texts: Translation of basic sentence confused on subject placement

texts:
I am attempting to translate some sentence and got some weird solutions.

1) There is a post office over there. There is a bank, too.
あそこはゆうびんきょくですあそこもぎんこうです。

I guess what I am saying is there (over there) is a post office. Apparently the correct solution is あそこにゆうびんきょくあります。あそこにもぎんこうあります。I am assuming in this context "there" is a place why can't I use wa?

2) There's professor yamashita in front of high school students.

Why can't I start this sentence with やましたせんせいは isn't he the subject of the sentence? I think one has to write こうこうせいのまえにやましたせんせいがいます。but then I have no idea what the subject of the sentence is?


texts: Kanzen Master N1 Question Help - ほどのことではない vs ほどには当たらない

texts:
So I'm working my way through the Kanzen Master N1 book, having used it for all the other levels and, generally, it's a great textbook. It's one flaw is that it never has any explanations for the test questions, unlike the Reading textbook, where it explains why the other answers are incorrect.

So I'm struggling with this question:

渡辺氏はある団体に多額の寄付をしたが、これは特に評価する（　　）と思う。彼には何か政治的意図があるのだ。

１．ほどのことではない
２．ほどには当たらない
３．までのことではない
４．までには当たらない

I answered 2. I answered it pretty quickly and was fairly sure it fit. It's one of those questions where I read the whole thing, understood it fairly easily and had a sense of what was needed. This makes it more annoying than a question where you read it and have no idea. As far as I am aware, the sentence should read something like:

"Although Mr. Watanabe has donated huge amounts to various groups, I think it's not particularly worthy of praise. He has some political intentions."

The answer is obviously 1. Yet the Kanzen Master textbook describes には当たらない as:

それほど大したことではないから～するのは適当ではない

感情的反応や評価が過度にならないように相手を抑制する言い方、感情・評価を表す動詞「驚く・悲観する・避難するなど」につく

I took that to mean:

"It's not a big deal (to that degree)~ so X is not appropriate/unsuitable.

It's way of speaking to restrain\calm\suppress others so they don't have an excessive emotional response or evaluation of something"

Now, it's easier to understand it's use when it's with emotional verbs like 驚く ("there's no need to be surprised") but doesn't they explanation also cover 評価する in terms of "there's no need to admire/praise/evaluate (something to that degree)"?

I asked a Japanese person and she immediately ruled out には当たらない and said it was easy to discount those two answers, but when asked to explain, she said it was difficult and that grammar just didn't feel right.

So I'm at a bit of a loss! Any help would be greatly appreciated.


texts: Verbing to form 五段 verbs: does it only generate ラ行 verbs?

texts:
Background: if you have a noun, the easiest way to convert it into a verb is by gluing a する onto the end of it. Examples of this abound, ranging from old Sino compounds to recent English borrowings.

Sometimes, a novel 五段 verb can also be constructed from a non-verb. Examples of this include:

グーグル　→　ググる ("to Google; to search")
メモ　→　メモる ("to make a note of")
びっくり　→　びくる ("to be surprised / startled", I think)
サボタージュ　→　サボる ("to slack off; to skip")
写メ【しゃメ】　→　写メる【しゃメる】 ("to take a picture with a mobile device")

Observe that all of the verbs thus formed are ラ行 verbs. Can this process only give rise to ラ行 verbs, or can it also produce other types of 五段 verbs, e.g. カ行 or サ行?


texts: What is the grammar behind 朝6時 (as opposed to 朝の6時)?

texts: 朝の6時 seems to be consistent with using の　to have one noun modify another, while 朝6時 appears to be just two successive nouns (which I wouldn't think would be a grammatically valid construction).


texts:
For example, "my friend Tomoko"
Is it correct to say "友達の朋子?"
As in: 昨日、友達の朋子ちゃんと２人で買物に行きました。

Also, how would you say "my friend is called Tomoko"?


texts:
I have some notes from many years back when I began to do Japanese. As you might expect, I am suspicious of my understanding at the time and of what I've written.

I have two verbs for "to give" and would like to check what the differences are.

上げる    give
与える    give

I also have

あげる    do a favour (not 'I' but 'they')

but I don't know what I meant by my english explanation. Does anybody recognise あげる as "doing a favour"?


texts: What is the correct interpretation of Aの本はBの本のように多くない?

texts:
～ほど～ない
This grammar always ends with ない. For example,

Aの本はBの本ほど多くない。
A's books are not as many as B's books.

～のように～
I always see this grammar in positive form. For example,

Aの本はBの本のように多い。
A's books are as many as B's books.
AはBのように面白い。
A is as interesting as B.

Problems
However, I got confused when ～のように～ ends with ない. For example,

Aの本はBの本のように多くない。

Which one is the correct interpretation?

X: A's books are not as many as B's books.
Y: A's books are as not many (i.e., few)  as B's books.

Generally speaking, how should  AはBのようにCない be interpreted?

A is not as C as B.
A is as not C as B.


texts:
Am I correct in thinking that these are ok without a na:

  1) 印象的な事実
  2) 印象的事実
  3) 客観的な事実
  4) 客観的事実

But these need a na?:

  5) 明らかな事実
  6) ＊?明らか事実
  7) 簡単な事実
  8) ＊?簡単事実

(From a quick look, Google results count seems to support this).

According to Daijirin, -teki should be making na-adjectives:

  名詞に付いて、形容動詞の語幹をつくる。

But is it the case that these -teki-adjectives (and only they) accept dropping the na?  If so, why is that? Influence from the original Chinese particle?

Is there any linguistic articles on this topic?


texts: Why is “キャスト” katakana for “cast” rather than “カスト”?

texts: I was watching Chuunibyou (might’ve been something else) and noticed that in the credits there was 「キャスト」written. I thought for a bit and figured it must be “cast”. But why would it be 「キャスト」 with a “kya” rather than 「カスト」with a “ka” ?


texts:
So I know that jiko shoukai is self-introduction. And benkyou is study. So I took a guess and figured that self-study is jiko benkyou. The context of this is if someone asks "how did/do you study Japanese?" And the reply is "I studied by myself." or just "Self-study.". So just to make sure I took a quick look at Google Translate and it gave me these options:

jishuu
dokugaku
dokushuu

But didn't give jiko benkyou. So what would be the proper word to use for this response?


texts: Using に as subject marker in non-passive/causative sentence

texts:
In this question I was given

  「（私は）あの人に怒っている。」

as a way to say "that person makes me angry".

I'm a little confused because it looks to me very much like a passive construction, "I, that person by, get angered", but the predicate isn't in passive form. How should I understand the use of the particle に in this sentence?


texts: What are the meaning of the sufix ちゃん in an adult man?

texts: Hi one of my japanese friends calls my other friend with the suffix ちゃん but he is a man and is older than her so I dunno if this is a correct way to use this suffix between a woman (younger) and a man (older) friends.


texts:
Title says it all!

If somebody called and left a message, when calling them back, is there a set expression for that?

I generally just use "さっきにお電話頂いた...", but wondering if there is a more idiomatic way to say this.

(this happens a lot more in a business situation, but I'd be interested to hear if there are suggestions for casual situations as well)


texts: The 「って」 + 「いい」 in this sentence what does it mean?

texts:
This is piece of dialogue from a book, and i don't quite get what the 「って」 is doing, if it's a quote, i don't get why they would need to phrase it as a quote. I'm guessing the 「いい」 is the word for "good"

「異世界に行かない？　一つだけ好きな物を持っている って いいわよ。」

I can guess the the full sentence is something like "you are allowed to take only 1 item you like with you" since the previous was "won't you go to another world?" from context but i want to know what the 「って」 and 「いい」 are for.


texts: I know これは誰の本ですか。/この本は誰のですか means "whose book is that". I also know that if you want to say "this is my book" you can just say　私の本です。or even 私のです。However, does skipping これ/この apply to the question as well? Can I just ask 誰の本ですか or is it incorrect grammar?


texts:
I've got a sentence which, I believe, has to be translated in Japanese using "Aの方がC" construction.

  Anna learns Japanese more (than for example English)

Can I translate it as 「アンナは日本語の方をたくさん勉強します」?

Or is it possible to write it this way: 「アンナは日本語の方がたくさんを勉強します」？

UPD: I might've misinterpreted the sentence due to wrong emphasis, since the original sentence is in Russian.

  Anna learns Japanese more (than somebody else)

So, basically, it is 「アンナの方が日本語をたくさん勉強します」

But what if the emphasis was on Japanese?


texts: What is the term (if any) for heaty and cooling foods in Japanese?

texts:
Partially quoted from "Heaty and Cooling Foods":

  When a Chinese uses the terms 'heaty' or 'heatiness' to describe the kinds of foods he/she would like to have or avoid, most Westerners would probably have no idea what those concepts are or find them strange.
  In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the notion of heaty (yang)(as opposed to cooling or yin) is related to the balancing of ‘yin' and ‘yang'. To most people, especially the Chinese, in Asian countries such as China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singaporeans, such concepts are very much part of the indigenous culture and are commonly used as a form of expressing certain set of symptoms or sensations often associated with emotional or physical reactions ...

For example, as eating much もち can trigger 鼻血　so we can assign もち米 based foods heaty foods.

Is there such term in Japanese? How about 消化が悪い食べ物? Is it relevant?


texts: What would be a natural way to say "to milk it for all it's worth"?

texts:
As an example,

A is making a speech:

  "..yes, you can simulate a hurricane in a computer but does the computer really feel wetness?"

Me:

  "Wow, going forward I am going to milk this analogy for all it's worth"


texts: There must be an appropriate response, when the term is used. Thank you.


texts: 私は or この手紙は that means I wrote this letter

texts:
What is the difference between

  私はあなたの鉛筆でこの手紙を書きました。

and

  この手紙はあなたの鉛筆で書きました。

Do the two sentences have the same meaning?  I'm trying to say:

  I wrote this letter with your pen.


texts: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's song: Ninjari Bang Bang

texts: Question to anyone who listens to J-pop-In Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's song にんじゃりばんばん、 what does the りばんばん mean- or where could it have possible came from?


texts: Is there a difference between わけではない and わけではなく?

texts: Or do they both mean the same thing? ("Not necessarily the case")


texts: Is わくわく waku waku a feminine expression?

texts: I tried using this expression but a friend of mine who lives in Japan said it is feminine. I tried searching about this online but couldn't find any indication that it is. Is it really feminine? if it is, how do guys express excitement/elation?


texts:
I am currently doing exercise questions from a JLPT N5 book. The particular exercise shows some pictorial on which we have to construct the sentences.

The example shows a guy going by taxi because he is a hurry

  時間がありませんからタクシーで行きます

The assignment is to use the same pattern to describe a picture showing a guy buying flowers worth 1000 Yen for Wife's birthday to Japanese.

for which my attempt is

  つまの誕生日から千円の花を買います.

I am not sure if I am using から correctly here.


texts:
Can we read ー行き as "iki" talking about trains bound for some stations?

For example,

  この列車は東京行きです。

Here they say we should read it as "yuki."

Here I see that "iki" is used to mean "bound for". But the example sentence is not about a station.


texts:
雨{あめ}にぬれる

Why shouldn’t it be

  雨{あめ}でぬれる

Could you please explain to me why に is used in this expression? Is で incorrect here or is there a difference in nuance?


texts: When is 行く pronounced as いく, and when is it ゆく?

texts:
Are there any rules or guidelines as to when to pronounce 行く as いく or ゆく?

I looked it up on jisho.org, and the two pronunciations have the exact same definition. I tend to hear ゆく more often in songs, but that is just anecdotal.


texts: (意志形)〜ようとする + とか=ようとかする?

texts:
「それと、あくまでキスするのは今日の夜一二時だからね？士道に逃げられたりしたら困るから、無理に唇奪おうとかしないでね？」

Is the bold part a combination of (意志形)〜ようとする and とか (so that the とか is used in place of と)?


texts:
I have found a few example sentences showing 私は.....結論を下りる.  Meaning is: I Concluded.。。。

Can I use 私は....結論する instead?


texts:
From here:

  この行事は、お盆が終わって先祖の霊を送るために行われていて、３００年以上の歴史があると言われています。
  This is event is performed to dispatch the souls of the ancestors ??? and is said to have over 300 years of history.

I'm struggling to parse this sentence. In particular how should I fit お盆が終わって into it?

I cannot make a parsing which contains "Obon ends and...".

The only parsing I can make which makes sense is to have お盆が終わって adverbially modify 行う i.e "the event is performed by means of Obon ending.", but I'm not finding that at all convincing.

Or maybe it could adverbially modify 送る to give "This event is performed to dispatch the souls of the ancestors by Obon ending", i.e. Obon ending is the thing that brings about the dispatch of the souls. I find this only marginally more convincing.

I keep trying to make it say "This is event is performed to end Obon and dispatch the souls of the ancestors", but surely that would require the transitive version: お盆を終えて.


texts:
I'm confused about「は」vs「が」 in subordinate clauses. I do appreciate there are inumerable questions on this subject, but to go through all of them hoping to find the exact answer I want would take forever, so I'm hazarding asking one afresh. I hope you don't mind.

Here are a few examples from (very basic) grammar books:

  僕が 電話したとき、ナツミは もういなかった。When I called, Natsumi had already left.
  弟が 日本に来たら、私は 日光に連れて行きたい。When my brother comes to Japan, I want to take him to Nikkou.
  地震は 私が 結婚した年に起こった。The earthquake happened the year that I got married.
  東野さんが 薦めてくれた本は 何でしたか。What was the book that Mr. Kyounou recommended?
  武が 昨夜見た映画は 楽しかったですか。Did you (Takeshi) enjoy the movie that you saw last night?
  私が それを見た場所は そこにあります。The place where I saw it happen is over there.

I am aware that you can't use the same particle in a subordinate clause that you used in the main clause, but how do you know which one should be は, and which one が? Does it simply depend on which part of the sentence you want to emphasize? Does it matter whether the subordinate clause is a noun, adjective or adverb?

If the instances of は and が in the above examples were reversed (each は in place of each が) would this be incorrect, or would it simply change the nuance?

Many thanks in advance!


texts: ～う／ることが（は、も）ある construction

texts:
During my studies I faced a situation where I stuck with understanding this construction. My textbook said that various particles can be used there but it hasn't explained the function of each particle.
Here's an example of a sentence which made me ask a lot of questions and curse my textbook for not giving additional info about role of each particle in this construction:

テレビを見る時間がない。
テレビを見る時間がないことがない。

First off, I wondered if I could add this construction to 「ない」. It was rather a moment of stupidity than the actual problem. Second off, I asked the question here and was told that it's possible but the particle that I used is wrong. Basically, this particle changed the whole meaning of the sentence, and from intended "I have little time to watch TV" it turned into "I don't have time not to watch TV (I always watch it)" just because I used 「が」instead of「は」.
My textbook gives just plain examples of sentences with 「は」and 「が」but it doesn't explain their use:

私は広田さんのうちに行くことはありませんでした。
私はあの人と話したことがあります。

So, what I'd like to know is what the function of each (が、は、も) particle is, how it works within the given construction and how to decide which one to use.


texts: Name/Title at the end of a sentence. Vocative case?

texts:
Consider these stanzas taken from the opening song of Aria the Animation: Undine.

Translations taken from this site

Background information:

An Undine as a mythical concept is a female water spirit or nymph. In the anime "Aria", they are what gondola operators are called. (In layman terms they are boat rowers)
Vocative case: the case used for a noun identifying the person or thing (animal, object, etc.) being addressed.

  さあ　漕ぎ出そう　光る波へ

  笑顔が　すぐ　こぼれる (Come, let us row towards the shimmering waves,
  our smiles will soon overflow.)

  ねえ　伝えよう　このときめき (Hey, let us impart the feelings of our beating hearts. )

  風にのって　あなたのもとへ

  行くわ　ウンディーネ (Riding the wind, I will return to you
  as an Undine.)

  さあ　漕ぎ出そう　遥か未来へ

  水面に　夢　広がる (Come, let us row towards that distant future;
  our dreams will spread out over the water.)

  ねえ　見つけよう　まだ知らない

  宝物を　あなたと一緒に (Hey, let us discover yet unknown treasures.)

  探そう　ウンディーネ (Together with you
  as Undines.)

I disagree with translation in the highlighted parts above.

(Question) Can it mean "Riding the wind, I will return to you, my Undine" and "Together with you, my Undine"? Treating ウンディーネ as vocative case?


texts: When would と appear at the start of a sentence?

texts:
In the light novel that I'm reading, the narrator sometimes starts his narration with "と、" like the following example:

「ふん」
と、彼女は鼻を鳴らし、中学の制服であるワンピース型のセーラー服をひるがえす。

I've been curious about why と is appearing at the start of the second sentence.  Searches for a definition or colloquial abbreviation fail to be meaningful because there are too many sites which detail と as a particle.
I'm not sure of its purpose, but I figure that it could be one of these possibilities:

An abbreviation of という,
the particle と connecting it to 「ふん」,
an onomatopoeic sound,
a hesitant pause,
or some other reason.

The question that I have is, which one?


texts: Why is "kisama" more refined than "temee"?

texts:
From Wikipedia:

   –§–  貴様 — formerly an extremely honorific form of address; in modern speech is as insulting as, but more refined than, "temee"

貴様 is often said (by textbooks) to be the most insulting word used refer to someone, even more insulting than 手前.

Then, what does the article mean when it says that 貴様 is more refined than 手前?

Or is that information just plain wrong?


texts:
I was working through my N5 sentential grammar (sentence composition) practice book, and there was a question with an adverb, おおごえで　（大声で）:

  山を　のぼりながら　おおごえ　＿＿＿　＿＿＿　＿＿＿　＿＿＿　人も　いました。

  １　うた　　　２　うたう　　　３　を　　　４　で

The answer given is below:

  (A) 山を　のぼりながら　おおごえ　＿で＿　＿うた＿　＿を＿　＿うたう＿　人も　いました。

However, I was thinking perhaps the adverb おおごえで　should be placed before the verb うたう since the person was singing loudly (loudly modifying to sing). The resulting sentence would be:

  (B) 山を　のぼりながら　うた　を　おおごえ　で　うたう　人も　いました。

Which sentence is correct, A or B?
Also, are there any differences in nuance between A and B? Thank you!

*I am aware of a related question being posted before (see below), but the adverb in that post was a time frequency adverb and it was easy to see how the scope of that kind of adverb changes with its placement. With おおごえで, the matter is an entirely different one, I suspect.

Can placements of adverbs be altered freely?


texts:
A little girl who said the following sentence holding a geta in her hand is angry that officers not allow her and her friends to go inside a place.

  ひいきしやがるとぶっぱたくぞっ。


texts: How do you tell when 言っている is progressive or resultive?

texts:
ている verbs can indicate either the result of something (死んでいる) or that you are in the process of doing something　(食べている). However, I am having trouble differentiating between the two with certain verbs such as 言っている. For example, in the following dialogue

『もっと触れてもいい？』
『それって、髪だけのことを言ってるの？』

I am not quite sure if it would be "saying" or "what you said."


texts: Are these translations of 'metaphor', 'love', 'death', 'dream' correct?

texts:
metaphor 隠喩 (in'yu)
love 愛 (Ai)
death 死 (Shi)
dream  夢 (yume)
I ma looking for the words (translations) which are..hmm how to say it.. which are the "most general" :)


texts: 午前0-12 goes from 00:00 to 12:00 in 24h time. Do minutes affect 午前 / 午後? Is 12:30 in 24h time still 午前１２時３０分 or does it change to 午後 thanks to the minutes going over?


texts:
What can it mean when someone is talking about love and they use this phrase? Example:

　恋愛感情。
　俺があの人に対して抱いている気持ちは、それなのだろうか。
　綺麗だと思うし、ずっと見ていたい。今日のあの出来事を、忘れたくない。思い出すと胸が苦しくなった。
　もしかしてこれは。
「恋かな」

Doesn't sound like the main character is describing a negative feeling, yet using 苦 in a positive sense seems quite strange to me... Or is it normal? Perhaps it even can mean an actual physical sensation? (also seems strange to me, but I admit I'm not highly experienced in love)


texts: Trouble comprehending a sentence with ~ように

texts:
Im currently studying with Tobira. I'm in chapter 1 right now and in the grammar section, it defines ように as being used when:

X resembles Y
When X is as Y shows, says, explains, etc.
When X does something as shown/said/explained/etc. in/by Y

One of the examples sentence written in this section, and the one I'm having trouble trying to figure out how it relates to the functions written above is:

この写真を見れば分かるように、ロンドンには、色々な名所がある。

I understood this as:
"If you look at this photo, you'll know that there are various famous places in London."

This was my best guess as to what the sentence means because I don't know how ように factors into this.


texts: Why が instead of は here for reasoning clauses?

texts:
Why is it が and not は for the bolded particle?:

  お寺を見に行くつもりでしたが、天気がよくなかったから、行きませんでした。
  We were planning to go to see a temple, but we didn't because the weather was not good.

Is it also OK to replace that section 天気がよくなかったから with よくなかった天気でしたから?


texts: About っていうか&っていうの&っていうんだ

texts:
Please help me with the following three sentences:

  ①俺が何をしたっていうんだ。
  ②一人だから、何だというんだ。
  ③彼女の何がダメだっていうの。

All of them are copied from lines of some Japanese drama. I can't figure out how such structures as っていうか&っていうんだ&っていうの function in those sentences.


texts: What are these Japanese characters which look like an 'S' and a small 'n'?

texts:
What are these Japanese characters?

looks like 'n'

looks like 'S'

I have seen these characters in plenty of untranslated manga, but I haven't been able to find those two letters anywhere.

Does anyone know what Japanese characters they are supposed to be?


texts:
My Japanese coworker has been unable to explain clearly this. I know that the difference comes up naturally but as someone learning Japanese I need a few examples and grammar rules to know which one to use.

Could you help me understand when to use each of them concretely?


texts:
The 鑑定士【かんていし】 I have in mind is the one that this an expert about a type of goods (e.g. brand bags, diamonds, luxury watches), and is able to recognize and value them. He often use his knowledge in pawn shops or in auctions of such goods.

The term "expert" is too vague. The term "appraiser" seems very close but a bit old-fashioned to me, but I am not native in English so I may be wrong.

Which verb would you associate with this work (鑑定【かんてい】する)?

I know this is not a translation service, but I believe the term is technical enough to deserve a question.


texts: Origin of -aru verbs: いらっしゃる、おっしゃる、くださる、なさる

texts:
I think all of the mentioned verbs are in the same class, because they all inflect irregularly in the same way: -aimasu for the polite form rather than -arimasu.

My question is how these verbs were formed. My guess is there is some base verb which was connected to aru and then underwent some sort of devoicing and 音便.

For example, does くださる originate from 下す + 在る?

If this guess is correct, does this 在る have some semantic meaning? (There seems to be a large chance that it's used to make things more polite, since these are all 敬語.)


texts: Why is 洛 associated with Kyoto / the capital?

texts:
I recently found out that the kanji 洛 is associated with Kyoto / the capital.

Here are some example words showing this association:

洛内【らくない】 : "in Kyoto or the capital"

洛外【らくがい】 : "outside Kyoto or the capital"

洛南【らくなん】 : "southern part of Kyoto / south of the capital"

I figured it must be from the time when Kyoto was Japan's capital, but I've been unable to find where the relation between 洛 and "capital" comes from.

Could it be similar to how, for example, 米 is associated to America, and 亜 with Asia? Maybe 洛 was used to write "capital" or "Kyoto" at some point?


texts: How do Japanese speakers say "no commentary" in Youtube video titles?

texts: Most Youtube videos showing videogames have people talking over the gameplay. To show potential viewers that their videos aren't like that and were made with only the actual sounds from the game, English speakers add "no commentary" to video titles. What is the Japanese equivalent phrase in this context?


texts: How does き を つけます translate to I'll be careful?

texts: Google translates it as "you care" and my guide says it is used to say "I'll be careful." From the structure I can figure out that き means something like care and つけます would be something like "be." Please help.


texts: Are 近畿【きんき】 and 関西【かんさい】 two nouns for the same concept and same region or there is an actual difference?

texts:
I have learnt that the 関西【かんさい】 area of Japan is also called 近畿【きんき】. According to my findings (see this entry on another stackexchange site), 関西 is a more popular term than 近畿. I would like to know:

1) Do they refer exactly to the same geographical place in Japan or there is any difference between their boundaries?

2) Are both considered 地方【ちほう】 or this is appropriate only for one of them?

よろしくお願いします！


texts:
I was surpised to hear from a Japanese coworker that using a question mark "?" (gimonfu) after the か particle is correct Japanese.

Which of these are NG?

何時に会いましょうか
何時に会いましょうか？
何時に会いましょう？

In what context is each acceptable/appropriate?


texts: Which is the most correct Kanji Compound equivalent to 'aji mumpung' or 'being opportunist'? (オポチュニスト、便乗主義者、日和見主義者、御都合主義者 and 利己主義者)

texts:
Context:
I read an article here and stumbled over an interesting kanji compound, i.e.: 便乗主義者 - or オポチュニスト (according to this)

Meaning: しばしば倫理に反する手段で、可能性のある利益の状況で目前の利益を取るさま.

In Bahasa Indonesia, we have this term as 'Aji mumpung'.

Aji mumpung: conditioning or 'using'/exploiting a situation or circumstance rendered for self-interest while holding an office/holding a position of power.
Source - in Bahasa Indonesia

According to Google, an opportunist is:

a person who exploits circumstances to gain immediate advantage rather than being guided by consistent principles or plans, which brings my question, self-opportunist -> a person who exploits circumstances to gain immediate advantage for self-interest.

I researched it for a bit:
According to Oxford, an opportunist is:
A person who takes advantage of opportunities as and when they arise, regardless of planning or principle.
So, my question is:

Is this true, that オポチュニスト、便乗主義者 carry negative nuance as in the 'Aji mumpung' or 'being opportunist'?

What is/are the difference(s) between: オポチュニスト、便乗主義者、日和見主義者、御都合主義者 and 利己主義者?

According to this, the difference is: ''**

保守的な事なかれ主義を日和見主義と言う。左翼的なものの回避、革新的、急進的なことを避けようとする態度をかつての全共闘世代は日和見主義と言った。そういう意味では、利己主義と同義。が、革新的変革によって、自己に利があると考えた場合、左翼思想こそが利己主義ということになる。

**
Could someone confirm whether this is true? (please elaborate, if possible a different usage example that denotes the differences). It seems that it's used much more in politics, but can we say that in our daily live? (such as> 日和見主義の政治家)

3.Is there any 'daily word/daily set phrase(s) in Japanese' comparable or at least means the same as being opportunist as in 'Aji mumpung' that has a colloquial sense (ragam cakapan)?


texts: Why are there multiple katakana readings for a single kanji?

texts:
When I look at a kanji word I see one, or multiple Hiragana pronunciations (or should I call it translation?) - sometimes the pronunciations are for different kanjis, but that's not the question.

I've been reading this article on tofugu, but there are still some issues I'd like to ask about.

Sometimes I see more than 10 different katakana readings for a single kanji. Why is this?

Also, why are there some readings given as katakana, even though (if I understand correctly) katakana is used for non-Japanese (Chinese?) words?


texts:
何度か試みたが、失敗した.

何度か試したが、失敗した.

Is there a difference between those sentences? I have the feeling that the second one is more about trying smothing out like for the first time and see what happens and the first one is more about tryining something probably again and again.


texts: What does the 'あ' do in this sentence 「そいつあけっこうだね」?

texts:
I am not sure if the 'あ' being used instead of 'は' or there is a meaning in the word 'そいつあ'.

In addition, is it possible that the 'あ' is a kind of particle or suffix?


texts: In the novel I am reading, MC is often using ってやつ, I am wondering about the difference between it and というもの.


texts:
Having worked in a Japanese office for years, I have noticed this behavior thousands of time:

An important customer rings the reception's bell.
An employee 10 to 30 meters away (who has an appointment with the customer, or who must lead them to the meeting room) need to go greet them.
Instead of walking normally (or running if it were really urgent), the employee walks with very small and fast-paced steps, making a characteristic sound akin to dragging their feet on the floor. All in all, the employee does not move faster than when I see them walking normally.

It happens with both males and females, maybe more with the latter. Occasionally it even happens when an employee is talking on the phone with a customer. I believe this is for politeness, but feel free to correct me (post a comment or edit this question) if I am mistaken on that. I don't think I have ever seen this behavior outside of professional settings.

Just like there is a word for お辞儀, is there a word to describe this behavior?
If there is no word, what expression is usually used to describe it?


texts:
A man and a woman who had undergone hardship together as children before being forced to part meet again and remember their last words to each other.

The woman says:

  生きてて良かったって、心の底から思える瞬間って、どんな感じかしら？

I think the first part of the sentence

  生きてて良かったって

means

  “It’s good to keep on living”

the って here being a quotative particle since
 生きてて良かった was the last thing the man said to the woman. (Please correct me if I’m mistaken).

The second part

  心の底から思える瞬間って

confuses me.  What is the function of the って here?  It doesn’t seem like a quotative particle.  I guess it translates to something like:

  a moment that seemed to come from the bottom of your heart.

And I think the last part

  どんな感じかしら？

translates as:

  Was that your feeling, I wonder?

So, I think the meaning of the sentence (idiomatically) is something like:

  You said, “It’s good to keep on living”, like you really believed it.  Was that what you were feeling, I wonder?

Is this correct and what is the function of って in the second part of the sentence?


texts: How do とは and に/された work in 「N700系とはどこが違う？N700Aに搭載された性能」

texts:
I saw this on the cover of a book about trains that was at least similar to a magazine:

  N700系とはどこが違う？

  N700Aに搭載された性能

This is a little confusing:

とは is used to define things.  It is often used either in a question asking for a definition or a dictionary entry that actually gives a definition.  どこが違う？ does not sound like a question asking for a definition.
As for the second sentence, it almost looks like "The ability by which it was loaded by N700A."  That is obviously not the meaning of the sentence.

Maybe this is something vaguely in the ballpark of the meaning of that phrase?

  What's new and different in the N700 series [of train models]?

  The N700A, which is superior in terms of capacity

What is the translation, and in particular, what am I missing here?


texts: How do you say multiples of some number?

texts:
On a specification about a data. The valid value must be multiples of 10 (10, 20, 30, ...)

How do you state that in Japanese. I saw on a document that it is written as

  Xは10,20,30・・のように10飛で付番する

Is there other way to state this in Japanese?


texts: Politely giving a reason for coming to the office late

texts:
How does one tell his manager that he is late because of a traffic jam?
Is it okay to say:

  すみません、交通渋滞できから遅きます。


texts: Is /z/ pronounced as [z] or [dz] or both?

texts: I am not sure how these two sounds are used in Japanese. Which one is more common, in terms of frequency? Under what cases is the other one used?


texts: I was wondering what the difference is between 合意、納得、相互理解?


texts: I know that you use と for complete lists, and や for incomplete ones, but when would you use xもyも instead of xとy or xやy? Doesn't も usually replace は or が? Why is も used for lists at all?


texts:
I found this sentence in a textbook:
来月までには出来あがらないと思います。

It was translated as "I think that we'll not make it until next month".
But the と particle after the negated verb is confusing me. I thought that 出来あがらないと should mean "If we don't make it, then...".
If I understood correctly the ability of the -のだと- sequence to connect complex clauses to verbs such as 思う and 信じる, I would personally say "来月までには出来あがらないんだと思います".
So, is my alternative right, or wrong? Plus, am I missing some usage about the と particle? Perhaps before 思う it does not translate as "then", but as a "that" related to the preceding clause?


texts:
I've read a number of questions on here regarding のだ, but what I'm looking for in this question is the nuance のだ imparts to a sentence as compared to when a similar construction is used. There are two usages of it by which I am particularly befuddled.

When のだ is used to provide an explanation, how does it differ from (だ)から? For example, how do the following two sentences differ? (And no, I'm not asking about the difference between のだから and だから; I've found satisfactory answers on that topic.)

  今は行かなければいけない。母からの電話がきたから。

  今は行かなければいけない。母からの電話がきたんだ。

When occurring as のだ{が/けど}, how does the sentence differ from when the の is dropped? The answer given to this question describes this usage as providing background, but can background not be provided without the の? And again, how do the following two sentences differ?

  宿題をしたんですが、学校に持ってくるのを忘れました。(taken from here)

  宿題をしましたが、学校に持ってくるのを忘れました。


texts: Difference between 彼はかなり英語が上手です and 彼の英語はかなり上手です

texts:
Now I have been self studying Japanese for 1 and a half year now.
Today I came across this sentence:

  彼はかなり英語が上手です。
  He is pretty good at English.

I have always been taught that I should construct sentence like these like:

  彼の英語はかなり上手です。
  His English is pretty good.

I just wanted to know if there is some kind of different message being transferred with the first one. Maybe it's more fluent?

All help/criticism is welcome.


texts: Saying or Idiom for 'trying to force a square through a circle'

texts:
I'm looking for a saying that explains that A and B aren't better or worse, they are simply different. More specifically, that a Japanese way of doing things isn't better or worse [than a western one], but for me [a westerner] doing it the Japanese way will be worse, because I've been educated in such a different manner that it would be like "trying to force a square through a circle".

Any takers?


texts:
While watching Cowboy Bebop I came across aa short dialog between the woman bounty hunter and the little girl:
21:12みんなでどこ行ってきたの？
21:15いい所よ
21:16エドだけ知らんちん
It is the last part in which the girl says エドだけ知らんちん that ちん draws my attention. Why does she use it? Is it an emphasiser?


texts: what is the difference between 徐々and だんだん?

texts: I read that だんだん is more used in casual conversation, but is there any difference in meaning?


texts: What is the meaning of すると in this sentence?

texts:
おじいさん は びっくりして その たけ を そっと きって みました。
すると どう でしょう。 <-- this one
たけ の なか に 小さな 女の子 が いました。

I know that Suruto is "hereupon/thereupon/at this point". But "at this point, how is it?" doesn't make a good translation...
Can you help ? Thanks in advance :)


texts:
The sentence

咲は電池{でんち}を時計｛とけい｝に入｛はい｝れました。

Translates as "Saki put the batteries in the watch" but would would 電池 take を in this case?


texts:
I know what the circle, triangle, and "X" notations mean, but this is a new one to me entirely. Next to ◇ was the letter grade "B", but I'm not sure of the relevance since I'm seeing the triangle notation next to the letter grade "F".

Also, if anyone knows, what would the name/reading for this symbol be? I would think it'd be 四角, but I've been wrong about stuff like this before. f>~<')


texts: How common is the practice of writing わたし in kana and わたくし in kanji?

texts: I've heard that some people only write わたし in kana and only use the Kanji 私 when the intended reading is わたくし. How common is this practice? Is it old-fashioned? If I used it myself as a foreigner, would it seem odd?


texts: Lunar Seas and Sun Hills at a sports park?

texts:
I was reading the introduction page for Kirara Memorial Park (a public sports park) in Japan, and one of the features they listed was a 「月{つき}の海{うみ}」. As far as I can tell, in both English and Japanese this phrase only really has the meaning of "Lunar mare" or "Lunar seas" (the dark sections we can see on the moon). However, clearly this park's 月の海 is just a nice relaxing beach: see here.

Next to their 月の海, there is a 「太陽の丘」. If I had seen this by itself I would have just assumed it was the name of their hill...Google seems to confirm that it's just a cool name to give a hill. This makes me think they're going with a sun/moon naming theme, but I can't say that with authority.

What my question is, is there an apparent reason why they're calling their beach 月の海? By that I mean is there something I'm missing (a play on words or whatnot) that a Japanese person would catch and understand? Or is it just (as far as anyone can tell) a name they gave their beach (which, by the way, I think is an awesome name!).


texts:
Sometimes, particles are omitted.

I've read, however, that this can be analyzed as inserting a "zero particle" instead.  See for example Particle omission or zero particle by Mitsuaki Shimojo.  See also Matt's comment on a related question.

Are there situations where a zero particle is required?  That is, situations where adding any particle would change the meaning or make the sentence incorrect?

Are there situations where a zero particle is strongly preferred?


texts: Understanding how pitch accent changes in words, especially 和語

texts:
These words all begin with 花（はな↓）, but they all have different pitch accent patterns.
花火　は↓なび　(There is also 花火↓師)
花芽　はな↓め
花見　はなみ↓ (also, 花見↓月 vs 花見時 which is 平板)
Knowing that the pitch accent of each word is 火↓、芽↓、見↓る（also, 見↓事) does not help me identify a pattern either. What are the rules that causes the words to change their pitch accent in compound words?
All references for pitch accent come from スーパー大辞林


texts: What's the best utility for identifying kanji?

texts:
I often run into kanji that I don't recognize and need some way to translate them into kana, so that I'm able to look up the meaning.

What's the most useful utility (in any form, web-based, application, iPhone program, etc) for performing this task? Something where I can draw in the kanji and have it identify it from that is probably best.


texts: What is the meaning of "僕にだって 見えってものがあるさ"?

texts:
This is from the opening of an episode of Sazae-san:

Kazuo is buying a necktie for his father (who is bald)

  store clerk: 父の日の贈り物ですか？
  Kazuo: ええ。
  store clerk: どんなタイプの方かしら？
  Kazuo: あの　すらっとした ロマンスグレーで…。
  store clerk: 重役タイプの方！じゃあ　これが　ぴったりですわ。
  Wakame (Kazuo's sister): お兄ちゃん。
  Kazuo: 僕にだって 見えってものがあるさ。

(video is on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/erVOfNcVbyY?t=415)

I don't understand the meaning of Kazuo's last sentence. My best guess is "As for me, there's something to see", which is obviously wrong. Also, why did he say the necktie is for ロマンスグレー (middle-aged or old man with gray hair) when his father is bald (bald on top, with black hair on the side)?


texts:
How should be translated the phrase "上の二" in the next sentence? :

  日本の[食堂]{しょくどう}に行くと、同じ料理が[並]{なみ}と上の二[種類]{しゅるい}あることがある。


texts: What's the difference between 早いほうがいい and 早いほどいい

texts:
I know what they mean; however, I'm not sure what the difference is.
Does the difference have anything to do with formality?


texts: How to describe the inside of one's mind?

texts:
On one page in my book, I came across 3 different phrases for, what seems to me, subtly different ways of saying the same thing.

The first was: 頭の隅に

Then: 脳裏に

The information I was able to find was vague at best. Judging from the sort of "hidden" quality I attach to both 隅 and 裏, I take to mean roughly "the back of one's mind".

The third phrase was: 目の奥に

I think this should be taken rather figuratively, meaning something like "the mind's eye" (judging from the context in the book), but again the definitions I could find for this were not helpful.

Are these phrases related? Are my guesses off the mark?


texts: What's the use of で in 「日本の食べ物で大好きなものは何？」

texts:
In my weekly conversation time with a Japanese friend I wanted to ask her what were her favorite Japanese food, drink, etc.  I asked her in the form of

  何が大好きな日本の食べ物か

and she corrected me, saying that the natural informal way to ask would be

  日本の食べ物で大好きなものは何？

I'd like to confirm if, in this context, で indicates 'among all'.


texts:
Could you please give me an example of the expression '気持ちを込める' and when you would use it?

Thank you in advance! :)


texts: What does のですが mean in the following sentence?

texts: 焼き鳥屋さんで集まったのですが、とても楽しい、かつ有意義な時間を過ごしました。


texts: difference between particles の and を for the verb 紹介する

texts: 家族にはまだ彼氏を紹介していません。   and  家族にはまだ彼氏の紹介していません。  are these two sentences same   please explain


texts: Why is the honorific o used for the bathroom?

texts:
I've seen the honorific "o"/"go" (is it called bikago?) being used as politness or reverence: o-cha for non-western tea, o-namae when talking about someone else's name, o-genki instead of just genki, and o-tera for Buddhist temple.

However, I've recently come across (in "Welcome to Japanese") o-tearai for bathroom, which is presumably a modification of tearai.

Google-sensei directed me to http://www.learnjapanese.com/japanese-o-factor/ and http://www.peterpayne.net/2008/05/useful-japanese-honorific-o.html , which talk about it being used for dirty things, such as a potty, diapers and female anatomy.

Is it sometimes used to soften things that are somehow "dirty", or is it being used ironically?


texts: What's the difference between 貰えます (moraemasu) and いただけます (itadakemasu)? Which sounds more natural when talking about bags?

texts:
Example

  1 "袋を貰えますか？ fukuro wo moraemasu ka?"

  2 "袋をいただけますか？ fukuro o itadakemasu ka?"

Both mean "Can I have a bag?". However, what is the difference between itadakemasu and moraemasu?

moraemasu is defined as to receive; to take; to accept
itadakemasu has a similar definition

So what is the difference and what would be more natural?

Please refer to the examples in your answer.


texts: Want to say something like "I will work here in the replacement of XYZ-さん"

texts:
I'm in a situation where one person left the company so I will work as his replacement. I am new to the place so I want to tell the client through mail and orally that "I will work instead of / in replacement of XYZ Person".
I have found something like "後任". But how do I use this word? Please guide me.


texts: When do you use するには as opposed to するため（には） to mean "in order to"?

texts:
I keep having するため（には） corrected to するには when writing sentences, but how interchangeable are they and when should each be used?
Taking some Japanese sentences from Space ALC with my own English translations, is there some reason why one or the other is more natural/correct than the other in these examples for instance?

仕事で成功するには、家で、喜んで私を助けてくれる夫が必要なのです。
In order to succeed at my job, at home, it's essential for there to be a husband who happily helps me out.

花粉症を予防するために、眼鏡やマスクをして花粉から目や鼻を守ることが重要です。
In order to prevent hay fever, it's essential to wear glasses and a mask, and protect one's eyes and nose from pollen.

EDIT: Here's one example:

日本語の言葉の背景色を灰色にするために、二つのグレイヴ・アクセント（``）を使う:

Which was corrected to:

日本語の単語の背景色を灰色にするには、二つのバッククォート（``）を使う:


texts: What does the second of these two Japanese symbols mean?

texts: The first one is fine but I'm not sure about the second one? The first one is "na"  and the second one looks like "shi" on its side, facing down, but is it "shi" or something else?


texts: Is saying 行ってきます and ただいま appropriate for guests?

texts: We are asked to stay at a family friend's house for a couple of days. I was wondering, given that we're guests, what are the appropriate greetings to say when you're leaving and coming back to the house? Can one say 行{い}ってきます and ただいま?


texts: Can an average Japanese person read 草書 style calligraphy?

texts:
Apart from learning Japanese language, I've also started learning Japanese calligraphy (書道). I have a question about 草書 style (cursive style in English?) calligraphy.

Most 草書 style kanji seem unintelligible to me as they look very different to more readable normal 楷書 or 行書 styles. Can an average Japanese person read 草書 style? If yes, do they learn it  (in school or elsewhere)?

As a sample, I'll include one of my attempts - sorry for not best quality and teacher's markings. Can that be understood by an average Japanese person?

Note: my question is not about what is written above. It's a question about readability of 草書 style in general.


texts: Meaning of や in 「もうどうだっていいや」

texts:
What's the appropriate definition for や in this lyric? Can anyone give similar examples of や? jisho.org has this definition (#4) "interjection expressing surprise" but that doesn't seem right.

僕達このまんまでいいんですか
おいどうすんだよ
もうどうだっていいや

This is from the song ロストワンの号哭 (the lost one's weeping)


texts:
Can someone help me with this sentence?

栄養たっぷりなクルミは、森の恵みがとれない冬や、冬明けで食料が少なく、ささいな不作で食料がなくなってしまう春の食糧不足に備えて、備蓄してある非常食だ。

Walnuts are the emergency rations for winter when there are blessing of the forest.

Did I get it right?


texts:
I've studied japanese for 6 years, equivalent of 3 years in college. I don't really have a formalized way to measure my Japanese level but I can read probably around 600-700 kanji and am more or less conversationally fluent.  I haven't taken a JLPT or anything like that but I want to get a job in the tech industry in Japan. Some of the globalized companies don't require your level of Japanese to be that high but some do require you to know "Business Level" or be able to take things like coding tests written entirely in Japanese.

I do want to expand the range of options for myself and I'm willing to dedicate a fair amount of time. Are there any good ways for someone at my level to learn business level or employment ready Japanese language? Does anyone who knows Japanese have experience in the tech industry and knows the kind of things I would need to know?


texts: Phonetic Mapping of the Hiragana System Used in the Okinawan Omoro Sōshi

texts:
The classical Okinawan poetry collection the Omoro Sōshi is written (mostly) in Hiragana, but the phonetic mapping of the characters to sounds seems to be different to their standard mapping.

For example, the title "おもろそうし" was presumably (according to the Okinawan-English Wordbook) pronounced more like /u.mu.ɾu u.soː.ɕi/.

Short /o/ and /e/ in standard Japanese seem have been shifted to /u/ and /i/ in Okinawan respectively, and moreover, Okinawan phonology seems to distinguish between /ɸ/ and /h/, and seems to feature glottalized vowels, approximants, and nasal consonants, all of which are not distinguished according to the standard mapping of the hiragana.

So my question is, how did the hiragana orthography used in the Omoro Sōshi correspond to the pronunciation of the poems? And did it adequately map the phonetic inventory of the language, or was it defective in some regards?


texts:
What does "できたれば" mean in the following sentence?

予とてわかっておる……目の上の瘤が取れ、心持ちに余裕ができたればこそそんな思いも浮かぶのだ。かつては考えもせなんだことを

I assume it's related to できる but why is it not できれば?


texts:
Hello everyone as the title states I am having difficulty understanding when to use the correct particle.

As an example

  肉は食べません (I do not eat meat)

and

  やさいを食べます (I eat vegetables)

Is it acceptable to use both wa or o in both these sentences? Wouldn't the first sentence be more correct if I were to say 私は肉を食べません. The reason I chose these two specific sentences is because I saw them in a book. I can not understand why in one sentence they used は while in the other they used を even though they have the same basic structure.

Thank you for any help you may provide!


texts: If you are older than your uncle or aunt, do you still address them as 叔母さん or 叔父さん? I see no reason why you wouldn't, but I recall once seeing a description saying that family titles are only used for elder relatives.


texts:
While studying Japanese through Rosetta Stone, I've run across these two sentences:

私は仕事に行きます。

私は仕事場にいます。

I'm confused as to why the first sentence doesn't use "仕事場" since the person is going to the workplace.


texts: I check trending words in Weblio every so often, and I always see コロナ禍. I checked the reading of the relatively rare kanji and it said わざわい which reminded me of 災い (which I believe was the kanji of 2004 and 2018). What's the difference between the two?


texts:
率直に言って彼女が苦手なのは、彼女はまず最初に他人の助けを求めるからです。
Frankly speaking, I dislike her, because the first thing she does is to ask other people for help.

I would like to better understand the quality of dislike expressed here with 苦手.
Is it related to the other meaning of 苦手, perhaps as in "I am not good at handling her," and thus maybe less severe than 彼女が好きじゃない?　How does this 苦手 compare to 好きじゃない in severity, nuance and politeness?


texts:
I've got confused and have a few questions:

In some situations speaker is obligated to change the particle e.g. answering yes/no questions.

  Question: あなたはくじにひこうきにのりますか。(A)

  Answer: いいえ、わたしはくじ には ひこうきにのりません。じゅうじにのります。(B)

But what if I do not answer any question?
I can simply say:

  本をたくさん読みます。(C)

Is it grammatically correct?

The verb here is 読み (read).
Read what? > A book = 本 = direct object
Who read? > I read = わたし = subject (implied)

1.) Is it correct to say:

  本はたくさん読みます。(D)

In this situation we will have two は in one sentence:

  (わたしは)本はたくさん読みます。(E)

Is this situation OK?
Isn't it confusing for the person who is a receiver of this statement?

2.) Do we have to change を to は in negative statements?

Or is it correct to say:

  本をたくさん読みません。 (F)

Or should it be:

  本はたくさん読みません。 (G)

3.) How do we exactly understand statements F and G?

Do the particles have impact on meaning here?

Thank you very much in advance.


texts:
「質問に答えていない。
  私は、人を殺すのが楽しいのかと訊いたのです」
  サーヴァントを睨む。
  歪な短刀を持った影は、
  「とりわけ何も。第一、殺しちゃ楽しめねえだろ、色々」
  ひひ、と。
  愉しみを共有したがるよう、下卑た笑いを私に向けた。

What does that last sentence mean?
I think he is saying something like:

  Not particularly. For once, you can't have fun killing.


texts: The usual spelling would be hiragana for the first part and kanji for the second, but the spellings 貴女（方）(if the addressee is female) and 貴男（方）(if the addressee is male) are also in use. On to my question: the spelling 貴方 is more common than either, but then how would you write あなた方? My IME offers 貴方方, but that looks rather clunky. It doesn't offer 貴方々, but I can find examples of that spelling. Would the first or second spelling be more common? (As I've said, the most common is あなた方)


texts:
I have a set of traditional poem cards. One of the poems has the line:

嵐の庭の
雪ならで

and furigana is given for the kanji. On the 庭 kanji, the furigana is には. My dictionaries give にわ instead. Is this a typo, or is this something to do with classical Japanese?


texts: When writing a flower, can you simply write its name alone instead of adding の花

texts:
Like for example, if I wanted to write/talk about the lily flower, do I need to write ユリの花 to discuss it or could I simply write ユリ or 百合.

On the side, for insects, like if I wanted to say butterfly, could I write just 蝶 or does 蝶の虫 work as well?


texts: Why does the narrator switch tenses here?

texts:
I'm currently reading The Tale of Peter Rabbit in Japanese, but the opening to the story is confusing me a bit.

The actual text reads:

  [昔々]{むかしむかし}あるところに、四[匹]{ひき}の小さなウサギがいました。彼らの[名前]{なまえ}はプロプシー、モプシー、コットンテールとピーターです。

As you can see, the first sentence is in the past tense, but the second seems to be in the present. Double checking several English versions of the text, they all have both in the past tense; and in general switching tenses in English is frowned upon.

Now, I know that Japanese treats tenses differently from English, but this seems odd to me. Thus, my question is: Can you switch tenses like this in Japanese, and if so, what (extra) nuances (if any) does it carry?

Thanks!


texts: What is the function of で in こうした家族の変化で、何が起きているのか?

texts:
こうした家族の変化で、何が起きているのか。(source)

The で indicates the "cause"(what is happening because of the transformation?) or the "location"(what is happening in the transformation?)?


texts: Full っている vs shorter ってる: slang or official tool

texts:
I know, that I can skip い in building continuous form of a verb.

  For example:
  雪が降っている。
  雪が降ってる。

  are equal and mean: [It's snowing.]

Question:
how legal is it to skip い in case like this?
Is it slang?
Is it error?
Or maybe it is a part of official Japanese language already?


texts: What are the difference in nuance between 置いている、置いてある、置いておく?

texts:
置いている : Depending on context, this can mean something like present progressive "being placed" or a completed state "have been placed".

置いてある : This is to refer to the resultant state of the item being placed

置いておく : This is to refer to doing the verb, in this case, placing something as preparation for the future

部屋の隅に机を置いています

In this case, does this sentence mean "A table has been placed at the corner of the room"?

And if I were to use 置いてある or 置いておく respectively, do they actually mean the same thing as "A table has been placed at the corner of the room" but with different nuance mentioned earlier at the start of the post?

To be clear, the verb, 置く, is confusing for me in this sense as I read that the example sentence I gave could also mean "There is a table at the corner of the room", if 置いている is used.  Does it apply to the other two too?


texts:
In one exercise I'm doing, it has the following sentence:

世界で一番木の古い建物は法隆寺です。

In this case, the position of the adjective 古い looks odd to me. I normally find it appear before noun or noun phrase, so I think it should be:

世界で一番古い木の建物は法隆寺です。

Is there a mistake with printing or something I should know about here?
Based on the content of that exercise, the sentence has the English translation as follows:
The oldest wooden building in the world.


texts: What is the correct Japanese translation for "pull down to refresh" in an app context?

texts:
I am currently studying Japanese, and one of my approaches for studying is by translating applications (since I also make apps for a living).

How do I correctly translate "pull down to refresh"?
Which of the following is the most correct one?

リフレッシュするために引き下げてください
リフレッシュするために下へ引いてください
リフレッシュするためにプルダウンしてください

Or do you have a better translation?


texts:
I was browsing stuff related to the game Fate Grand Order when I ran into the word "推し鯖". There's an entire hashtag for it on twitter.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/%E6%8E%A8%E3%81%97%E9%AF%96

I've learned that 鯖 is slang for server. But what does 推し mean in this instance? Dictionary says its "fan" or "supporter" of. Does this mean like an unofficial "fan server"


texts: What does "＝" equals sign mean in Japanese news headlines?

texts:
I try to read news in Japanese and sometimes I see equals sign used inside sentences. I tend to think text to the right side of "＝" is kind of a consequence of the left part. It does not look like it has anything to do with any sort of equality. This Wikipedia article  notes that it can be used as the separator for names, but this usage doesn't seem to fit my case. Here is an example taken from Jiji Press' site:

  安倍首相「どんな結果でも友好を」＝ヨルダン国王とサッカー談義.

I hope somebody can clear this out for me.


texts:
I was reading something and saw the following lines spoken by an old male artist:

船が、水の下の者どもに気を配っていて大海原を往けるだろうか？
芸術も、人生も、しょせん水もの…
水をこざいて浮き上がった者だけが勝つのだ！

Someone else then responds:

キレイな言葉でボヤかしてやがるが、『他人なんて踏み台だ』って意味じゃねーか。

This was all overlaid upon the following image:

I have no idea what  水をこざく means. The only thing I can find is maybe it's dialectal, but that doesn't seem to make sense because if you're walking/treading (歩く) in water are you really 浮き上がる (floating) on top of water? What kind of image am I supposed to be seeing here?


texts: Does 児戯 have the same idiomatic value in Japanese as "child's play" does in English?

texts:
In English, "child's play" can literally mean "play performed by a child" or it can be used as an idiom to refer to "something easy".

I see that Japanese 児戯 can also mean 子供の遊び (児の戯れ, I guess?) - but can it also be used as an idiom to refer to "something easy"? I suppose you could always use a "simile"-type construction, like 「その試験は児戯のように簡単だった」, but would I be clearly understood if I were to say something more terse like 「その試験は児戯だった」 (cf. slightly unnatural English "That exam was child's play")?


texts:
From the question: "How does the use of いかんによっては in this question determine one answer over another?", it is observed that:

The use of によって means to change state or behaviour depending on, or according to something. It expresses variety.
The use of によっては pinpoints one outcome from a range of possible outcomes.

While the previous question deals with appropriate usage determination, this question seeks to understand the underlying principle governing it.

(Question) Why does the presence of は do this, and how does this link back to what we know of は?

What I typically know of the particle は, is that it is a disambiguative particle and has thematic and contrastive roles.


texts: Seeking translation help with か between two verbs and と

texts:
よだかは口を大きくひらいて、はねをまっすぐに張って、まるで矢のようにそらをよこぎりました。からだがつちにつくかつかないうちに、よだかはひらりとまたそらへはねあがりました。

I'm having trouble parsing that 2nd sentence especially the usage of the bolded か , うちに and と.

Right now, I'm reading the か as "or" (the same way it's used when listing nouns) but I don't know if that's grammatically correct. I'm also reading うちに as "while" and とまた as "and again", which makes my current reading:

  Yodaka opened his mouth wide, spread his wings straight back and moved through the sky like an arrow. While his body was colliding or not colliding with the ground, Yodaka again nimbly flew up toward the sky.

EDIT:
I've done some reading on SE, and it seems that:

うちに does mean "while",
See: Difference between うちに and うちから.
The と is with ひらり as the adverb's particle, See: <adv> versus <adv>+と versus <adv>+に
And (most importantly) both か and うちに are part of a set grammatical structure as answered below.


texts:
わたしのことなんて、見てくれないの

Does this directly translate to:

  Won't you look at a thing such as I?


texts: Should one use the -masu form of verbs when talking about one's own actions?

texts:
If I'm having a conversation with someone in which I am using the polite form of verbs, should I also use the -masu form if I'm describing something I do or did? If I'm saying, for example, 私は午前八時に起きる, should that be 起きます?
Or does it sound stuck-up?


texts: Naming suffix -氏 (-し) used by an otaku character in anime

texts:
In the anime Steins;Gate 0, the male otaku-character Hashida Itaru calls female characters with suffix -し.

For example:

  Makise Kurisu - Makise-shi
  Kiryuu Moeka - Kiryuu-shi

What does this suffix mean? Is it an otaku version of -さん?


texts: Uses of [◯]{まる} symbol in Japanese typography

texts:
What is [◯]{まる} symbol is typically used for?

The only usage I know of is the "correct" mark. But the dictionary says it is also used as a placeholder and for censorship, see ◯ and ◯◯.

Here are more detailed questions:

Are there any other uses?
Where can I typically see those?
Can it be used in grammar/spelling tests as a "fill the blank" for kanji?


texts: Is this sentence structured correctly? (Explaining time difference)

texts:
Is this sentence explaining time difference structured correctly?

  アイダホの時間は日本の時間から１６時間前もってあります。

It's supposed to say that the time in Idaho is 16 hours before the time in Japan.
If it's incorrect, try to help me figure it out without telling me exactly how to say it. I'm trying to learn.


texts:
I can't understand a sentence. Could you help me please ?

  アンタ一人分くらい私の稼ぎで回せるっての

i don't understand "一人分"
I understand that as "I paid your expenses with my income"

The previous sentence is "言っとくけど１円も使ってないわよ" and she just told her nephew that his father gave money to pay for his studies.
Does "一人分" have any other meaning than "one person's portion"??


texts: What is the cultural/religious origin of itadakimasu and gochisosama?


texts:
The other day on the train I saw this advertisement for some tabloid, with headlines all over it, as they do:

I'm trying to figure out what シ●ブ愛人{あいじん} is. 忍{しのぶ}愛人{あいじん}? "Sneaky lover"? Assuming 忍{しのぶ} to be something like the "clandestine" definition used in 忍者{にんじゃ}, and not the species of fern. Though, "fern lover" would be kind of interesting.

What is a シ●ブ愛人? And why is it censored?


texts: What's the grammatical breakdown of "知りもしないわ"?

texts:
Can you do this with any verb? e.g."食べもしないわ"

Also what's the meaning of "わ" at the of verbs like "壊すわ"?


texts: Where did the reading for 鏡 in 眼鏡 come from?

texts:
I looked up the reading for 鏡 in 眼{め}鏡{がね} on jisho.org here, but I could not find がね, only かがみ,キョウ, and ケイ.

Where did that reading come from?


texts: About 上旬、中旬、下旬 and 始め、半ば、終わり．．．?

texts:
I don't know if the number of days using for six cases above is how many? 3 days or 10 days or...? And moreover, 上旬、中旬、下旬 and 始め、半ば、終わり which is using for month, which is for week and which is for year?
Thank you.


texts: ことわざ for staying out of things you don't understand

texts: Is there a ことわざ which means "don't talk about things you don't understand"?


texts: What is the difference between using のは and というのは in a sentence to describe a part of the sentence? I'm having a hard time telling when to use either one, because it seems you can use というのは to describe a verb/phrase the same way you would use のは. Thanks!


texts: How to use 来る in the sense of "is coming"

texts:
While reading a book on grammar, I read the following:

  Context: Shima and Hastushiba Electric's racing team manager Ono are
  relaxing at a bar after a test run at the track and discussing their
  chances of victory, when rival Solar Electric's driver Inagaki sits
  down.

  Inagaki: あ、小野さん、来てたんですか。
  Ono: や。

  Explanation: [...] kite iru is literally "has come," but it's
  usually better thought of as "is/are here"; it never means "is [in
  the process of] coming," which is expressed in other ways.

What "other ways" can a verb that normally describes a continuation of state describe a continuation of action? What about something like 死んでいる ("has died and is still dead") vs 死んでいるところ ("the process of dying")?

What other ways?


texts:
The pitch contour of the interjection ううん has been described as high, low, middle.  Alternatively, it has been described as a falling-rising tone.  In either case, this appears to be unique in Japanese.

In English, the pitch contour of "I donno" is distinctive.  I can reduce it to "ionno", "ionn", "nnn", or just hum the pitch contour without opening my mouth, and it's nevertheless understandable.

Given that the pitch contour of ううん is unique, and given that it's already fairly nasal, can I do the same thing?  Can I say んんん without opening my mouth at all?  If so, is this the normal pronunciation?


texts: Comprehension problem of 世に囁かれる星の数にも届くそれらは、一種の「願望」である。

texts:
世に囁かれる星の数にも届くそれらは、一種の「願望」である。

I have this sentence in Japanese that I'm not sure I completely understand. My own comprehension of the sentence is: "Those who reach the severals stars in the world are the desired...". But there's two parts of the sentence that I don't understand: "世に囁かれる星の数" because of the presence of the passive form of the verb 囁く(to whisper; to murmur) and "一種の「願望」である" because of the kanji 種.
So I would like to know:
#1: if my translation is accurate or not with the real meaning of the sentence.
#2: the role of 囁かれる and 一種 in the sentence and how they can change the translation I did on the side.


texts:
I've seen the expression 望むところだ twice in manga (both times spoken by a very rough speaking male character). The context of the situations (the character who spoke was just threatened or warned in both cases) leads me to believe that its meaning is similar to "Do as you will" or maybe "I can take whatever you can dish out".

Could someone please explain the grammar behind that expression? I have 3 specific questions:

1. Who is the understood subject of 望む?
Basically, I'm wondering if the speaker is the subject or the listener. Is the speaker talking about what he desires or what the person he's talking to desires?

2. What function does ところ serve?
I know that ところ has a wide variety of different meanings that relate to time and place. Usually, when ところ follows a verb, it means that the action is just about to begin. That does not seem to fit here though. "I am just about to want that" doesn't really make sense to me.

3. Do my translations convey the appropriate intention?


texts: Parsing 何を考えているかすぐ解るような態度は改めたほうがいい

texts:
「志貴さま。今のは姉さんにはその...」

  黙っていてくださいとごにゃごにゃ呟く翡翠。

  「なに、今のって琥珀さんに話しちゃいけないことなんだ。そっか。わかった」

  そんなことは、ぜひ琥珀さんに教えてあげなくては。

  「……志貴さま。その、なにを考えているかすぐ解るような態度は改めたほうがよろしいかと思います」

  「ん？なに、別になにも考えてないけど、俺」

[Shiki-sama, that thing I said just now...]

"Please do not tell it" Hisui mumbled.

[What, that thing now you mean it's something I should not tell Kohaku. I see. I understand]

That thing, I have to tell kohaku about it.

[Shiki-sama. Ehm, what you are thinking I immediately understand, an attitude like that I think you should change it]

[What? I am not thinking anything though]

I am not sure about

  「……志貴さま。その、なにを考えているかすぐ解るような態度は改めたほうがよろしいかと思います」

Is my translation correct?

The fan-translation is:

  Shiki-sama. I think you should try not to show what you are thinking.

I am really not sure which one is correct, they are completely different.


texts: Meaning of でも in 残念でもしかたない

texts:
残念でもしかたない。
  Even bad luck can't be helped.

I know でも to mean either 'even..', '..or something', or as separate particles で+も. None of these interpretations really seem to fit here.

I'm tempted to go for the で+も option: "it's bad luck and it can't be helped". But then I still don't understand what to do with the も.


texts:
I am very confused about the meaning of the expressions 'ていく' and 'てくる' and seems that every website I look has a different explanation.
Translations that I think are good:
'Go in order to buy wine';
'Going to buy wine';
'Buy a bottle of wine and then go'.
Which one is right and why?

Thanks in advance.


texts: Meaning of "何か来るんやろなとは思ったけどな"

texts:
I saw this pic on 9gag.com! I was able to read the following line perfectly (or maybe not): 何か来るんやろなとは思ったけどな. I'm not sure what it exactly means, but I have a feeling that this is slang.

来る means to come, but what does 来るんやろな mean?
思った means "thought" and けど means something like "but". However, I do not know how the addition of な changes the meaning of the phrase.

Here's the page from 9gag in which the image was posted:
http://9gag.com/gag/6856310


texts: Etymology and meaning of ukemi (受け身?) as part of 合気道

texts:
I practice 合気道.  We do a lot of break falling that we call ukemi. I was led to believe that it meant safe escape from a technique.  However, I started looking at the Japanese and found I only had part of the answer. I believe that ukemi can be translated as receiving body (受け身). It is what uke (受け, whoever receives the technique) does when nage (投げ thrower?) or tori (取り, grabber?) applies a technique.
Am I correct in my assumptions?
Are my kanji correct?

Cross posted from Martial Arts SE.


texts: Why is 間{かん} used to denote some amounts of time but not others?

texts:
I've been thinking about how to express a duration of time and how in the past I have added 間{かん} in situations where I found that I shouldn't have.

Take the following sentences as examples.

  ○：　３０分後ご飯を食べる。

  ☓：　３０分間後ご飯を食べる

  ○：　３年前日本に行った。

  ☓：　３年間前日本に行った。

  ○：　３時間後出かける。

  ☓：　３時後出かける。

Of course there are other examples that I could give but I think this kind of boils it down to the main point. When I think of 間 as a concept I generally think of it as an emphasis on start-to-finish time, like １年間日本語コース or something like that. Why, then, does this not apply to expressing time in the future/past? Specifically I have said before something like １年間後日本に行く or something like that, using 年間 in the same way that you would use 時間, only later to find that is not natural usage.

So this leads to the question of why these words cannot all be used in a consistent way. Is there something special about 時間 as a word that excuses it from counter, or are the rules inconsistent, or is there a pattern that I'm missing? I'm aware of 時間 as the word for hours, but as in Chocolate's answer, we don't say 一時間間.


texts:
How are these two terms different? Also how about 表す and 現す?

Thank you so much!

楽しいクリスマス、そしていい正月を。


texts:
While checking out "正" (as in 正坐, specifically) I found that apparently one of the associated meaning would be 10^40 (i.e. 10 elevated at the 40th power).

Example -taken from Tangorin.com:

sei 【正】
noun / noun with genitive case particle の:

(logical) true;  regular
10^40
original  —Abbreviation.  → せいほん【正本】
positive;  greater than zero;  —Mathematics term.  → ふ【負】

10^40 is a pretty large number (estimated number of water molecules on Earth: approx. 4.5x10^48) and I wonder if this is to be intended as "infinite", or if not, when is this specific "meaning" supposed to be used.


texts: What is the meaning of スタンドプレイ in this sentence?

texts:
I know スタンドプレイ is the action of showing off, but what does it mean in this sentence? Is it an action or an adjective?

  スタンドプレイで己の望むままに生きる。

My attempt: "He is an exhibitionist and he lives as he likes".

There isn't much context, it's just a character being presented. Thank you for your help!


texts: What is the difference between むしろ and かえって?

texts:
"病人のほうが[むしろ/かえって]しっかりしている。"
"三月のほうが[むしろ/かえって]寒かった。"
"強い男性より、[むしろ/かえって]優しい男性が好きだ。"

How to know when both work and when only one can work ?


texts: Is 誰か行きたい人 a form of double-headed relative clause?

texts:
I came across the phrase "誰か行きたい人" in this thread and I think it would be used in a context like
"誰か行きたい人がいるか？".

However I am kind of confused by how it works grammatically.
Is 誰か行きたい a relative clause modifying 人, while it is at the same time implied that this 誰か and 人 are the same entity?

Is it similar in this way to a sentence like
太郎はメアリがリンゴをむいたそのリンゴを食べた。?


texts: て form can be used to indicate the past?

texts: i've seen a few sentences like this one:新しいコロナウイルスが広がって,which instead of た , て was used, is it an even more  casual way to make the past tense?


texts:
I would like to know the difference between 整理つける and 受け入れる

  お嬢ちゃんには黙ったまま行くのか

  いまさら合わせる顔がない

  せめて気持ちの整理だけはつけさせてやれよ

  Are you gonna leave without saying a word to the young lady?

  I can't face her now.

  At least help her come to terms with it.

Both seem to mean: to accept but could 受け入れる fit in the context ?

Thanks in advance


texts: What is wrong in "森田さんは新開発の薬をもって病気を克服した"?

texts:
最新の医療技術をもってすれば、人はさらに寿命を伸ばせるだろう。  OK
森田さんは人一倍の努力をもって病気を克服したのである。  OK
森田さんは新開発の薬をもって病気を克服したのである。  KO

My textbook* says the third sentence is not OK, but I don't understand why, as it seems to respect the usage rules explained in the same textbook.
Can someone enlighten me?
*:スリーエーネットワーク新完全マスター文法日本語能力試験N1


texts:
In the following, I feel it should be 会話が出来るどころか.

  ジムは日本語で会話が出来ないどころか、簡単な挨拶も出来ない。
  Jim is not only unable to converse in Japanese; he cannot even make simple greetings.

I was expecting the sentence to end talking about how well Jim can speak Japanese. If this is a valid usage, can you please give a more literal translation?


texts:
I am trying to learn a lot by reading, but I am having a lot of trouble with this phrase/sentence:

  どうなちきつたんだよオ

Now, this is from a manga (Akira, specifically) so I'm guessing it's some kind of cheesy/loud exclamation. But I've tried to figure out what it means and I'm just really not getting it.

This is the the original image.

(Click for full image.)


texts: Colloquial use of「〜て〔い〕ない」, maybe instead of 「〜なかった」

texts:
It's not the first time I hear it, but I've found it in this scene. I understand that, as in 知る or 始まる, a started action whose consequence remains is expressed in continuous form. However, I thought that the negative form was constructed in present or past, as 知らない　or 始まらなかった, but not in continuous. I find examples as the linked video using instead the negation of the continuous （見ていない）. In this case I would've used 「見なかった」.
Am I missing something or is it a slang transformation? In that case, which form should be used?
Thanks a lot!
Ferran
EDIT: corrected misspelling/bad grammar. Tremendous lapsus :(


texts: Is there a poetic or metaphorical meaning to ゆびさき が かたくなる?

texts:
I'm curious about the final line of the musician Kishi Bashi's song "Atticus, in the Desert":

  あたま ふらふら ゆびさき が かたくなる

I understand the direct translation of this ("head dizzy fingertips get hard") but it seems as if there must be a figurative or poetic meaning to ゆびさき が かたくなる.  Otherwise it just sounds like disconnected nonsense.


texts:
I came across this sentence:

  「まるで触れ得為らざるものの様な...」

I am pretty sure that this is some kind of 'archaic' speech here and found following explanations for understanding this sentence:

https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%AA%E3%82%89%E3%81%96%E3%82%8B

(For further 'reference constructions'

https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E5%B0%8B%E5%B8%B8%E3%81%AA%E3%82%89%E3%81%96%E3%82%8B

https://kobun.weblio.jp/content/%E5%B0%8B%E5%B8%B8%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8A)

I believe that the constructions above means something like 'unable to do...' but I am still kind of uncertain about it; therefore my questions are:

What does 「得為らざる」mean and what word is referred to by 「なり」in the linked explanation? Is　「得為らざる」a construction on its own or the 'combination' of two different ones?


texts:
I'm learning Japanese, but I'm still very early on in my education (Rosetta Stone, some books and a Japanese-speaking friend). I'm pretty sure I'm grasping the basic concepts okay, but I'm having issues when hearing other people speak the language. Specifically, right now, hearing the "ん" sound.

When hearing a word like おんなのこ spoken, how do I know this word is written おんなのこ and not おなのこ? To me, the pronunciation is extremely similar.

Is there a rule or any tips that will help me discern when I am hearing "んな" ("nna") as opposed to "な" ("na")? (Also "んの" instead of simply "の", you know what I mean.)


texts: is there any difference between せめて and 少なくとも?

texts: I know they both mean "at least", unless I'm wrong.


texts:
So I found this sentence

彼は彼女の写真をびりびりに破いた

Looking at jisho, びりびり got translate as torn (adj) and 破く to tear (v).
Its the first time I'm seeing both of these words but I don't understand why it is written like that. Do I need びりびり with 破く to say that I have torn something if I can just use the verb 破く.

Is it simply a way of speech?

Thanks,
Or


texts:
A girl forgot to do her homework and mum catches her out of bed:

  「まる子っ、もう寝なさい」
  Maruko, go to bed now!
  「うん、もうすぐ寝るから」
  Yes, I'll go to bed very soon (because)

I don't understand the function of から here. At first I thought it should be an unfinished excuse for why she is out of bed, but I thought that would be もうすぐ寝るが... Then I thought it could be "I will go to bed soon (rather than now) because (I have to finish my homework), but から is on the wrong clause for that to work. I'm out of ideas.


texts: Please help me to understand 納得させて and ごまかす

texts:
幼稚園のころは適当にうまく話して納得させていたのだが、これくらいの年になると、適当に話してごまかすわけにも行かない。

This is from New Approach Japanese Intermediate Course.

Translation so far:

  During kindergarten he spoke suitably well...

So big problem is 納得させて. I just don't get what it means for this sentence.

これくらいの年になると... when it becomes this year?

And what does ごまかす have to with anything in this sentence?


texts: I was thinking about something like: " I will laugh" but it seems kinda unnatural


texts:
なんと担当さんがその辺に落ちてた枝や石を使って実際に作ってくれました

I can't finish the translation due I can't understand the 担当さん. At first time, somebody said me that it's name. But it's not name, right?
I was told that this occupation. But I'm not sure in it. And now I don't know how to translate it. Help me, please! And thanks for your help!


texts: 手伝ってくれませんか・手伝えませんか・手伝いましょう

texts:
I recently read that 手伝いましょう is a correct way to offer to help someone. What are the differences between the following sentences? Please explain why any of them are an incorrect.

手伝ってくれませんか。
手伝えませんか。
手伝いませんか。
手伝いましょう。


texts:
It may be a stupid question, but will a Japanese person understand if I write 'Fukushima' in hiragana?

Thanks


texts: Does the use of ていたら in the first clause require it in the second?

texts:
From my JLPT N1 grammar text, explaining special uses of the ている form, in describing 事実に反すること; the text explains that ている marks the sentence more emphatically as non-reality, than the use of 過去形. However, it's not clear to me whether the final verb needs to match the ている form or not. It does agree in both their examples, one of which is:

  こんなに大変な仕事だとわかっていたら、断っていただろう。

Would

  こんなに大変な仕事だとわかっていたら、断っただろう。

be grammatical? If so a different nuance? Or is it ungrammatical?


texts:
I have seen

  お掛けください

for "please take a seat". But previously I have been using

  お座りください

to mean the same thing.

Are these the same or is there a difference?


texts:
I was curious to see that the word for "superstition", 迷信{めいしん} contains a character meaning lost, perplexed, or astray. Given that Japan and China both have a history of religious belief, I found the character choice odd.

I couldn't find the etymology on Wiktionary, does anyone know where it comes from?


texts: What is the difference between 一緒【いっしょ】に and 二人【ふたり】で?

texts:
I think in all situations where either 一緒に could be used, 二人で can also be used, and vice versa. I suppose 三人、四人、五人、etc. can also be used here if that's the number of people you are talking about.

But I'm curious as to the different connotations (if they exist) in these words/phrases.


texts:
In this post, I insisted that AはBにしてもらう is synonymous to BはAにしてくれる but not necessarily to BはAにしてやる / あげる. However, there was a counterargument that says you can't use くれる unless the speaker is involved, which doesn't seem reasonable to me because you can say things like 花がきれいでいてくれてうれしい.

It also says that AはBにしてもらう is rather synonymous to BはAにしてやる / あげる than くれる, but that doesn't seem reasonable either.

先生になんとかしてもらえないか聞いたらどうだ？
先生が何とかしてくれないか聞いたらどうだ？
先生が何とかしてやれないか聞いたらどうだ？

To me, the one who Sensei is to help seems the listener or someone closer to you than sensei in #1 and #2, but someone else than whom Sensei is rather closer to you who belongs to the other side of you the speaker, the listener and Sensei in #3.

What are your thoughts?


texts: A problem with this sentence 地球上の四方は人間が生活するために便宜上その概念を使用しているものだが、デジタルワールドではその世界が成り立つ時に東西南北を起点としたグリッドを使用していたのかもしれない。

texts:
I was reading a Digimon novel, but I have problems with this sentence.

  デジタルワールドにも東西南北という方向性が存在する。地球上の四方は人間が生活するために便宜上その概念を使用しているものだが、デジタルワールドではその世界が成り立つ時に東西南北を起点としたグリッドを使用していたのかもしれない。

I don't understand what the second sentence says, but I think it is something like: "at first, the four cardinal points were a great place to live in, but then it was divided into different areas.

Thanks!


texts: In a text, how to tell the difference between a date (of the year) and days/months?

texts:
Seeing, for exampe, 4月から (or まで）in a text, how to tell if it means 'since April' or '4 months ago'　（respectively, 'until April' or 'after 4 months) ?

Similarly, how to tell if 4日から  (or まで） means 'since the 4th this month' or '4 days ago' （respectively, 'until the 4th this month' or 'after 4 days)?


texts:
How to translate 'She got him bitten by the dog'?

Can I translate it as:
彼女は彼に犬に噛まれさせた？

Also, how should I translate 'She got him bitten on the hand by the dog'?

Can I translate it as:
彼女は彼に犬に手を噛まれさせた？


texts: Are both spellings for ふけ (fuke) "dandruff" ateji? If not what's actually going on?

texts:
The other day after washing my hair I decided to add the Japanese word for "dandruff" to my vocabulary. It turns out to be an interesting word.

It has only one pronunciatation, ふけ (fuke), but two kanji spellings and I got the impression from WWWJDIC this word isn't usually written in hiragana (correct me if I'm wrong).

雲脂 literally "cloud fat".
頭垢 literally "head grime".

But ふ and け are not among the usual readings for 雲, 脂, 頭, and 垢.

So are both spellings ateji? Or what is actually happening? By the way I can't seem to type them using my Windows IME.

I also note that these Japanese terms don't seem to share anything in common with the terms for "dandruff" in the other languages Japanese often has many factors in common with:

Mandarin 頭皮屑, 头皮屑 (tóupíxiè)
Korean 비듬 (bideum)
Okinawan いりち (ʔirici)

This makes me think it was a Japanese word already before Japan borrowed kanji from China and the characters were applied for meaning, which would make it a case of ateji. But this is just a hypothesis for now that I can't prove.


texts: 〜と whenever's second clause must follow first clause

texts:
I'm a bit confused as to why the following sentence is wrong.

  私はその人と話すと喫茶店{きっさてん}に行きます。

The book says

  The event described by the second clause must follow the event described in the first half of the sentence.

But doesn't きっさてんにいきます happen because of その人と話す?

Here are a couple of other samples sentences from the same sub section to provide more context.

  夜になると町が静かになります。
  秋になると木が赤くなります。
  わたしはこどものとき、ふゆになるとかぜをひきました。

Thank you in advance!


texts:
寝室で血まみれになって倒れている山村さんを発見して110番した。
Can I just say 寝室で血まみれに倒れている山村さんを発見して110番した。
If not, then when should I use になって to describe a verb?
Context:遺体が見つかったのは、10月11日午後2時ごろ。2日続けてアルバイトを欠勤した山村さんを心配した親族の女性らが部屋を訪れ、寝室で血まみれになって倒れている山村さんを発見して110番した。犯行現場は寝室とみられ、それ以外の部屋にも血痕があったという。
Thanks for reading my question.


texts: What does the double use of "殺せる" mean here?

texts:
Context: The speaker is talking to his friend who was surprise attacked by an enemy despite this enemy being the speaker's acquaintance from bygone days, his friend asks him for an explanation as to why this guy is attacking them when they should be on friendly terms, to which he replies:

  過去がどうであろうと、今の俺を殺せる奴は殺せるってだけの話

I'm wondering what the author is trying to imply with by repeating 殺せる? All I can come up with is "regardless of what the past is like, a person who can kill the current me, can kill me, that's all there is to it." This doesn't seem to make sense?


texts: What's the difference between のろう (呪う) and まじなう (呪う)?

texts: How should I know how to read it if the context is the same for both the readings?


texts: Why the difference between Buddhist temples, お寺, and Shinto shrines, 神社? (The latter does not take ご神社, お神社 or 御神社.)


texts: How to say "This day is going by too quickly" in Japanese?

texts:
It's daylight savings time day (Spring equinox) and we all lost an hour. How would I casually express that this day is going by too quickly?

Something like:

この日の時間は早すぎています。


texts:
I know that kaizen means improvement in Japanese, and although it's mainly used for work / business improvement, I understood its not restricted mainly for business.

From a basic Google translate, looks like Jiko means self. I don't know about Japanese, but the logic of other languages tells me that Jiko Kaizen would mean self improvement.

Is it true?

Thanks!


texts: We know that 真っ赤 means "deep red," but how did it come to mean 'downright', as in 真っ赤な嘘 (outright lie)?


texts: Don't know the meaning of these complex kanji

texts:
おはようございます！
Seeking for help. Don't know the meaning of those kanji (big white, in the top right corner and in the lower right corner. Any help will be appreciated! Thank you in advance.


texts:
Sentence is: 世界に出たからってファイナルまで残んなきゃ稼げねーし
I mostly understand the meaning "We can't make money unless we make it to the finals in the world championships" but what does the からって do here?


texts:
こんなくそみたいな帽子{ぼうし}かぶせやがって！
"こんな仕事{しごと}させやがって！"
"こんなまずいものを食{く}わせやがって！"
"あいつは本当{ほんとう}に良{い}いものを作{つく}りやがる"

I was recently acquainted with the inflection "やがる," as illustrated in the examples above. Would it be right to describe it as a 活用形 (inflection)? Can anyone explain how to use it and what role it serves?


texts: How do I say "before" or "used to" in Japanese?

texts:
朝、作文を書いた時、疑問に思いました。
How can I say something like:

I didn't use to like this band.
Before, I didn't like this band.


texts:
I saw the phrase よいではないか (yoi de wa nai ka) in a comic strip, and decided to look it up because its literal meaning of "isn't it good?" didn't seem to make any sense.

My research indicated that it was related to something a man says while unwrapping a woman's waist cloth on her kimono (such as in this cheaply made iPhone game), which confused me even more because there was nothing remotely suggesting something that would make one say よいではないか.

Can anyone explain the history behind this phrase and its current usage?


texts:
When I learn new words in Japanese (using jisho.org), I often see a verb like for example "to drive" as 乗り回す and 運転する, "to study" as 学ぶ and 勉強する,
"to understand" 分かる and 了解する, why ?? Why is there for the same English verb both a verb and another as Noun+suru in Japanese ?
Do we use both of them as we want, or is there a rule to know what verb to use ? Do they mean the same thing ? Is there one that is more often used ?

I'm confused, and because there is a lot of English verbs that has 2 translation in Japanese, it makes the study of the language harder.
Thank you :)


texts:
I've been learning Japanese for a while but I'm truly investing my time recently into really learning Japanese. I have private lessons once a week and I'm trying to use Japanese as much as I can.

I'm trying to tell my friend that I'm cooking Beef Tataki tonight by saying:

  僕は今夜牛たたき料理しています。

But I'd like to add to the end of my message:

  "Correct me if I'm wrong"

or any similar saying in Japanese.

How can I say that?

Thank you very much in Advance


texts:
I know that だよ is like the informal of です
but I couldn't get it because when I was having a conversation with someone which went like this

  person: うん痩せたいです今よりもっと
  me: 私も... ;;
  person: だよなー

I couldn't get it ._.


texts: What is the difference (if any) between these two sentences?

texts:
大学で勉強をしたいです。

大学で勉強したいです。

As far as I can tell both translate to - "I want to study at university". I'm just wondering if one sounds more 'natural' in Japanese than the other and indeed whether either structure is more approriate in different situations or not.


texts: Sentence structure. 学生は、工場で何を作っているときに、見学をしますか。

texts:
I'm currently doing some N4 sample papers to prepare myself for the exams and I came across this questions;

教室で先生が学生に話しています。学生は、工場で何を作っているときに、見学をしますか。

It's the second sentence which gets me. I pretty sure it means " What did the students do when visiting the factory" , but the placement of '何' before the use of the gerunds is stumping me a bit.
If I were to say this phrase, I would probably structure it as follows

"教室で先生が学生に話しています。学生は、工場で見学を作っているときに、何をしますか。"

Would this sentence make sense or am I missing something here?

Thanks in advance kind people!

よろしくお願いします！


texts:
東都大学の国際交流クラブでは、外国人と日本人が一緒に楽しめるような行事を企画したり紹介したりしている。

How should I translate this ような? The only possible translation to me is "in order that".. am I wrong?


texts: What is the difference between に基づいて and を基に?

texts:
このアイデアは君の話を基に考えたよ。

歴史的事実に基づいて作られた映画。


texts: As in title, what's the pattern of the pitch accent in the word すなわち, in the Tokyo (standard) pronunciation?


texts:
I understand a lot of Japanese is not spoken and implicated through context, but don't really understand the culture behind it. What are the implicated differences between は and が in the following examples?

食べ物がある？ // 食べ物はある？

or

トイレがある？ // トイレはある？

Is one more common, or more polite, or more usual, or offensive to say than the other?


texts:
Currently, the kanji used in registering names in Japan are restricted to those from the 常用漢字 and the 人名用漢字 lists. Since this is the case, why do some names include kanji not on the list like 澤 (for example 花澤香菜)? It's true that 澤 is the 旧字体 form of 沢, which has been on the 常用 list since its inception in 1981, but 澤 is not and does not seem to ever have been a valid name kanji. (Of course, 旧字体 on the 人名用 list like 彌 are allowed to be used in names, but 澤 is not one of those.)

This answer provides some clues, stating that all 旧字体 forms of official characters are permitted in names, so 澤 would be allowed. However, the responses to this question seem to imply that only 旧字体 that are included in the 常用 or 人名用 lists are permitted, so 澤 would not be allowed.

Therefore, why does 花澤香菜 have 澤 in her name? Is there a surname exception that allows 旧字体 to be used? Was there a law change between 1989 (her birth year) and the present that prevented the use of 旧字体? Was 澤 actually once included in the 人名用 list? Or is it something else entirely?


texts: I didn't find an explanation or clear etymology for the kanji 関.


texts: Is there a slang meaning to "ダニ~ナｱｱ..."?

texts:
"ダニ" said with a hard "ダ" and soft "ニ" is a bug.

But, isn't "ダニ" with a soft "ダ", hard "ニ", and trailing "ナｱｱｱ" a slang term? It means something like "he/she is a no good person who is inconsiderate of other's feelings", right?

  長い間、待ち合わせていたが...
  (私): "雅子さんに何度もすっぱかされて、連絡こなくって、ダニナｱｱｱ...."

  After waiting for a long time...
  (me): "So many times I am being stood-up by Masako, she doesn't even tell me she is not coming. What a lowlife....

Anyway, I just heard someone talking about the "ダニ" bug, and I've got this feeling there is a slang term thats sounds like it.


texts: What does 日曜日ぐらい mean in the following sentence?

texts:
日曜日ぐらいは家族とともに過ごしたい。

I have looked it up 2 dictionaries and a number of JLPT grammar exercise books but have not figured out what usage of ぐらい this is. Could somebody help and explain please?


texts: The meaning of 時点で and すりゃ in this sentence?

texts:
I'm reading a piece of fiction, and I come across this line:

  確かに面白くはねえだろうが、気付いた時点でリサさんに抗議すりゃいいだけの話だろうが

I'm having troubles understanding what the speaker is saying on two parts -

1) does 時点で refer to the present? So it would always be translated as "this moment in time" rather than "that moment" or "a moment in time". the fact that there is a verb in its past tense before it (気付いた) is confusing me, I'm questioning what moment in time the speaker is referring to, is it now? The past?

2) what does すりゃ mean? Could it be the same as それは?

My best guess at a translations is -

  It's certainly not interesting but I realized at this moment, that you protested against Risa San, that's all it is.


texts: Translating the idea of the verb "to mean"

texts:
Let's say I'm explaning the meaning of a word in my mother tongue to a Japanese.

'Pomme' means apple in French.

I have three possibilities of translating this.

ポムとは、フランス語でりんごっていう意味だ。
ポムとは、フランス語でりんごっていう意味がある。
ポムとは、フランス語でりんごっていう意味がする。

Are those sentence all correct, and what are the differences between them?


texts: Meaning of 小せェもんに縛られてる

texts:
Context: in a flashback, a Cuban boxer is thinking back to when he was in Cuba before seeking asylum (亡命) and migrating to America. He had just won a gold medal for his country in the Olympics.

  国のためとか…　小せェもんに縛られてるから底辺止まりなんだよ　凡人共が

My literal translation attempt is:

  For their country, ordinary people remain in the lower classes because
  they are bound by little things.

What is the meaning of 小せェもんに縛られてる? I understand the literal meaning, but what is he actually referring to? Is this some kind of metaphor I am not getting?

Thank you for your help!


texts: Which situation for using 併せる and 合わせる and 組み合わせる? What is difference between them?

texts: All of them are the same meaning, but I think in few situations, should only use one of them.


texts:
ADAMO, [Tombe la neige]

The song 「雪が降る」 by アダモ  goes -->  ♪♪   雪は降る あなたは来ない ... ♪♪

Is there a good explanation for the difference between the title and how the song begins?  --   雪が vs. 雪は ...
Are the following alternative words better or worse?

The song starting as -->  ♪♪   雪が降る あなたは来ない ... ♪♪

Related:  Use は or が with ある when the phrase doesn't explicit the place

One obvious relationship is this :

By applying naruto's excellent summary, the following explanation is possible.

「雪が ... 」 in the title introduces the subject (snow) for the 1st time  (e.g., "a boy"), and when it is mentioned the 2nd time, it should be "the snow"

雪は降る == The snow (that we are talking about) is falling. [thematic]

          There could be a new tag [ particle-がvs.は ]
                   -->   Thanks, oals, i just added it.


texts: Is there a non-katakana word for "cash flow"?

texts:
If you look up "cash flow" in most dictionaries, it seems the concept is expressed in katakana, キャッシュフロー.

However, I was speaking with a Japanese person earlier, and the term was not immediately understood. I ended up having to explain in a roundabout way that I was referring to my income and outflow of cash, and how it effected the amount I had available at one time.

Two questions:

Is キャッシュフロー not in common use by everyone?

In any case, is there a clearer native Japanese term I can use to express the same concept?


texts: Does saying "私は次男坊です" in self-intro sound humorous? why?

texts:
I had a list of items to mention during extended 自己紹介 (like during a lunch or 飲み会). With those whom I also hoped to have friendship-like connection with, I'd also mention "私は次男坊です。" This allowed me to talk about my siblings which I was happy to do. And, I think it made the native speaker smile or laugh a little.

"私は次男坊です。" said alone, in a self-intro conversation, sounds funny, right? why? Would "私は長男です。" sound pretentious?

Or, I could I remembering incorrectly. I also used "次男坊ですから、許してください。" as a way to be self-depricating. In Japanese culture, the 1st born son is king, the second born is trash, so I would (to be funny) excuse my failures to being born the second son (nothing I could control). Maybe they found that 卑下 funny, and there is nothing funny about simply saying "私は次男坊です". Or maybe my overall inability to speak Japanese funny. I hope you can help me remember.


texts:
結局の所問題なのは地面を覆っているアスファルトだ。

Why is there a なの here even though 問題 is a noun? Are there other nouns that can have also have it, is it only restricted for 問題, or it's possible for all nouns?

On the side note, what is the difference between 問題は and 問題なのは?


texts:
Is there a Japanese idiom equivalent to "take with a grain of salt"?

In other words, an idiom which means "don't accept this information as completely true or the complete truth".


texts: Some trucks are highly customized with flashy metal, horns, and lights, what are they called?

texts: I particularly notice the creativity with dump trucks and small pickups, customized interiors too. Thank you.


texts:
I speak Chinese as well as Japanese.  In Chinese, the etymology for 明天 and 明日 are the same in written Chinese and spoken Chinese.

This got me curious about the etymology in Japanese.  In written Japanese, 明日 is taken directly from Chinese.  But where does the spoken word『あした』and『あす』come from?


texts:
If you were counting pieces in chess, say, one, two, three pawns, how would you do that in Japanese? Would you use ほん hon, ぽん pon, ぼん bon 本?

I am not sure whether this makes a difference: by counting I mean rather the material value than the actual wooden piece. A better example would be perhaps 3 vs 2 pawns or counting pieces in computer or online chess.


texts:
The following sentence is marked as wrong:

  私は夜遅く帰る代わりに朝早く起きて勉強しています。

However, as I understand it, it can be translated as "On the one hand I come back home late, but on the other hand, I wake up early in the morning and study.". This sentence makes sense to me (despite coming back late, I still manage to wake up early and study).

Instead, the correct answer should be

  私は夜早く寝る代わりに朝早く起きて勉強しています

which to me means "Instead of sleeping early, I wake up early". This makes less sense to me. What am I getting completely wrong in the usage of 代わりに?


texts: Expressing the acceptance of defeat and helplessness

texts:
しょうがない (See: This blog post, and Wikipedia)

Like "Japanese people", I am often placed in situations where no matter how hard I try, I can't change the outcome/fate. The only thing I can do is accept it.

My favored response in such a situation in English is a dejected utterance of "oh well" and/or a half-hearted shrug. Other possible rhetorical verbal responses include "can't be helped I guess" and "too bad". Situations can include the minor (It just started raining! "Oh well") and major (a hundred African children just died today because of malnourishment. "Oh well")

I have collected the following possible expressions that may be Japanese counterparts of "oh well":

まあいいけど
仕方ないか (and its variants)
まあともかく
そうか...

Does anyone know the difference (if any) and correct usage? And any other ones?


texts: Does ''desu'' and ''desu ka'' go with ''kara''?

texts:
From what time ?

Should I say ''Nanji kara ?'' or ''Nanji kara desu ka ?''

From August.

Should I say ''Hachi gatsu kara desu.'' or ''Hatchi gatsu kara.''

My book gives it without the ''desu'' but I just feel it might be a bit abrupt.

I'm a beginner btw


texts: I'am currently reading a manga, there is this sentence "これでチャラにしとくよ". I don't really get it. Please translate, thank you


texts: Is there any difference between 学習する and 習う?


texts: What does the word 「おめっち」mean in this sentence?

texts:
It is said by one of supporter in a boxing match between Numata and Aoyama. The supporter said it after Numata had been down.

  しっかりしろい！　おめっちからかわれているんだぜ青山によ

I searched and found that おめっち means おまえたち (you guys) so I tried to translate like this:

"Pull yourself together (Numata)! Because of you guys, Aoyama has changed (a way to fight)"


texts: Kanji "stone"  contains (cliff 厂 + mouth 口).. my question is what is the idea of mixing mouth with cliff ... the cliff function here is clear because it's some thing related with stone.. but what is the mouth function?