texts:
Why does 上がったり mean doomed business etc. even if in 上がったり下がったり it means going up/improving (as does 上がる)?
Is it shortened from a longer phrase or something?
Thanks


texts: What does にへら mean when beginning a sentence?

texts:
For context, the sentence is
にへら、という気の抜けた笑顔。
And the sentence before is
そこまで考えて、胸内にふと一人の人物の顔が浮かんだ。
The character whose monologue this is is spacing out during a movie thinking about his recent past, if it helps.

Could someone help me understand what にへら means? I looked it up and only found a Japanese question about にへら but it was in the middle of a sentence, so I didn’t think it applied.


texts: Meaning of イメージ in context of disclaimer

texts:
I saw a disclaimer at the bottom of a tourist brochure about ryokans, which in English was "The photo on this page is an image", and in Japanese "掲載の写真はイメージです。" At the end of the brochure, they had "Photos shown in the catalog are images to give an example." and "掲載されている写真はイメージです。"

What is the meaning of イメージ in this context? Saying that a photo is an image is tautological, so does it mean that it's something like an artist's impression, as opposed to something you're guaranteed to get?


texts:
What is the particle と means in ためにと用意した, and how is it different from ために用意した?

  初撃{しょげき}の後{あと}の陽動{ようどう}のためにと用意{ようい}した慧{けい}による「姫{ひめ}」の誘拐作戦{ゆうかいさくせん}。

"The strategy of kidnapping the "princess" by/which is done with the help of Kei, is prepared in order to make a diversion after the first attack."

Thank you!

Context:

  慧「まったく・・・そのやたら無謀なところは昔とまったく変わらないな、お前は・・・」

  雪隆「それで、どうする？　協力してくれるか？」

  慧「…それは」

  俺の問いに慧は…。

  初撃の後の陽動のためにと用意した慧による『姫』の誘拐作戦。

  最初から第９の騎士に奪還させることが目的ではあったのだが、るる姉たちは何も知らずによくやってくれた。

  おかげで『姫』は争奪戦無しで転がり込み、俺は闘技場に残った筆頭騎士三人を葬る事が出来た。

More context: As far as I understand the kidnapping of 姫 itself was 初撃の後の陽動のために, because before the kidnapping the speaker/narrator with 慧's help made a sneak attack and in order to not fall under suspicion, right after the attack 慧 kidnaped 姫, and while the sneak attack and the kidnapping 慧 was disguised, so nobody except narrator knew who is it


texts:
I do understand what it means, but I want to know if it's mostly used from 1st person perspective because in many examples that's how it translated.
"I will never/There is no way I..."<-That is how I see lot of times.

Is it used more when I express a strong desire or is it alright to say when talking about others?

For example, I had these lines in a manga (note, this is the speaker's internal thoughts. He is thinking 'what if Yosuke fails? Then what? 'That kid' comes to the speaker's mind who was almost in the same league (in terms of fighting skills) as Yosuke, but now considers that 'the kid' won't be of help, if Yosuke won't prevail).
So the speaker is thinking this:

  "あんな小僧に何ができる。洋介の予備にもなりはしない。”

Is the speaker saying: "What could that kid do? (or be able to do?)
There's no way I can have him as a reserve for Yosuke.

Here, is it stressed that the speaker does not want to have to make "the kid" a spare/reserve? (There's no way I can even have him as a reserve), or is it more like "That kid can't even be(become) a reserve for Yosuke."

I am asking if there is emphasis from the speaker, like "It's out of the question (for me), I will not resort to make 'that kid' a backup plan".

Hope I explained well enough.


texts:
彼は、どうも彼女に会いにこの展望台を訪れているようです

It seems that he visited the lookout to meet her

In terms of どうも, the person in question has already visited her several times and there really isn't much difficulty in doing so. So the somehow/no matter what definition is hard to apply here.

thank you


texts: Help for this expression: 猿は人間に毛が[三筋]{みすじ}足らぬ

texts: I read this expression in a text. It seems to be an old proverb about monkeys. But I am not sure about its meaning. Why 筋, for instance? Does it mean muscle? reasoning faculty? Why would they be lacking?


texts: why it's needed a second に in the sentence 東京に行くには何で行きますか?

texts: From the answer in another question of this board, 東京に行くには何で行きますか translates as "About you going to Tokyo, how are you going?" . Why is the second "ni" needed in this sentence?


texts: How do Japanese people infer if a verb is a ichidan verb or a godan ending in ru?

texts: In Japan, if a Japanese person sees a new verb ending in ru, what would they do to try and infer if it's a ichidan or godan verb before just looking it up or asking someone?


texts: The sentence in question is 恵那はやっぱうめーなー. This is from Yotsuba manga chapter 8 and the English translation is "Ena-Chan's good at this after all." I believe that やっぱ means too/also/likewise and from the English translation I would think that うめーなー would mean good. If it helps at all, the previous sentence was よつばはいまいぞ. I didn't understand what いまい meant but the English translation also said good for いまい. Could うめーなー be slang for some work that means good or perhaps mean "the same"?


texts: お隣さんになって早々, 申し訳ないですうぅ~ means?

texts:
I can read all of them but I'm not really sure what it means and what my friend is sorry for?

Is she saying she's sorry to be my neighbour...?

p.s we're playing a multiplayer game when she said this if that helps


texts: Nuance between 天, 空 and 大空 and between 地, 大地 and 土地

texts:
I was wondering the nuance between those words.

天 seems to have a more mystical flavour (like in the word 天上).

I don't get the nuance between 空/大空 and 地/大地.

土地 seems to be a smaller/more localised land than the other two.

Feel free to edit my post and add any related word that seems relevant.


texts:
What does ほか mean when it is used in a sentence like this: [situationA] ほか, [situationB]"

Specifically I would like a little help clarifying the following sentence:

  事件事故が減ったほか、緊急時以外の通報の減少が主な要因とみられる。

I am familiar with  ほか in other situations, but I'm not sure how it's used here. As far as I can figure out, it's either along the lines of "It's not that the number of accidents has decreased, but..." or "The number of accidents has decreased, but more importantly...".


texts: Can compound words like 「外食」be considered as a morpheme?

texts:
According to Wikipedia,

  In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit in a
  language. In other words, it is the smallest meaningful unit of a
  language.

By that definition, do you think a compound word like 「外食」 should be considered as a morpheme, or should it be further divided into 「外」 and 「食」 because each of them carry their own meaning?


texts: Does "雑用" really describe ”俺” here in this context?

texts:
Read it on this novel. https://ncode.syosetu.com/n6012eu/292/

  "って言っても、俺は雑用みたいなものだけど"

I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean "I'm something like a chore/miscellaneous expenses."

Does this just mean "I'm on/spending miscellaneous expenses."?


texts:
Could someone explain why 猥シャツ is defined as "obscene shirt (pun)"? I don't understand how this is a pun.

  猥シャツ 【わいシャツ】 (n) (See Ｙシャツ) obscene shirt (pun)

Source: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1MUEワイシャツ


texts: Translating "you" as 君 when giving a definition

texts:
I am trying to define the word "deceive". In English, I would say something like this (regardless of whether or not it is a good definition):

  To deceive someone means that you lie to someone, and without regard for their well-being, you gain something for yourself.

In Japanese, I would translate from the English to

  騙すっていうのは、君が嘘をついて、相手の事情を気にせず、自分に利益を得るということだ。

In English, we have this "you" that does not really refer to a specific person/group. So I can't just replace 君 with a name here. Is an alternative word used in Japanese for definitions (similar to 相手 meaning someone)? If "you" is appropriate, which form of "you" should it be (e.g.　君, あなた, ...)?

If it matters, I am more concerned about how this works in speech, not writing.


texts: Can you say "half hour" or must you say "30 minutes"?

texts:
I know that to say an hour and a half you can say 一時間半, but is it possible to express simply half an hour even though the counter comes before 半? Or would you just have to say 三十分?

If both ways are possible, is one widely more common or are they both equally common?


texts: Is メリー mainly used in the set phrase メリークリスマス?

texts:
Is the gairaigo メリー mainly used in the set phrase メリークリスマス (Merry Christmas!) or can it be used without the クリスマス to mean "merry", such as 私はメリーです to say "I am feeling merry"?

There's also メリーゴーランド (merry-go-round), but that's more like a transliteration of a single noun.

If it's mainly used in the set phrase, is there a term for loanwords used only in set phrases?

Note: The answer notes that メリークリスマス is not a set phrase after all.


texts:
Does this translate correctly?

First, let me go to the washroom.

まず、おてあらいにいきたいんです。


texts: What does this と at the end of the sentence do?

texts:
The sentence in question:
 その理由を聞いてみると。

For full context:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/web_tokushu/2018_0521.html?utm_int=news_contents_tokushu_004

My attempt at translatino:
"I tried to learn of the reasons."

The sentence itself seems fairly simple to me, however I have no clue what to do with this "trailing" と ^^


texts:
Is 一緒に needed in this case？

A: 買い物へ行きたい。
B: そう。
A: 一緒に行きましょうか？

Or is it just ->> 行こう？


texts: When can に be used instead of で and vice-versa?

texts:
東京で家を買いました

東京に家を買いました

Why can に be used in 2 and when can に be used instead of で?


texts:
When chaining verbs, especially long sentences during writing, is it common (and grammatically correct) to use commas? For example:

  食堂に行って、焼うどんを食べて、帰ってくる

Personally, I find it harder to read without the commas (especially when particles are ommited. Eg: 食堂行って焼うどん食べて帰ってくる). So a second question, if I do not attach the commas, will it be legible/readable and grammatically correct? (Imagine を particles getting omitted and the list of verbs goes on and on)


texts:
If I wanted to say, "Ken's getting better and better at Japanese", then would this be correct?

  けんさんはだんだんじょうずになります。


texts:
In the phrase:

  先生が立ち去ると...

why would you choose to use 立ち去る rather than just 去る? Is there a possible ambiguity from using just 去る? Does it have a different nuance?


texts: Is で marking end of the sentence in this case?

texts:
I was struggling with this sentence from Yoshimoto Banana story called ミイラ

  ...それは普通のセックスで普通に気持ちいいというものではなくて、何か歪んだ喜びだった。

My translation: it was kind of perverted pleasure, (何か歪んだ喜びだった)
              it was ordinary sex (それは普通のセックスで)
          (but) it wasn’t ordinarily pleasant (普通に気持ちいいというものではなくて)

How can I tell if というものではなくて negates only 普通に気持ちいい or if it also negates それは普通のセックスで? (so the translation would be "it wasn’t ordinary sex) Would there be a comma? Or am I getting this completely wrong?

I know this is kind of confused! Thank you so much for any help!


texts: Shinjitai kanji that existed prior to simplification?

texts:
I've been doing some researching on kanji characters, and was wondering if there were cases where already-existing characters were used as the final 新字体 form of a character.

To clarify, I'm not talking about cases where several kanji were blended into one (like how 辨, 辧, and 瓣 all merged into 弁).  In the context of this example, I'm asking if 弁 already existed as a separate character in its own right, with its own distinct meanings.

To use another example, were 閒 and 間 two separate characters prior to 1946, or was there only 閒, which was then simplified to 間?

Unfortunately I don't have access to a dictionary from that era to verify this on my own.  Does anyone else know the answers to this, or where they could be found?


texts:
個人的にはお姫様キャラっぽくて、こういうのも悪くない気もしないでもないかな

でもない is like "denying explicitly one thing and also denying explicitly the other thing as well"

So でもない is supposed to deny the previous 2 ない's which would mean the sentence is in an affirmative state ?


texts: Why is では used here? What does it do to the meaning of this sentence?

texts:
I came across a sentence that has puzzled me.

今度ばかりはいたずらでは済まされません｡

Why is では used here?


texts:
I ocasionally hear sentences such as

  髪が長くなりたい I want long hair
  心が美しくありたい I want to have a beautiful heart

Although I might use similar constructions myself, I do not consider them fully correct because they sound like "(My/the) hair wants to become long" and "(My/the) heart wants to become beautiful". I am aware of Japanese "double-subject" sentences (although I don't agree with this term) and understand that these can be considered ～たい forms of them:

  (私は)髪が長くなる　→　髪が長くなりたい
  (私は)心が美しい　→　心が美しくありたい

but would prefer to rewrite to other forms:

  長い髪が欲しい
  美しい心の持ち主でありたい

Now my question is:

Are the first sentences I posted considered fully correct forms, or do others consider them slightly marked as well? I tried to google for some grammatic prescription related to this, but found it hard to know what to google for.

Edit after seeing answers:

So if 私は鼻が高くなりたい is grammatical, what is the common way to analyze this sentence?

Obviously, translating 高くなりたい as "want(s) to become high" doesn't work, since "I" is not the one wanting to become tall, and "nose" doesn't have a will of its own.

Is it that ～くなりたい operates on a phrase level, i.e.

  私は(鼻が高)い I am tall-nosed
  私は(鼻が高)くなりたい I want to be tall-nosed,

or is there another way to analyze this?


texts: How to describe a company that is disorganized?

texts:
I'm looking for a word or phrase to describe a company that is organizationally disorganized. I am not sure if words that describe physically disorganized (like a messy desk for which you could say 散らかってる) would be appropriate for this case.

To be more specific, imagine a company whose customer support you call, and get forwarded to 5 or 6 different people before they finally answer your question. Would something like "まとまってない" apply here?


texts: How was Japanese animism referred to before 国家神道 (State Shinto) was created?

texts:
Pre-Meiji:

What was Japanese animism popularly called before 国家神道 (State Shinto) was created in the early Meiji period (19th century)? Prior to that, was the word 「神道」 a common term among the populace, or was it part of a jargon that the average Japanese person did not use in normal conversation or did not generally know of?
How was Japanese animism (i.e. what might now be retroactively called 'proto-Shinto,' 'historical origins of Shinto,' or 'early Shinto') referred to before the word 「神道」 was coined? According to a book referenced in Wikipedia, the oldest recorded usage of the term (read as 「しんどう」) is as recent as the second half of the 6th century.
How was Japanese animism referred to before the importation of the concept and word of 「宗教」 (religion), which happened in early Meiji? In other words, what were the beliefs/practices considered to be rather than religious practices?

Meiji and Onwards:

How was 神道 referred to during early Meiji when the government was insisting that 国家神道 not be referred to as a "religion?"
I have heard that 国家神道 adapts more from Chinese animism leading up to Meiji than from ancient Japanese animism. How are these differing roots described in Japanese (i.e. are there technical terms that differentiate Chinese-influenced Shinto from indigenous Shinto)?


texts:
I was writing a composition in Japanese, and since I wanted to give reasons I wrote the following:

僕は日本語の会話がまだできないし、友達は英語が上手し、日本語を少ししか練習しませんでした。

However, I got corrected like this:

僕は日本語の会話がまだできないし、友達は英語が上手なので、日本語を少ししか練習しませんでした。

I don't understand why I can't use し or why it's better ので in this context. Can anyone explain me the reason?


texts: What does 何分くらい右往左往していた？ mean?

texts:
「（踏切{ふみきり}に）入っていって後{うし}ろで標識{ひょうしき}をなぎ倒{たお}して、前{まえ}の車輪{しゃりん}がおそらく線路{せんろ}に落{お}ちるという感{かん}じ。（Ｑ．何分{なんふん}くらい右往左往{うおうさおう}していた？）僕{ぼく}が見{み}てからは２０分{ぷん}」 （目撃者{もくげきしゃ}）

"The front wheel probably fell on the track", if a car gets stuck on the railroad, wouldn't the front wheel get stuck on the track, not fall on it. So in Japanese, someone can say, "the tyres/vehicle fell on the track", instead of "the vehicle drove onto the track and got stuck"?
Why did the witness say "go back and forth" for 20 minutes? So, an accident happens, and the witness spun in a circle back and forth for 20 minutes?


texts: Is there a difference between the English flap t and the Japanese R?

texts:
When I first learned the Japanese R, I thought it kinda sounded like an L, although not exactly. I was able to replicate that unique sound with a mindset that the Japanese R sounds like a “flicked L.”
However, when I was searching for ways to improve upon my pronunciation, I often read that the Japanese R sounds exactly like the English flap t, or the “tt” in “butter.” At least in American English.
This honestly confused me. I won’t deny that they sound pretty similar. Might even be the same exact sound. But, the mentality for me is completely different.
Whenever I make a Japanese R, I am mentally thinking of its L-like quality.
Whenever I say the word “butter”, I am mentally thinking of a “d” sound as if it’s “budder.”
Basically, saying “taro” and “tado” has a different mouth feel for me. Or “haru” vs “hadu”.
I’m just curious if there might be a slight difference between the English double tt and the Japanese R because they clearly “feel” different to me. Or do you think this is a mentality problem because my native language is English?


texts:
As mentioned in the Addressing strangers without knowing the name thread, 敬語{けいご} often communicates the implied actors in a sentence. The thread titled using 美化語 in 謙譲語 verb forms does not make sense, right? raises the issue of whether 美化語 is 敬語, or not. Then, I noticed example sentences in the thread titled 「を」 object marker in this 受身形 sentence that would seem to add more clarity regarding whether 美化語 is 敬語 (and thus can be used to create implied actors):
Can an implied subject be created by adding 美化語 to 財布:
usage case #1
"泥棒{どろぼう}に財布{さいふ}が盗{ぬす}まれた。"
"泥棒に お 財布が盗まれた。"
Here, both are ok. The "お" is optional because the owner of the wallet is not known. Personally, I would not add the "お".
usage case #2
"泥棒に財布を盗まれた。"
The use of "を" implies that I am the owner of the wallet. So, that means that I cannot make the wallet honorific. which means that, if 美化語 is 敬語, then I cannot say:
"泥棒に お 財布を盗まれた。"
In essence, this the progression:
(1) "泥棒に財布を盗まれた。" // ok. The implied owner of the wallet is me.
(2) "泥棒に お 財布を盗まれた。" // whoops. I have made something that is mine, the wallet, honorific by adding 美化語 on the wallet.
conclusion
In usage case #2 (modify 財布 with を)、 adding 美化語 to 財布 is still grammatically correct, but sounds unnatural because I am misusing honorifics?


texts:
I am aware of these words that mean "butterfly":

[蝶]{ちょう}
蝶々 (Is the alternate form of チョウチョ more common than 蝶々? Because 蝶々 would be チョウチョウ instead and it seems ウ is removed because of shortening)
[胡]{こ}蝶
バタフライ (I think this is mainly used in the context of swimming; バタフライで泳ぐ, and in the context of chaos theory; バタフライ効果. Can it be used for the insect?)

Which is most commonly used to generally refer to the insect? And when are the less common (if any) forms used? What are their nuances if any?


texts: Both of those particles can mean "too", "even" or "any" (when used with wh-question). Do they have any difference in meaning or connotation when used like this? E.g. 私もフランスに行きたい vs 私だってフランスに行きたい.


texts:
I've perused many sites and have found "コ上," but if I hit translate, I get "co-on," a term I am not familiar with. Is this a Japanese term with no English equivalent?

I'm attempting to read a manga and this phrase pops up twice and has me completely baffled. Below are the contexts in which I found them. Any help would be much appreciated.

  オレらより１コ上なんだけど
  海外行ってる間の
  単位取得で

and

  １コ上の先輩に聞いたんだけど
  留学先で仲間と会社設立して
  すんごい儲けたんだって


texts:
手を上げてない人は私だけです。

上げてない is the negative form of てある  right? Most people would omit the い in ている. So for me it is hard to differentiate if てある or ている is used since both sounds the same (negative only). So how to differentiate? From writing the ている is ていない and てある is てない. In writing you can't omit the い in ている／ていない right?

手をあげていない means: not raising hand.
手をあげてない means: hand has not been raised.

Are these correct? Is the meaning of the first sentence like this? the person whose hand has not (yet) been raised is only me. Which can be simplified into : the person who is not raising their hand is me. If I change ない into いない... Then it would roughly translate as (hand is still rising ; still in motion ; not yet been raised) right? Because in english "raising our hand" usually means the state after the action of "raise" is completed (hand is constant in the air and not going any higher). Unlike "falling" that usually means the ongoing action of "fall" and not the state after the action of "fall" is completed. Feel free to correct any facts conveyed here.


texts: What does it mean when someone says ”話を大きくしてる”

texts: I know the literal meaning is "to make the conversation/talk larger" but in terms of nuance of actual meaning in English I am confused. How would you say this in English?


texts: Meaning of だけは in the sense of "to do all that one can"

texts:
I have several sentences where だけは is translated as "to do all that one can".

  覚えるだけは覚えたのだから、後は試験の日を待つだけだ。
  I’ve remembered everything I could, so
  now all I have to do is wait for the day of the test to come.

  指示のとおりにやるだけはやったが、いい結果が出るかどうか自信がない。
   I followed the instruction and did
  all that I could, but I have no confidence that I’ll have good
  results.

  恋愛のことは両親にも話すだけは話しました。
  I told my parents everything about my love life.

Is it a special pattern or is it explicable with the "usual" meaning of だけ?
Can it be decomposed so that I can understand where だけは translated as "to do all that one can" comes from ?

Thanks


texts:
Japanese seems to have multiple ways of enumerating sequences. The basic one is ordinal numbers:

Arabic (Indian) numbers like in English: 1,2,3
classic Chinese numbers: 一、二、三 etc.
special legal numerals: 壱、弍、参　etc.
special version of “one”/“first” can be used初号、初版

The “letters”:

Latin alphabet (a, b, c, etc.).
goujon order (AFAIK usually katakana vowels: ア、イ、ウ、エ、オ); I’ve seen this used in some dictionaries and scientific papers.
iroha order (いろはにほへと) - not sure if actually used

Then there are some specialized ones:

two-volume book: 上巻、下巻
three-volume book: 上巻、中巻、下巻
three sizes (S,M,L): 小、中、大

And something I discovered today:

Four-item sequence (ABCD): 甲乙丙丁, apparently originating from the Chinese sexagenary year cycle

Are there any others? What are the situations you would use one over the other?


texts:
When I asked a Japanese about the difference between 並々ならぬ and 並外れた, he gave me a couple of examples how he uses the words:

並々ならぬ身体能力（✕）　並はずれた身体能力（〇）
並々ならぬお世話　（〇）　並はずれたお世話　（✕）

I also consulted the dictionary, but it didn't provide much information about how to distinguish the two. Could you tell me how to use the two words wisely? and when they are not interchangeable?


texts: Is there a some general rule when to write 物/もの in kanji or hiragana?

texts:
So far my perception had been that you write もの when it is used for grammatical purposes, and 物 when an actual object is meant, but I've encountered many situation where even in the second case it is written in hiragana.
For example:

「これは、いいものを見つけたよ。」

or

「これはいい物を見つけたよ。」


texts: Is 「たくなった」 a typo or a grammatical structure that is different than I think it is?

texts:
I have this sentence in my JLPT exercise book:

  彼{かれ}は有名人{ゆうめいじん}ゆえの不自由{ふじゆう}さから逃{に}げたくなった。

The translation offered is:

  He wanted to get away from the difficulties of being a celebrity.

What is throwing me is the 逃{に}げたくなった part. It seems to me that the past tense form of "wanted to get away" should be 逃{に}げたかった, and the past tense form of "did not want to get away" should be 逃{に}げたくなかった. I feel the English translation probably represents the intended meaning, because it would be weird to not want to get away from difficulties, but on the other hand my own translation of the original Japanese is something along the lines that he did not want to escape.

So what is 逃{に}げたくなった? Am I wrong about the verb forms I think it should be, or is something else going on here?


texts:
Again, during my kanji reviews, I encountered 斜. Remembering its kunyomi is not difficult because it's the most common word associated with this kanji (at least based on my reviews); its onyomi, however, always slips my mind.

I checked what kind of kanji 斜 is and it said that it's 形声. I assume that the right component is the phonetic component, but I checked the kanjis with 斗 and none of them have シャ as an onyomi.

Is this a case similar to 侮辱、後悔、海外 where the first kanji 侮 somehow changed its sound in Chinese before being imported to Japanese?


texts:
I need to communicate that I am allergic to some sunscreens (but not all).
I know that 'some' is a difficult concept to get across in Japanese, so how would I say it in this specific case?

ie. "(some)日焼け止めにアレルギーがあります。"


texts:
Here is the sentence including the word.

  あぶねえ！　へやのすみっちょにいってろ

I have found an entry read 隅{すみ}っこ meaning 'corner' but I'm not sure if it is the same meaning as the word in question.


texts: Is there a politeness change when replacing です with (っ)す?

texts: I've heard in video games and TV shows some male speakers using す or っす in place of です. For example, instead of "本はどこですか" they say "本はどこすか".  Does dropping the で make the sentence any less polite?  Are there situations where it would be appropriate to use です but not (っ)す?


texts:
In this sentence 俺の机には置くな, the preposition that expresses 'on' (上) doesn't appear.
Is it common in Japanese?
In English (put on the table), French (mets sur la table), and Mandarin (放在桌子上), this semantic item should appear, so it sounds to me a bit counterintuitive.


texts:
Are both phrases grammatically correct and how do you translate both?

世界の一番ゆうめいです
世界で一番ゆうめいです


texts:
In this anime they have a song that's called, Omae no Tou-chan Chome-Chome

So I looked what chome chome is, and they say
- It's an euphemism for sex
- It's an onomatopeia (related to sex)
- It's a whatever unprintable word

and nobody gives a clear answer that makes sense with the title of the song. What does chome chome mean?


texts: How is "と" being used in these two sentences?

texts:
I think "と" is being used differently in both of these sentences. However, I'm not entirely sure if it is being used as a particle in either one. Can you please explain to me the purpose of "と" in these sentences and how it changes the meaning of the sentences?

ふりむくと、こどもたちが　おおきな　やまを　つくっています。
ぼく、トンネルを　つくろうっと。


texts:
I'm trying to translate the sentence "Food is an easy topic for me to write about" to Japanese, but I'm struggling. Some thoughts / questions:

(1) I know could say "Writing about food is easy":「食べ物について書くことはやさしいです。」. However, I feel like some of the nuance is lost, i.e. the implication that there are other topics that are difficult to write about.

Separately, can「の」replace「こと」in this sentence, since it is not immediately followed by「です」？ I know only「こと」can be used if 「です」immediately follows it, but am unclear if that applies when the nominalized verb is the topic of a「です」sentence.

(2) Am I correct that「こと」is preferred (but not mandatory) over「の」in this context, since there is no immediacy?

(3) My attempts so far:

「食べ物はやさしい題について書くことです」- I suspect this comes out as "Food is writing about an easy topic".

「食べ物は書きやすい題です」- Is this "Food is a topic that is easy to write (about)"? Do I need to add「について」somewhere?

(4) I'm not sure how to fit the "for me" part of the sentence into any of the proposed sentences above.

Thanks in advance for your help!


texts: Sentence in the present tense when the text is in the past tense?

texts:
ゲームをやめるとグループから外されるんじゃないかといつも不安でした。不安になった日の翌朝は、友だちにすごく優しくするんです。
  そうやって友だちに奉仕して、関係を無理矢理にでもうまくつなごうとしていました。いつの間にか友だちづきあいに疲れてしまっていましたね(source)

I don't understand why the past tense isn't used for 優しくする(=>優しくした)?


texts: How to interpret the volitional form of です

texts:
I have read that the volitional form expresses the intent to do or not do an action. Afterwards I found a case where this doesn't seem to apply when conjugating the です verb.
I read a sentence where a series of images of flowers are shown to the reader. I believe they are asking which one is the flower of an eggplant. It goes like this:

なすの花どれでしょう?

The question uses the volitional form but it doesn't seem to match the definition that I read before.

How should どれでしょう? be translated?
Is there a difference between using there どれでしょう? and どれですか?
Are there other possible interpretations? Which are other sentences that use どれでしょう and how is this expression interpreted in them?


texts: Is どんなことでも失敗したら a whole clause or two separate clauses?

texts:
Is the sentence どんなことでも失敗したら、人のせいにしてはなりません。read as:

[どんなことでも][失敗したら]、人のせいにしてはなりません。
= [No matter what][if you fail], don't blame people.
or
[どんなことでも失敗したら]、人のせいにしてはなりません。
= [No matter how you fail], don't blame people.
?

Providing the reason with the answer please.


texts: ‘Nanpū’ (難風), ‘Bōrei’ (亡霊) and other matters

texts:
A couple of questions, including the use of the word ‘nanpū’ 難風.

I am looking at (and transliterating) a cartouche with a combination of hiragana, hentaigana, and kanji, some in sōsho, however, there are a few characters between the words Sesshū Daimotsu-no-ura and nanpū that I’m not certain about. Can anyone shed light on these characters?

摂州大物の浦[よ?][?][?]しうぐ難風に出合て平家のぼうれい御船を覆さんとする圖,  /  Sesshū Daimotsu-no-ura ([ ][ ][ ] shiugu, or shūjū) nanpū ni deaite Heike no bōrei mifune wo kutsugae san to suru zu.

The ‘mifune’ (?) and the ‘wo’ (を) are difficult to read, but I think the characters 御船 are correct in making sense of a “capsized” (‘kutsugae’, 覆) boat. In a recent post, @droooze gave a good web-link (http://www.shufazidian.com) so I have looked there for clarification, on top of my usual references:

‘Nanpū’ (難風) is a little bit of a frustrating term when it comes to institutions translating it, for I see everything from “terrible storm” to “typhoon,” the latter a bit of a misnomer since I assume that ‘taifū’ (台風) “typhoon” is a very specific type of storm in that it is seasonal, and doesn’t fit the occasion of the ghosts of the Heike rising up against Yoshistune’s boat in Daimotsu Bay. I am interested in how a native speaker would differentiate between types of winds and storms in general conversation, as well as when reading from a pre-C20th text.

There appear to be many ways of writing/describing a storm or a wind: a storm or tempest is usually represented by the character ‘arashi’ (嵐). In terms of ‘nanpū’ (難風), the character (難) can be read as “difficult,” “trouble,” “hardship,” or an “accident,” “calamity,” “disaster,” “danger,” and (風) “wind.” I trust I am not incorrect in my observations, but I have found ‘fūha’ (風波) for rough seas, literally “wind and waves”; ‘bōfū’ (暴風), literally a “violent” or “forceful wind”; ‘hayate’ (疾風), a “fast wind” or “gale” that might be thought of as a very sudden bōfū; ‘akufū’ (悪風), an “evil wind” or “bad wind”; and ‘reppū’ (烈風), a “strong wind.” Do modern Japanese speakers use these terms interchangeably, as general synonyms for a storm, or is one always mindful of the quality of the storm/wind and the way that words are used culturally, historically, semantically? That is, does it debase language and meaning if it is simply translated as a “storm”, rather than a “difficult,” “troublesome,” or “dangerous” wind (and in the case of those latter three, or any other, I would ask which would be a more definitive translation of ‘nanpū’?).

Why do I ask this? Because I often think about the importance of the poetics and ‘spirit’ of the words: it would, for instance, be inappropriate if “Blow, ill wind, blow away, Let me rest today, You're blowin' me no good” was changed to “Blow storm, blow away, Let me rest today” (Ted Koehler’s lyrics put to Harold Arlen’s 1934 musical composition). There are many other lyrics or prose with references to a particular kind of wind (ill wind, lonely wind, whispering wind, wayward wind, restless wind, summer wind, soul wind, north wind, west wind, etc.) and many synonyms for wind or storm (squall, hurricane, tempest, gale, zephyr, gust, strong breeze, breeze) that have subtle or significant differences in meaning and intent that—I hope—would be respected when translated into another language.

The title also references ‘bōrei’. This is another case in point. Many museums will translate this and related terms purely as ghost, but is this solution in tune with the vernacular understanding of ‘bōrei’ (亡霊; 亡 “dead” or “departed”; 霊, 靈, rei, “soul/spirit”, also seen as 亡灵), a ‘shiryō’ (死霊, a “dead spirit”), a ‘yūrei’ (幽霊; 幽, yū, "faint" and 霊, rei, "soul/spirit"), or an ‘onryō’ (怨霊)—literally a "vengeful spirit" or "wrathful spirit”—a yūrei believed to be “capable of causing harm in the world of the living” and “causing natural disasters to exact vengeance.” I'm interested in other's perspectives, especially in the context of the use of the word in literary works and artistic titles.


texts:
置いて is the て-form of 置く(to place). So what does おきます stand for?

Thank you very much.


texts: What are the small kana words put above kanji called?

texts: Very quick question. What do you call the small hiragana written above kanji to show their pronunciation?


texts:
大界王神様{だいかいおうしんさま} の弟子{でし}のままでいれば。。。私だって復活{ふっかつ}ﾊﾟワーを使えた{つかえた}んだ。

NOTE: The character talking was a disciple of the daikaioushin.

What is the だって doing in this sentence and how should I be translating or understanding it?


texts: What is the difference between 中国人, 華人, 漢人, and 唐人?

texts:
I looked at the dictionary definitions of 中国人, 華人, 漢人, and 唐人, and it appears that all of them mean "Chinese person".

Questions:

What is the difference between them?
Why are there so many ways of saying "Chinese person"?
What is the most common way of referring to a Chinese person (including persons of Chinese ancestry, not just from China)?


texts:
I completely cannot grasp the meaning of 行きと違い here:

  夕食を終えた私は、なれない道に右往左往しながら寄宿舎へと向かっていた。行きと違い、友の案内がないだけで道を迷いそうになる。

"After I finished the dinner, I wandered an unfamiliar road to the dormitory. 行きと違い, without my friend's guidance I almost lost my way."


texts: What exactly is 我が家, and how is it used?

texts: I know the phrase 我が家 means "our home" or "our family". My question is when would you use it, as opposed to say 私の家　or 私の家族? It seems poetic to me, or something that wouldn't exactly be used in everyday conversation.


texts: Meaning of 名前が名前だし, 受けでも狙え and ツッコミ

texts:
名前は南空ナオミ。元FBI捜査官だそうです。名前が名前だし両親が日本にいるのだから日本人なのでしょう。

南空ナオミ is the name of a Japanese detective in death note. I think the author is saying that because of her name and both her parents being in Japan, it appears that she's Japanese (I think し can be used as a "because")

それが無理ならせめて「ワターシ、ニッポンゴシャベレマセーン」と日本語そのままで喋って視聴者とリュークの受けでも狙え。狙ってどうするというツッコミは聞こえません。

The author is complaining that the detective Ray Penbar should have done something to revert the situation he was in  to not get killed by kira. Then he says that if that's not possible for Ray to do, he could've make it look like he doesn't speak Japanese (because he is American) and the rest I can't understand. Why is he including the audience and Ryuk, and what does ツッコミ mean?


texts: Difference in Nuance: 嬉しい vs. 喜ぶ , 幸せ vs. 幸い vs. 幸福

texts: These are all words that have to do with happiness. Aside from their word classes, what difference do they have in nuance?


texts: Is it grammatically correct to say 難しいことも、諦めたい時もあります?

texts:
Hi this is my first question here, and I checked the database for questions like mine, but nothing came up.

Would it be grammatically correct to say

  もちろん、難しいことも、諦めたい時もあります。

My intention is to say

  Of course, difficult things and times when I wanted to give up existed too.

This is because I was taught that you could only put similar items in a category if you were to use Aも、Bもあります　such as ～ことも、～こともあります　but I was wondering if I could mix up things of different ”categories”.

I was also contemplating

  もちろん、難しいことも、諦めようと思ってこともあります。

Sorry if any are hideously and grammatically wrong. I am a beginner in the Japanese language.


texts:
How is it possible to naively get both "Foreign Carrot Regime" and "Foreigner Suffrage" from "外国人参政権"?

I'm interested in how the same kanji can be combined in different ways to create a different meaning.


texts: Need help with translation/grammar 「なんの」

texts:
I try to read a Japanese book, but I have some troubles with the following phrases which is part of a break up conversation:

「俺はもう蕎麦屋には行かないから、千晶さんは安心して行っていいよ。近所に住んでるし、ばったり会うこともあるかもしれないけど、まあ、気まずくなんのだけはやめような」

The part I have biggest difficulties with is the くなんの. I don't understand why the 気まずい is becoming an adverb and what function the なんの does exactly have. And also in the sentence before. It having 3x は's sounds a bit strange to me ... thanks a lot in advance for your help!!!!


texts:
The context I found the usage in (which hopefully should suffice here):

この人ってやっぱり本当に危ない系な人？
自分を世界そのものだとか言って……それってアニメの影響か？　涼宮なんとかがどうだとか言う……。

I'm not entirely sure what どう is doing in this structure. Reading a similarly answered question didn't clarify it for me unfortunately. Should it just be treated as a set expression like in the previous question, and if so, what does it mean here? Or am I just misunderstanding どう in this usage (which I think of as meaning "what" or "how")?


texts: What is the right order of this sentence? (JLPT N2 practice question)

texts:
From Shin Kanzen Master JLPT N2:

新しい店をオープンする　＿　＿　＿*　＿　かたまってきた。
１　の　２　ようやく　３　にあたって　４　方針が

The right answer at the starred position is 4.
One arrangement I thought might make this answer work is:

新しい店をオープンするにあたっての方針がようやくかたまってきた。

However, I'm not sure if 「にあたって」 can be followed immediately by 「の」. How would this combination be interpreted then? Or maybe the right order is something else?


texts:
このたなの一番おくの方にございます。

They are at the far end of this shelf.

This is an example sentence from one of my textbooks but I don't understand what おく means and I'm a bit confused on the use of 方 as well, especially when looking at the translation.


texts: How can I talk about old memories and important "firsts"?

texts: How can I say old memories and first (talk, hug, kiss) kind of stuff?


texts:
As part of my studies, I started to translate lyrics of songs I enjoy.
It was going well until I bumped with this phrase.

  止まらない胸の歪を消しておくれよ

I'm think it translates somewhat to:
"Late to erase the distortion of the unstoppable chest"

Since Japanese a null subject language, the subject can be omitted and asserted from the context right?
On this phrase, there no indication whatsoever who is talking or who is listening. I'd like know the subject of this phrase and why is so.

Here is the lyric of the current song

止まらない胸の歪を消しておくれよ
アメジスト
すれ違ってく心
君と僕の狭間で揺れる カケラ

空っぽに堕ちてゆく夜を
救っておくれよ アメジスト
すれ違ってく 君と僕の
染まる黒い闇を 透明な光で

Thanks for your time :)


texts:
From my newbie understanding, isn't "I think" and "I'm called" which is "My name is", the same phrase?

.... to moushimasu -> ... I think
Bill to moushimasu -> I'm called or my name is Bill

Or did I get it wrong?


texts: Can we use either じゃない or ではない in addition to でない for ～ないことには?

texts:
I found a sentence as follows.

  体が丈夫でないことには、何もすることができない。

でない is the negation of である.

My question is that

Can we use either じゃない or ではない in addition to でない for the given sentence above?


texts: Some precisions about the nuance of ちゃんと

texts:
EDIT 1 : For those interested by the subject, I've already asked a similar question about ちゃんと : Meanings of ちゃんと.
The sentence is from Dragon ball, the speaker just got robbed of the balls and says this :

ドラゴンボールのことを知っているやつがいてもおかしくはないわね。昔の文献にちゃんと載ってるんだから...
It's not surprising that some people know about the Dragonballs. With them being mentioned in old books and all...

I'm not sure what nuance ちゃんと brings in this context, I.E. what would be the difference in meaning or even in feeling (not necessarily in translation as I know it can be minimal or inexistant) if it wasn't there.
EDIT 2 : Ok, killing two birds with one stone here : some pages later, the same character responds to another one who is worried because they don't have a car anymore (which in this story can be transformed in small objects called Capsules to be transported).

この前の町でちゃーーーーんとカプセルを買ったわよ!
(No worries) I did buy some Capsules in the previous city!

Thanks for your help.


texts: What is the difference between むかしっから and むかしから?

texts:
In my book I found both むかしっから and むかしから within the span of a couple pages, in very similar contexts. What is the significance of that small-tsu (with regards to the meaning, not the pronunciation)?
The only place where I can find a distinction is in Google translate:

昔っから ==> Since old times
昔から ==> Always

Is the difference between these as subtle as it seems? Can one be used where the other cannot/sounds unnatural?
EDIT:
Everyone in the comments seems to agree that it's just a matter of emphasis, but I'll add the context @Tim requested. (I wrote it out like it appears in the book, but I added the bold)
The lines are said a few pages apart (which is actually some time), but both are said by two long time friends, one a fighter, the other a healer.
The first one is said by the fighter to the healer. She's saying that he wouldn't have known if anyone was following them.

ほんとうに、だいじょうぶかねぇ。あんたは、むかしっから、武術{ぶじゅつ}のほうはからっきしだったから。気配{けはい}をよめなかったんじゃ、ないだろうね。

The second one is said by the healer to the young boy that they're protecting. The fighter's been asleep and the other two are cooking.

ほら、見てみろ。おてんばバアさんが目をあけてるぞ。いっただろう？食{く}い物{もの}のにおいをかげば目をさますって。こいつはむかしから、そうだったんだ。


texts:
what is the difference beween おんなみたい、おんならしい　and　おんなっぽい。
could any one please clear the difference between them with example.


texts:
When I was learning about 持ってくる【もってくる】 in college we did some roleplaying to practice using it.  When my turn came up it was a husband and wife, with a line along the lines of the following:

  あなたはビールを持ってこい。

(Context: I was playing the husband, saying this to the wife, played by a fellow classmate.)

Deciding to use my broader vocabulary and try to make the dialogue sound more natural, I decided to try substituting お前 for あなた.  This produced an extremely unpleasant look from my professor, with a request to see her in her office after class.  Upon arriving in her office, the lecture basically amounted to "I don't know what kinds of things you read on your own time, but don't ever use that word again!"

Was I seriously misusing the word, was she overreacting, or was it a bit of both?


texts: Does "さよならだけは言わないで" mean "don't only say goodbye" or "don't say goodbye"?

texts: One of the famous songs by Mayumi Itsuwa (五輪 真弓) is by the name さよならだけは言わないで  I can't find a good translation of the name on a webpage but Google Translate suggests it means "Do not say only goodbye" and iTunes spells out the song as "Sayonaradakewa Iwanaide" as the pronunciation.  Does the name of this song mean "don't only say goodbye (to me)"?


texts:
Now I feel like being totally deaf since I can't figure out how Byakuya said "So what?" in Japanese.  It's being said at 0:25. Youtube subtitles claim that his line is "そういう" but to my ear it sounds completely different (more like それ...や) .
So, what is he actually saying and is "so what" even a direct translation ?  It's weird how this one tiny thing bothers me...I'd be thankful if someone could clarify this thing to me. :D

https://youtu.be/JMG2P8nUrjg

Byakuya is the one on the left


texts: Which translation is more probable for this conversation?

texts:
A high school boy talking to the phone:
"ええ"
"今ちょっと 出てますけど"
"はい"
"泊まっていく そうです"
"はい"
"伝えますっ"
Scene ends.

To me it seems (context-wise) that he's covering for his childhood friend (in the story) who didn't come back home yet, saying that he's going to stay the night at his place.
But a translation that has been made for it was like this:

"Yeah..."
"I'm gonna be out for a while..."
"Yeah."
"Looks like I'll be spending the night."
"Yeah"
"I'll let her... know!"
Scene ends

In this translation, it seem that he's talking to his parent telling them he's gonna spend the night out.
After the scene, there's nothing that indicates which one is correct.
I hope to get an opinion of someone more knowledgeable than me to see which translation is/seems more probable.
Thank you.


texts: What is the most casual way to ask ''What do you reckon ?'' in Japanese?

texts:
I want to know a colloquial way to ask: What do you reckon/think ?

For example:

I just cooked a meal and I turn to my Japanese friend and say: What do you reckon ? (I'm seeking approval whilst smiling proudly at my masterpiece)

I click on a movie on Netflix and turn to my Japanese friend and say ? What do you reckon ? (I want to know whether they want to watch this movie or not)

I dress up nice and smart for an event and after fixing my tie turn to my Japanese friend and say: What do you reckon ? (I'm seeking approval or advice on how I look)

Would ''dou desu ka ?'' be appropriate ?
Also what would be the most colloquial way to answer?
Yeah, it's fine. Meh, it'll do. etc


texts: I was brushing up on some basic vocabulary. Asked what the Japanese equivalent of "the means (of doing something)", I would use 方法. However, they've used 手段. As far as I can tell, these are (fairly) synonymous. Is there a difference? Are there places/phrases where you would use one but not the other?


texts: Must a relative clause with な adjective be ended with な rather than だ?

texts:
In my opinion, the usage of だ is already correct in the following sentence. But someone in my other questions said it is incorrect.

For example,

映画を見ることが好きだ女性は私の妹です。The woman who likes watching movies is my younger sister.
使い方が便利だ電気機は何ですか。 What is the electric appliance that is handy to use?

For the sake of completeness and comparison, I provide relative clauses with a verb, i-adjective and noun as follows. I think they are also correct.

a verb: 映画を見ている女性が誰ですか。Who is the woman watching a movie?
i-adjective: 物価が安い町に住みたいです。I want to live in a town whose living cost is cheap.
noun: ジェットさんが２０歳だ映画を見ています。I am watching a movie in which Mr. Jet was 20 years old.

Must I change every だ to な in the given examples above? Please correct me if it is wrong.


texts: Are both of these sentences grammatically correct? (stem+に+行く vs て+行く)

texts:
These are the sentences:

ユニオンへサンドイッチを買いに行きました。
ユニオンへサンドイッチを買って行った。

Are they both grammatically correct?  Also do they both mean the same thing, which by my translation is "I went to the union and bought a sandwich."
Do they only differ in their formality with the second sentence being more casual?


texts:
context is some bad guys talking to an arrogant rich girl that they kidnapped. Included extra context, not sure if needed.

  girl 「調子に乗って……！　こんなの、今だけなんだからね……！　あんたたちみたいなウジ虫は、社会の落伍者は、ろくなこともしないで、みじめな最期を迎えるのよ！」

  bad guys 「ずいぶんだねえ、いくら僕らでも多少は傷つくんだよ？　っていうか、それじゃあ君はどんな立派なことをやる予定なんだい？」

  girl
  「え……？　そ、それは……と、とにかく、すごいことよ！　私、とにかくいっぱい稼いで、あんたたちなんかより上等で立派な大人になるんだから！」

  bad guys「どっかのダメ人間みたいなこと言ってるねえ。いつかビッグになってやる、なんてセリフ吐いてる時点で小物だよ」

  girl「うるさい！」

  人生はバラ色、この先私みたいな美人に挫折も不幸も失敗もありはしないのだ。

  そう固く信じて疑わないほどには自信家で、それを許すくらいには、世界は私をちやほやしてくれていたのだ。……今日この時までは。

  girl「ウジ虫！　日本人に生まれて家はお金持ち、私はもう、あんたらなんかよりずっと有利なんだからね！」

" from now on, as a beautiful person like me with a rose coloured life,  [挫折も不幸も失敗] is not a thing "

To the extent of having "that" conviction without any doubt is a 自信家 (?), as long as this 'extent" is allowed, the world will fawn over me. .... that is until today

i'm unsure how to read XXほどにはYYで
The concept of [それを許すくらいには] is also  lost on me here. Who is doing the 許す here and what is それ? (being a 自信家?)
how do ほどには and くらいには differ here?

Another little thing if possible, is 美人に and 日本人に in this excerpt used with the [資格を表す。…として。] definition?

thank you

edit:

after some advice this is my new conclusion:

"(I am a) {自信家 to the  extent that (I) believe [この先...]},  because the world, ({それ}を許すくらいに - entire thing as adverb),  fawned over me. "


texts:
I'm fond of Unicode and what romanization attempts. My goal is to get a first latin char (for sorting purposes) of a non-latin character - so far I succeeded by transcribing Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Katakana, Hiragana, Hangul (including all its syllables), Berber, Thai and Arabic letters by assigning the most appropriate starting letter to each case.

I also know that multiple systems for transliterations and transcribings (and romanization) exist - so far their differences are almost irrelevant for my needs. I'm not fond of Japanese itself - at most I might be able to recognize English terms written in Katakanas.

My problem is: how to assign Unicode code points U+4E00 thru U+9FFF by algorithm? For Hangul syllables this is quite easy: U+AC00 thru U+B097 => K (as all of them start with that); U+B098 thru B2E3 => N. I've looked at JS solutions like https://github.com/hexenq/kuroshiro/ and https://github.com/WaniKani/WanaKana/, but I only find the code for processing Hiraganas and Katakanas (which I already got), never Kanjis (although all of their demos succeed in processing them).

Is there a table or dictionary? If romanization of Kanjis is achieved thru first converting each Kanji into Katakanas, then how to achieve that?


texts: Is there a actual usage difference between these two pronouns? Or is it simply that こちらの is more formal than この?


texts: 「自分」の使い方を詳しく説明していただけませんか。

texts:
こんにちは！質問があります。

「私の意見を述べました」と「自分の意見を述べました」はどう違いますか。

そして、「自分」の詳しい使い方を説明していただけませんか。

よろしくおねがいします！


texts: What is the difference between 買い溜め, 買い込む and 買い占める

texts:
I recently encountered 買い込む in the following sentence:
災害に備えて大量の水を買い込んだ。- I bought large quantities of water to prepare for disasters. (pretty straightforward)
Searching through similar words I came across 買い溜め and 買い占める which supposedly mean the same thing (stock up; buy in large quantity etc.)
I 've also seen the later being used in expressions regarding COVID-19 such as:
買い占めを自粛してください。- Please refrain from panic-buying.
From what I've understood so far 買い占める means to buy a thing as much as possible, whereas 買い溜め means the same with the addition of some underlying fear and uncertainty(product might be sold out or the price may rise). If that's the case, wouldn't 買い溜め make more sense in the above sentence? Where does it differ from 買い込む.
It would be nice if you could provide some additional example sentences to outline the differences, if there are any.


texts: Two を in a single sentence - how to understand it?

texts:
In the book I'm reading (「キッチン」 by 吉本{よしもと}ばなな) I have found the following sentence:

  うしろで雄一がぞうきんを手に床をふいてくれていた。

I guess it can be translated to something like (sorry for a quite literal translation): "Behind (me) Yuuichi was wiping the floor with a cloth using his hands".

This sentence has two を. One of them (床をふいてくれていた) I understand as marking the direct object (floor) of the verb (wipe).

I cannot understand what the other を is doing there (ぞうきんを). What meaning does it have? What grammatical pattern is used in here?


texts:
I was trying to understand this sentence

kimi no senaka o boku wa tayori ni shiteitanda

kimi no senaka = your back
boku = I

And I can't figure out what tayori ni shiteitanda means

jisho.org says tayori is a noun, dependence

and that shiteitanda is somehow related to suru jisho.org , if it's a verbal tense of suru I can't find it in the japanese verb conjugator japanese verb conjugator

Also, this webpage says noun + ni suru (in the case shiteitanda is related to suru) can be used to "decide on" a noun, ie "I'll go with.." . So may be this could be something of the form "noun + ni shiteitanda" assuming shiteitanda is related to suru, and since there is a "noun + ni suru" form but that's as far as I can guess. How does it translate noun + ni + shiteitanda?


texts:
I am teaching myself Japanese with the aid of beginners textbooks and internet resources. I have learnt to read both the hiragana and katakana alphabets (yay!) I felt super excited and started trying to read everything I could... I bought little manga books intended for very young children, and thought I could just use translators to translate what I was now reading. However, not knowing where words start or end I cannot differentiate actual sentences from just a jumble of sounds :-(

What should I do to understand what I'm reading?


texts: On the interchangeability of ~ように and ~ために

texts:
I was asked this question and was not sure 100% about how to answer.

As I understand, in XようにY X is a state/event that is beyond the control of the subject Y (a certain consequence X will arise as the result of an action Y), while in XためにY, X is an action that can be controlled by the subject of Y.

In some cases then, ~ように and ~ために are interchangeable, such as in the following excample:

学生が勉強する{ために/ように}、先生は毎日宿題を出します。

In this case we can use either of the two since the subject of the main clause (the teacher) is different from that of the subordinate (the students). Therefore, he/she cannot necessarily control the action in the subordinate.

However, given rules above in the following example only ~ために can be used:

新しい車を買う{ために/Xように}、お金を貯めています。

(With the X mark to indicate that it would be wrong).

The question I was not sure how to answer was: "What if instead of 買う with conjugate using 買える and say:

2': 新しい車を買えるように、お金を貯めています。

Would this be correct?"

(Notice that there is no question here about 買えるために).

I think that this makes sense, and it sounds correct to me, but somehow reading the grammar rules confused me a little bit (Maybe 車が would be more correct, as a comment made me think). I would appreciate a confirmation. Thanks.


texts:
I know that 之助 is a suffix for generating names. But what is its intended meaning?

Also, there's a lexical item 承知の助 which I understand is meant to be an interjection "Understood!". What's going on there? Is this usage meant to be humorous?


texts: I've noticed that a lot of the na-adjectives I know (which admittedly is not that many) seem to be of Chinese origin and a lot of i-adjectives are kunyomi. Is there actually anything to this, etymologically speaking, or is it just a coincidence and I need to learn more adjectives?


texts: Can 寂しい be used to describe an insufficiency?

texts:
In the sentence:

  もしにおいを説明するのに、「いい香り」と「臭い」しか言葉がなかったら寂しい。

I'm confused by the use of 寂しい. My interpretation of the general meaning of the sentence is:

  Even if you explain/describe a smell, only having the words いい香り and 臭い to use makes your explanation limited.

But I wouldn't have thought 寂しい could be used to imply an insufficiency of something (in this case, vocabulary, for the purpose of expressing something). Am I on the right track?


texts: 山口さんはアメリカに行くことにした Question

texts:
「山口さんはアメリカに行くことにした。」

Why is this sentence translated as : Yamaguchi-san has decided to go to America

The way I was looking at it was : About Yamaguchi-san, the thing of going to America did.

Ending with : Yamaguchi-san went to America...

What am I missing here?


texts: How to pronounce 上 with the meaning of "when"?

texts:
I know how to pronounce and translate 上 in 1, but not sure if it is pronounced うえ or じょう in 2 and if it is also translated "when". Could someone explain case 2 please?

  利用上{りようじょう}の注意{ちゅうい}
  caution when using
  computer name 上で使用している account name の Firefox
  Firefox account name when using computer name


texts: I am looking for an online Japanese dictionary with audio pronunciations

texts: Does anyone know any online Japanese dictionary which provides audio reading?


texts: Could a verb or adjective in the past tense 〜た refer to something no longer true?

texts:
I found the following sentences on a website teaching people the order of using the 助動詞.

  彼は人に笑われる。
  彼を人に笑われさせる。
  彼を人に笑われさせたい。
  彼を人に笑われさせたくない。
  彼を人に笑われさせたくなかった。
  彼を人に笑われさせたくなかっただろう。

I am wondering about the meaning of the second last sentence 彼を人に笑われさせたくなかった.

Should it be:

  I never wanted him to be laughed at by people.

Which might imply I still think so.

Or should it be:

  I used not to want him to be laughed at by people.

Which might imply I no longer think so.


texts: Is it true that のが sometimes means のですが?

texts:
のが would usually mark a subject, but someone once told me it could mean のですが. Is this true or did I get bad information?
This is from ビジテリアン大祭

私がニュウファウンドランドの、トリニテイの港に着きましたのは、恰度大祭の前々日でありました。事によると、間に合わないと思ったのが、うまい工合に参りましたので、大へんよろこびました。


texts: I am looking for cursive forms of the kanji for 'zu'. It means a drawing. Thanks.

texts: I am looking for cursive forms , not standard, of the kanji for zu  'drawing'. Thanks for your help.


texts: I've seen many different words refering to back, spine like せ and せなか. So what is the right word and in which case?


texts: What's the difference between 親睦会 and 懇親会?

texts:
I was watching Hello World on Netflix when I encountered 親睦会. Googling it, I learned that a similar word, 懇親会, exists. I would like to ask if the content of this article is reliable.
Thank you in advance!


texts:
驚くことはないよ、私なんか彼女が理解できたためしはない。

What i understand is : "It is not surprising! I, somehow, am unable to understand her" ?

The only 2 "ためし" i found are : 試し. trial; test and 例. precedent; example
But i can't see what it would mean..

Thanks everyone !


texts: Can you use は to mark the object with negative verbs?

texts:
I've been studying Japanese for about two years, and recently started working though Japanese Duolingo. I'm confused by their particle usage for verbs:

  魚を食べます

versus

  魚は食べません

I.e using を for positive verbs and は for negative verbs. Is this standard, an idiosyncrasy of Duolingo, or wrong?


texts: Typing Japanese text from images or clothing

texts:
Is there a way of typing Japanese characters when you have no knowledge of the language? I've cut and pasted from Japanese websites before and used translation websites from English to Japanese with no trouble. I'm just wondering how I can search for what the text is from a t-shirt I have.

I've had this t-shirt for a while now and wear it a fair bit. I'm just wondering what I'm saying to people who can read it as I go about my business. If you can answer my above question or simply translate it for me that would be great - I understand it may mean I'll never wear it again, however!


texts: I want to say, "the third season is fall".


texts:
As far as I know, theoretically お in お[金]{かね} is optional, but in practice it's almost never omitted, and if done otherwise it'd be frowned upon.
I'd like to know the sociolinguistic explanation of why it is so, or the philosophy behind it.
I'd prefer an in-depth answer please.


texts: Meaning of 意義があるかどうかは自分で判断しないかもしれません

texts:
I understand what 判断する means e.g.

彼は人を見た目で判断しない - He does not judge people by appearances.

However, I'm failing to understand what is being meant by 自分で判断しないかもしれません in the last part of this exchange.

自分で判断しない from my understanding means something like "to not decide by oneself". However I think I am missing something to help me understand what she is trying to say.

A little bit of extra context:

神奈様 is actually a God who wants to live as a human (and currently is) for reasons currently unknown to the reader.
Person 1 is the new 巫女 at the 神社 who realises that is it 'empty'
Person 2, not much is known about them.

  Person 2「神奈様は人として生きたがっています」

  Person 1 「それは私も伺いました」

  Person 2「それっていけないことなんですか？」

  Person 1 「そう願うことは悪いことではないでしょう。ですが、そこには神奈さんが神であるという厳然たる事実が立ち塞がります」

  Person 2「『生まれ』からは逃れられないということですか」

  Person 1 「あなたは、神奈さんに逃げてほしいと思いますか？」

  Person 2「っ……それは……」

  Person 1 「本当に考えなければならないことというのは、時に心を苛みます」

  Person 1 「ですから、味方が必要なのです。でも、耳に心地よいことばかり言う者が味方とは限りません」

  Person 1「対決しなければならない敵は自分――自らをそこに追いこむことはなかなか難しいことです」

  Person 2 「あなたはいやがられても、神奈様のためになることをするというのですか？」

  Person 1 「必要とあらば。でも、それに意義があるかどうかは自分で判断しないかもしれません」

  Person 2「…………よく、わかりません。言ってることが難しいです……」


texts:
Context: some students have been ordered by the student council to go to a meeting to talk about a competition with another school, but one of them refuses to go. Then the teacher replies.

Student: なぜ我々が奴らに従わねばならんのだ。話があるのなら向こうが出向けば良いだろう。
Teacher: まぁそう言うなって。今年の勝敗はお前達にかかってると睨んでの指示だろうからな。

My attempt: "Come on, don't say that. This year's victory depends on you, so I think they ordered you to go just to keep an eye on you".
I think that the sense is that the student council doesnt'have bad intentions, they just want to be sure they will win the competition. Is this the correct meaning? Thanks for your help!


texts: When using しか, which part do we have to negate?

texts:
I want to say "Mathematics is the only thing I trust." using しか. But I am not sure which part I have to negate.
Which one is the correct one? A or B?

A: 数学しか信頼できるものじゃない。
B: 数学しか信頼でないものだ。


texts: もっとわきをしめて。インパクトの瞬間に力を集中させる。 Relating to JP sword art. What does this mean?

texts:
Context: MC is giving advice about sword practice to a young knight.
It seems that MC practiced JP sword art "kendo" back when he was still in his original world.

もっとわきをしめて。インパクトの瞬間に力を集中させる。

My translation: "Put more force to the armpit. Concentrate your power at the moment of impact"
If my TL is wrong please give me your English translation. I don't know much about kendo.


texts: Proverb? "When you have completed 95 percent of your journey, you are only halfway there."

texts:
Around the Internet, "When you have completed 95 percent of your journey, you are only halfway there" is floating around as a Japanese proverb.
A Google search for Japanese proverb "only halfway there" gives 12,000+ hits and several Instagram-ready quote photos.  None of the first 100 hits cite a Japanese source.
What is the actual proverb in Japanese?


texts:
⊂((・x・))⊃

I see it in chat in some multiplayer games from Japanese players


texts: About -eru and -aru verb pairs that are not transitive/intransitive counterpart of each other

texts:
Most -eru and -aru pairs of verbs that I know are transitive/intransitive counterparts of each others. For example, 見つかる is the intransitive counterpart for the transitive 見つける, and 変わる is the intransitive counterpart for the transitive 変える.

But there is one special pair of -eru and -aru that I know for sure is not transitive/intransitive. They are actually both transitives:

  預ける {あずける}
  預かる {あずかる}

Furthermore, the beautiful part of this pair is they are complementing each other by having each one of them covering the opposite sides of the action of 預ける / 預かる:

  子猫のチーを預けました。
  I entrusted (someone) to take care of Chii the kitten.

  子猫のチーを預かりました。
  (Someone) entrusted me to take care of Chii the kitten.

Are there any other pairs of -eru/-aru verbs that have the similar relation with each other? Is there special class of verbs for this kind of verb pairs? Or is 預ける / 預かる the only pair?

p/s: I'm not sure how to write -eru in hiragana; 〜える looks weird because it seems to only covers verbs that literally end with える like かえる etc.


texts: Can a list's last noun help imply the common suffixial morphemes of it's sister nouns?

texts:
Sorry if the title is confusing, but the gist of it is whether the given sentence:

鶏肉とか、豚肉とか、牛肉ですよ。

May be truncated down to:

鶏とか、豚とか、牛肉ですよ。or maybe 鶏、豚、牛肉ですよ。

You know, if there're suffix morphemes that are common to all the list members, can the last element be used to imply these common morphemes in a way like those shown above. Or does Japanese not allow this like English does with multi-word noun-phrases?


texts:
I want to express 'These past one and a half years...'.  E.g. 'These past one and a half years have been really fun!'

What I've come up with so far is: この一年半間で。。。[past tense].

I think I've just made the mistake of literally translating it though.


texts: How can I say "I apologize if I sound presumptuous"?

texts:
Recently I've been talking on Twitter with a few people and at some point I wanted to say phrase that I have written in the title. I probably didn't express myself very well because the only think I had come up with when I replied was by using もし僭越なら...
What I would like to know is how can I express something by saying..."if I sound (arrogant, bossy for example). Can you perhaps help with more examples? Thank you!


texts: What does さようなら (左様なら) have to do with "left"?

texts: What is the relationship between 左様なら and 左? I assume there's some idiomatic meaning for "left" but how does it fit?


texts: Function of に and meaning of ものだ in this sentence

texts:
The context is : some people are acting stupidly, and someone else  watching them says this :

  困ったものです。こういう連中には...

My first thought was to translate the sentence in the following way :

  That kind of guys are annoying.

With the idea that the speaker is annoyed BY (に) the group and that it's a personal feeling (ものだ).

But the translation I have roughly says :

  "That kind of guys should be ashamed."

I know that ものだ can have a meaning close to べきだ, like if we were expecting the action to take place, which would fit with the translation I have. But then I would expect the sentence to end with 連中は and not 連中には for the group to be the subject... Unless there can be a construction of 困る with に, other than "be embarrased by something..." that I'm not aware of...

So, which に/ものだ is it?

Thanks.


texts:
In the Japanese radiotelephony alphabet, all kana are assigned a mnemonic code word in the form Nippon no ni (日本のニ)... except one.

ヱ (we) alone stands out with kagi no aru we (かぎのあるヱ).  Why is this used instead of eg. ゑびすのヱ, and what does "we that has the key" mean?

Note that ゐどのヰ is used for ヰ, another obsolete kana with a homophone, so I presume there's more to it that just avoiding potential confusion between エ and ヱ.


texts: 向こうも向こうで What does this mean in this context ? (mukou mo mukou de) Is this some kind of Japanese Idiom?

texts:
Context: MC talking with 2 girls in his team. The detective (who was helping MC to clear his name from the false accusation of police and find out who is the real murderer) has left the crime investigation after received a warning letter from the culprit.

G1: まったく勝手な奴だわ。
G2:察するに……犯人に脅迫をされているようだな。
MC: 脅迫…
G2: 向こうも向こうで (I don't understand this line) こちらの動きをある程度掴んでいるということだ。油断は出来ないな。

Can someone give me the English translation of the last sentence?
My guess: "G2: The opponent (the culprit) can also do whatever he wants to us. It means that our opponent has already got some idea of our movements. I guess we can't let our guard down now."


texts: What exactly does the song title 「恋するカレン」 mean?

texts:
「恋するカレン」is a song by 大滝詠一 from his 1981 album A Long Vacation. Lyrics for reference.
The part I am confused about is, who exactly is the actor i.e., person doing 恋する and who is it directed towards?
Possible translations I could think of

Love Karen
I love you Karen
Karen in Love

1.Sounds too vague in my opinion. 2. doesn't seem like it because he could have used 恋しているカレン or maybe 愛しているよカレン instead to make it more obvious (I might be wrong here). 3. seems to be the closest translation when I eliminate 1 and 2


texts: Is ～がる suffix limited to specific adjectives only?

texts:
I noticed that there are some adjectives that have ～がる suffix to make them into verbs. Some examples from WWWJDIC:

  ほしがる
  こわがる
  いたがる
  くるしがる
  さびしがる
  うれしがる

Apparently ～たい form also can take the ～がる suffix to become ～たがる suffix:

  いきたがる

Rikaichan popup explains the ～がる as:

  to feel (on adj-stem to represent third party's apparent emotion); to behave as if one were

So I thought that I could append this suffix to any adjectives to add those connotations. However, it seems that not all adjectives and ～たい have the suffix. WWWJDIC does not return any exact matches for the following words:

  やさしがる  (to behave as if one were nice?)
  きたがる  (to feel that one wants to come? - Since いきたがる exists so logically きたがる should exist too?)
  ねむがる (to behave as if one were sleepy?)

My question is, as in the title, is ～がる suffix limited to specific adjectives only? How do we know which adjectives can have the suffix and which adjectives can't?


texts:
言っておくが、私に怒っても始まらないよ。= I'm telling you it will do you no good to be angry at me.
Does が mean 'but' in the sentence?
Does おく mean 'in advance' in the sentence?
If YES, what lead to the translation above?

Note:
A related question 言っておくと


texts: Using parentheses (=round brackets) with equals sign

texts:
First, I want to say that this is in no way to question the way somebody is writing. I'm just curious.

I have noticed that some Japanese people here use parentheses and an equals sign to clarify some word or to "define a variable". Example:

  ...very difficult to explain grammatically even to Japanese （＝日本人）.

I am pretty sure that most English speakers (or the part of the internet where I've spent most of my time) don't use the equals sign, so I came to the conclusion that this must be a Japanese thing.

Does this carry some other meaning than using plain parentheses in English? Also, is this used in official texts or is it just an informal way to clarify something?


texts:
A while ago, I heard the word ぶっちゃけ on a comedy show used to mean "frankly."

I'd like to know three things:

1) How polite/impolite is this word?
Looking it up online, it seems to be slang. I guess I shouldn't be using it at work...

2) If it is impolite/casual, what is a formal word with a similar meaning?
I saw 率直に suggested online as a more formal alternative. Are there other good words to use?

3) Who uses this word/When was this word popular?
Now that I think of it, I haven't heard anyone in "real life" use this word. Is it only used by a certain group (i.e., teenagers) or was only popular for a short time? Do most people know what it means?


texts: What is the difference between 当 and この?

texts:
I am making a website and needed inspiration for a "404 not found" page in Japanese.
Going to a non-existent page on Amazon.co.jp (ex: amazon.co.jp/aaaaaaa) gives this message:

何{なに}かお探{さが}しですか？
入力{にゅうりょく}したURLが当{とう}サイトのページと一致{いっち}しません

When I translated it to English with Google translate, it meant:
Are you looking for something?
The URL you entered does not match the page on this site

I then clicked the ⇄ to translate the English I just received back to Japanese, and I saw that 当サイト got replaced with このサイト.
I know they both mean this website but what is the difference between using 当{とう} and using この?


texts:
While trying to write a plugin to (unofficially fan-)translate this website to Japanese, I've been noticing that "all" has multiple different translations.

What exactly is the difference between 全部（の）, すべて（の）, あらゆる and 全体（の）?

These are the translations I've currently come up with, but I don't know if they're correct:

"all tags »"/"all badges »" links on the right panel of the "Top Questions" page: すべてのタグ »/すべてのバッジ »
"All Questions" page: すべての質問
The "all sites" tab in the Stack Exchange popup (in the top left corner): すべてのサイト

What would be the difference between 全部のサイト, あらゆるサイト, すべてのサイト and 全体のサイト?


texts: besides meaning of preparation, what is other meaning of Te Oku

texts:
I have learned that Te Oku means "to do something in advance for preparation".
However I have encountered this sentence :

  その紙は いらないのですてておいてください
  This paper is not needed, please throw it away.

I dont understand why Te Oku is used here.
I wonder if Te Oku has another meaning. Is that right ?


texts:
For more context, see the full text here:
https://www.docdroid.net/RdEh6ZK/img-20170712-0001-new.pdf

Taken from line 3:
すると、一人の男が「そんな物、怖がってどうするんだ。...」といばった。

On jisho, どうする translates into "what to do about it" http://jisho.org/search/dousuru
I feel rather unsure about the implementation of this meaning here.
I'd translate the sentence like this:

"Hereupon, one of the men bragged: "Such things, being afraid what to do about it?..."

I think this phrase goes in the direction of "Such things, why bother with being afraid?" or "such things, what do you do about feeling afraid". The latter would imply a question about what they do to cope with it.
I would say that the first of the two interpretations is probably more fitting here, but as I said, I don't really know what to do with this どうする here.


texts:
I'm trying to understand the quote "One Piece is real" and have found the following corresponding expression in Japanese:

  ワンピース 実在する

However, this looks more like it means "One Piece does exist".

Is the English translation just off and this is the actual meaning, or are there other ways of saying "One Piece is real" in Japanese, which don't mean "One Piece does exist"?


texts: what is the difference between 観察 and 観測

texts:
According to JDIC, both mean "observation".
Judging from the Kanji used, I'm guessing the difference is 観測 has a nuance of observing something and measuring some aspect of it or taking data, whereas 観察 is just to observe and monitor what's happening.


texts: Analyzing sentences like 日本がピンチだ and 明日は雨だ

texts:
How are sentences like 日本がピンチだ (Japan is in a pinch) and 明日は雨だ (tomorrow it will rain) analyzed?

Translating them trivially, as

  日本がピンチだ Japan is a pinch
  明日は雨だ Tomorrow is rain

doesn't make sense. So something must be going on. Is it

日本 and 明日are topics, not subjects

This would only make sense if が is interpreted as a topic marker, which would be an expansion from its usual interpretation: a subject marker. "This wouldn't be a problem for the second example" you might say, but e.g. subordinate clause 明日が雨だったら is valid, and has the same problem.
ピンチ and 雨 are の-adjectives

  ピンチの国　→　日本がピンチだ
  雨の日　→　明日は雨だ

Loose/alternate interpretation of copula

You might argue that the Japanese copula doesn't equate things to the same degree as the English one, but merely associates them. This might seem the most straightforward explanation, but looking at the wikipedia article on copula, such interpretations are not mentioned.
Something else?


texts: 孫悟飯 - Songohan, why non-Japanese say it comes from "gohan = meal/cooked rice"?

texts:
As a French I've always heard that Songohan's name comes from gohan meaning meal/cooked rice. The English Wiki says the same and even mentions ご飯.

But I don't understand why, since the names in the family are like this:

孫悟空 Songokū
孫悟飯 Songohan
孫悟天 Songoten

So it seems only the last kanji changes between the characters, and since 飯 alone already means meal/cooked rice, and 悟飯 alone doesn't mean anything, why do we focus on gohan and not only han to explain the name of the character?

EDIT: after reading your answers, I realized my mistake was to read 飯 alone as han. That's why I didn't understand people saying "the name means meal because of go + han" since to me han alone already meant meal.

I'm sure noone understands what I mean but thank you, it's clear now.


texts: SEOプラグインにおけるlocationは何を意味するのでしょうか？ What does "location" mean within a SEO plugin

texts:
すみません。母語サイトに帰って来てしまいました。

自分のビジネスサイトをSEO強化させる為にSEOプラグインで有名なYoast SEOを使い始めたら元がアメリカ製のプラグインなので日本語化が不十分でいつの間にか英→日翻訳を助けるようになりました。（日本語化率現在56％）。その中で英語でlocationという言葉にぶち当たってしまったのですが適当な言葉は何でしょう。教えて下さい(m_m)。（個人的にはドメインかと推測しています。）

I started using a SEO plug-in, called Yoast SEO, which is a tool to enhance the internal structure inside your or business homepage. Because the plug-in is ( was ) developed by Americans, however very popular, though the language fitness to Japanese is yet 56%, I started helping translation. However, I am not sure how I should translated the word "location", which you can see at the picture, could anyone have any idea what this could mean. ( I personally guessing this could be a "domain" ). Thank you and I know I am at the risk of this being busted.


texts:
Every example I see with だれ and a copula has だれ placed at the end (あの方はだれですか。)  Will changing the order to だれがあの方ですか。be acceptable or mean something else?

Also, how do I write "Who has A car?"  I want to say だれがくるまがありますか but it looks odd having 2 が　particles.


texts: Identification of ライヤ: 来夜、来耶、来也 and its meaning

texts:
I do not know what is the correct word for ライヤ in the song 雷火ライヤ from Stella Glow, nor its meaning.

There are 2 sources that give the title of the song:

  雷火{らいか}来耶{ライヤ}
  雷火{らいか}来夜{ライヤ}

Also up for consideration is 来也 from 自来也.

Here are the lyrics from the first stanza:

  歌えや雷火ライヤ、おどれや雷火ライヤ
  拍手と喝采の波さえ愛紡ぐ
  怒りも雷火ライヤ、力よ雷火ライヤ
  祭り囃子煽り立てよ、巡りあう星たちを
  全て武器にして猛る心で
  熱き疾風となってこの空駆けるや

And the corresponding lines involving ライヤ for the next stanza:

  浮かれや雷火ライヤ、騒げや雷火ライヤ... ...
  祈れや雷火ライヤ、讃えや雷火ライヤ... ...

Thoughts for 来夜:

The English title is "Fiery Night".
But would it not simply be 雷火夜 then? What does 来 add to this apart from musical metre/rhythm?

Thoughts for 來也:

There exists 自来也 which possibly comes from 我来也 , which I understand as "I am come" as an archaic expression (much like the grammar in the Christmas carol lyric "Joy to the world, the Lord is come")
In this sense I imagine 雷火来也 to mean "Fire is come" with archaic tones.

I have no arguments for 来耶 except that it be a variant of 來也.

What is the correct word in the lyrics, and what does it mean?


texts:
Looking through resources, it seems that あまり ~ない can be used for 'not verb often', 'not verb much' and 'not verb well' depending on the context. Is there an easy way to tell which version is being used in a sentence and any way to make my own sentences' meanings clearer?
For example:
あまり食べません
could mean I don't eat much or I don't eat often.
And if I wanted to say "I don't often speak Japanese" could I say
日本語はあまり話さない without it being misunderstood as "I don't speak Japanese well"?


texts:
I've seen this in a few texts now and since it's appeared with some frequency I thought to post the question here. I tried searching online but came up with no real conclusions.

ありませんから or plain form ないから

I understand the ありません / ない, what is a little vague to me is the addition of から at the end.

I've included a sample sentence to add some context.

まだまだ中に戻る気はありませんからね。

Thank you for the assistance.


texts: Does なんかいいな and 焼いてるboth refer to jealousy?

texts:
I am looking for some clarification as to the connotations/meanings of both なんかいいな and 焼いてるin the following snippet -

  なんかいいな、と思ってよ。 お前がそんな風に誰かの世話焼いてるところなんて、見たことなかったからな…

I have heard that なんていいな can mean jealousy or envy (but not in a serious way) the above passage says なんかいいな however, か instead of て, Is なんかいいな the same as なんていいな ?

焼いてる Refers to burning, but I've heard that this can also mean jealousy/envy in some instances, looking at the above passage I think this might be right, can someone confirm? With the ところ following it, it makes me think that it could mean 'on the verge of jealousy' is that right?


texts: What's the difference between て form for verbs: 'go' and 'says'

texts:
If いきます means 'to go' and いいます　means 'to say or call', then how do these verbs convert into て form?
Aren't they the same since they both end in 〜ち、〜り、〜い　＋　ます?
Is this correct? How do you change it?

行きます → 行って → to go
いいます → いって → to say/to call


texts: My course book states that plain form + なあ can be used to express feelings, eg. うらやましいなあ　I envy you. My question is how to use a ~な　adjective with -なあ. eg. would it be 上手なあ or 上手だなあ?


texts:
Is one derived from the other?  身近 means - amongst other definitions - "close/near to one(self)", so it's not that much of a leap to say that something near to you is a "short" distance away, and get 短い from that.  Is there any truth to this, or is it just coincidental?  Or this there some other kind of connection between these words?

Bonus Question:  Does the correct spelling of 身近 use a じ or a ぢ?　Related Discussion


texts: What is the difference between 大凡(おおよそ) and 凡そ(およそ)?

texts:
彼女のおおよその年齢しか知らない。 We can only know her approximate age.
旅はおよそ５時間くらいかかるでしょう。The trip will take some five hours.

I even found a sentence with both of them:

１浪でおよそ20％台の合格率で、2浪以上ではおおよそ2～3％台とかなり低迷しています。(source)

Jisho gives the same definitions for the both:
おおよそ
およそ
I found that in the dictionary of grammar:

It would mean that all other usages of およそ can't be conveyed by おおよそ or I don't understand this explanation correctly...?


texts: What is the proper way to write a professional email to a business?

texts:
I'm not sure how I would write a professional email to a business in Japanese. For example, if I wanted to start out with "Hello," I wouldn't say こんにちは, would I? I know there are polite ways of saying things in Japanese, including special conjugations for verbs.

Basically I would like to know how to start out an email, ways to write the body professionally, and end politely.


texts:
Google search and dictionaries give me no help, and god knows translators aren't to be trusted.  If you search ゆらまひ in google, images of a certain pair of girls who look like twins come up, does that have anything to do with it?

Context:  It was commented upon a music video, and was the only such comment.


texts:
So, today one of the topics boarded in the lessons I'm taking was the form

  ～かもしりません

Now, I'm thinking the しれません part comes from the potential form of 知る. That way, in the sentence, it would mean something like "can't know", giving the "guessing" property of the form.

Could someone confirm if this train of thought is correct? Also, I haven't found a meaning for the かも bit, so I would appreciate one if possible.


texts:
I have difficulty understanding the usage of に in two sentences I found from manga.

もう彼に彼女とヨリを戻す気は...
He no longer wants to get back to his girlfriend.

and

私には素敵な彼女ができた。
I got a wonderful girlfriend.

In the first sentence, why 彼に is used instead of 彼が? Is it similar to に used in passive sentences?
In the second sentence, why XにYができる is used to mean "X took up Y" in the context of relationships? I don't understand why this particular construction used. I prefer XがYとできる.
I already read this answer. It doesn't help much because if I try to translate the two sentences above literally with "by/unto" it will make things strange and awkward. For example, the first sentence can be understood literally as

Getting back to his girlfriend by him...

It is difficult to translate.
What is the role of に in the two sentences above?


texts:
Sentence:まさかあれだけやって起きんとは...
Translate: (I didn't expect) No matter what I do, he won't wake up.

What does とは mean at the end of this sentence?


texts:
I've seen sentences like

彼女に孫が一人いる。
彼に本当の友達がいない。

In a reference book (see the picture below, No.17), it says that the particle 「に」 is to introduce the "owner" of something or someone. But in the dictionary スーパー大辞林, I didn't find this meaning for 「に」. Does it mean this meaning is seldom used today?
Can I say something like:

私に本がたくさんある。

to mean that "I have a lot of books."?


texts: What is the message of the song Aoi Shiori?

texts:
What are the more subtle messages held in Aoi Shiori? I think the English translation lacks a bit of the deeper undertones of the Japanese song. Please answer the following questions:

What is the meaning of this?

  どれか一つをえらべば　音をたてて壊れる

  If you choose any one, it will break with a sound -
  That is what love is, I joked, and you laughed.

Is it known what "the two of you" refers to? In the Japanese lyrics, is it known if "the two of you" refers to the "narrator" and the person he's singing about? Or is it the person he's singing about and someone else?

I'm trying to learn some vocabulary from songs and answers would be awesome. If there's any other subtext that I'm missing please don't hesitate to add it onto your answer.


texts: What does 「のではないか」really mean in "血が滲む「のではないかという」くらい強く握り締めた拳 "

texts:
I've found "might/perhaps" explanation on stack, and it fitted this sentence:

  「初めはその指輪も含めて、自虐の趣味があるのではないかと思っていたが……」

But this explanation doesn't work on this sentence:

  血が滲む「のではないかという」くらい強く握り締めた拳 .

I was told that the sentence above has the same meaning as:

  「まるで」血が滲む「ような」くらい強く握り締めた拳

So what does のではないか actually mean?


texts: Why is で necessary in the following sentence?

texts:
I used Google Translate to say "I'm not Korean."

I expected something like:

  私は韓国人はない

However, I got this:

  私は韓国人ではない

Why is the で used in this situation?


texts:
驚いた私は、話をわかる限り聞いたので、報告します。

How would you translate this sentence? I'm not sure about the meaning of 限り.


texts: Is this 「より」used to make a comparison in this sentence

texts:
I have been trying to work on my Japanese particles for the past few days. I’m using a workbook titled “Japanese particle workbook” and I’m on it’s second usage of より where it says it’s the “indication of a comparison”,however; one of the sentences used as example doesn’t seem like an comparison much at all, and I’m having trouble with the way the book is labeling and translating it.
Here’s the sentence with the translation:
新しい車を買うより仕方がありません。
There’s no other way than to buy a new car.
To me it just seems that they took the dictionary definition of より “than” and just used that for their translation. Is this a nuanced sort of comparison that I’m not understanding that goes beyond the English translation? I’m having trouble wrapping my head around how this sentences より is used for comparison. Also I would like to note that that the テレビを見るより... example using “Rather” in its translation may be throwing me off a bit.


texts: grammar usage:ｘもｙもｚもあります vs ｘとｙとｚはあります

texts:
I read the first sentence in a graded reader, and I'm wondering why the author chose the first grammar pattern over the second.

絵本{えほん｝もピアノもテレビもあります。

絵本とピアノとテレビがあります。

What is the difference in meaning between these two phrases, or, if the meaning is relatively similar, why would you choose to use one over the other?


texts: The difference between 「人文科学」　and 「社会科学」

texts:
I want to know the different between these two words.

The meaning is the same which is social science.

So, what is the difference?

Edit: Sorry for confusing question. I mean the different usage.


texts: 「電車が空く【すく】」 と「 電車が空く【あく】」

texts:
「電車が空く【すく】」と「電車が空く【あく】」はどう違いますか？
説明が難しい場合は、例文を教えていただけませんか。


texts: Trying to translate "さすがに悪事を働いてそれを自分で解決するなんて真似はしない" as close to Japanese as possible

texts:
Original Japanese sentence:

さすがに悪事を働いてそれを自分で解決するなんて真似はしない

English translation:

As expected, I decided(emphasis) that I will not conduct any crimes.

Some context:

  A: 「つまり誰かの不幸に居合わせる幸運が必要になる。それを解決してこその英雄ってわけだ」
  B: 「おい、まさか……」
  A: 「安心しろ、さすがに悪事を働いてそれを自分で解決するなんて真似はしない。それにそんなことしなくても、この世に完全な平和なんてありえない。必ずどこかしらで不幸なことは起きている」


texts:
彼はなんでもかんでも人のせいにする。あまりの理不尽さに怒りを通り越して呆れてしまう。

how did we make 怒りを通り越して this sentence pattern, can anyone explain it in detail.


texts:
Is there a disappointed or sad "boo" equivalent in Japanese?

Kind of like:

  Person 1: Hey man, can I borrow 10 dollars?
  Person 2: Nah, I don't have any change.
  Person 1: Boo, now I don't have enough to go to the concert.


texts:
Could I use 番 instead of 番号 here?

  私たちの部屋の番号は三十一です。


texts: Is it ok for non-japanese to refer to themselves as 僕{ぼく} and if not why?

texts: Grammatically speaking it shouldn't be an issue, but I have heard from some people that a non-japanese using 僕{ぼく} sounds really weird.  Has anyone else heard this?  And if so, is there a reason?


texts: I might, for example, come across one of these lines after a battle in a RPG or whatever. いくわよ・いくぞ by themselves can mean things like "let's go", "let's do this" etc, but I'm not quite sure how どんどん changes this. Based on the definitions I can find it seems to add the element of "continuation" but also that it's done "vigorously". But my question is what does it mean. Is it an imperative like "let's keep it up people" or is it an imperative to pick up the pace?


texts: English for 会心 as a stat in an online game

texts:
Simple question, Google Translate and rikaikun translate 会心 as "Satisfaction" or "Congeniality", although if it is in an online game where it is a stat attribute, what do you think would be the best official translation?

We still do not know the mechanics of this in the game since it is fairly new.


texts: What is the proper pronunciation for 十分/１０分? じっぷん or じゅっぷん?

texts:
My Japanese textbook only lists じゅっぷん.  Our Japanese sensei (a quite old woman) says じっぷん but notes that it's optionally じゅっぷん. Our TAs all say じゅっぷん.

I understand that Middle Chinese 十 was "jip" and the thing went through じふ->じう->じゆう->じゅう, but what about 十分?

Clearly じっぷん seems to be the etymologically correct pronunciation, but which one is the more modern-day official and widespread pronunciation (i.e. more commonly used and accepted), rather than simply historically correct?

Edit: How about １０分? Is the more common pronunciation of １０分 different?


texts:
These are from a patent related document and I can't understand very well.

They are used like these：

1) 特許庁長官殿
2) 出証意2012

Can anyone help me?


texts:
I'm to conjugate 注意する and associate it with either of "てあげる", "てくれる" and ”てもらう" in the following sentence:

  隣の人がうるさくて眠れないので、大家さんから静かにするように(注意する)_____ことにしました。

I picked "注意してもらう", which gives this, and which I translate as follows:

  隣の人がうるさくて眠れないので、大家さんから静かにするように注意してもらうことにしました。

  My neighbour is noisy and I cannot get to sleep, so I decided to get my landlord to ask them to be quiet.

Are my choice and my translation correct?


texts:
kono team ga makeru (hazu ga nai / wake ga nai).

Which one is correct?
How do we differentiate the use of the above?


texts: How to express "They only think about themselves"

texts:
I am trying to come up with this sentence, but I feel like some parts of it are too literal and idiomatic, and some words I used here are new to me, so maybe I made some poor decisions when picking them. Could you help me with that?

"Sometimes I feel like most people only think about themselves. If they need your help, they'll contact you. If they don't need it (if you're not useful to them) they won't contact you at all, like they don't care(it's not their business)"

  時々、ほとんどの人は自分についてだけを考える感じがある。手伝ってほしかったら、連絡する。君は有用じゃなかったら、全然連絡しなくて、関係ない感じがある

I feel like "think about themselves" is idiomatic and i'm not so sure about the usage of "useful" here.


texts:
I have recently started reading novels as a means to improve my Japanese after reaching a comfortable enough level to do so.

I am familiar with the use of the non-past form (dictionary form) in Japanese narration to convey a sense of the present (the action occurs at the time of utterance) in which case it feels closer to the English use of the past tense than the present progressive, in the sense that the action is complete.

My question is about the interpretation of when these verbs appear before nouns (attributive verbs). More specifically when the verb is an action rather than a state or emotion, for example :

俺の肩を掴む手をそっとはずす.

差し込む日差しは春のように柔らかで...

倒れている俺と剣を構える兵士の間に...

泣きじゃくる少女の背中を優しくさする.

Now from the context as I remember it, all of these should have been ongoing actions (or states resulting from an action) rather than actions that occurred at the time of utterance (I say that because I remember clearly the action starting a couple of lines earlier in most of these cases), so it should have been something like
掴んでいる手...  剣を構えている兵士... 泣きじゃくっている少女... etc

Another way of interpreting them (especially if they come up in a conversation rather than narration) is as habits, which is clearly not the case here.
Can you please tell me how I should subtly understand this pattern? I am reasoning based on a conclusion I reached that apart from verbs expressing states or internal emotions the dictionary form never expresses something that's ongoing right now.

Thanks in advance!


texts: Translation of the sentence and its relation with the text in circle brackets

texts:
I can't completely understand the second sentence, especially connecting the parts in circle brackets with the narration. I tried to make a translation, could somebody please check if I'm understanding something wrong?

Fast translation:
On the other hand, some part of her mind also felt strangely clear (Kei's death)(legend of a witch) (Munakata's family)(this school itself)(Aya and group) various thoughts(red...) gave birth to countless wheerpools(inside of mine...), merging with each other, and racking her tired heart(red...).

Does by various thoughts speaker means all of the facts before（恵の死）...?

  まだ七時だというのに、眠くて仕方なかった。一方ではしかし、妙に冴えた部分もあって（恵の死）（魔女の伝説）（宗像の家）（この学園そのもの）（綾たちのグループ）さまざまなもの思いが（赤い・・・・・・）いくつもの渦を作り（わたしの中の・・・・・・）お互いに絡み合い、疲れた心を揺り動かしている（緋い・・・・・・）。
  もう寝てしまおう、と思った。


texts:
I found the following example sentence in my dictionary.

川沿いに歩く。Walk along a river.

I looked it up and found out that 川沿い is a noun. Then に should be a particle. But here clearly it doesn’t indicate the location of existence or the direction of motion. So what usage of に is this?


texts: Difference of reading between [易]{やさ}しい and -[易]{やす}い

texts: [易]{やさ}しい and -[易]{やす}い use the same kanji for essentially the same meaning. Why is the reading different? Is this just chance or this is due (historically) to grammar (ありがとうございます comes from ありがたい for instance).


texts: What is the difference between 後ずさった and 後ずさりした as an example, and the difference between past-tense-form-verb and masu-stem-verb + した as general ?


texts:
Recently met this phrase several times in the context like affirmative or positive answer.
Googling it didn't help muchб and it doesn't look like typo too.
For me it looks like まえ rather naturally transforms to めー here, so I think it's probably some kind of slang, isn't it?


texts:
here is an extract from a manga that gives me troubles : (|| = column breaks in the manga)

ただし||お前達の相手は||私一人でいい||一対一で闘い||私が勝ったら||次の者が||また　私と闘うのだ...

First : can you confirm that there are 2 different sentences :

ただしお前達の相手は私一人でいい。
However, I will be your only opponent. (???)

And

一対一で闘い私が勝ったら次の者がまた私と闘うのだ...
We wll fight one vs one and, if I win, the next person will fight with me again....

And that 闘い is equivalent to 闘って there? (Which sounds weird to me because I learned that it had a litterary use only and the character is speaking informally the rest of the time, using だ instead of です, 楽しませてくれ, instead ot 楽しませてください and so on...)
Assuming I'm right until there, I don't get what the first sentence means (especially why いい is used instead of a simple 私一人だ, but I found a lot of 私一人でいい occurences on google so...)。
Or I'm wrong and で is the てform of だ and いい modifies 一対一で, and I don't understand it either : Fight a good  one vs one?)
Or, (thinking while writing), I'm wrong again and 闘い is just a noun and not the equivalent of 闘って and there is an を particle ommited after 闘い and いい modifies 一対一で闘い and then :

ただしお前達の相手は私一人で

However, I will be your only opponent, and

いい一対一で闘いを私が勝ったら

If I win a good one on one fight,

次の者また私と闘うのだ...

The next person will fight with me again...


texts: What's a good grammatical antonym for the auxiliary verb 始める?

texts: What's a good grammatical opposite for the auxiliary usage of the verb 始める, meaning that you're describing the beginning of a verb?


texts: Should I speak in the local dialect and/or accent of an area?

texts:
I'm planning to go to Tohoku for at least a week, and Lonely Planet, Wikitravel and TVTropes all mention that Tohoku-ben is a bit different from how Tokyoites would speak.  TVTropes also mention that not all Tohoku residents speak in the same way, either - not relevant to this question, but I don't want to misinform anyone.

What advantages and disadvantages are there in speaking in the local dialect (ie their vocabulary and grammar) and/or accent (ie how they pronounce words)?

Disadvantages:

If I'm seen as deliberately doing an "zuuzuu-ben" accent, will people think I'm making fun of it? TVTropes mentions that that accent has been made fun of in fiction. It's possible I'll accidentally pick up a Tohoku accent during my stay, but then it'll be the real thing, rather than an exaggeration of it.
I'm more likely to get something new wrong rather than something I've practiced for a while.
A foreigner speaking a local dialect or accent may be seen as a bit silly.

Advantages:

Speaking with a local accent would probably make it easier to understand when other people speak with that accent. For example, if I have previously said "itsu" with a Tohoku accent, then I'll be more likely to understand when someone else says "itsu" with a Tohoku accent.
Speaking in the local dialect or accent may give the impression the speaker is putting more of an effort into what they're saying, which is seen as respectful.


texts:
I've heard this:

  ありがとう お腹すいてたんだ

Why "-te" form? And is て there at all? It looks to me ungrammatical.

Why not this?

  ありがとう お腹すいたんだ


texts: Are foreign adjectives always な adjectives?

texts:
Sitting in a restaurant yesterday I saw a sign advertising a mango flavoured bagel. It was described as トロピカルな味.

That just got me wondering... whenever a 外来語【がいらいご】(word taken from a foreign language / "loan word") is used as an adjective, is it always a な adjective?

Are there any examples of loanword い adjectives?

Are there any general guidelines as to how loan words are made to conform to Japanese adjective rules.

(Please note I'm not familiar with linguistics, so even though I'm asking a fairly technical grammatical question, please dumb it down for me as much as possible. Thanks!)


texts:
Many native English speakers cannot state an exact definition of "bride" with regard to when one starts, and stops, being a "bride".

  Is "嫁" also vague?
  How bad of a translation of "bride" is "嫁"?


texts:
What is the difference between the following two sentences?

お酒は机の上にあります。
机の上にお酒があります。


texts: What's the difference between 伸ばす and 伸べる?

texts:
Just for example, can I say both 手を伸ばす and 手を伸べる? Is there any difference between them? Are they interchangeable?
If it's possible, make similar examples, please.


texts: What is the meaning of this Japanese sentence?

texts:
The scene: A boy plays a ghita on the street to earn money then a bunch of yakuzas show up. They steal his ghita and say:

Yakuza1: "わしらのしま で. 何 勝手しとんじゃい" (This is our turf. You think you can do whatever you like?)

Yakuza2:"ショバ代払えね ならよォー 足りねー分は"

The yakuza 2 being hit by someone right after saying the sentence.

Does the sentence of the yakuza 2 means " If you pay for protection, you don't have enough minute..." Or " You must pay us money for protection. If you don't have enough minute...?


texts:
Recently, I've been using Siri in Japanese to set cooking timers. I've noticed she pronounced the「フ」in「十五分」clearly as /hu/, not /fu/.

From Wikipedia:

  Old Japanese does not have /h/, but rather /ɸ/ (preserved in modern fu, /ɸɯ/), which has been reconstructed to an earlier /*p/.

Also from Wikipedia:

  It represents the phoneme /hu͍/, although for phonological reasons, the actual pronunciation is [ɸu͍].

The sound sample in the Wikipedia article does sound more like /fu/.

While I understand it's basically the same phoneme for the Japanese, I do hear the difference. Hence the question.

Is the Siri's variant acceptable?