texts: Confuse about the definition of yakimochi

texts: Is there any linguist said about yakimochi (焼餅) definition? I mean any research of that word?


texts: Could I drop です out of a sentence? I want to be able to speak more casual Japanese. I just wanted to know if it was possible to drop です out of a sentence. example: これは犬


texts: Why can できている carry a judgemental, negative connotation?

texts:
My Japanese teacher, who is a native speaker, once answered a student's question about the difference between:

（彼は）ドイツ語ができる。
（彼は）ドイツ語ができている

He said that a younger speaker might be more likely to use the second, in a context in which, for example, the third person said about himself that he couldn't speak German, but then goes on to fluently speak it, and another person remarks できてるよ！　to say "Oh see, you can speak it! You can!"
But he said that in general, he would find the second sentence to be very condescending and rude, because it implies that the speaker thinks of himself as having a VERY high level of competence himself, and judges the other looking down from that level, where as he didn't feel the first version to have that connotation at all.
Can someone explain why this might be the case? How does the ている form which usually displays habitual, perfective or progressive aspect take on such a connotation?


texts:
明快な口調とテンポの良い楽しい授業が時の経つのも忘れさせる。

Ｗhen I searched the Internet I found the phrase 時の経つのを忘れさせる.

So, what is the reason for replacing the particle を with も?


texts: What is the meaning of 「日本新」in this comedy premise?

texts:
This is a description of a comedy premise where a track athlete con-artist uses a stopwatch to time some kind of track record and says, "You're 「日本新」". Calling someone「日本新」is described as a method for a con-artist to fool people because of their weakness for the word.

  中でも途中で現われた、「陸上選手」詐欺師というのが、鮎子には可笑しくて仕方がなかった。首から下げたストップウォッチで、何かというと記録を計り、「日本新ですよ、あなた」と客を煽てて、騙そうとするのだ。人間は、「日本新」という言葉に弱い、という妙な理屈から考案した詐欺商法らしいが、そのくだらなさが愉快だった。

Can you explain the meaning or double meaning of 「日本新」 in this comedy premise? What is the "trick" that hinges on this word?

I'm guessing it has something to do with にほんしん and 日本人 sounding similar, but I'm not sure what it means by the strange logic of people having a weakness for the word.


texts: Special か or basic か for making questions?

texts:
Is the か explained in the image below a "normal" question marker, like the one I learned when studying basic Japanese, or does it have some special properties?

This is from the TRY textbook for JLPT N1, so it makes me think this か is somehow different from the basic か used for making questions.

From what I can see in the mini-explanation, it transmits denial（否定）, but I can't appreciate that in the example sentences.

Could you please explain this か to me?

Thank you so much in advance!

By the way, do you know where I could see all the TRY N1 grammar patterns translated into English? Sorry for the extra question.


texts: Inconsistency in applying direct object to 勝つ

texts:
As far as I know, the verb 勝つ takes a direct object with に as

彼はチェス試合に勝った。He won the chess match.

and takes an indirect object with に対して as

彼は私に対してチェス試合に勝った。He won the chess match against me.

Now I found a sentence that seems to be inconsistent as follows.

X: チェスにかけては、私に勝てる人がいないと自信を持っている。
X': When it comes to chess, I have confidence that none can { (win against) | (beat) } me.

Question
For the sake of consistency, why don't we use 私に対して勝てる instead of 私に勝てる in X?


texts: Several items on the menu of the restaurant I’m at have 肉入 next to them. I’ve looked this up in a couple dictionaries without success, although I know the general meanings of the separate characters (or thought I did). What does this mean? Meat included?


texts: What are some good ways to say "how to spell" in Japanese?

texts:
I wanted to know the correct way to spell a compound word in Japanese, and was wondering if there is a verb that correlates to "to spell" in the Japanese language. I found 綴る, but was told this is used only for foreign languages; as I was told, it may be used in a linguistic context to speak of spelling in Japanese, but in common usage it is used mainly to refer to the spelling of foreign words.
To sum it up, if I want to know the kana spelling of a word or compound word (for instance １件）what would be a few ways to ask this?  Is the word 綴る used primarily in linguistic contexts? If I want to ask friends or acquaintances, are there other terms besides 書く, スペル or 読む to use? Would 仮名遣い be okay to use in this context?
(I wanted to avoid saying something like そのスペルを教えてください。／そのスペルは？ as this seemed too easy)


texts: Difference between 彫る【ほる】 (horu) and 刻む【きざむ】 (kizamu)

texts:
As I see it right now they both mean: to carve;  to engrave, to chisel;  to notch.

Is there any difference between them?


texts: What is the difference between それでいい and それがいい here?

texts:
As I understand it, それでいい means 'it is fine like this' and それがいい means 'this is fine', but what is the protagonist trying to convey here by first using それでいい and then correcting himself to それがいい?

Background: This is the main character's internal dialogue. A girl (who appears to be his 憧れ{あこがれ}の人 from the same school) steps onto the bus he is on, and sparks this monologue, part of it reproduced below:

  もしかしたら違う{ちがう}世界に住んでるのかもしれない。
  たまたま見えているだけで、手で触れよう{ふれよう}とすればかき消えて{きえて}しまいそうな──だから触って{さわって}はいけない、関わって{かかわって}はいけない。
  近寄るともままならない。
  そんなバカげた妄想{もうそう}すら浮かべたく{うかべたく}なるほど、彼女の存在{そんざい}は僕にとって、いい意味で異質{いしつ}であり、遠い存在だった。
  僕に出来ることは、声をかけることではなく、ただただ、こうやって見守るだけだった。
  と言っても、別に指をくわえてる訳{わけ}じゃない。
  むしろ、この距離{きょり}がいいんだと思ってる。
  きっと成績{せいせき}も優秀{ゆうしゅう}で、性格もいいんだろう。
  彼女の日常{にちじょう}の中に、僕なんかが関わる余地{よち}はどこにもない。
  そして僕自身、関わりたいとは思わない。
  凄すぎて{すごすぎて}家には飾れない{かざれない}絵画を見ている気持ち、に近いかもしれなかった。
  だから、校内で彼女の姿を探そうなんて思わない。
  知り合いになりたいなんて、夢{ゆめ}に見たこともない。
  同じバスに乗ってくるかどうか。
  ただそれだけを気にかけて、会えた時はその偶然を素直に喜ぶ。
  それでいい。
  いや。
  それが、いい。
  ……こんな気持ちは多分、そんなに特別なことじゃないんだろう。
  憧れて、そして憧れるだけで終わる感情。
  おそらく、誰にでもあることなんだろう。
  そして、いつかは忘れてしまう思い出なんだろうな、きっと……。

Some attempt at a free translation:

  Rather, I think this distance is good. She's sure to have great grades
  and a good personality. There's no space for me anywhere in her daily
  life. And I myself even don't think that I want to have something
  to do with her.

  It's as if I'm looking at a painting I cannot place in my home as it's
  too wonderful -- or something close to that. Therefore, I'm not going to
  spend my time searching for her at school. I haven't even dreamt of
  being acquaintances with her.

  The only worry I have is whether or not she'll ride the same bus with
  me. When I do meet her by chance, I can be glad without reservation.

  It's fine like this. No, I mean, this is good. (???)

  These feelings are probably nothing special. Feelings of aspiration
  that are nothing more. Perhaps everyone has them. And later, they'll
  become memories that will sometime be forgotten.


texts: Would it be valid to change the いい in (verb)ても良い into a negative?

texts:
E.G. 言わなくても良くない

I've always been curious about this, but none of the books or classes I've had ever approached it


texts:
I want to say, that the weaving machine is weaving material on high speed using synthetic fibre. But I am confused, if I can use the combination 合繊【ごうせん】から instead of 合繊【ごうせん】で, so I won't have で twice in my sentence...
Could you please help me understand which, から or で, is better here and why?

織機【しょっき】は超速【ちょうそく】でこの合繊【ごうせん】で生地【きじ】を織ります【おります】。
ｖｓ
織機【しょっき】は超速【ちょうそく】でこの合繊【ごうせん】から生地【きじ】を織ります【おります】。


texts:
I actually have a few questions about this exchange, if that's alright. The context is the characters' friends are preparing a party to thank A for all their hard work.

A: 別に気にしなくていいのにさ　私は好きでやってるだけなんだし
B: あいつらだってそんなことわかってるさ…　わかった上で感謝の気持ちを伝えたいんだろ　言わなくても伝わるはず…　そんなのは単なる甘えだ 言葉や行動にしなきゃ伝わらないこともある

My attempt at it was:
A: They really don't have to worry about it. I just like what I'm doing.
B: They know that... and want to show their appreciation. They should express that even without saying... That's just [????]. Sometimes it may not get through without words and actions.
My questions are thus:

Am I correct with 私は好きでやってるだけなんだし, or would it be something like "I'm just doing what I like"?

I'm struggling with how to naturally incorporate わかった上 in the phrasing in English without it sounding clunky. Is there a good way to do or would omitting it be a better option?

I'm afraid I'm misunderstanding most of B's lines and this is my biggest sticking point: 言わなくても伝わるはず… そんなのは単なる甘えだ. I'm aware 甘え is 'depending upon others', but I'm not sure what B is trying to say.


texts: Is ～も really marking the word just prior to it?

texts:
I'm translating an excerpt for fun, but this section struck me as odd:

  彼女は、口に持っていきかけていたコップを、ゆっくりとテーブルに戻すと、それっきり、放心したように、黙り込んでしまう。微速度撮影でうつした、枯れていく花のように、みるみる両眼が落ちくぼみ、鼻がそげ、あれほどなめらかだった肌の色も、揉み皮のように張りを失い、唇のあいだには、桑の実を食べた後のような、黒いおりがにじみ出る。

This is how I translated that section:

  In mid-motion, she stopped and slowly lowered to the table the cup she had raised to her lips. And after that, as though her soul had left her, she went mute. As I watched, like a flower in time-lapse, her eyes sank inward, her nose drooped, and the color of her skin that had been so smooth, lost its tension like chamois leather. Around her lips, a dark stain appeared like that left by mulberries.

My problem is, the idea of "color" losing tension or pluck (candidate translations of 張り) feels nonsensical in English. One hypothesis is that も is actually attached to 肌, not 色.

What do you think?


texts: 体言止め can only be applied to サ変名詞 when する is just する (and not past or passive), right?

texts:
I am reading a document that has some normal 体言止め and want to review:

  2021年度からaaaドームのネーミングライツ権を取得。

ok. Since 取得 is slated to happen in the future, する has been dropped. This is normal. Then, in the same document:

  2018年秋にサービスを開始すると発表した。

Clearly, this する happened in the past and can only be inferred as した yet it is not dropped.

Next, here is chance for 体言止め with 受け身形 (passive) in the present tense:

  このapplicationで現在地を検索するには、GPSを用いた位置情報取得権限が要求される。

This only makes sense if 要求 is in the present tense in passive voice (される), but される is not dropped.

question
The rule of 体言止め with サ変名詞 is just that "する" can only be dropped if "する" is just "する", and not conjugated even if the context makes any conjugation (into past, passive, or causitive) 100% clear?


texts: Is 胡 missplaced in the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary?

texts:
I recently tried to look up the kanji 胡 in the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary, which uses the SKIP method to look up each kanji, and I couldn't find it. It seemed to me a relatively straightforward kanji look-up using the SKIP method: It is clearly divided side-to-side (making the first digit '1'), and the number of strokes for the left hand side is 5 and the number for the right hand side is 4 (giving it a SKIP number 1-5-4). I tried every trick I know to find it and eventually did...under the wrong classification. The '4' and '5' have been reversed so that it is 1-4-5.

It's hard for me to think that this dictionary could be wrong, but I've counted the strokes so many times I don't see where I could be mistaken. I've searched around so see if any else has had the same trouble, but I can't find anyone. Does anyone know why it's been placed where it has? Am I missing something?


texts:
I know that その通り can mean "Exactly" or "That's right". But I was watching an anime (Samurai 7) and heard one of the characters say "この通り" and something else right afterwards which I didn't catch.

For context, the scene was the governor of the city asking for forgiveness from some samurai who had been wronged by his predecessor. After he admitted that the samurai had been wronged. He prostrated himself and said, "この通り (and something else)". The subtitles translated to: "I beg of you. Please forgive me."


texts:
Something I saw recently was the following (a NPC tutorial message from a video game):

バトルチップって、ゲットしただけじゃ使えないんだよ。サブ画面で「チップフォルダ」を選んで、チップフォルダの中に入れないとだめなんだって。忘れないように変えて復習しようっと。

What is confusing me is the ending っと. Is it supposed to be indicating what they have heard, thus silently omitting the 言われている? Or is there something else going on here?


texts:
Taking yadokari's sentence:

  彼女は表情が生き生きとしておりとてもかわいい。

The part that I need help understanding is the relation of 生き生きとして with　表情　and　居る.

Looking up the dictionary entry for 生き生き, it is "an adverb taking the と particle"

(Question 1) Does the adverb modify して? Or is 生き生きとして treated as an adverb as a whole?

EDIT: What is the difference between 1. 生き生きとする and 2. 生き生きとして居る?

(Question 2) Is 2. the ~ている construction of 1.? And what is its significance when used with an adverb? English parsing would be greatly appreciated.


texts: What is the difference between 訪れる and 訪ねる?

texts:
According to goo, We can say 「彼を訪ねる」 but not 「彼を訪れる」 and we should instead say 「彼の家を訪れる」if we use the verb 訪れる. Does it have a nuance? Does it open the doors to another interpretation(visiting his house instead of visiting him for example)?
I know this classification is debatable, but 訪れる is JLPT 1 and 訪ねる is JLPT 4 on jisho.org, is 訪れる more formal or rare than 訪ねる?


texts:
Context: A dangerous crisis is happening, and the boss man has just received partial report on the entire incident, but enough to be informed what's going on. The full report is waiting on some labatory analysis of leftovers from previous incident in the crisis.
After the subordinate who reported leaves, his aide says:

ともあれ解析待ちかな～

I'm assuming this is ともあれ/解析/待ち/かな～ and the aide is wondering if they should wait for the full (complete) report. Am I right here? The big boss answers:

あぁ
対策をして挑まないと同じ轍を踏むことになる

I'm guessing that Aaa, is less him saying they should wait but more exasperation because he thinks they need to start making countermeasures now or the same thing will happen again.
Of course it could be a confirmation and mean "Yes, we need to prepare properly or else things will take the same course."


texts: What honorifics are used with nicknames?

texts:
What honorifics, if any, are used with nicknames?

For example, would Matz-san (for Yukihiro Matsumoto) make sense (at least coming from someone new to Japanese), or would the mixture of the slightly formal "-san" and an informal nickname seem strange?


texts:
芸達者で食欲が旺盛な、ごくふつうの犬です。
I'm currently reading a short manga and this sentence was used at the end of the chapter, for context the story is about a タヌキ (usually referred as a dog).
That one day the owner's dad goes to see the new dog, and he sees that this new "Dog" is capable of writing in a flipbook, so he got shooked. The owner tells her dad that he is like those dogs that are on the tv that are performers.
At the end of the chapter, there's an extra "narrator-like" phrase that says:

"芸達者で食欲が旺盛な、ごくふつうの犬です。"

I interpret it as two different phrases that complement, the first part says "芸達者で食欲が旺盛な" wich the で I see at the "place" where the rest occurs, something like "Being clever makes her hungry" then the phrase is complemented by the rest "ごくふつうの犬です" which is something like "That's how dog usually be".
The use of the で as a "referring place" of the action is correct? or should I see as a whole text that refers to the clever/good-at-performance


texts:
I'm really confused between these three words. Most dictionaries say that all of these words have a meaning of honour. Here's what I understand, though I don't know if its right.

光栄{こうえい} ー Honor - (I.e: It is my honour to meet you / I am honoured to meet you). I don't know if this word has any other uses, though.

名誉 {めいよ} ー Prestige, credit - (名誉ある賞): Prestigious award.

栄誉 {えいよ} ー Honor with a meaning closer to "glory". If this is the case though, how is it different from 栄光?

Thanks in advance


texts:
From: No Game No Life (Anime) ep.1 timestamp 05:47
Context: Someone sent the main characters an anonymous email and addressed them as siblings. This is their reaction:

なんで俺ら「空白」が兄妹{きょうだい}だって知ってんだ？

I understand the sentence means "How did they know us BLANKs (their clan's name) are siblings?"
I also found out that 知ってんだ？ comes from 知っているのですか.
However, I would like to know how come 知ってんだ is attached to the conjunctive form of the copula （だって）. I couldn't find an answer to this anywhere. Is it even a conjunctive form of the copula? Couldn't it be a contraction for という? But in this case, it's not like it makes more sense since it's followed by another verb.


texts:
I'm a beginner and am learning from CD (Pimsleur). There are two native speakers going through the dialogue. One, the man, pronounces が as I would expect - 'ga'. The other (female) pronounces it as 'nga'.

How common is the latter? Which should I used? Is the usage split along gender, age or geographic lines?


texts: Voiced stops pronounced as their unaspirated voiceless counterparts

texts:
In this Japanese song, there is a line saying:

  まるで夢かまぼろし

The /d/ in 「で」 and the /b/ in 「ぼ」 sound to me as if they (especially the /b/) are pronounced as unaspirated /t/ and /p/ respectively.

Some possible explanations:

I simply heard them wrong.
The singer's pronunciation here is kind of unusual.
People sometimes use unaspirated voiceless sounds instead of their voiced counterparts, even at non-word-initial positions (an answer saying people do this at word-initial).

Please kindly share your opinions!

added a clearer clip of the line (source)

Somehow, the /d/ in this clip sounds more unvoiced to me than the /d/ in the youtube video above <@_@>


texts:
My mother's name is Colombia (like the country) and I'm trying to give her a gift because she loves the Japanese landscapes (like trees or combinations of red, black and white). I want to write her name in a correct way and explain to her in a simple words. On the Internet I found 哥倫比亜.
(https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%93%A5%E5%80%AB%E6%AF%94%E4%BA%9C#Japanese) But reading books and trying to understand the correct way is hard and maybe this web page could help me.
I ask a person in a congress and she wrote this on paper and its very different. I tried to search for information but maybe I don't have the correct path or sites for this information.


texts:
カトちゃんだって、実際は別に毎日長さんに怒られてるわけじゃないじゃろから、本当は　”人気者で怒られない人”　じゃろうね。
  In reality it's not really the case that even Katochan gets told off by Chou everyday so, in truth, people who don't get told off by popular people ????

What do じゃろ and じゃろう mean in the sentence above? My guess is that it is a negative form of だろ, but if that's the case then I can't make the clause after から make any sense.

If it is a negative だろ then why use じゃないじゃろ rather than just じゃろ?
Thanks.


texts: の versus が used to mark the subject of an appositive clause?

texts:
A friend of mine wrote this sentence in Japanese:

  彼女のどんな困難からも逃げない態度を尊敬しています。
  'Her attitude of not running away from any hardships is something I respect.'
  'I respect that she has this attitude of always sticking to her guns.'

If I change the の here to が, would it be grammatically correct? If so, what would it mean?

  彼女 が どんな困難からも逃げない態度を尊敬しています。


texts: What does ただ mean in this context, following a verb and before ひとり?

texts:
怒られるタイプの男子に囲まれているただひとりの怒られるタイプの女子。
  I'm surrounded by boys who are the "getting scolded" type (but?) I'm the only girl of that sort.

Does ただ mean 'but' in this context? If so, when/how should I use it. How, for example, does it differ from けど?


texts: use of と in 無用の長物と化した

texts:
遅れて来たモテ期！しかし今の俺には無用の長物と化したそれ。

  My モテ期 sure has been delayed but it's here! Though, right now, this must mean i've changed from my former useless self

speaker has gotten informed that a bunch of girls have gotten interested in him

what does と serve in this sentence, why not から？ It seems to be a bit of a stretch of be quotative.

thanks


texts:
Is there any difference between 計画【けいかく】を立てる【たてる】 and  計画をする? In
Sou Matome N3, the first one appears as "to make plans", as for the second one (being a suru verb), I assume that it can also be associated with to make plans.


texts:
I looked up some recipes in Japanese and I couldn't help but notice the phrase 「歴史を刻め」 virtually everywhere. I might be stupid but I can't seem to understand what "mincing history" means.

What gives?


texts: Are honorifics used for dead people? For example, would チンギス・カン have something after the name (presumably not just a mere さん!) when you're not referring to the dish?


texts: Is なんとか なる さ meant to be written in Hiragana and not Katakana?

texts:
Good day, I have tattooed the words "nantoka naru sa" in Kana on my right arm and a while ago I was reading some Japanese lessons where it explains that Katakana is used only when you're translating a word from a foreign language, English for example. And now I really want to be clear about this so I find a way to fix it, or just re-do a new tattoo over the current one.

Thanks a lot.


texts:
I think ようで means "to look/look like", but I'm having trouble understanding it in the context of this sentence:

  感動に水を差すようで悪いのだが、さっさと爾子に乗ってくれ。でなくば、城とともに潰れるぞ。

Also, is でなくば another form of でなければ?


texts: How should we translate double negatives/negatives that are unnatural in English?

texts:
Is there a basic rule for translating negatives/double negatives that do not feel natural in English. The example I have been struggling is as follows:

[TOPIXは29年ぶりの安値に沈んでいます。]この株価水準は、経営者が暴走し、保有する資産を全く活かせずに、毎年赤字を垂れ流すという前提でなければ、説明のつかない水準です。
[TOPIX has fallen to a 29 year low. ] On the basis that management are not in disarray, assets are being properly used and losses are not being annually hemorrhaged this level cannot be explained.

I can think of several ways to express the same view but ultimately (if it is not dumb question) should we just choose what we think is the closest natural equivalent?
Bonus: I have taken a liberty with 暴走, which is not really "disarray" but seems to fit better. Is this commonly accpetable practice?


texts: What's the role of the の after もの in this sentence?

texts:
「事実に関して2, 3の誤りはあるものの, 君の言ってることは基本的に正しい」
Is の used in place of が meaning "but"?
Thank you


texts:
Having been trying to write a "sakubun", I must say that I had some trouble to find a reliable translation for the phrase "as you all know" such as:

  As you all know, the education system in our country is not so good as it's claimed to be.

  As known by all of you, the education system in our country is not so good as it's claimed to be.

I'd appreciate if you translated the whole sentence; however, it's not really necessary.

よろしくおねがいします！


texts: Attempts to distinguish English "L" and "R" sounds using (extended) katakana

texts:
Katakana can represent many foreign sounds that do not exist in native Japanese words, either by using special characters such as ヴ or by using special katakana combinations such as フュ. They are collectively called "extended katakana", although few native speakers know this term. Thanks to them, young Japanese people can learn to pronounce foreign words more or less closely to their original pronunciation. Although they may not be perfect, フューチャー is a lot better than ヒューチャー and レモンティー is a lot better than レモンチー. Few Japanese people mistake 'Venus' as 'Benus' because it is commonly spelt as ヴィーナス in katakana.

However, I am not aware of any previous attempts to distinguish, for example, English 'read' and 'lead' using modified/extended katakana. Come to think of it, this seems strange to me. Japanese people have invented special kana to express Okinawan sounds, Ainu sounds and bidakuon, so I think there must have been similar attempts also for the English sound pairs that are known to be difficult to Japanese speakers.

Questions:

Historically, were there any attempts to distinguish "L" and "R", "S" and "TH", etc., using katakana? How commonly were they used? It could be special katakana like "ラ with (han)dakuten" or "small ラ", and it could be special combinations like "ゥラ".
If there were such attempts in the past, why were they all unsuccessful despite obvious advantages? I doubt "because they looked unnatural" is a good reason here, because ティ and ヴ should have looked equally unreasonable and unnatural at first.

I know some recent English dictionaries targeted at Japanese middle school students use hiragana らりるれろ/さしすせそ to denote the sound of R and TH. I also found this 2ch thread, which was not really helpful.


texts: Express fast speed or someone arriving early

texts:
I've seen two writings of this on Duolingo and Jisho. Either as 速い or 早い. I believe both are read as はやい, but which of the two is more relevant in expressing how fast something is or how early someone arrives?

I can imagine 速{はや}い used in a sentence like this, 電車{でんしや}は速{はや}いです or Trains are fast.


texts: What is the equivalent of "alphabetical order" in Japanese?

texts: I know there's あいうえお, but what about at the consonant level? Also, are there any common mnemonics used by Japanese children to remember these?


texts: What does にして mean in this sentence? (a variant of にしておく)?

texts:
Persevering with my visual novel (oh dear), I've come across this sentence (internal monologue):

  感傷にひたるのはこれぐらいにして、階段を下りたらいつもの遠坂凛に戻るとしよう―

What confuses me is the これぐらいにして part. As for これぐらい, I assume it's the second meaning from here, i.e. used to make light of the character basking in her sentimentality. As for にして, I don't think it's either of the two meanings listed in my grammar book - (1) a compound particle to stress simultaneity and an element of surprise or (2) a conjunction meaning "and".

Rather, it would make more sense as a variant of にしておく, i.e. leaving as is. Lit: "leaving this sentimentality thing as is, let's get downstairs and return to my normal self" What I'm asking, then, is: does it look like it? Am I missing something big here?

Here's Tohsaka's monologue bit that precedes it (unnecessary I think, but just in case):

  わたしは学園で一番の優等生でありながら、誰かの一番にならないように波風立てずに生活している。　それが、まあ、こんな風に疲労している時、なんとなーくつまんないなあ、と思ってしまうワケなのだ。「っと、もう時間か」　ホットレモンを飲みきって立ち上がる。　感傷にひたるのはこれぐらいにして、階段を下りたらいつもの遠坂凛に戻るとしよう

(by the way としよう here is just a volitional of suru with a to particle, right?)

Thanks!


texts: What causes loan words to displace native words for existing concepts?

texts: I've been told several times that things like class and classmate don't have non-loan words (I don't know what those are called) associated with them in Japanese. This seems ludicrous to me, as the ideas must have existed since well before the loan words were ever heard. So what causes loan words such as クラス to become so popular?


texts:
I started to learn Japanese grammar yesterday,so I am kinda of new to this.  My question is this: in an example in my textbook it says :

  すしは食べた。
  Sushi wa tabeta.
  I ate sushi. (Literally: As for sushi, I ate it.)

Can I just use "ga" instead of "wa"? When should I use "ga","o" and "wa"?


texts: What is the use of 他（ひと）in this sentence?

texts:
この間もちょっと畳で爪を磨いだら細君が非常に怒ってそれから容易に座敷へ入れない。
The other day when I happened to be sharpening my claws on some straw floor-matting, the mistress of the house became so unreasonably incensed that now it is only with the greatest reluctance that she’ll even let me enter a matted room.

台所の板の間で他（ひと）が顫えていても一向平気なものである。
Though I’m shivering on the wooden floor in the kitchen, heartlessly she remains indifferent.

I'm reading through I am a cat by Soseki and I came across this use of the word 他 which had the reading as ひと. I'm having trouble understanding how this word is being used in this sentence and would appreciate some enlightenment.


texts: Is there a difference between 海{うみ} and 海原{うなばら}?

texts: The words 海{うみ} and 海原{うなばら} both seem to mean sea, ocean. Is there any difference between them?


texts:
Why is no marker used after 中 in this case:

  厳しい寒さの中、水中で綱を引き豊漁を祈願する伝統の神事が、福井県美浜町で行われました。

As far as I understand, the expression 寒さの中 means 'in the coldness', (where here 中 is read なか, or is it not?). It just seems a bit awkward to me to be  written like this, i.e. with a comma right after it and no marker. What am I missing?


texts:
I found this phrase from a short manga strip.

  Man: ミチ子さん その金はもしかして...
  Woman: 元々はあなたの金です。どうぞお取りください。
  Man: え？

  Man: そういうつもりであげた金ではありません！それにこれを取ったらもうおわりってことですよね。
  Woman: そうおっしゃらずに。
  Man: でもボクまけちゃうんですよ。
  Woman: これで終わりにしましょ。

It turns out they are playing Japanese chess.

My question is what does "そういうつもりであげた金ではありません" mean and how to use this phrase.

Thank you so so much.


texts: What is the difference between 部屋 and 室?

texts:
When referring to a room (in a building), what is the difference in usage, if any?
I looked up the definitions and checked some sample phrases, but I could not see any real difference.
I usually read or use 部屋, but I came across this term [一室]{いっしつ} meaning "one room". So I am wondering what the difference is.


texts: Why is やっぱり (yappari) spelled the way it is?

texts:
I started learning Japanese very recently.
The spelling of やっぱり (yappari) seems odd to me. The second letter in やっぱり is tsu in hiragana (っ) which is not pronounced. Why?


texts: I saw it used recently but don't remember the line. It was being used toward a group of subordinates, as 小奴ら. I can't find the word in any dictionary or being explained online. What is the meaning and reading of 小奴?


texts:
So google translator seemly tells me that to express "When it comes to"  I should use the following structure (I tried finding it on google and this forum but could not find it)

  それは ... ことになると

For instance

  それは歩くことになると "When it comes to walking"

But since I don't trust google translator at all, I am asking, what is the right way to say that?

The sentence I am trying to make is the following "When it comes to drinking everyday, it seems that Japanese people drink more than Brazilian people."(refeering to the image that many people go to izakaya after work). My attempt:

  それは、毎日飲むことになると、日本人はブラジル人より、飲みそうだと思う

What do you think? Thanks in advance!


texts:
I would like to know the difference between these two sentences :

先生に１０分遅れることを伝えてください。: Tell him (about the fact) that I'll be 10 minutes late
先生に１０分遅れると伝えてください。 : Tell him I'll be 10 minutes late...?

I know the difference between the nominalizer 「こと」 and the quotation particle 「と」, but I can't really put the finger on the 意味的な difference.
Thanks


texts:
圭子：私が担当した裁判で完勝したわ。
沢地君江：三木先生が喜んで褒美に純金のメダルを。
圭子：いらないでしょ？あの人らしいわ。
沢地君江：それを圭子さんは古美門先生にあげられた。
圭子（黛に）：金メダルとか好きそうでしょ？
黛：確かに。
圭子：次の日彼が半分にした金貨を私にくれたわ。2人で勝ち取ったものだとか何とか言っちゃって。(リーガル・ハイ)

If I understand it correctly,「それを圭子さんは古美門先生にあげられた。」indicates "圭子 was given the gold medal by 古美門".
However, that interpretation doesn't work very well in the flow of conversation here. The conversation seems to suggest that 圭子 gets the gold metal from 三木 because she's won a case as team leader, and then she gives it to 古美門 who then returns half to her. The translations in several other languages including English that I have checked all say things to the effect of "And so Keiko-san gave that to Komikado-sensei."
How could it be? Is あげられた not 受動態 here? What am I getting wrong?


texts: How commonly are "あたし" or "[僕]{ぼく}" used?

texts:
My friend and I are learning Japanese. For a time, all we knew was 私, but after we learned more words, she started to use あたし when referring to herself, and I began using 僕. What I'm wondering is, how commonly are these used?

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


texts: What is the grammar for saying things like "Step A", "our friend Nozomi", or "the snowiest city in the world, Aomori"?

texts:
I just noticed a sort of black hole in my knowledge of Japanese.  Obviously when you're using titles, such as with "Dr. Suzuki", you put the name and then the title, without any punctuation or particles: 鈴木先生.
However what if it's not just a simple title?  What if it's not even necessarily a person?  What if it is an arbitrary phrase leading up to a name that may or may not involve a person or people?
A few quick examples include:

Step A [Think of a list of steps which must be executed in order, as in Steps A, B, C, and D.]
Step 1 [My guess is this may be ステップ第一, but I'm not 100% sure, and I suspect the grammar is actually different from the first example.
our friend Nozomi
the snowiest city in the world, Aomori

Some guesses here would be:

ステップ「A」
ステップ第一
友達の望み
世界の一番雪の都市の青森

In general, I would think it uses the same grammar in most situations, as in the third and fourth examples above, but that it may be different in certain specific scenarios.
How do you say and punctuate these things?


texts: What does あいつ and こいつ imply in various situations/contexts?

texts:
I've read that あいつ and こいつ can mean "that person over there" or "this person over here", respectively, and also that (at least, as far as I'm aware, for こいつ) they are an impolite way of referring to a person.

In manga I've seen scanlators interpret こいつ in front of another person as "you bastard" or "you bitch"... but also that if referring to a person that they are talking about as あいつ, it gets interpreted as just "that guy" or "that girl".

What scenarios would imply what when using the phrase あいつ and こいつ?


texts:
Progressive tense verbs are usually simple and straight forward.

  食べる -> 食べている
  Eat -> Eating

But in some cases, when translated into English, it can be interpreted as an "adjective" rather than the progressive tense.

For example,

  死んでいる
  Dead (instead of dying)
  太っている
  Fat (instead of getting fat)

Is there a way to obtain the normal progressive meaning without using different words or explanations like 瀕死 and そろそろ死にそう.
Maybe something like 太ってきている or 死んできている?

I have gotten used to these cases a long time ago but to this day, I still have to resist the urge of saying 死んでいる when I see some one dying in a movie for example.


texts: What's the meaning of にもin その話は前にも聞いたよ。?

texts:
その話は前にも聞いたよ

is translated as

"I heard that story before"

I assume that the subject is implicit, その話 "that story" is the topic, 前 is "before" and 聞いた is the past of hear. What about にも? Why is 前 marked with these particles?


texts:
My kanji textbook contains this example text excerpt from a leaflet [1]:

各種家具を破格値で！

I would assume that it would be 「チ」 because 「ハカク」 is an Onyomi-Reading, but I believe I have heard 「はかくね」before. I could not find it in 大辞林, so could someone who knows better please enlighten me?

Thank you.

[1] 第６週２日目 in 佐々木仁子、松本典子：日本語総まとめ N2 漢字。株式会社アスク出版、東京都、2012.


texts: Use of である in formal writing after volitional form

texts:
I need to write a short abstract for research paper in Japanese, I used the desu/masu-kei, but thought about changing it to the formal writing style de aru form.

I get that である is used after nouns and adjectives and also verbs followed by の, however I have several sentences where I use "～たいと思っています" and "～したいのです”. Is it appropriate to use である after volitional that is ～たいのである？ And will ～たいと思っています just turn into a simple ～たいと思っている or must I change it into ～たいと思っているのである?


texts: To say it will probably be enough, one might say 「十分でしょう」. But what if you wanted to refer to something in the past? でしょう or だろう cannot be inflected to indicate any temporal information, can it? How does one say "It was probably enough"? I thought of 「十分でしたでしょう」, which I'm prety sure is incorrect, and 「十分であったでしょう」, which I'm not too sure of.


texts:
I am reading the sentence... 他人に自分の内面を見られたくない人もいるのではないだろうか　and wondering why it seems like there is a double negative that I'm not seeing

もいる = +
のではない = -
だろう = ????

END RESULT = ＋

だろうか has to be - right?

Does it have anything to do with what I've been told about だろう being formed from a　未然形 form and some sort of う particle? Is there such thing as an う particle? Apparantly it is a particle concerned with guessing...

Anyway long story short I cannot parse the above sentence since the positives and negatives don't add up... please help.


texts: 取り立てて話題がない why are there two てs in this sentence?

texts:
I saw this sentence in a TV show

  取り立てて話題がない

The sentence should mean there is nothing to talk about. But why are there two てs in this sentence?

Why can't they just say:

  取り立つ話題がない


texts:
Consider these example sentences taken from SPACEALC:

[a] （人に）電話をかける。 "put in a call to ~"
[b] ~が（主語に）電話をかける。 "receive a telephone call from"

My observations: Both sentences use かける. Transitivity is unchanged, there is no use of られる construction to indicate passive sentence structure. Yet one is "to call" and one is "to receive the call". So [a] and [b] do not seem to be consistent.
In an attempt to resolve the inconsistency, I looked for other examples.
Consider other sentence also from SPACEALC:

[c] （～から）電話がかかってくる。 "get called (主語に)"

[c] leads me to conclude that かかる is the intransitive counterpart to かける, and sentence [b] should be wrong.
(Question) How do I express "calling" and "receiving a call"? Is the passive form of かける used at all?(I.e. かけられる)? Or is the passive of かかる used at all?
(Question) Can I call the person performing the calling 電話をかける人　and the person who is receiving the call 電話がかかる人 ?


texts:
I'm a beginner at Japanese and I'm stumped by the second sentence on this line from the One Piece manga:

おれの財宝か？欲しけりゃくれてやるぜ。。。

Especially the part "欲しけりゃ" (from what I gather, it's an inflection of 欲しい?)

Is this a common construct? How can I break it down?

How can I better search for this kind of thing?

jisho.org didn't help me as it isn't listed as an inflection of 欲しい;
someone on hinative translated the second sentence as "if you want I'll give it to you";
Google translator seems to ignore 欲しけりゃ completely if I don't put a comma in the middle.

Any help is appreciated!


texts:
In "Minna no nihongo II" book, lesson 47, mondai question 6.3 there is a sentence:

  オーストラリアで山火事があったそうです.

Why is で used and not に? If both can be used what would be the difference between them ? would the meaning of the sentence change


texts:
On this site, when asking about でしょう・だろう, as well as ましょう etc, I have been told that it is a combination of the verb's 未然形 and the 推量 particle "う". However, I have never been able to find anything on it at all, I was wondering if anyone has read about it, seen any other examples of it and could link me to those.

My question is, is this う particle real?

The reason I ask, is because it would be easy to understand 泳ごう for example as 泳が + う which would mean that the action of swimming hasn't happened yet, but you are making a guess that it will.

BONUS:
Could this う　particle be related to the fact that all verbs end in う?


texts:
I found that in a website 〜やんな is a colloquial form of 〜やるな　meaning 'Don't do...'

However, I have seen the word in a manga with the following sentence.

A: おい　あかりを消してやんな。新入りさんがまぶしくてねむれんといかん。

B: じゃあ　消すぜ

While B speaking, he also turning off the light.

So, is the word can be both positive and negative?


texts: Changing verb subject after a favor - Is this a reliable pattern?

texts:
Consider the following example sentences from 新完全文法マスター N1 and N2 respectively:

Sentence A
その仕事は川田さんならやれる。川田さんに頼めばきっとやってくれるだろう。
Sentence B
道に迷ってしまった。通りかかったおばあさんに道を聞いたら、親切に教えてくれた。

In both of these examples, there is the same pattern:

I/You ask a person for a favor.
A conditional conjugation (ば・たら)
The person does the favor to me/you.

As a concrete example, let's map the pattern to the sentences:

Sentence A
川田さんに頼めばきっとやってくれるだろう。
...
川田さんに頼めば

You ask Kawada for a favor. (Subject = You)

A conditional conjugation (ば)

きっとやってくれるだろう

Kawada does the favor to you. (Subject = Kawada)

Sentence B
通りかかったおばあさんに道を聞いたら、親切に教えてくれた。
...
通りかかったおばあさんに道を聞いたら、

I ask the old woman for a favor. (Subject = Me)

A conditional conjugation (たら)

親切に教えてくれた。

The old woman does the favor to me. (Subject = Old woman)

If we consider the composition of sentences like these, the following question arises: Should the second part of the sentence have the same subject as the first part, or not?
The sentences might be possible to write without changing the verb subject if もらう was used instead of くれる in the second part. However, in both of these examples, くれる was used, and the subject changed between the two parts.
My question is: Is the 3-step pattern mentioned above a useful indicator that the sentence will change verb subject (and therefore should use くれる rather than もらう)?
Alternatively, is there another explanation for why the subject should change, or why くれる is chosen instead of もらう in these cases?
...
At minimum, it seems like the 3-step pattern is not bulletproof. For example, "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar" has the following example sentence in it:

これは松本先生に聞けば分かります。
You'll understand it if you ask Professor Matsumoto.

In this counter-example, the subject of both verbs in the sentence is "you", since "you" understand after "you" ask.


texts: 希代の剣豪の好敵手として祭り上げられた剣士を知る者など

texts:
出生も不明、実在したかどうかさえ不明瞭。
  ただ人々の口端にのみ上り、希代の剣豪の好敵手として祭り上げられた剣士を知る者など、この世でおそらくただ一人。
  佐々木小次郎と呼ばれるモノを討ち果たした、史実に残らぬ宿敵のみ。

  Birth place unknown, whether he really existed or not also unknown.
  Only, he became a rumor among the people, the one who knows him as a swordsman with an excellent mastership of kendou and was his rival, in this world there is only one I am afraid.
  The one who killed the man known as Sasaki Koujiro, the enemy who did not remain in formal history.

希代の剣豪の好敵手として祭り上げられた剣士を知る者など
希代の剣豪の好敵手として=As a rival with incredible mastership in kendou
祭り上げられた=To set up as someone with an high social status or position (passive)
剣士=Warrior
希代の剣豪の好敵手として祭り上げられた剣士=The warrior who was set up as a rival with an incredible mastership in kendou
を=Direct Object
知る=To know
希代の剣豪の好敵手として祭り上げられた剣士を=The warrior who was set up as a rival with an incredible mastership in kendou (who is receiveing the action of being 知る)
者=Man  (In this case I believe he is doing the action of knowing)
希代の剣豪の好敵手として祭り上げられた剣士を知る者=The man who knows the warrior who was set up as a rival (his rival) with an incredible mastership in kendou
など=And such (It makes this the topic for the rest of the sentence)

Do I understand this sentence correctly?


texts: How is し used as a verb in this sentence?

texts:
I found these two sentences in "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar" under に(purpose):

学生が質問をしに来た。 A student came to ask questions.
そこへ何をしに行くんですか。For what are you going there?

When I look up し in the grammar dictionary its listed as "a conjunction to indicate 'and' in an emphatic way", which doesn't fit as far as I can tell. When I look し up in a regular dictionary all the words are nouns. What does it mean?


texts: Please, would you like to explain the [なす] in this sentence?

texts:
every one. I am trying to translate japanese text. But there's something male me confuse and curious. The nasu in this sentence, woul you like to explain it.

海の岸辺に緑 [なす] 樫の木

It's really make me curious and confuse. Is it midorina + su. So what the function of su there? Or its midorina+nasu. Nasu function?

Thank you for your help.


texts:
Here is a discussion about whether to use ご返事 and お返事, but there seems to be diverging opinions:

ご返事:

ご返事 is 謙譲語 (according to No.1)
ご返事 is seldom used for 尊敬語 (according to No.5)
ご返事 is for 謙譲語 AND 尊敬語 (according to No.4)

お返事:

お返事 implies intimacy (according to No.1)
お返事 is 美化語 (according to No.4)

Given that I always write in the context of business (sometimes about my reply, sometimes about my client's reply), can I stick to always using ご返事 ?


texts: japanese verb for "to surf the internet"

texts: What are the Japanese words which express surfing the internet/browsing the internet/being on the internet both formal and informal? I stumbled upon this problem while trying to find a way to say "I browse the internet on my phone before going to sleep" (yes, I know it's unhealthy, I'm trying to stop :()


texts: When starting learning japanese it struck me as rather weird that 本, book, seems to have totally different meanings in its kun- and on-yomi compounds (i. e. 本気、基づく、本物）, all vaguely centered around the concept of originality, even 日本　"the land of the rising sun", as it seems to refer to the originating of the sun in the east. Come to think of it, it's more likely that the meaning 本 was later derived from this original abstract meaning (propably by the Japanese since, I believe, chinese uses mainly 書　or its simplified equivalent for books). Could anyone illuminate the etymology of 本?


texts:
Note: This question may contain wordings that may be considered rude to some, so proceed with open mind and caution.

One of the legacies of Japanese colonization in my country during WW2 is a rude slang name-calling word "bagero" which roughly means "stupid bastard", which I could easily map to the similarly sounding colloquial phrase バカヤロウ soon after I started learning Japanese. The people at that time probably could not make out what they heard and simply understood the interjection as "bagero".

However, I am still wondering if the "bagero" version really came from the people mishearing "バカヤロウ", or there was a dialect that really pronounced バカヤロウ as バゲロ. Was there?

There is also a longer version of the localized interjection, "bagero kuntoroyo", that I still cannot decipher until now. Can anyone suggest what would be the original Japanese bad words, if any?

N.B. My purpose of asking this question is not to learn about the bad words, but simply out of curiosity about this phrase that are (fortunately becoming rarely) used by local people here who are oblivious of its actual meaning.


texts:
I came across this sentence while reading this book and I have my doubts regarding  下すった. Does it come from the verb 下す? Personally, I think it does, but is 下した not the past of 下す? Why 下すった？

「神様の授けて下すったものを、神様がお召しになったのだ。神様からのがれることは出来ない」


texts: How to say "to take in" when in reference to people?

texts: I'm writing something to an old dorm manager I had - I want to ask if he's still taking in students from a particular school (as dorm residents).  In English, I'd ask "Are you still taking in X school's students?"  How would I translate the "taking in" part of the sentence in Japanese?


texts: Is there a list of official valid loanwords or they are adapted on the fly from their original languages?

texts:
In Spanish there is an entity, the Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española) which states what is a valid spanish word or not.
In Japanese, I've read the Japanese Ministry of Education has an official list for joyo Kanjis, which is the list of kanjis people has to know and that if a newspaper, or if someone wants to use a kanji outside that list, it has to write its hiragana over it so people can read it. How about loanwords written in katakana? Can any word be adapted on the fly from its original language and be valid for being used anywhere (newspaper, document, contract, whatever), or is there a list somewhere written by the JME or any other entity about what is an official valid loanword for japanese?


texts:
Why in this phrase なんか　used with ような?
「な、なんか違うような……ううむ」

なんか　- something like that
ような　- like / similar to　（or よう　- way of doing, but then why な　is here?）

For me, this two words almost the same in meaning. I met this structure before, but still can't fully understand it.


texts: Is Facebook's use of double が grammatically unambiguous?

texts:
Facebook has issued me the following alert:

  Aさんが、Bさんがあなたとシェアした写真について「いいね！」と言っています

I think this is a translation of "A likes the photo that B shared with you."

Is it obvious what's being said? Why couldn't it be read as both A and B liking the photo?


texts:
I came across this example in Genki I

  .....まどの近くに座っています

And I was wondering about the use of に here and if we can replace it with で to make

  ......まどの近くで座っています

Is it correct? Please explain if possible. And thank you in advance.


texts: What is the difference between ところに/へ and ところで?

texts:
This website explains that:

「～ところへ／に」は、ある段階における状況を変化させるような出来事が起こることを表すと説明した方がいい。
to indicate event that will change the situation in certain stage
(this is my own translation (it might be incorrect))

「～ところで」は、前の動作が終わり、一区切りがついた時点で、後の変化が起きる、又は動作を起こす。
In a point of time when the action is over and there's a break, another action happens / perform another action
(this is my own translation too)

ふっとうしたところへとりにくを入れます。

I think ところで is more suitable (even though I think it's wrong) in this sentence because 「前の動作が終わり、一区切りがついた時点で、後の変化が起きる、又は動作を起こす。」
前の動作が終わり = ふっとうした　後の変化が起きる = 肉を入れます
But anyway, I feel like I don't understand the difference between ところで and ところに/へ at all because when I feel it's unnatural when I use it. See also Usage of ところ to represent time with に and で


texts: Who is the object and subject in this passive sentence?

texts:
I came along a conversation between two characters that have a sort of rivals-to-lovers relationship. There's only two lines of dialogue, but I can't place the meaning.

Person 1: 僕に愛される気あんの?
Person 2: ほら, その気にさせて下さいよ

Which I took to mean

Person 1: Do you feel loved by me?
Person 2: Look, let me care for those feelings

I believe that what's supposed to be conveyed here is that person 1 is questioning either his love for person 2 or her love for him. Then person 2 is somewhat confirming it.
But honestly I'm so lost as to who's feelings are being referenced with "気あんの". I also don't understand who is loving who using the passive form with 愛. In addition, my translation sounds horribly stilted, is there a better way to express this?


texts: Difference between 聞こえる and 聞かれる / 見える and 見られる

texts:
I came across this problem when I was studying, and I couldn't really understand the difference between using the passive form of 聞く or 見る and using the verbs 聞こえる and 見える, considering that, in my point of view, their meanings become really similar.

When should I use each one, and is using the passive forms of said verbs even common?


texts:
I’m having difficulty understanding some sentences in this article from my textbook.  I don't think you need to read the whole article.  I tried translating the sentences I'm unsure about below.

日本語では、会話をスムーズに進めるために「あいづちをうつ」ということをします。「はい/ええ」「うん」「そうですか」など色々ありますが、これらは"Yes, I'm following you; please continue."という意味で、"Yes, I agree."という意味ではありません。あいづちが上手にうてると、日本語がとても自然に聞こえます。反対に相手が話している時に、あまりあいづちをうたないと「私の話をよく聞いていない失礼な人」と思われてしまいます。特に電話で話している時は、相手の顔が見えないので、タイミングよくあいづちをうつことが大切です。英語では、相手が話している時にあまりあいづちをうちませんが、日本語では「あいづちをうつ」のは会話が上手になるための大切なストラテジーだと思って下さい。
それから、「あのう」とか「えーと」という言葉もよく使いますが、これらはフィラーと言って、話したいことがスムーズに出てこない時に使う「話と話のつなぎ」のようなものです。英語では"Well..." "Let's see..."など、色々ありますね。
あいづちやフィラーではありませんが、聞き返す時には「えっ？」とか、驚いた時には「えっ！」「あれっ」「あらっ」、否定の返事をする時には「いいえ」「いや」「ううん」のような表現も使います。この教科書で色々な会話の表現を覚えて、日本語が自然に話せるようになりましょう。

I tried to make my English translations somewhat literal, so they are not supposed to sound natural.

「はい/ええ」「うん」「そうですか」など色々ありますが、これらは
"Yes, I'm following you; please continue."という意味で、"Yes, I agree."という意味ではありません。

Can I translate it as something like, “はい/ええ, うん, そうですか exist (as examples of あいづちをうつ) but (or maybe “and is better) these mean “yes, I’m following you” and “please continue”, but not “Yes, I agree”.  I’m especially uncertain about the という意味...という意味ではありません part.

反対に相手が話している時に、あまりあいづちをうたないと「私の話をよく聞いていない失礼な人」と思われてしまいます。

“On the contrary, if you do not use あいづち very much while speaking with  someone, you will be thought of as “a rude person who does not listen well to what I am saying” by him/her.”

特に電話で話している時は、相手の顔が見えないので、タイミングよくあいづちをうつことが大切です。

“Particularly when talking on the phone, because you don’t see your partner’s face, it is important to time your “あいづち” well.”  I’m mostly confused by the タイミングよくあいづちをうつ part.  Can I think of タイミング as identical to the English word “timing”?  It sounds odd at the beginning of that clause, but maybe that’s because I’m thinking of it as the English word?  Is it perhaps a topic?

それから、「あのう」とか「えーと」という言葉もよく使いますが、これらはフィラーと言って、話したいことがスムーズに出てこない時に使う「話と話のつなぎ」のようなものです。

“After that, words like あのう and えーと are often used.  They are called フィラー.  Use them when your words are not coming out smoothly, like when there is a “stopgap” between what both of you are saying.”????  I’m really confused about the 「話と話のつなぎ」part.

あいづちやフィラーではありませんが、聞き返す時には「えっ？」とか、驚いた時には「えっ！」「あれっ」「あらっ」、否定の返事をする時には「いいえ」「いや」「ううん」のような表現も使います。

“These are not あいづち or フィラー but, when you want something repeated use expressions like えっ？, when you are surprised use expressions like えぅ！, あれっ, or あらっ, when you want to deny something use expressions like いいえ, いや, or ううん"


texts: Translation help with this sentence? 何人も触れること能わぬ- everyone or no one?

texts:
何【なん】人【びと】も触れる【ふれる】こと能わぬ【あたわぬ】才媛【さいえん】

I'm having trouble with this sentence. I'm just confused as to whether '能わぬ' counts as a negative verb that affects 何人も or not.

Since I know 何人も means everyone/all unless there's a negative verb attached in which case it becomes nobody/no-one, and I'm wondering if the negative verb would be considered attached to this, because there's the presence of こと. It suggests to me a meaning more along the lines of "a talented woman for who can't get close to everyone" or, to be more literal "a talented woman [for whom the matter of] becoming close to everyone is impossible"

So would this be more along the lines of "to let everyone near her is impossible for her" or "it is impossible for her to let anyone near her"?


texts:
I'm learning Japanese and currently I finished the hiragana and katakana charts.

A friend of mine suggested me to start reading something simple to build a vocabulary , so I found a children's story but I'm stuck on trying to read the first phrase:

むかしむかし、あるところに、おじいさんとおばあさんが住んでいました。

How can I learn new words if I can't even understand where a word begins and where it ends ?

I understand that I need to learn grammar because simply knowing hiragana-katakana I can't even separate the words in the phrase.

I tried looking online for Japanese courses but they try to teach basic 'survival phrases' to speak and listen to Japanese people but for now I want to learn hot to read and possibly write in Japanese so
could you tell me where I can find good resources, preferably online, that teaches me how to read and write in Japanese and most important thing how to recognise the words in a phrase in a language without spaces.


texts:
I was reading an excerpt from this book and it read something like this:

物体は激しく動けば、それだけ摩擦が大きくなる。人間だって、激しく動くと熱を持つのだ。端から見れば、輝いている人間のことが、きっと羨ましく見えるのだろう。
だけど、輝いている本人は熱くてたまらないのだ。(中略)
これは真面目に、けっこう辛いことなのだ。
カッコつけているわけじゃない。自分がそうなってみて、実感としてそう感じる。

Here are my questions:

だって is just でも, similar to the one explained here, right?
What is the 主語 of the sentenceカッコつけているわけじゃない。I would translate it as "It's not that I'm showing off (here). Even if I (myself) become like that (i.e., 輝いている本人), I would/will feel the same (i.e., けっこう辛い)." I don't understand it because the author doesn't seem to be showing off or being pretentious. Or am I not noticing something?

P.S.: I can remove the 「中略」 if you think it's necessary to finding the 主語.


texts:
So, I'm living in Japan right now, and I've been stocking up on idioms to make my speaking a little less stilted. In English, I like to proceed an idiom with something like "You know what they say," or "We have a saying-" but I can't find a similar structure in Japanese via googling, and of course Genki isn't very useful either.
Is there something like that in Japanese?


texts: Meaning of 準備ができたものから

texts:
Context:

  １０円や５０円などほかの硬貨も、準備ができたものから作り始めます。
  They will also start making other coins such as the 10 and 50 yen from the thing they were able to prepare.

I can't even guess at what 準備ができたものから is meant to mean in this sentence. What is もの referring to? The context doesn't help me at all.

Edit: Presumably it is simply "after they've made preparations", but I still don't understand the ものから part well.


texts: Anyone knows what is the meaning of shingai da na?

texts:
心外だな,レイ

I searched in two sites and one said surprising the other unthinkable and vexing. How do i know what's right?


texts:
I've seen many verbs that end with ちゃった and would like to know what that means.

For example: リボンも切れちゃった。


texts:
What is the meaning of ド in this sentence?

  抜け駆けかド畜生

Contex: some guys take the lead and the character don't realize it.

It used the same way as this ド and modifies 畜生?


texts:
What does こゆびくらい mean? I found this word in a children"s book.

The complete sentence is:

  むかし むかし こどもが いない おじいさんと おかあさんが かみさまに おねがいを すると こゆびくらいの おとこのこが うまれました

From this I understand:

  A long time ago and Grandfather and Grandmother that couldn`t have child so crave god...


texts: When is 友 read as とも, and when is it read as ゆう?

texts:
友 can interpreted as とも or ゆう right?
So in which word/sentence/context do I use first and when do I pronounce it as another transcription?


texts: Meaning of にあるとのことだった

texts:
I found this sentence, of which I understand the general meaning, but can't really grasp the role and implication of the last part:

呼ばれてやってきた電気屋が調べたところ、故障の原因は室外機の基板が壊れていることにあるとのことだった

As far as I understand:
呼ばれてやってきた電気屋が調べたところ: After the technician I called checked
故障の原因室外機の基板が壊れている: The cause of the failure was the substrate of the outside unit was broken
The 「こと」 after that nominalize the sentences, like "The thing that the substrate of the outside unit was broken was the cause of the failure", but I can't understand the 「にあるとのことだった」 part; I tried searching a bit on Google, but I'm not even sure how to parse it and how the single part works together, like I don't know what the 「と」 after 「にある」 is supposed to mean.
It seems like it means something "[The technician] said that", like a formal versione of 「と言った」, and a native Japanese confirmed that it means something like that, but I wasn't really able to grasp the meaning of the whole structure.


texts: the meaning and use of the word 殺素 today

texts:
I'm trying to understand some paper about Udagawa Youan and chemistry in Japan and I have a big problem with 殺素. It's means all chemistry elements which can kill or mayby only radioactive? Or mayby it's means something else? And is this word in use today too?

Example from paper:

  榕菴初期の気体化学、窒素と殺素、大気に濛気の語。


texts:
I'm having trouble figuring out what characters these are:

I guess the two on the right are "まだ", but what's the one on the left?

Thanks for your help.


texts: 意味がわからない when can this be used to say 'I don't agree with that'?

texts:
意味がわからない I know can mean, 'I don't understand', and, 'This makes no sense to me.' But in what circumstances can you use this to say something equivalent to, 'I don't agree with that'?

I realise this is dealt with in another post but it wasn't the main topic of discussion, so I would like to address the question directly here. Can anyone point to any dictionary entries etc. that support this translation, 'I don't agree with that'?

The reason I ask is I went with this translation in a text and a professional translator corrected it to, 'This makes no sense to me'.

I am curious about which translation is appropriate in which circumstances. Thank you.

Edit:

This page http://eikaiwa.dmm.com/uknow/questions/1107/ for example gives 'I don't agree' as a possible translation. Also, in a previous thread in this exchange the same suggestion was made.

I realise this post might come across as egotistical. But my purpose is to understand the Japanese phrase, not to support a justification of my translation. I apologise for the poor wording of my question. I will be more careful in future.


texts: Translation difficulties and the meaning of 着くように

texts:
I'm trying to translate the following sentence from a book and I'm confused by its construction.

  牛乳を飲み終わった人から、紙パックを自分の番号のケースに戻して席に着くように。

Which I assume would mean "When people finish drinking their milk, they usually put back the card box in their own case." A bit confusing already but this is the best I can manage, might already be wrong though.

However my biggest problem right now is making sense of 着くように in this sentence. I understand that ように means in order to or as if but I fail to see how it could connect to 着く and the rest of the sentence. Could it mean something like "[the narrator] went as if putting back their box like people usually do when they're done drinking their milk" or am I completely off track here?

Help would be appreciated thank you!

PS: If you're wondering, this is the very first sentence of a book called 告白 by 湊かなえ and I have no idea what it's actually about.


texts:
My question is to what exactly 縦に半回転する means.
For examples sake lets imagine a plane flying in the sky, and how I think its orientation would change.
We will start of with the example that the plane is flying parallel to the ground and maintaining the same height. If it was to 縦に半回転する then it would be flying upside down (180 degree rotation), I think.
Now what if instead maintaining the same height, it was moving upwards at a 45 degree angle from vertically up. If this was to 縦に半回転する would it now be going downwards at a 45 degree angle from vertically down, or would it be going in the opposite direction (horizontally) compared to before?


texts:
I have a question about 施設での生活に不慣れな俺のため in the following sentence:

  桐原さんが言うには、施設での生活に不慣れな俺のため、彼を専属のサポート役として使ってくれ、とのこと。

Maybe I'm mistaken something but those two parts — “施設での生活に不慣れな俺のため” and “彼を専属のサポート役として使ってくれ” feels unnatural here. If I'm understanding correctly, “彼を専属のサポート役として使ってくれ” is the part of Kirihara's quote, but what about “施設での生活に不慣れな俺のため”?

The speaker is talking about his 'some sort of servant' or simply サポート役 who is showing and helping him to get accustomed to the facility he recently started working at. 桐原 is a director of the facility.

Some sort of translation:

  As Kirihara-san said, for me who is unfamiliar to life in the
  facility, use him as your personal support.

Edited: Sorry for not pointing this earlier, but there are three persons here, Kirihara, who is the boss, the speaker, and he, who is the personal 'servant' of the speaker.


texts: Meaning of a long dash "――", and use of past tense in the present

texts:
I have this following sentence:

  横線――ＨＰバーの名で呼ばれる青いそれは、俺の生命の残量を可視化したものだ。

There are a few questions I came up with about this sentence:

The first part of the sentence is: 横線――ＨＰバーの名で呼ばれる青いそれ, my question is how can this sentence be parsed? How does the long ―― change the meaning/parsing of the sentence?
At the end of the sentence, it is written: 可視化したもの.
Why is 可視化した used in past form, while according to the context I'd expect a present-form? Is this perhaps a grammar subject I just don't know yet?

Any help is appreciated!


texts: How to thank somebody for their hospitality?

texts:
Having been on the receiving end of Japanese hospitality quite a bit in the past week, I'd like to know the best way to thank people for it in Japanese.

I've found several words for "hospitality" but don't know which is closest to English:

款待{かんたい}
持{も}て成{な}し
厚情{こうじょう}

I also wouldn't be surprised if the best way to thank somebody in this way in Japanese might not even involve one of these words but rather be phrased very differently to the English expression for language or cultural reasons.


texts:
でもほんとに、エピソード21には涙が出るほど笑ったよ。

For some reason I feel like it would be better without the に (in bold) but I can't explain why.

Another person said that で would be better but I think that it changes the meaning completely. I mean that （登場人物の）Aさんは エピソード21では涙が出るほど笑ったよ would be okay but if the subject is not a character of the episode で is not appropriate.

Could you explain the reason behind using に here?


texts:
I would like to say

  Please feel free to contact me.

I know it is probably

  気軽に連絡してください。

But will it be wrong to use 気楽に in this case?

  気楽に連絡してください。

What is the difference in nuance between 気軽 and 気楽?


texts: 気付けば/気がつけば and ば form

texts:
I found 気付けば/気がつけば translated "Before I knew it" in two occasions:

気がつけば茜色の雲のスクリーンに瞼の裏の暗幕にリフレインする
気付けばレベル９とかになっちまって

I know ば as conditional, and I can't find in my grammars or on online dictionaries why it should mean "Before I knew it" instead of "If I knew it"; I noticed both times it's used with 気付く/気がつく, so I was wondering if it some sort of special case, but I didn't find anything about that, neither.
Can that form take both meaning of "If I knew it" and "Before I knew it"? If so,  is the context the only way to see which one is meant?


texts:
I know that Jinmeiyo Kanji are used in names, but can some Joyo Kanji be used as well?

For example, on Jisho, I found 夜{ゆみ} being used as a name though it is not a Jinmeiyo Kanji, although it is a Grade 4 Joyo Kanji. The same goes for 愛{ゆき}, which is only a Grade 2 Kanji.

Can anyone explain this?

Thanks in advance.


texts: 相手には when speaking of "two third persons"

texts:
I want to clarify my understanding of 相手には in the following sentence...

「人見知りをしない相手には強気なところがあるよな」

It refers to a person that usually acts rather shy around others but scolded one of her acquaintances for his previous behavior. The preceding clause:
 「旦那に対して説教をしていた」sounds to me as if it is the 旦那 is being scolded.

What confuses me is 「人見知りをしない相手には」so far I understood 相手 as a person (etc.) different than the doer of an action. In combination with 人見知りをしない I thought of it as "A person the aforementioned shy-person is actually familiar with and therefore not acting bashful".

To cut to the chase I am struggling with the meaning of 相手には in context between two third persons (from the narrator's view).


texts: Meaning of sentence「最近よくじわ怖スレ見てるからビビりになってる。」

texts:
I'm self studying Japanese and I read horror stories to build my reading skills. Recently I came across this sentence that I can't figure out:

  最近よくじわ怖スレ見てるからビビりになってる

I can't understand what do じ, わ, スレ mean in this sentence.
Please, help me understand it.


texts:
I don't know what の頃【ころ】 means in this sentence. I know ころ means 'about' or 'around' but I still don't understand its use here.

ロンドンに来たばかりの頃【ころ】、私は「Chip Butty」を知りませんでした。

My best translation:

I've just come back from london and I didn't know what a Chip Butty was.


texts: Under what Japanese honorific should manga/anime fans address manga-ka/anime directors?

texts:
I speculate that there might be some sort of spectrum of the honorifics to use for manga-ka/anime directors.

For example, I think one might be able to get away with addressing younger, and more, for lack of a better word, lively, producers like Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches' Miki Yoshikawa and Hiro Mashima with -san. However, I feel that -san doesn't do justice for people like Hayao Miyazaki or Akira Toriyama, who created works that many of us regard as classics or masterpieces that have influenced other manga-ka/anime producers very heavily. And then there are people I feel lie in between the two bounds like Eiichiro Oda and Masashi Kishimoto, who are in their own right, very successful, but can't be cited for nearly as much influence as the aforementioned two.

That being said, under what Japanese honorific should manga/anime fans address manga-ka/anime directors?


texts:
For sentences ending in つもりです, is it normal to also add よor ね at the end?
For example, if you were talking about how fantastic Comiket would be this year, and I wanted to respond,
"You're planning on going to Comiket, aren't you." as if I already knew you were, could I say
あなたはコミケットに行くつもりですね。
Likewise, would this be how you could respond with "Actually, I plan on working that week."
あの週働くつもりですよ。


texts:
From the Wikipedia article for 源頼朝:

  源頼朝は、平安時代末期から鎌倉時代初期の武将、政治家であり、鎌倉幕府の初代征夷大将軍である。

Clearly, 平安時代末期から鎌倉時代初期の modifies 武将、政治家. However, what does the 平安時代末期から modify? Is 鎌倉時代初期の treated as a の-adjective here, grammatically?


texts: difference between 電卓{でんたく} and 計算機{けいさんき}

texts: Please look at the Texas Instruments TI-108. Is that a 電卓{でんたく} or 計算機{けいさんき}? My guess is that the most basic calculators are 電卓, and that as more scientific functionality is added (like graphing), a calculator becomes a 計算機? So, the TI-108 is a 電卓、right? Devices such as the TI-36X and the TI-84 Plus are 計算機?


texts: Word request: Agreeing in a conversation

texts:
For example: in a conversation about food, when your friend says that the food is おいしい, then you can also say おいしいね, or そうだね.

Are there other ways you can say in agreement? Perhaps a phrase similar to 'I Agree!' or 'Yes! Really!'?


texts: What is the etymology of shamisen (三味線)?

texts: The instrument clearly has 3 (三) strings (線), but where does 味 exactly fit in?


texts: Is [mathematical] 'analysis' in Japanese the same word as 'fine cuisine' in Japanese?

texts:
According to the Fields medal winner Cédric Villani, in the Japanese language the word 'analysis' is (I quote) "the same word" as the word for 'fine cuisine'.

Such can be seen in a video of a recorded lecture of him entitled "The Extraordinary Theorems of John Nash" at the Royal Institution, published on 2 November 2016, about 22 minutes and 12 seconds through the footage.

I assume that Villani has more knowledge of mathematics than of Japanese, and we have to bear in mind this was not the focus of the speech but one of many trivialities to (quite successfully in my opinion) spice up the comprehensibility and inspiration of a math lecture.

Of further interest: is the Japanese word for 'analysis' at least part of the Japanese term for 'mathematical analysis', or requires the second specific mathematical meaning an exclusive expression instead?

Who can elaborate on, clarify, validate or debunk this please? In particular, it is not clear what is insinuated by the usage of the expression "the same word". Which word is being concerned here please?


texts:
Do demons get any special honorifics put after their names?

I'm wanting to say to a Finnish person studying English and Japanese

  If Lordi-(honorific for demon) can manage English, I think you can
  too!

I don't know whether demons get their own honorific, but the fact that demons have a different counter word to humans makes me wonder whether they have their own honorific.


texts:
What's confusing me in the below exchange is:

What he means by 苦労が絶えない in this context
The usage of 言われ方. I often see 言い方 but I don't think I've seen 言われ方 before.

For context, the 妹 is worried about her friends who did badly in the exams before the summer holidays (and instead of studying to improve, they instead focus on having fun).

  「わたしはあの二人が心配で心配で……」

  「まぁ、遊びたい盛りだというのはわかるが」

  「お兄ちゃん、芹夏ちゃんにまで甘くなっちゃうの？」

  「いや、余所様の家の教育にまで口を出しちゃいけないんじゃなかろうか」

  「そうかもしれないけど……芹夏ちゃんのご両親、すごーく放任だし……」

  「……苦労が絶えないな」

  「なんかその言われ方ヤダ」


texts: What do I do when I encounter "Written Japanese"?

texts:
I have read in grammar dictionaries some words/phrases that are labelled as "Written Japanese" and should not be used in normal speech.
Let's take for example the sentence-ending こと indicating a command:

プールサイドを走らないこと。 "Do not run on the pool deck"
(This was taken from A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar and it's labelled as "Written Japanese".)

What I want to know is what happens to "Written Japanese" when:

I read it silently

I read it aloud to myself

I read it to someone else

For the above, do I read it as it is written or do I convert it to a "Spoken Japanese" equivalent?


texts:
In English, there is a past future tense in sentences like "I was going to go home." I was wondering if Japanese had something like that.

私は東京に行くことになった。

This sentence seems to be something like "I became something that was going to go to Tokyo." However, is it possible to indicate "was going to go to" without the なった? For example, can 私は東京に行く mean "I was going to go to Tokyo"? At first, I thought no, but then I thought of Japanese literature that uses the historical present, which confused me. As an example, I tried writing how I thought Japanese literature would be written.

Alice had a headache. She wasn't going to go to Tokyo. I brought medicine.
アリスは頭が痛かった。彼女は東京に行かない。私は薬を持ってきた。

Wouldn't 彼女は東京に行かない be "she wasn't going to go to Tokyo"? In addition, if I wrote, "she wasn't going to go to Tokyo, so I brought medicine" and 彼女は東京に行かないから私は薬を持ってきた it still seems to work.


texts:
I am not good at using '...でしょう', and do not fully understand its meaning and usage. For example:

  彼はｱﾒﾘｶへ行くんでしょう

  そのことをわからないんでしょう

Such sentences always make me confused. Could you explain it for me?


texts:
I tried using an anki plugin (https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/932119536) to display the pitch accent of words I'm learning.  Some of the words I tried entering showed multiple possibilities for the same word.  For example, it shows that 二つ rises on た, but may or may not drop つ.  Its the same with 三つ.  夜間 can either start high and drop after や, or rise on か.

I am looking for the "officially correct" accent of Tokyo Japanese.  I saw an official pitch-accent book by NHK somewhere.  I'm thinking about something like that.

So my question is, do some words really have more than one possible accent?  I know the accent can be modified for any word by the situation, emotion, etc..., but will an official pitch-accent dictionary list multiple accents.  The plugin I used does it automatically (although it claims they originated from NHK) so I'm worried there could be errors.

Lastly, I do not plan to memorize the pitch-accent for every single word in Japanese. I'm only using this to get the basics.

I know that was off topic, but I thought I should add it in for the sake of those who pop up out of nowhere to criticize study habits:)


texts:
Which of these words are cognates (share a common etymology)?

住【す】む ("live") (rarely 棲む or 栖む)
澄【す】む ("clear") (rarely 清む)
済【す】む ("end")

According gogen allguide and several dictionaries such as the 大辞泉【だいじせん】, 済む derives from 澄む. Perhaps the English expression I believe that the issue is #cleared up#. helps to illustrate this relationship.

The 広辞苑【こうじえん】 dictionary (6th ed.) speculates that 住む derives from 巣【す】 ("nest"), and lists 巣にいる as the first (ie oldest) meaning. It also quotes the following phrase from the 古今和歌集【こきんわかしゅう】 providing a certain plausibility for the suggested etymology: 花【はな】に鳴【な】く鶯【うぐひす】、水【みづ】に住【す】むかはづの声【こゑ】を聞【き】けば. Although, it is not quite clear to me why 住む here would mean 巣にいる specifically and not to live in general.

This suggest that 住む is unrelated to 澄む・済む. However, I did not find any information regarding the origin of 澄む.

Are the above mentioned sources correct? Is 澄む cognate with 住む, or are they not related at all?


texts: How would I write this for a graphic design?

texts:
I'm a graphic design student and one of my designs is a pink 桃色 rose 薔薇 = (桃色薔薇). I read that Japanese is read right to left and also horizontally?
I want the design's first line to pink and under that rose. I just want to make sure it's correct. It is simply 桃色 and under it 薔薇? Or something else?

Sorry for such a simple question. I just need clarification.


texts: What are those 踊り字, their usage, and examples

texts: I've come across some characters like 々,ヽ,ゝ and so on . I want to know more about them and their usage


texts: 締結 can this be translated as "engagement" in the context of mechanical clutch connection?

texts:
According to weblio, the main translations of 締結 are "conclusion," "fastening," and "cerclage". With Google translate, "entered into," "conclusion," and "contract" come up.

I've run several different searches but have not been able to come up with "engagement" as a translation for 締結.

However, when I run searches for "クラッチの締結” I am finding this phrase translated as "engagement of the clutch" or "clutch engagement."

I am assuming that in the specific context of referring to a connection of a clutch, the word 締結 can be translated as "engagement," but would appreciate confirmation and/or suggestions for a better translation. Thanks!


texts: What does 'te- mitai na' mean at the end of a sentence?

texts:
I have a language exchange buddy that tends to use this phrase a lot and from what I've heard it generally means 'something like that'. I've also heard that it's a phrase younger people use a lot to be indirect.
An example phrase would be:

.....と一緒に行ってみたいなぁ

How I would usually interpret this is "It would be nice to go with you"
If anyone could clarify the nuances of this phrase and its different uses I would very much appreciate that. Thank you!


texts: Can you speak hypothetically without conditionals

texts:
In English, we often use "would" to directly make the sentence hypothetical, but how would you do this in Japanese? I only know how to use conditionals for this, but It doesn't give me the same feeling...

For example:

  You would make a good actor.

  役者になったら、上手と思う。

  (If you were to become an actor, you would be good at it.)

Example 2:

  This sort of thing would be popular in Canada.

  カナダにあったら、こんな奴は人気だ。 (If this was in Canada, it would be popular.)

Can you see what I mean? I can't get the same meaning from Japanese...

How would I go about expressing these example sentences?


texts: 「お前が言うなの世界」をどのように解釈すればいいのですか。

texts:
文脈は次のとおりです。SOS団全員が孤島で夏休みの一部を過ごすように誘われました。舞台は森さんと新木さん、それぞれ孤島の主のメイドさんと執事がSOS団のみんなを最寄りの港で出迎えにきました。自家用船に乗るちょうと前のシーンです。

  　(ハルヒ)「それでこそ孤島よね！半時と言わず、何時間でも行っちゃっていいわ。絶海の孤島があたしの求める状況だもの。キョン、みくるちゃん、あんたたちももっと喜びなさい。孤島には館があって、怪しい執事とメイドさんまでいるのよ。そんな島は日本中を探してもあと二つぐらいしかないに違いないわ。」
  (キョン) 二つもねえよ。
  (朝比奈みくる)「わ、わあ。すごいですね・・・・・楽しみだなあ」
  (キョンの思い)　棒読みで口ごもる朝比奈さんはいいとして、本人を目の前にして「怪しい」という形容詞をつけるハルヒの口は無礼極まる。しかし言われた方もニコヤカに微笑んでいるので、もしや本当に怪しいのかもしれない。
  まあ、怪しいのはこのシチュエーション全体であるし、怪しさにかけてはSOS団も人後に落ちないのでお前が言うなの世界かもしれないが、何もこうまでハルヒを有頂天にさせる筋書きにならなくてもよさそうなものだ。


texts: What is the archaic version of the verb conjugation しても？


texts:
「いつも迷惑かけとるのはわしの方なんじゃから」
  Because when it comes to causing trouble, it's usually me. (my TL attempt)

I think I can insert an を to get 迷惑をかける = "to cause trouble". I've seen とる=取る appended to a few verbs adding a meaning of 'take'. In this case I can't see how 'take' would change the verb in any meaningful way. So, what is the function/meaning of とる here? How does the meaning change if I omit it?


texts:
While reading the light novel for 君の名は I came across this sentence in the first chapter:

  私は大切な誰かと隙間なくぴったりとくっついている。

Is using なく here equivalent to using ないで or does it have a different meaning altogether?


texts: Is there a way to express "I'm lost" (in a metaphorical sense)

texts: For example, you're talking to someone and he's trying to explain something to you, and you have no idea what he's going on about. You could just say "I don't understand", sure, but is there something more akin to the English "I'm lost"?


texts: Is な used for emphasis or negative imperative in this sentence?

texts:
「おまえ、そんな体験したこともねぇのにわかったようなこと言うなっ」
  Even though you've never had such an experience, (you say things like you understand)/(don't say things like you understand).

Is this な the negative imperative or just an emphatic marker? How can I know?

My guess is that it's imperative since it's written なっ. But my English translation "even though X don't Y" isn't good English grammar, so I'm not sure if this is allowed in Japanese.


texts: How to say 'finally' as in 'after waiting a long time'

texts:
How do I say 'finally' as in 'after waiting a long time' in a sentence? Do I use '最後に'?

Hanako can finally buy the textbook.

花子さんは教科書を最後に買えます。

Or does 最後に only mean 'finally' as in 'last in sequence'


texts:
It is in a dialogue said by an old man to a young man during their fighting.

  さあ　ぽやっと見てねえで　打ってきなっ わしを力石と思って　力いっぱい打ちこんできなっ


texts: How is the name "河内" pronounced, コーチ or コウチ?

texts: How is the name 河内 pronounced, is it コーチ like 講師 = コーシ, or コウチ, like 子牛 = コウシ? I have checked this word in the 三省堂明解アクセント辞典 but cannot find it.


texts:
I wanted to greet my friends for their wedding. I suppose it would go something like this:

“Wishing you a lifetime of love and happiness!”

How would the japanese translation go? “... ご結婚お幸せに！”

Anybody who could lend a hand please?


texts:
for example

  優美な笑顔を向けられ、そう答えるしかなかった。

  寝たきりだった体を起こした時のような鈍い痛みが全身に走っていて、それは彼女と森で出会った頃よりも強く感じられた。

In these cases, the first person narrator is describing his own actions.

In what circumstances would you choose to use the passive form for your actions?

thank you


texts:
I'm dealing with some TV character's lines that speak in slang, and I don't understand what is the meaning of this "～てりゃ" in the following sentence:

  適当にやってりゃいいだろう。

Here the context:

There are three girl in a classroom. The first girl tell to the second one that she must act more seriously. Next, the third girl say the line abovementioned, in defense of the second.

I was thinking, may be that "ってりゃ" a simply variation of "ている"? And if it is so, which is its origin? And, have it a special nuance of meaning?

May you help me to understand? Thks in advance!


texts: How can the ~たい form of a verb be modified for past/present or positive/negative use?

texts:
Background

I'm aware that the ~たい form of a verb indicates wanting to do something, though - until recently - I hadn't thought about how I could say that I didn't want to do something.

A quick internet search lead me to this page of Tae Kim's guide, with the following example:

  怖い映画は、見たくないよ。(I) don't want to watch (a) scary movie.

I also came across another site, which mentions past-tense variants for both the positive (~たい) and negative (~くない) forms:

  Any Japanese -tai form verb conjugates just like an -i adjective does, so here is an example with miru (to see):

Present Tense | Present Tense Neg. | Past Tense | Past Tense Neg.

mitai         | mitakunai          | mitakatta  | mitakunakatta

  You can see those conjugations as "want to," "don't want to," "wanted to," and "didn't want to" in English.

However, I was confused about how, say, 飲む would be made negative - some of the guides I came across were rather vague, and seemed to indicate that I should replace the ~ む with ~くない (or perhaps just the ~u, with ~akunai), giving either 飲くない or 飲まくない. Neither of these seemed correct; I believe that it should actually be 飲んだくない.

The answer(?)

My understanding is that I can derive the past/present and positive/negative ~たい variants of a verb as follows:

Present (Positive): The formal, positive-present conjugation with ~たい instead of ~ます.
Present (Negative): The plain, positive-past conjugation with ~くない on the end.
Past: As above, but with ~かった in place of ~い.

Here are some examples, based on the above:

飲む

飲みます → 飲み(たい) → 飲みた(かった)
飲んだ → 飲んだ(くない) → 飲んだくな(かった)

黙る

黙ります → 黙り(たい) → 黙りた(かった)
黙った → 黙った(くない) → 黙ったくな(かった)

話す

話します → 話し(たい) → 話した(かった)
話した → 話した(くない) → 話したくな(かった)

食べる

食べます → 食べ(たい) → 食べた(かった)
食べた → 食べた(くない) → 食べたくな(かった)

する

します → し(たい) → した(かった)
した → した(くない) → したくな(かった)

来る

来ます → 来(たい) → 来た(かった)
来た → 来た(くない) → 来たくな(かった)

tl;dr

Do the "rules" above correctly describe how verbs are modified to indicate (not) wanting to do something, in both the past and present tense?

Also: Is adding です afterwards the correct way to make a variant more polite, regardless of whether it is past/present or positive/negative? For example, are 飲みたいです / 飲んだくないです / 飲みたかったです / 飲んだくなかったです all acceptable?


texts:
My understanding is that Japanese was traditionally written in a top-to-bottom, right-to-left order (縦書き{たてがき}), and that modern Japanese is sometimes written in a horizontal left-to-right, top-to-bottom order (横書き{よこがき}) 1. But in the following painting by 白隠慧鶴{はくいんえかく}, the calligraphy appears to be in a top-to-bottom, left-to-right order.　According to the caption on the Wikipedia page, the calligraphy reads 直指人心見性成佛{じきしにんしんけんしょうじょうぶつ}.

Is top-to-bottom, left-to-right writing order common in Japanese calligraphy? Are there rules governing when you would write in this order, or is it just based on the artist's preference? Or maybe it's a Zen koan, and I'm supposed to empty my mind and realize that the order doesn't matter?

Please enlighten me!


texts: Understanding the structure of this particular sentence

texts:
I have this sentence:

そして、先に来た者から十二番目までを、その年の大将としよう。

It comes from a fable about the Chinese Zodiac that I'm trying to translate into English.

I have this basic word-by-word translation:

そして - and, used to connect sentences

先{さき} - first

来{き}た - past tense form of 来る, come

者{もの} - person

から - from

十二番目{じゅうにばんめ} - twelfth

まで - only

その - that

年{とし} - year

代将{だいしょう} - leader(?)

しよう - ?

I'm curious as to how:

a) I would translate しよう at the end of the sentence, and

b) how this sentence is structured. I understand the basic meaning only because I can put the seeming mess of words together, but I don't really understand how they fit together the way they do and why. Does 先に来た者から十二番目 just mean "first through twelfth", and what would be the correct translation of 者 in that case, person? But why does it come after 来た? Any help appreciated, ありがとうございます！


texts:
While studying grammar I noticed that some words require using である/な when used with a noun/な-adjective respectively. I wanted to see if there was a pattern between which words required them and which did not. Some examples are:

  suzukisan wa rekishi ga suki na dake atte, rekishi no tensuu wa totemo takai.
  Because Suzuki likes history, her history grades are really good.
  shakaijin de aru kagiri wa, jibun no koudou ni sekinin o motsu beki da.
  As long as you're a member of the society, you must take responsibility for your actions.

(sorry, my Japanese keyboard program isn't working now)

So why do words like dake and kagiri require である/な, whereas others do not?


texts:
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/compound#part8 explains what たりする is.

I read "地面が４０ｃｍ以上高くなったり、１ｍ２０ｃｍ以上低くなった所もありました" on http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10010492331000/k10010492331000.html
I recognized たり, but it differs from たりする grammar that I learned.

How should I understand the sentence?


texts:
Looking at the JLPT website and its example questions I come across this one on N3.
It wants to know which sentence is correct, 今ごろ is the key word.

  それでは今ごろテストを始めます
  今ごろ東京では桜が咲いているでしょう
  今ごろ現金で支払うことが少なくなった
  今ごろ雨が降りそうな天気だ。

The answer is 2. I guessed correctly. But…why is this so?

Number 3 seems a bit wrong. It should be something more like recently than about now.
Number 4 stands out as totally wrong. Why would you say about now it looks like rain?

1 however…I’m not sure why 1 can’t be correct. Translating it to English- “the test will be starting about now” seems a pretty sensible sentence. The person overseeing the exam would never say such a thing of course but I could well imagine the mother of a school boy who doesn’t know the exact time the test is starting but knows it is 3ish, looking up at the clock and saying that.

What is so different about the Japanese nuance that this doesn’t work?

What would be a more natural word to use in that situation?

Is 今ごろ meant for more solidly known facts or...what?


texts: The reality of answering いいえ to a negative question

texts:
tl;dr: when answering a negative question, can いいえ be used to affirm what the question  states as a whole?

I came to Japan at the age of six, and I guess I pass as a normal native speaker of Japanese to most people (aside from some personal quirks like long response time).

However, there's one thing, one very basic thing that I have a hard time getting right without a conscious effort: answering negative questions.

Consider this negative question:

  車、持ってないんですか？ You don't have a car?

The right way to answer is:

いいえ、持ってます / いいえ。 Yes, I have one.
はい、持ってません / はい。 No, I don't.

The problem is, I almost always mix up はい/いいえ and end up answering just like in English. i.e. Describing my situation rather than responding to what the asker has in mind. With a single word answer, with no clarifying comment, it could be a life-or-death mistake.

Over the years, despite the threat of death, I've developed a self-serving hypothesis that with most negative questions, the answer is predetermined and anticipated by context and it doesn't matter much if I screw up. This hypothesis seemed to work sometimes.

My question is, can I keep on believing my hypothesis? For example, if you were asked

  もう料理はいらない？

Answering はい implies what the asker has in mind "She looks full" is true; your meal is over. (the correct answer in Japanese)
Answering いいえ implies you're not in the mood for another dish, just like the asker thought; your meal is over. (according to my hypothesis)

Or, is there no pathway for the kind of logic in #2 in the Japanese way of thinking?

Edit 1: to clarify the scope of this question, a few bullet points if I may...

Assume the question is a simple, plain negative question

that is, no double negatives (...じゃないんじゃない?), confirmation in the form of a question (...じゃないですよね?), etc.

answered with a single word (はい/いいえ/うん/ううん)
taking place between true, pure-bred native Japanese speakers

Edit 2: thanks to the feedbacks, I've come up with a definition of the problem in a more formal fashion. Here goes..

Conversations take place amid tensions (or harmony) between several norms:

Grammatical norm - the correct usage defined by grammar books
Social norm - accepted, default usage in practice
Contextual norm - accepted usage defined by context

The question is, when answering a negative question with a single word, can contextual norm disagree with the grammatical one? i.e. can an utterance of "いいえ" mean "はい" as defined in grammatical speak? As of this writing, one answer says yes, two others say no.


texts: Are ”見やる" and "見すえる" near perfect antonyms?

texts:
My understanding is that "見やる" means "to cast a casual glance at." So, I'd think that these sentences are synonymous?:

  空を見やった。
  空を無頓着に見た。

"見すえる" is "to intensely stare at something". Thus, these are synonymous?:

  速く近づいてきた虎を見すえた。
  速く近づいてきた虎を恐怖で見た。

Thus finally making "見やる" and "見すえる" antonyms? Any major nuance between the two?


texts: Meaning of 「半日相撲をとりつづけに取ったら...」

texts:
夏目漱石の「坊っちゃん」から

  大工の兼公【かねこう】と肴屋【さかなや】の角【かく】をつれて、茂作【もさく】の人参畠【にんじんばたけ】をあらした事がある。人参の芽が出揃【でそろ】わぬ処【ところ】へ藁【わら】が一面に敷【し】いてあったから、その上で三人が半日[相撲]【すもう】をとりつづけに取ったら、人参がみんな踏【ふ】みつぶされてしまった。

Regarding the phrase in bold.

  ...半日[相撲]【すもう】をとりつづけに取ったら...

I assume とりつづけ is the verb stem of 取り続ける, whose definition can be inferred from the alc results to mean "to keep up", or "to maintain". Thus, I first thought upon seeing とりつづけに取る was something like, "to compete (in wrestling) to keep up (something)". However, that sounds rather strange to me. It appears to make more sense when you treat it as an adverbial phrase.

My questions:

What is the definition of 取り続ける (if that is indeed the word used), and how does it differ from 続ける? Or should I perhaps treat it as 取って続ける?
Is 「三人が半日相撲をとりつづけに取ったら」 parsed as 三人が [ 半日相撲をとりつづけに ] 取ったら?
Does 「半日相撲をとりつづける」 mean "to continue wrestling for half a day"?
If the above are correct, could 「半日相撲をとりつづけにとる」then be interpreted as "to wrestle continuously for half a day"?
What would be the difference in meaning between 「とりつづけに取ったら」 and 「とりつづけたら」 in the passage?

Apologies for the barrage of questions. I suppose what I am really asking is for a step-by-step confirmation of my thinking process. While I believe I am on the right track, my understanding of the sentence still feels somewhat "iffy".


texts: How would one convey the concept of "vouching" in Japanese?

texts:
Update: There seems to be some controversy here as to whether or not there really is a difference between vouching and guaranteeing, which impacts how it is translated. Please see the discussion I started on English L&U about this, where I believe the answers are supporting the idea that there is a difference, and explain what that difference is.

Japanese does not seem to have a readily available equivalent for the concept of "vouching" for someone when you are introducing someone for work, or as a possible date, or whenever there is some kind of favour involved and it's not just social.

To be more accurate, in Japanese culture, when one introduces someone else, the default assumption is that you are vouching for that person.

Which means that just about any and every introduction comes with a fair amount of responsibility. Which might be fine, except Japanese tend to err on the side of caution by being hesitant to make introductions, for whatever purpose, for fear that something might go wrong.

The words the dictionary provides for "vouch" is 保証【ほしょうする】, or 請け合う【うけあう】, both of which mean "guarantee", which is much too strong. I think because the default assumption is that any introduction comes with a sense of vouching for that person, to then add words only stresses the assurance, not qualify it.

The problem with anything like "guaranteeing", is that it implies that if something goes wrong, you can come back to me, either for compensation, or maybe just to punch me in the stomach, or something.

In English language and culture, when I'm vouching for someone, I am telling you about the content of their character. What transpires from their actions is between you and them. Guaranteeing is about putting assurance on future actions and transactions.

So is there a way in Japanese I can say I'm vouching for the person without guaranteeing their future actions?

Also, can I qualify a meeting by saying I'm not vouching for someone? In other words, despite the fact that this introduction is to help you with something, I'm only making the introduction because I'm trying to help, but I don't know the person I'm introducing well enough to give you any assurance.

This is somewhat a cultural issue as well as a language issue, which means I wouldn't expect there's some perfect term that I simply haven't discovered yet. If this is a concept that has to be described in some way so as to introduce it to the language, then let's concoct something new.


texts:
I usually read that あたり is used to enumerate things like A あたり, B あたり.

But lately I can also hear ひとつひとつあたり also used. Is this the same word?

How do you use the あたり in general? A search on a dictionary does not help that much.

  当たり / あたり : n-adv n 1）hit 2）success 3）reaching the mark 4）per ..
  5）vicinity 6）neighborhood P


texts: Meaning of the construction ～て〇〇年／〇〇か月になります

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I saw the construction

  ～て〇〇年／〇〇か月になります

and it looks strange to me. Here is my question: does this construction mean that the action continues until now?

For example:

  この 会社に 入って １０ 年に なります。

My teacher said that this sentence means:

  I started working 10 years ago, and have worked until now.

Is this correct?


texts:
I have heard a Japanese teacher explain how long vowels should be pronounced and how they should be written when using hiragana. That's what I saw on the whiteboard:

  がっこう - gakkoo, (not gakkou)

Is it correct? I understand that the sound is pretty much the same. But if it's gakkoo, then the hiragana version should be がっこお, which is not OK.


texts:
「今から家へ帰るところだけど、晩ご飯の買い物はもう
  終わってる？」

  「うん、さっきお母さんと電話で話したけど、スーパーによってから帰るって言ってたから、お母さんが買って帰るはずだよ。」

I understand the overall meaning of these sentences, but I'm rather confused about how I should translate によって in this context.


texts: 自分自身らしくいてください (double checking the meaning)

texts:
I want to double check the meaning of the sentence above. I have the word(s) 自分自身 and I need to use it in a sentence that expresses the essence of "please be yourself." For context, the speaker is saying this to someone who hides their true self, or wears a disguise, and is encouraging them to shed said disguise or false self.
I understand from previous posts that 自分自身 is kind of a special expression of "myself" but please let me know, is an incorrect usage of "自分自身" or is it just something that would sound odd to a native Japanese speaker? What would you use? (again the "自分自身" is essential...I have reasons, lol)


texts:
Quoth Edict, たりとも means "(not) even; (not) any", and is probably used as such:

  一問たりとも答えられなかった。(even one question, cannot answer)

Is たりとも made up of the individual portions たり ("such things as") and とも ("even if")?

What's the etymology of たりとも?

What are some other ways to analyze its construction?


texts:
I took up a personal translation project--lyrics to a song from a game I played--recently, and one of the words is giving me trouble. The line out of the song is
我れ幾里の路を共に往かむ, and I can understand everything except for 幾里. I did have to try to make out the lyrics from the video before it dawned on me to check for a transcript online, and here's the other confusing thing; this word pops up in other transcripts and the video itself. (See: http://010701070107.blog5.fc2.com/blog-entry-3543.html)
I seriously cannot find a definition for this word with any dictionary I've been able to get my hands on, part of which I credit to this entire song being written in Classical Japanese, but still. I've tried both English and Japanese dictionaries on the subject, so finally I decided to turn here. Any ideas?


texts: Why are dogs asked to 「おすわり」 instead of 「すわれ」

texts:
In the manga Inuyasha, the heroine Kagome acquires the ability to force the titular Dog-Yokai to fall over by saying 「おすわり」.

I figured this must be a typical dog training command, but I wondered why it was not a more direct comamand such as 「すわれ」or at least 「すわって」.

I haven't studied Japanese in a while, but I didn't realise this was a verb form at all.  I thought that "pre ます" form didn't have any grammatical function without ます, and adding the polite initial-お seemed strange when talking to a dog.

Sure enough, according to this question Japanese Dog Training Commands

most other commands are in a direct imperative form, so what makes おすわり special, and what shades of meaning does a verb in "お-verb-り" form convey that すわって、すわれ etc do not.


texts:
Here is the sentence including the word.

いまにおめをぶちのめして　みみずみたいに地をはわしてやるぜっ。

I found that 「這う」 would be closest meaning of it but when conjugate to て-form it is 這って which is different.


texts: Can 「食べも飲みもしない」 be rewritten as 「食べなくも飲まなくもある」?

texts:
I'd like to see if I understand a couple grammar points correctly.  I'd like to rewrite this sentence:

   1. 食べも飲みもしない

As either one of these:

   2a. 食べなくも　　飲まなくもある
   2b. 食べなくもあり飲まなくもある

I think both 2a and 2b are grammatical with the same meaning as 1.  But I'm not sure I've done this correctly, and I'm particularly unsure about whether the あり is necessary in the first half.

The following is my reasoning.  (I've tried to express it as clearly as I can, but it's probably too long and confusing--my apologies!)

I'm working off Hiroshi Aoyagi's idea that -i is a suppletive form of -ku ar-(r)u, so the end of the sentence looks like this:

　　*飲みも　　 しなくある　　 　→　飲みも　　 しない
   *nom(i)-mo si-na-ku ar-u　→　nom(i)-mo si-nai

Here, the stem si appears because the suffix -(a)na-ku needs to have something to attach to, and it can't attach directly to the verb stem nom- because -mo is in the way.

I'm moving -(a)na-ku before -mo and attaching it directly to both verb stems, so si is no longer necessary and it disappears.  But the tense morpheme -(r)u still needs to appear at the end of the sentence, so I have to insert the dummy verb  ar- for it to attach to:

　　飲まなくも　　　　ある
　　nom-(a)na-ku-mo ar-u

Since -mo appears between -ku and ar-(r)u, it can't take the usual form of -i.

Since the tense morpheme -(r)u only has to appear once at the end of the sentence, I don't think I need to add the dummy verb ar- to the first half.  But if I do, I think it ends up in "infinitive" form (あり):

　　食べなくも　　　   　　 飲まなくも　　　　ある
　　tabe-na-ku-mo        nom-(a)na-ku-mo ar-u

　　食べなくも　　　あり　　 飲まなくも　　　　ある
　　tabe-na-ku-mo ar-(i) nom-(a)na-ku-mo ar-u

So based on this, I suspect that both 2a and 2b are equivalent to 1.  Am I correct or mistaken?