texts: How is the past tense in this sentence translated?

texts:
I'm studying Japanese adjectives right now, and I see that adjectives can be formed to refer to past tense.

For example, 自転車は楽だったです。

So, I'm trying to understand a little bit better how the ～だった works. Is it used like, "the bike used to be comfortable", or "the bike (I was riding) was comfortable (when I was riding it)."


texts:
I have the following sentence to translate for class.

岩田先生は、
退職なさるまで
全世界で貝の化石の御研究をされていて
雑誌などに記事をお書きになられたり
テレビで放送された教育番組にも出られた

So far I have the following.

Professor Iwata
until he honorably retires
is honorably researching bivalve fossils throughout the whole world and
honorably wrote? articles for magazines etc
also honorably appeared on the educational program that was broadcasted on TV

I am having an issue with the お書きになられたり.

First, it seems to be either doubling up the honorifics (normal?) or using the passive and I am not sure why.

And then there is the り part.  I know the たりたりする structure for "doing things like ... and ...". But the rest of the necessary structure doesn't appear to be there.

Can anyone explain what it is saying?


texts: What is と being used for in these two sentences?

texts:
I was reading an article on NHK News Easy, and while I basically understand the two sentences below, I'm having a little trouble deciphering what exactly the particle 「と」 is doing.

So with:

  地球の気温が上がらないようにするために二酸化炭素などのガスを減らすと国連で決めた「パリ協定」が、去年１１月から始まりました。

What does the 「減らすと国連で決めた」 part of the sentence mean? What is the purpose of 「と」 here?

And with:

  アメリカのトランプ大統領は６月１日、パリ協定から出ると発表しました。

Why does 「出る」 have to be followed by 「と」?

I thought I was familiar with the basic uses of 「と」 (linking nouns, as a conditional, for quoting), but I don't see how it fits here as any of these. Could someone clarify?


texts: In the sentence「みどりがきれいなまちです」, why is が used?

texts:
And how should the sentence be translated?
"It's a beautiful green town"?
"It's a beautifuly green town"?
"It's a greenish beautiful town"?


texts: Is there a meaning to the 6 stroke component that 恵, 専, and 敷 share?

texts: The three kanji 恵, 専, and 敷 share the same first 6 strokes. Using the traditional radicals I could describe them as being composed "一, 日, 丨..." at the start and then finishing "...心", "...寸", "...⼂, 方, 攵" respectively.  Are the first 6 strokes derived from some older kanji? If so, does this kanji have a meaning and what would it be in Japanese?


texts: What's the difference between 赤ん坊　and 赤ちゃん

texts: Are both words interchangeable? Rikai-chan defines them both as "baby, infant". So what would be the difference?


texts:
A person is comparing herself to some disreputable school mates, thinking that she might be similar to them, and says:

  やんなっちゃうなぁ

Is this a contraction of (い)やになっちゃうなぁ meaning "I ended up becoming unlikeable"?

I'm coming across more and more of these contractions as I read more, and they keep tripping me up. Are there any general rules I should know that will help me figure this stuff out on my own?


texts: Why would the Japanese transliteration from Greek Χριστος be spelled as ハリストス instead of キリストス?

texts:
Although it's not as common as キリスト, ハリストス is seen in the name of Japan's Orthodox Church. But why ハリストス if the pronounce of the Greek Χριστος is khristós (with a clear kri sound)? There is キリストス too, that is more common, though the last ス is always dropped.

Is that because of historical reasons? Regional? Is ハリストス an old pronounce? And if it is, why ハ instead of キ?


texts:
Last week I saw the word 閾値 and when looking it up in Gjiten I see two pronunciations, both marked as "popular":

閾値 (いきち) (n) threshold (amount, dose, etc.); (P);
閾値 (しきいち) (n) threshold (amount, dose, etc.); (P);

Which one should I use?
In the context of professional discussion with colleagues and clients, if that matters.


texts:
I've seen this while studying japanese from the JALUP method, is there a concrete difference between また今度 and 今度また
Thank you!!!


texts:
と、先ほどよりだいぶ気安い調子で言ってみる。が、真士はすぐにむうとうなった。
確かに自然にはなったけれど、これではいつもと変わらない。別に真士は、澪と二人で出かけたことがないわけではないのだ。……いやまあ、二人きりで出かけるのとデートがどう違うのかと言われれば答えに窮してしまうのだが、そこはそれ、澪に『真士とデートしている』と思って欲しいのである。

I know probably it is hard to be translated, but what is the usage of the そこはそれ?


texts:
how do you form informal questions with 何 and without ですか？
would 何 just go at the end?

「あなたの大好きな季節何？」

and is it appropriate to leave off です or だ with な adjectives and nouns? i’ve seen 〜なの？used, but i’m not quite sure what the rules are on that.

「これは食べものなの？」
vs
「これはたべもの？」

basically i’d like some guidelines on informal questions in japanese! i keep struggling on what sounds normal because i don’t want to be overly formal and use ですか？all the time!


texts:
Original sentence: 審判がクズなだけ！
Google translates it as "Referee just scrap!"
So if we analyze the sentence:

審判(referee) が(GA particle) クズな(???) だけ(only?)

What part of speech is クズな and what does the sentence really mean?


texts:
A comment in some vb.net code is as follows:

  現在の時刻が設定時間と一致しているか確認する

Meaning, (the following bit of code) checks if the current time matches the configured one.

According to what I learnt from textbooks etc, the か in there should be a かどうか, because theres no question word in the sentence, making this incorrect Japanese. Is that right? I'm confused because this was written by a native Japanese speaker.


texts: 一週間続いたあなた パワーアップ -1.2kcal

texts:
The second step of these stairs has a sticker that reads:

  一週間続いたあなた パワーアップ -1.2kcal

What does it mean?

In particular, are "パワーアップ" and "-1.2kcal" parts of a sentence, and if yes how does "-1.2kcal" relate to "一週間"?

Note: I am not talking about the veracity of the claim, but strictly about the semantic meaning of this sign, how it is expected to be understood.


texts: What's the difference between "な感じ" and "という感じ" when written after quotation marks?

texts:
な感じ was crossed out and replaced with という感じ in a sentence that I wrote that was similar to this one:

  その文には「それは私にはもったいない」 な感じ という感じ があると思う。
  I think that sentence has a feeling of "that's more than one deserves."

What's the difference between な感じ and という感じ when written after quotation marks?


texts: How is ちょっと、たべたら、どう used in this sentence?

texts:
This is from the second episode of Noir. The two women are sitting quietly eating dinner. One of the women says to the other:
ちょっとは美味しそうに食べたらどう？

For the life of me, I can't parse this sentence into something understandable in English. Here are my issues:

How is ちょっと the topic (or is it subject) of the sentence? What is its meaning here?
食べたら from what I know is "When you eat", but I don't know how to quite translate it with 美味しそうに.
The whole phrase is in front of どう so it is some type of relative or dependent clause. So is the beginning of that sentence, "How about (that) when you eat ...."? This is my guess. I'm not sure if I'm correct though.


texts:
I was looking up this pattern on here today because I'm still a tiny bit unsure of the exact meaning.
Although there are multiple questions about this, I've found that the meaning varies slightly based on which one you read.
For example, the following says that A-たように-B means "to do B as it was done when A":
Difference between だったように and のように
Whereas this says that A-たように-B means "to do B as if doing A":
Ta form + ように + phrase with verb meaning/usage e.g. 拗ねたように頬を膨らませる
Based on this, I'm not sure which translation is correct for the following sentence:

子供の頃に作ったように雪で人や獣の像を作り、四方の壁に飾る。

Make statues of people and beasts out of snow as you did when you were a child, and decorate them on all four walls.
Make statues of people and beasts out of snow as if you did when you were a child, and decorate them on all four walls.

I know the "if" is small here and I'm probably just tying myself up in knots unnecessarily, but 2. hints that she never did it as a child, and she's doing it now as if she had.
Can anyone kindly shed some light for me?


texts: Transcription and pronunciation of words that had "wi" in them in English and are「ウィ」in Japanese

texts:
I was looking up how the name Will Smith is pronounced and written in Japanese. Why does "Will" become 「ウィル」? I would have expected ワ to be used instead for the first sound.

I found mentions of the "w" sound in English having a more rounded lip shape in English than the closest Japanese sound, and I am guessing that part of my confusion is that I probably don't understand how 「ウィ」 is pronounced in Japanese. I found audio of Will Smith's name in Japanese, but it seemed to be an automated voice and not a recording of a human, so I don't trust it.


texts: Could you help me translate this sentence?

texts:
I've been reading this article which I can understand fine in general, but it's the last couple of sentences in which the translator gives his own opinion I'm at a loss. The article is about how Lego has been split into specific sets aimed at different genders.

http://www.gizmodo.jp/2014/02/1981.html

  ただ、訳者の超私見ですが、子供の遊ぶ力って、大人のメッセージ伝達力なんか軽々と圧倒してくれて、本人が興味を持てば「自分はこの商品のターゲットか」とか関係なく遊びたがるんじゃないでしょうか。

Except for the first part where the translator states he's going to give us his opinion it just won't come together in my mind.

I think the translator says it doesn't really matter what the person with the critique says(she picked out the lego example herself) because the children will play with the things they want to play with.

It's probably wrong, but the best I can do right now.


texts:
Sometimes instead of "kara" which I understand it mostly translates as "from" I see written "kara no", which it seems to have a similar meaning to "kara" alone. What's the difference or what does it mean? Here it's the specific case

"Yūsha Satan yo kiseki o okose! Uchū kara no chōsenjō!!"


texts: Can you use the -masu te form to form requests? Like, can you say "machimashite kudasai"? (O.o sounds weird huh.)


texts: Is 預けがね a possible reading of 預け金? 預けがね vs 預けきん meanings?

texts:
Here is the exact line from a translation that I am reading:

  瓶を店に返して預け金の５セントを戻してもらいました。

I just read it as あずけがね and continued on. Then, I decided to double check the meaning in my dictionary. But it had it read as あずけきん. And that reading seemed strange.

So, this is a professional translation. So, I am pretty sure that:
(1) あずけがね is the proper reading for this context.
(2) あずけがね does not sound slang.
(3) あずけきん is a proper noun that is almost exclusively used with regard to apartment rentals?


texts: How are these translations of "I had an exam yesterday" different?

texts:
How would "I had an exam yesterday" be translated?

きのうテストをありました。
きのうテストをしました。

If both of the above are correct, what is the difference between them?


texts:
I'm trying to understand the lyrics of a closing song of 「崖の上のポニョ」.

First verse is simple, but the second stopped me:

ペタペタ　ピョーンピョン
足っていいな　かけちゃお
ニギニギ　ブンブン
お手てはいいな　つないじゃお

What happened to arms and legs?


texts:
おいらなんて、怒られっぱなしの人生だもんねーー。アハハ。でもおもしろくって仕方ないもんねー。
For me, it's the life of being got angry at. Ha Ha. But, interesting(ly)...it can't be helped ??

I'm guessing this is おもしろく (interestingly) with either って=は or って=と.
I've never seen an adverb used as a topic before, but it doesn't really seem to work as a quote marker either. Can anyone shed some light here? Thanks.


texts: この曲の意味を暗示する歌詞の特定性について

texts:
念のため述べておきますが、この質問は太平洋戦争に関係するものであり、気分を害するつもりは一切ありませんが、その可能性のある内容が含まれています。

とある日本のロックバンド、「9mm Parabellum Bullet」が2007年に「Sundome」という曲を出しましたが、歌詞は以下のとおりです：

頭ごなしに叱らないで
黒い朝日を描いたこと
手付かずのままで残されてしまった
真っ白い絵の具

こんなはずではなかったのと
声が聞こえたら近未来
利き腕が昨日と違うから
上手に握手出来ない

あぁ それでもここに戻るだろう
あぁ 光に引き寄せられるよ
一秒を奪われたままの この場所に

飛んで火に入れ 真夏の虫
見向きもされない希望には
生きてるだけで素晴らしいと
毎日 言って聞かせてる

あぁ それでもここに戻るだろう
あぁ 炎に引き寄せられるよ
一秒を奪われたままの この場所に

あぁ ガラスが石に戻る頃
あぁ 奈落に引き寄せられるよ
一秒が永遠になったままの この場所に

聞いた話では、歌詞は紛れもなく原爆の描写だそうです。言われてみれば、確かにイメージは一致すると思いますが、自分が日本人ではないので、その確信の根拠、つまり、他の解釈を除外できる内容とその捉え方がわかりません。また、それが歌詞の全体的な概念とどう関係しているかもわからないので、そこで何かご意見があれば、と思いまして。


texts: Why can't まちがいなく失敗 mean 'a zero-mistakes失敗'?

texts:
失敗するのを気にしたら、まちがいなく失敗してしまう。
=If we think of failure, we will certainly fail.
When I read the example the first time, thinking it's a proverb, I interpreted it like:
If you mind failure, you will fall in/encounter/make the no-mistakes failure.
What prevents 'grammatically' such interpretation?

Edit:

Comment on @shingo.nakanishi answer:
Can I say [雨ない年だった.] for 'It was a no-rain/rainless year.'?
If YES, then why can't we think of まちがいない as a 'whole word' that modifies 失敗 in [失敗するのを気にしたら、まちがいない失敗してしまう。] also?

Comment on @naruto answer:
Is [雨なく年だった.] for 'It was a rainlessly year' correct in Japanese? If YES, then why can't we consider まちがいなく as an adverbial that modifies 失敗 in [失敗するのを気にしたら、まちがいなく失敗してしまう。] also?


texts:
When do I use から and when 以来?  For example,

  私はここで1:00以来働いています。

or

  私はここで1時から待っています。

Does it matter?  Does it ever matter (provided から is being used to mean "since a given time")?


texts: Is 「湯を沸かす」 an exception or an example of a general rule?

texts: Japanese people use 湯を沸かす instead of 水を沸かす to say "to boil water", is it an exception or a general rule? Do we use the word 冷水 to say "to cool down water" for example?


texts: How are programming projects discussed in Japanese?

texts:
In English, programming projects (and large systematic projects in general) typically take their descriptive cues from well-known manufacturing/construction industry jargon, i.e. "blueprint", "assembly", "infrastructure", "building", "attaching", "extending"...the list goes on, but the essential metaphor is one of a physical structure like a building or vehicle.

From what I've looked at in WWWJDIC, the nuance doesn't seem to line up exactly (not that WWWJDIC spends much space on describing nuance)--if I want to say, "construction of/building the system component", reaching from the dictionary, I have to make a choice from among 建築、造作、構築、建設、建てる（の）, among many others. On the other hand, none of these entries contain clues as to whether or not I'm even barking up the right tree.

So the question is, what is the core metaphor for (programming) project development, and what kind of word choice am I looking for when I want to express a sentence like the above?


texts:
Why in this sentence the stem of the verb is used instead of the verb 炒める itself?

  まず、玉葱を炒め、次に肉を入れて下さい。


texts: Confusion between nouns and adverbs in あと一部

texts:
この仕事はあと一部を残すだけだ。
  Only one part of the job remains.

Does one think of あと (remainder) as a noun (and object of 残す) and 一部 as a counter/adverb, or is あと the adverb and 一部 the noun here?


texts: おか means 'pile' in [来年も仕事があるとは限らないから、ちゃんと貯金しておかなければいけない。] right?

texts:
Japanese version:

来年も仕事があるとは限らないから、ちゃんと貯金しておかなければいけない。

English version:

There's no guarantee that there will be work next year so I need to make sure to save some money while I can.

Why are 'ちゃんと=seriously' and 'おか=pile' not mentioned in the English version?
Where is the 'while I can' in the Japanese version? Or is ちゃんと=while I can?


texts: What is the difference between あっての and とあって?

texts:
From what I can tell they both mean "Because of", and the only differences in meaning I can see seem to be very subtle.

あっての:

Because of A (strong emphasis), B
Thanks to (various things), (outcome)

とあって:

Because of A, B
Because ~; ~ as expected; because ~, naturally ~

As far as I can tell, the only difference is that あっての proceeds and follows a noun, while とあって can proceed and follow a sentence. Is there some other difference between these?


texts:
Whenever I watch drama or news I always hear "し" particle being used. Back when I was still studying "Minna No Nihongo" my teacher taught me that ”し” means "だから” but native Japanese tend to use this to enumerate list of option like in the following example

  結婚式ってだいたいいくらかかるんですか？

  えと。。。１００万円っていうのもありますし、５万もありますよ。

I just want to know what is the real meaning of "し".


texts: So, I was searching around on Tumbler, until I stumbled across this really cool drawing, upon noticing it wasn’t in English. I was hoping someone on here could help, I’ve talked to other people and no one really seems to help, I’m desperate.


texts:
According to JapanDict, this proverb literally means "if a fish is friendly toward water, water will be kind to the fish too" (although Wiktionary says it's the other way around...). Is that really a literal translation? If it is, then where does this idea of friendliness come from? Do you get "a caring fish" by putting 魚 and 心 together? Can you do the same with other living creatures? Or does 魚心 only make sense when we look at the full phrase? Is it perhaps something like "when there is a fish with a (kind) heart, there is also water with a (kind) heart"?

Whatever the literal meaning is, is it obvious to a native speaker when they hear the proverb for the first time? Or do they need some mental effort to figure out how 心 works here?

Then there is stuff like 乙女心... Does it have any relation to this?


texts: 押しのけていく？How is the two verb connected together

texts:
The original sentence was

巨大な船体が海水を押しのけていく

巨大: huge
船体: hull; the body of ship/boat
押す: to press; to pree
のける=退ける: to push something away
I would like to know how to 押す and のける is combined together.
I am guessing the sentence means something like "the huge body of ship pushed the seawater away."
Thanks


texts:
Aが出たとし、B。 (This is what the speaker is telling to another person on the phone)

Where A is an event that already happend (let's say an accident), and B means something like "I'll send you more info on that"

is とし the continuative form of とする, or is it と + し. Also I found this: what is the meaning of a た形の動詞　＋　とする  but I'm don't know how to apply that to my sentence


texts: Please help to understand ような grammar in this sentence

texts:
「そりゃ……あまねが喜んでくれることは、してあげたいと思わなくもないような、違うような、その反対なような……」
As i can translate this means something like "Very... i want to please Amane, looks like i kind of think about that..." but next parth translation with multiple ような　is absolutely unclear for me...

そりゃ - very
あまねが喜んでくれることは - to please Amane
してあげたいと思わなくもないような - want to help to do, looks like i kind of think about that
違うような - ???
その反対なような - ???

Thank you for any help!


texts:
I heard one of these in Anime. It was translated as "I didn't eat your soul".

  お前の魂は食べておらん
  お前の魂は食べてはおらん

I've read online that ておらん is an overproud version of 食べていない.
I'd like to know how should Oru/Oran be attached to U-ending verbs and what's the past form of ておらん.　I read the past form of ておる is ておった.


texts: Japanese sentence that needs translation

texts:
I'll just write the sentence here and hope I get some good translations. Always thankful. :)

"僕がしたいって聞いた事をこんなにも叶えてくれようとしてくれてるんだもん"

(My rough translation): I want to do (or things I want to do) that I asked for and getting to (try to)??? fulfill things like this what the heck???

I understand the basic idea of what is being said, but I have a few specific worries.

したいって聞いたこと; Is he talking about things he want or things he asked others that he wanted to do?
こんなにも; Never quite understood how nimo works. . .
(Hardest part) かなえてくれようとしてくれてるんだもん; Here my head just goes crazy and I see a hundred rules popping up everywhere. This is probably the hardest segment of them all. The others are just minor issues, while this one is the main problem I have with this sentence.

Good luck and thanks in advance. :_=)


texts: Is there an equivalent Japanese phrase to "A red herring"?

texts: In the english language, a "red herring" is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important question.  I would like to know if there is an equivalent phrase in Japanese.


texts: What is the significance of the ☆ symbol?

texts:
I have noticed that “☆” appears in Japanese stories.

For example, the Japanese comic book titled “La☆BlueGirl”. The title is also written as ラ・ブルー・ガール. I get the impression that “☆” is a stylish version of “・”.

I have also observed that some Japanese have one character (usually a female character) whose lines will contain “☆”. Does the symbol indicate the character's personality? Does it help her to stand out from the other characters?

If anyone can explain the significance of the white star, I would greatly appreciate it.


texts:
For the passage of time are both of these interchangeable?

What nuances does using either over the other have?


texts:
The following is an excerpt from a dialogue between me and my language partner. We talked about movies deviating in certain points from the original works they are derived from (e.g. Lord of the rings books vs. movies), and how this can have both its pros and cons.

For context, I will include the full block of her reply concerning this point: パディントンの映画は原作（げんさく：元の作品のことをこう言います）とは違いますが、ファミリーで楽しめるエンターテインメントになっていて、とても良かったです。 ロード・オブ・ザ・リングも、日本語に翻訳された本の方（『指輪物語』）は、とても長く、難しいので、子どもが読み切るのはなかなか難しいです。映像の場合、エルフとドワーフがどう違うか、一目でわかるので、一緒に観ている息子に説明しなくても済みます。目と耳から情報が入ってくるので、話に入っていきやすいのではないかと思います。

The sentence in question:
ロード・オブ・ザ・リングも、日本語に翻訳された本の方（『指輪物語』）は、とても長く、難しいので、子どもが読み切るのはなかなか難しいです

I think のは signals that a cleft-sentence is used here. I will try to come up with a translation which adequately reflects that:

"Same for the lord of the rings, concerning the into-japanese-translated book 指輪物語, it is pretty hard that children finish it because it is long and difficult."

So first, I don't really know what to do with 方. I don't think that it has any grammatical function like in 来週の試験は今練習するほうがいいだと思います。 I think it simply acts as a noun here. However, http://jisho.org/search/hou doesn't give me any meaning for 方 as a noun which I could think of as suitable for this context here. I usually would go for "volume" or "edition" since we are talking about the japanese version of "The Lord of the rings", but that isn't really backed up by the various semantics listed on jisho.

Second, I must admit that I am really confused what exactly she is talking about now ^^ Is she talking about this movie from 1978, mentioned in the entry for 指輪物語 (前編) http://jisho.org/word/51869426d5dda7b2c6031a62 ? I don't think that this would make sense, since she later on tells me that she finds it easier (for her son) to delve into the story with the visuals of the movie. In addition, 子どもが読み切る suggests a written medium, so she can't be talking about the movie in 日本語に翻訳された本の方（『指輪物語』）は、とても長く、難しいので I think.

Third, I must also admit that I'm a bit confused by the use of brackets in （『指輪物語』) . Um, I guess it kind of works like "" but I've never seen that many brackets being integrated into each other in written text so maybe I'm just not seeing the specific purpose of this.^^

Fourth, I'm not really sure wether the way I dealth with も in ロード・オブ・ザ・リングも is still legit. I'm pretty sure it references back to what she said about
"paddington family"-movie, since she thinks that both the LOTR movie and the paddington-movie have changed the original works in a way that makes it more entertaining/easier to delve into. But I'd like to ask for confirmation.


texts:
What is the difference between following sentences?

できるかどうか分かりません
できるかどうかが分かりません

Both seem to have about similar amount of hits on google for an exact phrase.

When reading about embedded sentences they don't tend to mention が to follow them, so it's probably not が would be grammatically required. If that is so, what is its function?

Possibly the question can be a bit more generic as to understand how to treat embedded sentence in general (which would maybe point out what can be used or not).

https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/13038/9719 mentions that を can be used, but no mention of が

Embedded question followed by と this asks about と, which seems to make it a quote, but don't know if it necessarily changes the meaning

Indirect question marked with かが seems to be close but the answer bottom makes it seem like が is required by the nature of 分かる while other sources teach it without it

Thank you


texts: What are the stereotypical qualities of a gaijin trying to speak/write Japanese to a Japanese person?

texts:
There are plenty of stereotypical qualities of a Japanese speaking person trying to speak English, so, would I be correct in assuming the reverse is also the case, and if so, what would the most notable features be?

I ask this both out of curiosity and on the off chance I ever need to actually try communicating with people in a way that doesn't result in my casual humiliation.


texts: ブラウザ or ブラウザー? Words borrowed from English which end with -er

texts:
I noticed that some (most? all?) words that were borrowed from English and end with -er in English can have either short or long vowel at the end:

browser - can be ブラウザ or ブラウザー
driver - can be ドライバ or ドライバー
computer - can be コンピュータ or コンピューター

Is one option preferred over another? There doesn't seem to be much consistency so is just a matter of personal choice? Dictionaries usually list both options so that doesn't offer much help.


texts: What is the difference between というのは or は when used as a topical marker?

texts:
Sentence:

旅館の朝食って おいしいですよね

Context for Sentence:

The speaker and his friends (whom are all Japanese) were on a trip to a Japanese Inn, arriving at night. The next day, they woke up to have breakfast.

(This was probably the first meal they had at the inn as they went to sleep right away upon arriving at the inn last night. However, I doubt this was their first time in a Japanese Inn, seeing that they are all Japanese.)

My questions:

In this given sentence, how can I differentiate whether というのは or は should be used? I heard context is important, but what kind of clues can I gather from the context to determine which of the two is more appropriate. In this case, both というのは and　は seems to make sense to me.

The って in this case is used to describe how delicious is the inn's breakfast.

For は, the meaning is something like "As for the inn's breakfast, it is delicious".

For というのは, the meaning is something like "The thing about the inn's breakfast, it is delicious".

Are my interpretations right?

I browsed through several threads and managed to make some form of segregation of meanings between the different って usages, but am still confounded between these two.


texts: 「どういうこと」+「でいる」+「やがる」=「どういうことでいやがりますか？」

texts:
「……さらわれて？兄様、どういうことでいやがりますか？」
「ーーミオは……どこにいるんだ？あいつが助けてくれたんじゃないのか？」
「だから、何を言ってやがるんですか、兄さーー」

I know 「どういうこと」 means “What do you mean” and 「やがる」is her 口癖. But I cannot understand the 「でい」.
Maybe it’s「どういうこと」+「でいる」+「やがる」? And this 「でいる」 is like "to stay/keep ～", as in this thread?
https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/66270/what-is-the-difference-between-でいる-and-である-in-this-example


texts: How to say "I started to learn Java" in Japanese?

texts:
How to say "I started to learn Java" or "I started to learn Java today"?
Thanks!

Could you say 私はJavaを学び始めた?


texts: What does それ refer to in それでいい in this exchange?

texts:
「ええい、御託はいい！！それより流星。お前は見たくはないのか？嫁達の喜ぶ姿を。」

「嫁達の喜ぶ姿…」

「しかも温泉で！」

「お、温泉で…」

「…わ、分かった。嫁達の健康と笑顔には変えられん。」

「ふははははっ、それでいい、それでいいのだ、流星！」

In this exchange I'm a bit confused as to what the それ is actually referring to. In this conversation they were trying to convince him to go with him and the 嫁達 to a 温泉 and after much persistence(other stuff before this part of the exchange has been removed to keep it short) he eventually gives in and gives the excuse/reasoning 嫁達の健康と笑顔には変えられん. Now normally I'd think that それ would refer to the actual utterance itself but I can't see it literally referring to the previous utterance apart from the fact that it's basically 流星 agreeing to what the other person had suggested(i.e 温泉で嫁達の喜ぶ姿をみたい). Can anyone explain exactly to what それ refers to in this situation?

edit:
Does it refer to 流星's desire (温泉で嫁達の喜ぶ姿をみたい)
Does it refer to 流星's acceptance of his idea
Or what does it refer to?


texts: What function does で have in the sentence 馬は動物である?

texts:
I have a denshijisho, always giving me helpful expressions attached to a kanji/word etc. and this time it was

  馬は動物である。
  A horse is an animal.

in which I don't understand the function of the particle de.


texts:
I have been using と as a way of using 'and' to list things together.

In the instance of joining two self contained sentences together would this be where で is used to mean 'and' or would と still be used? I only recently discovered で can be used to mean 'and' and I'm confused on when it's used over と.


texts: Is it actually impolite to say ご苦労様 to a superior?

texts:
Conventional ビジネスマナー tells us that ご苦労様 is used by superiors to subordinates and お疲れ様 used by everyone, and this is backed up all over the internet and stated on some questions here, like this.

But it seems that this isn't always such an ironclad rule. For example there is this question on here that shows that the power relationship might not necessarily as strong as people say, and this site in particular has a question along similar lines and one (very lengthy) answer saying that, on the contrary, ご苦労様 should be used toward superiors because it has a stronger nuance of thankfulness for work, citing examples from politicians and other uses that emphasize the role of the person rather than their rank, and that it may be changing such that it is appropriate to use it outside of the context of rank.

In modern usage would it be a faux pas to say ご苦労様 to a superior or to someone you don't know? Do native speakers really feel that ご苦労様 is more thankful?


texts: What is the difference between 「とは限らない」and 「とも限らない」

texts:
When looking it up on the internet I find that とは限らない means 「イメージと違って、100％～と言えないという意味」. But the problem is I also get similar meanings for とも限らない.

I've asked a Japanese speaker about it and they gave the answer below:

  「Xとは限らない」は、Xが成立しないことがある、と言う意味。
  「Xとも限らない」は、Xが成立しないことがあるし、同類の事柄があることを暗示している。

  たとえば、
  「お金持ちになれたらいいのに。」
  A:「お金持ちが幸せだとは限らないよ。」
  B:「お金持ちが幸せだとも限らないよ。（お金があるとトラブルになることもあるから。）」

  「早く日本に行って日本語を勉強したい。」
  A:「早く日本に行くことが良いとは限らないよ。」
  B:「早く日本に行くことが良いとも限らないよ。（いまここでしっかり基礎を学ぶことも大切かもしれないし、
      日本で生活するための準備をきちんとすることも重要だよ。）」

Based on the answer he gave me, I still don't get the difference. They both seem the same but I know there has to be a difference.


texts:
"I studied for about 2 or 3 years." is natural while "I studied for about 3 or 2 years." is not. Notice that the time period length sequencing is from shortest to longest.

Yet, in this audio clip at www.bbc.com the sequencing is longest to shortest How Japanese Police Confront Violence at the 20-second mark you can hear in the background the officer say

警察学校に一年もしくは半年...

(1) it is natural to list lengths of time in reverse numerical order?
(2) ALSO, notice that he just said "一年" instead of "一年間" which contradicts my understanding.

I definitely would have said:
"警察学校に半年もしくは一年間..."

and this is definitely unnatural, correct? Both cannot sound natural?

What about "２、３本ぐらい飲んだ" vs. "３、２本ぐらい飲んだ"? Which is better?


texts:
I am having trouble with thinking of usage cases for 「ありがたい」.

The usage case of ありがた迷惑 does not make sense to me. Even though I don't know that particular phrase, I can use it as a template. Therefore, I would expect all of the following to also be correct：
ありがたい案内者
ありがたい説明
ありがたいお土産
ありがたいオゴリ
....

But none of those sound correct to me. I've only heard 「ありがたい」 used as a substitute for 「ありがとう」 in an informal situation. However, 「ありがとう」seems a little different because it seems to bring a complete end to a thought, while「ありがたい」might be followed by a conjunction such as 「ありがたいけれど...」、「ありがたいでも...」

What are some examples of how to use「ありがたい」、as well as examples of how to use it in an inflected form?


texts: What is the proper way to describe the weather as cool?

texts:
I was asked 今日{きょう}天気{てんき}はどうですか?

My response was: 涼{すず}しいです。

I was told that's not the right way to say that. Instead I should say: あまり寒{さむ}くなりません。

Which is the right way? If I'm wrong, why? And when should I use 涼{すず}しい?


texts: How did the split between ichidan and godan verb conjugations come to be? Were suru and kuru always irregular?

texts: Ichidan verbs ditch ru, godan verbs replace the next character with any of the 5 vowels. Is it known how this distinction came to be? Were the irregular verbs kuru and suru always irregular?


texts: 「スケジュール感をすり合わせましょう」 - what exactly are we going to discuss?

texts:
When I first received an invitation to a meeting containing words similar to 「スケジュール感をすり合わせましょう」 I thought we are going to discuss the schedule so that "everyone is on the same page". The schedule would be presented so that everyone gets an understanding of it. Hence 感 "the feeling", like in 義務感 or 切迫感.

However after reading スケジュール感って何？ I am less convinced it was the case.

I understand スケジュール感 is a made-up word, but what exactly does 感 convey here? Would it be a discussion about an objective schedule (with possibilities to alter it according to the opinions) or everyone's subjective understanding of the given schedule?

If the latter - why 感? Are there other similar usages of 感?


texts: How do you say things like "The ________ Principle" in Japanese?

texts:
What are Japanese equivalents to saying that something is a principle, doctrine, or philosophy? You know, things that would be phrased as something like "The ________ Principle/Doctrine", or "The Philosophy of ________" in English?

I've found a couple of ways, using words like 法、理、原理、原則、義、etc. but I'm not sure which to use or how to use it as to form normal-sounding phrases with the proper nuance.


texts:
つーか怖いしあとレア

I don't understand how あと is used in this sentence. What does it mean?

レア should mean rare, right?

Thank you for your help.


texts:
This phrase is used pretty much on every intro page to Japan, as a polite way to state "my name is _____". I think it's similar to Je m'appelle. My question is why is it exactly the particle と used in this case? Is it a unique thing, or is there a bigger trend? Is it used as a quotative way -- "Feliksas (quote - as in quoting what people say) am called"?

Thank you very much!!


texts: What is the difference between 「だと」 and 「であること・なの」

texts:
I was looking at example sentences for 「気づく」 to determine which particle it uses and I found that it takes 「に」. For example: 「彼はそれに間もなく気づくだろう」. However, I also found these sentences: 「私は彼が有名人だと気づく」 and 「自分が一人であるのに気づく」.

Firstly, I'm struggling to analyse 「一人であるのに気づく」; 一人 (noun) + であるの (nominaliser) + に気づく is this correct? I thought that you only used である with こと (e.g. 先生であること), but you use な with の (e.g. 先生なの).

Secondly, I have no clue what 「だと」 means in the other example. Again, it looks like a nominalised sentence to me, but I'm not sure how 「だと」 is used. Even if it was nominalised, why is と used and not に?

This may require a longish answer, so thanks a lot.


texts: The language used in manga often does not follow standard patterns. Is there a term for this? Thank you.


texts:
I'm confused about the parts in bold in the sentence below:

山田みたいに、ぜんぜん勉強しなくていいやって、わりきれるわけじゃないわりにはそれほど勉強しないし、怒られても気にしない性格じゃないし...すごくいやだなって思ってるのに、ついつい怒られているよ...ああ、最悪の人生だね。
Like 山田, I don't study at all ??? It doesn't mean that I'm satisfied with not studying that much, and I'm not the sort of person who doesn't care about making people angry...even though I think it's really unpleasant ... unintentionally making people angry ... it's the worst life (my translation attempt)

My best guess at what いいやって means is "play well and..." but shouldn't that be よくやって?
As for すごくいやだなって, I'm assuming って is the quote marker for 思う. And いやだな is just いやだ (it's unpleasant) with a な on the end for emphasis.
Also, my translation of "even though" for のに seems a bit incongruous.
Please explain any errors I have made.


texts: What is the function of 「や」 in this sentence?

texts:
古池や 蛙飛び込む 水の音

This is a haiku by Matsuo Bashō. Is the や particle doing what it normally does, listing items?


texts:
I need your help.

"誰かいないのか"

As far as I understand it, this translates to something like, "I want to know, if there somebody, who is available now"

The questions are:

Is the translation ok?
Could you explain the grammar of this sentence? I was trying to find out about "inai no ka" but didn't manage to do it :(

I really count on you guys!

Thank you!

P.S. yes, I'm a newbie


texts: Confused about ～させていただきたいと思います

texts:
それでは皆様。本日の晩餐を始めさせていただきたいと思います。

I'm a bit confused with honorific forms.

I understand 始めさせて as "Allow me to start" and いただく as the humble form of もらう, but why is it いただきたいと思います. Is it just the "want" form ? As in "I think I would like you to allow me to start today's dinner." ?


texts:
Help me please with translation 働かせっぱなし in the following sentence

  それって、朝からずっと働かせっぱなしの人間に対して、掛ける言葉じゃ、ないと思うんだけど

The main problem is that I cannot understand how to correctly translate 働かせっぱなしの人間, could it be "person who is forcing somebody to work" or "person who is forced by somebody to work", while I think that the second one would be passive form 「働かせられっぱなしの人間」it seems to me better with context...

I'm sorry for my bad English, and thanks for help.


texts:
Context: in the manga Dead Tube, a girl is being raped while being filmed. Among the comments on the video, some users wrote メリメリメリメリ and メリ子メリ子.

What is the meaning of the two comments? To me it looks like some internet slang, or is メリ just a transliteration of the English "merry"?

Here you can see the whole page. Thank you for your help!


texts:
I'd like to ask about ellipses in Japanese.

First, as I understand, ellipses in Japanese often indicate silence or trailing off at the end of a sentence in casual text communication and manga.

I have three questions:

What other uses does an ellipsis in Japanese have?
Is リーダ the common word for an ellipsis? What do most people in Japan call this punctuation?
What is the most common (correct?) form of ellipses and what impressions do different ones give? Are different ones used in different situations/for different uses?

For example:

そうなんですか・・・

そうなんですか・・・　・・・

そうなんですか・・

そうなんですか。。。

Thanks!


texts:
From my understanding, the 万葉集 is written in 万葉仮名 which uses a limited set of characters solely for their 音読み reading rather than for their semantic meaning.

In light of this, I am curious how difficult it is for a Native Japanese speaker to be able to read the 万葉集.

From the recent announcement of the Reiwa era being taken from the following passage:

初春令月、氣淑風和、梅披鏡前之粉、蘭薫珮後之香

I saw that it was also presented in modern Japanese as

初春の令月にして、気淑く風和ぎ、梅は鏡前の粉を披き、蘭は珮後の香を薫らす。

Is the latter a large jump to the former for someone with a typical University level education that doesn't focus on literature such as this?

I was told by an acquaintance that a typical mainland Chinese person would be able to trivially read this passage of the 万葉集. Is this true? I have my doubts for the aforementioned reasons: I believe it uses the characters for their 音読み and should in principle not make sense when read without a Japanese vocabulary and I would expect that any language would have evolved from AD 759 so significantly that it should be difficult to read by anyone. That leads me to doubt that this cannot possibly be "trivial" for a Chinese person to be able to read.

Nevertheless, I am having a great deal of difficulty finding reasonable sources that support or deny the claim.


texts: Is the sentence 「もう少し誠実に対応頂けませんか。」rude and unprofessional? What does it literally mean in English?

texts:
If you think a person has been irresponsible with his work (changing responses to inquiries without reason and not really researching for the answer) and you sent a message with the ending sentence 「もう少し誠実に対応頂けませんか。」can you consider this word as too harsh or rude or unprofessional?

Does 「もう少し誠実に対応頂けませんか。」mean, 「Can you be more serious with your work.」?


texts:
It's from the last, small printed line here in this text:
https://www.docdroid.net/847v2dg/img-20170413-0001-new.pdf.html

森田喬　「神の眼{め}　鳥の眼　蟻の眼　地図は自分さがしの夢空間」毎日新聞社より、一部を改変して掲載

First, I can't find entries for the words in bold on jisho. I guess they are proper-nouns?

Second, even if I assume that the words in bold are proper nouns, it's still a bit problematic for me to get through the sentence.

MORITATAKSHI "the eye of god, the eye of a bird, the eye of an ant    the map is YUMEKUUKANs self discovery" from mainichinewspapers, one portion changed publication.

I guess the first three expressions mean something like from top-down view to bottom-up view. This is the title of an original article where this adapted version is derived from.
I also struggle with
一部を改変して掲載
I translated a passive here, but only because I wouldnt really how else I should express this in english.
does 改変して imply a unspecified subject like in graham healeys answer in this question?
Syntax of this sentence
And if so, is it okay to translate passive here?


texts: Why are 兄(あに) and 姉(あね) pronounced differently in お兄さん and お姉さん?

texts:
姉 is pronounced ane, but お姉さん is pronounced oneesan. What happened to the initial a?

Likewise, 兄 is pronounced ani, but お兄さん is pronounced oniisan.

What is the rule governing the change in the pronunciation for the same kanji in these compound words? Or are these just exceptions one simply needs to remember?


texts: How does the syntax of 作って並べられている work here?

texts:
The following is an excerpt from a conversation with my language partner. For some context, I told her about our familydinner at a restaurant during christmas eve. I wanted to tell her that you could have your meal freshly cooked right before your eyes there, but unfortunately I used some wrong vocabulary and she explained to me what I actually said :D

I'll post what I had written first:
彼女の家族は、クリスマスイブでレストランへ行く伝統があります。ですから、去年私の家族と彼女の家族とクリスマスイブで「グル‌メ-テンプル」というレストランへ行きまし‌た。このレストランはビュッフェと料理番組‌で作られた料理を供して、料理のすごい種々‌がありました

Then here is the full block which she wrote back concerning my misleading wordchoice:
「料理番組で作られた料理」というのは、テレビの料理番組で作っていた料理を再現したという意味でしょうか。
ビュッフェ形式のホテルやレストランで私が思いつくのは、「実演料理（じつえんりょうり）」です。作って並べられている料理とは別に、その場でシェフが作ってくれる料理です。日本の場合では、その場で寿司を握ってくれたり、天ぷらを揚げてくれたりします。お客さんは作っている様子を見ることができ、作りたてを食べることができます。

Ultimately, here is the sentence in question:
作って並べられている料理とは別に、その場でシェフが作ってくれる料理です。

My attempt at translation:
"Concerning the prepared and lined up meals, they are meals which the chef makes (right there) on that spot."

I think that I got the 別に、その場でシェフが作ってくれる料理です part right (I still might be wrong though^^). My main issue lies with the 作って並べられている料理とは part.

First, I think that と puts the two elements on both sides into a "A = B" relationship. This function is always a bit hard for me to handle, so I wanted to ask wether I got it right or not.

Second, I'm a bit clueless about the verbal chain 作って並べられている.
Its syntax confuses me because there definitely IS a て form for passive verbforms (e.g. 並べられて ^^), and I think that 作って has a passive meaning here. So, it might be possible to chain a verb to another verb without paying attention to its grammatical voice (=active/passive), but I don't know anything about these rules. I also don't know wether doing it in one way or the other modifies the sentence in one way or another.


texts:
For the word (or composition of two words): 唯一,
sometimes also written as: 唯一つ,

Two possible pronunciations come to my mind:

ゆいいつ [yuiitsu]　-onyomi

and

ただ ひとつ [tada hitotsu] -kunyomi

Which one is correct? Does the last つ in written form make any difference?


texts: Did I interprete 想像がつきません correctly here?

texts:
The following is an excerpt from a conversation with my language partner.

For some context:
「有頂天家族」を観たのですね。私も観ましたよ。タヌキ鍋ですよね。タヌキを愛しているから食べるって、不思議な表現です。愛しているけれど、決して自分のものにはならないから、自分の中に取り込んでしまう意味なのだろうかと考えました。
タヌキ鍋というのは、昔話にはでてきますが、現代の日本では食べないので、どんな味がするのか想像がつきません。

The sentence in question:
タヌキ鍋というのは、昔話にはでてきますが、現代の日本では食べないので、どんな味がするのか想像がつきません。

My attempt at translation:
"Concerning Tanuki-Hot-Pot, no imagination comes of what it tastes like because one doesn't eat it in present japan, although it appears in old tales."

Besides my question wether I interpreted 想像がつきません correctly or not, is there a reason why つきません is written without kanji? Or is it just a typo?
Also, I just assumed that でてきます is a typo and is meant to be できます. Am I correct there?


texts: What is the English equivalent of the フヒヒヒ laugh?

texts:
I'm trying to translate a game from Japanese to English, but I cannot figure this one out. I know a lot of different forms of laughter, but this one escapes me. I've been looking for about an hour and a half online, and still can't find an example. Can someone point me in the right direction here?

Edit: I believe it is either "Tee-hee-hee", "wahahaha", or "heheheh". I just need to know which is best.


texts: Meaning of 瞳だけはぶっ飛ばない

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Context: in a gym, a boxer attacks another boxer saying that he was provoking him with his eyes. After punching him, he thinks:

  瞳だけはぶっ飛ばねーでやんの
  甘ちゃんのクセに

  人殴って拳が潤わなかったなんて
  ねーのに……

What is the meaning of the verb ぶっ飛ぶ when it refers to the eyes? Looking at its meanings in the dictionary I couldn't find one that fits the context. Is it used metaphorically here?

Also, could you please explain the grammar behind ぶっ飛ばねーでやんの? Is it the contracted form of ぶっ飛ばないでやるの?

Thank you for your help!

EDIT: since it looks like a strange metaphor, I uploaded the original pages to provide more context.

Pages where the fight starts (here 瞳 is used with め furigana)

Pages with the sentence in question


texts: Lack of の in 最強のポケモン誕生

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I was wondering why the sentence

最強のポケモン誕生

doesn't have a の between ポケモン and 誕生. Is there any reason to drop it? Sentences with 誕生日 normally include の (like 私の誕生日は。。。).


texts: Is the 'wa' in wasabi and wakame related?

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Wasabi and wakame seem to have different Japanese characters and also different Chinese ideograms. My first guess is that the 'wa' in wasabi and wakame is coincidence. But.

Are they related words? Mountain mustard / sea mustard? Is the wa of these words a particle or something similar?

Thank you for your time.


texts:
心がいつも美しくありたいです

  I want my heart to always be beautiful.

  心がいつも美しくして欲しいです (Incorrect)

  心がいつも美しくなりたいです

  I want my heart to always be beautiful.(?)

My Japanese friend wrote the first sentence, while I wrote it over attempting to use 欲しい instead. I am unfamiliar with this use of ある, and have a few questions about it.

Is it derived from the same "existence" verb, ある -- 在る ?

My other question is how personal is the nuance when expressing a wish or desire, compared to 欲しい? If the second version that I wrote with 欲しい is acceptable, how do the two sentences differ in tone, politeness, meaning and expression?

I am wondering if ありたい expresses a more, or less personal desire than 欲しい.

Furthermore, can one rewrite the original sentence using another verb, while retaining the same meaning?
Lastly, is my translation correct? Or should it read "I want my heart to always be beautiful."? I had thought that the original sentence corresponded to something like "I always want the person on the inside to be beautiful (just like how I am on the outside)," but maybe I am wrong.
Thank you.


texts:
Is からすると contraction of から判断すると?
Is からすると contraction of から判断すると?


texts: How to say "How long have you had this dream?"

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Would it be correct to say:

  「どのくらい夢がありましたか。」

I don't really know. This is for a Japanese assignment I have at school.


texts: How can I come to terms with the animate/inanimate distinction in Japanese?

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According to this answer, "This made me laugh" would translate literally into Japanese as:

  これが僕{ぼく}を笑{わら}わせた。

However, the same answer explains that this would be an odd thing to say in Japanese, because the Japanese language tends to avoid using an "inanimate subject".

As far as I know, in English we don't have any preference for whether or not a subject is animate or inanimate, though I could be wrong about that. I don't know how English works, I just think with it, and maybe I make unconscious habitual choices.

In any case, I have no conceptual model for this inanimate/animate subject distinction, and, as far as I can remember in all my years of studying Japanese, this is the first time it's ever come up for me.

How strange is a statement like これが僕{ぼく}を笑{わら}わせた? Are there examples where the animate/inanimate distinction would lead to unparsable statements, or is it just mildly awkward sounding?

"This made me laugh" in English is a perfectly acceptable statement, but are there parallels in English to the Japanese distinction between animate and inanimate subjects that would help me conceptualize what is happening in Japanese?


texts: と usage with いる and the っちゃう ending on a verb

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total Japanese noob here. Recently I got the manga しろくまカフェ and I started working through it.
Within the first few sentences I'm stumped:

でも寝てばっかりいる太っちゃう〜

I got the gist of the sentence "Just sleep here and I will get fat", but I don't understand a few parts and I don't think my translation is very good. I don't really understand the combination of いる(to exist) and と(my understanding of と was with or and only with nouns). Additionally, I've never seen the っちゃう ending on the verb 太る(to get fat) before. Why wouldn't it just be, well, 太る?


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To be clear, I'm talking in this case about double negatives originating in Japanese, not ones that are being translated into it.

When I was in college, one of my professors taught the class to use [疲]{つか}れていなくない in place of 疲れた, explaining it as a face-saving measure by at least putting up appearances of saying you're not tired.  Is the resulting 〜なくない ending standard or valid?  If so, is this practice at all common, or is was the professor passing on her own idiomatic usage?  If it's relevant at all, said professor grew up in Osaka.


texts: I searched every translation site I could find, and I can't make sense of what it's supposed to mean. I know 看板親父 is some kind of chef in a restaurant, but what do you called it in English?


texts: How would you say, "Why can't I have them both?"

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I've been looking at the structure of sentences like "They're both cute" and "I want this one" 「どちら」 and 「どっち」 meaning which one but how would I say the following:

  "I don't know what I want"

And

  "Why can't I have them both" / "Can't I have them both"

Thank you!


texts: The differences and similarities between ーたら and ーば

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Possible Duplicate:
  Differences among -たら、なら、-んだったら、-えば, etc.

There are different ways to say "if" in Japanese. I want to concentrate on these two verb endings which mean "if": たら and ば. What exactly are the similarities and differences between these two? I have heard that in some situations, you should be careful to use one and not the other. Which situations are those? Are there some sentences where they are interchangeable and the meaning doesn't change?


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I'm wondering if と, that the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar says lead to a uncontrollable event, is, in addition to this, used with the meanning of a fact that will for sure happen if the condition is met.

I ask because I am unsure if sentences with hypotheses in the main clause can be used with と, like:

  雨が降ると、明日の試合は中止するかもしれない。
  If it rains, tomorrow's match might be canceled.

  この間食を摂ると、お腹がいっぱいになるでしょう。
  If you take this snack, you probably will be full.

Moreover, can you use conjecture with と? This phrase, for instance, sounds weird?

  カナリアの鳴き声がよく聞こえないと、耳が遠くなってきたようです。
  If I cannot hear well the cries of canaries, it will appears that I am going deaf.


texts: What is the standard size of a kanji as written by a standard caligraphy brush

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I recently acquired some brush pens meant for calligraphy, one of size 'standard', and one of size 'beginner'. While I cannot find the site where they were labeled as such, the lineup is here with XFL2U being the 'standard' and XFL2F being the 'beginner'.

Because of its availability where I live, I've been practicing on 5x5mm graph paper, writing 10x10mm kanji with a pen. I've seen proper kanji practice paper with 8x8mm boxes.

I can make both brush pens work in 10x10mm, but it gets very finicky with more busy kanji, like 慶 or 鬱. Moreover, I feel like I'm utilizing very little of the range of line width, and I have too little to work with to properly take advantage of the brush, to have the motion of the strokes reflected in the character rather than merely meticulously drawing a figure.

I get that this is an art that takes practice, but the 'standard' brush in particular feels too big for an 8x8mm square (which I assume is for pen/pencil), because so little of its range is used. I assume a 'standard' brush dictates a certain 'standard' line width range, which in turn dictates a certain size of kanji determined by their 'maximum busyness'. A minimum practical size follows the brush.

So, if a Japanese person shows up for a caligraphy course, is given a standard brush and a box to draw within, how big is the box?


texts:
I watched a song "あの娘シークレット", and there are these lyrics:

  僕に初めて　見せるような表情
  でもそれは僕に向けてじゃないよ

(Youtube link with timestamp: https://youtu.be/sgdPlDG1-8k?t=106)

My question: I have never seen a じゃない right after a te-form. I get the meaning of the lyrics, but the grammar gives me difficulty here. Is it not normal to write "向けてない" here instead?


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I'm reading 大きな森の小さな家 (Little House in the Big Woods).

This sequence of sentences are all describing a particular occurrence in the past, but some sentences are in non-past forms:

  ある晩、父さんは、ローラをベッドからだきあげると、まどのところへいって、おおかみを見せてくれた。

  家のまん前に、二ひきすわっている。

  まるで、毛のふさふさした犬みたいだ。

  二ひきは、まぶしくかがやく大きな月に鼻先をむけると、ほえはじめた。

  ジャックは、戸口の前にいったりきたりしながら、うなり声をあげる。

  せなかの毛をさかだてて、するどい、じょうぶな歯を、おおかみにむかってむきだす。

  おおかみは、いくらほえつづけても、家の中にははいれなかった。

すわっている、あげる、むきだす are all non-past.

The others - くれた、だ、はじめた、はいれなかった are all past.

Why are some in the non-past form?

If I'm writing or speaking about an event in the past like this, how would I decide when to use past and when to use non-past?

Thanks!


texts: I'd like to know what the second kanji stands for... I've searched and searched, and still I couldn't find which kanji it is... If anyone can help, I'll be very greateful ^^


texts:
From this question I found the following sentence:

  彼は壁を赤くではなく青く塗った

I was wondering specifically about 赤く＋ではなく. Does ではなく just attach regardless?

The question described ではなくas だ＋は＋ない using their connective forms. But with い adjectives and adverbs, 赤いだ and 赤くだ aren't ever used, riight? Or does that just not matter?

I don't really see any alternative, but perhaps would 赤くてはなく (is not red but) or something similar work?

Thanks, and sorry if it's an easy question or repeat


texts:
「なんか男らしくない感じの人。」

if らしく already gives the meaning of “seeming, characteristic of, ish,” etc then what is the purpose of adding 感じの？


texts: How do I decide when to use plain or past verb form?

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In

  (1) 明日、家へ帰って、母が作ったおいしい料理を食べます。

why is it 作った when it’s a future event? If I wanted to create a clause meaning 'delicious food my mother makes', it would be 母が作るおいしい料理. Does changing 作った in (1) to 作る make any sense? Or is it grammatically wrong?

EDIT: I read my own draft question wrongly and transferred it wrongly to stackexchange.
I intended to ask this:

And in

  (2) 私の家は郊外にあります。町までちょっと遠いですが、電車が走っていますから、便利です。

Why is it 走っています and not 走っていました? (I think I just solved this on my own. 走っていた + から implies 走っていた causes 便利, which clearly isn't the case)


texts: Verb ending in -ん with positive meaning?

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I was watching an anime, and this is the context: prior to the series, the main character went in hiding after betraying her peers, since she was the only against a peace she deemed fake; while revealing herself and basically declaring war against her ex-peers, she says this:

  今こそ雌伏の網よりいでて偽りの平穏を破らん

In the following I'm assuming いでて is 出{い}ず, since I found that as the only possible meaning.

I know ぬ - a negative ending - can be shortened to ん, so I'd translate that as "Now we'll leave this obscuring net and won't destroy this false peace", but it didn't make sense in the situation, and the English subtitles indeed were "We shall remove the shackles and destroy this sham of a truce".

For what's worth, Google Translate concurs in translating 偽りの平穏を破らん as "Break the false peace", while Weblio does not (its translation being "I do not break false peace").

I'm at a bit of a loss here: I can't find any reference to a form like 破らん being used in the positive, but given the situation I'm pretty sure that's the right translation, since the main character is basically declaring war and she has already stated she was against that false peace.


texts:
This question is in my JLPT practise book:

  このチームの試合{しあい}の切符{きっぷ}はなかなか手{て}に____ない。

  A 取{と}れ　B 入{はい}れ　C 入{はい}ら　D 持{も}て

My translation is, "I can't easily get the tickets to this team's games".

Well, that's sort of my translation. This issue is that according to the book, the correct answer is C, but I chose B.

It seems to me more normal to use 入{はい}れない, as in "I can't get the tickets", instead of 入{はい}らない which I think would mean "I don't get the tickets."

I have a sneaking suspicion that 手{て}に入{はい}らない is some kind of special case, but it's not clear in the book's explanatory notes.

Can someone break down why 入{はい}らない is right and 入{はい}れない is wrong?


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English version:

  As he is very lazy, he doesn't even wash  his hands before eating.

Japanese version (but incomplete):

彼は、非常に怠惰なので、食べる前に、手を洗っていない。

How do we add "even" in Japanese to my translation above?


texts: What is the difference between 旦, 夕 and 汐?

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I'm struggling to get the difference between 旦, 夕 and 汐 - to me them all signifies "evening". Is that so? Do they mean the same thing?

I'm not a native speaker of english, so please give me a clear explanation if there is any difference at all.

Thank you


texts: Help understanding this sentence about why some shrines remove their bells at busy times e.g. 正月

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The character is explaining why some shrines remove their bell at times where many people gather at the shrine e.g. 正月. However I do not understand what he is saying.

大人数で引っ張ると、落としちゃうやつとか出てきて危ないからな

大人数で引っ張ると - I am assuming that 引っ張る is referring to the action of pulling some sort of rope in order to ring the bell. When he says 大人数で, does he mean this as in many people pulling the rope at the same time (i.e. together), or does it mean more like, when there are many people pulling this rope (individually) when it is their turn.

My next question is how to understand 落としちゃうやつとか出てきて危ない, specifically 落としちゃうやつ. I am assuming that やつ is referring to the person that makes 'something' fall, however I am not really quite sure what they could be referring to. I mean, the logical assumption (assuming I am understanding correctly) of something that would be dangerous if it fell would be the bell, however I am not sure if my understanding is correct. Are they saying that with so many people pulling the the rope, one of the might cause the bell to fall down?


texts:
I am trying to figure out the meaning of a difficult sentence:

  しかしそういう主観に支配されるくらいには、彼女との出会いが気の置けない友達と会うようなものではないことを僕は理解していた

My main issue here is with the expression "くらいには" and what it means in this context. A secondary issue is the word 主観, which seems to mean "subjectivity" in the dictionary, but I am guessing that based on context it is more something like "subjective experience".

My guess at the meaning of this sentence is that he is saying that he understands because he is so compelled/surprised by what is happening (suddenly meeting a previously famous pop star), he is sure that this experience (meeting with her) will not be anything like meeting a friend whom he can speak easily with.

Here is the context in case it matters (middle of 2nd paragraph).


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この先生…早くはないけどすごく仕事がていねいだな…

In the sentence above, this is my understanding so far:

Vocabulary

この先生【せんせい】 that teacher…
早くない【はやくない】 fast, negative present form
けど conj. however
すごく adv. immensely
仕事【しごと】 n. work
『が』 subject particle
ていねい na-adj. polite, courteous
だ non-formal copula
『な』 sentence ending particle

My question is the following. How does すごく, an adverb, change the noun 仕事 (work)? I don't understand.

It is a sentence from the manga, 'Send my Regards to Black Jack', p. 13 episode 2 (for context):

https://www.sukima.me/bv/t/blackjackniyoroshiku/v/1/s/2/p/13


texts:
七三年にはテレビ番組になり、今も毎週続いています。

I understand the sentence to be:

  In '73 it became a television show, and today it continues every week.

My question is about the form of the verb なる in the above sentence – why is it "なり" here? When is the stem form of the verb used in this way?


texts: Meaning of "さっきまで都会風ぶっこいてたんだよ"

texts:
Here's the context:

  A: 始めまして

  B: 始めまして

  C: 東京から[引]{ひ}っ[越]{こ}して来た子だよ

  B: 東京　どれくらい東京にいたの

  A: [幼稚園]【ようちえん】から４月までいました

  B: じゃ　私なんかよりも都会っ子だね

  C: よりって　ひか姉[根]【ね】っこからの[田舎]【いなか】っ子じゃん

  D: さっきまで都会風ぶっこいてたんだよ

  B: いや　ちょっと　気取ってみたという

I searched in jisho.org for ぶっこ or ぶっこく (cause of the いて conjugation for く-ending verbs) but they don't match, I hope the context is clear enough.


texts: Can 体 (karada) and 肉体 (nikutai) be used interchangeably or is there a difference?


texts:
Is いらっしゃいませ only used by staff, or is it used in other circumstances?

When I was at a dinner at a restaurant being held after a programmers' meetup, I thought that I heard it being used by one of the people eating (it could have been the organizer of the dinner for all I know) to welcome a late-comer. Or is it more likely I mis-heard them merely saying いらっしゃい or some other form of the verb?


texts: 「そうなの？！」、「マジで？！」、「本当に？！」

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For the most part (contextually) these phrases seem to be interchangeable, like "really?!", "for real?!", "seriously?!" etc.

Are there cases/scenarios when only one would be applicable?


texts:
Dictionary definitions often use plus signs when describing what words or phrases are made of.  For example, the definition for たところで…ない in 大辞泉 says:

  《「たところで」は過去の助動詞「た」の連体形＋名詞「ところ」＋格助詞「で」。「ない」は打消しの助動詞、または形容詞》

I think the basic pronunciation of the plus sign in math is たす.  But this isn't math, and I'm curious if people would pronounce it differently in this context.

For example, If I were reading this definition aloud, could I also say に instead of たす?  I have a feeling that might be appropriate, but I'm not sure.


texts: Questions about multiple particles 「は」and 「を」and interpunct in this sentence

texts:
Here is the sentence.

左ジャブと右ストレートのワンツーを覚えた矢吹丈は、力石徹を殴り倒すことだけを目的に地獄の中で生き抜くのですが、改めて読んでみて、これほど面白く・感動的な物語りはそう滅多にはないと、僕は思いました。

Note: This sentence is written vertically.

For the second bold 「を」, I am not sure which object and verb relate to it. If the verb is「改めて」, then what is the object?
For the both bold 「は」, does it still have the same meaning and be grammatically correct if I remove them both?
For the interpunct between the word 「面白く」and 「感動的」, what is the purpose to put it in the place?


texts: How to translate: "Keep/leave something". So, how to express intention to leave something unchanged

texts:
Consider questions like:

Please leave the door open, thanks!

Could you please keep the lift's doors open? Thankyou

Please, leave it as it is.

They all imply something common: not changing the state of something. I know that まま is involved in this situations.

For example, this sentence is translated in this way:

そのままにして下{くだ}さい => Please, leave it as it is

And I know it is correct as I used it when I lived in Japan. But I do not know how to express more complex situations, like those ones I mentioned before.

Could you also provide a generic explanation, I mean the grammar rules behind this? Thankyou!


texts:
I was doing some Rosetta Stone earlier, and I came upon a sentence ending with:

  行きたいです。

Noting the "たい" part, I was reminded of the word

  食べたいです

which I think I first saw in Japanese 1010, and I'm sure I've read and said while doing Rosetta Stone. At this point, my supposition was that "...行きたいです is to 行きます as 食べたいです is to 食べます."

Observing the "です" ending, I suspected that (1) 行きたい is a noun, which jisho.org confirmed...albeit only if I searched for "いきたい." If I  search for "行きたい," it pares my search down to "行く." And (2) I suspect that these "たい" forms might be a common occurrence, as a way to make the "I want to [do some verb]" form of a word.

I was then a bit surprised to see that "食べたい" (or "たべたい") wasn't in the dictionary. Google Translate recognized it and translated it to "want to eat," so I imagine I wrote it correctly, and all that.

So then, my questions:

食べたい is a word, right? Rosetta Stone hasn't been feeding me made-up
words? I'm keenly aware that the reason it doesn't come up in
jisho.org might just stem from jisho.org's search engine, but I
figure this question is still worth asking. (Of course, since Google
Translate translated it, I'd be surprised if the answer is anything
but 'yes, of course it's a word.')
Was I wrong to infer that these "たい" forms (forgive me if they have a better name, or if I'm completely mis-classifying them) are
built on the same roots as the verbs? I have no encountered many of
them yet...and a sample size of "two words" isn't a lot to go on, I
realize. Still, it's in my nature to start trying to infer things,
as early in a learning process as I can manage.
Is it possible that 食べたい is some type of conjugation (of yet another word) that I simply haven't heard of yet? "たい" does come up
in jisho.org as an 'auxiliary adjective,' which this entry:

  1: (after the -masu stem of a verb) want to ... do something; would
  like to ...; (Particle)

This suggests that the answer to my 2nd question is that, yes, there's a clearly-defined process for taking the root of a verb, putting -たい at the end of it, and calling it the 'want to [verb]' form.

Honestly, after putting this question together, I'm starting to think that the answer might look like this:
"(1) Yes, it's a word; it just doesn't have an explicit entry in jisho.org. (2) No, that inference is ok, as you surmised after looking up "たい" and seeing that first entry. (3) Yes; as you said, it uses the -たい ending. Really, it's just time for you to learn more about these 'auxiliary adjectives.'"

I'd prefer to hear it from someone more knowledgeable then myself, of course. ^-^

One more question, to tack on: (4) Are these -たい words always nouns?


texts: Where does the な in 大人 (otona) come from?

texts: As far as I understand, the word 大人 (otona) uses the kanji 大 to represent お and the kanji 人 to represent と. According to this site the readings for 人 do not include な. Where does the な come from then?


texts:
When I encountered the sample sentence for 発信, I read this:

インターネットを使えば、誰でも世界に情報を発信することができる。

This reminded me of 配信 which I usually see online (especially on YouTube). How are these two words different?


texts: What does っす at the end of a sentence mean?

texts:
I saw a sentence like:

  「それ使{つか}ってるっす。」

and none of my dictionaries have an entry for just "っす". Is it a verb form, gobi, or something else?


texts:
I'm learning Japanese and just beginning to type.
When I type warusawa in Romaji mode, this is what I see by default:

But what I want is this:

Is it only possible by typing in Katakana mode? Or is sa not the correct input for the digraph?


texts:
EDICT-based dictionaries mark the word やじ馬 (野次馬) for "onlookers, street crowd, or rubbernecks" as sensitive.

I cannot find the word in the 放送禁止用語 lists and Wikipedia page also does not seem to mention any particular warnings on usage.

So my question is: is it really sensitive and to what degree?

Would it be offensive against someone who was a member of street gathering? Or would it generally be bad taste to use the word in a semi-official situation, just relating the story "there was an accident and huge crowd gathered"?


texts: What is this colloquial / dialect form? 〜たるけんね

texts:
I'm still playing Final Fantasy VI, and I came across this bit of dialogue:

  マリアの頭にオモリ
  落としたるけんね。

I understand it up to 落とし.  Orthros is going to drop the weight on her head!  I can't make heads or tails of たるけんね, though.  I assume it's some kind of dialect.

My best guess is 落としたるけんね ← 落としてやるからね.  Specifically, I think it might involve these two changes:

たる ← てやる
けん ← から.

Does that seem right?


texts: きちんとした性格の母さん Sentence help

texts:
I would like some help understanding this sentence.

あの真面目できちんとした性格の母さん（が動詞をする）

I don't understand the した性格 part, because how can した modify "personality" which can't do anything?

I also don't understand the function of 真面目で, especially what the で particle means.

If I had to give a translation, I would say: Given her real personality, my mother ....


texts: When conjugating yaru to yarimasu, does it become やあります or やります?


texts: What is an appropriate response to お疲{つか}れ様{さま}です in non-work situations?

texts:
Often times at the gym, when I'm on my way out, covered in sweat, one of the staff will say お疲{つか}れ様{さま}です ("you've worked hard"...?).

Usually at work situations, I've often found that saying some variant of お疲{つか}れ back makes sense, because we're usually in the same situation or we're finishing at the same time.

However, in this case, they're working and I'm a customer, so I'm never quite sure how to respond. Saying some variant of お疲れ back to them doesn't seem right, as they are still working.

I feel a little weird saying ありがとう (thanks) or something like that, because it seems to be acknowledging my own efforts ("why yes, I have worked hard!"), which doesn't seem quite right.

What would be the right response?


texts: Conjugate る-ending verbs into negative form

texts:
Sorry if this question has been asked before. I tried to look around for an answer but couldn't find it.

I just want to state before that my question is not regarding the verb ある or verbs with kanji + multiple hiragana (for example 負ける). The question is regarding verbs with kanji + single る.

I have some issues with the negative form of verbs ending with る. I know the basic rules for converting a verb into negative form (adding an あ-sound + ない) but i cant get a grasp on these. Sometimes it is らない and sometimes just ない. Is there a rule to when it is らない and when its just ない or is it just an irregularity?

Examples:

出る -> 出ない
降る -> 降らない
着る -> 着ない
切る -> 切らない

Thank you!


texts:
素人 means beginner.
ド素人 means total beginner.

ド means "very", "total". Any idea where does this word come from etymologically? It is sometimes also written in hiragana.

Are there other current expressions that use ド in a similar way?


texts:
I’m preparing for a written exam at a beginner level and trying to expand a simple sentence, (He) wears glasses:

  めがね を かけて います。

Into: “he wears glasses to read”, as in not all the time.

My first thought was:

  めがね を かけて よんで います。

, but it means, I think: (He) is wearing glasses and reading.

I appreciate the answer might be a bit out of my depth, but it really bothers me now. Please help.


texts: How do Japanese people read the pH (measure of acidity or basicity) of a solution?

texts:
I read an article (http://www.gizmodo.jp/2013/10/post_13267.html, in case anyone is interested), and it got me thinking how a Japanese person would read this passage:

  ここの水は水素イオン指数pH 9～10.5。

Do they pronounce the pH? And what about the numbers? Is it just something like きゅう、じゅう　てん　ご　ぐらい？Or is there some kind of suffix?

Thanks!


texts: I understand that describes an action happened a bit before and is catching up to now, but my materials have been nebulous on clarifying that in practical terms. It uses 明日、漫画を持ってくる as example of how it can be used to describe bringing something, 先生を歩いてくる, as one of someone that comes walking, メキシコに行ってきます as one for going and coming back, 雪が降ってくる as one for the snow starting to fall and ワインを買ってくる as one for someone who does something and comes back, but it doesn't clarify those any further than that. Am I missing something?


texts: question about meaning of と言われては in this tweet

texts:
そんなに特殊なあれこれはしていないと思うのだけど……。「誰かがこのサイトを偽装しようとしています」と言われては、背景を調べずにokを押すわけにもいかない。こんなことをしている場合ではないのに。

Im don’t understand the meaning to this part : と言われては   This might be an answered question but I couldn’t find anything about it and my best guess was it being a case of omitted いけない at first but it doesn’t seem to work here very well? besides I think that structure could only be used with negative verbs?  I’d be very happy if you could provide me with some hint in regards to the function of the said part that could help me understand the meaning as well.


texts:
無理をしないように言ったけど。。

Is it an incomplete sentence? So she want to say "although I have told him not to overdo things... (he did it anyway).

Here's the full story for the context...

  今日、鈴木くんに会った時、手があかくなっていておどろいた。木からおりられなくなった 子猫をたすけにいって 子猫にかまれたらしい。 鈴木くんは、子猫がけがをしなくてよかったと言っていたけど、鈴木くんは優しすぎるから、とても心配だ。無理をしないように言ったけど。。


texts: How to say "Be silent (or quiet), vexatious woman!"?

texts:
Gonna occasionally say that to the wife :D
Various translators have given a couple of variants, but the consensus might be...
Shizukani shite, ya shi josei  ni narimasu!
(where the "shi" has a long "i".)
Sound ok?
Arigato!


texts: "on the drive home" / "while I was driving home"?

texts:
How can I say "on the drive home"? I could come up with 帰り道に but this really doesn't give any information about the fact that I was driving.

I am planning to use this phrase to say something

  "Thinking about it made me still smile while I was driving home."

So one of my attempts at it would be

  あれを考えて、帰り道にニコニコしちゃったよ。

But the problems with this are that for one, I lost the "still" and for another I am not sure this sentence is even correct Japanese.... and is あれ really a natural way to refer to "it/that"?

Another attempt would be:

  あれを考えて、帰り道までにニコニコしちゃったよ。

or

  あれを考えて、帰り道にもニコニコしちゃったよ。

Please could someone help me with this?


texts:
朱実{あけみ}は、からかって、雉子{きじ}のような迅{はし}こい足で、先に山道を降りかけたが、急に顔いろを変えて、立ちすくんだ。中腹の林を斜めに、のそのそと大股に歩いて来る男があった。｛宮本武蔵（1935年–1939年、朝日新聞連載、吉川英治）｝

Does 斜め refer to him walking up the hill, or walking diagonally uphill (small picture to illustrate)? Is it ambigious?


texts:
I have a fuzzy understanding that っぷる is something like っぽい (-ish) or っぷり (manner, style). Could you offer a more clear definition?

For example someone eating salad for dinner says:

  貧乏っプルじゃないよ。ベジタブルっプルだよ。最近食べ過ぎで野菜をたくさん食べたくなるのよ。


texts: Is there a short phrase/ slang for " hating the people you love most"?

texts:
I'm looking for a phrase that means something that means something along "I hate the people I love the most"
I know 愛憎関係 means love-hate relationship but was wondering if there was something closer to what Im looking for.


texts: What forms of verbs (potential or passive) are more frequent in Japanese?

texts:
A simple question to those speaking and the native ones. What of the two forms (potential verbs or passive voice verbs) in Japanese verbs is more frequent?

This question may seem strange, but I need to know, as there is an ichidan ambiguity between potential and passive forms, so to make a more or less proper decision which one form is which.

I can, of course, rely on the particles, such as Ni and Wo. But in general, which form is less frequent? Which form do Japanese people use more often?


texts:
瞬間ーーいつの間にやら開放感に溢れていた教室の外から、折紙が現れる。

Hi. Is the bold ていた used here because the action 溢れる happened before the action 折紙が現れる? And the state of being open-air continued until 折紙が現れる?

If so, can we use 溢れている here? Because, according to the context, the the wall of the classroom has been destroyed so the classroom is still being open-air at the time when 折紙 appears and the open-airness is going to continue.

And can I think, compared with 溢れている, 溢れていた is focusing more on the period prior to the appearance of 折紙? And 溢れている is focusing more on the period at or after the time when 折紙 appears?
Thank you.


texts: The radical "貝" and its relation to economic characters such as "貨" "資" etc

texts:
Preface

My recent trip to Japan allowed me to see many Chinese characters i.e., Kanji (漢字) and one thing that caught my attention was an extensive use of the radical "貝"(かい) on words/characters related to bartering and economy.

For example:

買う - buy

売る - sell (now the traditional Chinese character for this
   is "賣")

貨 - money/value so 貨幣 (かへい) and 通貨 (つうか) become currency

資 -
   also related to value so 資金 (しきん) is fund, 資本 (しほん) is capital and so
   on.

There are a LOT more to these characters with the radical "貝" and many of them have meanings related to money and value.

And "貝" means a shellfish, so I thought maybe ancient China used shellfish as currency. (at this point I've realized maybe this is a wrong stackexchange to ask this question, feel free to migrate.)

Question:

So what role exactly does a shellfish play in concepts that are related to value?


texts:
What is the best way to address a group of people younger than yourself, that is more emphatic about the age difference than みなさん？When I say address, I mean personally, not like "I wish those young people would stay off my lawn," but "Young people, welcome to the conference!"

Is 若者 an okay choice? Does your social closeness to the group affect which noun you would choose?


texts: Please help to translate phrase "the flying octopus" correctly

texts:
Could anyone give me a correct translation both in transcription and in hieroglyphs, please? Google translate gave me "tobu tako" couple of weeks ago, but now it offers "Hikō tako" only, so I'm kinda confused if Google was ever correct at all...

Imagine a real octopus floating in the sky. How would you call him in Japanese? :)

Thank you for your time beforehand!


texts: What does "目的化して久しい" mean in this dialogue?

texts:
I found this in a fantasy manga. I separated them by text bubbles.

既に手段が目的化して久しい
お互い魔力供給をしたいが為に
毎日真面目にクエストに勤しむ
そんな毎日を送っている

It's the first line I'm confused with here. Is he saying "the purpose for this changed a long time ago?"
If so, how does that connect to the next lines? Are those the original "purpose" he was talking about?
Is he saying he needs to supply magical power to do quests?


texts: I heard this phrase a few times but I still can't grasp its meaning. Does it mean, "as much as you would like"?


texts: "It is okay to have fun however think about others" translation

texts:
I want to say :

It is okay to have fun at new year's eve ,however think about others.

The only part that I was able to translate is :

おしょうがつにたのしみますだいじょうぶでも.....

and I can't complete.

The situation is that people at new year's eve throw their old stuff,beer bottles,garbage,etc.. in the streets. The next day it becomes very hard for the street cleaners to clean that mess so it is kind of sad.
I want to write that it is okay to have fun at that day however be considerate to others.


texts: What is the purpose of using katakana in these instances?

texts:
I'm well aware of how katakana is typically used (borrowed words, onomatopoeia, etc).
I'm also aware of it being used in circumstances like demonstrating a distortion in the voice, or if the kanji of a word is complicated to read and/or write.

What I don't quite understand is the choice to use katakana as opposed to kanji with simple character words.
I understand that it's meant to give some kind of effect, but I don't know what. Bearing in mind that these words are spoken as normal, and no alternate readings are provided for "poetic" purposes.

As an example, why aren't these words written as 「人」, 「力」, 「君」, and 「振りをして」 respectively? Given that their kanji is far from complicated, that is.

(1)

  《ヒト》と《神》　二つに分かれる命の軌跡
  《神》を穢した《ヒト》の罪

(2)

  変わり続けるその姿。引き寄せられるそのチカラ。

(3)

  舞い風の悪戯（いたずら）　キミを連れて吹く
  忘れない　あの日キミもまた

(4)

  泣きじゃくるフリをしてみた


texts: I got this from one Japanese drama (if I heard right) 'konya kimi wa boku no mono' .  Does this mean: 'tonight you are mine'  ?


texts: How to arrive to the meaning of the kanji tonari 隣 through its components?

texts:
the kanji 隣 tonari, it is formed by:
- the radical ⻖ : こざとへん　hill, mounds;
- the radical 舛 : まいあし contrary, to err;
- the kanji 米 : ベイ rice.

Knowing such components, if it is possible, how can I conclude that that kanji means neighbor? What is the reasoning to follow? Many Thanks.


texts: How close was the Japanese writing system from becoming abolished after World War II?

texts:
I remember hearing that the Japanese government planned on abolishing the use of Chinese characters entirely after World War II. I also remember hearing that there was a movement by the American government to change the Japanese writing system to use an English-based alphabet system (maybe similar to romanization of Japanese). I have always wondered how close these movements were from actually being realized?

EDIT

When I say "how close", I basically want to know how far did these proposed policies reach in government before being voted down? Or did they never reach a voting stage within the parliament in Japan and were shot down by someone else before that?


texts: I was learning the uses of 場合は from japanesetest4you.com (in the sense "in the event of"), and couldn't help but notice that, although it behaves like a noun, its uses with adjectives were not listed. I've seen some examples where it is used with い-adjectives on tatoeba.org, so I just wanted to confirm nonetheless: is a constructions of the form 熱い場合 (if it is hot) correct? As for な-adjectives, which construction out of 静かな場合 and 静かの場合 (if it is quiet) is correct?


texts: Can a Japanese person understand something written in traditional Chinese

texts: If I didn't know any japanese, could I potentially communicate with Japanese people just by writing in traditional Chinese? I've heard and seen this in movies, how true is this?


texts:
全員空気を読んで、立ち止まることなく帰路についてくれたのはありがたい判断だ。

The speaker told his friends to return home first without him, since there was something he has to do.

I'm confused about how to translate 帰路についてくれた.

帰路について (帰路につく): to go home (head home/on the way home).

くれた (くれる): to let one have, to give.

Thank you in advance for your kind guidance.


texts:
I am  really confused with the phrase "やる気が違います" that I saw used as a Twitter hashtag. The literal meaning is: "The motivation is different (than usual or average?)"

Is there some subtle nuance in the meaning of "違います" that I am not aware of? Or does it simply mean "The motivation is wrong (or misdirected)"?


texts:
What exactly is the difference between やめろい and やめろ?

Is this い the same as the one used to strenghten assertions and statements like the い used in the sentence-final かい, だい, and がい? Can it be used with every other verb in its imperative form?

Lastly, is this やめろい common at all?
I assume it's a little less common than やめろ since it probably sounds quite rude.


texts: discerning who "擦れ違う者" is with minimal context

texts:
These are literally the first couple of lines, so all context is within the following.

  尽きることのない青い空の下――

  　蝉が騒がしく鳴いている。

  　閑静な町を包む季節の音はどこまでも響き渡り、焼けただれたアスファルトからは陽炎が立ち上ぼる。

  　夏の太陽に照らされた坂道を転びそうになって走る少年がいる。

  　うだるような暑さの中、夢中で向かう先にはなにがあるというのだろう……

  　擦れ違う者は、盛夏の輝きを背負って走る少年を仰ぎ見ていた。

  　溜息混じりの他人の視線など気にすることなく、少年はただ走る。

  　少年は、走ってゆく。

up to these two lines in particular:

うだるような暑さの中、夢中で向かう先にはなにがあるというのだろう……

　擦れ違う者は、盛夏の輝きを背負って走る少年を仰ぎ見ていた。

from who's perspective it the first observation made?
"擦れ違う者" is looking upwards at the running boy, but what is it? It is a non-omniscient narrator or a yet to be named 3rd party?

thanks


texts:
As the title says, what exactly is the usage of these two terms:
立派 (rippa) 素敵 (suteki)
They both mean something like "great!", "nice!", but are they synonyms?
It is sometimes difficult understanding the meaning just by using a dictionary...
Thanks in advance.


texts:
焼き as a prefix

焼{や}きそば
焼{や}き鳥{とり}
焼{や}き肉{にく}
焼{や}き飯{めし}

焼き as suffix

たこ焼{や}き
お好{この}み焼{や}き
卵{たまご}焼{や}き

Questions

Talking about Japanese food, why can 焼{や}き be as either a suffix or a prefix? It seems to me there is no inconsistency here. Which one is actually the correct one? As a prefix or as a suffix?


texts:
My fiance and I will be moving to Japan sometime next year and are trying to prepare our dog for the experience by teaching her Japanese commands so she can be easily handled by kennels/vets/groomers/etc. What are the most common and useful commands used for dog training in Japan?

I'm betting some are direct translations like "sit," "stay" and "come." But when it comes to things like "go potty" or "drop it" or even "no" (would it just be "ie"?) I'm not sure if there's a more appropriate or universal way to say those. Also if there are any commands that are commonly used in Japan that aren't common in America please enlighten me!

Please include romaji in answers for reference because we're still learning to read.


texts: What I said the nuance of the phrase きっと青春が聞こえる？

texts: In one of my favorite μ's songs, the title is きっと青春が聞こえる. My problem is with the 青春. I think the title means something like "I can surely hear the youth" but that sounds kind of strange. Is there something I'm missing?


texts:
I know Japanese males tend to use 俺｛おれ｝/僕｛ぼく｝ in informal contexts. Is it common to use 私｛わたし｝ too or it makes one sounds overly stiff and aloof?

Edit: What about 自分｛じぶん｝?


texts:
Seeing 「欲しいが仮眠する」* by a non-native for "I want to take a nap" I thought it is plainly grammatically wrong, but then after encountering 可愛いが in a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVmv_wyU-Ug&t=389) I googled and there were quite a few results for 欲しいが. Lot of them were 欲しいが見つかる, not sure what if that's something idiomatic.

If correct my guess is that it would be a case of an omitted generic pronoun の or a nominalizer の.

Is the original sentence correct? Is が after i-adj correct and grammatical in general? Or just in specific instances (perhaps like せざるをえない)?

*) never encountered 仮眠する before I don't know if the word choice it ok. And even if the overall structure with が would be ok I'd still think there should be another nominalizer at the end but at this point I'm not sure


texts:
、...錠前破りの名人だって、手のつけようがない。
  Even expert lock breakers can do nothing about it.

This is my best effort at a translation from looking at example sentences using 手のつけようがない on Weblio.

I can't find this phrase in my dictionary, but it did have 手の施しようがない with a similar meaning.

1) Is there a good universal translation of these phrases that works in most cases?

2) Is there are difference between the two phrases?

3) Is there a sensible grammatical breakdown of these phrases, or should they just be learned as a set phrase? What does the verb つける mean in this case?


texts:
I recently found out emoji comes from the japanese characters e (meaning picture) and moji (meaning character).

What would the equivalent be for the japanese character meaning sound?

I tried using google translate but I was suspicious after I tried to find the english equivalent of picture and it gave me something other than e. But when i do Japanese to english with e it did give me picture in English.


texts:
The word composition has several meanings in English, and from looking at dictionary entries, it seems it also can be translated several different ways in Japanese.

When referring specifically to composition in the context of visual arts, what term would be used in Japanese?

Surprisingly, the Wikipedia entry for composition currently has no Japanese translation.

The closest word I am aware of in Japanese is [合成]{ごうせい}, but to me that feels closer to "composite". The idea of combining in the sense of layering data more than in the sense of layout or balancing of visual elements.


texts: Science writing - exact, precise, or accurate

texts:
While trying to write about an experiment I have done, I am having trouble deciding which words are appropriate for describing what I want to describe.
In non-scientific English, precise, and accurate have mostly overlapping meaning, as evidenced by the jisho entry for 正確 containing all three.
However, when using these words in a formal setting, the difference in meaning becomes more apparent. I was hoping to know if anyone has knowledge on what Japanese words would be used or how they are used to convey a similar difference while speaking Japanese.

A brief delineation of what I consider the differences between the three words:

accuracy: A measure of how much a method/machine gives repeated results clustered around the true answer.
precision: A measure of how much a measurement method/machine gives repeated results close to each other.

(These are the nouns rather than the adjectives, but I found the nouns less wordy to define)
See image for visualization:

So, if anyone has insight into how to express these terms in Japanese, both accurately and precisely, that would be appreciated!
Edit: If there is also common words for the opposite of these concepts (i.e. inaccurate or imprecise) those would be useful too.


texts: Radicals - components outside the 214 Kangxi (but in Joyo list)

texts:
I've been reading many questions here about radicals, and it seems there is some confusion over them. My question is:

Apart from the 214 radicals of Kangxi, what are the other components/elements/primitives which are contained in kanji from the Joyo kanji list but not listed as 'official radicals' in the 214? In other words, I am looking for a list of sub-elements which are not considered radicals (according to Kangxi) but do appear in some kanji on the Joyo kanji list.　I'm sure there are quite a few, but how are they categorized? I'm trying to make two lists, comprising (a) 'official' radicals, and (b) all other components which appear in joyo kanji but not in list (a).

To give an example, take the sub-element ⺤ which is part of kanji like 受、妥、採, etc. As far as I know, this is not on the list of 214 kangxi radicals, but does appear in several joyo kanji. Therefore, it will be on my list (b). Does anyone know of a complete list of other such elements?


texts:
I always thought that 君 is only used by males to refer to females as 2nd person. Usages:
1.male -> female , 君、あなた (君 is used only in romantic situations)
2.female -> male , あなた (Not possible to say 君 at all. In fact, even あなた sounds weird since it really means "husband")
3.male -> male , 君、あなた
4.female -> female , 君、あなた
Question is, for #1, is the assumption right that if 君 is used, it signals that the male is trying to be flirty with the female? For #2, is the assunption right that females will never use 君 to refer to a guy? And あなた also seems weird so to speak since it really means "husband". So how does a female refer to a male apart from by the name


texts:
Recently I've found several versions of Soran Bushi, and this puzzles me-I don't understand why it would be different in different places. Moreover, I don't understand some of the vocabulary in it:

  声を嗄れよと　唄声上げて

しわがれる is to become hoarse, should it be よう and が instead of を？

  腕もちぎれよ　舞姿　チョイ

ちぎれる is to be torn? Again what is the よ？ Volitional form?

  ヤサエ　エンヤ－
  ねじりハチマキ　長袢天は

What does ながばんてん mean?

  踊れ踊れと　ソーラン節よ

れ-is this imperative?

  オラが多喜雄のソーラン節は

Is オラ suppose to be the I-pronoun?

  今じゃ北海道の　南中節よ
  ヤサエ　エンヤ－
  サーノドッコイショ

Now that I look at the last part, it seems like this is a remake of Soran Bushi, but I don't know why it's the most popular on the English Youtube then. Also, even with respect to the "normal" Soran Bushi, I have yet to be able to find a consistent ordering of the verses.

Lastly, what does ソーラン　mean?


texts: ~したいと思います Does it mean exactly as translated? I think I want to

texts:
I frequently hear this pattern when watching Japanese TV.
From a japanese native's perspective is this the only meaning to it:
"I think I want to ~"


texts: Please help me accurately figure out the kana or kanji for a colloquial phrase said in an anime?

texts:
(I can change the question if it's too vague. )

I'm trying to practice my listening comprehension by listening to anime and not fully paying attention to subtitles. For the most part I can understand them but every now and then there will be something that I suppose is so colloquial that I can't find references to the word anywhere. I like looking up the more natural ways people would say things than just book/dictionary forms. (I've been told I'm too stiff...)

One of these is from the anime 'March comes in like a Lion' season 2 episode 13 on Netflix. (For the source reference)

Rei the main character sits down about 14:50 and says under his breath something like "iya (or iye) korakusho" like when you'd sit down and go "oh boy/man" or "ah whew" or something to that effect in English, this traslates it as "ooph" in the subtitles though...

I've heard this in many other anime over the years and it's one I can never find a reference to or how it's used exactly.

Ive tried every single similar combination I could think of of kana/kanji to research and I can only think that crowd sourcing is my last option. I know this forum is very strict but I hope that my obscure/colloquial reference can be answered.


texts:
太陽が強く照らすから川の水がもうすぐ無くなりそうだ。

Can anyone explain for me why the verb in bold is in -masu stem form and not fully conjugated?

(it's a sentence from a graded reader)

conjugation of the verb:
https://www.tanoshiijapanese.com/dictionary/entry_details.cfm?entry_id=51120&j=%E7%84%A1%E3%81%8F%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B

Answer: Found a good explanation of this concept:
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/complete/appearance


texts:
I was listening to 悲しい色やね by Ueda Masaki. I was able to pick up the lyrics, but there are certain phrases that I cannot translate. In the main melody part, I was able to pick up

ほーみーたい
大阪ベイブルース

In the first line, I can understand that たい means "want to", but I have no idea what ほーみー means. It does not seem to be an onomatopoeia. I searched it on google, and it suggests some kind of musical instrument, but that does not seem to make sense. Then, a friend of mine told me that there is a word like that in Okinawan dialect, but was not sure. If that is right, what does it mean? Will it make sense with "want to"?

In the second line, I know that this is a song about Osaka, and Osaka people often like to have particular western people as their mascot. For example, people were happy with the Colonel Sanders statue in Osaka, and they once threw him into a river. Can I consider ベイブルース (Babe Ruth) along the same line? But who is 大阪ベイブルース? It doesn't seem to just Babe Ruth himself, is it?


texts:
The information I get from the Internet basically agree that わりと and わりに can be used interchangeably as a 逆接, as shown in the below sentence,

  あの人は沢山食べるけど、体はわりと小さい。＝あの人は沢山食べるわりに、体は小さい。

But I hear the sentence from here: 0:43 @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW42unEZ6CQ

  たくさん食べる人は普通は、わりと体が大きいですよね。

I hazard a guess that here わりと means "comparatively", and "わりに" cannot be used here.

And the dictionary also says わり and わりあい are synonyms, but I am not sure if it is ok to say

  たくさん食べる人は普通は、わりあいと体が大きいです(よね)。


texts: Sorting and Grouping a Japanese Index or Glossary

texts:
I'm writing a program that will automatically sort the index of a Japanese book and group the terms under the associated Japanese letter. I have found numerous instructions, but I'm still unsure how to do it correctly.

I know we need the phonetic translation of a term in order to sort it. So far so good. Since it is possible to write the phonetic translation using hiragana or katakana, which of these characters do I use for sorting?

If say my terms are mixed i.e. the phonetic translation starts with hiragana and katakana letters, do I assign the index terms to the matching hiragana group letter or the matching katakana group letter?

Example: do I place よ terms under the index group letter ヨ? If yes, can I always assign hiragana terms to the associated katakana group letter? I.e. my index will only use katakana grouping letters.

Thanks for any help.

Best regards,

Robert


texts:
I'm currently translating a chapter of a manga (SERVAMP) and I only have a few dialogues left to finish it and while I was helped by someone, some particular lines left us confused and we haven't reached a conclusion.
The verb 許す has been used a lot, mostly in the negative 許せない because the plot is about two guys and it's about revenge, thus "I will never forgive what you did" is said a lot (another common usage for 許す is "to allow", but I believe that "to forgive" is used in this context).
Now, one of these guys says 許す in 3 ways, and I wish to know if the following sentences can be understood in two ways or just one. I'm sorry if I can't provide more context, but even just what you can understand at first glance could be of help. Here are the lines to which I provided my translation attempts:

[それ]{・・}は…
俺のだ
俺が地獄まで持っていくものなんだ
それは

That is the thing which I will take with me to hell.

許せなかったおれを
許せないでいるおれを
永遠に許せないそれを
殺しておれは
やっと永遠に許されない

As you can see, a lot of 許す. I tried to break down every sentence、also forgive me for writing them in that weird way above. I wanted to better illustrate just how the lines are written in the manga speech bubbles, thus a total of 5 speech bubbles when the characters talks with 許す.
OK, so now I tried to break down every line and translate quite literally:

許せなかったおれを

許せない the past potential form in the negative, meaning "Can't forgive." Simple here, and here it seems to act like a noun modifier right? Thus I can say "I, who couldn't be forgiven". BUT, at the same time and I'm not sure of this, but can I interpret it as :" I, who could not forgive" (a certain act)?. Maybe something else is needed for the latter meaning and this is where I would need help with...

許せないでいるおれを

Isn't this a state of being? as in "I'm currently (still am) in the state of not being able to be forgiven." (I'm so sorry if this sounds so confusing!)

永遠に許せないそれを
殺しておれは
やっと永遠に許されない

永遠に許せないそれを/ To me it sounds like the sentence is a modifier for それ, thus "The thing which I can never forgive"
殺しておれは
やっと永遠に許されない "By killing it..."
And this is where I don't know anymore because　I don't know how to interpret the causative 許される. I get the feeling that here it would work with the meaning of "to allow".
I'm truly sorry for such a long and most likely poorly explained post, I really did try to explain as much as I could. Anything would be of help!
Here is the original for context:


texts: Does Japanese have a term equivalent to "Engrish"?

texts:
It seems common enough for Japanese to attempt to use English, that we get some truly bizarre translations. Especially bad are older games that were non-professionally translated to what we came to call "Engrish", due to what could have been a misspelling of the very name for our language. I don't imagine this happens, or happened, very often in the reverse direction. Is there a word in Japanese for Japanese text that has been poorly translated from English (or any language)?

In particular, imagine a game that has perfectly normal Japanese, but you can choose the language, and the language list has "English" spelt "Engrish", giving you an early warning sign that this could be really bad (and possibly also really awesome, but not intentionally). I'm looking for the opposite mistake, where it's the Japanese that's poor, if it exists and can be understood in the same way.