neither of the readings make too much sense to me, should I interpret this phrase as "Aren't you getting too attached?" or something along these lines, since it's (apparently) in the passive form?


texts:
What is the mean difference between 取引先との付き合い方 and 取引先の付き合い方?

Thank for support me.


texts: Is it possible to use 「にあたらない」 with nouns?

texts:
「にあたらない」 means "is not worthy of" or "no need to do so" and generally used with words like 「褒める」、「嘆く」etc. (Reference: にあたらない)

  彼は同情するにあたらない。

  He is not worthy of sympathy. / You don't need to show any sympathy for him.

Would it be possible to use this grammar with nouns? For example;

  彼は同情にあたらない。(Excluding する)

  He is not worthy of your sympathy.

or

  泣かないでくれ。彼は君の涙にあたらないよ。(Using 涙)

  Please don't cry. He is not worthy of your tears.


texts:
This is the example sentence: 私の趣味はギターを弾くことです。

My translation - Playing the guitar is my hobby.

However, why is it not: '私の趣味はギターを弾きます。’

Basically I don't understand this use of 'ことです'.


texts: What is the hair bun on a sumo wrestler's head called?

texts: Sumo wrestlers wear a hair bun on the top of their heads and I want to know what it is called.


texts: Is there a name for empanadas in japanese?

texts: I doubt there is one, but is there a name for empanadas in Japanese? If there isnt, how should I call them in japanese, should I adapt the name to katakana (since it's a foreign word) or what?


texts: How to say "too quickly", "too recklessly" etc

texts:
When I want to say that something is too quick, just as an example, I can simply say

  速すぎる。

However, I don't quite know how I could express sentences with "too" adverbially, such as in "I became sick because I ate the cake too quickly".

I came up with these two translations for the example above:

  ケーキの食べ方が速すぎて病気になってしまいました。
  ケーキを食べるのが速すぎて病気になってしまいました。

Do these convey the intented meaning? What would be more natural alternatives? And lastly, and I'm sorry for straying a little bit away from the original question here: Is 病気になる a natural way to say "become sick" in this case?


texts: I am confused by the use of なんか, especially after the て-form of a verb. What do: あきらめてなんかない, 消えてなんかない mean? How do they differ from simply saying あきらめていない, 消えていない?　What is the purpose of なんか？


texts:
I just had someone say this to me. I'm pretty sure I know what it means already but I came here to confirm if I'm correct or not.

こんにばんは is a combination of こんにちは and こんばんは.

こんにちは is what you would say if you meet with someone for the first time or if you already know him/her, when you meet them while going about your daily business. こんばんは is similar, except said during the evening.

こんにばんは is what you would say if you meet with someone new for the first time at night.

Is my guess correct?


texts: Nuance differences between the kanji for ぐあい, 具合 and 工合

texts:
Usually I read ぐあい as 具合 but recently I was reading a some Japanese literature and the 工合 version of the kanji was used.

For reference the literature:

  脳味噌の中心にヒリヒリと焦げ付く位である。それでいて、あとから考えるとその興味の焦点と、自分の心理の結ばり工合{ぐあい}がサッパリわからない。探偵趣味で惹き付けられたのか、猟奇趣味で読まされたのか、わからない場合が非常に多い。

I’m guessing it means something along the lines of ‘way’ however I am unsure.

Is there a difference in meaning or nuance between the two? If so when and where do you split the usages?


texts:
What does って mean in this sentence?

  世の中には、頑張っても無駄な人っていますか。


texts: Parsing positive じゃない statements — 体重が増えればいいってことじゃなくて

texts:
体重が増えればいいってことじゃなくて
As a beginner-intermediate learner, my first reading of the (partial) sentence was along the lines of "it wouldn't be good to gain weight [and]..." but the given translation has an almost opposite meaning with "it's not just that it would be good to gain weight...".
I've been wrestling with this for a while and I think I've gotten my bearings somewhat. The two things confusing me are (1) the positive meaning, and (2) the "not just".
Is it right to say:
(1) it's positive because it uses the "いいじゃない" structure rather than a negatively conjugated "よくない"? It kind of got hazy for me because of the conversational 'ってこと' inserted, but I believe you can essentially ignore that aspect.
(2) is the "just" essentially because of the "なくて"?
So another way to parse the ending of the sentence is something like "wouldn't it and..." (because of the rhetorical negative and the -て continuation), but in context of the "it would be good to gain weight" base you can collapse it into "not just" getting you the final meaning?
I feel like I'm close but I'm not quite correctly parsing out the nuanced meaning of the sentence. Like I'm 80% there. Or maybe I'm totally off!


texts:
For example,

"Don't make it sound/seem like I am doing something wrong"

Or

"My teacher makes it sound like tomorrow's test will be difficult"

I tried,

"私は悪いことをするように言わないで"

Or

"私は悪いことをすると言わないで"

But the above translation seems more direct as in "don't say that I am doing something wrong" rather than "don't make it seem like".

Can そう be used in any way here?


texts: Meaning of さてと and general comprehension

texts:
The context: Maruko and her mum prepared food and bath salts as a new year's gift for Maruko's grandad (ともぞう) and grandma. But dad (ヒロシ) has just eaten all the food. Maruko protests and dad says:

  「いいんじゃよ。まる子、わしのことなんて気にしなくても...」
  Dad: "It's alright. Even if Maruko doesn't give a damn about me..."
  「そうじゃよ、わたしらは気持ちだけで充分じゃ...」
  Grandad: "That's right. For us it's the thought that counts.
  ともぞうとおばあちゃんの声は小さく暗かったが、ヒロシは頓着しない。
  Narrator: Tomozou and grandma's voice was small and gloomy but Hiroshi didn't care.
  「ほら、ふたりとも気持ちだけで充分だってさ。ハハハッ。さてと風呂でも入ってくるか」

I have several confusions:
1) Is dad claiming that Maruko doesn't care about him, or is he just talking to Maruko and the subject is an implied "anybody" i.e. "Maruko, even if nobody gives a damn about me..."

2) Does 気持ちだけで充分だ express the meaning "It's the thought that counts"?

My main problem (I think) is the last line. ふたりとも気持ちだけで充分だってさ。さてと風呂でも入ってくるか.

3a) I'm going to claim that the って in bold is the casual quote marker and there is an implied 言った, so I get "Look! You both said it's the thought that counts right?". Is this correct?

3b) I have no idea what さてと means.

3c) I know 風呂に入る means "to take a bath" but I don't understand what question he is asking here. The best I can do is "Will you start to take even a bath", which is nonsense. My guess is that it should be "Does that (it's the thought that counts) even apply to taking a bath", but I really can't see how that would work.


texts:
I've been trying to improve my Japanese by translating a children's book. I only studied Japanese for a short while over 10 years ago so my grammar knowledge is very flawed and I've never read books before, only manga, so I mostly only know the basic grammar used in everyday conversations.

  「どうしてないているの？」とるるちゃんがきくと、
  「おさんぽをしていたら、おうちにかえれなくなったの。」
  とちいさなおばけはこたえました。

I'm confused to the use of と here. All three of them. I can understand what it says without knowing, but I really want a better understanding the usage of と here.


texts: ゆく used in auxiliary sense - instead of いく?

texts:
I'm reading a novel 「キッチン」by 吉本ばなな at the moment and I noticed that she uses ゆく in some places as an auxiliary verb to signify the action progression from here or from now (if my understanding is correct). I can quote two examples:

雨に覆われた夜景が闇ににじんでゆく大きなガラス、に映る自分と目が合う。
[...] はるかに淡い空に薄い雲がゆっくりと流れてゆく。

So far in my study of Japanese I have encountered いく used this way. Can ゆく be used the same way? Will those sentences have the same meaning if ゆく was replaced by いく? Is ゆく commonly used this way in modern Japanese?


texts: Conjugating present and past negative i-adjectives

texts:
I've been learning about conjugating i- and na-adjectives recently and I've stumbled onto something odd. I've seen two distinct ways of conjugating negative i-adjectives; the two ways are to replace い with either:

くない (for present negative) or くなかった (for past negative) then add です at the end, or
くありません (for present negative) or くありませんでした (for past negative).

I'll use 楽しい as an example:

  Present Negative:
  楽しくないです。 OR　楽しくありません。==> It is not fun.

  Past Negative:
  楽しくなかったです。 OR　楽しくありませんでした。==> It was not fun.

Are these two algorithms for conjugating negative i-adjectives equivalent? Is one better than the other? What are any differences between them? Is one more formal than the other? Is there anything I should know about the relative usage of these two algorithms? Any input will be appreciated.


texts:
太陽は、昔と同じこぎれいな庭のむこうから昇り、...
  The sun rose on the same tidy gardens and ...

If I were to translate this word-for-word I would get "the sun climbed from the opposite side of the same tidy gardens".

Maybe I'm thinking about this too literally but the picture in my head is that maybe I'm stood on the west side of the garden and the sun is rising on the opposite side (east). But if I now watch the sunrise from the south side of the garden, the sun is no longer opposite me, so it seems that むこう is inappropriate.

Is Xのむこうから昇り a standard way to talk about the sun rising over X? Perhaps my understanding of むこう is too narrow. Is there a better way to think about it than just 'opposite'? I'm aware of it's usage as 'over there', but that seems to fit even less well in this context.


texts: If you ask a question, such as 誰がこれが分かる？ Is this still grammatical? Is it okay to use two が's in the same sentence?