texts: What does "用意する身にもなれっての" in this dialogue mean?

texts:
I'm still fairly a novice and I just came across the word "身になる" which apparently has several meanings. I looked up the word online to look for more examples. I came across this on a blog:

  いつもいつも
  当たり前みたいに毎週泊まりに来て
  用意する身にもなれっての

From what I can tell this was posted by an office lady venting about her boyfriend.

I'm unfortunately confused with the last line "用意する身にもなれっての".

The best translation I can come up with is "Try to imagine what it's like from my side, preparing (something?) for you."

That's most likely wrong so I'll take any help. Thanks.


texts: Sound effect らん with unknowing meaning, and meaning of pun 裂けて　避けた

texts:
So I was translating a  song (full lyrics here: 反芻の印象)
and there is an onomatopoeia in the middle which I don't understand. It's らん. It repeats multiple times (you can hear it in the song on Youtube, 【初音ミク】反芻の印象【オリジナル曲】, at 1:00) and I don't know what it's trying to mimic. I can't find what it could mean anywhere, and I don't know what it could be besides that. The song is about trains, so I'm assuming the sound effect is related to that, but really I have no idea what it's supposed to sound like, even after listening to it over and over.

Additionally, the line after that in the song is:

  裂けて　避けた

(I tore it up and avoided it?) which I'm quite sure is a pun, which is why I'm hesitant to translate it as written, especially since it doesn't really make contextual sense. (As the next lyric is 鈍行列車 点いて　消える　きまぐれ信号, the slow train lights up (the night) and then vanishes, a whimsical signal - that makes sense together, but not with 裂けて　避けた.) Is this just a weird line, or is there some meaning to these words, especially put together, that I'm not seeing?

Thank you for your help!


texts:
From ふらいんぐうぃっち chapter 1 p38, this is how Makoto introduced herself

はじめまして
この度…こちらの方【ほう】で
魔女をやらせていただく
木綿 真琴です

I have difficulty understanding how the second and third sentence of the introduction works.
In the second sentence, what does「こちらの方で」refers to? A way of doing something or a place? According to the 方's furigana reading, I believed that it must refer to some physical direction. But, I can't see the direction.
In the third sentence, what「やらせていただく」means? All I know is that it has a similar meaning to「させていただく」. It means "to do (introduce with permission)," am I right?


texts: usage of 念のために for non-unfortunate things

texts:
念のために{ねんのために｝ means "just in case", but since the kanji is 念, from 残念｛ざんねん｝, I'm just wondering if it has the nuance of "to avoid unfortunate incidence..." or whether it is as versatile as "just in case"

例えば｛たとえば｝
Just in case you don't know, this is a pen 念のために、これはペンです

Now I'm pretty sure this doesn't work, cause it doesn't specify the "not knowing", so how about:

分からない念のために、これはぺんです。
OR
分からない場合に、これはぺんです。
OR
分からなかったら、これはぺんです。

Y'know, maybe in the end I answered my own question...but could someone give me an actual informed opinion? Is 念のために limited to unfortunate incidents only?


texts: How many dialects are commonly used today?

texts: Which dialects would one normally encounter when visiting/living in Japan (in popular places like Tokyo, Kyoto and and so on) or reading something produced in Japan?


texts: Textbook says はく is for stuff you wear below your waist (ジーンズをはいている) and きる for stuff you wear above your waist (T-シャツをきています). But checking for 着る on www.tangorin.com I find 着る defined as to wear (in modern Japanese, from the shoulders down); to put on. Does this mean I can just discard はく and use きる for everything shoulders down?


texts: Are there Japanese words for chili peppers which would translate to "Japanese chili pods"?

texts:
What is the Japanese word for "Japanese chili pods", like the ones in the link below?
https://www.mexgrocer.com/9656.html


texts: What does で mean when ordering food/drinks?

texts:
In a TV show, I heard the following exchange:

  Man: 生ビール

  Izakaya owner: 大？中？

  Man: 大で

I thought で was used to talk about location, so I'm a bit confused.

What does で mean in this case?


texts: I was reading http://helps.ameba.jp/faq/pigg/5301/post_362.html, and it said "ピグ", I can't for the life figure out for the life of me what it means (Unless it means pig, and contextually that makes no sense to me.)


texts: Giving and receiving with two 3rd persons

texts:
There are (at least) two words which mean "to give": あげる and くれる. The former is used when you give to someone else, and the latter is used when someone else gives to you.

But which do you use if you want to say that someone else gave something to another person, where both parties are outside your social circle?


texts: Likely Sentences (Nuance in use of 〜てもらう vs Passive form)

texts:
Our professor gave us some problems where you are suppose to circle which statement the person is more likely to say. Below is an example.

おまわりさん
    よく道を聞かれます。
    よく道を聞いてもらいます。

I think this means the following.

Policeman
    I am asked for directions a lot.
    I often have people ask me for directions.

However, I don't see how one of these is more likely than the other. Is there a nuance I am missing?


texts:
I'm watching an old anime, and the main character at one point says:

  彼は私の安らぎの人です。

The subtitles said, "He's the one that I love." But I'm unfamiliar with the use of 安らぎ in this context, and am wondering if there's a more appropriate/accurate way of understanding this? My understanding is that 安らぎ means 'tranquil/peaceful', so I would literally translate the phrase as "He is the person with whom I feel most peaceful." However, the main character does love this boy she is referring to, so I'm guessing this may be a commonly understood way of referring to someone you love? I feel I might be missing something culturally about this phrase, which is giving me a hard time when trying to understand it.


texts: Predicates that are a static, stable state

texts:
I'm reading into the が particle's various functions and the book I'm reading states that apparently the subject with が receives only the exhaustive-listing interpretation "if the predicate is a static, stable state (described by a noun, an い adjective, a な adjective, or a stative predicate)".
I had a few questions concerning this:

Does this mean all nouns are static, stable states and if not what kinds of nouns aren't static, stable states.
Does this mean all い adjectives are static, stable states and if not what kinds of い adjectives aren't static, stable states.
Does this mean all な adjectives are static, stable states and if not what kinds of な adjectives aren't static, stable states.
What is a "stative predicate"? Could someone provide some examples for clarity?

I would really appreciate some help clarifying what constitutes a static, stable state.


texts:
全身に力が入らず- what does '力が入らず' mean? I know 力 means strength, but what does 'が入らず' mean?
I've done some googling and it either means without strength or filled with strength. That's why I'm very clueless right now.
If possible, can I get the meaning of 'が入らず' and the meaning of 'が入らず' in this sentence's concept if it contains another meaning?
Thanks guys!


texts: structure of 忘れちゃうといけないからメモしといたのにそのメモをなくしちゃった。

texts:
I try to figure out the structure of this sentence. but I'm somehow confuse with it

what I got is this

忘れちゃうと　いけないから、　in order to not forget

メモしといたのに　although noted it already

そのメモをなくしちゃった　that note is gone (lost it)

(If I got it right) it seem make sense to me but in grammar first two sentence is strange.

is it like this? ... although I noted it already (in order not to forget) but I lost it.


texts: Equivalent to "How to" in guides and the like

texts: What is an equivalent expression to "How to" that is used when searching/referring to guides, especially online?


texts: What are the reasons for the huge amount of loanwords in Japanese?

texts: It seems that Japanese has far more loanwords than any other language I've heard spoken. I understand that English is far-reaching and a global language, but are there many known reasons that English has had a huge linguistic influence on Japan in particular?


texts:
I keep hearing this phrase

  .... マシだ

Apparently it means something along the lines of "better than nothing"?

For example in the drama 「結婚できない男」 there's a scene where the main character is being suggested to help out his neighbor with a stalker and the dialog is something like

  ミチルちゃんが一人でビクビク歩くよりクワノさんでもいた方がましでしょ（う）？

Is "better than nothing" a good translation or at least a good pattern to match the phrase to? I find if I can find something I might actually stay in English to tie a Japanese phrase to I'm more likely to be able to use it.


texts:
"何" is pronounced as "なん" before counter-words like in "何時{なんじ}", "何歳{なんさい}" etc; or before particles like in "何で", "何とか" etc.

However, it remains to be pronounced as "なに" in some words like "何事{なにごと}", "何色{なにいろ}", "何者{なにもの}" etc. It can also be pronounced both ways like in "何か".

What is the logic/origin behind this pronunciation difference?


texts: なったような vs なるような　Any differences in nuance?

texts:
The context is about two teachers talking in a kindergarten.
Quoted as below:

奈良：毎年クリスマス会で、誰かがサンタに扮｛ふん｝するものの、子供たちに絶対見破られて、“奈良先生だ”とか言われますよね。
磯山｛いそやま｝：ええ、あれ言われると、せっかくの扮装｛ふんそう｝が水の泡になったような気がして、虚しくなります。

Please note they are talking about a common situation. It happens every year. And 磯山 agrees and feels empty too when that happens.  In other words, it is a present situation.
Then why did 磯山 use past tense saying “水の泡になったような気がして”?
If 磯山 says “水の泡になるような気がして” instead, would it be still grammatically correct?
Then what’s the difference?


texts: To which part of speech belong 〜とはいえ and 〜というものの, and as what part of sentence are they usually used?

texts: I came across 〜とはいえ and 〜というものの. They seem to be fixed expressions but I am not quite sure which part of speech they can be re-analysed as.


texts: Since you often need to write your signature fast it should be something short. I wonder which script, kana or kanji, natives use for writing their signature (in most cases)?


texts: Meaning of ~するとみる and よくばる in this sentence

texts:
I don't get what するとみた and よくばって　means in this sentence :

  よくばってかなり時間オーバーをするとみた。

As for the context : the speaker is waiting for someone to get out of a room. He just said :

  まる1日ちょうどで出て来るとは限らんぞ。

Rikaichan tells me that 欲張る means "to covet, to lust for" but that doesn't help much...

And I wasn't able to find any information on するとみる.

Thanks for your time.


texts: Another way to express the reason for doing something, apart from ために

texts:
I was thinking more ways to express the reason for doing something, for instance, in these three sentences:

I want to go to Japan to work.
I study hard to get high marks.
I will go to the concert to avoid being at home.

I can only come up with ために. Is there another way to say it? Can I actually use ために in all those three cases?
Thanks!


texts: in 買っては, I need some explanation for っては part

texts:
Here is the reply I got after saying that I was interested in buying new shoes.

  靴買うならTシャツやいま使うもの買っては？！

I think I got the overall meaning however I’m a bit confused with “買っては”.
I don’t really get the “っては” part.
Could you explain?
Thanks for your help!


texts:
The following is an excerpt from an e-mail conversation between me and my language partner.

For some pretext:
「大学の勉強の間」という文は、今のアンドレアスさんを知らない人にとっては、「過去を表す言葉」なのかどうかわかりません。

「私は過去に、移住者の子供にドイツ語を教えるアルバイトをしています」
とすれば、過去の経験であることがはっきりします。
さらに「過去に３年間」のようにすると、経験が一度ではなく、何年か続いたものであることがわかります。

The sentence in question:
さらに「過去に３年間」のようにすると、経験が一度ではなく、何年か続いたものであることがわかります。

My attempt at translation:
"Furthermore, wenn you do it like 'in the past for three years', then one knows that it wasn't a one time experience and that it continued for many years."

My first issue lies with the use of のように here. I think it is used to express that "you VERB like NOMINAL PHRASE", right? I'm not really confident about my knowledge about the use of ように and wether the "in order to" semantics, comparable to VERBために, applies or the "like" semantics, comparable to みたいに, applies xD

My second issue lies with the connection of the 経験が一度ではなく and the 何年か続いたものである phrase which are ultimately both nominalized through こと. I am rather confident that I understood it right, but I wanted to ask for confirmation since I'm not 100% sure.


texts:
In an online dictionary for 単独, 単独 is used seemingly as an adverb in two example sentences, but with different particles:

「単独で登頂する」
「単独に存在する」

99% of other 単独 examples online use で. Since this is a very reliable online dictionary in my experience, what is the grammar of using 単独に here?  Is 単独 treated as a different part of speech in 単独に versus 単独で?


texts: What is the difference between 殊に and 特に?

texts:
What is the difference between 殊{こと}に and 特{とく}に?

I've looked around on goo, and weblio, and this chiebukuro question, but I just wanted to see if anyone had anymore further input on the difference between these two words and how they're used.

Thank you!


texts: Correct way to say "I only see you as a friend"

texts:
How does one say "I only see you as a friend" in Japanese?
Literal translation would give 友達だけとして見ます, but the 見ます part seems awfully wrong.


texts:
I'm currently studying on my Intermediate Japanese book and I stumbled upon the usage of なるべく, with the meaning of as ~ as possible. The book gives me two examples and with the first one there's no real difficulty.

教室の外でも、なるべく日本語を使った方がいいでしょう。
( with the meaning of it will be better if you speak Japanese as much as possible even outside the classroom )

But then it shows me another example, which I didn't really comprehend as far as the usage of なるべく is regarded. Which is the following:

宿題は、なるべく次の日に出してください。( I get the meaning of the sentence which should mean something along the lines of please hand in homework the next day if possible but still, I thought that there would be something like a set phrase just like the as much as possible that we find in the first sentence )

So my final quesion is: what's the use of なるべく in the last sentence? Why does the book put them both under the same grammar rule? ( I get that it may be quite a silly question but this keeps on bugging me since yesterday ) Thanks in advance.


texts: Is かぐや姫 pronounced "Ka-gu-ya" or "Kag'-ya"?

texts:
皆さん、こんばんは！

Just a quick question. Is かぐや姫's name pronounced "Kaguya" or "Kag'ya"?
aka. Is the う dropped or not?

Just curious as I haven't found a definitive answer for this yet.


texts:
In the sentence

  男に突然声をかけられた
  駅までの道を知りたいらしい

I interpret this to mean "I yelled at the man so loud as if I wanted it to reach all the way to the station"

Is my translation correct? Why is the potential form of かける used?


texts:
In my JLPT practise book, there is this question:

  子供{こども}のけんかに親{おや}が_____きた。

  A 乗{の}り越{こ}えて 　B 乗{の}り切{き}って　C 乗{の}り出{だ}して　 D 踏{ふ}み込{こ}んで

I chose D, because it seemed to me that the meaning of 踏{ふ}み込{こ}んで means to "bust in on". As in, interrupt the kids who are fighting.

However, the book says the answer is C, which seems odd to me because I thought 乗{の}り出{だ}して meant something like "to set out to do X". Since the sentence doesn't seem to me to contain the X action the parents set out to do, it looks incomplete to me.

So I must not understand the use of 乗{の}り出{だ}して.

What would be an accurate translation of the sentence, and what exactly is 乗{の}り出{だ}して?


texts: How did 冷やかし come to mean "window-shopping"?

texts:
I'm curious how 冷やかし came to mean things such as 買わずに見る and からかう.

Here's what I can figure out:

hiya seems to be a root meaning "cold" (like in hiya-ya-ka)
hiya-k-u is an old verb based on this root ("to become cold")
hiya-k-as-u is the same verb plus a causative affix ("to make cold")
hiya-k-as-i is a noun derived from the 連用形 of this verb

So it seems that "to make cold" is the literal meaning of the verb, and it can still be written with the kanji 冷.  However, it doesn't appear that the noun 冷やかし retains this literal meaning--at least, I don't see it anywhere in 大辞林:

  ひやかし0 【冷やかし・〈素見〉】

  相手が困ったり恥ずかしがったりするような冗談を言うこと。からかうこと。

  　　―半分に言っただけだ
  買う気がないのに値段をきいたり品定めしたりすること。また、その人。素見(すけん)。

  　　―客
  遊里で、登楼せず張り見世の遊女をからかったり品定めしたりすること。また、その人。素見。

I suppose these three senses are probably related to the literal meaning, but I can't see the connection.  How did the meaning go from "make cold" to "window shopping"?


texts: "Business" email letter opening when their signed name is their language center?

texts:
How do I respond and open the letter when they're signing their emails with their language center name instead of their "person"-name?

They close with "「ｘ」センター"

Thanks!


texts:
This is a sentence from 『風の又三郎』 by 宮沢賢治.

  ところがその跡のようなものは、まだ百歩も行かないうちに、おとこえしや、すてきに背の高いあざみの中で、二つにも三つにも分かれてしまって、どれがどれやらいっこうわからなくなってしまいました。

My question is, what does おとこえしや mean?


texts: Can intransitive verbs be used in a transitive way with abstract objects?

texts:
Nearly all Japanese verbs are classified as either transitive or intransitive. However, I am wondering if there are cases where one can use an intransitive verb in a transitive way, especially in a humorous, poetic, or philosophical context.
For example: the verb 「死ぬ」is intransitive, as is the verb "to die" in any language. However, in some languages like English we have expressions like "to die a painful death". Here the abstract concept "death" is the object of the intransitive verb "to die".
Is this possible in Japanese? That is, is something like「死を死ぬ」acceptable in Japanese, or would it be considered ungrammatical by virtue of having used「を」with the verb「死ぬ」?
Would a native speaker of Japanese understand an expression like 「死を死ぬ」, or would it sound like gibberish to them?

(See the Wikipedia page on cognate objects for a description of the general concept , although the the term "cognate object" is a bit of a misnomer as the key idea is not about the object being cognate with the verb.  "Abstract object" would be a better term.)


texts:
I'm trying to determine the most appropriate kanji for タコ (octopus), and have come across three possibilities: 章魚, 蛸, and 鮹.

According to jisho.org, all three possibilities are read as たこ.
The Pocket Kenkyusha Japanese Dictionary (ISBN 978-0-19-860748-9) includes 蛸.
The Collins English-Japanese Dictionary (ISBN 0-00-719655-5) only gives タコ.

My question: How common is each variant, and are their meanings truly equivalent?　For example:

英語でタコは「octopus」です。
英語で章魚は「octopus」です。
英語で蛸は「octopus」です。
英語で鮹は「octopus」です。

My understanding is that any of the above could be considered correct (though some would seem more unusual than others) and that they all have the exact same meaning.


texts:
If you say お前…なぁ(Omae… nā: you...) what is it that you're trying to say?

Context: A girl cuts ties with her best friend, telling her it's because she's selfish.

My doubt: なぁ could indicate a strong sentiment because they split apart or maybe she's saying the real reason is that it's for her own good (and not being selfish as she had explained).

So it could be:

  You, I wonder...

OR

  You, (strong sentiment because they're not friends anymore).

I don't even know if it's actually true that it's because she's selfish. Unless that particle somehow denies its credibility it would mean that she's simply selfish.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What is the difference between ~げ and ~そう

What is the difference between  〜げ　and 〜そう?

Consider for example:

彼が、何か言いたげに近づいて来た。

彼が、何か言いたそうに近づいて来た。

Or are they synonyms?


texts:
日本のテレビを見ると、サブタイトルがいつも出てきます。でもサブタイトルじゃなくて。。。何と言いますか？

what does one call Japanese "subtitles" that constantly appear in Japanese television and to a  lesser extent movies? I'm referring to a sentence that someone on TV says, which is then immediately written onscreen to emphasize the expression (often for humor).

OK so I asked my friend, and she said it's called
テロップ
is this right?

On a cultural level, any guesses as to why this phenomena is so frequent in Japanese media, yet the equivalent is pretty rare in Western countries?


texts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCORe7qs0Sk
at 3:13 the man on the left saying something to show gratitude.
it's not arigatou gozaimasu or domo arigatou, or something like that.
it's sounds like "koteii ni domo" I can't find it in any dictionary.


texts: Interesting usage of the phrase「心までは砕ける」

texts:
In a story I am reading I came across the line:

  「心までは砕けていないので、今は勘弁してください」

The context is that a waitress gets injured and a waiter (the main character) discovers this, gives her some ice, then answers the call of a customer who is in need. This line is what he says to the customer after she says (essentially) "What happened to the waitress?". The customer is surprised that not her original waitress, but a different person (a waiter) came for her.

Literally, this seems to mean "(her) heart is not broken, so please give (her) a break now". However, this doesn't seem to fit the context at all. Maybe the subject is actually the main character?

You can see the context here if necessary. The line is about 2/3rds of the way down.

Maybe the expression is being used in some ironic/sarcastic sense?


texts: What does 「で」mean in 「試合で 失敗しました」? Why not use 「に」?

texts:
I just did the listening Mondai 2 for Lesson 33 of Minna No Nihongo 2 (the older ver.).
And in question 5, it says「山田君は 今の試合で 失敗しましたが、次の試合で 頑張ります。」
I've learned that you use 「に」before 「失敗する」, and I don't know why it uses 「で」here instead.
What does「で」mean here? And how do I know when to use 「で」or「に」？


texts: What is the meaning of 肩にこてん in " 俺の肩にこてんと頭を預けて"

texts:
I don't understand the こてん part . I know the phrase is basically "put your head on my shoulder". I've searched around on google and the 肩にこてん part comes up every so often, which means it's a thing. It's just that I can't find it in a dictionary, or that I can't find the full word it's maybe an abbreviation of, or if it's part of a phrase.
Thank you!


texts: I've read the definition of ぷっくりする in a dictionary, and it can basically describe someone who is chubby. As I have rarely seen this expression used, I'd like to know how (in)appropiate it is. Is ぷっくり on the same level as デブ or 太っている?


texts: 一時はどうなることかと思った vs 一時はどうなるかと思った

texts:
「一時はどうなることかと思ったけど、怪我の功名ってやつね。」

I also found the expression 一時はどうなるかと思った(「At one point [For a while] I was really worried.) in a dictionary. Are both 一時はどうなることかと思った and 一時はどうなるかと思った the same?
If not, how are they different from each other?


texts: Which is more natural: イエス様の救う恵み or 救うイエス様の恵み?

texts:
I'm trying to translate "Jesus's saving grace".  Translating directly from English, the phrase that comes to mind is:

  イエス様の救っている恵み

But I get the feeling that maybe it's more natural and articulate to put the verb first and the noun modifier second:

  救っているイエス様の恵み

In English, this sort of ordering would amount to "saving Jesus's grace", which is not what's intended, but maybe it's more natural and people would understand what it really means.

So I almost asked this question to see which of those two would be more natural, but now I'm also starting to think that maybe instead of using 救っている, I should use 救う.  Is this so?  What's the most natural, articulate way to say this?  Thanks!


texts: Understanding why the sentence sounds strange

texts: I've been told that 昼ご飯を食べた時、散歩する isn't right because you can't have lunch while going for a walk.  But in my textbook, there's the following sentence: 日本に行った時、写真をとります.  The book explains that taking the photographs occurs after going to Japan (while in Japan) and that the overall tense is future, as the first clause's tense only indicates it's time relation with the second clause.  So, why is that sentence correct, and 昼ご飯を食べた時、散歩する incorrect?  I'm feel like I'm missing something important, but I don't quite get it.


texts:
G'day stack-goers.

On page 43 of the first vol of the Spice and Wolf light novel, a part of a sentence reads... "しかし、もしホロが何か動物が姿を変えたものだとしたら" ...

Daft or not, I had to ask! How does the two が particles function in the above sentence together with 変えた and 姿を? I haven't had too much trouble reading thus far, but alas.

Thanks!


texts: Pronunciation Troubles with トラブル and トラブる: Loanwords with both noun and verb ending in ru mora

texts:
Following this comment:

What is the difference in pronunciation or pitch accent between:

トラブル and トラブる
ダブル and ダブる

What are the regional differences (if any)?

Is the pronunciation rule generalisable to other pairs of the form ＊＊ル and ＊＊る?


texts: Is 「てまえ」an informal way of referring to someone?

texts:
I was recently flipping through a copy of the [新宿]{しんじゅく}スワン manga and seem to recall a senior figure talking to a junior character, referring to them multiple times as 「てまえ」.

It caught my attention as unless I misread it, it was not 「おまえ」, which I could have understood.

Is this a way to refer to another (junior) person?


texts: plain form + bakari vs. te form + bakari

texts:
How to translate plain form + ばかり? And what's the difference between plain form + ばかり　vs. te form + ばかり?

For example:
赤ちゃんが泣いてばかりいます。In my understanding this means "The baby is always crying/does nothing but cry".

can I say 赤ちゃんが泣くばかりです。And if yes, how would it be different from the above?

Finally, is one form more common than the other or are both commonly used? I mostly see grammar explanations for the te form version, but I also found examples with the plain form (without also finding a clear explanation of the difference).


texts: What is the meaning of the も particle in this sentence?

texts:
短大を卒業したのちも就職せず、フリーター生活に甘んじていることを指しているわけではない。

I think のち means "later" here, like あと, but I don't understand the meaning of も here. Please, could you clarify for me?


texts: Does the ー represent a double vowel or a long vowel sound?

texts: For words like パーティー (party), I know ー is doubling the ア and イ. But for a word like センセイ (and let's assume for the sake of argument that it is regularly spelled in katakana), would it be センセイ or センセー ?


texts: Objects, you can refer to as 古い with impunity. But I have never once heard a person referred to as 古い, so for a long time I thought the word just didn't apply to people. Still, searching 古い男 on Google gets pictures of old men. I imagine it's probably best to refer to old people as something like おじいさん or 老人 if their age is relevant, though.


texts: I recently learned that if you are asked if you've, say, been to Japan, you can use "nara" and reply with "I've been to China, but I have not been to Japan" to sort of lesson the blow of your reply. What if you were sick and someone asked you if you took medicine, how would you use a "nara"-like word to say something like, "I slept early, but I did not take medicine." I used being sick since it's just a more convenient situation, but it can be anything. How would you say I have done this, but I have not done what you asked if I have done in the style of a "nara" sentence?


texts: The の noun... does it have any intrinsic meaning?

texts:
I am having a bit of trouble separating の and もの when they serve the purpose of turning a verb phrase into a noun.

The の noun seems to satisfy a few purposes...
It seems to be like "one"... like when you say "the red one is mine"
"赤いのは私のです"
And it also seems to be work like "~ing" "It is hard to swim" "泳ぐのが難しい”

At least in the first example, I can give "one" meaning and explain it...
The second one is kind of like the "to" in "to swim" isn't it?

I want to know if you can give の a meaning, or have some way to visualize it in order to distinguish it from もの?


texts: 謙譲語： More info on お目にかかる & お目もじする?

texts:
From my understanding, 伺う is the humble version of 会う, which means to pay someone / some place a visit, and requires a recipient. However, on this website, the humble version of 会う is listed as お目にかかる & お目もじする instead of 伺う.

If I look at the form of each compound verb, the meaning is rather obvious for 御目に掛かる. I believe it literally means, "I place my (humble) presence to your eyes," which makes sense. On the other hand though, 御目文字 is plain puzzling to me. 三省堂's definition says:

  〔お目にかかる意の文字詞。もと近世女性語〕お目にかかることをいう女性語

If I'm not mistaken, 近世 means *"early modern." By this definition, I assume that it was originally feminine language, but not anymore, is it? What about its kanji form, 御目文字(する), which would be ご-eye-word, I daresay. How does this kanji combination relate to 御目に掛かる?
*The English words "modern" and "contemporary" have different usages in different fields of study. Sometimes they overlap, sometimes they don't.

Lastly, how are お目にかかる, お目もじする, and 伺う used differently? Do people write them in full-on kanji, or otherwise?

教えていただけませんでしょうか。お願いいたします！


texts: I was wondering what the difference is between 内側 and 中 as I understand both mean "inside". However, there are situations when we can use one and not the other.


texts:
I am trying to do a translation of this sentence and make it as literal as possible and keep the shine of the wordplay, as part of a wordplay game I am doing with a friend. I attempted a 直訳, but I am not sure what I should do with 死ぬほど, well, and 死にたい. There seems to be some intended puns packed into this line. By the way, I am not sure about the exact source of this quote, probably from a book or a show or something, but it is invoked online from time to time.

あなたが「死にたい」と思った今日は、昨日死んだ人達が死ぬほど「生きたい」と思った日なんです

My first stab:

When you are thinking about death you need to know at the same time a lot of people who will die are trying so desperately to live.

And that was a complete failure and wasn't a literal translation in any sense of the word. I also thought of "so much that they could/want to die" but it didn't seem to work either. Another stab:

When you are contemplating death, a lot of people who have died have all been in the same boat where their wish to survive was the death of them.

To my dismay the last part strays semantically...
Edit:
One of the things I was struggling with in particular was the identification of 昨日 and 今日. Is that hypothetical? I felt like 今日 was a temporal point with respect to あなた, while 昨日 only applied to 死んだ人達. So how do they connect? Is the sentence saying "your today is their yesterday" or is it merely metaphorical?


texts:
I was wondering how I would say sentences such as

[Person A] likes it when [Person B] [performs an action].
[Person A] likes it when [noun] is [adjective].
[Person A] likes it when [an action is being performed].

My guess for sentences of this form would be something like

Hanako likes it when Yuki makes new friends.
花子さんは雪さんが新しい友達を作るのが好きです。

Hanako likes it when the roads are quiet.
花子さんは静かな道の時が好きです。

Hanako likes it when her room is being cleaned.
花子さんは誰か部屋を掃除しているのが好きです。

Update: Edited to be about general structure rather than direct translation, and to indicate my prior research, and to include my own guesses of sample sentences.


texts: Super Mario RPG - What is Mallow saying? マリオさん！ ひどいじゃないですか。

texts:
I've been working on my understanding of じゃない and I came across a line in Super Mario RPG that I think I know the meaning of, but I'm not certain so I wanted to check.
The scene is, Mario and Mallow go charging through a hail of arrows to reach the boss. At some point during their charge, Mallow trips and falls down and Mario just keeps on going. Mario then reaches the boss and Mallow shows up a moment later. Mallow then turns to Mario and says:

＜マロ＞　マリオさん！　ひどいじゃないですか。

One of the meanings for ひどい on Jisho.org is 'heartless', which I think fits the context pretty well.
So I'm thinking Mallow is saying "Mario San! Are you heartless?" Implying, "How could you just leave me back there?"
From what I've learned so far the ですか is supposed to be the text equivalent of intonation to change what would normally be (ひどいじゃない not heartless) into (are you heartless?)
Am I even close or am I completely getting the じゃない wrong here?


texts: 私にしたから in きっとあんな事を私にしたから

texts:
（……それは、きっとあんな事を私にしたから……）

speaker wants to quit for a good reason but was just given a compliment/great news that can't be ignored

i look at this as: "that(good result) is definitely because of what i did"

though that requires some gymnastics to get there. A を B に (して) does not seem to apply, so  rearranging as:

私にあんな事をしたから, in certain situation に can be used to mark the cause of something (「病に倒れる」「日に焼ける」「風にそよぐ」), but not with a direct object and transitive verb and  following it.

Shoehorning this as some variant of ～にすれば, ～にしたら, ～にしてみれば doesn't really fit either

thanks


texts: What are the differences between 帰る and 戻る?

texts:
Can you give an example of when 帰る should be used instead of 戻る, and vice versa?

The reason I ask is that I sometimes get corrected when using the two, such as in:

  ×　そのとき私は日本から戻ってきて、大学に戻って入りました。 (ignore the other problems with this ☺)
  ○　そのとき私は日本から帰ってきて、大学に戻りました。


texts: Words for area/district/region: the actual difference between 地区、地帯、地域、地方 (and also 区域)?

texts:
地区 and 地方 have similar definitions, and 地帯 and 地域 are also defined similarly (at least according to JMdict/EDICT:

  地区【ちく】 = district; section; sector
  地方【ちほう】= district; region; area; locality
  地帯【ちたい】= area; zone; belt (of land)
  地域【ちいき】 = area; region

Searching around for answers, I also found

  区域【くいき】 = limits; boundary; domain; zone; sphere; territory

The 類語例解辞典 dictionary has an explanation of sorts in Japanese, but I'm not too confident in my Japanese skills.

What I have gathered so far:

  区域 seems to be some very small area, like the premises of a factory, or a park.
  地区 has something to do with residential areas, I think.
  地方 is often used with the regions of Japan, like 「関東地方」、「東北地方」.

But I'm not sure if that's right, and I still don't quite understand the other words, so I'd appreciate if someone could give an answer, at least explaining the first four words.


texts: What would be a proper definition and adequate natural translation for the term 替え歌王?

texts:
My friend wrote this sentence about these videos:

  "これは日本の替え歌王だよ。"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtjxrf2Vg7g&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEeELyiLDKg

I'm not grasping the subtleties of this expression, so I'm wondering what the exact meaning is and what would be a good translation into english.


texts: What is the meaning of 収められる in this sentence?

texts:
From:

公爵家の令嬢として生まれたクリスティーナは、ある日屋敷に引き取られ養子になった妹と対面することで前世の知識を得る。その知識により、この世界が妹のミシュリーをヒロインとした物語に収められることになることを知った。

The dictionary doesn't really help, as I don't understand how any of the meanings really apply here:

to dedicate; to make an offering; to pay (fees)
to supply
to store
to finish; to bring to a close
to restore (something to its place)
to achieve (e.g. a result)

The closest definition seems to be 4 or 6, assuming that the word doesn't have some special meaning related to "acting", since "heroine" and "villainess" are 'roles' of sorts.

My best guess is that it means: "(From those memories,) I learned that, in this world, my younger sister Mishuly would become the heroine at the end of the story."

As in, she either brings the story to a close as the heroine, or she ends up a heroine as a result of the story.

My understanding of とした is also a little fuzzy.

Help is appreciated!


texts: 栄光の Glorious as a username does it make sense?

texts: I want to set my username as glorious and google translate gave me 栄光の and I want to ask if it will make sense to write it alone or does it have to be written with a sentence


texts: I was doing some reading, and I read that while the volitional form can be explained as coming from the 未然形 for う-verbs, it cannot be explained for る-verbs. (I'm sure I should be using better terminology here, like 五段, but the correct words escape me.) Is this true? Can the usage of よ in the volitional form not be explained?


texts: If I'm talking about a short story, is 物語 the right word to use? Does it make a difference if I'm talking about a short 30 page manga story verses a story that is 30 pages of text? I googled monogatari, but I couldn't find a page that explains if I need to make a distinction.


texts: Why 次第 instead of によって in this very example?

texts:
I was randomly browsing this page and came across this sentence:

  砂糖{さとう}は作｛つく｝るものしだいで使用｛しよう｝します。

This recipe happens to have a French equivalent

  En fonction des recettes, on utilise du sucre.
  Depending to recipes, we use sugar. (literal translation)
  In some recipes we may use sugar. (A little more glossed)

so I can say for sure what was the intended meaning.

But, what bothers me is that I have always been told that 次第で（は） is always followed by something that will change -- generally an increase/decrease, or a decision/choice. But here I have the feeling that 使用します is neither a choice or a decision it is merely a prescription: the recipe tells you to do that.

I think that the sentence can be rewritten (with minor changes in meaning) to:

  砂糖は作るもの/料理によって、使用されます。

My question is the following:

Are によって and 次第で interchangeable in this context?
If yes what is the most natural option?
Is there any difference between しだいで and 次第で, the former seeming a little softer and childish (if at all I can consider しだい as childish)?


texts: Is there a reason why 嚥 (swallow -deglutition) and 燕 (swallow -bird) are similar like in English?

texts:
I recently came across the kanji 燕, and found out about 嚥 today.

According to jisho.org, both translate to "swallow", except that the first one means swallow bird and the second one (with the "mouth" radical) means the act of swallowing.

Both kanji look very similar, and both English words are homonyms. After some research, I found that some people pointed out the fact swallows swallow insects and hold them in their throat to feed their youngs, which indicates this pair of words could be related at the other end of the world too.

It still seems mysteriously coincidental to me, which is why I decided to ask.


texts: How to parse 政治家にあるまじき発言?

texts:
Consider the following sentence:

  その大臣は政治家にあるまじき発言で、辞任に追い込まれた。

I would like to know in particular how the section in bold should be parsed. For example:

Since まじき is the attributive form of まじ, does まじき bind to 発言?

eg: 政治家にある［まじき発言］

Alternatively, does ある bind to まじき first?

eg: 政治家に［［あるまじき］発言］

Or is it that the whole left side be attached together?

eg: ［政治家にあるまじき］発言
And if so, is it ［政治家にある］まじき, or 政治家に［あるまじき］? Or...?

My bet right now is on 政治家に［あるまじき］, since まじ is an auxiliary verb. In this case, it is an auxiliary for ある, therefore I think that まじき makes あるまじき an attributive form as a whole. However, I'm not sure what exact role に plays in this interpretation.


texts: As far as I understand "あるちゃあるけど" is close in meaning to "ないとは言い切れない" and "しいていえばある" but I could not find how it is used, nor understand the exact meaning.


texts:
I was reading a political news when I came across this phrase 「一強・安倍政権」  My guess is that this is meant to say the Abe administration is "strong" (has strong support from the people, can withstand many scandals unlike previous governments in recent memory that changed prime minister every year, etc). Also, why in parenthesis 「」?

For context, here is the first paragraph:

東日本大震災の被害を巡り、「東北でよかった」などの失言をした今村復興大臣は26日午前、正式に辞任しました。「一強・安倍政権」への影響は計り知れません。去年の内閣改造以降、閣僚の辞任は初めてで、この間、岩手県の豪雨災害の視察でおんぶされた務台元内閣府政務官や女性問題が発覚した中川前経済産業政務官が相次いで辞任するなど、安倍政権の緩みに歯止めが掛かりません。

source: http://news.tv-asahi.co.jp/news_politics/articles/000099429.html


texts:
I know what both words mean but I'm not sure what's implied here.

Context: I'm reading this from the manga, 五等分の花嫁。A girl said this to a boy after she asked him to dance at a campfire with him, 私と踊ってくれませんか？待ってるから.  Also, the campfire would be the next day and this was the first encounter between the two people. They don't have an established relationship.

I think the subject of the sentence is the speaker and she's saying I'll be waiting. What's the から doing here though? The unsaid subject is "I" (the speaker) not something like 今. Are we also supposed to assume that から means the current place in time in this situation? "I'll be waiting from now on."

I feel there's a simple explanation for this but I think I'm just missing something obvious here. Or perhaps I'm right but I find that unlikely. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks


texts:
I was recently told by someone that you cannot use the polite form ～ます and ので; that is, ので must be used with the plain form. (Specifically, he was saying that 「勉強していますので」 was wrong, and had to be changed to 「勉強しているので」.)

That sounded a bit dubious to me when I heard it, since I've seen plenty of sentences which involve ～ます verb and ので. So I went and checked online a bit. The majority of results I found were perfectly okay with using ～ますので, but a couple seemed a bit strange.

This page downright says "don’t use –masu at the end of the verb", but doesn't explain why.
I wasn't able to fully read this entry, but it seemed to talk about what I'm asking. Could someone just give a brief summary of what it talks about?

So was the person who told me you can't use ～ますので mistaken, or is there some deeper commotion about this that I'm not aware of?


texts: When should I replace kanji with hiragana?

texts: When should I write 海山 and when should I write うみやま?


texts: How do these two を relate to the respective verbs?

texts:
For full context:
https://www.satorireader.com/articles/sanzu-no-kawa-episode-1-edition-m?sentenceID=SrOvSLFfSOyCJFzmEmFt

Sentence in question:
そこを、対向車線を走る車が、もうスピードですれちがっていく

=> "vehicles, which drive there (=this road) on the opposite lane, pass by with extreme speed."

There are 2 を which both connect the noun to an intransitive verb expressing movement.
This use of を is always a bit confusing to me, So I just wanted to ask for confirmation wether I got it right or not. Especially the first を in そこを gives me a headache.
そこ clearly refers to the 高速道路 from before, but I'm not so sure wether the first を attaches to すれちがっていく or 走る? I think a relation to 走る would make more sense.

Furthermore, I'm not sure about why in ちがっていく , 行く or 来る should be used at all? AFAIK they usually indicate that something is moving towards or away from the speaker. If the verb is used in this function here, then I wonder why 行く should be preferred over 来る in this context. After all, the object passing by first needs to approach you and then move away from you again.


texts: What does this kanji mean? Is there more than one meaning, more than one interpretation?


texts:
I'm trying to write the name of a Chinese friend, Ying. I know that the sounds "yi" and "ye" don't exist any more except for the deprecated hiragana characters, and katakana doesn't have either of them. The question, how should I write it?

A Japanese friend suggested イン, but this misses out two kinda important consonants from the word. Is there no better way of representing this name in katakana?


texts: わたしはおこられた。Can it mean both having gotten angry and that someone was angry at you?

texts:
わたしはおこられた。Someone got mad at me. (I was being mad.)

This answer was given here by what I presume to be a native.
http://yesjapan.com/YJ6/question/840/what-is-the-difference-between-suru-and-sareru.

Do the brackets mean it has two possible meanings that you have to discern from context or is the bracketed meaning an explanation of the first (which would make the unbracketed statement a bad English transtlation)?


texts:
What is the difference between 型 and 形?
I was taught that 型 means something like "form" and 形 means shape/form、and I wonder, are they interchangeable? Does 型 only come after a word or phrase?


texts: I don't understand what やな means at the end of a sentence...?

texts:
for example in this sentence : 久しぶりやな i don't understand "ya" and "na" can someone explain me?

there's another example : いい感じやなぁ


texts:
学校の先生もとても優しいです

What does the first "も" mean?


texts: Bloatware (¿ブロートウェア?), crapware (¿クラップウェア?), craplets (¿馬鹿?) in Japanese

texts:
Using Google Translate I get the following translation

English　　　　Japanese

"bloatware" ⇒「bloatware」

"crapware" ⇒「クラップウェア」

"craplets"　⇒「馬鹿」(whether that's the translation or they're just trying to tell me something I don't know).

How would I say these words in Japanese?

Would a Japanese person (someone with a basic knowledge of PC's) understand: It's the「ブロートウェア/クラップウェア/馬鹿」that's eating up all your resources. (Full sentence said in Japanese of course)

EDIT

Bloatware, crapware, craplets are pretty much all referring to the same thing (unwanted, RAM hogging, resource draining pre-installed crap software/apps), I'm not necessarily looking for a translation for each, but just a term/phrase that conveys a similar connotation.


texts:
I have been wondering about this for quite some time. Let's say you are having an argument with someone. Perhaps it goes something like this,

A: If we do things your way, we are going to have problems! It's not going to work
B: No, I'm absolutely right. I'm going to do it my way. No matter what you say.

At which point A realizes it is fruitless to fight B anymore, gives up and says

A: Fine, don't (listen to me/do what I say/listen to sound advice)! And don't come crying to me when it blows up in your face.

My question, is how would you say, "Fine, don't listen to me!" Clearly A doesn't actually want B to listen to him. so I feel that だったら、僕に聞かないでくれ　doesn't really work. Maybe more like 聞かないでごらん?
Another time I've wanted to say this is when I call someone to let them know something important, and they don't pick up the phone. At which point I sarcastically say, "Ok fine, don't pick up the phone. I guess I won't tell you the important news..."


texts:
～そんなテーマをもとに、コミュニティデザイナーの半沢直子さんがホスト役となって、各界で活躍する人たちと公開対談を行いました。

In this sentence they use と instead of に when they say 「ホスト役となって」

Does this change the translation from 'became a host'? And how does the meaning change - does it imply that this is the context under which she was working as for the following part of the sentence?


texts: Clarification on て-form Usage on an Example Sentence and some Comparison

texts:
I got this example sentence online:

人生の最後は、ゲームをプレイして死にたいよね

What function does て-form have in this sentence to have it mean this way?

The chronological sequence, "and" function does not make sense in this case.


texts: What's the difference between 彼【かれ】 and あちら?

texts: The way I understand it 彼【かれ】 means 'that person over there' and あちら also means 'that person over there'


texts: What degree of uncertainty do かな and たぶん imply?

texts:
Translation: "7 years ago there was a guy called ‘Cell’…[Dabra]’s probably about as strong as him…”

かな: I wonder; I guess
たぶん: perhaps; probably

Would these versions be just as accurate?:

A. "[Dabra]'s probably about as strong as him, I guess..."

B. "[Dabra]'s perhaps about as strong as him, I wonder..."


texts: They both mean country don't they? I saw this phrase: 国家公安局部長。 When I looked it up 国家, the definition was just "country". So I'm not understanding the nuance between the two words.


texts:
I came up with this sentence while reading manga:
何であんなふうに育ってしもーたん。
Context: That's what the grandfather says after his grandson exits the house without telling anyone.
育って - I believe it's the te-form of the verb 育つ, which means (from Jisho.org):

to be raised (e.g. child); to be brought up; to grow (up)

I don't know what "しもーたん" is.
But from my research I gathered that しも could be a grammatical element in archaic Japanese (a sort of intensifier similar to nothing but, even, necessarily, etc) and looking at Jisho.org, たん could be an honorifc but that doesn't make sense since there is no character called しも.
My second guess is that しもーたん could be a contraction for something else, which I cannot guess.


texts: What is the difference among その上 and 上に?

texts:
Could somebody explain me the difference between その上 and 上に?

In "A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar" it is written that they can be used interchangeably, but I am not sure if it meant that they are always interchangeable or that there are cases where they can be used indifferently.


texts: Why does this kanji use "sora" as its reading?

texts: There's a song called 碧羅の天へ誘えど and it's read as "Hekira no Sora e Izanaedo". Is "Sora" another reading for 天？　I don't see it listed on Jisho.org, and 天 seems to almost always use "Ten" as its reading.


texts: How should I translate 株式会社 into English?

texts:
This is a question that has been very challenging for me.

Why? Well, the Wikipedia article on kabushiki gaisha should explain why.

Seriously, the article gives multiple translations, which may or may not be accurate.

I would greatly appreciate some insight on this matter.


texts:
Without further context, what would be the best way to interpret this sentence?
内緒で買ってこなくちゃ ...

• 内緒 is secret
• 買ってこなくちゃ means must buy  I know there are another meaning for 買う such as to value/to provoke. But I'm quite clueless. Is this a kind of idiom/metaphor ?


texts: How to ask for something, formally, but on the internet

texts:
I don't really have a great understanding of Japanese internet culture, but as a Korean, I'm guessing it would be quite similar to ours in terms of "formality," as both Korean and Japanese have "formal" version of the language.

ex) する -> します / 하다 -> 합니다.

Suppose I want to ask for something, and I want it to go somewhere along the line of

"I know this might bother you, so it's okay if you decline."

"難しい頼みであることをわかっています. 困難であれば拒絶しても大丈夫です."

and I would continue on with whatever I need him to do.

(Now that I write this, I don't even know if this is even grammatically correct. lol.)

But the general question is: is it okay for me to presume that he will be bothered, and also give him an option to decline beforehand?


texts:
I just encountered the following sentence:

A) 祖父は生まれてから死ぬまで、この町に住んでいました。
B) お金を入れてから、このボタンを押してください。

Sentence B says "After you have inserted money, push this button please."
Sentence A says "From when my grandfather was born till he died, he lived in this city."
What bothers me is that the two sentences are slightly different from a conceptual perspective, yet the same grammar seems to be used on them (at least I haven't learned about any other meaning of てから than in sentence B).
In sentence A, てから marks the beginning of a timespan. This is still just a point in time, like in sentence B, but since it requires a slightly different translation, I wondered if the construction in sentence A can still be regarded the same as in sentence B.
By rearranging the whole sentence, sentence A can be made much more similar to sentence B:
"Concerning my grandfather, after he was born he lived in this city till he died."
So, I might be a bit meticulous on this, but I just wanted to be sure I'm not overlooking something.


texts: How do ことになる and ようになる differ? (When ことになる cannot = "It has been decided that")

texts:
I understand that ことになる has the meaning "It has been decided that" and can be used to point to a ritual or habit of a society like taking off your shoes.

However, I don't get what it means when it is like this:
あすで１週間雨が降りつづくことになる。

How is that different from say,
あすで１週間雨が降りつづくようになる。

Thankyou :)


texts:
I saw this sentence in a book:

  すさまじい幸運が重なっての勝利だった。

It seems pretty clear that this means "I won thanks to incredible luck" but I was caught a little off guard by what appears to be the use of the て form + の particle.

Is that actually what this is, and what nuance does it represent?


texts: Why is 一日 used instead of 日 to ask how your day is?

texts: I spoke with someone from Japan on Tandem and she said to me “今日はどんな一日でしたか?” and I’m wondering why 一日 was used since I thought that meant the first of the month?


texts:
The character was describing her life, and has finished the previous sentence with a full stop. She then said・・・・・・なんてことない日々を変えたい、と焦がれながら. It's translated as "Hoping that some day something interesting would happen."
I am completely lost in the grammar of this sentence. I tried to read it as follows:
Xと焦がれながら　= while longing for X.
But X is なんてことない日々を変えたい. So it's like saying "I was longing for me wanting to..." which clearly is wrong.
In addition, she's using a transitive verb 変えたい. Is she basically saying that she wanted to change the ordinary days, in the sense that she wanted to make something interesting happen?
And why 日々を変えたい rather than 日々が変えたい? Is it just conversational style?


texts: How exactly does this pattern: 距離にして work?

texts:
For full context:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/web_tokushu/2018_0202.html?utm_int=news_contents_news-closeup_002

The sentence in question:
八王子隕石は落下中に爆発したと考えられ、距離にして１０キロほどの範囲に、少なくとも１０個以上のかけらが落下したことが、当時の日記や随筆など多くの文献に記されています。

My attempt at translation:
"Concerning Hachioji meteorite, it is assumed/thought that it exploded midair (=in the middle of the fall) and in contemporary literature like diaries and essays it is written down, that in a scope of around 10 kilometers, at least not less than 10 fragments fell down."

I don't understand what exactly 距離にして does here and especially I dont know how it functions. "Making it into range/distance" is how I would translate it literally. It isn't much of an obstacle for me in understanding what the sentence wants to tell me, but since it adds up with １０キロほどの範囲に it feels redundant, since in this phrase it is already indicated that we are talking about a spatial entity.


texts: Hi I want to know if the correct written characters for boketto (To daydream) is spelled ぼけっと or ボケっと


texts:
One of the pronunciation I struggle most is 「物」: more ofthen than not, I misread it in words like 「作物」 and 「薬物」. I know what they mean, but it's likely I misread them by reading 「もつ」 instead of 「ぶつ」 and the other way around.

I tried to find some criteria to understand how they are read, but in Google and my grammars I wasn't able to, so I was wondering if there is any criteria at all?


texts: In Japan and in Japanese the Honbu of Judo is called Kodakan [講道館] or a place for the study of the way...  I would like to know, if in appropriate Japanese language it would be possible to discover a word that could be a "place for the study of" an art named "geido kenpo ninpo ryu'?  We use a shortened translation for geido kenpo ninpo ryu - in English such as "Artistic Combative Enlightenment".


texts: What does "irregular" mean in a sense of a missing okurigana letter? (上【あ】がる・上【あが】る, 明【あか】るい・明【あかる】い)

texts:
Some online dictionaries list the shorter writing as "irregular". What does this mean exactly? Were those words used like that long ago? Is it an abbreviation with writing? Or a slang?

Note that I'm not asking for an explanation of the difference between 上【のぼ】る and 上【あ】がる.

Not sure how to tag this because I have no idea why this is happening.


texts: What's the deal with/origin of the character 曰?

texts:
I'm talking about the 曰 from 曰【いわ】く, not the common 日【ひ】 we all know and love.

Why would they "make" two characters that look (for all intents and purposes) exactly the same?
How do you really differentiate them except by context?  曰 just looks like a ずんぐりした 日.  Presumably the stroke order is the same?  Because I haven't been able to find it anywhere.  What would you have to do when actually writing it to make sure it's not mistakable?  It looks like the middle line of 曰 intentionally doesn't go all the way across.

I simultaneously love and hate this character.  Any insight into its mysterious existence is appreciated.


texts:
I noticed that there are many words that can translate to "stomach" in Japanese, including:

胃{い}・胃{い}袋{ぶくろ}・お腹{なか}・腹{はら}・胃{い}の腑{ふ}・胃{い}腸{ちょう}

What is the difference between these, and how do I know which is proper to use in any situation?

Also, my gut feeling (no pun intended!) is that お腹 is polite and used when talking about hunger, 腹 is more like "belly" (more general than "stomach"), and 胃腸 is medical/academic. Is that correct?


texts: I've always compared な adjectives to some abstract harder type of adjective, and I think I learned formally what the difference is, kind of, but I've forgotten. In any case, I know there are nouns that can act as adjectives, but what is the reason for why な adjectives are used in forms like 大切だと思う, similar to nouns? With other adjectives だ is omitted, so what exactly does the だ mean in this case? What part of speech is it?


texts:
Kenkyuusha defines 買｛か｝い食｛ぐ｝い as:

  spend one's pocket money on candy

and Daijirin defines it as:

  （主に子供が）菓子などを自分で買って食べること。

Both of these identify 買い食い as being related to candy/sweets. Is the term given this definition just because a child, left to its own devices, would be likely to go and buy sweet rather than other things? Or, would it actually be unnatural to say something like あの子がたこ焼きを買い食いした (たこ焼き being neither a candy nor a sweet)?


texts: Introducing a subject and implying it in the same sentence

texts:
From this article:

  映像はドローンを使って空から撮りました。
  The images were taken from the sky using a drone.

Whilst the meaning is clear, I find this sentence very awkward. I can't write the sentence in a natural way in English using the active voice. If I had to write it in the active voice it would be:

  A drone took the pictures from the sky using a drone.

which obviously sounds ridiculous.

Presumably the topic of the sentence 映像 is intended to be the object of 撮る. That leaves us with ドローン as the implied subject of 撮る. But this subject is only introduced in the previous clause ドローンを使って, so it feels very premature that I should imply it as the subject in the following verb.

I'm struggling to express my confusion. Can someone correct any errors in my grammatical understanding or offer a more illuminating viewpoint on how to parse the sentence?

I know there's no good reason why I should be able to force the voices to match between the two languages, but I would certainly never have been able to formulate this Japanese sentence myself. Any insights would be appreciated.


texts: When to refer or address someone with their name

texts:
In Japanese you sometimes refer to people by name, even when talking directly to them.

Just curious if someone could give me a few examples of what this looks like when used in a conversation, as I've struggled to find any good examples.


texts: I'm trying to translate a phrase、許せるはずもなく. Generally, I think the meaning should be along the lines of "We were not forgiven," but with the grammatical structure of verb + hazu + naku, would it be directly translated as "We were not able to be forgiven"?


texts: Need a clear explanation about the difference between お世話になっております and お世話になります。


texts:
My question is about this sentence:

我が社の商品は値段を上げません。
(wagasha no shouhin wa nedan wo agemasen)

At first I thought there was a typo ("wagasha wa shouhin no nedan wo agemasen" or something like "wagasha no shouhin wa nedan ga agarimasen/ageraremasen"), but I was reassured this is not the case by two 先生 of mine.

That は would actually be a の, but it's changed to は to add emphasis. So it's not a topic-は, it's more a contrastive-は(?)... or so I thought, because I've never heard of an emphatic-は (please don't confuse "focus" (集点) with "emphasis" (強調), which is a different thing).

Moreover, even if the one in the sentence is not a topic-は, I can't have one at all in this sentence (while I can have a topic-は and as much contrastive-は as I want). Specifically I've been told I can't put in wareware wa as a topic:
我々は、我が社の商品は値段を上げません。

However it's grammatically correct to think the subject is "wareware ga"...
我が社の商品は我々が値段を上げません。
...but I won't ever find a sentence like this.

I've studied this topic (は と が) really hard and never came across something like this. The explanation I've received is seriously lacking: it's more or less what you can expect of a native speaker (who knows what sounds right, but can't tell you why) so I ask you. Is it true that not just が and を can be replaced by は, but also の?
Can you give me more examples and help me to reason this out?

Every answer will be very much appreciated


texts: What is the difference in usage between 夜【よ】 and 夜【よる】？

texts:
As I understand, both よ and よる mean 'night'. I guess that the difference might be purely idiomatic. In this sense:

What are idioms where only one of them is correct?
What are idioms where you can use either?
If you can use either, is there a difference in nuance?


texts: can any han character/kanji be used as part of the japanese writting system?

texts: There is something that's confusing me. As far as I understand, kanjis were adopted by japaneses when they arrived to Japan in the form of official seals, letters, swords, coins, mirrors, etc. And because of this, they have a japanese pronunciation and one (or more?) chinese pronunciations. I also know that there are 2136 "joyo kanji" which are from common usage and which are approved by the ministery of education of Japan. Yet, there are many more kanjis which are used and figures vary from 47,000 to over 100,000 (correct me in anything I'm wrong) . Does this mean, you can take any chinese han character and use it as it belongs to the japanese writing system, or this is wrong and there are chinese han characters that you can say they don't belong to the japanese writing system?


texts: What is the difference between 母{はは} and 妣{なきはは}?


texts: Can someone help explain the difference between Hajimeru and Hajimaru?

texts:
What is the difference between  始める{はじめる} (hajimeru) and 始まる{はじまる} (hajimaru)?

Would appreciate some advice on this.

Thanks


texts:
Source: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10013967481000/k10013967481000.html

「しかし、建物を地震に強くしたり、火事にならないようにすると、亡くなる人を２３００人に減らすことができると言っています。」


texts:
I recently purchased a copy of One Hundred Leaves: A new annotated translation of the Hyakunin Isshu to try and improve my Japanese reading level. In addition to the English translation, each poem also includes the original Japanese and a rōmaji pronunciation guide.

The second poem in the collection is by Empress Jitō (持統天皇). In the book, the Japanese text is given as (emphasis mine):

  春過ぎて
  夏来にけらし
  白妙の
  衣ほすてふ
  天の香具山

The corresponding rōmaji for てふ is given as chou. I understand that pronunciation can change over time, e.g. the particles は, へ, and を. But てふ ⟶ ちょう is a less obvious change.

Can someone please explain why てふ is pronounced ちょう?

Related info

I found this page which I think is trying to tell me that てふ is a contracted form of といふ, i.e. と[言]{い}う. Indeed, the English version of the poem on Wikipedia translates the てふ as "So they say". But I still don't understand how this relates to the pronunciation being ちょう.

I also looked for the answer on the Wikipedia page for classical Japanese language, which gives a bunch of examples of differences of pronunciation between modern and classical Japanese, but I don't understand the explanations well enough to determine if some rule or combination of rules listed on that page can explain てふ ⟶ ちょう (or was it ちょう ⟶ てふ?).

Finally, the kotobank.jp entry for ちょう〔てふ〕 mentions something about an [音変化]{おんへんか} and seems to indicate an intermediate step in the pronunciation change, i.e. ちょう→ちゅう→とう? Or maybe I am misunderstanding what the →ちゅう→とう on that page is trying to tell me.


texts:
I recently watched a film called

  パパはわるものチャンピオン

and wondered whether the particle 'の' had been omitted between 'わるもの' and 'チャンピオン' in the film's title. Similarly, my mind turned to phrases like

  東京大学

Is there a reason for the lack of 'の' between these sets of nouns?
Thank you! (Sorry to waste time with what is probably a very simple question...)


texts:
I was looking up a lyrics for a song that has the lyrics
君の背中追いかけてた
眩しいとか悔しいとか
言うより言わせたい

I think the first sentence can be translated to "I chased after your back", second one "Whether it’s too dazzling or it’s regrettable" the third one is the one that I kind of do not understand. "言う" as I understand it is to say. "より" is more than and I know たい refers to a strong desire/want. Hence, the third sentence is " I want to say out more than what I want to say out?" which sounds wrong. What is the difference between 言う vs 言わせたい?
P.S. Just started learning basic Japanese only.


texts: When a word is both a な and の adjective?

texts:
I've recently encountered words like 「いろいろ」which apparently counts as both a な and a の adjective.

Just curious if there's some difference in meaning when one is used instead of the other.


texts:
I am trying to translate this statement and understand the use of いくら:

  いくら俺でも鬼じゃあるまいしアルバムまで捨てたりは...

I think it means something like:

  I'm not an ogre so throwing away even an album...

if someone could correct my translation and explain the grammar behind the いくら俺でも part, I would appreciate it.


texts:
I ran across this article on newsinslowjapanese, and the title is: フレンドリー過ぎて警察犬をクビになったわんこ. The article translates this in English as "Police Dog Fired For Being Too Friendly", but why is "dog" mentioned twice? (i.e. 警察犬 and わんこ?) 警察犬 (police dog) is the direct object of クビになった, which forms an adjective phrase that modifies わんこ (dog). If it were just 警察犬をクビになった, or クビになったわんこ, it would seem to make sense. But 警察犬をクビになったわんこ looks like it reads "Dog that fired a police dog for being too friendly".

Why is "dog" mentioned twice in the same noun phrase?


texts:
The following sentence was found in a book:

日本社会の「きまり」にかかわる例の一つに、 会社への就職活動がある。

I'm wondering, assuming the translation is "An example of one of these "rules" related to Japanese society is job-hunting", wouldn't it make more sense to word the sentence like:

日本社会の「きまり」にかかわる例の一つは、 会社への就職活動です/である。

Or something like

日本社会の「きまり」にかかわる例の中に、 会社への就職活動がある。

What are the nuances of writing the sentence as shown in the book, with ~に~がある?


texts: What does 事に at the end of a sentence mean? Is it 事になる？ or ことにする？ or is there just 事に that has an entirely different meaning?


texts:
生きるか死ぬかの問題だった。
  It was a question of life or death.
  飲み水が、一週間分あるかどうかだった。
  It was a question of whether or not there was a week's worth of water.

The only way I can make sense of this structure is to assume that 飲み水 is the subject of ある. I'm parsing it like this:

  [問題は]  [飲み水が、一週間分あるかどうか] [だった]

The comma, and the lack of the topic is making me think that 飲み水 should pair up with だった, but I can't make a meaningful parsing if that is the case.

I know it is common to omit the topic and I also know that commas don't serve the same grammatical purpose as they do in English. I'd just like to check that my understanding of this sentence is correct.


texts:
私がびくびく怯えて過ごしてるせいで、彼まで過敏になってる気がする

This まで confusing me. In this case it's translating like "even", right?


texts:
When should I use どちら and when should I use どちらの for asking a which-question?
My intuitive understanding is that どちらの is used when one wants to ask "which [noun] ..." (e. g. どちらの色が好きですか) but I'm not sure why the の particle is used here.


texts: a few words have an honorific 「お」or「ご」 as a necessary prefix, right?

texts:
I just came a across the word 「お巡りさん」。While 「お巡り」 is a word, 「巡り」 is not. Likewise, 「ご飯」 is a word, but while 「飯」is a word, the reading changes to the 訓読み (めし)。This means that the 「ご」in「ご飯」is not window-dressing 美化語. The「ご」in「ご飯」is a necessary part of the word. In my opinion, 「お茶」 is in limbo. I've never heard 「茶」 spoken without an honorific 「お」、but 「茶」alone is officially in my dictionary。

Over time, 「お」or「ご」can become a necessary part of some words, right? Is this a documented part of Japanese grammar? (reference links would be welcomed). What are a few more words that have an honorific prefix, 「お」or「ご」, as a necessary part?


texts: Kun Yomi of Chinese origin, like 竹 (take)

texts:
I have came across an English book on Ancient Japanese languages. (Sorry I forgot the book name)

In the book, it says some Kun Yomi of Kanji actually come from early contact of Chinese languages. Take 竹 as example, it's Kun Yomi is take which is very close to ancient Chinese languages.

Are there more examples to support this?

Edit

Another example in book, 金 kane, it is very close to ancient Chinese languages.


texts:
For some reason I still struggle sometimes to understand who is doing what in some sentences. I came across this a few days ago and I've tried working it out but I can't see the wood from the trees now.
To set the scene, a daughter is at the funeral of her mother (who wasn't the nicest mum in the world) and she's listening to chit-chat from the other members of the congregation.
We probably don't need this entire block but it's included in case the answer lies in the build-up:

その他にも、生前のディライザについてのあれこれが断片的に耳に飛び込んでくる。
あまり、良い話は出てこない。
主に公妃の悋気や癇癪、見栄についてだ。
参列者の中にディライザの死を悲しんでいる者は一人もいなかった。
確かに母は人に好かれる性質ではなかったけれど、さすがに少し寂しい気がする。

Is the daughter saying that she's lonely (not sure how that would relate to the first part of the sentence), or is the daughter surmising that despite her faults, her mother was lonely?
I think (because of the 気がする) she's saying she has a feeling that her mother was lonely (perhaps based on the comments from the others at the funeral), but I'm really not sure. I think the fact that non-explicit phrases often default to "me" is causing my lack of certainty (from time to time this plagues my understanding generally).
Can anyone help and point out the (probably) obvious solution?


texts:
I have a sentence "I study because I'm a student":

  私は学生だから私は勉強する

Can I replace the だ in だから with です to make it more polite? In the following way:

  私は学生ですから私は勉強する

Please correct me if my original sentence is wrong.


texts: What are the Japanese words for MMA terminology?

texts:
Bit of a niche question specific (mostly) to words. I'm currently living in Japan and I'm a fan of mixed martial arts (MMA / UFC), watching and training. There are a couple of Japanese people I live with that have similar interests and as I find it hard to find common ground to chat this would be the perfect subject, though I can't seem to find any of the terminology to use in Japanese. All I've found is a list of Karate terminology which talking to my friend here nearly all exclusive to Karate and not MMA.

Does anyone know of any resources or can share with me words for common fighting terminology? For things like foot-work, block, jab, etc. Thanks!


texts:
I came across this term on the Internet. It is proving to be very tricky.

女 is not too hard. It can be translated as “woman”, “girl”, “female”, and possibly some other terms.
ヤラレ/やられ is the part I can't seem to grasp. It might be derived from やる, and I think it might have something to do with sex.

Does anyone know what it means?

Edit: You guys are right. I need to provide some context surrounding the word. So (takes a deep breath), here goes:

There is a website titled 「Midnight Ladies」. In this website, an artist has posted images that show female anime villains (both original characters and characters from existing shows) getting beaten up, killed, or humiliated in a number of ways. For one such image, the artist has some of these characters display...um...”incontinence”. The artist's words on the subject are as follows:

  それから「失禁」。もう今までに何度か描いてますが、水溜りまでシッカリと描き込んだのはこれが初めてですね。私にとって失禁は「負け」の象徴なのです。しかも格の低いやられ役にこそ相応しい痴態で、動物的レベルでの戦意が挫け、自分の存在を放棄した事を表します。性行為以外でこんなに無様で下品な姿を女性が曝す。これはほとんど「ヤラレ女」だけの醍醐味です。

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it could be translated like this:

  And so the “incontinence”. Now I already drew it several times, but this is the first time I have properly drawn it as only a puddle, right? As far as I am concerned, I can say with confidence that incontinence is a symbol of “defeat”. Moreover, it is precisely the suitable silliness in the low ranking of expendable characters, and their fighting spirit is broken on a sensual level, and represents the fact that they surrendered their existence. Women expose their unsightly and vulgar figures in this way with the exception of sexual intercourse. This is almost the real pleasure of “ヤラレ女” alone.

Oh, and when I tried to look up the meaning of the term, I came across a book title that says やられ女の言い分 (文春文庫) by 内田 春菊. I think that can be translated as “A やられ女's Case” (Bunshun Bunko) by Shungicu Uchida/Uchida Shungicu.

I hope this context helps to provide a better answer, as crass as it may be.


texts:
I'm confused about how と is used in this sentence (乗るとすぐメールを・・・）... What purpose does it serve?

電車の中では携帯で話すことはできませんが、みんな電車に乗るとすぐメールを熱心に打っているのにびっくりしました。

Thank you!


texts: Use of the causitive form without an obvious source of causation

texts:
記憶を刈るという部分がメアを彷彿とさせる

the part (of the story) where memories were reaped, resembles Mare.

  ファインダーを覗いてレンズをあちこちに巡らせるが、円盤の光は影を潜めている。

(operating a camera) while he peeked at the finder and looked around with the lens, the disk's light had vanished.

  メアの頭を巣にしていたドラゴン（？）が、翼をはためかせて浮遊した。

the dragon (?) nesting on Mare's head flapped it's wing and floated.

Is there some additional purpose of the causative form beyond making/allowing?

thank you


texts:
I have trouble understanding the sentence below

文章が長くならないよう、必要のない部分は省略した

I roughly translate: literature doesn't need to be long, omit unnecessary part

Can I use passive form “unnecessary part was omitted” instead?
How should I interpret ならないよう、必要のない部分. I don’t understand why のis there


texts: I'm trying to say something like "I want to make friends with people who like x" but I can't figure out how to say it. I think 「ｘが好きな友達を作りたい」but that doesn't seem quite right. Thanks.


texts: Decoding spoken word and understanding paraphrased subtitles

texts:
There are parts where the subtitle doesn't match the speaker's words verbatim.

For example, in this segment, 中村選手 said something

  〜気持ちになって、モチベーションは＿＿＿＿＿

The subtitle said something like

  モチベーションになる

I heard something like あらいます. I did check the dictionary, and I think there's something wrong with my hearing. What was the verb that he used? Also, is it just me or his pronunciation of モチベーション sounded like モチヴエーション?

Another part was this one from 増田選手 where the subtitles read

  嬉しいなという気持ち〜

But I think I heard it like this

  嬉しいなっていう思いは＿＿＿＿

With the end sounding like はたつ＿＿＿わしたね。

Would it be possible to know what these words are? And what do you think are the reasons for replacing the words of the athletes? At first, I thought it was for brevity, but I realized that brevity would not be much of an issue for L1 users because they read Japanese fast and the sentences are not that long. Was it a matter of style (for example, 気持ち has more appeal to emotion than 思い)? Or was it because they spoke some non-標準語 variant of Japanese (which is unlikely though considering that Saitama is still part of Kanto region).


texts: Are there no rounded or circular strokes in any 漢字？

texts:
Forgive me if this question seems foolish, but perhaps curiosity has gotten the best of me 'cause I am asking away. Every time I sit down to practice some good ol' kanji writing, I can't help but notice the lack of rounded shapes, circles, spheres, etc.. Sure, there are some curved strokes, but even in words that speak of "circular" and "rounded" things (丸、円...), there is nothing remotely "round" in the kanji to speak of.

I know very little about the etymology of kanji, so perhaps I am embarrassing myself by asking this question. However, I am curious to know -- were there ever circular strokes in kanji? What's the story, if there is one at all...?


texts: Are 清酒{せいしゅ} and 日本酒{にほんしゅ} two words for the same thing?

texts:
As well as the several other kinds of Japanese alcoholic drinks I seem to have found two words which both mean the drink known in the west as "saké".

Now I know 酒{さけ} can be used for many kinds of alcohol in Japan. I thought the Japanese word for what us westerners call "sake" was 日本酒{にほんしゅ}.

But just now another traveller came home to the hostel with some Japanese alcohol. One had the label 清酒{せいしゅ}, so I looked it up, expecting it to be for a different Japanese alcohol I didn't know about before.

But the definitions on the English Wiktionary and WWWJDIC seem to be the same for both words. Is there a difference? Is one a special kind of saké? Or is one word more generic or more old fashioned etc?


texts:
In my book I have this sentence:

  生徒が学校へ行こうと思って野を歩いていると、一ぴきのきつねが遠くにいるのをみた。

I understand the sentence, "The student, who is walking in the field while he wants to go to school, saw a fox far away".

But what's the purpose of "と" here?


texts:
Is domo arigato considered formal?

Context: Buying something at a store, thanking a waiter, etc


texts:
I have noticed that 手に入る can be read in two ways: te ni hairu or te ni iru

Jisho accepts only the first option

But most (phonetic) keyboards allow to write it using the second form and I have an impression that I have heard it somewhere in spoken language but cannot recall proper reference.

Is the second one some kind of mistake? Or is it correct or is mainly in use in other (I mean non-Tokyo) dialect?

If it is correct, how to know which form to use when reading written language?


texts: 彼女には心配事がない。why there is に?

texts:
彼女には心配事がない。

What is this ni in this phrase?


texts: What is the difference between 恰好 and 格好?

texts:
Is there any difference between the words 格好 and 恰好? Can I actually call them different words, or is it that they are just the same word written differently? I've been told that they have exactly the same meaning by a native, but possibly someone here might know a difference.

In the sentence:

  朝みた時と同じ恰好で立っていた。

Would there be any difference in replacing the compound with 格好? If not, then why are there two currently existent "words" for the same concept?


texts: Why is けしゴム (eraser) half written in hiragana and half in katakana?

texts: Why is the word けしゴム is half written in hiragana and half in katakana?


texts: sense of a displaced "adverb" in a sentence written by Sōseki Natsume

texts:
I read in that thread :

  「自分{じぶん}は死{し}ぬ前{まえ}に一目{ひとめ}思{おも}う女{おんな}に逢{あ}いたいと云{い}った。」

  in 夢十夜, 第五夜 :

  "I explained that before I died, if only for a moment, I wanted to see the woman I loved."

My question is about「一目{ひとめ}」 : it's a noun functioning adverbially "because it expresses a frequency" as l'électeur explained.

But what about its place ? Since 「一目」 just modifies 「逢いたい」 and since 「一目会いたい」 is a common set phrase, I assume the normal way to write down the sentence would be :

  「自分は死ぬ前に思う女に一目逢いたいと云った。」

Is there any semantical difference between Sōseki Natsume's version and the one I invented ? Is it something related to the rhythm of the sentence ?


texts: Why use あんなに instead of こんなに when expressing one's memories?

texts:
My textbook contains the following dialog where 鈴木さん interviews her 課長 about what he did last evening:

  鈴木「焼き鳥屋ですか。その店、いかがでしたか。」
  課長「安くて、おいしかったよ。あんなにおいしい焼き鳥を食べたのは初めてだなあ。」
  鈴木「そんなにおいしかったんですか。」

My previous understanding of こそあど was that

こ refers to something closer to the speaker than the listener,
そ refers to something closer to the listener than the speaker, and
あ refers to something equally distant to both the speaker and the listener.

From this, I would think that the tastiness of the 焼き鳥 is much closer to the 部長 (he was there and had them, 鈴木さん was not), and, therefore that he would use こんなにおいしい, but my textbook says (but doesn't explain why) to use あんなに when talking about one's memories of a past experience.

To put it differently, I thought that あんなにおいしい would be appropriate if both 鈴木さん and her 部長 had been at the 焼き鳥屋 together. I interpret 鈴木さん's response, そんなにおいしかった, in the same way, that the experience is closer to the 部長 because she wasn't there.

Could someone explain the point I'm missing? Thank you.


texts: 分かっています and 知っています - Do they all mean "I know"?

texts:
As the title denotes, I have lots of vaguenesses in making it clear between 分かっています and 知っています - Is their meaning all "I know"?

Hence, I can't stop thinking about these two:

中国語を知っていますか?
中国語が分かっていますか?

Do they have the same meaning? Can we use them interchangeably?


texts:
Apologies for the very vague question. I'm unsure of how I'm supposed to address and talk to children - I imagine it varies a little depending on the social situation, and in general I should avoid potentially awkward language as much as I should around adults, but does anyone have any broad guidelines? A few particular things I might fret about:

Should I address a child I don't know with 君【きみ】? If I know their name, is [surname]+君【くん】 / +ちゃん usual?
Presumably I should generally use plain verb forms rather than polite verb forms. Does this change if I'm talking about their family members or similar (or indeed ever)? Is it usual to give commands with ください, ～なさい, くれ or just plain ～て form? (I'm unsure of whether なさい is too blunt - my intuition about this word is that it's one used when the speaker is in the same social hierarchy as the listener, but higher up. This probably applies if I am a teacher or a parent, but not if I meet them in the street.)
Do I refer to their family members as お父【とう】さん, etc.?
If I give them something, do I あげる it to them or やる? (The latter feels rather blunt to me.) If I talk about someone else giving them something, do they あげる, やる, くれる or くださる it? (I would guess くれる sometimes occurred in the case of very young children - though this doesn't feel like a linguistic issue! - but otherwise あげる or やる according to what the 'giver' would describe it as?)
At what point does a child become an adult (in the sense of addressing them with さん and/or using polite verb forms)?
(A final, less general question. I tend to use 僕【ぼく】 to refer to myself, but have heard of adults referring to young boys like this. Would this be confusing? How should I refer to myself?)

(The context is that I (male, mid-20s) encountered a young (8-ish?) Japanese boy yesterday - actually, he spent 45 minutes thrashing me all over a goban - and would have liked to exchange a few words of congratulation, but as his father was present I was a little nervous. I wasn't sure whether using forms like ～なさい and やる would have implied I thought very highly of my own social status, but I also wasn't sure whether using forms like ～ください and あげる was a little heavy towards a young boy, who may never have been spoken to directly like that. Still, I'd be very interested to see the question answered from a general perspective.)


texts:
The speaker is experiencing unusual levels of politeness after visiting the house of a relative who wants them to do a favour (he didn't visit with the knowledge that she wants a favour):

  「来たとたん何か用かよ」
  As soon as I came can I help you?

I'm not sure which part I'm failing to understand. I was sure とたん meant 'the moment that'/'as soon as'. And I thought that 何か用か meant 'can I help you?', but when I put the two together it makes no sense at all.


texts: What is correct answer to the question お国は? 国はフランスです。or フランスから来ました。


texts: What does というのは、[...]のことを mean in this sentence?

texts:
The sentence is

というのは、スプーンのことをやまと言葉では「かい」といいます。

I understand the general meaning, but can't get these two things:

the meaning of というのは in the beginning;
why を is used in

スプーンのことを

Could anyone help me please?


texts: The word 生徒(せいと) means "pupil", but what exactly is/was a 生徒 in Japanese culture? And how is a 生徒 different from a 学生? And in what context would you use the word?


texts:
To say "Four Seasons" in Japanese would you say:

Shiki しき or Yottsu no kisetsu よっつのきせつ or will either do?


texts: Why is という in ボソニックという食べ物 (for example) written in ひらがな rather than と言う? In my understanding, ボソニックという食べ物 means "a food called Bosonic".


texts: How do Japanese people think/talk about socioeconomic classes?

texts:
Every society has its own way of talking about socioeconomic class.

In America/Canada, people talk about the "poor", "(lower/upper) middle class", and "upper class", as well as the "1%" and ".1%"; basing everything off of economic levels alone.

In places like the the UK however, and pardon the fact I'm not a brit, they talk more about the "working class", which including everyone who mainly does low skilled jobs and lives off a wage alone, and contrast it with a "middle class" of people who are more specialized and less bound to an employer. A distinction that of course often results in people such as myself getting confused when reading the guardian, seeing sentences like "and it was vary unexpected that Corbyn picked up so many middle class voters". :)

Given this distinction I'm found myself quite curious: How do Japanese people talk, and in doing so, think about, socioeconomic class? What terminology do they use? What aspect do they focus on (USA = income, UK = role)?

PS. Sorry if I deeply misunderstand what "working" and "middle" class refers to, british people whom may be reading this.


texts: Nuance of 天下 and 地上 in the sense of the entire world

texts: If I think really hard I tend to feel 天下 emphasizes the physical geographic range and 地上 is more about being conceptually humanly or worldly, ie only excluding what is "out of this world". For one, 地上最強 is usually more frequent than 天下最強, but I'm unsure if they really differ in that way.


texts: What is the difference between 馴染む and 慣れる? Dictionaries say that both represent "to grow accustomed to". In what case 馴染む cannot be replaced by 慣れる or 慣れる cannot be replaced by 馴染む?


texts: 方 - also read ほう when referring to a person?

texts:
The following sentence is from "A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar":

留守番電話は、一方ではかかる方にもかける方にも便利な面もあるが、他方ではお互いに直接話が出来ないから、不自然な面もある
"The answering machine is, on the one hand, very convienent for both a person who calls and a person who is called, but, on the other hand, unnatural because you can't talk directly with the other person"

Despite not being particularly familiar with the usage of かける/かかる in terms of giving/receive phone-calls, the confusing part of this, for me, is the furigana given for 方 in "かかる方" is "ほう". Perhaps I am not understanding the sentence well enough generally speaking, but shouldn't this read "かた"? As in "person who receives a phonecall"? Is it read ほう because it means something more akin to "the side which receives a call", is there really a difference between these two?


texts:
I know what はじめまして means. It means, pleased / nice to meet you. When reading Manga at school to learn these expressions, I see the phrase quite often.

But there was one Manga where I saw the phrase, いらっしゃいます。What does this phrase mean? From the Manga, I think it means welcome but does it mean that, or is it more specific; for example, something like welcome home or welcome to this place of some sort. The Manga featured a guy saying this idiom to guests walking into a restaurant.

Please let me know so I understand.

Thank you in advance.


texts: 嫌い in "私のことを好きか嫌いか", etc

texts: I often encounter phrases like this in anime & manga, but from what I understand they are quite common in real life too. A girl asks a boy "do you like/love me? no? so then you hate me?". To me this sounds very strange. In Russian, and I believe in English as well, saying "I don't love you" means just that, and doesn't at all imply hatred. Does it work differently in Japanese? Does 好きじゃない in this case really imply hatred/despise/antipathy? If that's the case, what's a better phrase to use to avoid hurting the other person's feelings?


texts:
才能を隠すのにも卓越した才能がいる。

This is a translation of a quote from Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales. The original text is as follows:

  C'est une grande habilité que de savoir cacher son habileté.

I tried to translate this with the help of jisho.org.

才能を隠すの - hiding talents
にも - also
卓越した - excellent
才能 - talent
いる - ???

So the whole sentence is something like "Being able to hide talents is also an excellent talent".

However, I don't understand why いる is used here. I would've just put a だ there because the sentence is stating that something is something else. If using an existence verb here is correct, why isn't ある used? I'm sure talents are inanimate.


texts: What is the meaning of Sankyo in Japanese companies names

texts:
What is the meaning of 三共 Sankyō in some Japanese companies names?

Sankyo Denki (now named Sanden)
Daiichi Sankyo
Sankyo flutes
...


texts: In A Dictionary to Basic Japanese Grammar, it says under the conditional ば that this is the origin of the topic particle は but I haven't been able to find where this claim comes from. Does anyone know how the conditional came to be the topic particle?


texts:
My vocabulary textbook lists the three following words:

滅び行く種族
Endangered species
種族の絶滅
The extinction of species
消滅した種族
Extinguished species

(Hope the English translations are correct idioms, my textbook is in French)
By extrapolating from these words, I can guess that 滅ぶ, 絶滅する and 消滅する all bear more or less the same meaning.
What's the difference between these three verbs, and which are the most commonly used?
I expect 滅ぶ to be less common since 漢語 tend to be more used in "technical" contexts, how about it?


texts:
部屋{へや}へ移動{いどう}します。= Move to the room.

部屋から移動します。= Move from the room.

But if I use に, does the sentence「部屋に移動します。」mean to "move to the room" or "move from the room"? Or can the meaning be either depending on context, as with a lot of other cases using に? I'm not sure whether the verb 移動する itself already implies the direction of the movement. Since it also means "removal", I thought it must always mean "move from" but I'm not sure.

If it can be either, is there any difference in meaning/nuance between using に or へ to mean "to"　and に or から to mean "from", particularly in relation to the verb 移動する?


texts: Meaning of かませるワンちゃん

texts:
Context: boxer A tells boxer B that the president of the gym, who is also boxer B's father, cannot come to watch boxer B's match. Boxer B doesn't have a good relationship with his father.

  Boxer A: 会長はマッチメイクでタイにいる。来れないそうだ。

  Boxer B: フーン…　かませるワンちゃん見つかったな親父…　ハハ！

What is the meaning of かませるワンちゃん? I think the verb is 噛む. I understand the literal meaning, but not the actual one. Is it an idiomatic expression? Something like a dog to give orders to or a dog that talks for him? My translation attempt:

  Boxer A: The president is in Thailand to organize a match. It looks
  like he won't come.

  Boxer B: Ha! My father found a dog that talks for him. Ah ah!

Thank you for your help!


texts:
I was listening to a song Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame in Japanese (the intro, The Bells of Notre Dame or ノートルダムの鐘), and I noticed that they referred to the cathedral as a 「てら」. I thought that was odd since as far as I know お寺 is used to refer to a (specifically) Buddhist temple and the Notre Dame is a Catholic building.

The Wikipedia page on the Notre Dame refers to it as both a 大聖堂{たいせいどう}and a 寺院{じいん}. (Of course, the latter uses the kanji 寺, but it doesn't seem to me to carry the implication of a specifically Buddhist temple, and at any rate does not share a reading with it.)

Is there any precedence for calling a cathedral a 寺, or was this used for a certain effect (perhaps to make the imposing look of the building a little more familiar to a Japanese audience...to be honest, it can be kind of scary looking)? Is it possible it was used because it's a shorter word and fit into the song better?　I'd love to watch the movie entirely in Japanese to see if they continued calling it such, but alas I don't have it.


texts:
I was thinking about the question "How old is your father?".
I know that I can use oikutsu for "How old are YOU."
But can I use it also for "she / he"?
So, "how old is your father", could I ask "あなたのお父さんはおいくつですか。" ?
And yes, I use "anata", you can also think just of a name! :)
Thanks!


texts:
How can I say many times a day? For example, if I wanted to say 'You should drink water many times a day'.

  毎日(something)回、みずを飲んだほうがいいです。

Would this format be correct? If so, what should I put in the above slot?

Thanks


texts: Function of the sentence final particle こと in this sentence

texts:
I am wondering what is the correct way to interpret the こと in this sentence:

どこかへお花見に行きませんこと。

It is an example sentence found in the book "All About Particles" (page 120). It's described as being basically an alternative way to entice/invite someone to do something together.
If that's true, how does　こと change the meaning and feeling of the sentence, especially when compared to:

どこかへお花見に行きませんか。
どこかへお花見に行きましょう。


texts: Positive Imperatives When Telling Someone Not to Do Something

texts: A lot of times, when someone says something stupid or ridiculous, the reply they get is「バカいえ！」, or when someone says something that's obviously a lie, they will be told 「ウソつけ！」. I've also heard 「ふざけろ」 used similarly. I was wondering, why is it that Japanese likes to use positive imperatives at times like these even though the intent is clearly to call someone out on something or get them to stop? What is the actual implied meaning of these phrases?


texts:
How to understand チラツ ?

My textbook gives "leaflet" as a translation. It's in katakana, though, so I'm looking for a corresponding English word, but what is it?


texts:
I need some help with the sentence below. Things like ～ている、～でいる when finishing the verb as in [似]{に}ている、[読]{よ}んでいる are okay for me. But next sentence is something else, because the ending でいた is standing after a noun, not a verb.

  結婚した後、日本語を勉強するつもりでいたが、生活のために始めた仕事は、フランス語を教えること。

Could you please explain, why でいた was used here, in this sentence?
And when we can usually use grammar like this?


texts: We know that in japanese people usually say '愛している', TO LOVER. CAN i say 愛する?   or　あなたがすきです?.  Besides, is '愛している' is a single verb?


texts: 僕が強くならなきゃ　from 月の大きさ　song

texts:
I believe that it means I have to become strong but I don't really know how the grammar works in the sentence. I know it's using 強い　and I guess なる in potencial form
Pleas explain to me how this works


texts: 来た2日後に vs 来て2日後に vs 来てから2日後に

texts:
日本に来た2日後にこの本を買った。
  日本に来て2日後にこの本を買った。
  日本に来てから2日後にこの本を買った。

I created these sentences from similar-looking examples I found on Google. Are they all grammatical? These all mean "I bought this book two days after I came to Japan," correct? What is the difference between them?


texts:
In the nhk course for Japanese, I came across the following lines:

  さくらさん。はい、どうぞ。

which means

  Sakura. This is for you.

But

  どうぞ

means "Please". Then how can

  はい、どうぞ

mean "This is for you"?


texts: grammar in: でもね、私は きれいで かわいい この色が 好き

texts:
i couldn't understand the sentence until i read the translation, mainly because of the order of the words..does で means 'and' here? and why is the sentence translated as "But, I liked this pretty, cute color."
thank you so much.


texts: How to pronounce the double consonant found in a word other than "nn"?

texts: ちょっと here have a double consonant "t" . In double consonant the small つ is read as a silent speech(which will be symbolized by "_" for this question). Is it... Cho_to or chot_to or both?


texts: 私に言われても versus 私が言われても

texts:
I am aware that "言われる" means "to be told". My impression would be that "私に言われても" means "Even if I told you..." while "私が言われても" means "Even if I am told...".

But this site answer seems to suggest that another interpretation of "私に言われても" is "Even if I am told..."

Is that a correct interpretation, and, if possible to explain, why?


texts:
What do Japanese young people exactly mean by 「セクハラ」?
Do they think it is negative, or only slightly negative, or not negative?

I've often heard Japanese university students throw around the term 「セクハラ」 as something which they accuse each other of or remark that someone did to them, but do not seem to be implying behaviors that are illegal, an unethical violation of human rights, or particularly offensive or negative (like the English definition of "sexual harassment" would). The Japanese casual use of this term does not seem to mean unwelcome bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, sexist language, promise of reward for sexual favors, sexual abuse, or sexual assault.  I have heard it used involving a girl acting as if she is reaching out to touch another girl's chest but doesn't go through with it.  I have heard it used when a girl pounced on the back of a boy and kept hugging him from behind despite his protests.
When I tried Googling 「セクハラ」 I only found websites defining it in a serious and legal way.

I want to explain to my Japanese students that they should be careful with this term when speaking with internationals or abroad, as it is not appropriate in English to lightheartedly refer to oneself as inflicting or undergoing any sort of harassment.  I think I could explain this better to them if I can better understand what they mean by the term.

Thank you!


texts:
I know it is katakana for "recruit" but most of the search results seem to be about a company called "Recruit Holdings" which does seem to do a lot of different things with job boards, staffing, and recruiting. I also feel like I've seen it on various Japanese company websites where English sites might have a "jobs" or "careers" page.

So, I guess what I'm wondering is (1) what do Japanese people most commonly think when they hear the word リクルート, (2) does リクルート have the same usage scenarios as in English "recruit" meaning it can be used as both a verb "to recruit someone" and a noun "here are the new recruits," and (3) is it the most common way to refer recruiting or is there a native Japanese way that is more common?


texts: 文章の話題語の変化はどう解釈されていますか？

texts:
日本語では、話題語がとても重要だと考えられていると思います。文章で話題語がなければ、ほとんどの人には不自然、もしくは不快に聞こえると思います。

しかし、文章が一文より長い場合、話題語の選択は私にはかなり難しくなります。話題語をいつ変えればいいかがいつもよく分かりません。普段、直感的に選びますが、母語話者じゃありませんので、かなり危険なやり方だと思います。したがって、ある種の指針を求めています。

実例を用いて説明します。

  前半では、主人公が龍を倒す。後半では、龍が復活し、また勇者に倒される。

話題語が変化しないようにちょっと書き直すと

  主人公は、前半で龍を倒す。後半で復活した龍をまた倒す。

私には前者の文章のほうが自然に感じると思いますが、後者は間違っているというわけでもないですね。後者はもっと端的に本を説明しているような気がします。そして、後者のほうが短いです。

私の印象はさておき、この単純な２文にさまざまなバリエーションがあるのは間違いないです。ほとんどの文章はこうやって変えられると思います。このバリエーションからどう選択すればいいですか？

具体例とともに、このような原則があるのでしょうか。（適当に思い付いたんですけど。)

「話題語を複数の文にわたって変えないようにせよ。」
「短くすることに集中しすぎるな。そのかわり、話題語を適切な印象を残すように選べ。」

複雑なテーマだと分かっていますが、何かの基準や指針があれば、教えてください。


texts: Meaning of しようとすることができる

texts:
Please, help!

What is the meaning of

  しようとすることができる

can try to do something?

Let's take the following sentence as an example

  身近な目標に向かってチャレンジしようとすることができる。

Does it mean

  To focuse on one of the near goals and try to achieve it.


texts: what is a meaning of しければ in a classical japanese?

texts:
I'm stuck with this sentence - "いかにも山の中に只だ独り居たるに人の気はひのしければ少し生き出づる心地して見出だしければ"

It's part of the folktale "鬼に瘤取らるる事". I know that ば mean to indicate end of statement in classical japanese, so does it mean to be some sort of connection word in this case?

In modern japanese it has みる at the end -  "山の中にたったひとりでいたところに、人のいる感じがしたので少しほっとして外を見てみる"


texts: Just came across this phrase and upon breaking it down it looked like it would have the opposite meaning to what it really has (高を括る-to make light of). Have I missed something and there's actually a good explanation for this phrase? My first thought was that it would mean 'to expect a lot' or something similar.


texts: Why don't 後で and 前に both use the same particle? (I suppose I would think に would be more appropriate.) They both seem to be the same kind of statement, just with different times (before/after), so I really can't think of any reason for the particle discrepancy.