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p1atdev

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japanese-stackexchange

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[ { "body": "You are on the right track about the missing verb. The missing verb can be して.\nBut you do not need to change the particle. Just add the missing verb:\n`兄さんをエサにして`. Using `と` here is unnatural. I think `として` can be used as \"as\nif\", implying that it is not actually it. In `兄さんをエサにして...を引っ張り出す`, the\nbrother is actually treated as bait, so `に` should be used. In `兄さんをエサとして扱う`\nor `兄さんをエサとみなす`, there is implication that the brother is not actually bait,\nso `と` is used.", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-05-30T18:04:41.213", "id": "5691", "last_activity_date": "2012-05-30T18:10:45.493", "last_edit_date": "2012-05-30T18:10:45.493", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5690", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "It seems like `して` is implied after the `に`. The robot ホムンクルス seems to be\nsaying that he'll make the guy (兄さん) like bait (`エサ`) and pull him along (and\nwon't let him die).", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-05-30T18:05:25.300", "id": "5692", "last_activity_date": "2012-05-30T18:05:25.300", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "78", "parent_id": "5690", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "`だと！？` at the end of a sentence, e.g.\n[`何だと！？`](http://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=%E4%BD%95%E3%81%A0%E3%81%A8&pg=1) \"say\nwhat!?\" can indicate shock or disbelief, e.g. \"you say there are three people\nthere!?\"\n\n**Edit:** The `だと` seems to have come from `だって`. According to Daijisen's\n[last\ndefinition](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E3%81%A0%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6&dtype=0&dname=0na&stype=0&index=11523000&pagenum=1):\n\n> ［終助］《係助詞「だって」の文末用法から》引用句に付く。相手の言葉に対して、非難・驚きの気持ちを込めて強調する意を表す。\n>\n> [final auxiliary] 《from the binding particle `だって`'s end-of-sentence rules\n> of use》 Attaches to a quotation. Indicates additional emphasis of criticism\n> or surprise in regards to the other person's speech/words.", "comment_count": 9, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-05-30T21:59:47.953", "id": "5695", "last_activity_date": "2012-05-31T03:27:13.677", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "796", "parent_id": "5693", "post_type": "answer", "score": 8 } ]

[ { "body": "(Aside: I did not know the word 音物.)\n\nOne of the meanings of the kanji\n[音](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E9%9F%B3&dtype=0&dname=0na&stype=1&pagenum=1&index=20832000)\nis “message,” that is, a piece of information sent from one person to another.\n音信 (as in 音信不通) and 福音 seem to be the most common examples of 音 with this\nmeaning. The reason 音物 (present; often refers to bribe) contains kanji 音\nbecause a present is something which is sent from one person to another.\n\nIt is the best to look up a 漢和辞典 (a dictionary which explains kanji letters in\nJapanese) for questions like this, but the Daijisen dictionary, which is\navailable online (linked above), contains entries for common kanji letters and\ncomes in handy here.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-05-30T23:12:11.793", "id": "5697", "last_activity_date": "2012-05-30T23:12:11.793", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "15", "parent_id": "5696", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Short answer: Both readings have the same meaning. Whether you consider かいしゅん\nas a valid reading of 買春 or not depends on what you count as “valid.”\n\nSome Sino-Japanese words have not only an _on_ reading which is shown in\ndictionaries as the primary reading but also an alternative reading which\navoids ambiguity with some other words. 買春 is such a word. According to\ndictionaries\n([Daijirin](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E8%B2%B7%E6%98%A5&dtype=0&dname=0ss&stype=1&pagenum=1&index=115469600000),\n[Daijisen](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E8%B2%B7%E6%98%A5&dtype=0&dname=0na&stype=1&index=14573700&pagenum=1)),\n買春 is primarily read as ばいしゅん, but it is often read as かいしゅん to avoid possible\nconfusion with 売春 because the context is not always enough to distinguish 買春\nand 売春. Here かい comes from the _kun_ reading of kanji 買. Whether it is read as\nばいしゅん or かいしゅん, the meaning of the word 買春 does not change.\n\n[Daijisen](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E8%B2%B7%E6%98%A5&dtype=0&dname=0na&stype=1&index=02800650&pagenum=1)\nlists かいしゅん as an alternative reading of 買春. Daijirin does not. (I suspect\neither the word 買春 itself is new or it became common recently, and that the\nneed for the alternative reading arose recently; but I do not have any source\nto back up this speculation.)\n\nOther examples of alternative readings like this are 市立 and 私立. The primary\nreadings of both words are しりつ, but particularly when talking about schools,\nしりつがっこう can mean both 市立学校 (school operated by a city) and 私立学校 (school\noperated privately), and this is extremely confusing. Therefore, 市立 is often\nread as いちりつ and 私立 is often read as わたくしりつ.\n\nReturning to your question, whether かいしゅん is a valid reading of 買春 or not\ndepends on how you define the word “valid.” It is common, and there is a\nreason for this reading. My personal impression is that reading the word 買春 as\nかいしゅん is much more common than reading it as ばいしゅん; at least, I have never\nheard 買春 read as ばいしゅん. I think that these are the reasons why you were told\nthat it is read as かいしゅん. However, not every dictionary lists it as a reading\nof 買春.", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-05-31T00:31:25.907", "id": "5699", "last_activity_date": "2012-09-23T00:43:15.343", "last_edit_date": "2012-09-23T00:43:15.343", "last_editor_user_id": "15", "owner_user_id": "15", "parent_id": "5698", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "Yes, it can be broken down into multiple parts like\n[sawa](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/5701/can-the-\nword-%E3%81%BE%E3%81%A0%E3%81%97%E3%82%82-be-broken-up-into-distinct-\nmeanings#comment14397_5701) explains.\n\nTogether しも intensifies the meaning of the word it is attached to (強意を表す) and\ncomes from classical Japanese ([古典]{こてん})\n([reference](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch/0/0ss/108805600000/)).\n\nHere are some examples of しも in use (however, in modern Japanese, only these\nset phrases are used):\n\n> 誰 **しも** 悪役を演じなければいけない時がある。\n>\n> 希望は無きに **しも** あらずだ。\n>\n> 必ず **しも** そうとはいえない。\n>\n> 初桜折り **しも** 今日は良き日なり", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-01T01:01:25.763", "id": "5716", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-01T01:01:25.763", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "1217", "parent_id": "5701", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "I thought `算数` was just arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication,\ndivision) and `数学` was the whole scope of mathematics.\n\nAccording to this dictionary definition, arithmetic is \"the branch of\nmathematics dealing with the properties and manipulation of numbers.\" But we\nall know that math is way more than just numbers. And the definition says it\nright there: the **branch** of mathematics. So `算数` would have to be a (likely\nsmall) subset of all `数学`.", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-05-31T15:04:52.147", "id": "5708", "last_activity_date": "2012-05-31T15:04:52.147", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "78", "parent_id": "5702", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 }, { "body": "To preface, I think that this question involves something more than just the\nstructure of mathematics in Japan. It might be related to how mathematics are\norganized generally.\n\nThe two fields should be characterized for clarification:\n\n> 算数 can be characterized by: 現実的、日常的、具体的.\n>\n> 数学 can be characterized by: 空想的、非日常的、抽象的.\n\nIf 算数 refers to the branch of mathematics taught in elementary school which is\narithmetic, then that should be referred to specifically as \"elementary\narithmetic\". This is a subset of number theory, but with more constraints.\n\n算数 allows for only the operations add, subtract, multiply, and divide\n(足す引く掛け割る) which are specific algorithms. 算数 also usually imposes the\nconstraint of using only natural numbers with a standard log scale.\nConsidering this, the operations in 算数 traditionally allow for memorized\nexpected results with possible aid of tools (such as multiplication tables).\n\nWhen being taught 算数, the goal or purpose in mind is accuracy (正確性). Whether\nor not an individual is able to use the given numbers and operations\nappropriately is what defines this field.\n\nHowever, 数学 deals with the process of arriving to a mathematical answer\n(論理の正確性). It is irrelevant whether the numerical accuracy is correct or not\nbecause that is not the goal of what is being taught. (I'm not sure for Japan,\nbut in America teachers give points only whether the logical thought process\nwas correct in solving the problem regardless of the arithmetic)\n\nAs for why these two are treated like two independent fields, I would make a\nguess that in the daily use of arithmetic (日常的) such a strong emphasis is\nplaced on whether the numerical operations are handled correctly. If you are a\ncashier, your thought process regarding theories of mathematics are irrelevant\ncompared to whether you can perform basic operations with accuracy.\n\nFor this reason, 算数 (which I would refer to as elementary arithmetic) seems to\nbe a separate taught field due to the intended goals in mind.\n\nEDIT: It might be useful to note that while arithmetic can be a field of\nstudy, \"the practical use of elementary arithmetic\" probably does not have\nenough merit to be a field of study. It has also been stated that elementary\narithmetic is a \"calculation / computational discipline\"\n\nEDIT2: I'm not sure, but I found the term 暗算 (doing calculations mentally)\nwhen reading about abacus' or 算盤. I'm not certain, but if 算盤 was used in\nelementary school, it would allude to doing 暗算 being the focus of the course.\n\nEDIT3: If 算数 as a course includes geometrical aspects (幾何学), then the a\nsimilar distinction can be made with analytical geometry (解析幾何学).", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-05-31T16:46:07.450", "id": "5712", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-01T15:07:26.860", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "1328", "parent_id": "5702", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "敬語[けいご/keigo] has three different forms: \"丁寧語[ていねいご/the polite\nform]・尊敬語[そんけいご/the honorific form]・謙譲語[けんじょうご/the humble form]\". 言う is the\ndictionary form. 言います is the polite form (丁寧語). 申す(usually used to say [EDIT:]\n\"Someone in the speaker's in-group says\") is the humble form (謙譲語) and 申します is\nthe polite form of 申す. おっしゃる(used to say [EDIT:] \"Someone to whom the speaker\nhas to show his respect says\") is the honorific form (尊敬語) and おっしゃいます is the\npolite form of おっしゃる. By the way, I've never heard うち・よそ used as grammatical\nterms...", "comment_count": 11, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-05-31T06:37:09.830", "id": "5704", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-02T17:05:54.367", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-02T17:05:54.367", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5703", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I'm not sure what part you're stuck on, and we can give more relevant answers\nmost of the time if we know the context, but here we go:\n\n`している` is the present-continuous short form of the verb `する` (to do).\n\nThe `〜たり` suffix indicates an incomplete list of one or more actions (more on\nthat [here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/5681/1272)), for example\n\n> 新聞を読んだり、コーヒーを飲んだりする \n> Read a newspaper, drink coffee, and so on. (or) \n> Do such things as read a newspaper and drink coffee.\n\nSo the best translation I can give without the context here is:\n\n> 〜していたりして \n> Doing such things as ~\n\nAs for why the final `する` is in て-form, that would be easier to answer if we\ncould see the full sentence.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-05-31T09:53:00.417", "id": "5706", "last_activity_date": "2012-05-31T11:22:16.953", "last_edit_date": "2017-04-13T12:43:48.447", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "1272", "parent_id": "5705", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "たりして is used to posit some event as a possibility but something you are not\nsure about. For example, about the future:\n\n> 10年後に大金持ちになっていたりして。\n\nFrom the nature of this expression meaning \"not being sure\", it is also used\nas a hedge when you want to be modest and a bit comical:\n\n> ひょっとして、さっきのことでまだ怒ってたりして。", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-05-31T11:30:23.573", "id": "5707", "last_activity_date": "2012-05-31T11:30:23.573", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5705", "post_type": "answer", "score": 15 } ]

[ { "body": "問う has a hidden sound \"w\" at the end of the verb stem, which does not arise at\nthe surface in nonpast forms due to a phonological rule that deletes \"w\" in\nfront of vowels other than \"a\". 買う is another such verb:\n\n> tow-u → tou \n> kaw-u → kau\n\nSo for the te-form, you would expect gemination, which happens with other\nverbs ending in \"w\". However, as written in the wikipedia link that con5013d\ncites, This verb is irregular, and the form `toute (← towute)` is used.\n\n> kaw-te → katte \n> * tow-te → totte", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-05-31T16:55:50.013", "id": "5713", "last_activity_date": "2012-05-31T16:55:50.013", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5709", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 }, { "body": "While 「問って」 may seem the logical conjugation, 「問う」 is actually irregular (see\nthe [Wikipedia entry for\n不規則動詞](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8D%E8%A6%8F%E5%89%87%E5%8B%95%E8%A9%9E)).\nAccording to [this article](http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~qm4h-iim/ktb019.htm),\n「問って」 is \"almost never used\". It appears therefore that 「問うて」 is correct in\nmodern Japanese.\n\nIn case you are wondering why, the author of the latter article hypothesizes\nthat this irregular conjugation makes the dictionary form of this verb more\nobvious when using its te-form in speech (as well as others, such as 「乞う」).\n\nOne contributing factor is that the pronunciation of the dictionary form (問う)\ncan be thought of as one long vowel syllable (トー), so conjugating it as 「問って」\n(トッテ) would result in the modification of that identifying first syllable.\n\nOf course, this reason alone would not normally be sufficient justification\nfor this irregularity. The author adds that due to frequent substitution of\n「問う」 with 「頼む」 in modern Japanese, 「問う」 is now less common and thus requires\nextra disambiguation when used in the te-form.", "comment_count": 7, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-05-31T18:23:12.730", "id": "5714", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-01T17:22:34.390", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-01T17:22:34.390", "last_editor_user_id": "937", "owner_user_id": "937", "parent_id": "5709", "post_type": "answer", "score": 14 } ]

[ { "body": "In short, -raka and -yaka are compound of -ra + -ka and -ya + -ka,\nrespectively. -ra, -ya, and -ka are all derivational suffixes that add a\nstative sense.\n\n-ya is rather rare. In the Old Japanese corpus, I can only find three words: nikoya, nagoya, and fuwaya. This suggests that suffix was of only limited productivity then and explains why it was soon supplemented by -ka resulting in -yaka.\n\n-ra attaches to adjective stems, nominals, and sounds. Ex: akara, mahora, simira, utura. During Old Japanese, more productive than -ya, but that declined as time when on. This too was supplemented by -ka resulting in -raka.\n\n-ka Derivatives are often adverbial or the stem of 形容動詞. Ex: isasaka, oroka, sayaka, sizuka, niwaka, honoka. This same -ka is often attached to -ya and -ra.\n\nAlso note that there are two other related suffixes: -sa and -ma.\n\n-ma: Attaches to adjectival stems, nominals, the irrealis form of verbs, negative -zu etc. awazuma ni, kaerama ni, kotosima, sakasima, futuma ni, yokosima.\n\n-sa: Attaches to adjectival stems creating nouns. Still productive. Rarely also attaches to nouns as well: tatasa, yokosa. Also joins with -ma to create -sama, which suggests an intriguing etymology for 様 (sama).", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-02T01:44:29.060", "id": "5720", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-02T04:30:41.603", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-02T04:30:41.603", "last_editor_user_id": "1141", "owner_user_id": "1141", "parent_id": "5717", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "We normally say [三十分]{さんじゅっぷん}. \nSome people say [半時間]{はんじかん}, but I think it's only used in Kansai area. \n \n参考に・・→ [OKWave「半時間って方言ですか」](http://okwave.jp/qa/q308061.html) \n \nP.S. \nI'm from Kyoto but actually I've never noticed any of my friends say 半時間...\nMost of them are in/from Kyoto, Osaka, or Shiga. I think it's more used by\nolder people (probably in Osaka?), because the only two people I can remember\nthat use 半時間 regularly are from Osaka, living in Osaka and over 70 years old.", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-02T05:25:26.163", "id": "5722", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-16T10:51:32.493", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-16T10:51:32.493", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5719", "post_type": "answer", "score": 21 } ]

[ { "body": "様 is more respectful than 殿. The reason Ammy gets it wrong is because 殿 _used\nto be_ more respectful in the past, but it has changed overtime and 様 has\nbecome more respectful. Nowadays, 殿 is used as a fixed expression in some\ncircles. Many companies use it in their e-mails when referring to a coworker,\nbut I would use 様 instead if I were referring to someone in a different\ncompany. However, it may still be tradition at some companies to use 殿 all the\ntime, but always use 様 instead if you are not sure.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-02T21:04:46.703", "id": "5725", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-02T21:04:46.703", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1217", "parent_id": "5723", "post_type": "answer", "score": 8 }, { "body": "I think Jesse's answer is basically right, but I thought it worth offering a\nslightly different perspective, just for more dimension.\n\nI think Jesse is correct that `殿{どの}` used to be more decidedly respectful\nthan it is now. It used to represent a specific place in the social hierarchy.\nHowever, it's not so much that `様{さま}` has overtaken it, just that `殿` has\nbeen regulated to very specific situations. Formal letter writing, certain\nbusiness interactions, and so on.\n\nSo it's not the case that you would meet someone on the street and opt to use\n`殿` to convey you respected them less than `様` but more than `さん`.\n\nWith that in mind, one could argue that it's not necessarily less respectful\nthan `様`, just different, regulated to being prescribed in specific ritualized\nsituations.\n\nI think `殿` is somewhat archaic, and given that you can, as I mostly have, go\nyears without having to use `殿`, I would suspect it might be slowly getting\nphased out.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-03T03:28:52.060", "id": "5730", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-03T03:28:52.060", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "119", "parent_id": "5723", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "I agree with Sawa's comment, saying that consistency would require \"先勝は午後が.\"\nNow, assuming that:\n\n# On は\n\n * We're talking about three things that we introduce: A, B, and C. It's thus normal to enumerate them using \"は\":\n\n> Aは…です。Bは…です。Cは…です。\n>\nWhen you group everything in one sentence, you get Aは…で、Bは…で、Cは…です。\n\nwhich is basically the structure of your sentence, except that you have\n\"され(ています)\" instead of \"で(す)\".\n\n# On が\n\nWithout even thinking, just learn the patterns AはBが良い and AはBが良くない, meaning \"B\nis good/bad for A\". We have three of them here; for example: \"The afternoon\nisn't good for the `early winners''\" (`early winners'' being whatever\ntranslation you use for 先勝).\n\nThis pattern is exactly like \"AはBが好きです\" or \"AはBがありません\"。\n\n# On passive\n\nThe person doing the action in passive voice is indeed given by に. However,\nthis actor can be implicit, as is the case now. The sentences are of the form:\n\n> (it is understood that) afternoon is bad for early winners\n\nwhere the subject of する is undefined, to make the statement generic, à la \"it\nis said that.\" I don't believe that it is the moment of the day that _causes_\nbad luck, it is just when bad luck strikes. Passive is just commenting how the\nthree groups are classified (by you, me, or anything else, which is not\nexplicit.)", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-07-10T06:16:21.270", "id": "6086", "last_activity_date": "2012-07-19T22:48:58.950", "last_edit_date": "2012-07-19T22:48:58.950", "last_editor_user_id": "15", "owner_user_id": "356", "parent_id": "5724", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 }, { "body": "(I know I shouldn't post my answer this late)\n\nIf there are not any previous contexts, it's because the speaker is feeling\nthat 良くない is more difficult to associate (hence more important) with the\ncontext (先勝は…日で) than 午後, and 良い is easier (hence less important) to associate\nwith the context (先勝は…先負は…日で) than 午後.\n\nActually I guess there's a previous context that refers to a day when good\nfortune continues all the day or vice versa. That's why it adopts は in the\nfirst clause, to express contrast.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2014-08-31T04:01:21.023", "id": "18501", "last_activity_date": "2014-08-31T04:01:21.023", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "4092", "parent_id": "5724", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 } ]

[ { "body": "Although the English verbs can admittedly be confusing, you are correct that\nthey are \"borrow\" and \"lend\" respectively.\n\nSo in the case of borrowing an item, `借りる` (borrow) is the verb describing the\ntemporary receiving of the item, and `貸す` (lend) describes the temporary\ngiving.\n\nWhen asking to borrow something either of these are acceptable:\n\n> 借りてもいいですか？ (Can I borrow it?) \n> 貸してもらえますか？ (Will you lend it to me?)", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-03T01:13:34.217", "id": "5728", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-03T01:19:30.917", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-03T01:19:30.917", "last_editor_user_id": "1272", "owner_user_id": "1272", "parent_id": "5727", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "Answer 3 given to [this question](http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/3934058.html)\nseems interesting. You might want to take a look at the original: 久野すすむ (1983)\n新日本文法研究.\n\n[The original Q and A site](http://nihon5ch.net/contents/bbs-study/old/mie-\nbbs.cgi?s=36) (link provided by Tsuyoshi Ito. Switch to EUC-JP to display it\ncorrectly.)", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-04T02:54:52.500", "id": "5737", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-04T05:04:39.997", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-04T05:04:39.997", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5729", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "An English translation of [the link provided by Tsuyoshi\nIto](http://nihon5ch.net/contents/bbs-study/old/mie-bbs.cgi?s=36):\n\n* * *\n\n## Preface:\n\nIt is common knowledge that the verb 知る is an exceptional verb amongst verbs\nthat take the ～ている form. ～ている is appended to the subject-changing verb and\nexpresses the state after the change; its corresponding negated form is\nexpressed as ～ていない.\n\nBut contrary to expectations, the negated form of 知っている is often not 知っていない\nand is 知らない instead. To the best of my knowledge, I think there are few people\nwho have come up with a theory and explained why this is.\n\nOne of these is 『新日本文法研究』 by Susumu Kuno.\n\nBut here, an analysis is done on the type of circumstances that 知っていない is used\nin by taking 知らない as a basis. So, the explanation is insufficient to deal with\nwhy 知る basically yields 知らない.\n\nIt's just that when 知らない and 知っていない are described and sorted out in terms of\nsyntactic and semantic factors, then there will be clues to solving the\nproblem of which form it appears in.\n\n* * *\n\n## 知る's Verb Group:\n\nFirstly, before considering the issue there are things that we must first\nconfirm. And that is the issue of where 知る lies amongst the many other verbs.\n\nNormally the following are used to show the resultant state of a\nmovement/action:\n\n(1) Intransitive verb + ている \n(2) Transitive verb + てある\n\nThere are 2 points here that we should be cautious about. First, not every\nverb appended with ている expresses a state. That is to say, 歩く is an\nintransitive verb but 歩いている expresses a progressive action.\n\nWe think of the verb that ている is appended to, and expressing a state, as an\ninstance of a subject-changing verb, as opposed to the case of 歩く which is a\ntraversal verb.\n\nIn cases where a transitive and intransitive verb pair exists, it is usually\nthe intransitive verb that takes the role of the subject-changing verb.\n\nThen it seems that the problem is not with the case of Verb+てある expressing a\nstate. But when considering the verb 着る we realise that it is a case that that\nparticular reasoning is not applied; although there are transitive verbs used\n- `～ヲ着る`, there are also cases for which state is expressed when ている is\nappended - `～ヲ着ている`. (ヲ instead of を to emphasise that it's a direct object\nand transitive verb).\n\nWe see that while there are traversal verbs in the class of transitive verbs\nwe also have to think of transitive verbs as including a special group of\nverbs that expresses change in the subject. Within the object-taking particle\nヲ, its verb's meaning has a traversal aspect. And, behaving in the same manner\nas 着る, it also possesses a subject-changing aspect because it changes its own\nstate as well.\n\nAnd because it possesses that subject-changing aspect, it can also express a\nstate with ている appended similar to (1) and can also express progressive action\nsimilar to (2).\n\nE.g., \n\n> 「今日は赤いセーターを着ている」(Resultant state) \n> 「今、急いでセーターを着ている」(Progressive action)\n\nThat being the case, although the verb 知る is transitively used in the manner\nof ～ヲ知る, it can be said to be in the same verb group as 着る because it yields\nthe form 知っている.\n\nWe think of the verb 知る possessing a subject-changing aspect of the transition\nfrom a state of \"not having knowledge/information\" to one of \"having\nknowledge/information\". Other than 知る, we have 覚える, 持つ, along with other verbs\nrelated to acquisition. And because we can consider them in the same way as we\nconsidered 着る, they are of the same group.\n\n* * *\n\n## 知る's Eccentricity:\n\nOnce done with categorising 知る, upon considering the ～ている form we see that we\nunderstand that the form ～ていない can be used for each of the ～ている forms of the\nsimilar verbs (覚える, 持つ, etc.) given above. Even though 知る exists in the\nspecial \"traversal cum subject-changing\" verb group, it is the only one for\nwhich the ～ていない form cannot be usually used. Then why is it that only 知る\nbehaves in such an exceptional manner?\n\nRegarding this fact, I think it is appropriate to think that it is due to the\n\"semantic features\" of the verb 知る and the image(= the way we perceive) that\nwe have of 知る.\n\n* * *\n\n## Why it is that 知らない is a basic form:\n\n**[1.] 知る's Semantic Feature & Diagrammatic Visualisation**\n\nRegard the displayed mental activity as the filling in of information when\nvisualising the verb 知る:\n\n\n\nFor the illustration to show it, the verb 知る here is transitive. The mental\nactivity is the filling in of information(denoted by ◯). So the sequence of\nevents are as such:\n\n(X) 知る: Filling in of information \n(Y) 知った: Information has been filled \n(Z) 知っている: What's left as a result(of X and Y)\n\n**[2.] 知らない's Semantic Feature and Diagrammatic Visualisation**\n\nBy comparing the visualisation of 知らない with the above diagram, we can think of\ntwo cases represented as ア and イ as follows:\n\n\n\nI'll start by concluding that: \n\\- The situation as in ア represents the scenario of 知っていない. \n\\- The situation as in イ represents the scenario of 知らない. \n\nFor subject-changing verbs, normally ア is connected with イ to have ～ていない\nexpressed. But for 知る, it seems that the portion connecting ア with イ (denoted\nby =>) has been detached and individually dealt with instead.\n\nSo what does this mean? We will see what happens when we compare and consider\n来る. \nUsing 知る's diagram, take people to be information and rooms as minds:\n\n\n\nSuppose a friend enters a room you are in and asks:\n\n(3) 「山田君、来ている？」 \nAs an answer to (3), we can consider these two: \n(4A)「うんん、来ていないよ」 \n(4B)「うんん、いないよ」 \n\nWhat's important here is that response (4B) has two sides. One perspective is\nthat by saying ここにいない, it means 来ていない. While it states the state of (イ), it\ndoes so by taking the situation of (ア) as a premise.\n\nAnother perspective is that we _can_ say 山田 is \"いない\" even though we do not\nknow the state of 山田's coming(if he will/has come) simply because we were\npresent right from the beginning. That is to say that (4B) does not negate 来た;\nwhich as a result means ここにいる. In fact, (4B) negates \"existence\". As for what\nit means to negate \"existence\", to put it in another way is to say that this\nroom's \"property\" is that of \"a place of which 山田 is non-existent\".\n\nIt _is_ a strange way to put it but the point is that it is not the aspect of\na ～た→～ている transition.\n\n* * *\n\n## Epexegesis:\n\n(Pending translation...)\n\n* * *", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-06T09:14:28.407", "id": "5750", "last_activity_date": "2012-09-18T15:35:47.157", "last_edit_date": "2012-09-18T15:35:47.157", "last_editor_user_id": "542", "owner_user_id": "542", "parent_id": "5729", "post_type": "answer", "score": 25 } ]

[ { "body": "I am a student of (roughly intermediate) Mandarin Chinese, so not the proper\nChinese speaker you're looking for, but I might just know enough of the\noriginal vocab here to offer an opinion.\n\nWith the aid of the English translation you gave, I was able to guess\n(although not confidently enough to post at the time) something like\n`一個鍋貼...飯一鍋貼...二拿` before you updated the question with the origin, but it\nwasn't easy and I wouldn't have understood if I'd just heard it spoken in real\nlife. The `兒` in `鍋貼兒` that presumably led to `コーテル` instead of `コーティエ` was\nconfusing for me as I studied in Taiwan where `兒` (giving an \"er\" sound) is\ncommonly omitted in cases like this.\n\nI'm baffled in particular by the pronunciation of `回` and `焼`. I guess \"hui\"\nisn't easy to convert to the Japanese syllabary, but my `電子辞書` at least gives\n`ホイ` as a guide, which seems slightly clearer.\n\nOther things that stood out were `個 -> ガー`, where `ガ` would seem more\nappropriate given the tonelessness of the character, and `鍋貼兒 -> コーテル`, where\na better conversion might be `グオーティアル`. The numbers `イー` and `リャン` were by far\nthe most recognisable.\n\nSo incomprehensible? When spoken in real life, probably. When written down,\nmaybe just about decipherable for someone with a working knowledge of Chinese\n**and** the Japanese syllabary and a lot of patience. Stupid/funny? I have no\nidea.\n\nIn terms of learning them, I wonder if it might be similar to the way I learn\nJapanese borrowed words from European languages other than English, which by\ntheir nature tend to sound similar to the English equivalent. For me this\nmakes them easier to identify when reading or listening, but almost as hard as\nany other word to remember the correct spelling and pronunciation (for example\nmy recent misspelling of `コーヒー` which you corrected for me).\n\n_Apologies for any mistakes I may have made, particularly related to the\nChinese language. Please correct them if you see them!_", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-05T12:58:27.957", "id": "5744", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-05T14:22:05.263", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-05T14:22:05.263", "last_editor_user_id": "1272", "owner_user_id": "1272", "parent_id": "5731", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "For tomatoes, there is プチトマト as opposed to ordinary トマト. For corns, there is\nベビーコーン as opposed to とうもろこし. For cabbages, there is ミニキャベツ as opposed to キャベツ.\nSince the counterpart for watermelon is not popular in Japan (as well as in\nmost countries), there is no word for personal watermelons that you mention.\nIt you want to create a new word, you might want to try these that are along\nthe same line: ミニ西瓜, プチ西瓜, ベビー西瓜.", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-07-18T00:51:25.153", "id": "6167", "last_activity_date": "2012-07-18T00:51:25.153", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5732", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "It's pronounced `やちん`, and written `家賃` if using all kanji. It means\n\"[rent](http://jisho.org/words?jap=yachin&eng=&dict=edict)\", as in \"the rent\nfor this place is expensive\".", "comment_count": 7, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-03T15:30:11.613", "id": "5735", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-03T15:30:11.613", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1272", "parent_id": "5734", "post_type": "answer", "score": 11 }, { "body": "This is a continuation of my comment on the question, but it became too long\nfor a comment, so I am posting it as an answer.\n\nAs you correctly guessed, this word is usually written in kanji. Writing 家ちん\ninstead of 家賃 is an instance of [交]{ま}ぜ[書]{が}き: writing a word partly in kanji\nletters and partly in kana letters because there is a factor which prevents\nthe use of certain kanji letters. 交ぜ書き occurs even in text not specifically\nwritten for learners of Japanese. For example, the word [斡旋]{あっせん}\n(recommendation of a person to a job or a job to a person, matching of\nemployers to employees) is often written as あっ旋 because kanji 斡 is not a [joyo\nkanji](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanji).\n\nAs you experienced, it is sometimes difficult to read a word written in 交ぜ書き.\nAlthough 交ぜ書き is usually used to allow intended readers to read the text more\neasily, it is debatable whether it actually accomplishes its purpose, and some\npeople (including me) prefer to avoid 交ぜ書き and write whole words in kanji\nletters and add ruby to difficult letters instead. There are discussions about\n交ぜ書き available on the web, including the one in a [report by the Japanese\nLanguage Council in November\n1995](http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/hakusho/nc/t19951101001/t19951101001.html).", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-05T22:35:48.703", "id": "5748", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-05T22:35:48.703", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "15", "parent_id": "5734", "post_type": "answer", "score": 8 } ]

[ { "body": "…ようか…まいか and …ようが…まいが have different meanings. The fact that they have the\nsame English translation “whether … or not” is a coincidence.\n\nThe English expression “whether … or not” has two different usages: (1) as a\nnoun clause, and (2) as an adverbial clause. For example:\n\n(1) I wonder _whether_ I will write to her _or not_. \n(2) I will go to New York tomorrow _whether_ it rains _or not_. (= I will go\nto New York tomorrow _no matter whether_ it rains _or not_.)\n\n…ようか…まいか means (1), whereas …ようが…まいが means (2). Therefore, possible\ntranslations of the two sentences above are:\n\n(1) 彼女に手紙を書こうか書くまいか迷う。 \n(2) 明日、雨が降ろうが降るまいがニューヨークに行く。\n\n(But I think that in (1), …ようか…まいか puts a heavy emphasis on the “whether … or\nnot” part. A usual way to say (1) without this emphasis is 彼女に手紙を書くかどうか迷う.)", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-05T23:11:30.127", "id": "5749", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-06T00:24:38.710", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-06T00:24:38.710", "last_editor_user_id": "15", "owner_user_id": "15", "parent_id": "5736", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "As far as I can tell, \"MySpyPhone\" as it stands would be understandable for\nmost Japanese-speakers, because\n\n * \"my\" is \"general knowledge\" through school education or elsewhere, \n * \"[spy](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%91%E3%82%A4)\" is used as a borrowed word, and \n * \"phone\" is part of iPhone and other such famous brands.\n\nA katakana transliteration like マイスパイフォン may also be an option, and may\nincrease the likelihood of \"spy\" in particular being understood.\n\nUnrelated to the language issue here, but as Chocolate said there are laws in\nJapan about photography from mobile devices, so you may want to check up on\nthat if you plan on selling an app that will, for example, remove the shutter\nsound.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-04T10:02:51.527", "id": "5741", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-05T14:19:39.383", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-05T14:19:39.383", "last_editor_user_id": "1272", "owner_user_id": "1272", "parent_id": "5738", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "I do not think that this is an exhaustive list, but this is what I've managed\nto find so far. (I shall use \"H\" to denote \"Honorific\" and \"h\" to denote\n\"humble\"):\n\n * する \n\n * なさる (H)\n * 致す (h)\n * 行く \n\n * いらっしゃる/おいでになる (H) \n * 参る (h)\n * 来る \n\n * いらっしゃる/おいでになる (H)\n * 参る (h)\n * いる \n\n * いらっしゃる/おいでになる (H)\n * おる (h)\n * 見る\n\n * ご覧になる (H)\n * 拝見する (h)\n * 聞く\n\n * 伺う (h)\n * 言う\n\n * おっしゃる (H) \n * 申す/申し上げる (h)\n * あげる\n\n * 差し上げる (h)\n * くれる\n\n * 下さる (H)\n * もらう \n\n * いただく (h)\n * 食べる\n\n * 召し上がる (H) \n * いただく (h)\n * 知っている \n\n * ご存知です (H)\n * 存じる (h)\n * 会社\n\n * 弊社 (h)\n\n* * *\n\nAlso related is the [difference in addressing members of one's family as\ncompared to members of another's\nfamily](http://japanese.about.com/bl_family.htm).\n\nTo summarise from the site in the link above, generally さん is used to address\nanother's family except for \"irregular\" terms (cannot be obtained by adding or\nremoving さん from the analogous term):\n\n * Own's family\n\n * Father: 父 (ちち)\n * Mother: 母 (はは)\n * Elder Brother: 兄 (あに)\n * Elder Sister: 姉 (あね)\n * Grandfather: 祖父 (そふ)\n * Grandmother: 祖母 (そぼ)\n * Husband: 夫 (おっと)\n * Wife: 妻 (つま)\n * Other's family\n\n * Husband: ご主人 (ごしゅじん)\n * Wife: 奥さん (おくさん)\n * Daughter: お嬢さん (おじょうさん)", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-08-10T16:36:37.207", "id": "6461", "last_activity_date": "2012-08-10T16:36:37.207", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "542", "parent_id": "5739", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "視点 is literally \"visual point of view\" or \"perspective\". It is often\nmetaphorically used as \"conceptual point of view\" just like the English word\nperspective, but sometimes, the metaphor will sound awkward. 観点 is literally\n\"conceptual point of view\" and cannot be used to mean \"visual point of view\".", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-04T14:31:38.503", "id": "5742", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-04T14:31:38.503", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5740", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I will add my two cents, based on the two top answers in [this\n教えて！](http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/539605.html). Thanks to silvermaple for the\nencouragement.\n\nIt appears that one's 視点 is a direct point of view (visual _or_ conceptual, as\nsawa noted) on a phenomenon. One's 観点, on the other hand, is comprised of\nunderlying assumptions, ways of thinking, and experience considering\n_multiple_ viewpoints.\n\nFor example, [the first answer](http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/539605.html#a6)\nexplains that changing one's 視点 might involve **changing the angle or\nperspective** from which one views or thinks about the phenomenon. Changing\none's 観点, on the other hand, should involve a **change in the underlying\nassumptions or way of thinking** about an issue or object.\n\n[The second answer](http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/539605.html#a6) offers a\nsimpler, yet easier to remember, explanation. It draws attention to the\ncomposition of 観 and 視. While 視 is a combination of 示 (show) and 見 (see), 観\ncomes from 鸛{こうのとり} (stork) and 見. 視 therefore suggests gazing a particular\ndirection from a particular standpoint, while the stork in 観 opens her eyes\nand looks around, examining her environment from multiple angles.\n\nPerhaps 観点 could be described as meta-視点.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-05T05:15:56.913", "id": "5743", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-05T05:15:56.913", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "937", "parent_id": "5740", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "Kanji can always be replaced with hiragana, for example\n\n * if the writer cannot recall the correct kanji, or\n * the intended reader is likely to have a limited knowledge of kanji (eg children), or\n * the kanji for the word is not in general use, or\n * pretty much any reason you want.\n\nThe use of katakana, however, is usually reserved for borrow words, emphasis\nand so on.\n\nSo writing using only hiragana is both valid and understandable, with the\ncaveat that in many cases doing so will make your writing very awkward\nreading, and can introduce ambiguity into your writing, for example in the\ncase of homophones (words that share the same pronunciation but generally\ndifferent kanji).\n\nCompare the following two ways of writing the same well-known sentence:\n\n> 庭には二羽鶏がいる \n> にわにはにわにわとりがいる\n\nI think all Japanese speakers would agree that the kanji version is much\neasier reading and much clearer than the hiragana-only version.\n\nWriting using only katakana will be more awkward to read because it is not\ngenerally expected for Japanese words to be written in katakana, and for the\nsame reason would probably be considered invalid, except in certain\ncircumstances like to put emphases on pronunciation. If you did decide to\nwrite this way for some reason, however, it would be just as understandable as\nwriting in only hiragana as the two characters sets have a one-to-one\nrelationship.", "comment_count": 9, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-05T20:48:35.963", "id": "5746", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-05T20:53:59.043", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-05T20:53:59.043", "last_editor_user_id": "1272", "owner_user_id": "1272", "parent_id": "5745", "post_type": "answer", "score": 17 }, { "body": "\"The Tale of Genji\", which is regarded as Japan's first novel, in all\nhiragana. Wikipedia mentions that modern day Japanese have difficulty\nunderstanding the book as sometimes there's two or more possible meanings for\nwhat's written, though.", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-05T21:23:25.500", "id": "5747", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-05T21:23:25.500", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "91", "parent_id": "5745", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Yes, all Kanji characters can be replaced by hiragana, by katakana, and by a\nmixture of them. However, as other answers show, two sentences with Kanji may\nmap to the same single sequence of hiragana or of katanaka. Such a sequence is\nunderstandable, but may be understood as multiple meanings.\n\nFor example, in old days (probably around early 20th century), Japanese\ntelegraphy messages were all written only with katakana, as far as I know from\nmovies. Even more, it seems to have been customary to omit the dots and\ncircles (゛,゜) and commas and periods (、,。) to save the number of characters. A\nfamous message is\n\n> ハハキトクスクカエレ\n\nwhich may be written with Kanji as\n\n> 母危篤。すぐ帰れ。\n\nwhich means \"Your mother is dying. Come home in a hurry.\" I think people did\nunderstand this kind of katakana-only messages. For more examples, please see\n[電報\nWikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9B%BB%E5%A0%B1#.E7.A4.BE.E4.BC.9A.E3.83.BB.E6.96.87.E5.8C.96.E3.81.B8.E3.81.AE.E5.BD.B1.E9.9F.BF).", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2016-07-23T02:40:21.690", "id": "36905", "last_activity_date": "2016-07-23T02:40:21.690", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "7266", "parent_id": "5745", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 }, { "body": "As a minor addendum to other answers, there is another problem with writing in\nkana only: reading speed.\n\nFor someone who has knowledge of the relevant kanji, reading the kanji version\nisn't just a way around homophones and ambiguity, it is actually faster.\n\nThe reading speed difference gets bigger as your reader's level goes up and\nthe more you stick to 'conventional' kanji assignments.\n\nI am not a native speaker, nor anywhere near, but I notice my reading speed\ndrop significantly in 'all kana' situations, probably by a factor of 2-5. That\nfactor has continued to increase with my literacy level, so I imagine a native\nspeaker would suffer quite a serious slow down.\n\nThis is consistent with some research that suggests fluent readers dont really\nread individual characters.. they recognize whole words or even phrases at a\ntime based on visual components that are distinctive combined with contextual\npredictions. If you use an unconventional spelling, eg all kana or unusual\nkanji, you change the visual form and the reader is less likely to 'shortcut'\nrecognition, perhaps causing a 'stumble' where they have to read more closely.\n(Intentionally causing such stumbles is a valid technique, and may partially\nexplain why kana are sometimes used for emphasis)\n\nYour readers will thank you if you make the effort to learn to write to the\nconventions they are used to.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2016-07-23T06:55:18.700", "id": "36917", "last_activity_date": "2016-07-23T06:55:18.700", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "14598", "parent_id": "5745", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "It is actually possible to write anything in Japanese using only Hiragana and\nKatakana which are the phonetic systems. Kanji are ideograms, so they do not\nrepresent specific sounds but ideas. In Latin languages, kanjis would be like\nthe root meanings of the words.\n\nLets see for example the following 2 words in English:\n\n * God\n\n * Theology\n\nIf we decompose this words into their roots it would be:\n\n * \"God\" means \"God\"\n\n * \"Theos\" also means \"God\" in the original Greek, and \"log\" means \"to speak\", which in turn [developed into the English suffix -logy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/-logy#:%7E:text=%2Dlogy%20is%20a%20suffix%20in,%2D%CE%BB%CE%BF%CE%B3%CE%AF%CE%B1%20\\(%2Dlogia\\).&text=The%20suffix%20has%20the%20sense,%5Ba%20certain%20subject%5D%22.) that means \"the study [of something in particular]\". Therefore, \"Theology\" means \"the study of God/Religion\".\n\nWell, with this example in mind, in Japanese they will use the same kanji to\nsay \"God\" and to say \"Theo\", because the kanji by itself represents the idea\nof \"God\". Depending on the context, the sound will change to fit the natural\nvariations of spoken language.\n\nThat's why when learning Japanese, it is important to learn first the phonetic\nsystems (Hiragana and Katakana) and after that climb to kanjis which are way\nmore complex.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2020-07-03T07:42:40.110", "id": "78380", "last_activity_date": "2020-07-07T14:44:32.980", "last_edit_date": "2020-07-07T14:44:32.980", "last_editor_user_id": "32952", "owner_user_id": "39551", "parent_id": "5745", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 } ]

[ { "body": "> I was wondering if this is just a literal translation of the English phrase?\n\nIf the [Wikipedia entry for \"bed of\nroses\"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_of_roses) was correct in stating that\nthis phrase was coined by the English dramatist Christopher Marlowe, I assume\nit would have had to originate from English. ~~If I am reading between the\nlines of your question correctly, I do not believe Murakami would have been\nthe first to do this translation due to the sheer frequency of the phrase (see\nmy next answer).~~ (See update below.)\n\n> would a typical native Japanese speaker know what it means, where it came\n> from, etc.?\n\nI cannot personally comment on this as a non-native speaker of Japanese.\n~~However, a[search for the exact phrase in\nGoogle](http://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E3%83%90%E3%83%A9%E3%81%AE%E5%AF%9D%E5%BA%8A%22)\nand [for\n薔薇{ばら}の寝床](http://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E8%96%94%E8%96%87%E3%81%AE%E5%AF%9D%E5%BA%8A%22)\nyield a combined total of 281k results, suggesting to me that the phrase\nappears frequently enough for everyday use.~~\n\n**Update:** The method used above to answer this question is _completely_\nunreliable! In reality, Google reports a combined total of only 145 hits for\nthese two searches. Unless I learn of another way to estimate the frequency\nthis phrase is used, I'm afraid I am unable to answer this question at my\ncurrent level of Japanese.\n\n> Also, while I'm asking, is this something that Murakami does often? I've\n> often read that Murakami writes \"American Japanese\" but I've never really\n> understood what is meant by that.\n\nMy suspicion is that \"American Japanese\" may refer more to his style, rather\nthan his use of specific words and phrases (though using phrases of foreign\norigin _may_ serve this stylistic purpose).\n\nFor example, in a [Publisher's Weekly\ninterview](http://gbctrans.com/eotw/pubweekly.html), Murakami stated:\n\n> _You have to know that the writing in Japan for Japanese people is in a\n> particular style, very stiff. If you are a Japanese novelist you have to\n> write that way. It's kind of a society, a small society, critics and\n> writers, called high literature. But I am different in my style, with a very\n> American atmosphere._\n\nHis description of Japanese literature as \"very stiff\" and written \"in a\nparticular style\" suggests to me that he is trying to describe American\nliterature (and his own writing) as, by contrast, more relaxed and less-\nconstrained stylistically. Again, it is possible that the use of translated\nphrases like \"bed of roses\" serves this purpose, but to say \"American\nJapanese\" does seem to describe something larger than simply word choice.", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-06T16:10:39.517", "id": "5752", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-06T18:35:51.130", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-06T18:35:51.130", "last_editor_user_id": "937", "owner_user_id": "937", "parent_id": "5751", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "> If this is just a literal use of the English phrase, would a typical native\n> Japanese speaker know what it means, where it came from, etc.?\n\nYes, it is a literal use of the English phrase. A typical native Japanese\nspeaker will not understand it unless they know the English phrase.\n\n> Also, while I'm asking, is this something that Murakami does often? I've\n> often read that Murakami writes \"American Japanese\" but I've never really\n> understood what is meant by that.\n\nI've read a couple of his books in Japanese, and I do feel that his Japanese\ncould be easily translated into English. The most important thing to\nunderstand is that Japanese and English are very different and it is quite\nuncommon to have a one to one correspondence between an English and Japanese\nexpression. However, probably due to being overseas for quite some time and\nalso because Murakami originally has always been interested in non-Japanese\nliterature, his writing style is very different from other Japanese writers.\nFor example, with respect to time, English tends to be very linear. However,\nin Japanese literature, time is not as important as the event itself. Also,\nthe expressions used to describe things are very different. If you really want\nto see some _insane_ Japanese literature, I recommend reading some works by\n[[三島由紀夫]{みしまゆきお}](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima).", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-07T03:14:42.893", "id": "5756", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-07T03:14:42.893", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1217", "parent_id": "5751", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "It is the name of a place in Ōsaka. See here:\n<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipponbashi> . Also note that there is a\nNihonbashi (日本橋) in Tōkyō.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-07T02:17:17.740", "id": "5754", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-07T02:17:17.740", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1141", "parent_id": "5753", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 }, { "body": "To add to Dono 's answer, it is important in this context that 日本橋 is one of\nthe famous electric districts. Japan has several electric districts, where you\ncan buy electronic parts and products. The largest is 秋葉原 in Tokyo, the next\nis 日本橋 in Osaka, the next is 大須 in Nagoya. There is also エジソンプラザ in 石川町,\nYokohama.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-07T02:35:59.960", "id": "5755", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-07T02:42:38.763", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-07T02:42:38.763", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5753", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "It is the `～て` form of `ほしがる` which means \"to want\".\n\n> ほしがってたゲーム → The game that I'd been wanting\n\nxref [this post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/3839/78).", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-07T03:48:47.623", "id": "5760", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-07T03:48:47.623", "last_edit_date": "2017-04-13T12:43:48.447", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "78", "parent_id": "5757", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "> hosigar-te i-ta (gemination)→ hosigatteita (contraction)→ hosigatteta \n> want-gerund progressive-past", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-07T03:50:32.130", "id": "5761", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-07T04:15:10.747", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-07T04:15:10.747", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5757", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "不細工{ぶさいく} \"not well crafted (face), not handsome/beautiful\"", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-07T03:39:47.997", "id": "5759", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-07T03:39:47.997", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5758", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "我 (also written 吾) is an older way to say \"I\", not as common as the other ways\nyou listed but still in use, particularly by older men.\n\nI asked my friend when one would hear it, and she gave the context of a older\nguy giving a speech in a company setting, where the assumed tone would be\nmasculine and slightly formal (this is a subjective opinion). Perhaps\nindicative of it's provenance, the kanji of 我 is the way to say \"I\" in\nChinese, rather than 私.\n\nBoth 我々 and 我ら are used, and these can also be used to refer to oneself as\nwell as the plural form. Other ways to say \"I\" are うち、わし、せっしゃ、おら、おいどん and\n[我輩]{わがはい}.\n\nMy friend uses 我輩 as a joke sometimes, as it sounds very archaic. I remember\nasking a friend about 我 and was told specific situations where 我 would be a\nnatural alternative to 私, but I do not remember the answer, and perhaps\nsomeone with more knowledge will explain this aspect of the word (for example\nsomeone of a specific occupation using this word to refer to themselves). What\nI do remember being told was that it would not be a good word for a young\nforeigner to use as a first-person pronoun, as the nuances behind it would\njust be awkward.\n\nsee also: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pronouns>", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-07T20:01:57.233", "id": "5763", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-09T08:53:14.093", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-09T08:53:14.093", "last_editor_user_id": "260", "owner_user_id": "706", "parent_id": "5762", "post_type": "answer", "score": 18 }, { "body": "Its primary use in the Tokyo dialect is first person pronoun, but note that in\nthe Kansai dialects, it is more naturally used as second person pronoun, a\nvariant of 自分, usually when threatening.\n\n> 舐めとんか、ワレ。 \n> ワレ、なんぼのもんじゃい。", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-09T06:24:51.563", "id": "5784", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-09T06:24:51.563", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5762", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "I would break up the sentence in this way:\n\n利休は、[[茶道の精神は、[簡素な中に深く豊かなものをみつけ、それをもっとも美しいと感じる]]と考え]、[その精神を和敬静寂という葉で表した]\n\nRikyū thought that the spirit of tea ceremony is to find something deeply rich\nwithin something simple and feel that this is the most beautiful. He expressed\nthis spirit with the expression wa-kei-sei-jaku.\n\nThe それを refers to [深く豊かなもの], i.e. the deeply rich thing (that was found within\nsomething simple, and thought to be the most beautiful).\n\n美しいと感じる means pretty much what it says: to feel that something is beautiful.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-08T00:43:53.120", "id": "5766", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-08T00:49:56.530", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-08T00:49:56.530", "last_editor_user_id": "1073", "owner_user_id": "1073", "parent_id": "5764", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "掛る means \"to be hung on, get involved into, bite into, get locked, lean on.\"\n食って掛かる's literal meaning is something like \"bite on and get locked on it (for\nfighting mode)\".\n\nObviously, 食って掛かる is not a single word. It should be called an idiom.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-08T05:51:56.137", "id": "5768", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-09T00:42:23.650", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-09T00:42:23.650", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5767", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "It is perfectly grammatical, and is used regularly, but it is not in the most\nnatural word order. から is a conjunct that heads an adverbial clause, and\nadverbials appear to the left of the verb phrase in Japanese. The most natural\norder is\n\n> 寒{さむ}い(です)から窓{まど}を閉{し}めます。\n\nThe one you have splits this into two sentences, and the latter involves\ninversion.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-08T08:21:39.793", "id": "5770", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-08T14:09:48.400", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-08T14:09:48.400", "last_editor_user_id": "937", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5769", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "* 好い 'good, preferable'\n * 加減 'adjustment (by addition and subtraction)'\n * 好い加減にしろ literally 'make/leave it to the right/reasonable/acceptable/tolerable degree'\n\nいい加減 can also be used with a negative connotation with the meaning \"sloppy\"\n(almost opposite of the original meaning) as in the sentence given in\nyadokari's comment to this question. As for why, that may be a good\nindependent question; there are some other words like that.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-08T15:16:49.387", "id": "5773", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-08T16:01:03.730", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-08T16:01:03.730", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5771", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "It is said the same way as in English: \"私たち---\" / \"We ---\"\n\nFor example, \"私たち日本人\" is a common way to say \"We Japanese\". Your inclusion of\nの was incorrect.\n\nHere are a number of examples:\n\n[http://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=私たち日本人](http://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=%E7%A7%81%E3%81%9F%E3%81%A1%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E4%BA%BA)\n\nThe same goes for \"We Americans,\" (私たちアメリカ人) and as an added bonus, here is an\nexample with 我\n\n> We Americans make no secret of our belief in freedom.\n>\n> 我々アメリカ人は自由への信念を決して秘密にはしない。\n\n<http://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=%22we+americans%22>", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-08T15:55:56.533", "id": "5775", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-08T18:37:27.707", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "706", "parent_id": "5772", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Put some sauce in your rice, or mix you curry with your rice, and you'll\ndefinitely hear what I strongly believe is \"We Japanese don't do that\":\n\n> 日本人は〜しません\n\nYou could also probably hear 我々日本人は, though it sounds a little bit more\nformal.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-25T02:38:47.657", "id": "5955", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-25T02:38:47.657", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "356", "parent_id": "5772", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "Just for reference, according to an online Chinese dictionary 烟 appears to be\nconsidered the simplified variant of 煙.\n\nI don't think that the right-hand components have anything to do with the\nmeanings here. Both of these look to have right-side phonetic components\nrelating to their on-reading of エン. Other kanji using 因 have readings of イン or\nエン, as do other kanji using 垔.\n\n形声文字{けいせいもじ} is the term for these sort of kanji, which have a meaning\ncomponent 意符{いふ}, and a sound component 音符{おんぷ}. It only works for some on-\nreadings, but it's common enough to take note of. 張・帳(長・チョウ） or 胴・銅（同・ドウ） are\nexamples. An example of one which is not a left-right split would be 草 which\nhas the \"grass\" radical on top and the same on-reading (ソウ) as 早 does.\n\nSo there is probably no meaning difference (or at least, there is none in the\nmodern language). However, there would be a stylistic difference in the choice\nof a kanji variant over what is now considered the standard form, and there\nmay be cases such as names where the use of one or the other is now fixed and\nthey are not interchangeable.\n\ne.g. [here](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A9%E6%88%90%E5%9C%92) there is\nan example of a waterfall named 飛烟の瀧 (picture of the sign included, they do\nput furigana on it). I believe this would be a case where using 煙 would be\nincorrect.\n\nETA after seeing your comment: I have seen suggestions that sometimes the\noriginal choice of phonetic component could be related to the meaning, for\nexample that 清 uses 青 not just for the sound, but because the meaning is\nrelated. (This theory is apparently called\n[右文説](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8F%B3%E6%96%87%E8%AA%AC)). You probably\nneed to be into old Chinese to really dig into this.\n\nThe [Wiktionary](http://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%85%99) entry on 煙 suggests\nthat the 垔 side may have an origin from a combination of 西 (here being\nequivalent to \"window\") and 土 (here being equivalent to \"hearth\"), so\nrepresenting something like window/opening above a hearth where smoke emerges\nfrom a fire. It also says that 烟 is a shorthand form that has been around for\na while.\n\nIf that's correct, then just as you sometimes see kanji in compounds swapped\nfor another kanji with the same reading which doesn't necessarily have the\nsame meaning (for example 綺麗 being written 奇麗), 因 could have simply been\nswapped in for 垔 in this kanji as slightly quicker to write. Or there might\nhave originally (in Chinese) have been some subtle difference in meaning which\nhas since been lost.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-12T13:02:16.350", "id": "5827", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-12T20:57:51.813", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-12T20:57:51.813", "last_editor_user_id": "571", "owner_user_id": "571", "parent_id": "5776", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "Postage stamps are usually called 切手. Strictly speaking, 切手 can refer to other\nkinds of certificates of payment, and postage stamps are more formally called\n郵便切手, but 切手 almost always refer to postage stamps.\n\nI had never heard of the word 郵券, and judging from a quick search on the web,\nI think that this word is used almost only in the legal community.\n\n* * *\n\nAnswering to your question in the comment: _What is the etymology of the word_\n切手?\n\nAccording to [語源由来辞典](http://gogen-allguide.com/ki/kitte.html), a website\nexplaining the etymology of various Japanese words, 切手 was originally an\nabbreviation for 切符手形, where both 切符 and 手形 means certificates of payment. 切符\nliterally means something like “paper to cut” (imagine a train ticket) and 手形\nliterally means “shape of hand” (because handprint was used as a signature).\nIn the modern Japanese, 切符 means ticket and 手形 means either handprint or\nspecific kinds of\n[security](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_%28finance%29).", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-08T22:35:05.800", "id": "5779", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-09T01:23:06.870", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-09T01:23:06.870", "last_editor_user_id": "15", "owner_user_id": "15", "parent_id": "5777", "post_type": "answer", "score": 8 } ]

[]

[ { "body": "I was going to leave a comment since maybe I'm way out on a limb here, but it\ngot long so I'll just make it an answer..\n\nIn these cases I think it's important to remember that languages evolve. They\naren't really built from rules, that's just how we analyze them. Contractions\nlike these happens naturally when this happens, and there may not be any\nspecific rules to cover it. It's simply people being lazy.\n\nThis is also why it's discouraged to write ん in place of の, because written\nwords are supposed to adhere to the rules we've made for them, and this is\nstrictly speaking \"wrong\". What this really means of course is that it just\nhasn't been widely accepted as proper yet. (and maybe never really will)\n\nSo tl;dr; Substitute の with ん in speech or \"casual writing\" when it simply\nrolls easier of your tongue that way. (or copy natives, of course) It's fine\nas long as there's no ambiguity. (and you don't sound rude for being too\nsloppy)", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-09T09:25:50.217", "id": "5786", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-09T09:25:50.217", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1173", "parent_id": "5780", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I'm going to assume that you specifically mean the **\"genitive\"** の, since all\nyour examples are of this kind (i.e. not substantivizing の, or just random\nのs).\n\nI'm guessing here, but I think it's likely that the substitution can only\nhappen when the substituted ん would thereby be pronounced as a phonetic [n]\n(sorry, I can't write IPA, but feel free to edit my post as necessary). In the\nexamples you have given, where the substitution is possible, the pronunciation\nwill be\n\n> heyan'naka \n> orenchi \n> orentoko \n>\n\nTo recap, ん becomes [n] before /t/, /d/, /n/ and /r/ (I'm not sure if this\nvaries slightly depending on speaker. I'm open to comments or edits if this is\nnot precise).\n\nAlso, it doesn't seem to happen when it would case two んs in a row, something\nthat normally doesn't happen in Japanese.\n\nIn most of the examples in the second batch you've given, the substitution is\nunlikely to happen, since the pronunciation of ん would not be [n]:\n\n> ore(uvular N)kaasan \n> ore(nasal e)ie \n> ore(uvular N)sensee \n> enu(nasal u)enu \n>\n\nAs for\n\n> orenteeburu \n>\n\nI think this one does happen in speech, although it wouldn't appear in\nwriting. It's probably a phrase not occuring often enough to have become a\nfixed phrase like the first batch of examples you gave.", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-12T00:58:26.073", "id": "5820", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-12T10:45:33.030", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-12T10:45:33.030", "last_editor_user_id": "1073", "owner_user_id": "1073", "parent_id": "5780", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "**As a Phenomena of Fast/Casual Speech**\n\nAs\n[Tsujimura(2007)](http://ca.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405110651.html)\ndescribes, this a non-mandatory phonological process (not a syntactical one)\ncalled nasal syllabification. Consider these examples and a non-example as\nthey might be written in native orthography:\n\n> 1. 来るのなら → 来るんなら\n> 2. 君のうち → 君んち\n> 3. しらない → しんない\n> 4. かえらない → かえんない\n> 5. おくらない → おくんない\n> 6. 学者になる → 学者んなる\n> 7. 僕のうち → 僕んち\n> 8. 君の名前 *→ * 君ん名前\n>\n\nNow compare IPA phonemic transcriptions:\n\n> 1. /kuɾu **no** naɾa/ → /kuɾu **n** naɾa/\n> 2. /kimi **nou** tci/ → /kimi **n** tci/\n> 3. /ɕi **ɾa** nai/ → /ɕi **n** nai/\n> 4. /kae **ɾa** nai/ → /kae **n** nai/\n> 5. /oku **ɾa** nai/ → /oku **n** nai/\n> 6. /ɡakuɕa **ni** naɾu/ → /ɡakuɕa **n** naɾu/\n> 7. /boku **nou** tɕi/ → /boku **n** tɕi/\n> 8. /kimi **no** namae/ *→ * /kimi **n** namae/\n>\n\nTsujimaru says this:\n\n> Certain functional words containing /n/ often lose their accompanying vowel,\n> and as a result become a moraic nasal. In addition to the vowel loss, if\n> there is an another second word-initial vowel immediately following then it\n> too gets deleted.\n\nAnd so isn't clear about the following:\n\n * Which words are eligible for this phonological alternation\n * Why the last example is unacceptable\n\nAlthough Tsujimura didn't explicitly say so, I believe the nasal\nsyllabification targets only mora.\n\nAs\n[Vance(2008)](http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item1157656/?site_locale=en_GB)\nobserves about /n/:\n\n> When /n/ is word-medial the following phoneme can be any vowel or any\n> syllable-initial consonant.\n\nwhich means the alternations /nV/ → /n/ and /ɾa/ → /n/ will not produce an\ninadmissible phoneme sequence. Together with the fact that /n/ can be a word-\nfinal syllable, we see that all three relevant processes in nasal\nsyllabification (defined below) will never result in an inadmissible sequence\nof phonemes. This fact has a crucial implication in that nasal\nsyllabifications are phonological (alternational) processes not phonetic\n(derivational) processes. Meaning that once /n/ emerges, nasal syllabification\nhas nothing more to do with it. Namely, rules such as the following have\nnothing to do with nasal syllabification, and are covered by other independent\nprocesses that happen afterwords:\n\n> ん becomes [n] before /t/, /d/, /n/ and /r/\n\nThat's as far as I've read on the topic so far. I've never seen any formal\nrules but I might propose three myself (the last rule describes the actual\nalternations):\n\n * Comparing the last non-example to the first and second, either the eligibility criteria must discriminate on a semantic basis or that we should just dismiss this exception.\n * The eligibility criteria does discriminate on a morphological basis, specifically that particles of the form /nV/ and the mora /ɾa/ when belonging to non-past negative vowel roots ending in /ɾ/ are eligible (these statements pertain to morphemes).\n * If /nV/ is eligible, and a second V follows on the right (ignoring morpheme boundaries), then /nVV/ is eligible, and /nVV/ → /n/ (see examples 2 and 7). Otherwise /nV/ → /n/. The second vowel deletion process ignores morpheme boundaries. Lastly, if /ɾa/ is eligible then /ɾa/ → /n/.\n\nAs for @sawa's examples:\n\n * こんなの → こんなん Phonemically we have /konna **no** / → /konna **n** / which is not problematic because the /n/ emerges _after_ the syllabification has occurred. The resulting word-final (moraic) /n/ is admissible in Japanese (and is in fact realized as [ɴː] in this case).\n * \"sentence-final particles/nominalizers as in 食べたの → 食べたん\" Basically the same thing as above; The /no/ in /tabetano/ is eligible and the resultant /n/ will be followed by either a vowel, a consonant, or a morpheme/word/phrase boundary. But all such resultant sequences are admissible.\n * 食べぬ → 食べん Same thing as こんなの → こんなん because in either case we have /nV/->/n/ (the vowel V is not discriminated).\n * にて → んて → で Only the first alternation is relevant to nasal syllabification, but to attribute the alternation to NS, that に must be eligible. I only stipulated that particles (postpositions) of the form /nV/ are eligible, so for NS to work here there would have to be a morpheme boundary between the に and て.\n * それで → そんで The source word is /so **ɾe** de/ but all I know for sure is that /ɾa/ is eligible. Considering that in /nV/ → /n/ the vowel wasn't discriminated, we could potentially have the rule /ɾV/ → /n/.\n\nAnd for @Pacerier question:\n\n> Btw when you say \"does happen in speech\", do you mean that the speaker\n> knowingly (with intention) does a 「おれん…」 instead of a 「おれの…」?\n\nNasal syllabification is not mandatory; given the the appropriate context\n(fast/casual speech) an eligible mora undergoing syllabification is entirely\noptional. Whether or not a speaker is aware or will remember I don't know.", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-21T06:52:47.340", "id": "5936", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-22T03:15:47.983", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-22T03:15:47.983", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1454", "parent_id": "5780", "post_type": "answer", "score": 8 } ]

[ { "body": "I think there is some truth in your assertion. However, I do think that the\nanswer is not simple as there are many factors involved:\n\n 1. I know for a fact that Japanese titles strive to be easily understandable and try to help give the reader hints about what the story is about. It is true that you can see examples in other languages also, however I would argue that there is a _greater_ tendency to do this in Japanese culture. For example, there was a Disney film titled [Up](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_%282009_film%29) in English. When this was localized in Japan, the title was changed to [カールじいさんの空飛ぶ家](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%81%98%E3%81%84%E3%81%95%E3%82%93%E3%81%AE%E7%A9%BA%E9%A3%9B%E3%81%B6%E5%AE%B6). In English, you can maybe guess a little bit about the movie, but the Japanese title definitely gives you a much clearer picture. I also guess that in English, there is greater tendency to leave the reader to guess what the story is about to make them curious, whereas in Japanese culture, people may be more inclined to ignore something if they don't know what it is about right away.\n\n 2. Also, another cultural phenomenon is Japanese culture tends to focus more on individuals more than other cultures. For example, even to this day [Oda Nobunaga](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oda_Nobunaga), [Toyotomi Hideyoshi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyotomi_Hideyoshi), [Tokugawa Ieyasu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokugawa_Ieyasu), etc. are very popular historical figures, and there are countless moves, books, video games about them. Now, it is true that all cultures have a notion of this, however, I would argue that this is more prevalent in Japanese culture. I realize that all the examples do not fit this pattern, but most of the titles have a name of a person in them which I think shows that the stories often focus on individuals.", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-24T23:00:58.757", "id": "5953", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-24T23:00:58.757", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1217", "parent_id": "5783", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "In that situation, it is more natural to express that you are lonely without\nthe person.\n\n> 週末はあなたがいなくて寂しかった。 \n> 'I was lonely without you during the weekend.'", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-09T11:43:34.623", "id": "5791", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-09T11:43:34.623", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5785", "post_type": "answer", "score": 8 }, { "body": "I think one way is to use 会いたい", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-09T12:59:40.587", "id": "5792", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-09T12:59:40.587", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "542", "parent_id": "5785", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to converse with a professional J-E\nconference translator who is native Japanese, and I asked him this very\nquestion. After some thinking about it, he suggested 恋しい【こいしい】.\n\nLooking in the Wisdom J-E dictionary to verify, I came across the following\nexample sentence and translation that seems to support this:\n\n> あの人がとても恋しい \"I miss that person very much.\"\n\nSome other examples I've found include:\n\n * 故郷が恋しい \"I miss my hometown.\"\n * 寒くなると火が恋しい \"When it gets cold we long for fire\"\n\nSo in short, while most English speakers would take 恋しい at its basic meaning\nof \"beloved\", it seems it also carries overtones of longing as well which lend\nitself to the purpose of \"I miss X\" in English.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2014-06-02T21:00:05.400", "id": "16271", "last_activity_date": "2014-06-02T21:00:05.400", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "4914", "parent_id": "5785", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "`話せる`/`話せます` \"able to speak\" is the potential form of `話す`/`話します` \"to speak\".\n\nSee also the conjugation table at\n[wwwjdic](http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-\nbin/wwwjdic.cgi?1W%CF%C3%A4%B9_v5s).\n\n**Edit:** I didn't previously know this (and it's not used this way here), but\napparently (according to the [progressive\ndictionary](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E8%A9%B1%E3%81%9B%E3%82%8B&enc=UTF-8&stype=0&dtype=3)\nand\n[Daijisen](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E8%A9%B1%E3%81%9B%E3%82%8B&enc=UTF-8&stype=0&dtype=0&dname=0na)),\ncoming from the \"able to speak\" meaning, `話せる` can also mean \"is sensible/is\nreasonable/is good at understanding other people/able to collaborate with\nother people\":\n\n> うちの校長は **話せる** \n> My principal/headmaster is _sensible_.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-09T10:27:14.363", "id": "5789", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-09T10:54:17.950", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-09T10:54:17.950", "last_editor_user_id": "796", "owner_user_id": "796", "parent_id": "5788", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "話せる is the potential form of 話す. The potential form implies being able to do\nthe verb. It's an immensely useful form!\n\nThe potential form is created by adding られる to the stem of る-verbs, or adding\nthe え form of the final kana of う verbs plus る to the stem of う verbs (I think\nthe cool kids call those ichidan and godan verbs, respectively).\n\n> 食べる - to eat \n> 食べられる - to be able to eat\n>\n> [泳]{およ}ぐ - to swim \n> 泳げる - to be able to swim\n>\n> この[漢字]{かんじ}が[読]{よ}めますか。 - Can you read this kanji? \n> はしが使えますか。 - Can you use chopsticks?\n\nA special exception: Just use できる for する-type verbs.\n\n> 車が[運転]{うんてん}できますか。 - Can you drive a car?", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-09T10:28:12.527", "id": "5790", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-09T10:34:36.463", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-09T10:34:36.463", "last_editor_user_id": "260", "owner_user_id": "260", "parent_id": "5788", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "When describing materials, the difference between -造 and -製 does not come from\nthe difference of materials.\n\n-造 is usually used when describing the primary material of a building or a nonbuilding structure. Examples are 木造 (made of wood), 鉄骨造 (made of steel (or iron)), and 鉄筋コンクリート造 (made of reinforced concrete).\n\nFor everything else, I think that we use -製. For example, “wooden flute” is\n木製のフルート and not 木造のフルート.", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-09T16:57:14.587", "id": "5794", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-09T23:19:45.763", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-09T23:19:45.763", "last_editor_user_id": "15", "owner_user_id": "15", "parent_id": "5793", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "> In Japanese, could I use アイルランド人 to the same effect?\n\nThe suffix 系{けい} (\"lineage\") is probably better suited for describing\nheritage. 人 more commonly indicates nationality, in my experience.\n\nHowever, I feel it is necessary for Americans to specify nationality in\naddition to heritage when identifying themselves in Japanese. For example, I\nthink it would be better to say アイルランド系アメリカ人, similar to 日系{にっけい}アメリカ人\n(Japanese American).\n\n> On a related note, how could I talk about partial bloodlines? For example,\n> I'm mostly Irish, but I have some Native American and French blood, (and who\n> knows what else) etc.\n\nI am not a native speaker of Japanese, but I might say something like\n「私は4分の3がアイルランド系で8分の1がネイティブ・アメリカン系で8分の1がフランス系です」 (\"I am three-quarters Irish,\none-eighth Native American, and one-eighth French\").", "comment_count": 6, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-09T17:50:30.950", "id": "5796", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-10T21:23:47.460", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-10T21:23:47.460", "last_editor_user_id": "937", "owner_user_id": "937", "parent_id": "5795", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 }, { "body": "What you are trying to express is a concept that is actually fairly unusual\naround the world in how the concepts of nationality, heritage, and identity\nare used. In America, Canada, Australia, and maybe other places with similar\nlarge immigrant populations, each of these concepts are options that can be\ncombined to suit individual tastes.\n\nIn countries with longer, continuous histories and more homogeneous people,\nthese concepts are merely different aspects of the same thing.\n\nJapan is one of those places where culture, heritage, nationality, language,\nand \"race\" are generally understood to be the same thing. Even as Japan has\nbecome, and continues to become, more and more internationally aware, you need\nto appreciate that Japanese culture on the whole is still relatively early in\nthe process of transitioning into the understanding that these things can be\nseparate. A lot of people you encounter will be unfamiliar with the concept of\nwhat you are trying to convey.\n\nIn short, what you are trying to express isn't a matter of merely finding the\nright words. The concepts that drive the meaning behind the words are\ndifferent between your culture and Japanese culture, and so you need to\nnavigate that divide if you want to be understood.\n\nStarting with your proposal of telling people you are `アイルランド人{じん}`, this will\nmake Japanese people think you are from Ireland, full stop. Adding `人{じん}`, in\nthe context we are talking about, expresses \"person from\".\n\nWhat you're trying to say, I think, is `アイルランド系{けい}アメリカ人{じん}`. An American of\nIrish descent. This gets across the point that you come from an Irish family,\nbut I think you need to appreciate how this gives the impression that you feel\nquite separate from America. In Japan, as you may know, there are groups of\npeople in Japan called \"zainichi\" (`在日{ざいにち}`). The term usually is shorthand\nfor Koreans born and raised in Japan, but it can apply to other nationalities\nunder similar circumstances. It is a huge political issue, so I don't want to\nget into it too deep, but the main point is that these people aren't merely\nseen as being Japanese of Korean descent, even though they may only speak\nJapanese and have never been to Korea. They are seen as Koreans who are _in_\nJapan, but for a variety of politically heated reasons, are not really people\n_of_ Japan. Similarly, you might be seen as an Irish person who, for some\nreason, was in America, even born there, but not _really_ American by either\nyour own declaration or that of other Americans.\n\nGoing further, to express your Native American, French, or any other heritage,\nyou could start splitting down to fractions to express how your family is\ndelineated by ethnicity, but that would sound as overly specific and obnoxious\nin Japanese as it does in English. Also, I'm guessing, you are looking for a\nmore offhand way to throw it into the conversation, not how to describe a\nwhole family tree.\n\nTo say you are \"descended from\", I believe the correct verb to use is `引{ひ}く`,\nwhich means \"pull\", so, in essence, you are \"pulled from a blood line\". So to\nsay your family was of French and Native American descent, you could say\n`家族{かぞく}はフランスとネイティブ・アメリカンの血{ち}を引{ひ}く`. \"My family is of French and Native\nAmerican heritage.\" But that makes it sound like your family is entirely\nFrench and Native American. What you want to say is that you just happen to\nhave a little of that mixed in with your predominantly Irish bloodline. In\nthat case, you want to use `入{はい}る`, to mean the blood was \"put in\".\n`家族{かぞく}はフランスとネイティブ・アメリカンの血{ち}が入{はい}っている` You can throw in a `ちょっと` to make it\nsound even more like there was just a little bit.\n\nBringing it all together:\n\n> （私{わたし}は）ちょっとフランスとネイティブ・アメリカンの血{ち}が入{はい}っていたアイルランド系{けい}アメリカ人{じん}\n>\n> I'm an Irish American with some French and Native American heritage.\n\nHaving said that to the Japanese person you're speaking to, you still might\nhave to contend with the fact that impression you are trying to give might be\ndifferent from the impression your Japanese listener gets. That's a function\nof the cultural divide I've outlined above, and that can't be helped. You'll\nalmost certainly have to have that conversation no matter what words you use\nto start with, but I think that at least the ones I've provided start you at\nthe most accurate place possible given the language options.\n\nJust as a pointer for further learning, other words you might look at are\n`血筋{ちすじ}`, which means \"lineage\", but I believe is more about hierarchy, as in\ncoming from an elite family. There's also `混血{こんけつ}`, which means \"mixed\nheritage\", but literally means \"mixed blood\", and since it's in opposition to\n`純血{じゅんけつ}`, \"pure blood\", can be used in a derisive sense.\n\nHope that helps.", "comment_count": 6, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-12T05:15:24.010", "id": "5821", "last_activity_date": "2012-10-20T03:59:50.080", "last_edit_date": "2012-10-20T03:59:50.080", "last_editor_user_id": "119", "owner_user_id": "119", "parent_id": "5795", "post_type": "answer", "score": 15 } ]

[ { "body": "[According to this](http://japanese.about.com/library/blkodarchives.htm), they\nstart learning kanji and kana from Grade 1. So around 5 or 6 years old. A\nquick Google should answer most of your questions. Though culturally it is\ninteresting to know how kids in a completely different culture learn to be\nliterate.", "comment_count": 7, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-09T21:55:49.917", "id": "5798", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-09T21:58:42.237", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-09T21:58:42.237", "last_editor_user_id": "921", "owner_user_id": "769", "parent_id": "5797", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "The [curriculum\nguidelines](http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shuppan/sonota/990301b/990301d.htm)\nfor grade one (see 言語事項 section イ) only state that children should be able to\nread and write hiragana and katakana, and use words that are written in\nkatakana in sentences (e.g. know to write ペン not ぺん), and to read and to start\nto use the level-appropriate kanji.\n\nAs I understand it, instead of memorising individual readings, the focus is\nusually on being able to read/read aloud level-appropriate materials, or\nsupply the correct kanji in the context of a given word in a sentence (e.g.\nuse the right kanji for the right word when writing assignments). There's also\nsome focus on stroke order and handwriting.\n\nMaterials supplied on the internet for practice, which are aimed at school\nchildren (or their parents), for example [here](http://www.jakka.jp/), which\nhas various levels of material, tend to use these sort of formats for kanji:\n[writing practice](http://www.jakka.jp/page/gra04/4-1r-01.htm) (with\ncharacters to trace over), [reading\npractice](http://www.jakka.jp/page/gra04/4-1y-01.htm), more [writing\npractice](http://www.jakka.jp/page/gra04/4-1k-01.htm) (give the kanji based on\nthe furigana).\n\nThere are \"official\" readings (which you will see in sawa's second link in the\ncomments on dotnetN00b's answer). They are expected to be known, in that words\nusing those readings should be able to be read, but I've never seen any\nmaterial that asks \"what are the on-readings of this kanji\" aimed at native\nspeakers.\n\n[This page](http://ten.tokyo-shoseki.co.jp/text/shou/keikaku/kokugo.html) has\nguidance materials aimed at teachers using certain textbooks. For the first\nyear version, in this case they start with hiragana, then it looks like they\nactually pick up a few kanji, like numerals, before getting into katakana.\n(Although to be entirely honest I only skimmed it, and I don't know how\nrepresentative the provided plan is of the average class).", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-11T17:26:46.680", "id": "5813", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-13T11:39:18.367", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-13T11:39:18.367", "last_editor_user_id": "571", "owner_user_id": "571", "parent_id": "5797", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "I think that it is rare to use the words such as A子 and B子 as an abbreviation.\nThey are [placeholder names](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placeholder_name)\nfor females, and they do not usually mean that the names actually end with 子.\nJust like suffix 子, suffix 男 (such as A男) is often used to make placeholder\nnames for males. ([Here is a random example which uses A男 and\nB子](http://www.wam.go.jp/wamappl/bb13gs40.nsf/0/49256fe9001ac4c749256f350018ed39/%24FILE/siryou6~8.pdf).)\n\nSome people use letters with 子 for females and letters without a suffix for\nmales. I do not know the exact reason. (Maybe in older time, a person was\nassumed to be a male by default?)\n\nBecause they are not formed by abbreviation, if one refers to a male whose\nname ends with 子, it will be A男, not A子.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-09T23:51:37.473", "id": "5801", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-10T00:11:41.293", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-10T00:11:41.293", "last_editor_user_id": "921", "owner_user_id": "15", "parent_id": "5800", "post_type": "answer", "score": 8 } ]

[ { "body": "As is usual with homophonous kanjis, there is a general one, which, in this\ncase, is 付ける. That means, in general, the other kanjis can be replaced with\nthis one, but not the other way around. 着ける is used when the attachment is\nalong a surface, especially in wearing clothes (that is, the clothes touch the\nskin along surfaces). 附ける means to append, and I think it is an archaic kanji.\nMost often, you can find it in combnations like 附属 or 附設 (archaic form of 付属\nand 付設), especially in proper names like 久留米大学附設 高等学校・中学校.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-11T01:32:24.527", "id": "5811", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-11T01:32:24.527", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5803", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I hope that someone can explain this more accurately, but let me try some\nexplanation.\n\nAccording to\n[敬語の指針](http://www.bunka.go.jp/bunkashingikai/soukai/pdf/keigo_tousin.pdf),\nthe document explaining the use of honorifics in Japanese written by the\nCouncil for Cultural Affairs, there are two different kinds of what have been\ntraditionally categorized as 謙譲語 (humble words). Most of them are solely used\nfor actions/belongings of a speaker or someone considered to be on the side of\na speaker, and those are called 謙譲語 I. However, the other humble words such as\n参る and 申す can also be used for actions/belongings of something which is on\nneither the speaker’s side nor the audience’s side. In this usage, they play\nalmost the same role as 丁寧語 (polite words). These humble words are called 謙譲語\nII.\n\nTherefore, in the example sentence, 参る is essentially used to make the\nsentence simply more polite than 雨が降ってきました.\n\nTo emphasize the difference between 謙譲語 I and 謙譲語 II, we cannot rephrase the\nexample sentence as 雨がお降りしてきました because お…する forms 謙譲語 I from a verb.", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-10T21:25:19.827", "id": "5805", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-11T01:58:14.823", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-11T01:58:14.823", "last_editor_user_id": "15", "owner_user_id": "15", "parent_id": "5804", "post_type": "answer", "score": 8 } ]

[ { "body": "Yes. You have two nominative noun phrases in your English sentence, one in the\nmain clause and one in the relative clause. Japanese is no different.", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-11T00:03:20.863", "id": "5808", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-11T00:54:58.173", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-11T00:54:58.173", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5806", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "Yes, these `が` particles mark the subjects for the following verbs, so you can\nuse `が` to create [relative\nclauses](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_clauses). (There are other `が`\nparticles in Japanese, such as the phrase-ending version).\n\nNote that `は`(topic-wa) does not work this way, but most of the other\nparticles that mark a noun do, such as `を`,`で` and `に`.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-11T00:19:23.507", "id": "5809", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-11T00:39:20.383", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-11T00:39:20.383", "last_editor_user_id": "29", "owner_user_id": "29", "parent_id": "5806", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "Yes, 「姉がくれた本が好きです。」 is correct.\n\nThe first が, because it is in a clause that modifies 本, can be also be swapped\nwith の. So 「姉のくれた本が好きです。」 is also correct, and has the same meaning.\n\nThis is not the only reason that が can appear multiple times in a sentence.\n\nPredicates like 好きだ are called \"double-ga\" or \"affective\" predicates1. This\nclass also includes 分かる, いります, and できる, and all of these take が instead of を\nfor the equivalent of the English direct object. So if you ask,\n\n> だれがお姉さんがあげた本が好きですか。\n\nThe answer could be,\n\n> 僕が姉がくれた本が好きですよ。\n\nThis has three が, and only one of them is in a relative clause. This also\nimplies that the other people don't like the book.\n\n**Footnotes:**\n\n1: This is the terminology used in \"Japanese: The Spoken Language\". Your text\nmay use different terminology.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-11T01:09:49.697", "id": "5810", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-11T01:09:49.697", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1262", "parent_id": "5806", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "As for the difference between みたい and よう, it is too subtle for me to tell.\n\nBetween the various endings after みたい, they indicate how indirect the\nobservation is (i.e., how much inference is involved).\n\n * だ is declaration, so ようだ is the most certain among the endings using よう.\n * ように見える adds the hedge 見える, meaning that it is directly observed, but is less certain than ようだ.\n * ように思える adds the hedge 思える, meaning that a thought process is involved, so it is less certain than ように見える.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-11T12:27:29.523", "id": "5812", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-11T12:27:29.523", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5807", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "After some very depressing searches (people are living with a lot of sad\nthings), I did locate a few instances of this phrase used in a positive light.\n\n * In [her Ameba profile](http://profile.ameba.jp/min104), one woman stated 「なんとなく生きる中で見つけられた幸せを大切に抱えて生きたい」 (\"I want to hold dear the happiness I have somehow been able to find while living\").\n * In [a tweet](http://twitter.com/h_a_a_t/statuses/48728842570969088), someone said 「不安を抱えるより、希望を抱えて、生きたい」 (\"I would rather live cradling hope than cradling regret\").\n * The author of [this blog entry](http://ameblo.jp/kukkinoonaka/entry-11268103578.html) stated 「何も諦めることなく、全て抱えて生きたいと思います」 (\"I want to live with everything, without giving up on anything\").\n * In [another blog entry](http://d.hatena.ne.jp/hase0831/20120314), someone wrote 「照れたり意地をはって、本当の気持ちを相手に言えないまま後悔するよりは、やるだけやった、と思えるエゴを抱えて生きたいと思います」 (\"I think I'd like to live with an ego that can believe it took a chance, rather than feel regret after clinging embarrassingly to my pride and being unable to express to someone my true feelings\").\n\nWhile it seems all of these \"positive\" results have some degree of seriousness\nand melancholy, I believe they are all still examples of someone _wanting_ to\nlive with something. Furthermore, while I realize the original question\nspecifically asks about 抱えて生きている and not 抱えて生きたい, I believe there is evidence\nhere to suggest, for example, that 「希望を抱えて生きている」 or 「幸せを大切に抱えて生きている」 would not\nbe inappropriate things to say.\n\nIt does seem to me therefore that 抱えて生きている does not _always_ imply a situation\nwith negative aspects.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-12T19:13:45.963", "id": "5840", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-12T19:13:45.963", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "937", "parent_id": "5814", "post_type": "answer", "score": 10 } ]

[ { "body": "The first one may be translated as Commissioner Patent Office.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-11T21:49:59.657", "id": "5818", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-11T21:49:59.657", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "892", "parent_id": "5817", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "長官 is the top person of that institute. 殿 is a polite affix attached after\npeople's name or title in business or formal occasions, contrasted with 様 used\nin personal occasions. For the second part, it is not an ordinary Japanese,\nand my guess is that it is an abbreviated code used for sorting the documents,\nshortened from something like \"出願証 意匠 2012年\" \"proof of application,\nclassification: design, submitted year: 2012\".\n\n証 may stand for something more or different.", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-12T00:39:00.697", "id": "5819", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-18T00:48:09.340", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-18T00:48:09.340", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5817", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "特許庁長官殿 means “Commissioner, Patent Office” with a polite suffix, as you and\nsawa explained.\n\n出証意 is not a word. From what I learned from the web, I think that it appears\nin a reference number of a certificate of application documents and acceptance\nof application (出願書類及び出願受付情報に関する証明書) for a design (意匠) in the form\n出証意2012-1234567.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-18T12:01:48.670", "id": "5897", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-18T12:01:48.670", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "15", "parent_id": "5817", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "In many contexts they are interchangeable, but strictly speaking 赤ん坊 is the\nactual word for baby, and 赤ちゃん is like a cute, pet name derived from it.\n\nAlso, 赤ん坊 is the spoken (colloquial) form - see sawa's comment for versions\nthat may be more appropriate for formal writing.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-12T05:48:45.153", "id": "5823", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-12T06:42:44.900", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-12T06:42:44.900", "last_editor_user_id": "1272", "owner_user_id": "1272", "parent_id": "5822", "post_type": "answer", "score": 9 } ]

[ { "body": "Quote from [this\npage](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A9%BA%E8%80%B3_%28%E8%A8%80%E8%91%89%E9%81%8A%E3%81%B3%29):\n\n> I surrender. （私は投降します）→「愛されんだぁ」\n> 日本兵に向けたビラに、軍から取り残された時のための言葉として岡繁樹（1878-1959、日本からの帰化アメリカ人）が書いたもの（上坂冬子著、1989年中央公論社刊「女が振り返る昭和の歴史」より）。\n\nTranslation: I surrender (which was made as [愛]{あい}されんだぁ, a play on the\nEnglish phrase) : [Oka\nShigeki](http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=oka-\nshigeki-1878-1959-cr.xml) (1878-1959, a native Japanese who became an American\ncitizen) wrote this on flyers passed out to Japanese soldiers so that they\nknew what to say when they are left behind by their army (this was reference\nfrom a book by\n[上坂冬子](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8A%E5%9D%82%E5%86%AC%E5%AD%90)\ncalled\n[伝わらなかった真実―女が振り返る昭和の歴史](http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E4%BC%9D%E3%82%8F%E3%82%89%E3%81%AA%E3%81%8B%E3%81%A3%E3%81%9F%E7%9C%9F%E5%AE%9F%E2%80%95%E5%A5%B3%E3%81%8C%E6%8C%AF%E3%82%8A%E8%BF%94%E3%82%8B%E6%98%AD%E5%92%8C%E3%81%AE%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2-%E4%B8%AD%E5%85%AC%E6%96%87%E5%BA%AB-%E4%B8%8A%E5%9D%82-%E5%86%AC%E5%AD%90/dp/412202515X).)\n\nSo, if this book (and reference) is correct, it is a true story. Also, the\nman, Oka Shigeki, left behind many papers on the history of World War II,\nunfortunately I could not find any evidence other than this reference to this\nbook.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-13T23:50:23.910", "id": "5853", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-14T00:15:41.413", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-14T00:15:41.413", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1217", "parent_id": "5824", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I think it comes from French as you guessed. In modern Japan (as well as in\nmany other countries), it is generally considered that French cuisine is the\nworld's most sophisticated dish, and the best place for studying abroad for\ncooking was France. Many of the top chefs in Japan had studied cooking in\nFrance, and they tend to use French in the menu. That is why you see `de`\nmainly in cooking context.\n\nFor the recent use, I think they are parody/puns that derive from this\npractice. Particularly, your トミカ example is out of the context of cooking, and\nis obvious that it is a parody.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-12T12:16:26.177", "id": "5826", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-12T12:24:02.200", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-12T12:24:02.200", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5825", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "The book you are looking for is [Minna no\nNihongo.](http://www.thejapanshop.com/Minna-no-Nihongo-Japanese-Textbooks-\nJapanese-Bookstore/b/2359187011) The main text is in only kana and kanji. They\nhave a separate textbook that is translated to the reader's native language.", "comment_count": 7, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-12T15:18:02.253", "id": "5836", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-12T15:18:02.253", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "769", "parent_id": "5828", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 } ]

[ { "body": "It's probably 灯{とう}台{だい}下{もと}暗{くら}し, meaning we tend to overlook what is right\nunder our nose.\n\n<http://kotowaza-allguide.com/to/toudaimotokurashi.html>", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-12T13:57:41.990", "id": "5834", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-12T13:57:41.990", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "937", "parent_id": "5829", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "I don't see a question in this quotation. Here is a translation attempt, but\nwithout context there are sure to be misunderstandings on my part, especially\nwith what the words in parentheses refer to:\n\n> (while incidentally calling on someone who is ill/visiting a sick person)\n> After not having done so in a long time, it occurred to me to relate the\n> story of my hometown. / I got the idea to go with that old story of my home\n> town/ It occurred to me to go ahead and talk about my hometown or something\n> that I hadn't talked about in a while.\n\nYour question is very unclear, perhaps you can reformulate it.", "comment_count": 7, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-12T17:35:13.780", "id": "5839", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-12T23:59:12.210", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-12T23:59:12.210", "last_editor_user_id": "706", "owner_user_id": "706", "parent_id": "5838", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 }, { "body": "The way I understand it is that the `と` here is similar to English quotation\nmarks, except it can also be used with thoughts etc:\n\n> (お見舞いかたがた) 久しぶりに故郷の話でもしてこようと思い立った.\n>\n> _My somewhat literal translation attempt:_ (When I was calling on someone\n> who was ill, while I was at it) it came into my mind to \"resolve to go and\n> have a talk about my hometown and whatnot for the first time in ages\".\n>\n> _My attempt at a more natural translation:_ When I was visiting someone who\n> was ill, it occurred to me that while I was at it, I could go and talk about\n> my hometown and whatnot for the first time in a long time.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-08-16T12:15:40.877", "id": "6489", "last_activity_date": "2012-08-16T12:15:40.877", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "796", "parent_id": "5838", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 }, { "body": "The most literal translation that I can surmise is\n\n> \"After such a long time,'I will speak about my hometown' is what occurred to\n> me.\"\n\nSo the と translates to \"is what\", \"is the thing that\" or just \"that\" in almost\nall situations. It can be loosely considered a subordinating conjunction that\nconnects an independent clause to a dependent clause functioning as a noun.\nThis is the same function that the word \"that\" has in English. If you\nabsolutely must compare it to English grammar, it is best thought of as the\nsubordinating conjuction \"that\". But strictly speaking, there is a crucial\ndifference that makes it best described as a particle/postposition that\nfollows a quotation. As there are no postpositions in English, there is no\ndirect English equivalent.\n\nThe terms \"direct\" and \"indirect\" quotations don't really hold the same\nsyntactical distinction in Japanese that they do in English. In English, a\ndirect quotation has two criteria:\n\n 1. It is (or is intended to be by the speaker) someone's exact words.\n 2. It is delimited by quotation marks.\n 3. It does not use a subordinating conjunction.\n\nLook at the following sentences:\n\n> 先生は「漢字を練習しなさい」と言った。 \n> The teacher said \"study kanji\".\n>\n> 先生は漢字を練習しなさいと言った。 \n> The teacher said to study kanji.(\"Study kanji\" is what the teacher said.)\n\nThe first sentence is a direct quotation. In Japanese, it is delimited by\nquotation marks, but still has a と functioning as a subordinating conjunction.\nThe conjunction is omitted in English because it is not considered a clause--\njust a long predicate consisting of several words. In Japanese the と is always\nthere, whether the quotation is direct or indirect.\n\nSo summary: the と **resembles** \"that\" in English, but is actually a\npostposition following a quotation, with no English equivalent.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-08-23T20:51:03.640", "id": "6579", "last_activity_date": "2012-08-23T20:51:03.640", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "1575", "parent_id": "5838", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "I recognize this pattern from the titles of 黒{くろ}執{しつ}事{じ} (Black Butler)\n[episodes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Black_Butler_episodes#Episode_list).\nThe pattern is that case is `[noun], [adjective]`, and it's directly\ntranslated into English that way.\n\n> その執{しつ}事{じ}、有{ゆう}能{のう}\n>\n> His Butler, Able\n\nFrom that I'd say that you would say something like: \"The/that burglar, I'll\ncatch him\"\n\nThat being said, this format is a little poetic in English, so I would only\nuse it in something like a title, where you can use some creative\nlicenses...If this where a person speaking I would say something more like \"I\n_will_ catch that burglar!\"", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-13T00:31:53.313", "id": "5843", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-13T00:37:28.657", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "921", "parent_id": "5841", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "達 or ら is not especially for first person. Although there are combinations\nthat you cannot use, they can be used with other persons.\n\n> あなたたち, あなたら, 君たち, 君ら\n\n達 is different from pluralization. It means \"and others\". 私たち means \"I and\nothers\". The others do not have to fit the original noun or pronoun. But for\nthe pronoun part, I don't think you see much difference from English \"we\".\n\"We\" does not refer to a group of people who are all \"me\" (which is an\nimpluasible situation); it is rather me and other people. The same with\nJapanese.\n\nRegarding your gender part with Spanish, I think you are mentioning markedness\nof the feminine feature. That is, feminine is a marked gender as opposed to\nmasculine that is the default. I am not sure about Spanish examples, but from\nPortuguese examples that I have seen and from what you wrote, I am guessing\nthat a mixed group of male and female can be referred to with the plural of\nthe masculine third person pronoun, but not with a feminine one; is this what\nyou mean? I think there is a confusion between first and third person in the\nquestion. In Japanese, 彼ら can refer to a mixed gender group including at least\none male. 彼女ら can refer to a mixed group including at least one female.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-13T02:19:06.947", "id": "5845", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-13T12:05:13.767", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-13T12:05:13.767", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5844", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 }, { "body": "In informal settings, you might use あたし達, to your parents-in-law you might use\n私達, and in business settings, you might use 我々 or 私共. It can depend on many\nthings, including possibly your gender, but _it doesn't generally depend on\nwhether there is somebody of the other gender in the group you refer to_.\n\nThe Japanese plural marker 達 as well as ら and others AFAIK, can work as\n[associative plurals](http://wals.info/chapter/36). This means that you can\nuse 田中君達 to mean \"Tanaka and others associated with him (whose names are not\nnecessarily Tanaka)\". Compare this to English \"the Joneses\" in which you would\nusually expect all of the people referred to to have the name \"Jones\".\n\nThus, あたし達 can be thought of as \"I and others associated with me\".\nSemantically, this isn't really different from \"we\", but it might give an\nexplanation of why you don't need to change あたし to something else, just\nbecause there is a male in the group.\n\nAll this being said, I venture the statement that 達 and other Japanese plural\nmarkers can also be used an additive (normal) plural. For example, unless the\nspeaker has a specific 部長 in mind, you would usually understand うちの会社の部長達 as\nthe group of 部長s (and only 部長s) from the speaker's company.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-13T11:24:11.070", "id": "5850", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-13T11:24:11.070", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1073", "parent_id": "5844", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "Syntactically, it is the copula `だ` with conjunct `が`, probably used in a\ncleft sentence with some omission. `が` often connects contrasting clauses, but\nas with this case, it can just connect two clauses that do not contrast. The\nliteral translation is\n\n> ' **On top of the fact that** (it) **is** my uncle who lives close-by (that\n> I am going to talk about), I've heard that he isn't doing fine lately.\n\nA more natural translation may be close to yours:\n\n> 'Speaking of my uncle who lives close-by, I've heard that he isn't doing\n> fine lately.\n\nThe mistake you made is the scope of `最近` 'lately'. It should not be \"heard\nlately\" but should be \"not doing fine lately\". Or, maybe you took that\ncorrectly, but your translation is ambiguous.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-13T10:59:41.223", "id": "5849", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-14T12:04:34.977", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-14T12:04:34.977", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5848", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "> Now, in between the words 開発 and 販売 there happens to be a nakaguro. In this\n> context what does it mean? Is it simply a short hand listing for する verbs?\n> (similar to an & sign?) or perhaps it is used to build some special type of\n> compound verbs?\n\nAccording to the [Japanese Wikipedia article on\n「・」](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%B7#.E4.BD.B5.E8.A8.98.E3.81.99.E3.82.8B.E5.8D.98.E8.AA.9E.E3.81.AE.E5.8C.BA.E5.88.87.E3.82.8A),\nthis mark is mainly used as a divider in compound words. It would therefore\nnot _mean_ anything here _per se_ , but rather function to make it clear that\nthis is a compound word composed of 開発 and 販売.\n\n> Also how would that be read (e.g. pronounced)?\n\n「・」 is not usually pronounced. However, てん, ぽつ, or ぽち is sometimes spoken to\nindicate this character when the need arises.\n\n[This YouTube video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6gjXkHW9zw) contains a\ntranscript specifically containing 開発・販売. If you listen to the dialogue, you\nwill not hear any pause between 開発 and 販売.\n\n> Considering that this is an encyclopedia article, is this convention formal\n> or informal?\n\nSince it's main purpose is to indicate a division in a compound word, I\nsuspect it could be used in any formal or informal situation warranting this\nprecision.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-13T21:42:03.617", "id": "5852", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-13T21:42:03.617", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "937", "parent_id": "5851", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "中点 `・` is used to express listing. In English, it would be expressed with a\ncomma and the word `and`.\n\n> A・B・C (Japanese) \n> A, B, and C (English)\n\nJapanese has a counterpart to the comma, that is 読点 `、`, but its use is\ndifferent from a comma. Some people use 読点 for listing things like this:\n\n> A、B、C\n\nbut it is not standard. In horizontal writing, some people use the English\npunctuation `,` and `.`. In that case, the comma `,` can be used for listing.\n\nIt is a good point that you recognized that `する` is not repeated. If you\nwanted to, the non-final ones will become `し(て)`, and 読点 would be used instead\nof 中点.\n\n> 開発・販売する \n> 開発し、販売する\n\nThis indicates that 中点 is used for connecting noun phrases that are not\nsyntactically connected. When the listed items are connected syntactically as\nin the latter example above, 読点 is used.\n\n中点 is not usually pronounced, but if you want to, `や` or `と` may work in some\ncases.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-14T00:30:38.413", "id": "5854", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-18T13:21:55.043", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-18T13:21:55.043", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5851", "post_type": "answer", "score": 22 } ]

[ { "body": "AFAIK, `っぱなし` is the more rough/\"spoken\" form of `～放【はな】す` (in the same way\n`やっぱり` comes from `やはり`, etc.). `放す` means to \"set free\", \"leave\", etc., so\n`っぱなし` means that something remains in the state it was in after the action.\nHowever, it carries the nuance that the final state is something that is not\nnormal and/or is undesirable.\n\n> 窓を開けっぱなしにするな → Don't leave the window open! \n> ...東京まで立ちっぱなしだった → Standing all the way to Tokyo (when it's expected you'd\n> be able to sit).\n\nAs for `～きり`, I'm pretty sure the pattern is `～た＋きり`, so your second example\nis wrong.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-14T03:07:43.117", "id": "5857", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-14T03:07:43.117", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "78", "parent_id": "5855", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 }, { "body": "The difference, I believe, is that `～ぱなし` refers to when something is left as\nit is for some amount of time, such as a window being left open. It can be\neither opened or closed at any time, it just happens to be left open for the\namount of time being spoken about.\n\n`～きり` refers to \"completeness\", so something has happened and is now finalized\nin that form. More like a window being broken. The \"broken-ness\" of the window\nis not something that we can easily switch from.\n\nSo in your first example, the son has gone into his room, and now he's done\ndealing with people. He's not coming out, the situation is ended. Presumably,\nthe son will come out of the room again some time in his life, but the use of\n`～きり` conveys a sentiment of finality - he won't come out for the rest of the\nday.\n\nIn your third example, there is no completion involved in standing on a train,\nit's just a situation that continues for a while in that state. Unlike the son\nin the room, there's nothing really final about the fact that the person on\nthe train is standing. They could just as easily have been sitting if the\ntrain had not been as crowded, but they happened to be standing for the\nduration of the trip.\n\nThe second example is not an example of the `きり` grammatical construct you are\ntalking about. It's part of a compound noun `付{つ}きっ切{き}り`, which means\n\"constant attendance\" or \"constant supervision\".\n\nHope that helps.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-14T03:15:50.460", "id": "5859", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-15T04:35:58.773", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-15T04:35:58.773", "last_editor_user_id": "119", "owner_user_id": "119", "parent_id": "5855", "post_type": "answer", "score": 10 } ]

[ { "body": "I agree with you. Using を sounds ungrammatical. With 考慮, を should be used, and\nI think the writer of を配慮 got mixed up.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-14T03:11:24.517", "id": "5858", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-14T03:11:24.517", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5856", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "「に配慮する」はtake care of （自動詞） 「を配慮する」はcare （他動詞）", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2021-05-23T00:58:00.340", "id": "86768", "last_activity_date": "2021-05-23T00:58:00.340", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "44040", "parent_id": "5856", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 } ]

[ { "body": "As Chocolate suggests, one difference is that かけ implies that the activity is\nnot completed, whereas ぱなし means that the activity is completed, and as a\nresult, some negative situation (messed up, etc.) is left.\n\n> やりかけた 'had started working on something (but have not completed)' \n> やりっぱなし 'completed doing something, (and have not cleaned/put away the tools\n> after it)'\n>\n> 食べかけたりんご 'an apple I have started eating (but have not eaten up)'\n\n`食べっぱなしのりんご` is very strange because, if you complete eating it, there should\nnot be anything to talk about regarding the situation of the apple that had\ndisappeared. You can talk about a dish (that had the apple on it) not being\nput away, or a table on which such dish is left, but then, the sentence should\nbe\n\n> 食べっぱなしの皿 \n> 食べっぱなしの食卓", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-14T12:42:00.297", "id": "5863", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-14T15:53:32.133", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5860", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "They are called adverbs. Among them, やっぱり and うっかり are called sentential\nadverbs, and are independent of the core event described by the predicate.\nさっぱり, ひっそり, ぐっすり, and すっきり are called manner adverbs, and are directly tied to\nthe core event described by the predicate. I am not sure which group こっそり\nbelongs to.", "comment_count": 10, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-14T08:33:45.927", "id": "5862", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-14T08:39:29.133", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-14T08:39:29.133", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5861", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "According to the\n[wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E), there\nis no law that declares official documents should be written in Japanese, or\nstating that Japanese is the official language in Japan.\n\nBut there are some laws that requires the use of Japanese is certain\nsituations, e.g. in court.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-14T14:19:57.730", "id": "5865", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-14T14:19:57.730", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "903", "parent_id": "5864", "post_type": "answer", "score": 9 }, { "body": "I asked my Japanese teacher why there wasn't an official language in Japan.\nShe asked me why there would be. HHhhmmm.... If you follow the [wiki\nlink](http://houseikyoku.sangiin.go.jp/column/column068.htm) you recover these\nfacts (straight from the japanese gov')\n\n> 日本の国語は日本語であるとか、公用語は日本語であるなどと定める条文はないんだ。\n> まあ、日本国内で普遍的に使用されている言語は、日本語しかないから、日本語が我が国の国語であり、また、公用語であるということになるよね。\n\nSo basically, yeah, there is no need. Except for the court-room-language\nclause:\n\n> 「裁判所では、日本語を用いる」（裁判所法（昭和22年法律第59号）第74条）\n\nAll though whose to say what \"日本語\" is.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-20T22:56:17.553", "id": "5930", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-21T01:27:43.907", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-21T01:27:43.907", "last_editor_user_id": "921", "owner_user_id": "1454", "parent_id": "5864", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "「[沢山]{たくさん}」 and 「[一杯]{いっぱい}」 both refer to the noun, but the former means\n\"many\" so it would be used for an arbitrarily large quantity, whereas the\nlatter means \"full\" so it would be used more to refer to the capacity of\nwhatever is containing the quantity.\n\n「[良]{よ}く」 is the adverb form of 「[良]{い}い」, and refers to the verb, to indicate\nan \"augmented state\" appropriate for the verb.", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-14T19:38:27.320", "id": "5869", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-14T19:38:27.320", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "22", "parent_id": "5866", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 }, { "body": "たくさん means that the quantity is large: “many,” “much,” and “a lot.” As Ignacio\nVazquez-Abrams said, いっぱい means “full,” but いっぱい is colloquially also used to\nmean the same thing as たくさん. (In child-speak, they also mean that the degree\nis high: 今日は(いっぱい/たくさん)遊んだね (you played a lot today).)\n\nAdverb よく does not mean that the quantity is large. It means:\n\n * very much, when talking about degree (not quantity): よく知ってるやん is an example of this.\n * often: よく行きます is an example of this.\n\nよく is also the continuative form of adjective よい/いい.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-16T23:29:09.183", "id": "5881", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-16T23:29:09.183", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "15", "parent_id": "5866", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokuon>\n\n> The sokuon is also used at the end of a sentence, to indicate a glottal stop\n> (a sharp or cut-off articulation), which may indicate angry or surprised\n> speech.\n\nThe equivalent [Japanese article](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%A3) also\nsuggests it may be used when a person can't speak, as from a blocked throat or\nextreme pain.\n\nOften, in manga, it is used effectively as an alternative to an exclamation\npoint (e.g., わかってるよッ そんなのッ), or in addition to one as well.\n\nAside from these uses at the end of a sentence, the sokuon may also be used\nfor stuttering (e.g., たっ大したもんだ).\n\nIn your example, I think the sokuon plus \"!\" is slightly different than if it\nwas just \"!\", but I'm not sure what that intended distinction is (if any)...", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-14T18:55:37.867", "id": "5868", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-14T18:55:37.867", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1365", "parent_id": "5867", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "古希, also 古稀. 希 appears to simply be a simplified version of 稀. The word\nactually comes from a poem, rather than a song.\n\n古稀 technically means 70 years of age, but could sometimes be interpreted as\n70th birthday, as in 古稀の祝い, \"70th birthday celebration\".\n\nHere are the Chinese line 古稀 derives from, a Japanese transcription thereof,\nand an English translation thereof.\n\n> 人生七十古来稀 \n> 人生{じんせい}七十{しちじゅう}古来{こらい}稀{まれ}なり \n> but living until 70 has always been rare\n\nFirstly, you may note that the Chinese line does not actually say \"古希\" as you\nsuppose in your question. Secondly, it becomes apparent that 古来稀なり is the\norigin of 古稀, with 来 and なり simply dropped at some point. But it basically\nmeans the same thing...\"(that which) has always been rare\", i.e., living to be\n(or being) 70 years old.\n\nAnd if the poem in full should interest you...\n\nBy way of [a random blog](http://underverse.blogspot.com/2009/04/wednesday-\ntang-poetry-blogging.html), a decent translation of the poem:\n\n> Every day after court I pawn my Spring clothes \n> every day from the waterway I come home drunk \n> wherever I go I owe money for wine \n> but living until 70 has always been rare \n> butterflies float half-seen among the flowers \n> dragonflies flit here and there across the water \n> I urge you to flow with the wind and light \n> enjoy your time together and don't fight\n\nFor much more detail - in Japanese - you can check what a site called A Rainy\nDay (and its section on idioms derived from Chinese literature/history) [has\nto say about 古稀](http://www23.tok2.com/home/rainy/seigo-koki.html).\nSpecifically on that page, under 現代語訳 is a more complete explanation of the\npoem.\n\nThe basic idea is: you rack up debts for wine, yet life is short (living to 70\nis rare)...why don't we take the time to watch the butterflies, the\ndragonflies, et cetera, and simply enjoy ourselves for a while?", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-16T00:29:03.303", "id": "5874", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-16T00:29:03.303", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1365", "parent_id": "5871", "post_type": "answer", "score": 9 } ]

[ { "body": "Yes, 一杯 is also used for \"conceptually\" full. As far as I know, 一杯 can work as\nan adjective, adverb or noun, and easily correlates to the english \"full.\"\nHowever, when you used \"filled,\" you are using a verb, and in those sentences\nperhaps another word would work better (I do not know if all emotions/mental\nstates can be used with 一杯) . Though I can imagine a competent sentence\nconstructed using 一杯 to approximate the meaning you are expressing with\n\"filled,\" there are other expression and words that would work better. As a\nword of advice, it is not so helpful to seek direct correlations between words\nof languages as disparate as English and Japanese.\n\n\"Full of anger\" is one phrase that correlates nicely to the Japanese\n怒りに満ちて［でいっぱいになって］いる\n\n> 彼の心はくすぶる怒りと復讐心でいっぱいだった。He was full of smouldering anger and revengefulness.\n\nSee also:\n[http://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=full+of+anger&ref=sa](http://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=full+of+anger&ref=sa)\n\nOther related common words:\n\n> 目一杯 【めいっぱい】 (adj-na,adv,n) with all one's might\n>\n> 精一杯(P); 精いっぱい 【せいいっぱい】 (n-adv) with all one's might;\n```\n\n> その速さで精一杯ですか。 Is that as fast as you can go?\n> \n```\n\n>\n> 腹一杯(P); 腹いっぱい 【はらいっぱい】 (adv,n) bellyful; full stomach; to one's heart's\n> content;\n>\n> 力一杯(P); 力いっぱい 【ちからいっぱい】 (n-adv) with might and main; with all one's\n> strength;\n```\n\n> 彼は力いっぱい引っ張ったが、岩はびくともしなかった。He pulled with all his strength but the rock\n> would not move.\n> \n```\n\n>\n> 元気一杯; 元気いっぱい 【げんきいっぱい】 (adj-na,adv,n) brimming with health (vigor); full of\n> vitality; full of health\n>\n> 手一杯; 手いっぱい 【ていっぱい】 (adj-na,n) having one's hands full; not having any room\n> to do more; at the limit\n```\n\n> 彼は砂を手いっぱいにすくいあげた。 He scooped up sand by the handful.\n> \n```", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-15T21:17:45.417", "id": "5873", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-17T01:42:12.590", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-17T01:42:12.590", "last_editor_user_id": "706", "owner_user_id": "706", "parent_id": "5872", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "You are asking what や in 大きすぎやしないか is.\n\nI think that it is a colloquial deformation of は, as is explained in [this\nentry in\nDaijirin](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E3%82%84&dtype=0&dname=0ss&stype=1&index=119543100000&pagenum=11).\nAccording to this explanation, it was originally 大きすぎはしないか, in which particle\nは was used to emphasize the part 大きすぎ.\n\nWhen attached to certain verbs, it is often further contracted as in わかりやしない →\nわかりゃしない, 聞きやしない → 聞きゃしない. But this is not always permitted, and I do not think\nthat contraction 大きすぎやしない → 大きすぎゃしない is acceptable to many people. (For more\ndetail on when this contraction is accepted, see question “[Contraction of や,\nthe variant of\nは](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/5882/contraction-\nof-%E3%82%84-the-variant-of-%E3%81%AF)” by sawa.)\n\nThe question about 言えば and あれば is a different question. If you want to ask it,\nplease post it as a separate question.\n\n(Before I looked up the dictionary, I was thinking of a different answer. In\nthe classical Japanese, there was a particle や which denotes questioning\n(疑問の係助詞「や」). It is no longer used in the modern Japanese except in fixed\nphrases such as …するや否や. I was thinking that や in …やしないか might be this や.\nHowever, this is probably not the case because …やしない without か does not have\nthe meaning of questioning.)", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-16T23:13:51.743", "id": "5879", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-17T00:55:26.407", "last_edit_date": "2017-04-13T12:43:44.157", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "15", "parent_id": "5875", "post_type": "answer", "score": 13 } ]

[ { "body": "The simplest way of saying \"you've gotten better\" is `上手になりました`. A lot of the\ntime you hear `ね` after that :)", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-16T20:58:49.120", "id": "5877", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-16T20:58:49.120", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "921", "parent_id": "5876", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 }, { "body": "You can use `なる` (to become) to indicate change, as follows:\n\n> うまくなる (い-adjective, い->く) \n> 上手になる (な-adjective + に)\n\nThese both mean \"to become good/skilled\".\n\nThen for \"to become more skilled\" you can use もっと, さらに or 前より:\n\n> もっと上手になる to become better \n> さらに上手になる to become even better \n> 前より上手になる to become better than before", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-16T21:01:08.307", "id": "5878", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-17T23:15:05.453", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-17T23:15:05.453", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1272", "parent_id": "5876", "post_type": "answer", "score": 14 }, { "body": "* `うまい` can be written with the same kanji as `[上]{じょう}[手]{ず}`: `[上手]{うま}い`. \n\n * As you have in your English phrase, the natural way to say it in Japanese is to use \"have gotten\" or \"become\", which is `なる` in Japanese, as ジョン answers.\n\n * Alternatively, it is possible to stick with `だ` or `です` as in your answer using `もっと`, but in that case, the standard for comparison is not clear enough without explicit mentioning. It can be taken that you are comparing with someone else. You need to add a phrase like `前より` or `以前より` to indicate that the comparison is along time. Then, you do not necessarily need `もっと` as comparison would be expressed by such phrase.\n\n * But more importantly, `こと` cannot be used in this combination.\n\n> 料理が(前より(もっと)) {上手だ/上手い/上手になった/上手くなった} \n> 料理するのが(前より(もっと)) {上手だ/上手い/上手になった/上手くなった} \n> * 料理することが(前より(もっと)) {上手だ/上手い/上手になった/上手くなった}\n\nIf you are using `得意` \"be good at\", then using `こと` is not as bad.\n\n> 料理が得意だ \n> 料理するのが得意だ \n> 料理することが得意だ", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-16T23:21:23.263", "id": "5880", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-16T23:38:53.850", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-16T23:38:53.850", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5876", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I think that the rule is as follows: ignoring -suru verbs and special verb 来る,\nwhich cannot be contracted, verbs whose stem ends with a consonant other than\n-w (ワア行以外の五段活用の動詞) can be contracted, and the other verbs cannot be\ncontracted. This is at least consistent with the given examples and some other\nexamples which I came up with.\n\n * 聞く (kik-u): 聞きや (kik-i-ya) → 聞きゃ (kik-ya) is acceptable\n * 大きすぎる (ookisugi-ru): 大きすぎや (ookisugi-ya) → 大きすぎゃ (ookisug-ya) is not acceptable\n * 笑う (< waraw-u): 笑いや (< waraw-i-ya) → ??? (waraw-ya) is not acceptable\n\nAlso this rule seems to make sense: the vowel “i” of the bold き in 聞 **き**\nやしない is not part of a verb stem and is inserted just to attach the particle や,\nand therefore it can be omitted. The vowel “i” of ぎ in 大きす **ぎ** やしない is part\nof a verb stem and therefore it cannot be omitted. In the case of verbs whose\nstem ends with -w such as 笑う (< waraw-u), 笑いや (< waraw-i-ya) cannot be\ncontracted to waraw-ya simply because we cannot say “wya.”\n\n_Added_ : After posting this answer, I have realized that some people use the\nform [笑]{わら}やしない. I think that this is at least more acceptable than 大きすぎゃしない,\nand that perhaps it is as acceptable as other examples such as 聞きゃしない. If this\nis the case, the rule has to be modified: it is acceptable to contract verbs\nwhose stem ends with -w, in which case -w-i-ya becomes just -ya. This might be\na result of two changes: first -w-i-ya becomes -w-ya as in other verbs, and\nthen -w-ya automatically becomes -ya just as -w-u becomes -u.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-17T00:24:11.580", "id": "5883", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-17T01:06:32.900", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-17T01:06:32.900", "last_editor_user_id": "15", "owner_user_id": "15", "parent_id": "5882", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Probably, it is short for [不]{ぶ}[細]{さい}[工]{く} 'ugly' + [可]{か}[愛]{わい}い\n'pretty'.\n\nIt may sound contradictory, but the direction of the two properties point to\nslightly different angles, and the positive one somehow out wins the negative\nproperty.\n\nRealizing that you mention it was used in a pet magazine, I think it typically\nrefers to the face of a bulldog or a pug, which sometimes is ugly but\nnevertheless cute. It is contrasted with other kinds of dogs that have the\nnose sticking out and the chin skinny, which are considered simply\n\"handsome/beautiful\".\n\nA similar one with contradictory flavor is ヘタウマ, which is short for\n[下手]{へた}([糞]{くそ}) 'bad at' + [上手]{うま}い 'good at', and means 'drawings or\nwritings intentionally made to look bad (like a child's scribble) but are\npretty much under control'.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-17T13:12:47.297", "id": "5885", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-17T13:52:51.150", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-17T13:52:51.150", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5884", "post_type": "answer", "score": 10 } ]

[ { "body": "Simply translate them carefully.\n\n> 多分、いいペットでしょうね. \n> 'Probably, they are good pets'.\n>\n> 多分、いいペットになるでしょうね. \n> 'Probably, they will become good pets'.\n\nDon't you think the second one is closer to the meaning you wanted?\n\nIf you want to emphasize it is an assumption, you can say\n\n> いいペットになりそうですね.", "comment_count": 16, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-18T01:29:49.883", "id": "5890", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-18T01:47:10.453", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-18T01:47:10.453", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5889", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "Does the person describing another's habits use らしい as well? \nIsn't it something like this\n\n> A: BhlaBhlaらしいな \n> B: らしいと言えばらしいな\n\nIn this case, B is just nodding to a point he did not picture before. \"I can\npicture it now that you said it.\". The same as そう言えばそうかもな。 \nらしいな alone would mean \"Yes, you are right.\" without the previous nuance I\nmentioned.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-18T08:08:46.590", "id": "5893", "last_activity_date": "2022-03-16T05:56:29.797", "last_edit_date": "2022-03-16T05:56:29.797", "last_editor_user_id": "30454", "owner_user_id": "1065", "parent_id": "5892", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "'AといえばA' means \"(I would not spontaneously say so, but) if you are going to\nsay A, I am not strongly against it\". 'AらしいといえばAらしい' means \"(I would not\nspontaneously say so, but) if you are going to say it is characteristic of A,\nI am not strongly against it\".", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-18T13:09:01.567", "id": "5898", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-18T13:16:20.607", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-18T13:16:20.607", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5892", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "Could it be 隼（はやぶさ）- falcon? Pretty certain about the top part, less sure\nabout the bottom.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-18T10:41:30.207", "id": "5896", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-18T10:41:30.207", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "399", "parent_id": "5895", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I have a feeling it says the same as the romaji directly below it, painted on\nthe side of the bike:\n<http://www.suzukicycles.com/Product%20Lines/Cycles/Products/Hayabusa/2012/GSX1300R.aspx>\n\nThe literal meaning can be looked up in any of the dictionaries listed on [our\nresources\npage](https://japanese.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/756/resources-for-\nlearning-japanese), [like\nthis](http://jisho.org/words?jap=hayabusa&eng=&dict=edict) for example.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-18T15:28:18.533", "id": "5900", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-18T15:28:18.533", "last_edit_date": "2017-03-16T15:48:25.793", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "29", "parent_id": "5895", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 } ]

[ { "body": "* どうせ may imply excess or insufficiency.\n\n> どうせ、彼は中学生だ。幼稚園児とけんかすれば勝つだろう。 \n> どうせ、彼は中学生だ。大したことはできないだろう。\n\n所詮 usually implies insufficiency (# indicates pragmmatic anomaly).\n\n> # 所詮、彼は中学生だ。幼稚園児とけんかすれば勝つだろう。 \n> 所詮、彼は中学生だ。大したことはできないだろう。\n\n * どうせ implies that **a proposition** has something to do with the context. \n\n> どうせ、掃除する \n> どうせ、(彼は)中学生だ\n\n所詮 implies that **a property** of something has something to do with the\ncontext.\n\n> * 所詮、掃除する \n> 所詮、(彼は)中学生だ\n\nFrom this, it follows that どうせ, but not 所詮, can be used in conditionals.\n\n> どうせ掃除するなら、丁寧にする。 \n> どうせ掃除しても、またすぐに汚れる。 \n> * 所詮、掃除するなら、丁寧にする。 \n> * 所詮、掃除しても、またすぐに汚れる。", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-19T04:57:13.870", "id": "5905", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-19T11:33:16.277", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-19T11:33:16.277", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5899", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "The difference is difficult and the linked question gives a decent\nexplanation, but here is my two cents:\n\nWhen you use `料理するのが`, it immediately feels like there is a direct actor\ninvolved. If you look at all the examples sentences in the link, when you use\n`の`, it puts a focus on the fact that somebody is performing the action.\n\nHowever, when you use `料理することが`, the focus is no longer on the actor involved,\nbut the _action itself_. If I would translate the third sentence into English,\nit sounds to me like the following:\n\n> The act of cooking has become better.\n\nI realize that the above sentence is unnatural English, but my point is that\nthe difference between `の` and `こと` is whether the focus is on the actor or\nthe action itself.\n\nHowever, my above explanation _might_ not fit every pattern, so I would take\nthis as general advice. For example,\n\n> サッカーを見ることが好きです。\n\nIn the above sentence I am using `こと` even though the act of \"watching\" has a\ndirect actor involved. I believe the reason why `こと` sounds better here is\nbecause the act of liking is focused on the `サッカーを見ること` which is the focus of\nthe sentence.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-21T23:33:59.680", "id": "5942", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-21T23:42:55.050", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-21T23:42:55.050", "last_editor_user_id": "1217", "owner_user_id": "1217", "parent_id": "5901", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 }, { "body": "It's a very rough and shallow answer, but:\n\n * こと is a concept/an idea.\n * の is a tangible thing.\n\nYou can be good only at doing the tangible thing. It's meaningless to be good\nat an idea.\n\nJust remember that with \"上手だ\", it's \"の\" that works for the reasons I\nmentioned. With other \"verbs,\" more complex explanations may be required, and\nhave partially already been discussed here.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-22T08:07:11.077", "id": "5946", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-22T08:07:11.077", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "356", "parent_id": "5901", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "There is 走り回る, a straightforward counterpart. I don't quite get why you came\nup with 遊ぶ 'play' rather than the more straightforward 走る 'run'.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-19T04:29:05.857", "id": "5903", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-19T04:29:05.857", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5902", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I noticed that your original definition of doing things freely does not apply\nto all of your examples. For that definition, though, using 勝手 (\"one's own\nconvenience/way\") may work well.\n\nFor example: 勝手にそんなふうに想像するなよ。 Don't let your imagination run wild. (\"run wild\"\nliterally being \"in the kind of way that you like/suits you\" here.) (Example\nfrom tatoeba)\n\n遊び回る does mean\" run around,\" sort of, but more in the sense of doing many\npositive things. Usually 遊び回る, from what I've seen, has a more positive\nconnotation, as in running around town and having fun, so for your examples it\nwouldn't make much sense.\n\nAs user458 said, 走り回る is a direct translation, but I don't think it would work\nfor any but the first example; I've only seen it mean run around as in run\naround wildly, like a dog would do; I've never seen it mean something like\ngoing to many different places.\n\nFor the second example, you may be able to use 走り回る, but I'm not sure. I would\nthink you could use 遊ぶ, as it can mean \"hang out\" and \"hanging out with the\nhooligans\" seems about the same as running around to me. 勝手に遊ぶ may be closer\nto the meaning you wish.\n\nFor the last example, 至る所 (everywhere, all over) might be used to the same\neffect, if you just replace \"run around\" with \"everywhere,\" it means the same\nthing.\n\nI'm not fluent in Japanese, so I'm a bit unsure about the connotations (I'm\nonly judging from what I've seen), so I hope that a native or someone fluent\ncomes to help you, but if they don't, I hope my answer helped!", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2017-05-23T21:05:34.940", "id": "47683", "last_activity_date": "2017-05-23T21:31:36.507", "last_edit_date": "2017-05-23T21:31:36.507", "last_editor_user_id": "19870", "owner_user_id": "19870", "parent_id": "5902", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 }, { "body": "I think the limit here is in the fact that the phrase \"running around\" in\nEnglish can have multiple connotations, all stemming from the metaphoric\nnotion of a person running, but actually being fundamentally different:\n\n 1. A dog running around for the sake of exercising and having fun is doing so because it's fun and enjoyable. This is a bit literal.\n\nThis case might use 走り回る or 遊び回る. Since we are talking about an animal and its\nnature, you could possibly even use 自由ままに to describe an animal \"needing to do\nits thing\"\n\n 2. To run around with some hooligans usually connotes simply being with and participating with said group of people, not necessarily physically running. This is definitely not literal, but could imply you're doing this for fun.\n\nThis case might use 遊び回る or possibly 遊びつける, meaning to \"join in for fun\", in a\nway.\n\n 3. To run around doing errands brings the notion that the activity of running errands and such is frenetic and possibly not enjoyable. This is more about the feeling of physical activity and exertion.\n\nThis case might better be described by the phrase あっちこっちに行ったり来たりする.\n\nFor those semantic reasons, I'm not sure that there is a phrase that fits\nthese scenarios. It's one of those things where the English language takes\nsome liberties to describe something non-literally, and attempting to\ntranslate that non-literal phrase to a language where there is no correlation\nto the sort.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2017-05-23T22:31:35.277", "id": "47685", "last_activity_date": "2017-05-23T22:50:56.603", "last_edit_date": "2017-05-23T22:50:56.603", "last_editor_user_id": "21684", "owner_user_id": "21684", "parent_id": "5902", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 } ]

[ { "body": "It is clear that `いう` is historically related to `言う`, but it has evolved into\nan independent expression. You should write it in hiragana as `という` but never\nusing kanji like `と言う`, and translate it as `that`, but never as `say`.\n\nSome other points in your translation.\n\n * `one thing great`: The Japanese passage mentions two great points. You took the construction incorrectly.\n * `thing great about lang-8`: It is missing the description seen in Japanese that the person actually did Lang-8. Also, if a proper noun is spelled in a certain way in the original, you should stick to it including capitalization unless it is a mistake. Should be something like `thing great about having done Lang-8`.\n * `no matter how many mistakes`: `どんな間違い` means \"whatever (kind of) mistake\", not \"how (ever) many mistakes\". The Japanese for the latter is `どんなに間違い`.\n * `english`: should be `English`.\n * `I realized that ...`: You have this in a wrong position. What was realized is that \"even the native speakers ...\", not the two points including the other one. Should be `I realized that even the native speakers ...`.\n * `the point is that`: You have this in a wrong position. There are two points mentioned. It should be something like `the points that are ... are, (the point) that ... and (the point) that ...`. It may be natural to not translate `the point` in front of the two points.\n\nI don't want to be offensive, but I honestly think your translation is far\nfrom a good translation.", "comment_count": 6, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-19T05:39:05.813", "id": "5906", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-19T05:39:05.813", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5904", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "According to the wiki articles\n[五十音順](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ja/wiki/%E4%BA%94%E5%8D%81%E9%9F%B3%E9%A0%86)\nand\n[日本語文字列照合順番](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ja/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E6%96%87%E5%AD%97%E5%88%97%E7%85%A7%E5%90%88%E9%A0%86%E7%95%AA),\nthere is an Industrial Standard (JIS X 4061) specifying the ordering of kana,\nthough sometimes not strictly followed.\n\nThe lengthening mark will be changed to あいうえお according to the previous kana,\nand ん if the previous kana is ん, and the changed word would be used in\nsorting. If two changed word forms are the same but the original one is\ndifferent, then the one changed from the lengthening mark would come after:\nああ→あー\n\nThe words you listed should be ordered as:\n\n```\n\n 合格{ごうかく}\n 航空{こうくう}\n 項目{こうもく}\n 効力{こうりょく}\n 呼応{こおう}\n コーナー\n コーヒー\n コーラー\n 氷{こおり}\n \n```", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-19T08:35:14.593", "id": "5908", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-20T03:41:24.547", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-20T03:41:24.547", "last_editor_user_id": "921", "owner_user_id": "903", "parent_id": "5907", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "# やはり\n\n 1. 'after second thought'. In this usage, the colloquial form やっぱり can be used.\n\n> 疲れているが、やはり/やっぱり行くつもりだ。 \n> I am tired, but after second thought, I decided to go.\n\n 2. 'as expected'\n\n> バーゲンセールに行くと、やはり人だかりだった。 \n> When I went to a bargain sale, it was crowded as I expected.\n\n# さすがに\n\n'as expected from the severe level of ...'\n\n> 疲れているが、さすがに行くつもりだ。 \n> I am tired, but I am going to go as expected (because I have been absent\n> for so many times, and it is severe now).\n>\n> バーゲンセールに行くと、さすがに人だかりだった。 \n> When I went to a bargain sale, it was crowded as expected (from the\n> unbeatable deal they are offering).\n\n# さすが\n\n'... (= a positive thing) expected from the characteristics'\n\n> 疲れているのに行くとは、さすがだ。 \n> It is tremendous of him to go even when he is tired.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-19T13:30:06.467", "id": "5910", "last_activity_date": "2014-11-03T23:09:47.523", "last_edit_date": "2014-11-03T23:09:47.523", "last_editor_user_id": "6840", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5909", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I don't have the reputation to add a comment, so I'll post a reply.\n\nI think it is best to think of やはり (typically) as essentially \"after all...!\"\nFor example, your friend said he wasn't very hungry but he ended up eating a\nlot: Yahari, onaka suiteita!\n\nOn the other hand, さすが has a very nuanced difference. I like to think of it as\nsomething like \"that's sure like [him/her]!\" Again, this is a typical use. A\nsituation where you often hear it is, in the same situation, your friend says\nhe isn't hungry but he eats a lot: \"Sasuga, Jon da ne!\"\n\nWhile these sentences look very similar, the nuance is slightly different. In\nthe first instance the expectation was different from the reality, so we were\nleft noticing something important _after-all_. In the latter case, we know\nthat Jon is a big eater, and we expected him to eat tons despite the fact that\nhe said he wasn't hungry. So Jon eating a lot _confirmed_ how Jon-like his\naction was.\n\nAs you can see, both might be possible but the nuance would be different.\nやっぱり行くつもりだ。implies that in then end, you're still feeling like going anyway. /\nさすがに行くつもりだ。 would imply that you're just the type of person who goes even when\ntired.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2014-11-04T18:23:46.037", "id": "19367", "last_activity_date": "2014-11-04T18:23:46.037", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "7654", "parent_id": "5909", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 } ]

[ { "body": "I have no clue as to what kind of answer to your question is possible, and\nusually, this kind of question is closed, but for the particular lyrics, here\nis my translation (the romaji transcription has a few mistakes, so it is\npartly based on my guess):\n\n> I like you, but I cannot like the girl that you like. I cannot. Rather, I\n> hate her.\n>\n> I peeked to see you while being careful that no one notices and while\n> encouraging myself. What I saw was you gazing at her while being careful\n> that no one notices. I hate it. I could tell your voice from a distant\n> place, but what I heard was her name sung by your lips.\n>\n> Why is it her? Why is it not me? My God, why did you not let me come to know\n> him earlier?\n>\n> I like you, but I cannot like the girl that you like. I cannot. Rather, I\n> hate her.\n>\n> If I were to know your body, my heart would beat stronger and get warmer.\n> But what can ring your mind is the breath spilled out from her.\n>\n> Why is it her? I am better. My God, please let him awake from his dream as\n> soon as possible.\n>\n> I would like to love whatever you love, but regarding her, it is just\n> impossible. I cannot like her. Because ...\n>\n> I do not like it that your retina, your hollow voice, your large hands, and\n> your warm back, all belong to her. I cannot tolerate it by now. I have been\n> watching all but you.\n>\n> I like you, but (I cannot like her. I cannot like her.) I would like to\n> behave, but ... (what I do not like is what do not like) I cannot.\n>\n> I like you, but I cannot like the girl that you like. I cannot. Rather, I\n> hate her.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-19T15:38:46.663", "id": "5912", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-19T15:49:27.353", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5911", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "It's mainly down to the myriad readings of the kanji that are available. For\ninstance Ichigo (the name you reference) may not use the same kanji as 一五\n(one, five)\n\nNote: I'm not a fan of Bleach, so I wouldn't know if Ichigo was spelt in kanji\nor kana.\n\nUsing my dictionary, I'll pull out 5 random kanji that can be read as Ichi or\nGo\n\nIchi can be any of these kanji (took the first 5 kanji only):\n\n * 一\n * 位置\n * 市\n * 壱\n * 居ち\n\nGo can be any of these kanji (took the first 5 kanji only):\n\n * 語\n * 後\n * 五\n * 御\n * 誤\n * 伍\n\nObviously, the combinations of Ichi and Go will be quite small, but since you\ndidn't specify whether you wanted a list of the possible combinations or just\nall of the different readings for these characters.\n\nObviously the list of combinations of these characters that make up meaningful\nnames will be even shorter. But you have to remember that not every Japanese\nperson's name is made with kanji only. Some people (I've met several like\nthis) have kana only given names. Again, you didn't specify whether you wanted\njust names (either given or family) that could be spelt, in romaji, with the\ncharacters \"ichigo\"\n\nThe thing with asking these types of questions, in my opinion, is that there\nare hundreds of ways to convert a romaji word into something from a Japanese\ndictionary.\n\nThese, obviously don't include the kana readings of ichi (いち and イチ) and go (ご\nand ゴ)\n\nSomeone with a higher level of knowledge will be able to provide you with a\nbetter and more detailed answer. I don't wish for this post/answer to come\nacross as pedantic, so I apologise if that is how it came across.", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-19T17:09:29.920", "id": "5914", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-19T17:41:07.307", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-19T17:41:07.307", "last_editor_user_id": "1206", "owner_user_id": "1206", "parent_id": "5913", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "We have three words in everyday vocabulary according to dictionaries.\n\n * 苺 strawberry (pitch accent in Tokyo dialect: Low-High-High)\n * 一語 one word (LHL)\n * 一期 a whole life (usually used in the compound word 一期一会 LHH-L(H)HH?)\n\nAlso we have:\n\n * 一五 one, five (when reading aloud the numbers separately).\n\n参考 <http://accent.u-biq.org/i.html>", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-19T21:10:47.720", "id": "5917", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-19T21:19:27.473", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-19T21:19:27.473", "last_editor_user_id": "1119", "owner_user_id": "1119", "parent_id": "5913", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "## Why is it pronounced \"yen\"?\n\nI was actually wondering this a month or so ago, but found the answer on [the\nWikipedia article for\nyen/en](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yen#Pronunciation_and_etymology).\n\n> The spelling and pronunciation \"yen\" is standard in English. This is because\n> mainly English speakers who visited Japan at the end of the Edo period to\n> the early Meiji period spelled words this way. ... In the 16th century,\n> Japanese /e/(え) and /we/(ゑ) both had been pronounced [je] and Portuguese\n> missionaries had spelled them \"ye\". Some time thereafter, by the middle of\n> the 18th century, /e/ and /we/ came to be pronounced [e] as in modern\n> Japanese, although some regions retain the [je] pronunciation. Walter Henry\n> Medhurst, who had not come to Japan and met any Japanese, having consulted\n> mainly a Japanese-Dutch dictionary, spelled some \"e\"s as \"ye\" in his An\n> English and Japanese, and Japanese and English Vocabulary (1830). In the\n> early Meiji era, James Curtis Hepburn, following Medhurst, spelled all \"e\"s\n> as \"ye\" in his A Japanese and English dictionary (1st ed. 1867). That was\n> the first full-scale Japanese-English/English-Japanese dictionary, which had\n> a strong influence on Westerners in Japan and probably prompted the spelling\n> \"yen\". Hepburn revised most of \"ye\"s to \"e\" in the 3rd edition (1886) in\n> order to mirror the contemporary pronunciation, except \"yen\". This was\n> probably already fixed and has remained so ever since.\n\n## The Symbol ¥\n\nAs long as you are in Japan, ¥ is pronounced the same as 円. I'm not sure\nexactly why the both exist, but I'd guess that it's the same reason that we\nhave \"dollar\" and \"$\" as well as \"euro\" and \"€\" \\- ¥ is not a kanji or word,\nbut rather a symbol. Similar to these examples, even though ¥ comes before the\nnumber, you would still pronounce it at the end of the number; ¥100 and 100円\nwould both be pronounced ひゃくえん.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-19T20:05:18.103", "id": "5916", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-19T20:05:18.103", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "575", "parent_id": "5915", "post_type": "answer", "score": 32 } ]

[ { "body": "I think it means something like:\n\n> `I国`が起こした戦争は、世界中に衝撃 **をもって** 伝えられた。 \n> The war which `country I` initiated was conveyed to the world with a shock. \n> The world was taken aback when told of the war which `country I` initiated.\n\nAccording to [this oshiete\nquestion](http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/6839007.html), `衝撃をもって` has the same\nmeaning as `衝撃と共に` and `衝撃を伴って`, or \"together with shock\"/\"accompanied by\nshock\".", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-21T11:24:06.983", "id": "5938", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-21T11:31:37.410", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-21T11:31:37.410", "last_editor_user_id": "796", "owner_user_id": "796", "parent_id": "5919", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "As you imply, どころ indeed seems to have been derived from ところ by rendaku, but\ntoday, it has evolved into an independent expression. It is no longer part of\na compound. The initial voicedness stands by itself. You cannot replace どころ\nwith ところ any more.\n\n> 金閣寺の美しさを楽しむ **どころ** ではない \n> 'It goes without saying that you cannot enjoy the beauty of Kinkakuji'.\n\n> 金閣寺の美しさを楽しむ **ところ** ではない \n> 'This is not a place/moment where you are supposed to enjoy the beauty of\n> Kinkakuji'.\n\nInteresting question. I had not realized cases where rendaku fossilized into\nan independent expression.\n\nThe alternative you give is correct. A related expression with a different\nmeaning you may want to compare with is:\n\n> 金閣寺の美しさを楽しんでいる場合ではない", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-20T09:02:45.203", "id": "5922", "last_activity_date": "2020-12-14T01:57:14.883", "last_edit_date": "2020-12-14T01:57:14.883", "last_editor_user_id": "37097", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5921", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "Provided that the obvious typos are corrected as I did,\n\n 1. It is correct. 前に is before, までに is by. I cannot feel any difference in the meaning.\n\n 2. It is correct.\n\n 3. The former is wrong. The latter is correct.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-20T12:08:06.390", "id": "5924", "last_activity_date": "2014-08-02T16:11:37.490", "last_edit_date": "2014-08-02T16:11:37.490", "last_editor_user_id": "1628", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5923", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "Peter Sells (1995) calls ないで a “verbal gerund” and なくて an “adjectival gerund”.\nWhen you have participial constructions, it does not make a difference which\none you use, but Sells notices that only the verbal gerund can be selected by\nan auxiliary verb:\n\n> 食べないでおいた \n> * 食べなくておいた (Sells 1995:287)\n\nSimilarly, when you want to use these forms adverbially as in your examples,\nyou have to use ないで. You cannot replace it with なくて. If you do so, they will\nbe interpreted as participial constructions.\n\n> 何もしないで暖かくする (ambiguous) \n> 'not do any activity, and keep the body warm' \n> 'keep the body warm by not doing any activity'\n>\n> 何もしなくて暖かくする (unambiguous) \n> 'not do any activity, and keep the body warm' \n> * 'keep the body warm by not doing any activity'\n\nOther than that, I do not know of a difference.\n\n* * *\n\nSells, Peter (1995) \"Korean and Japanese Morphology from a Lexical\nPerspective\" _Linguistic Inquiry_ **26.2** MIT Press", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-20T14:37:58.373", "id": "5926", "last_activity_date": "2014-10-12T12:04:49.360", "last_edit_date": "2014-10-12T12:04:49.360", "last_editor_user_id": "3097", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5925", "post_type": "answer", "score": 23 } ]

[ { "body": "ながら means doing multiple things simultaneously.\n\nがてら means to do one thing at somewhere middle along way to doing another.\n\nつつ means doing multiple things alongside but not necessarily simultaneously,\nlittle by little in turn.\n\n> 運転しながら食事する \n> 'eat while driving'\n>\n> 運転(し)がてら食事する \n> 'eating along the way driving (after having driven half way)'\n>\n> 運転しつつ食事する \n> 'take a bite and drive a little, take a bite and drive a little, ...'", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-20T16:30:28.387", "id": "5928", "last_activity_date": "2017-07-09T08:27:45.253", "last_edit_date": "2017-07-09T08:27:45.253", "last_editor_user_id": "11104", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5927", "post_type": "answer", "score": 15 }, { "body": "I think the meaning is to drive half the journey (for example) stop for food\nand then drive again to.the destination.\n\n\"We stopped for food on the way here\"", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-10-04T00:02:55.057", "id": "7033", "last_activity_date": "2012-10-04T00:02:55.057", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1772", "parent_id": "5927", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 } ]

[ { "body": "Causative has two meanings: **forcing** and **allowing**. Let me first\nillustrate the semantic distinction considering only \"forcing\":\n\n * Negation of causative of P = \"not force doing P\"\n * Causative of negation of P = \"force to not do P\"\n\nIn general, there is a mismatch between the hierarchy in the syntactic\nstructure (at the surface) and the hierarchy in the logical structure. For\nexample, the English expression `I cannot do P` does not mean \"It is possible\n('can') for me to not do P\" (potential of negation of P) but means \"It is not\nthe case that I can do P\" (negation of potential of P). What the article is\nprobably saying is that `tabe-sase-nai` syntactically looks like the hierarchy\nis \"negation of causative of eat\", but its meaning is \"causative of negation\nof eat\", or \"forcing not to eat\".\n\nNow, there is the same semantic distinction for \"allowing\":\n\n * Negation of causative of P = \"not (particularly) allow doing P\"\n * Causative of negation of P = \"allow not doing P\"\n\nNote that \"forcing\" and \"allowing\" are logically connected under the following\nformulae from modal logic (~ = negation, ◇ = possibility operator (i.e.,\n\"allowing\" in this case), □ = necessity operator (i.e., \"forcing\" in this\ncase)):\n\n> ~◇P = □~P \n> ~□P = ◇~P\n\nFrom this, the expression `tabe-sase-nai` which means \"forcing not to eat\" can\nalso be paraphrased as \"not allowing to eat\".", "comment_count": 8, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-21T01:40:35.143", "id": "5931", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-21T14:18:35.280", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-21T14:18:35.280", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5929", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "In this type of sentence, `まで` means \"all the way to ～\" with emphasis on the\njourney. The question is asking which is faster to get **to** the airport, but\nin order to judge this, you have to consider the whole route. xref [this\npost](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/80/78) for more information.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-21T02:25:49.063", "id": "5933", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-21T02:25:49.063", "last_edit_date": "2017-04-13T12:43:43.857", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "78", "parent_id": "5932", "post_type": "answer", "score": 10 }, { "body": "Basically に is used with a verb, so you can rephrase the sentence with a\nproper verb, for example 着く. The following sentences have almost the same\nmeaning as the original one using まで.\n\n> 空港にバスと電車とどちらが速く着きますか。\n>\n> バスと電車のどちらが速く空港に着きますか。(more natural)\n>\n> 空港に行くのに、バスと電車とどちらが速いですか。\n\nHowever, you cannot use に to modify a noun (バス or 電車) or an adjective (速い). It\nis grammatically incorrect. You can say 空港まで速いか but cannot say ×空港に速いか. Also,\nyou can say 空港までのバス but cannot say ×空港にのバス.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-21T11:07:00.880", "id": "5937", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-25T06:43:32.373", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "1119", "parent_id": "5932", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "I think the literal idea of `在り方` is 'the way it came into existence', 'the\nway it should exist', and it is concerned with the meta level of the way of\ndoing something. As opposed to `仕方` 'way of doing', `在り方` may be translated as\n'the way it is designed to do', 'the way it should be done', etc.\n\nFor verbs not derived from suru-nouns, you can add `-方` to their stem: `書き方`.\nIf you want to use a counterpart to `在り方`, you would have to find a noun with\nthe corresponding concept. You may not be able to find an exact counterpart,\nthough: `[書]{しょ}の在り方` 'the way calligraphy should be', `[書]{しょ}[物]{もつ}の在り方`\n'the way books should be'.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-21T04:47:48.763", "id": "5935", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-21T04:52:53.747", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-21T04:52:53.747", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5934", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 } ]

[ { "body": "The fact is, 先生 is not regularly written in katakana in the first place, so\n**there is no authentic guideline that tells you which is correct**. If you\nare going to write it in katakana, there must be an unusual purpose for doing\nit. If that purpose is to indicate that you just don't/can't use kanji, then\nセンセイ would be appropriate. If the purpose is that you wanted to make it look\nlike it is pronounced by a foreigner or a robot, then センセー might be more\nappropriate.", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-21T13:57:23.247", "id": "5940", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-22T03:27:13.217", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-22T03:27:13.217", "last_editor_user_id": "769", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5939", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "I think it can be either written as 未だに or 今だに, but probably the former is the\nofficial one. This is an example where the difference between ancient Japanese\nand Chinese is relevant. The Japanese native word いまだに comes from いま 'now',\nwhose concept is written as 今 in Chinese, as you wrote, but Chinese had\nanother concept 未 'not yet', which would better fit with いまだに, so the latter\ncame to be written as 未だに.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-22T02:07:09.580", "id": "5944", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-22T02:07:09.580", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5943", "post_type": "answer", "score": 11 } ]

[ { "body": "総理 is an abbreviation for 総理大臣, which in turn is an abbreviation for 内閣総理大臣.\nThis is specifically the Prime Minister of the Cabinet (内閣) and is a formal\ntitle.\n\n首相 is the common and informal name. In Japan, this refers to 内閣総理大臣.\nOriginally, a 相 is a person who assisted a lord or emperor in his work. This\nis essentially a minister. The primary or head 相 is known as 首相, which in\nJapan is the Prime Minister. Note that one of the meanings of 相 is \"to help\",\nwhich leads to the above usage.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-22T16:55:31.030", "id": "5948", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-22T16:55:31.030", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1141", "parent_id": "5947", "post_type": "answer", "score": 19 }, { "body": "In Japanese newspapers, 総理 is used for only Prime Minister of Japan, because\nit is an abbreviation for 内閣総理大臣. Equivalents of other countries are referred\nto as 首相, for example, イギリス首相 (Prime Minister), ドイツ首相 (Bundeskanzler /\nChancellor), フランス首相 (Premier ministre / Prime Minister), スペイン首相 (Presidente\ndel Gobierno / Prime Minister), and 中国首相 (国務院総理 / Premier of the State\nCouncil). It also can be used for the Japanese prime minister. The kanji 相 has\na meaning of \"minister\" since ancient China.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-24T01:14:01.500", "id": "5949", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-24T01:59:24.050", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-24T01:59:24.050", "last_editor_user_id": "1119", "owner_user_id": "1119", "parent_id": "5947", "post_type": "answer", "score": 15 } ]

[ { "body": "* Your example `いいな CM` is not an adjective modifying a noun. It can be taken as a quoted sentence modifying a noun. It may be more recognizable if it were in quotes like `\"いいな\" CM`. The `な` in `いいな` is a sentence final particle that adds the first person's subjective feeling to the proposition.\n\n * There are both the i-adjective `大きい` and the (possibly) na-adjective `大きな`. However, whereas the i-adjective has full paradigm, the 大き part in the na-adjective form cannot be extracted and be used like 大きだ. It looks like the na-adjective form is a fossilized form. For this reason, traditional grammar reserves an independent category called 連体詞. The two words are usually interchangable, but for a subtle difference, see the answer here: [i-adjectives used as na-adjectives: is there a difference? (e.g. 大きい versus 大きな)](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1853).", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-24T02:18:21.887", "id": "5951", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-24T04:51:22.670", "last_edit_date": "2017-04-13T12:43:43.857", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5950", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "The decision on whether transitive or intransitive should be used in the above\nsentences is not based on whether there is a direct object that exists for the\nverb to take. I believe the decision is based on the focus of the sentence,\nthe transitive focuses on the action and the intransitive focuses on the\nsubject. Also, when you use transitive, it implies that there is a change in\nstate and something was affected by the action, whereas the intransitive\nversions do not reflect this.\n\n> タクシーが街を流す\n\nThe above focuses on the action of traveling through town, which is more\nimportant than the subject (taxi). Also, I believe that using transitive shows\nthat something is being affected, in the above example, traveling through town\nshows a change in state (your surroundings are constantly changing), whereas\nif you used the intransitive version, I feel that the change in state is lost\nand the focus is on the taxi only.\n\n> 株が高値をつける\n\nHere again, the focus is on the action and what happened rather than on the\nsubject, and the important aspect is that the stock value changed.\n\n> 酒とみりんが入ります\n\nThis is the opposite, the action is irrelevant, what's important is what\ningredients are used, not the action of putting them in, and also there is no\nnotion of \"change in state\". In other words, you have no idea what is being\naffected.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-24T23:26:03.907", "id": "5954", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-25T04:34:59.590", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-25T04:34:59.590", "last_editor_user_id": "1217", "owner_user_id": "1217", "parent_id": "5952", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 }, { "body": "After thinking several days, now I think that タクシーが流す is not just a transitive\nversion of タクシーが流れる. They can have different meanings (nuances). Basically 流れる\nrepresents just an observation, but 流す often implies a certain intended action\nwhen we talk about taxi. タクシーを（が）流す means to drive an **empty taxi** here and\nthere looking for potential passengers. Therefore, the transitive and\nintransitive versions are not automatically interchangeable in this case.\n\nNOTE: タクシー **が** 流す (not using を) sounds a little unnatural to me and I\nwouldn't like to use it, but we can really find many uses of it. Perhaps some\npeople use it because タクシーが流れる can't convey the meaning mentioned above. This\nmight be a reason why they still stick with 流す even when a subject is タクシー.\n\nAn example use of タクシーが流す:\n<http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/hashiretaxi/diary/200806010000/>\n\nAs for other expressions, I think that the difference between transitive and\nintransitive versions is mainly a point of view. Both can be logical and can't\nbe logical. The difference is how to describe phenomena from speaker's point\nof view.\n\nMoreover, we can use 入る in other cases than cooking instruction. One of the\nmost notable things to 入る is 邪魔 (じゃま). Do you think that 邪魔 is always animate?\n\n> 邪魔が入ったから、やり直しになったよ。\n\nWe can find a lot of other intransitive examples, such as:\n\n> いったん、CMが入ります。\n>\n> ここで音楽が入るわけですね。\n>\n> 大量の注文が入りました！\n>\n> 今年も田んぼに水が入りました。\n>\n> お客様お待ちかねの新型ゲームが入りました。\n>\n> 法案反対は50票は入るだろう。\n>\n> 目にゴミが入った！\n>\n> （ボールがゴールに）入れ！入れ！\n\nSome of you might not like Google, but you can find a huge number of examples\non it by searching \"が入りました\", etc..\n\nFinally, let us see the following example.\n\n> *学校に行く前に辞書がかばんに入ります\n\nWe don't say this indeed, because there is no reason to change subjects in the\nmiddle of an utterance. Especially in writing, this kind of ねじれた文 is not\nrecommended. However, the mother of the student would say,\n\n> かばんにちゃんと辞書入ってる？ ちゃんと入れた？ 入ってるかどうか、もう一度確かめて。\n\nWe don't say 入る in this context, but we can say 入っている, which is also a\nintransitive expression. This may be a little off topic, but I think 入っている is\nused more widely than 入れてある.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-25T21:27:42.723", "id": "5961", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-26T10:34:02.767", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "1119", "parent_id": "5952", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 }, { "body": "I think the notions of _focus_ , _intention_ , _observation_ , and _Google_\nare good ones, but consider this English example: a person starts talking\nabout a terrible meeting in the past tense. He gets worked up and starts\nspeaking in the present tense - e.g. \"...so I say, are you telling us...\" and\nnow a variety of tense issues can arise and he makes mistakes no Japanese\nwould/can make. I wonder if a Japanese person might start thinking\n'intransitively' (it's a recipe so _food cooks_ ) but then gets caught up in\nhimself transitively and makes mistakes only Japanese can make. I can't even\nimagine what might happen. These won't be the mistakes i make. The mind\nwanders as blogs are typed (and not proofed) and now Google serves up\nintriguing sentences with mistakes that give insight into the Japanese brain.\nIf I were truly bilingual, would/should I make them too?", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-07-19T00:10:41.807", "id": "6176", "last_activity_date": "2012-07-19T00:10:41.807", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1345", "parent_id": "5952", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 }, { "body": "I do not have a firm hold on what is going on in these sentences, but here are\nsome observation and speculation.\n\nAs for タクシーが街を流す, as I wrote in a comment on the question, I observe that the\nstructure of the sentence is quite similar to 陸上選手が100メートルを流す. The latter 流す\nmeans something like “exercise lightly,” which I feel some connection to the\nmeaning of the former 流す, namely “(for a taxi) to cruise looking for a\npassenger.”\n\nAs for 株が高値を付ける, I consider it as a personification: the stock is usually\ninanimate (of course), but in this sentence, it is considered as something\nwhich moves up and down by its own will.\n\nAs for 酒とみりんが入ります, it might be the case that the narrator does not want to\ndescribe it as a step which a listener MUST FOLLOW, because doing so may drive\nthe listener away. Rather, the narrator wants to give the impression that the\nstep is easy and nothing to worry about, by describing it as something which\nhappens spontaneously.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-07-19T22:46:47.423", "id": "6190", "last_activity_date": "2012-07-19T22:46:47.423", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "15", "parent_id": "5952", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 } ]

[ { "body": "意味 is more general. 意義 is \"reason for existence\", or \"purpose\".", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-25T03:04:15.787", "id": "5957", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-25T03:04:15.787", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5956", "post_type": "answer", "score": 9 }, { "body": "Add on to sawa's answer. 意義 is the more philosophical version, often used in\nexistential discussions, such as the meaning of one's life. However, when\nsaying meaningless, the word 意味 will still be used 意味がない", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-25T04:58:16.757", "id": "5958", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-25T04:58:16.757", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1459", "parent_id": "5956", "post_type": "answer", "score": 11 } ]

[ { "body": "* I am not sure if there is meaning 3). What example sentences do yo have in mind?\n\n * Your sentence has まい with meaning 1). In both of your translations, you are dropping `なる` ' **be in a good situation** '. That is why your translations do not work. A literal translation is:\n\n> 'Whatever it is, if it's necessary, it probably won't be good if I do not\n> buy it.'\n\nThis may sound a bit unnatural. That is because Japanese lacks a single word\nfor \"must\" (except for `べき` which is weaker in meaning), and you have to say\n`なければならない` \"it will not be well without\", `なければなるまい` \"it probably will not be\nwell without\". A more natural translation is:\n\n> 'Whatever it is, if it's necessary, I probably must/should buy it.'", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2012-06-25T10:28:48.310", "id": "5960", "last_activity_date": "2012-06-25T10:35:28.003", "last_edit_date": "2012-06-25T10:35:28.003", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "5959", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]