texts: Farewell letter in Japanese to a little sister

texts:
I am going to leave Japan soon and I need to say farewell to many people. One of the people I know is a little girl who is about 6 years old. She is very cute and very close to me during the time I stay here in Japan. Now, I want to write a letter to her to say goodbye as well as to tell her to be healthy, that I will remember her for a long time. I am really not sure how to write it properly in this case. Because I think I should use informal Japanese, just like a brother talking to his sister. I have learned Japanese for a while but mostly in formal and respectful forms like masu, desu.

Can you give me some guidelines for writing this letter? How should I express myself in the letter (boku, ore, watashi?), how should I mention her (anata, A-chan)? What useful phrases I can use here?

Thank you in advance!


texts:
So, I found a band called 凛{りん}として時雨{しぐれ}, and I would translate that name like "cold as the seasonal rain", but I don't know if that would be to much of a literal translation or if it has another meaning that I'm ignoring.

I would appreciate the help.


texts: What does 誰も do in this sentence, and is it needed?

texts:
「日本語で話し相手が誰もいませんでした。」

"I didn't have anyone to speak Japanese with."

I feel like 誰も is unnecessary. As far as I can tell, 「日本語で話し相手がいませんでした。」 has every element needed to express the English above. What nuance is lost if you cut out 誰も?


texts:
当然ながら箱ごと盗むなんてのは、よほどのことでもない限り不可能だし

So from the context I kind of understand it:

  "Of course stealing that box is impossible"

or something along the line.

How does the 限り function here?


texts:
I don't understand the role of "な" when used before "のに" as in these two sentences (with given translations):

  朝目がさめて初めて、外が雪なのに気がついた。

He noticed that there was snow outside only after he woke up in the morning.

  せっかくの日曜日なのに働いた。

Although Sunday is precious (to me), I worked (all day long).

I'm similarly confused by the なので pattern, but I assume the principle is the same there.
My best guesses so far are that:

There's some relation to な-adjectives, but I don't see how 雪 or 日曜日
would be acting as adjectives here.
The な has essentially the same
role as だ (i.e. a "copula"?), but you can't use だ in the middle of a
sentence like that.


texts: 自分 can mean myself and yourself but, how do you know when the speaker is referring to him/herself or to you? As in, how could you know when the speaker is saying "myself" instead of "yourself" (to the listener)?


texts:
Context: Dirrect continuation of text in previous question.

  誰かを守りたいとかそういった『意志』や
  『自己犠牲』的な感情ともちょうズレる

Since the speaker is Kansai, at first I thought these were two separate sentences and that や was Kansai だ. But now I think it is just and.

The thing that mostly confuses me, and the reason I'm posting this is the last bit ちょうズレる. For one if you trust the Japanese-English dictionaries it's something like: very/really a bit off/deviant/off. Which didn't make much sense to me because putting an intensifier and a word that means little of something together doesn't make much sense (very a bit off) and ズレる entries in English dictionaries didn't seem to fit.

Now I THINK, after checking the Japanese definition, it means more something non/standard, something that stands out and deviates from norm. Using very and something deviating from norm a bit together still feels strange, but I think the speaker is probably saying that such (level of) feelings as these (self sacrifice and determination to want to save) IS REALLY out of the ordinary. And so this is my curent translation of that line.

  Both her determination to protect someone
  and her willingness to sacrifice herself are out of the ordinary.

My question is am I right in my interpretation, and if anyone can explain to me why use ちょう and ズレる together when I'm guessing Japanese probably has other words for something being out of the ordinary without the implication of it being a BIT out of the ordinary.

Edit:

Some have gone looking for the original source. Just to clarify, I haven't yet tried to parse the rest of the comment, what I'm trying to figure out does not come from that page. That page is talking about the same manga, but that's not how it was said in the original. The following is the text in the original manga panel and is identical to what I typed I think.


texts:
If I want to say "I forgot everything about it," I would go for "全部/全て忘れた". But then I thought what about "何でも忘れた"? I know that 何でも is followed by positive predicate. But somehow this sentence sounds strange to me. I am not sure if it could also be the right way to say so.

Thank you!


texts:
What is the correct reading of word 舞桜? I found some pages, where they state, that it's one of variants of female name read as 「まお」, in this form meaning "dancing cherry blossom", but I checked in some dictionaries (e. g. jisho.org) and I couldn't find anything about this. So how is it?

P. S. I'm relatively new to the japanese language, so if you can refer me to other sources, I will be glad. Thank you.


texts: Was desu and masu originally geisha-speak?

texts:
Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo (The Japanese language the Japanese people don't know) seems to be claiming, at around 6:20 of this YouTube clip of language-specific portions of episode 4 of the show, that desu and masu were endings geisha originally used, but that during the meiji period, samurai visiting geisha in Edo (nowadays Tokyo) misinterpreted it as part of Edo's dialect and spread it across the country.

However, googling either for masu desu geisha, or teineigo (apparently a term that covers desu and masu) and geisha doesn't get any hits corroborating this claim, apart from pages citing Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo. Is this claim more amusing than backed up by factual evidence?

(Sections at or before 6:20 also has Haruko-sensei using terms translated as "standard Japanese" and "common Japanese", but I can't transcribe the original words)


texts: What does 「という事になっている」mean in this context?

texts:
小説の博士が愛したのは、オイラーの公式、e(pi i) + 1 = 0 ということになっている。

How is this 「という事になっている」in this context generally used? Is there an approximate translation that works here?


texts: can the past tense of 来る be written in kanji？

texts: can きた be written in kanji like this 来た?


texts: What is the difference between jibiki and jisho?

texts:
I see both of these words used to describe dictionary.

Can someone tell me the difference between these two?


texts: How does a single verb construct work when it has both honorific and humble auxiliaries?

texts:
An example textbook sentence:

  かかるついでに、見たてまつり給はむや　How about looking at him (Genji) on this occasion?

たてまつる is humble auxiliary,　給ふ（給う） is honorific. Does this reflect a relationship between 3 people, where:

speaker - 給ふ - addressee - たてまつる - Genji

So speaker is both elevating addressee's status with 給ふ honorific while also humbling him before Genji?


texts: How to say "I read the book again yesterday" in Japanese?

texts:
I read that また　can mean "again", so could the phrase be written as:

昨日本また読んだ(？)

(I used a casual form because I was writing for a friend)

Please let me know if this phrase would be correct! Thank you!


texts: Clarify the difference between 間違い and 違い

texts:
I thought that 違う{ちがう} means "to be difference" and 間違う{まちがう} mean "to be mistaken". But i'm pretty sure I heard 違う used as "its mistake" or "it's not right" in anime.

Also, a friend told me that in now people use 違う more to with mistake context. Could you please help me clarify this?


texts:
According to the dictionary, it's supposed to be a na-adjective, but it seems to be used somewhat commonly without the な particle, e.g.

遥か彼方
遥か氷原の彼方
遥か群衆を離れて

I think I've seen a few more variations but can't recall them at the moment.
What's going on here? Is it an exception or there is some rule I'm not aware of?


texts:
I've seen 上で quite a few times recently, in contexts like:

In the cloud
クラウド上で

and：

On the computer
コンピュータ上

In this case, is it pronounced うえ, as in クラウドうえで, or じょう?
Silly little question, but none of the tools I have (rikaichan etc) help me to find the answer. If there's a better way I could have found the answer, please let me know!


texts: What is the meaning of the expression "コツがいったり"?

texts:
I found the expression "コツがいったり" in a tourism advertisement for the 金閣寺 in 京都:

  シャッター押すのをやめて
  じっと、まぶたに焼きつけています。
  しっかり見る。しっかり感動する。
  簡単にみえても、案外、コツがいったりするんです。

From what I can see via web searches, it doesn't appear to be a particularly uncommon expression, as it is also used in lots of other sources, but I can't find any definition of it in any dictionaries.

I'm familiar with the 〜たり（する） structure, the confusion is in regards to the コツがいった. I assume that "コツ" is the same word that means "knack", "essence", or "technique", etc., but I'm not sure of the verb (if it were いる, wouldn't it normally be いたり?), and it seems to be a set expression based on its usage.

Thanks for the help!


texts: Help with the "ない" in "たまには自分を解放してあげないとね"

texts:
たまには自分を解放してあげないとね

My Japanese is pretty poor and I have trouble with dividing sentences into parts.

So I've seen a translation for the above sentence that goes like "you should let yourself relax once in a while" and my question is: since it has a ない in it, shouldn't it be a negative sentence? As in "you should not let yourself relax".

Or am I looking at this sentence the wrong way? If that's the case, what is the correct way to do it?


texts: From what I understand, すぎ means too much, till the point it is bad. For example 食べすぎ would mean "eating way too much (and it's not good)". So how would one say "eating too much (and it's good)"? Can すぎ be used here? Or a better example, "I love my wife too much (and it is a good thing)". Would 好きすぎ make it sound like it's a bad thing to love my wife too much?


texts:
ネビルはずっとメソメソしていた。罰っていったい何だろう、とハリーは思い巡らせた。
Neville kept sniffing. Harry wondered what their punishment was going to be.

Please help me understand 思い巡らせた in the sentence above, especially its conjugation.


texts:
虚; 空; 洞 【うろ】: hollow; cavity; hole

pronunciation  is only one  but  why are there three kanji words??what are they differences??


texts:
E.G. お忘れなき ＆ 迷いなし

I know they're both ways to end a a sentence, but I never could figure what make each different from the other. Anyone have a clue?


texts:
i think "恐れ入ります" means "sorry" , "excuse me", but it has another meaning "fear".which is correct in the bold sentence
A:双葉さんから(コール)で聞きましにいつの間にか帰っていたと
(don't know A or B speak ):サボタージュとは恐れ入ります


texts: Does the word 津波 (tsunami) have negative connotations?

texts:
Or is it just a neutral term for tidal waves?

(I'm considering naming a JavaScript library tsunami.js – would it be offensive?)


texts:
I heard Japanese speaker correcting himself from 面会 to 対面. Edit: The actual phrase was 「二人が 面会 対面をした時に・・・」

He was referring to a meeting of two people one-on-one in a casual setting, but still relations of the two were official.

What would be the difference between these two words? What could be the purpose of the correction?


texts: What is the etymology of 森羅万象 and what does it mean?

texts:
I have come across this word a few times:

  森羅万象{しんらばんしょう}

If you look it up, you usually get something along the lines of:

the creation
the universe
all nature

I would like to know if there's perhaps a deeper meaning to it, and also, could anybody shed some light on its etymological origin?


texts:
From No Game No life (Anime)
Context: this gamer guy is pretty pissed that his sister is falling asleep and afraid that he's gonna die in the game, but then she falls asleep, and gets hyped/irritated and says:

やったろうじゃねえか！

From what I can gather, じゃねえか is a colloquial form of じゃないか, but what is やったろう and how come it can attach じゃねえか if it's not a noun (or is it?).
Edit: I read the suggestions, and while the "didn't you?" meaning じゃないか makes sense, I still don't know what やったろう is supposed to mean. Based on the context of the situation, I think the meaning should be something like "you did, didn't you?!" because it's his reaction to his sister's having fallen asleep a second ago. Interestingly enough, the official translation of the sentence is "Fine, bring it on!".
Edit2: Found the solution to the meaning of the expression in the comments, but I would still like to hear a comprehensive explanation. Why does it mean what it means, i.e willingness to take on a difficult situation?


texts:
I am just a beginner, and I am reading Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese. My questions are:

Why is the past tense of 登録, 登録した?

Is 登録 (register) a noun or a verb?

In the following example, the word should be a verb, right? If it is a verb, it is ru-verb or u-verb?
メールアドレスを登録した。
Registered email address.

(This question is not related to any questions above and the topic) By the way, what is the best English-Japanese dictionary?  Also, how can I know if a word is a noun, i-adjective, na-adjective, u-verb,  ru-verb, or an exception?


texts: Is 「インターネットはカタツムリのように速い。」a strange expression?

texts:
If I complain to the Internet Service Provider and say a sarcasm as follows

  インターネットはカタツムリのように速い。

Is it a strange expression? Must it be rephrased directly as follows?

  インターネットはカタツムリのように遅い。

Is the former expression (with a sarcasm) used among  Japanese?

How about インターネットはカタツムリのような速さだ。?


texts:
As touched upon in another thread, there are several nouns that exhibit a kind of vowel shift in older forms, where the ending vowel is fronted when the noun is used on its own to become /i/ or /e/, compared to unfronted vowel forms /u/ or /o/ or /a/ when the noun is used in a compound.  Examples include:

天: あま vs. あめ (also for 雨)

天照{あまてらす}
雨合羽{あまがっぱ}

上: うわ vs. うえ

上着{うわぎ}

金: かな vs. かね

金槌{かなづち}
金屋{かなや}

神: かむ vs. かみ

神上{かむあ}がる
神所{かむどころ}

黄: く vs. き

黄金{くがね}

口: くつ vs. くち

轡{くつわ} from 口{くつ} + 輪{わ}

木: こ vs. き

木漏{こも}れ日{び}

声: こわ vs. こえ

声色{こわいろ}

手: た vs. て

袂{たもと} from 手{た} + 本{もと}
手折{たお}る

月: つく vs. つき

月読{つくよみ}

火: ほ vs. ひ

炎{ほのお} from 火{ほ}の穂{ほ}
火中{ほなか}

目: ま vs. め

瞬{まばた}き from 目{ま} + 叩{はた}く
瞼{まぶた} from 目{ま} + 蓋{ふた}

Now for the questions.

Does anyone have a list of all nouns known to exhibit this kind of vowel shift?

Did all nouns in ancient Japanese or proto-Japanese exhibit this vowel shift?
If it were only some nouns, were these nouns categorizable as any clear class of nouns?  As an example of a noun class, there are inseparable nouns in Polynesian languages, which generally cover things like body parts and spiritually important terms, much like many of the Japanese vowel-shift nouns that I'm aware of.

Is there any clear membership in 甲類 or 乙類 for these nouns, as compared to similar nouns that don't exhibit any vowel shift?  One example is 上 kami1 with the 甲類 み and that doesn't have any kamu form, vs. 神 kami2 with the 乙類 み and that does have a kamu form.
What research is there into this phenomenon?  Are there any specific titles or authors that cover this?

One theory I've read about (possibly in Shibatani's The Languages of Japan, which I've since misplaced) is that these nouns, when used in standalone contexts, were appended with the now-obsolete Old Japanese い, an emphatic nominalizing particle.  Over time, this fused with the preceding vowel to produce vowel fronting.  As evidence for this, the term カムイ appears in Ainu as a possible borrowing from pre-Old Japanese, before any such sound fusion, clearly manifesting a distinct む and a distinct い sound.
Another theory that I've only come up with on my own is that this might be somehow related to verb conjugations, where the 連用形{れんようけい} always ends in either /i/ or /e/.  Verb stems, when used as nouns, always use the 連用形, at least in modern Japanese.  Perhaps this is a reflection of some phonetic constraint or requirement in an ancient stage of the language, that is also reflected in these standalone noun forms?


texts: Difference between 維持｛いじ｝する and 保｛たも｝つ (to maintain)

texts:
I've learnt two verbs which seem to mean the same thing, and I keep confusing them: 維持｛いじ｝する (to maintain; to preserve;  to improve) and 保｛たも｝つ (to preserve; to maintain; to support)

Can someone highlight the differences of usage for those 2 words ?

It would be great if other variants could also be described against those words, for example 養｛やしな｝う、持｛も｝ち続｛つづ｝ける、持｛じ｝する、立｛た｝ち行｛い｝く、etc.

Thank you


texts: When to use に vs から with もらう (and other similar verbs)?

texts:
I've been trying to learn all the rules involving particles and もらう in detail for a long time.
Until the other day, I thought に  and から were completely interchangeable for もらう, as in the following examples:

お父さんからプレゼントをもらった。

お父さんにプレゼントをもらった。

but recently I've come across this interesting case:

プレゼントは私に彼がもらう (very unnatural)

プレゼントを私にもらうのは彼だ (okay but から is better)

私にもらったプレゼント (less unnatural)

プレゼントを彼が私からもらう (natural?)

プレゼントを彼が私にもらう (natural?)

I've been offered two explanations that I've had trouble understanding. One is that the further に is from the verb, the more ambiguous it becomes and the more acceptable から becomes. And two, that it has something to do with the objectivity of the statement.
So I have five questions:

Is there some sort of concise grammar rule or explanation I can refer to?

in what way, if any, does に create ambiguity or become confusing for listeners?

are there any situations where に would be natural but から wouldn't be?

how complicated does the picture get when you put もらう into passive and/or causative, like もらわれる?

does this situation apply to the other verbs with this same aspect: 聞く (as in to hear from), 借りる and 習う? Actually while we're at it, let's put a subquestion:

5b) are there any other verbs besides these four where に means から？


texts: Asking "have you tried X" or "have you ever Y"?

texts:
This has always been a problem for me, so I'm hoping you guys can answer it once and for all.
Often, I want to ask somebody if they've ever done something before. For example, in an email yesterday I was talking about a trip to Yorkshire and wanted to ask my friend

"have you ever eaten Yorkshire Pudding?"

(when he was living in the UK a few years ago.)
I can find a couple of ways to express this.

ヨークシャープディング食べたことある？ / を食べた　ことが　ありますか？
ヨークシャープディングを食べましたか？

These both feel, more so the last one, like I am asking "recent" rather than "ever". I've always associated "Ｘを食べましたか？" with recent activity, I guess from my early lessons e.g. "昨日レストランに行きました"　"そうですか？何を食べましたか"
Are these sufficient to ask "have you ever eaten Yorkshire Pudding?" ?
In English I would say
"Have you ever eaten Yorkshire Pudding?" or "Have you eaten Yorkshire Pudding before?" rather than
"Have you eaten Yorkshire Pudding?"
Perhaps my English is wrong lol


texts: Phrasing with two clauses & how to say 'is'?

texts:
I am attempting to phrase 'I apologise/I'm sorry if my Japanese is impolite.'
I have never phrased a sentence with two clauses before.

Looking at the sentence as a whole, and using SOV, the subject is myself, the object my Japanese, and the verb 'sorry':

  Watashi wa no Nihongo baai bureina gomen nasai

However, this doesn't make any sense whatsoever!

Is it correct to structure this example by first splitting the sentence into
'I am sorry' and
'my Japanese is impolite'?

By doing so, I got this phrase:

  Gomen nasai
  (baai)
  watashi no Nihongo is? bureina.

Is this an effective method of creating two-part sentences? Does it always work to split the sentence into 'parts'?

Also, how do you say 'is' in this context?
I think it may be 'wa', but I'm unsure.


texts:
When speaking to a couple, I had difficulties referring to them collectively, as I try to express "both of you".

What is the best way to refer to the both of them, instead of 「A」さんと「B」さん?
Would ふたりは　東京に　いきましたか be a good expression to ask, "Have the both of you been to Tokyo?"

Also, how to I express "they/them", as in "that group of people (over there)"? あそこの人達？

(PS: Moderators, please help to improve the title and edit this post to make it more general and beneficial.)


texts:
Here is the sentence :

人数が多ければそれだけお前達が有利になる。

I've difficulties finding information about this word. From the examples I read, it seems to me that, when used after a clause ending in ば its meaning is similar to the ば...ほど construction :

人数が多ければ多いほど前達が有利になる。
The more people there will be, the more advantage you will have.

Is this what それだけ means in this case? And if it is, does it have the same meaning in other constructions?


texts:
屋内は外見に負けず劣らずの半壊模様。

I feel like the sentence means something like "The inside (of the church) was as equally destroyed as the outside."

But I'm not sure what the に does in this sentence. Could someone help me with this?

Thanks!


texts: で particle: what is the role of it in this sentence?

texts:
犠牲者や建物への大きな被害はないが、これまでの地震と大雪の害に続く今回の地震で、困難な状況が続いている。

could it mean "because of"? I know that で means "in", but I don't know if it can be used in this sentence.

what are the other meaning of で apart from "in" and "with"?


texts: この町は、地下鉄が通った上に、**デパートもできて**、便利になった。looks awkward to me

texts:
I can accept この町は、地下鉄が通った上に、デパートに行きもできて、便利になった。
Or この町は、地下鉄が通った上に、デパートで買い物もできて、便利になった。
But この町は、地下鉄が通った上に、デパートもできて、便利になった。 looks awkward to me. It's like 'One is able to department'????


texts: how does 何の部活もやってこなかったもんね mean you've never been in any kind of club

texts:
I was watching the first episode of the anime k-on and I saw this

こうやってニートが出来上がっていくのね、何の部活もやってこなかったもんね

the subs said that the sentence meant

that's how people become neets

I'm confused by this firstly why use いく here

こうやってニートが出来上がっていくのね

doesn't the 出来上がる already mean to complete or become
and my other confusion

何の部活もやってこなかったもんね

I don't understand why this means you haven't been in any clubs with my current understanding I would say its

what clubs have you not done

or

what clubs didn't you do

which is wrong but I don't get why what am i missing


texts:
In a Dragon Ball's novel, a paragraph says:

  しかし、いつしかサイア人は、圧倒的な力を持つコルド大王に支配されていた。

This could be? :

  However, an unknown sayajin  was taking control of Cold Great Kind who had an overwhelming power.

Thanks.


texts:
I've heard about 田舎, or more likely the English word "inaka" derived from the Japanese word, being used in a pejorative way by assistant English teachers:

  Inaka (田舎 inaka) is a Japanese term meaning a rural area or the
  countryside. When said by people on the JET Programme, it is often
  used as a pejorative about places outside the major metropolitan
  areas, highlighting the lack desirable urban features - bars, shops,
  general entertainment, young people etc.

However, is it commonly a derogatory term in Japanese?

I recently came across the following in a homework exercise

  私のいなかは空気がきれいです。

Which I assume when properly kanji-ized would be

  私の田舎は空気がきれいです。

I looked up いなか on jisho.org, and it warned that 田舎 can be a sensitive word:

(Sensitive) rural area; countryside; the sticks;

and some of the word compounds involving いなか were derogatory. For example:

  田舎っぺ

  Noun, Vulgar expression or word

  hick; country bumpkin; yokel

Is "田舎" a derogatory term? Does it depend on context? If so, in what contexts is it derogatory, and in what contexts is it not derogatory?


texts:
I can't understand why is it used polite form in -「いらっしゃい。逃げ切れるとは思わないで」, I would translate it like this - "Come! Don't think you can run away!". And as far as I can guess シオン is telling it to an enemy?

カイム：「よし、これでこっちの動きは封じた！」
シオン：「やるわねカイム！さすがあたしの弟！」
カノス：「ちっ、先を越されちまったか！今度はこっちの番だ、頼むぜシオン」
シオン：「いらっしゃい。逃げ切れるとは思わないで」
シオン：「Casting some 厨二 spell」
カノス：「はははははっ！派手にやってくれるぜ！！」


texts: Do "direct object を" and "directional を" occupy the same slot?

texts:
A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (ADoBJG) lists more than one を particle.  In particular:

On page 347, it lists o1, a particle which marks a direct object.
On page 349, it lists o2, a particle which indicates a space in / on / across / through / along which s.o. or s.t. moves.

The second particle, which I'll call directional を, appears to be used quite differently from the direct object を.  According to ADoBJG, the directional を is used only with verbs of motion, which I think are generally intransitive.  For example, directional を appears in the phrase 空を飛ぶ, combining the intransitive verb of motion 飛ぶ with an を-marked noun.

Since it's listed as a separate particle in ADoBJG, and since it behaves so differently, and since it appears in different contexts from the other を, I've always thought of directional を as a separate particle which happens to be written and pronounced the same way.  However, in 国語辞典s such as 大辞林 and 大辞泉, both usages are listed under the same entry.  So I'm wondering how independent the two really are.

It seems to me that, because directional を appears with intransitive verbs, and because direct object を appears with transitive verbs, the two occupy separate syntactic slots.  That makes me wonder if it's possible to take a construction such as 空を飛ぶ, which uses the directional を, and turn it into a transitive construction which also takes the direct object を, such as ◯◯を空を飛ばす.

My thought is this: if they don't really occupy different slots, then this is ungrammatical because of the double-o constraint, which says that a single verb phrase may have no more than one を-marked noun phrase.  But if they do occupy different slots, and they're really different particles, then you should be able to create a single verb phrase containing both.

I'm not sure my ◯◯を空を飛ばす example is very good.  (It's supposed to mean "send ◯◯ flying through the air".)  But if it's possible to create a grammatical example combining both directional を and direct object を, I would like to know, regardless of whether my particular example is very good.

Is it possible to create such a construction?


texts: I’ve tried to google this but I end up with explanations about how to use the ーて form. I want to know how to call it in Japanese, you know, like a noun is 名詞, now do you call the ーて form in grammatical terms.


texts:
"新しくなったトイレの内側の壁には、フクロウなどの動物のほか自動車が色鮮やかに描かれ、近くにある池袋第二保育園の園児がイメージなどを考え、区内で活動するクリエイターのグループが仕上げました。"

I don't understand because フクロウなどの動物のほか is followed by 自動車 without any link between them so I don't know how we can be certain of the meaning ...?


texts:
練習してうまく話したり、書いたりすることができるようになりたいです

I usually would interprete ように like that:
"to reach A, I do B"

Here I'm a bit confused because the verb なる follows the ように clause.
"To reach A, I wish to become."

Obviously this doesnt work.
So are there any omitted phrases I'm missing or is ように in a different function here?


texts:
Even by looking at a dictionary, I can't make the difference between those two words しでかす and やらかす... What are the closest english words to translate those words?
Are there situations when one is used and not the other?
Is one more used than the other? (more casual etc.)

Thanks


texts:
This question made me think.

  彼の車は私と同じです。
  His car is the same as mine.

Except that isn't a literal translation. A literal translation would be "His car is the same as me". But I am not a car.

Would it be incorrect to add a の into this sentence i.e.:

  彼の車は私のと同じです。

A Google search for "私のと同じ" does not result in many convincing hits so I'm assuming it's wrong.

Can we understand this grammatically? Is the の just assumed to be redundant? ...


texts: How to say "unwanted" in terms of a person being unwanted

texts:
Trying to say something like this line:

  I am not wanted.

But for all the Japanese language likes skipping subjects and topics, I can't seem to find an equivalent for this case--it seems like the only way to say this is by rephrasing it to "X doesn't want me" (Ｘは私をいらない). The closest I can think of is 自分が必要とされていない, but I don't want to say "I'm not needed", I want to say "I'm not wanted". It doesn't seem like conjugating いる or ほしい is the way to go either. How can I say this without adding a topic?

※Disclaimer: This is not related to how I actually feel.


texts: You know how Japanese people say "スタイルのいいお姉さん" to basically refer to "that girl with huge boobs" or "that really tall girl"? I've seen this get thrown around a lot but never really got the rationale behind this. My guess is that it's a euphemism but can someone give an accurate explanation of this?


texts: For phrases modifying nouns, is the subject considered part of the modifier or separate?

texts:
Oftentimes I see phrases such as this in songs and such:

僕は迷い込んだ夢の中

I always interpreted these as the first part all modifying the noun, i.e. "Inside the dream I was lost in," here. However, when I asked a question on this particular song, a user translated this with the subject as separate from the modifier, i.e."I'm within an astray dream." This came as a shock to be, since I've always thought of lines like this the first way.

Are both interpretations correct, or is one of us wrong?

Thank you!


texts: When is it natural to use で and に and when not to use them

texts:
In my previous question I wanted to know how to say

  If we continue at this rate I will be fluent by Christmas.

Both answers were really helpful and I now know how to say it but there is still something that bothers me:

All suggestions were of the form

  〜、クリスマスまでに話せるようになるわ

where 〜 is the word for "at this rate" like for example このペースだと、この調子なら、このままいけば.

As a non-Japanese speaker I have the strong urge to make a construction like this:

  〜で続けば、クリスマスまでに話せるようになるわ

For one, the urge to use "to continue" and for another the で particle (or perhaps に).

So I was wondering, how unnatural on a scale of 1 to 10 is this? I'm
trying to understand why I should probably not use either に or で here.
Please could someone explain to me exactly when it will not be a good
idea to make a construction like this?

For the record: I do know that に may be a particle indicating location like e.g. on the desk = 机の上に or "by" as in 本田さんに言われた and many more such "obvious" uses. But what I am asking here in this question seems way more subtle to me (beyond my current language feeling of Japanese).


texts:
Context: 織次{おりじ} the protagonist is trying to buy back a set of drawings from his father's friend, who is mysteriously evasive about the matter.

  [織次]{おりじ}も[後]{のち}に[東京]{とうきょう}から[音信]{たより}をして、[引]{ひき}[取]{と}ろう、[引]{ひき}[取]{と}ろうと[懸合]{かけあ}うけれども、ちるの、びるので[纏]{まと}まらず、[追]{お}っかけて[追詰]{せりつ}めれば、[片音信]{かただより}になって[埒]{らち}が[明]{あ}かぬ。
  Later on, Oriji would also mail him from Tokyo, trying to take them back, but it ended up with no conclusion because he would ???. When Oriji further pressed him for a definitive answer, he would not even return a response, leaving the matter unsettled.

  From a short novel "国貞{くにさだ}えがく" (1910)

What does ちるの、びるの mean?

I guess from the context that it probably means "after a lot of fuss" in effect, but looking up "ちるの、びるの" or "びる" in various online dictionaries yields no relevant result.

Grammatically, I think I understand which particle is doing what at least, but I'm unsure about the "content" words:

  ちる: verb?
  の: parallel marker
  びる: verb?
  の: parallel marker
  で: reason, cause

One possibility is that this is some play on words. The novel contains apparently Meiji-era slangs like レコ (reverse of これ), so this could be something in the same vein.


texts: Relative Clauses and Adjective Placement

texts:
How would you add adjectives inside a relative clause to the thing being modified?  Is the placement set?

For example, in this sentence, can "new" come directly before computer (1) or should it be within the clause (2) or would even outside the clause be preferred (3)?

妹は学校に(3)お母さんが(2)買った(1)パソコンを持ってくる。


texts: Meaning of 相当おしゃれしてる

texts:
After a discussion on the fact that  おり姫 and ひこ星 can only meet once a year:

  「おり姫なんて、朝から相当おしゃれしてるだろうね」
  From morning, princess Ori ?????
  「もう大変だろうな、そりゃ」
  It's probably really tough.

I can't figure out what 相当おしゃれしてる means. I suspect it's some sort of 敬語 thing but it's beyond me.


texts:
I was learning about how we can use 「という」to describe things and I saw the following example:

日本人{にほんじん}はお酒{さけ}に弱{よわ}いというのは本当{ほんとう}？

And my question is, what is the use of 「という」when used to describe this type of things? Wouldn't this phrase be equal to: 日本人{にほんじん}はお酒{さけ}に弱{よわ}いことは本当{ほんとう}？ If so whats the benefit of using 「という」? I also saw the following example:

リブートというのは、パソコンを再起動{さいきどう}するということです。

And in this phrase, in the end, 「という」 is used with 「こと」. why is 「こと」there? Wouldn't the sentence be correct like this: リブートというのは、パソコンを再起動{さいきどう}するというです.?


texts: Why is "konnichi wa" written with は and not わ?

texts: Why is "konnichi wa" in hiragana with は and not わ？


texts: Is there any etymological relationship between the -さん suffix in 富士山 or 月山 and the -さん suffix you put at the end of a person's name? Or are they unrelated?


texts:
For the longest time, I thought 素直 meant "honest" (because my dicitionary gave it as one of several meanings). Now I've also seen the meaning "docile". and now I'm totally confused. Eg. in the sentence

素直になればいい

Are you meant to become more honest (to whom)? Or more obedient (to whom/what)? Does it depend on the context?

Is it possible my confusion stems from the fact that we would express these things completely differently in English?


texts: "In case you're living under a rock" in Japanese

texts:
I'm wondering how this phrase could be translated into Japanese in a way that isn't rude but keeps being funny to Japanese readers. Please give the literal meaning of the Japanese words too.

It's often used online to once again introduce a subject that the author assumes readers are tired of hearing about.

  In case you're living under a rock, this app allows you to ...


texts:
Here's a sentence I said to a friend today:

「すべての授業{じゅぎょう}を選{えら}びません。」

I wanted to say "I don't choose all my courses."

However, my friend understood my sentence as "I choose none of my course. / I don't choose any course at all.", and suggested me to say 「すべての授業{じゅぎょう}を選{えら}ぶわけではありません。」instead.

jisho.org doesn't mention this use for すべて. Is there a more general "rule" I should know about regarding this case, so as to avoid similar misunderstandings?


texts:
Is 'うつさい' equivalent to 'うるさい' in this context? Why?

I can't find 'うつさい' in the dictionary and Google translate, so I tried inputting the Chinese version of the text(i.e '吵') into Google translate and it told me that it was 'うるさい`

Fri Feb 23 16:47:41 CST 2018 update{
Thank you all,Google search for 'うっさい' is working.
}

The whole context : https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=manga&illust_id=66989588


texts: More complex sentences - When to use は? When to use が?

texts:
I know the basics about the difference in the usage between は and が.
Nevertheless, when it comes to more complex sentences, I encounter difficulties that I want to explain on base of some examples. Maybe, somebody can briefly  confirm whether my understanding is correct.

  Looking at the X-ray image, it is apparent that the package of the component described above cracked.

  X線写真によると、前述の部品は、パッケージが亀裂が生じたことが明らかです。

I think it is clear that "前述の部品" is the topic and can or should be marked with "は".

  It is no doubt that the package of the component described above cracked.

  前述の部品のパッケージが亀裂が生じたことは疑いようがありません。

Although the constructions of both sentences are very similar, "疑いようがありません" must be preceded by "ことは" and "前述の部品" cannot be the topic and hence becomes a genitive.

  Assuming that the temperature of the device described above excessively increased, the failure picture can be explained.

  前述の部品が過度な温度上昇となっていったという仮定のもとで、不具合品の写真は、真実味が出てきます。

I am sure that "前述の部品" cannot be marked with "は" but can anybody explain me why? Can the part of the sentence preceding "仮定" be regarded as relative clause where "は" is not permitted at all?

Is this sentence correct?

  前述の部品は過度な温度上昇となっていったと仮定すると、不具合品の写真は、真実味が出てきます。

  It is reasonable to think that the improvement measure described above guarantees protection for the components.

  前述の改選策が本部品用保護を保証していると考えることは、妥当なように思われます。

"前述の改選策" cannot be marked with "は" because this could run counter to the "と考えることは".

I highly appreciate your collaboration. This "は" versus "が" topic is my main concern.


texts: How do you say something like "trapped rabbit" in Japanese

texts:
"Trapped" is  a past participle (that is it is being used like an adjective despited being derived from a verb), so the word "rabbit" must be the subject (or the object) some other verb. Thus, in English a senteced containing "trapped rabbit" would need some other verb, something like "The trapped rabbit got scared" or "The hunter's dog stared at the trapped rabbit."

But in Japanese, as far as I'm aware, there is no past participle, or even adjectives for that matter. The Japanese language seems to also have a rather strict verb final construction. I have to be leave the language can't express something like "trapped rabbit" without some complex arrangement of words. I also can't expect that the Japanese language would position "trapped" at or near the end with some kind of link to a specific word, and I don't think Japanese can do that.

I found nothing satisfactory with browser searches and I don't know where else to search. The best I got was a very similar question on this site How to say "trapped" in Japanese

I didn't find the answers here very satifying.

So how does one say "The trapped rabbit got scared" and "The hunter's dog stared at the trapped rabbit" and can I get a grammatical breakdown of both sentences, and maybe express other examples that differ somehow and are probably needed for me to know.


texts: What is the meaning of 範囲等の申請範囲 in this sentence?

texts:
I'm having a hard time trying to get the meaning of 範囲等の申請範囲 in the following sentence. Context: instruction on how to fill in a form to apply for quality evaluation of wood materials.

  青色で囲っている部分は、各材料のバリ エーション、数値の公差、範囲等の申請範囲を示す部分です。

Why the repetition of 範囲? What is the value of 等? Here is my bad attempt:

  The section circled in blue is where the write each material variation, numerical value of tolerance and requested range of scope.

Also, the meaning of 申請 it is not so clear to me. Could it refer to someone that requested the quality evaluation (for example a company)? Thank you for your help!


texts: grammar of a sentence explaining a 四字熟語{よじじゅくご}

texts:
I read here the following explanation about 一朝{いっちょう}一夕{いっせき}, a 四字熟語{よじじゅくご} :

  一日や半日{はんにち}、朝{あさ}から夕程度{ゆうていど}の、短{みじか}い期間{きかん}のこと

I don't feel confident about the grammar in this sentence, specially about the の particle after 夕程度{ゆうていど} : does the whole sentence mean something like "a short gap of time during one day or half, roughly from the morning to the evening" ?

Is the の the "explanatory" particle ? And why don't we read 朝{あさ}から夕{ゆう}まで ?


texts:
The sentence in question:
中国の気象当局は、南部の雨は弱まりつつあるものの水が引くまでには時間がかかるとしています。

For full context:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20180902/k10011604941000.html?utm_int=news-new_contents_latest_001

My attempt at translation:
"Chinas weather officials have judged about the rain in the southern regions that, while it abates it will take time until the water which is there draws back."

The part  弱まり つつ ある もの  is the hardest for me. I'm not sure whether I parsed つつ correctly, since it confuses me that it stands right in the middle of the phrase while I interpreted it as a temporal conjunction. Also, the way I interpreted あるものの水 was more out of despair because I didn't really know how else to make sense of it xD


texts: What would be the most apt word in kanji, for "Animal world"?

texts:
Okay, that may sound a little confusing, and no, not looking for the name of a zoo or theme park here XD

Essentially, simply put, I'm writing a novel, and for that, building a world around it. Yes, there is no need for the Kanji - I am well aware of that, and yet, I feel like using kanji for specific phrases.

My story has several locations. Much like a heaven - earth - hell, except they are based on a reincarnation and enlightenment system instead of an afterlife based on a moral judgement sort of thing. Those souls that achieve enlightenment and 'ascend' beyond their eternal cycle of death and rebirth in Jinkai by discarding their current worldly attachments, go to Tenkai, where celestials and other deities live. And "hell" is fully inhabited by demons, not inherently evil, merely fundamentally different to those that live on "earth". Yes, sinners and saints don't matter in this universe. Morality is a human construct (at least in this story if you would disagree on that, as I really don't want to be dragged into a meaningless debate).

Anyways, the three worlds are as such:

Tenkai - Celestial World (天界)

Ningenkai/Jinkai - Human World (人界/人間界)

Makai - Demon World (魔界)

Particularly, using Yōkai instead of another phrase for Demon, such as Akuma, as that would be more 'Devil' I believe, and would have more 'Evil' connotations. I thought of using Mazoku, except that implies 'Demon Race', as in a singular species. I want 'Demons' in Makai to be the equivalent of all 'Organisms' on "Earth", as opposed to merely being the opposite of Humans. (But, I would very much appreciate if someone could provide a general term as such to use the would imply Demons - or even something like "Others" as in fundamentally different from Earth's inhabitants, as Yōkai's meaning is closer to ghosts and strange apparitions.)

As such, here I come to the crux of the matter. Particularly, the naming of the Human World. I believe that sounds rather pretentious, as Humans alone are not the inhabitants of Earth. Yes, they are the apex predators and all that, but to keep Makai and Jinkai parallel while giving the impression that Makai is not of only one species, but composed of several diverse set of beings that are merely fundamentally different to all creatures on earth. As 魔 (Demon) is up to interpretation, it does not have the same problem. For example, there would be demonic equivalents of dogs and bacteria as well, on Makai.

So, is there another prefix I could use, instead of Jin or Ningen, that would imply all the known organisms on earth (animals inclusive of humans at least, preferably others outside the animalia kingdom as well, such as microorganisms)? I would also like it if it is simpler in terms of the number of syllables, even if the term itself is particularly obscure.

I understand this is a very tall order, on top of a very lengthy request. I think the above would be important context as to understand the exact implications of my query. If not, I apologize for the long read, so thanks for at least putting up with me XD Thanks in advance for the assistance as well, if I may be so forward as to presume as such? :D


texts: How to write "Aikido Wa Ichiban Budo Desu"

texts:
"Aikido Wa Ichiban Budo Desu" is supposedly a quote from 植芝 盛平, Ueshiba Morihei (founder of Aikido).

Most people translate this as "Aikido is first and foremost a true Budo".

My question is: how are you supposed to write this using Japanese characters?
I came up with: 合氣道が一番 武道です but on the other hand my Japanese proficiency is non-existent.

Can someone provide a proper "translation" (starting from the possibly mangled phonetic version in the title... this is all I have at the moment) and doublecheck if any japanese source shows this as a quote from Ueshiba?

A bit of clarification: "Aikido Wa Ichiban Budo Desu" has been banged around on Aikido blogs  (again, so far I have seen it mentioned only in Italy) for a couple of years. Always written phonetically like this.
I have been unable to trace it to something more solid, so I hoped that if I could reverse engineer it back to properly written Japanese I could look up a more creditable source.
It is completely possible that this is (another) completely bogus quote or factoid (I suppose that Martial Arts are a rich source for this) or that it was misunderstood/wrongly transcribed - I am ready to accept that this is completely wrong, I am just trying to see how far I can go in proving (or disproving) it.

Update: apparently the sentence was expressed by Ueshiba Kisshomaru (son of Ueshiba Morihei)  and it was written as "合氣道は、いうまでもなく本質的に武道である".
Credit goes to a couple of answers I got on the Martial Arts Stackexchange.

It may be possible that Morihei expressed the same sentiment (he often spoke of Aikido as the "perfect" or "final" Budo) but there seems to be no written record of someone actually saying "Aikido Wa Ichiban Budo Desu".
I suspect that this specific factoid started from western people training in Iwama (with Saito Morihiro Sensei) so maybe this was someone who tried to express the concept without having a perfect fluency in Japanese.


texts: I have a question regarding the phrase はるには -- I get that に is a temporal particle and は is the theme marker. However, I never saw them together. Is this a standard thing to do? Would the literal translation be something like "regarding the springtime"?


texts: Was the name for the Shōwa era a voluntary pun?

texts:
According to dictionaries, the WA 和 in 昭和 has both the meaning of peace, harmonious and Japan, japanese (although mostly as the first kanji of a compound, such as in 和語).  So I wonder how Japanese of those times perceived the announcement and the phrase.

Did it carry immediately a meaning of (luminous) Peace for Japan, or was the national or identity element not present for a native speaker?


texts: Meaning of 端っこ & 近ポジ & what's that character? (picture inside)

texts:
I am struggling with the writing in the picture below:

How does 端っこ fit in this sentence?
"I would have even been happy with publishing/participating just on the edge"? That sounds weird.

And 近ポジ I understand as "close-range" (or something similar) - but that doesn't really make much sense here, does it?

and finally: what's the character before 2 button? From the context I would have expected this character: 第 - is it a short-form?

Context: The only other thing written on that page is "Congratulations on 10 years of serialisation" - it's from an anthology of manga shorts celebrating a certain manga series. The "2 button" is referencing another work by the same mangaka.

The more Japanese I read, the less I feel I know. sigh

As always, help is very much appreciated. :)

Thank you!


texts: What does "なあ” & "なんて” mean in this sentence. (うん、めずらしいなあ、めぐみのほうがおそいなんて）

texts:
Here is the sentence I'm talking about...
うん、めずらしいなあ、めぐみのほうがおそいなんて


texts: What does 訳では mean in the end of sentence?

texts:
フェイ、まだ、そうと判明した訳では。違う原因かもしれない。

Is it short for 訳ではない?


texts:
澄んだ水面 が 月を映していた。

Under the 映す entry in a dictionary (ルミナス、研究社), I found the sample sentence in question among others. However, I couldn't understand why only in this particular sentence is が used in favor of に.

For instance, there were also these two sentences listed right beside the one above:

  彼女は鏡 に 顔を映してみた。
  彼はスクリーン に スライドを次々に映した。

Both of which employed に as I normally would expect.

The only plausible reason I can think of is that the first sentence does not have an animate subject (月), whereas the others do (彼女、彼). I do not believe this is the factor though.

Interestingly, for the verb 映す's intransitive counterpart－映る－they gave the following sample sentence:

  月が湖水 に 映っていた。

Question:
Can が be replaced by に in the first sentence (i.e. 水面に)? If not, what is the grammar at work that prevents us to do so?

ご教授どうもありがとうございます！


texts: Is こられた (from 来られた from 来られる) here working as a passive helping?

texts:
I came across two paragraphs in which こられた is mentioned.
1st paragraph:

萩生田文部科学大臣は、ＮＨＫの取材に対し、「報道が事実だとすれば、これまで体調が悪い中でも業務を続けてこられたのに、ここにきて辞任されるのは非常に残念だ。まだお若いので、今後は体調に気をつけていただきながら後輩への指導をしっかりしてもらいたい」と述べました。

2nd paragraph:

自民党の稲田幹事長代行は、ＮＨＫの取材に対し、「全く予想していなかった事態なので、正直、驚いている。まだ新型コロナウイルスが収束せず、先行きが見通せない状況で、安全保障環境も厳しい状況なので政治空白を作ってはいけない。安倍総理大臣には、政権を奪還してから8年近く、経済、安全保障、それに外交で日本の存在感を高めた意味からも、全身全霊で頑張ってこられたと敬意を表したい」と述べました。

I am inclined to believe that こられた is working here as helping verb for 続ける and 頑張る。

報道が事実だとすれば、これまで体調が悪い中でも業務を続けてこられたのに、ここにきて辞任されるのは非常に残念だ。
If the report is a true thing + until now + physical condition が sick+while でも job を continue こられた(was to come?)のに、。。。
In other words: If the report is true, and until now while being sick he WAS TO COME to continue to work, and to here he (abe) is being made to quit, it is very bad.

。。。それに外交で日本の存在感を高めた意味からも、全身全霊で頑張ってこられたと敬意を表したい。。。
moreover + diplomacy で feeling of presence を enhanced meaning からも、whole heart and soul で persevere + WAS TO COME と respect を I want to express.
In other words: Moreover, because, by diplomacy he also enhanced the meaning of japanlandia, with heart and soul he WAS TO COME to persevere, I want to express my respect.

Are my surmises correct in regards to こられた working as helping passive verb?


texts:
Miyabe Kingo wrote in an English-language letter the phrase “a sharp zurusona wife” to describe the woman whose house he boarded at. "Zurusona" seems to be the insertion of a Japanese word written in romaji into his otherwise English sentence, which he felt best described her to the Japanese reader rather than writing a fully English description. What does it mean?

I tried looking it up under these spellings ずるそな、ずるそうな、 even づるそな、づるそうな but the only thing I found was 狡(ずる＝cunning deed; sneaky person). Can 狡 be turned into a form that might be romanized as "zurusona"?


texts: What does あらいだす mean? I have been hearing it from my colleague and based on his explanation it means to identify. For example identify the problem. I tried to search the net and it only results to "Washout" 洗い出して{あらいだして}. Does anyone know what this mean? if it really is identify.


texts: How would Japanese clan leaders address one another aside from the title -dono?

texts:
I'm writing a book where several Japanese clans interact with one another in both formal and non-formal settings. I was wondering a few things.

How did clan leaders greet one another? What would be the suffix attached to their name? Would they address them by family name or by a title?
Would there be a difference in respect when meeting/visiting on one of the clans' lands? Would the visitor have a different method of address then?

I know this is a bit of an odd thing to ask, but I want to ensure that my book is as accurate in all cultures involved. I want to minimize as many mistakes as possible to ensure that the audience will focus on the plot, not the mistakes.
Edit: The gist of my question is that, while I know that Japanese clan leaders were called ex. Asahi-dono as a title, how would someone of this same rank address them?


texts: How to say "I recently learned how to speak japanese" in japanese?

texts:
How to say "I recently learned how to speak Japanese" in Japanese?
is it:

  watashi wa hanasemashita nihongo koto ga saikin manabimasu

or

  watashi wa nihongo hanasemashita koto ga saikin manabimasu

or Something else?

I can't read kanji so please, if you answer please don't use kanji.

Edit:Also, can someone tell me why saikin is before nihongo and not before            naraimashita in the first answer to my question?


texts:
This is more than likely due to my lack of reading enough Japanese; however, in this sentence the particles と and に are placed together which I haven't seen before.

Sentence:

  一時は観光と買い物とに集中していた外国旅行ツアーも近頃はもっと細かくなって、音楽を聴く旅、城をまわる旅というようにある趣味の目的を持つ旅行計画もできてきた。

Is there an underlying reason for the と in this sentence? Would the sentence be the same with removing the second と?


texts:
My JLPT textbook has a section on the use of ～とばかりに. It explains that the term means to do something with such a strong implication that the meaning is obvious, even though one isn't directly stating the intended meaning.

For one of the examples, it says:

  親子{おやこ}げんかをした時{とき}、父{ちち}は出{で}て行{い}けとばかりに玄関{げんかん}を指差{ゆびさ}した。

This makes sense to me. The father is not actually saying, "get out,", but his action of pointing to the door so obviously implies it that his meaning is clear.

However, there is this other example which confuses me:

  注文{ちゅうもん}した料理{りょうり}が来{く}ると、子どもたちは待{ま}ってましたとばかりに食{た}べ始{はじ}めた。

This I don't get, because presumably the kids have actually waited for the food to arrive (unless the restaurant has quantum based instantaneous service...). So what purpose is とばかりに serving here?

What exactly does とばかりに mean?


texts:
I'm having trouble with past tense + noun.

For example "弟の言うことを聞いたばかりにひどい目にあった" Or "この教授はしゃべるのが速すぎて、誰も言っていることを理解出来なかった"

Why is used 言うこと instead of 言ったこと / 言っている instead of 言っていた?

In this sentence is used past tense with a noun "あかりは自分で書いた絵を見せてくれた"


texts: On the use of ゆえ - Difference between ゆえに and ゆえの

texts:
I'm confused about the use of ゆえ in case it is followed by の instead of に.

In the second case I know that ゆえ indicates a consequence, a sort of "Some state/condition ゆえに some consequence".

However, the following sentence (coming from an exercise book for N1) confuses me:

  男女平等といっても、女性[...]の差別はまだ残っている。

The possible answers to pick from were たる、ゆえ、なり、こそ, and the correct one would be indeed ゆえ (at first I mistakenly chose たる thinking of "being a woman", but now I realize probably that would not work because of how the sentence continues from there).

Anyway, I can't understand why ゆえ is correct. Could someone explain if in this case (that is, followed by の) ゆえ has a different interpretation? How would you translate the sentence above in the most literal way? Thank you.


texts: Pretty sure you have to use 割 but I don't know which pronunciation to use and how to say "equals" in this context.


texts: Why the word 宣材 is not in the dictionary?

texts:
I had a (little) hard time finding the word  宣材{せんざい}. It was neither in the Midori dictionary nor Chrome's rikaikun extension. I had to google it.

I found an explanation here on kotobank but not much more. My question is, is it a relatively new word? Or simply it is not considered a "real word" but just a shortened form of 宣伝材料? Although in the second case I would still expect it to pop up in a dictionary such as Midori (maybe with a reference to 宣伝材料).


texts: Need help translating 「俺が威嚇射撃する ゴーを出したら 突入だ」

texts:
《俺が威嚇射撃する   ゴーを出したら   突入だ》

I will fire a warning shot, when GO begins  (must) rush in.
My shot at figuring out a translation above.

I figure it's something like, I will fire the warning shot, then say go, then we proceed, which is what happens next in the show.  Just now seeing how it all connects grammatically.

Edit:

《瀬文隊長が威嚇射撃後 ゴーの合図で突入します》is spoken right before they go in by another officer.  From that it's clear that:

After the commanding officer fires some warning shots, on the signal "go", we storm in.


texts: Should I use "馬乳酒", "クミス", or "アイラグ" for fermented mare's milk?

texts:
Which word should I use for fermented mare's milk (Japanese wikipedia, English Wikipedia)?

馬乳酒 represents the kanji form, literally "horse milk alcoholic beverage", while "クミス" is gairaigo based on what most languages call it ("kumis"), and "アイラグ" is based on what Mongolians call it ("airag").

Which form should I use? The kanji form has the advantage of being easily understood when written down, and it was the form used by Wikipedia, but I don't know when to use kanji, and when to use katakana. Also, does Japan have closer ties with Mongolia than with other central Asian countries like Kazakhstan, meaning that it's more likely to use アイラグ than クミス?


texts: 「僕は任務を完成〔する／した〕かどうかを確認しました。」

texts:
僕は任務を完成したかどうかを確認しました。
僕は任務を完成するかどうかを確認しました。

According to my understanding, the first is correct. But some people say that it is the second, which one is right and why?


texts: Clarifying the purpose of から at the end of that sentence

texts:
I recently read that sentence :

  毎日{まいにち}、ねる前{まえ}に、おふろに入{はい}るといいですよ。つかれがとれますから。

I know から roughly means "because" or "from" and I carefully read this thread about some of its usages.

However, I'm not sure if those usages apply to this particular sentence.

I'd translate it to :

  Every day, before you go to bed, you could have a bath. Your tiredness would disappear.

Or maybe it's more like :

  Take a bath every day before you go to bed, because if you do so, your tiredness will go away.

What is the purpose of から here? How can I apply the basic pattern [Sentence 1] から、[Sentence 2] pattern to that sentence ?


texts:
There's a construction V+っこない which means something like "have no way of doing V".

お前には分かりっこないでしょう。
There's no way you would understand.

Is it known what this construction originates from? I can't find any reliable information either in Japanese or English.


texts: 「ぺったん」→「ぺったら」 – A conjugation of an onomatopoeic adverb?

texts:
The sentence in question (from here (page 14)):

ぺったんペったら牛の糞が、やって来ました。

What does the 〜ら conjugation (?) of the second ぺったん mean?


texts:
Now I understand that although all the morae mentioned in the title are written in Hepburn as "sha shi shu she sho", they are actually palatalized and sound quite different (the little や makes it clear). In fact since I speak Mandarin Chinese natively, they sound completely different since in Mandarin the Hepburn "sh" and English "sh" are two distinct phonemes.

Now in my Japanese class, the TAs are native English speakers though the instructor is from Japan. When the TAs are asked to read passages, the teacher occasionally corrects them for pitch accent, the う vowels, and らりるれろ, but never for the (to my ears) totally Englishified pronunciation of し. In fact  しゃ is pronounced exactly the same as the English word "shah" - it isn't even pronounced "shyah".

I also notice some Japanese singers randomly pronounce しゃ as "shah" with no consistency at all. Then again, song Japanese seems to be weird (を retaining the "wo" sound, らりるれろ often using an "l" sound). My question is, are the two sh's completely indistinguishable to Japanese ears? Even when correcting the students the Japanese teacher picks up on tons of small mistakes (mispronouncing the "u" as "oo", Korean people failing to pronounce the voiced stops, wrong pitch accent) but never picks out the clearly wrong "sh" that happens quite a lot.


texts: Trying to translate an SFX but the characters look confusing

texts:
I'm really bad at reading the characters when they're written in a different way, these three ones are the ones I think are in the highlight but I would like to be sure. m(_ _)m Someone kind enough to help me get it right?
| きやっ... |
キやっ... |
キウっ... |


texts:
Teenage kids in Japan seem to be using this word　a lot these days and it doesn't really have any real meaning? (in the sense that they are using it)

まんじ！

I've seen different kinds on twitter etc where it is written in the kanji form;

うわ、めっちゃウケるｗ卍

こいつやばいな卍

卍スタバなう卍

etc.

It seems to me like it is just a thing you say after something both bad and good, and also that something can BE まんじ;
i.e you see a hot girl > she is まんじ, you see a nice car > まんじ

I know that the Kanji 卍 is what marks shrines on Japanese maps, and that it comes from a symbol meaning sun(?). But the slang phrase has another meaning.

Thoughts or comments? What is the origin?

It takes me back a few years when the phrase パリピー (パリピーポー [party people]) came to be the coolest thing to say ever. At first people used it when actually referring to party people (like going to the club etc) but then it lost its meaning and now people can say パリピー to basically everything good or bad.


texts:
In the conversation below, I am unclear with regards to who person 4 is speaking for. That is whether they are speaking for themselves, or the other 1000 people that have been brought in to help.
To provide some context: the 1000 (lower ranking and weaker) people have been brought in to help clear the way to their destination, where the people who are currently talking will then take over and continue the fight.

Person 1: １０００人ってＢとかＤとかだろ？ いくら野外での戦闘とはいえちょっと荷が重いよね。
Person 2: 陸空軍の支援もある、他人の心配なんて暇ないよ。
Person 3: ロボには頼れず、 航空機は撃墜されるのが今日で実証済み。敵１匹の強さも規格外。 多くの死者が出ますよ。
Person 4: そういう戦いに身を置いたんだ。覚悟はできてる。

Now my question is whether person 4 is:

speaking for themselves (i.e. that they are ready for what might happen to them in this battle)
speaking for the 1000 / everyone.

At first I thought it was the second one, but then I was thinking, whether this is the way that this would be phrased if they were speaking for people other than themselves. Saying 覚悟はできてる and implying people other than yourself to me would be very assuming.  If they were speaking about other people I would have expected a だろう/はずだ.


texts: What's the difference between 関{かん}する and 関{かか}わる?

texts:
This question is in my JLPT practise book:

  親{おや}のしつけが子供{こども}の性格{せいかく}形成{けいせい}に＿＿＿＿ことは言{い}うまでもない。

  A 通{つう}じる　B 通{とお}す　C 関{かん}する　D 関{かか}わる

The book says the answer is D, but to me the definitions of C and D overlap so much that I can't see why one is obviously better.

So what's the difference between 関{かん}する and 関{かか}わる?


texts: I just found the word 若手, and I'm not sure about its differences with 若者: according to these two answers, the former means "beginner", while the latter means "young people", but I found an example (その歌手は若手にとても人気がある, "That singer is very popular with young people") which seems to use 若手 just as "young people". Weblio agrees that 若手 can have both meaning. Am I right in saying that 若者 means just "young people", while 若手 can have both meanings?


texts: Can the よう ending signify an imperative?

texts:
Can the よう ending be used for imperatives like て？

If so then can you show some examples?


texts: Etymology of 鼻の下を伸ばす / 「鼻の下を伸ばす」の語源

texts:
English

Today I've came across the expression 鼻の下を伸ばす/
鼻の下が長い and had to look up its meaning.

Other web dictionaries have different meanings, like to be soft on women, to be spooney, and similar other meanings.

So my question is, how are these meanings connected to the human face, or where did the expression originate from? All I can think of is a creepy big smile.

和訳

今日、「鼻の下を伸ばす/鼻の下が長い」という表現を初めて見たので、辞書で調べました。

ネット上の他の辞書では少し違って、"to be soft on women" や "to be spooney" みたいな感じの意味が書かれていました。

これらの意味は人間の顔にどう関係していて、何に由来しているのですか？私には不気味なニンマリとした顔しか想像できません。


texts:
I found this adjective from 7!!'s song 「ラヴァーズ」(Lovers):

無邪気なる

Dictionary entries categorises 無邪気 as a noun and な-adjective.
For reference, I shall extract parts from two different stanzas in the song. They share the same rhythmic structure and melody:

君は今 涙流した
泣きじゃくる子供のように
たとえ未来(あす)が見えなくなっても守るよ
夏の空見上げてニラんだ

君の手を強く握った
無邪気なる子供のように
たとえ時間(とき)が現在(いま)を奪ってもススムよ
夏の空目指して走った

Observations: The parts in bold both are 5 syllables and both end in る
Conjecture: The songwriter used 無邪気なる to be more poetic and lyrical. (Because without "る" it just "would not fit")
I understand that present day な-adj results from なる-adj which in turn results from classical Japanese's なり copula, and some なる-adjectives (like 単なる) survived.
(Question) Can we produce なる-adjectives by "regressing" な-adjectives? Are there any guidelines that prevents or allows us to produce なる-adjectives?


texts: Pitch Accent Patterns with Pluralized たち Nouns

texts:
Curious if there are any general rules for the pitch accent for pluralized たち nouns.

For example:

子供達 - the pattern seems to be こどもたち{LHHLL}
私たち - the pattern seems to be わたしたち{LHHLL}
自分たち - the pattern seems to be じぶんたち{LHLLL}
人間たち - the pattern seems to not drop at all にんげんたち{LHHHHH}
動物たち - the pattern seems to be どうぶつたち{LHHHLL}

Other words seem to fall on たち{HL}, rather than the noun itself.

I'm not certain if there's a clear pattern. But just in case, any general rules or tips on how pitch might work for たちed nouns?


texts: What is the Japanese (onomatopoeic) sound that corduroy pants make?

texts:
Would this be the correct way to ask in Japanese?

"コージュロイズボンは何の音をするのですか"


texts:
I am currently revising an essay that I received feedback from my Japanese teacher about, and am having trouble working out what word she wanted me to use in a particular spot.

  日本では自動販売機はかっこよくて便利だと考えられ、一般的に積極的に見られているような気がする。

The bold word is the one that she wanted me to fix, and the comment that she wrote was "is put". I don't necessarily even need the word itself, so much as a concrete English meaning, as I can't figure out what "is put" is referring to in terms of Japanese meaning.

Incidentally, I am finishing the revision tonight, but even if I submit it, knowing what word fits better would be very helpful.

I have tried to look up "put" in various online dictionaries, but have not found any Japanese verb that sounds right in that context, and the other words that I can think of to replace it with (認められ、受け、視され、思われ) don't have a meaning that resembles "put" enough to be likely to be what she had in mind.

I may be overthinking it, but I would really appreciate guidance towards a better search term or the Japanese word itself (though the latter is less preferable because I don't get a chance to learn as much that way, and it is homework after all).


texts: What is the difference between 行き先 and 旅行先?

texts: According to jisho.org, both 行き先 and 旅行先 both have the meaning "destination". My intuitive guess is that 旅行先 is the destination of a trip, like "this cruise's destination is Bali" and 行き先 would be a more generic endpoint, like the destination of a train or a taxi ride. Can people clarify the difference in usage between these two words?


texts: Does this convey "It's not surprising that ___"?

texts:
I am working on the grammar pattern ～にはあたらない, which is used to indicate that something is not necessary. I.e, "No need to ask"　==> 聞くにはあたらない.

What I'm caught on is this example sentence:

  彼女が試験に合格したからといって驚くにはあたらない。

It may be a subtle difference, but is this meaning closer to the English "There is no need to be surprised (that she passed the test)" or "It's not surprising (that she passed the test)"?

I ask because the former sounds almost condescending, while the latter seems praising.

I'm sorry if this is too nit-picky, or it's simply a matter of poorly worded study material.


texts: Is this sentence correct and natural sounding?

texts: I want to say,”I will let the taxi driver know”. Is 「タクシーの運転手に伝えます。」correct? Is 私は needed or understood from context?


texts:
Here is the conversation that includes the word.

  A: そんな　つめてえこといわないで...
  　 ひと目{め}でいいんスよ ほんのちょいとあうだけでいいんだから

  B: だめっていったら　だめーっ

And I'm curious why the syllable 「ス」 in the word has to be written in katakana?


texts:
Context - describing the interior of a hospital:

  老人が六人収容されている部屋の廊下側、窓がなく、カーテンで仕切られているせいもあり外の景色が一切見えない気の塞ぐスペースだ。

老人が六人収容されている部屋の廊下側、窓がなく...

Does it mean there are no windows facing the corridor (as seen from inside a hospital room)?

...カーテンで仕切られている...

Is the hospital room separated into six spaces (for six patients) by curtains?

Is it also implied there are no windows at all (so that 外の景色が一切見えない)?

A bigger chunk of text, in case it helps:

翌日の朝から母とともに病院を訪れ、会社に行く母を駅まで送りまた病院へ戻った健斗は、暗い病室の隅に腰掛けていた。老人が六人収容されている部屋の廊下側、窓がなく、カーテンで仕切られているせいもあり外の景色が一切見えない気の塞ぐスペースだ。酸素吸入や点滴に心電図といった全身チューブだらけで眠っている祖父が目覚めたら、自宅の北向きの部屋より窮屈なほぼ自然光の入らない空間に、死にたくなるだろう。


texts: How to interpret the next sentence: 日本の新しい大学を見学します。

texts:
I was told in class that

  日本の新しい大学を見学します。
  Nihon no atarashī daigaku o kengaku shimasu.

means

  I will visit a new university in Japan.

I understand this as

  I am visiting the new Japanese university (right now).

I don't see the context to think this action will happen later, and besides it has the ~します ending.

Where is the "will" part?


texts:
I am intending to say:

  もう一度質問を聞いてください。

To make much it more indirect I wanted to rephrase it as:

  もう一度質問をきかせていただきたいです。

However, since きく can mean (among others) both listen to and ask, this sentence can be understood as

  I would like to ask my question once more.

or

  I would like to hear your question once more.

Would the ambiguity vanish if I use 訊く to force the first interpretation? Is there any other way to clear this ambiguity?


texts: Desire form verbs (~たい), is there a polite form?

texts:
I was just curious if there is a way to make the ~たい form polite?
for example

戦いたい - Want to fight

I was thinking possibly using the honorific form instead of the masu form might be acceptable?

お戦いになりたい


texts: Why the き and さ in the 送り仮名 of 大きい and 小さい?

texts:
I've always been puzzled over why 大きい isn't 大い and 小さい is not 小い. Is there some etymological reason? (I'm suspecting historical conjugations that changed the き and さ too, just like why 食べる has the べ since it used to alternate with ぶ; is this true?)

Similar weird okurigana are か in 静か, か in 暖かい. Is there some historical reason that caused しず and あたた to be seen as more central to the word than the か following it (which does not conjugate)?


texts:
Is there an "opposite" of 和製英語 (meaning Japanese words/phrases invented by English speakers)?  Maybe like {英・米・欧?}製日本語?  Because I always see/hear Japanese words in English and they drive me nuts!

The biggest one is when people pronounce 酒 as サキ.  Another one I saw on a local Japanese restaurant.  They have Monday night "Izakai" (イザカイ) nights (I don't know what this means -- maybe cheap drinks and appetizers?).  Apparently, some English speaker heard 居【い】酒【ざか】屋【や】 and just decided to make a cool-sounding English abbreviation of it (which is really weird considering the owner is Japanese).

So is there some set word to describe this?


texts: The humble （謙譲語） prefix 愚 when used to refer to own family members

texts:
I read about kenjougo (here and here) and understood that it is a type of honorific speech used to lower your rank below the person you are speaking to when you describe the actions of yourself or somebody within your in-group, be it your family or company.

The words I'm interested in:

Husband/wife: 愚夫・愚妻
Son/daughter: 愚息・愚女
Siblings: 愚兄・愚弟・愚姉・愚妹

Considering that humble speech is used when lowering your rank below somebody else, using the prefix 愚 when talking to somebody within your in-group can probably only be an insult. However, when the person in question hears you refer to them with 愚○, even in a situation that requires humble speech, doesn't that sound rather insulting as well?

Is the humble prefix 愚 usually used for family members in situations requiring humble speech or is it mainly used to make fun of family members?
Is there some other less "insulting" way to humbly refer to your in-group members?


texts:
Is there any difference in meaning between 定める and 決める? Or are they perhaps just used in different situations? In the dictionary they both have the meaning "to decide" or "to determine".

車の買うことに定めた。

車の買うことに決めた。

I would translate both sentences with "[I] decided to buy a car". Is that a correct translation for both sentences? Is one of these two sentences not correct?


texts: Why を and not に in 今日は先輩に2回**を**注意されました。?

texts:
今日は先輩に2回を注意されました。
[today][by senpai][2 times were adviced/warned]??? does this make any sense?
Shouldn't it be rather:
今日は先輩に2回に注意されました。
[today][by senpai][2 times （I/He/She..etc) were adviced/warned]??


texts: I understand the meaning of the sentence. I just didn't get the final "な": 相変、人の話は聞かないな

texts:
相変、人の話は聞かないな.

What's the purpose of the final な?


texts: I've been taught here that "to" is used sometimes as quotation marker. Now I've read in a website that "tte" is used for indirect speech and what seems to be quotation too? If so, when should I use "to" and when "tte" ?


texts:
Why is a に particle following a na-adjective in the following sentence? I know that the particle has several uses, e.g. direction and location of existence, but I don't know the reason why it is being used in this case.

花が綺麗に咲いています。
The flower is blooming beautifully.


texts:
To say something is a 見物, does it have a derogatory nuance like we are making fun of that person / that thing?

If so, is it derogatory to the extent that even if I intended it as a fun joke it seems a bit too much, or is it just a bit derogatory and fine to use in informal situations?


texts: What kind of organisms can be covered by 益虫, 害虫 or 虫?

texts:
I came across someone describing a Nihon yamori / gekko as a 益虫, and using  "useful insect" in English. Gekkos aren't insects, but it made me curious what it actually does mean.

jisho.org only describes 益虫 as meaning "useful insect". The English edition of Wiktionary lacks a description of 益虫, has a terse description of its antonym 害虫 (harmful insect), and a slightly longer definition of 虫, but not one that'd cover gekkos.

What kind of organisms would be covered by 益虫, 害虫, or 虫, and what kind of animals wouldn't be covered by 虫?

(BTW: I'm aware that English has words for non-monophyletic groups, so no mockery is intended)


texts:
Something I learned early on, when I learnt the causative-passive was, that the sentences also make sense, when you drop the causative-passive, e.g.

私はパンを食べさせられた。

私はパンを食べた。

Basically, "it's just a nuance". Someone (possibly unnamed) made you do the action. But I recently came across this example, where I'm pretty sure, I can't use that line of thought:

考えさせられる小説。

"A novel that forces you to think". Is this correct Japanese? 考える小説 would be "a thinking novel", so 考えさせらる小説 reads to me as "a novel that is forced to think", which of course is nonsense.

EDIT:

Hm, thinking about it some more, I realised, that 考える小説 may make some sense, as "books to think", or "books for thinking"? Is that the reason why 考えさせられる小説 works?


texts: Can 「XければXほどY」 clause pattern be shortened to 「XほどY」?

texts:
There is a clause pattern 「XければXほどY」. For example, 「近【ちか】ければ近【ちか】いほど便【べん】利【り】」 which means something like "the nearer it is, the more convenient it will be". Can I shorten the clause to 「近【ちか】いほど便【べん】利【り】」? Will it have the same meaning?

But I have a feeling when I use 「XほどY」 when X and Y are opposite to each other, it will give the meaning of "X yet Y" in English. For example, 「近【ちか】いほど届【とど】かない」 would give the meaning of "close yet unreachable", in a poetic sense. Am I right?


texts:
The sentence is

ああ、この女の様は溺れているようだ。

I'm assuming it is さま and not よう in this case, but why is it there?


texts: Trying to lookup word or expression てんとてん

texts:
I can remember hearing this combination of sounds several times, and the way it's used makes me think that it's a part of a common phase or saying.  Particularly I can point to two cases where it was used in Ergo Proxy episode 1.  In one case, it had the following usage, with the meaning that two events that were just mentioned are probably connected.

  てんとてん　は　せい　に　なる

I'm not writing that with any kanji because this was just heard, and I can't claim to know any of the meanings with total confidence.

I know there was another place てんとてん was used, and I think it was within a repeated phrase.  It went something like this:

  てんとてん　を　結ぶ ...

I'm trying to locate where this was said.  The next word might have been そうな and then something else, but I'm less sure about that part.

It's not in the Jim Breen dictionary, nor is any other similar pronunciation I can think of.  I also don't see very much particularly on Google.  Still, I'm sure about this usage and I hope that a native speaker will see these sentences and know right away what it's saying.


texts: How can I tell if a name is meant to be masculine?

texts: Would Kōsui be considered a male’s name?


texts:
I know that もし translates to "if", but I dont know exactly when or how it should be used. I was reading Yoko Hasegawa's Japanese: a linguistic introduction. In the chapter on conditional clauses, some sentences begins with もし, others dont. Example: もし電気がついて（いれば・いたら・いる　なら）、彼は家にいるだろう。versus 会員（で　あれば・だったら・なら・だ　と）、割引があります。(the original text is in romaji, I transcribed to hiragana for better understanding)

Since たら, なら, ば or と already express the idea of conditional, what is もし doing here? Does it have any additional function beyond those in the 4 conditional particles? If it does, what is this function, and if it doesnt, why is it included?


texts: What is the purpose of の in this sentence?

texts: "このテレビの直し方わかりますか。" means "Do you know how to fix this TV?" but I can't figure out the purpose of の (after テレビ) in this sentence.


texts: What is the difference between ものですから and just ですから?

texts:
I am currently studying this grammar point ~ものですから, and I understand that the meaning is "because; the reason is"

However it seems to me that there is no difference if we omit the もの. So can someone enlightening me, what is the difference between:

eg.

私は忙しいものですから.
and
私は忙しいですから.


texts: とか vs. って vs. という vs. と言われている

texts:
can someone help me with the following questions:

ねえ、このきじみて。きのうのスケート大会、青木選手が＿＿＿。
a）優勝したとか　b）優勝したんだって　c）優勝したという

Answer is b but I am not sure why a is wrong cause the guide says that 'toka' and 'tte' can be both used when you hear about some news.

今、テレビの天気予報で見たんだけど、あしたは全国的に雨だ＿＿＿よ。
a）ときいている　b）と言われている　c）そうだ

Answer is c but why is b wrong?
Thanks!


texts: What is the correct "healthy" adjective for healthy foods?

texts:
The situation is that I've expressed that I like Sushi, and then want to proceed and explain why that is, describing sushi as delicious and healthy. Something along the lines of:

  すしはおいしくてヘルシーですから。

Now I don't think ヘルシー or 元気 are probably the right choices here. It is also, that the fish itself is not healthy (it's usually just pretty dead when eating it), but it's good for the one eating the fish, that will get the health benefits.

This might be a trivial translation, but I'd be interested to see how I could find the correct answer myself, as a dictionary search on jisho showed me interesting new vocabulary, but not quite what I was looking for.


texts: Why are there different names for the same kanji radical?

texts:
I was wondering why some of the names for kanji radicals are different depending on the source.

For example, right now I'm learning radicals on kaniwani and they called 「丶」 drop, but on my kanji learning app they called it a dot.
The terms they call it are similar but still different.
I would like to know which source is more credible or reliable to study kanji radicals.


texts: 飲食店が入る雑居ビル vs 飲食店が入った雑居ビル

texts:
A news program announced:

  〇〇店が入る雑居ビルが全焼した。

I was expecting

  〇〇店が入った雑居ビルが全焼した。

as in 「水が入ったグラス」. The former seems like it's saying that the shop was going to be set up in the building sometime in the future, but it was clear from context that the building already contained the shop. What is the difference?


texts: It seems that there are a number of animal and plant names that can either be used with or without 類 as a suffix. For example, in case of 'fish', I have seen both 魚類 and 魚 being used to denote the respective animals. Another example would be 'mammal', which I have seen both as 哺乳動物 and 哺乳類. Is there any difference in meaning involved in these cases, and if yes, in what situations would each be used? I have the impression that the 類 versions may be used more in the context of biology, but I am not sure about that.


texts:
「……それはそれ、これはこれですわ。どうあれ、わたくしの指示に反して勝手な行動を取ったのは事実。秩序を欠いた群体に待つのは破滅のみ。———その罪は、死を以て贖っていただきますわよ」

What would be the function of the bold に? Can we also use を待つ?


texts: Nuance of the structure "Verb (stem of negative form) + ざるを得ない" compared to "Verb + しかない"

texts: I've browsed a bit throught the other posts and it seems like there is no clear explanation of the nuance of "V + ざるを得ない" compared to "V + しかない". Roughly speaking, they have the same meaning but is there any subtle nuance I don't get here or are they completely interchangeable?


texts: What is the function of particle に in 「Aチームに[勝つ]【かつ】チームがあるとしたら…」?

texts:
I came across the following sentence

  Aチームに[勝つ]【かつ】チームがあるとしたら…
  If A team is the winning team...

Why is the に particle being used in Aチームに?
Why would it not be Aチームは in this case?
I have not come across an explanation on this usage of に.


texts: Why do 為る【する】 and 為す【なす】 use the same kanji as 為【ため】?

texts:
Why do the verbs 為る【する】 and 為す【なす】 ("to do") use the same kanji as 為【ため】 ("because of", "for the sake of", etc.)? I'm not seeing any obvious connection between the meanings of する・なす and ため that would explain why they use the same kanji, and they don't appear to be etymologically related either.

(Yes, I'm aware that nobody writes する or なす with those kanji, but that's how it's listed in dictionaries, so I figure it's worth asking anyway.)


texts: How do you say "[amount of time] later"?

texts: What is the general rule for saying, for example, "2 hours later"?


texts:
保護する猫 protecting cat
保護される猫 protected cat

But when the bold parts are removed, I don't know the exact meaning.

Which is the correct meaning for 保護猫? Protected cat or protecting cat?


texts:
My book says that "koto" can convert verbs into nouns.  It can also convert adjectives and adverbial nouns, but what does that mean?  It gives examples like:

Tori o tsukamaeru koto wa kantan ja nai?
Watashi wa kare ga nihon e itta koto o nd dare date boku ga atama ga warui koto ot shitteru

The book says "koto" means "thing", "fact", or "matter".
How exactly do you use "koto"?


texts: Can you say ～てもらった when you actually did nothing?

texts:
I'm pretty sure the answer to this is "yes", but I'm a bit unsure about why. For example, given the following scenario:

  My friend, John, tells me that his friend, Mariko, is performing a survey and he asks me to take it. The survey is very interesting to me and I subsequently contact Mariko directly to talk about her research.

In this situation, can I introduce myself by saying 「調査について、ジョンに聞かせてもらいました」? In the sense of ～てもらう as "to get someone to do something", this seems odd given that I didn't actually do anything. But it feels right, and I'm not sure why. I could say 「ジョンから聞きました」, but that doesn't sound as natural to my ears.

So, despite having no actual agency in having heard about the survey, can I say 聞かせてもらいました? And bonus points for telling me why.

(Also, just as confirmation, it is inappropriate in this situation to say 聞かせていただきました, right?)


texts: How to say phrases "Can you repeat that" and "can we go to the next question"?

texts:
I have a speaking exam coming up and I'm feeling mostly prepared, but after there's an unprepared conversation part which we're also graded on. It's with my teacher but luckily keigo isn't necessary.

I just want to make sure that for these phrases I'm using the correct level of politeness.

Could you please repeat that

"すみませんが、もう一度お願いします。" or "もう一度説明してくれますか"

Could we move on to the next question

"次の質問をしてもいいですか。"

Hopefully I wont have to use them but if I mess something up or mishear what my teacher asks I don't want the conversation to just fall apart.


texts:
In my JLPT practice book, there is a question that asks you to put words in the correct order:

  朝の満員電車の中で、大きな音で　____ ____ ____ ____ 若者がいる。

What I put down was:

  朝の満員電車の中で、大きな音で 迷惑きわまりない音楽を聞いている 若者がいる。

But the correct answer is:

  朝の満員電車の中で、大きな音で 音楽を聞いている迷惑きわまりない 若者がいる。

From what I can tell, it seems that the first sentence is saying that it is the music that is annoying, and the second sentence is that the kids are annoying, but I do not see why one is any more grammatically correct than the other.


texts:
I chanced across this sentence while doing anki.

彼は高齢を理由に社長を辞めたよ

There are 2 を particles before the verb (in this case 辞めた being the verb). From what I understand of the を particle, it marks a direct object of the next occurring verb but in this case, there are 2 direct objects before the verb. How do I decipher this? I tried to search for these kinds of usages online but couldn't find any related hits on google due to me not knowing the proper terms for these usages. Any related links would be appreciated. Also why does 長を辞めた translates to resigned as president. In english, this would very literally mean that the action of quiting is done on the president, which doesn't really makes sense to me. Shouldn't it be 社長として辞めた instead.


texts: Working with parentheses (English vs Japanese)

texts:
In English I could write, "Birds (various kinds)".  In Japanese could I translate the version using parentheses as something like 鳥類（各種）, or should the language/parentheses be used differently?

I'm not sure what the rules are for round vs square parentheses.


texts: Double conditional in same sentence? 「一人になれば不安になると。。。」

texts:
I was translating the song オレンジ by 7!! as an exercise, and I found the following sentence quite confusing:

一人になれば不安になると眠りたくない夜は話し続けていた

So far, I get that

一人になれば不安になる -> If I become (remain) alone, I get anxious
眠りたくない夜は話し続けていた -> We kept talking in those sleepless nights (lit. As for those nights in which I/we didn't want to sleep, we continued talking)

I'm getting confused by the と connecting the two sentences, which as far as I know should be the conditional と (as it follows a verb in plain form). Still, that sentence that should be the condition already contains a conditional made with ば.
To me, the translation "In those sleepless nights, when I got anxious because I was alone, we kept talking" kinda makes sense, but I'm guessing.
Can anyone give me an hint on that construction?


texts: Why is this sentence grammatically incorrect?

texts:
On a separate question about Japanese pitch, one of the examples I left was:

  '甘美（うまみ）の花は赤を見える' (Your flower looks red [talking to Umami]).

One of the commenters claimed that it was grammatically incorrect and Chocolate edited it to correct the mistake:

  '甘美（うまみ）の花は赤く見える'

I understand that certain verbs have different particles for different contexts etc.

What is the purpose of く replacing を? Is く better, or is を also exceptable? If so which is better and why? I apologise for the multitude of questions.


texts:
I have read this link which explains how to say that something is n-times as big as something else. My sentence doesn't quite fit these patterns.

A fish has just been caught (no mention of size). The next sentence is:

  岸辺を泳ぐ細長い魚の三倍はありそうなものだ。

So, I think it's supposed to be saying

  (the fish just caught) seems three times as large as the long, thin fish swimming along the river bank.

But there is no adjective in this sentence. So I don't really know if it's bigger, smaller, fatter, or whatever. Is there a clue in the grammar I'm missing that makes bigger the obvious choice? Or, must I just infer it from context (though, I don't think the context makes it particularly clear)?


texts:
In the Genki 1 textbook, the question prompt

本を読んでいる人は誰ですか？

appears alongside an illustration with a bunch of people doing different activities. The textbook user is then supposed to pick out a specific person in the image with は (高田さんは本を読んでいます).
I've been studying Japanese long enough to understand that in contrast,

本を読んでいる人が誰ですか？

sounds wrong, but when I take a second to think about it, I can't actually figure out why it's wrong based on the meaning of が (it seems like it could work as exhaustive-listing が if I didn't know better).
Thinking of は versus が as a difference between introducing new information （が） and drawing upon old information（は）I was thinking maybe the nuance here is that, in the textbook exercise all of the people in the picture are established as pre-registered/old information (though I don't know why they would be considered old), and thus は is simply used to bring it into the realm of the conversation again.
That guess aside, does anyone have insight on why は instead of が？


texts: Question about a sentence including the「す」with question mark at the end of a sentence

texts:
Here is the sentence I mentioned.

  ほう　その良家のおじょうさまたちだけがなぜ　肉親もおらん少年院に入れるんす？
  そこのところをはっきりしてもらいたいもんだね

I have 3 questions relating to it.

Is it a short colloquial form of 「ですか？」?
Does the word 「なぜ」, in this sentence, mean 'why'? If not, what is the purpose of it in this case?
Can I translate it as 'Hey, that is just a group of daughters from noble family which is the reason why they can get in to the reformed school, right? Please explain the reason to that point.'


texts: idiom along the lines of "you get more relatives as you get famous"

texts: Overheard something that sounds like "うれるど親戚 {しんせき} かくれる"(must be mistakes somewhere since there's no search result for the phrase). Kind of a sarcastic/joking idiom, saying that as a person gets famous, they will appear to have more distant relatives (because people want to be related to the famous person). What might be the correct form of this idiom/is such idioms widely used/accepted? Thanks!


texts:
まず癪に障るのは、同じ人間とは思えぬその鋼のごとき肉体であった。目方はおよそ喜惣次の倍はあろうか。「おお、寒ぶ寒ぶ」と胴間声を張り上げながら湯舟に躍りこめば、湯の半分くらいが溢れ出る騒ぎであった。

Google/dictionary search gave me nothing... Is it same as e.g. here?


texts: Is there a term for being able to understand a Kanji meaning, but unable to pronounce it?

texts: Is there a term for being able to understand a Kanji meaning, but unable to pronounce it in Japanese?


texts: What is the point of using 謂わば in this sentence?

texts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv7ZYbhTLco&t=4m7s
関節と関節の間は謂わば関節である
Google translate only gives the following:
So-called joints are between joints


texts:
According to wikipedia, 博士 (hakase) is used as honorific when addressing some academics:

Sensei (先生、せんせい) [...] is used to refer to or address teachers, doctors, politicians, lawyers. [...] The term is not generally used when addressing a person with very high academic expertise the one used instead is hakase (博士, lit. "Doctor" or "PhD").

However, this really does not match my experience from when I was in Japan. I never heard anybody refer to a person holding a PhD as 博士, especially not for professors where 先生 was always used.
That said, maybe this was owing to the more international setting I was in.
I'm wondering in which settings 博士 is actually used as a honorific, if at all, or if the information on Wikipedia is simply outdated or incorrect.


texts:
I have the following sentence.

  その白い比いない裸体は、薄暮の背景の前に置かれて輝やいていた 。

I understand the use of ~て in ~ている, but I'm confused by two consecutive verbs using ~て as in 置かれて輝やいていた. Should I understand them just as two separate yet consecutive actions? Or does one complete or modify the meaning of the other?


texts:
According to what I read, となる is the written counterpart of になる. Nevertheless, I stumbled upon some use of となる that seems not to fall under the typical usage of になる (which, for me, means "to become" as in 講師になった).

Sometimes となる seems to be used in place of the copula です. (Ex: 考{かんが}えを述{の}べる表現は「〜と思う。」となる)

Another use that I do not understand can be found in this example:

  動詞は、述語 となる 三つの品詞の中で最も変化に富むもので、その文型もさまざまな種類があり ますが、動詞文の最も基本的な型は、次のように表すことができます。

in paragraph 1.1.3 動詞文 of 基本述語型と修飾語

Thus, my question is what do mean those usages of となる? And is there any other usage of となる?


texts: Do possessive pronouns exist at all in Japanese or the only way to refer to possession is through the "no" particle?

texts: In English or Spanish there are possessive pronouns like my, your, her, his, mi, tu, su, etc. that you can use to show possession. For example, my car. But in Japanese the only way I've seen (or that I remember right now) for a phrase like that is with the use of the particle "no". 私の車. Is that the only way there is?


texts: Translation - "form" (internet form you fill out, NOT an application)

texts:
A translation question for ya :)
I'm in need of the word for "form". In this case it is a form on a webpage a user fills out to answer survey questions ("how did you think you did? did you enjoy it?").
We have a form generator - we can make many forms like these to present to the user. But I am unsure as to which word to use.

My candidates are:
フォーム (easy!)

態 e.g. 事業態

書類 (document)

Which is correct for this scenario?


texts:
一度足を踏み入れたが最後、むこう半日は鏡面恐怖症におちいる大迷路のなれの果てが、こうして草十郎の目の前に立ちふさがっているのだが.

The protagonist is going into a building where there is a mirror house and another attraction. The building is now abandoned and he is going to another place different from the mirror house to meet someone else.
It's night and there are no lights.

  Once he stepped in, on the other side there is the mirror-phobic big labyrinth which is nothing but a shadow of it's former self which is now standing in front of Souichiro but.

I don't understand that half a day in there.
Since it's night and the building has been abandoned I think it's because half a day there is no sunlight so it' all dark and so it serve no purpose, but I am just guessing.

Can someone clarify?


texts:
I encountered the te-form before a noun in the lyrics below:

  見つめあなたの表情 (Staring at your expression)
  隠して明星ギャラクティカ (Hide the Morning Star Galactica)
  そのときめいた気持ちが未知だって
  手探りでいいから

(full lyrics available here)

I'm not sure if the 隠して is:

a. modifying the noun after it (hiding)

b. a request (hide)

c. modifying the noun 表情 from the previous line (Morning Star Galactica, hiding your expression)

I'm leaning towards b or c, because I've never seen gerund form modify a noun like that before. Help is appreciated -- thanks.


texts:
From the children's story おーい、でてこーい. A one metre wide hole has appeared in the ground after a landslide. The hole is dark and gives the feeling that it goes all the way to the centre of the earth. The villagers are talking about it:

  「キツネの穴かな。」
  Maybe it's a fox hole.
  そんなことを言った者もあった。
  There was even a person who said such a thing.

My translation of the second sentence seems very unnatural. I have two problems:

1) Why is ある used with an animate subject (者) rather than いる?

2) My translation makes it sound like the narrator is ridiculing the person who suggested it was a fox hole. Are my translations of そんな as 'such a' and も as 'even' accurate in this case? Is this sentence implying that the fox hole suggestion is ridiculous, or am I totally mistranslating it?


texts: How was the first Japanese-English dictionary made? In other words, how could the author map correctly each Japanese word to its corresponding one in English?


texts: Who is the subject when using 記｛き｝者｛しゃ｝泣｛な｝かせ?

texts:
I've recently seen several articles containing the phrase  記｛き｝者｛しゃ｝泣｛な｝かせ. All the articles have been about unfortunate events, and 泣かせ clearly means something is making somebody cry. My question is how do you use it.

One article says 取材を受けた時に、声もごく小さく、記者泣かせだった。

Does that refer to the entire event as a 記者泣かせ？ Or referring to the person with a small voice as a 記者泣かせ？

On a different website it says あなたは正しく書ける？　「キヤノン」や「ビックカメラ」が新人記者泣かせな理由.

Again - who/what is the 記者泣かせ　describing？


texts:
I would like to know which is the main meaning of the verb 与える ? According to the dictionary it means several things: "give", "feed", "bestow", "set homework", "harm". Are all these actions frequently expressed with 与える? Please feel free to give example sentences.

Thank you so much in advance for your answers!


texts: What is the difference between [担]{にな}う and [担]{かつ}ぐ?

texts:
This page is supposed to disambiguate the two words but I am at loss to perceive the difference:

1.「担ぐ」は、物を肩にのせる意。
2.「担う」は、物を肩にかけて運ぶ意。

In particular, I don't really know how to understand properly the difference between 肩に載せる and 肩にかける. Up to my understanding, the former would have the sense of "to put on one's shoulder and the thing that is shouldered is in major part above the shoulder" like in 神輿｛みこし｝を担ぐ, the later would have the meaning of "to put on one's shoulder and the thing that is shouldered is in major part below the shoulder". In this sense I have the feeling that かける could be cognate with ぶらさげる.
Is this correct or are there other nuances that I did not catch?


texts:
I have the following sentence that a character says:

  その上で、
  協力できる事があるならできるよう善処する。

Context: Characters fought and are about to join up. Also this character tends to not speak 100% proper default Japanese. They tend to eat the particles I think. So I'm thinking that a に could have been swallowed after に.

And I'm confused by the あるならできるよう bit.

協力できる事があるなら is simple "If we are able to have cooperation" / "If we are able to cooperate".

Also if the last bit is

  Something + できるよう善処する

That would mean something along the lines of "We'll do our best to be able + something". But how all this fits together is beyond me.

For now I think this means something along the lines of "Moreover,
we should do our best if we are to be able to cooperate." but I'm not so sure.

Basically the question is what is the actual meaning and how does this sentence split.


texts: I was looking at this answer and I discovered the word ぜんしゅう (last week).  I am familiar with せんしゅう, and I was wondering if there is any difference in meaning between them?


texts:
This question might sound stupid but it got me thinking for some hours. A friend bought me this gel pen from a Japanese store in my country, and it is written in the pen:

  かわいいデス

instead of かわいいです kawaii desu.

I do not understand why です is in katakana. I mean, katakana is used for non-Japanese words, as far as I was taught when I was going to Japanese classes.

So I do not understand... Probably it is just because they wanted to do it that way! In that case, sorry for bothering!


texts: What's the difference between らーめん and らーぬん?

texts: Both #らーめん and #らーぬん hashtags lead me to ramen posts. I'm aware that Ramen is called #らーめん. But what is #らーぬん?


texts: How do you say lychee? Does it have a kanji as well?

texts: I can’t seem to find any information on it other than “ライチ” but I only found that from one website.:/


texts:
Advanced beginner here,

Going through some vocabulary flash cards and I’ve come across this sentence:

  かれは私{わたし}の方{ほう}を見{み}ました。

I don’t understand why ほう is necessary here. It appears to me to be superfluous. Any clarification would be appreciated.


texts:
I've been thinking of this for a while and I need a bit of a clarification. For example, if I want to say "I think he is a good person", would it be:

a)　私は彼がいい人と思う

or

b) 私は「彼はいい人」と思う

Also, if it has already been established from beforehand that I am the topic of the sentence, would it then be possible to shorten this to 彼がいい人と思う or 彼はいい人と思う (whichever one is right from the first part)?


texts: How many translations of "ichigo" are there?

texts: "Ichigo" can be the pronunciation of a person's name (as in the cartoon "Bleach"), or words meaning "strawberry", "one and five", or a part of the word "一期一会". Are there any additional meanings of "ichigo"? Are these words homonyms or do they have different tones?


texts: Why is こころ + みる the word used to say "to try/attempt"? What is it supposed to be saying as an idiom?


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

The sentence in question:
米田さんによると、その可能性は高いものの、Ｈ５普通コンドライトは地球でもっとも多く見つかる隕石で、八王子隕石が偶然曽根隕石と同じ種類だった可能性もあるということです。

My attempt at translation:
"According to Mr. Yoneda (?), Concerning the possibilities, out of the meteorites which are discovered more abundandtly on earth (??? H5 ordinary chondrite of expensive things???), there is also the possibility that hachioji meteorite is similar to the Sone meteorite type."

I am profoundly puzzled by the parts in bold ^^
Furthermore, I'm having a really hard time parsing the その可能性は高いものの、Ｈ５普通コンドライトは地球でもっとも多く見つかる隕石で part. First, there are two は and while I know both the topic marker and contrastive function, I'm lacking the creativity and skill to meaningfully resolve their functions in this sentence. I chose the のなかで interpretation for で in 見つかる隕石で because I find a way to translate it otherwise.
I also have no idea what 高いものの、Ｈ５普通コンドライト is supposed to tell me, so tried to make the best out of it...^^