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p1atdev

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japanese-stackexchange

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[ { "body": "I don't know anything about 新潟弁 or 越後弁 but I think your interpretation is\ncorrect as far as I can see from\n[here](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%96%B0%E6%BD%9F%E5%BC%81):\n\n 1. そういうろ \n\n> 4 推量 \n> 推量は「終止形＋ロー」によって表される。終止形の末音が「ル」の場合は促音化する。 \n> ソト サーメロー。ハヨ ヘーレテ。（外、寒いだろう。早く入れよ） \n>\n\n推量 ＞＞＞ 終止形+ロー \n寒い+ロー ＞＞＞ さむいろー ＞＞＞ さーめろー (さーめ is the 終止形 in 新潟弁???) \nそう言う+ロー ＞＞＞ そういうろー\n\n 2. 思うて \n\n> 1 活用 \n> ~(中略)~ 連用形においてウ音便があるが、これは西日本方言的な特徴といえる。 \n> コーテ クル（買ってくる）、ノーナッシモタ（なくなってしまった） \n>\n\n連用形 ＞＞＞ ウ音便 \n買って ＞＞＞ こーて \n思って ＞＞＞ おもーて\n\n 3. たった\n\n> 3 時制 \n>\n> 時制は日本語の他の諸方言と同じく現在時制・過去時制の２種類があるが、過去時制には「連用形＋タッタ～ダッタ」>のように過去形を重複させた特殊な形式を持つ。~(中略)~ \n> サッキ スズキクンガ コーエンニ イタッタヨ。（さっき鈴木君が公園にいたよ） \n>\n\n過去時制 ＞＞＞ 連用形+たった/だった \nい(る)+たった ＞＞＞ いたった \n思ってい(る)+たった ＞＞＞ おもうていたった （＞＞＞ おもうてたった, dropping the い）\n\n 4. ろも\n\n> 7 接続 \n> 用言の接続形式には以下のようなものがある。 \n> ~(中略)~ 終止形＋ロモ（…けれども；逆接） \n> ソノ エーガ ミタロモ オモッショネカッタ。（その映画、見たけど面白くなかった） \n>\n\n逆接 ＞＞＞ 終止形+ロモ \n見た+けど ＞＞＞ 見た+ろも ＞＞＞ みたろも (I don't know why it's not みたったろも) \n～～いた+けど ＞＞＞ ～～いた+ろも ＞＞＞ ～～いたったろも", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-01T17:31:21.643", "id": "11607", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-02T23:53:21.373", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-02T23:53:21.373", "last_editor_user_id": "578", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11599", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 } ]

[ { "body": "As mentioned から/まで is OK. That's a really basic Japanese 101-style\nconstruction that you should be familiar with at a beginner level.\n\nAs an alternative start/end point type of constuction, you can use ～から～にかけて,\nas in the following example [from\nalc](http://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=%E6%9C%88%E3%81%AB%E3%81%8B%E3%81%91%E3%81%A6):\n\n> 12月から2月にかけて、札幌の平均気温は氷点下です。 \n> From December through February, the average Sapporo temperature is below\n> freezing.\n\n[The expression\nにかけて](http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%8B%E3%81%91%E3%81%A6) refers more\nspecifically to the span of time (or space) between the points you specify,\nand particularly why that span of time is interesting. You probably wouldn't\nsay something like １２時から１時にかけてランチを食べる. A good English equivalent might be\n\"throughout.\"", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-01T03:32:30.320", "id": "11603", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-02T00:01:50.823", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-02T00:01:50.823", "last_editor_user_id": "1797", "owner_user_id": "1797", "parent_id": "11600", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "Your intuition is right. Don't try to break this one apart too formulaically.\nThis character is just saying he/she has a feeling that he/she might have\nheard about this army somewhere before. The two keys to understanding this are\nin realizing that あるようなないような aren't connected to each other and are instead\nlisting two contradictory simultaneous states and realizing that a word is\nbeing left off at the end.\n\nWith the first of those points I mean that the speaker is taking two sentences\nand saying them at once by alternating the あるようなないような. Saying it this way\nmakes the sentence match the kind of vague uncertainty that is being conveyed\nin the sentence itself. \"I sort of kind of have a feeling I might have\npossibly heard this somewhere or other!\" kind of feeling.\n\nThe second part is knowing what's missing. I would insert 気がする at the end, so\nthe person feels like he/she might have heard of this somewhere before.\n\nThe point here is that it's a vague description of uncertain or contradictory\nfeelings. If you wanted to parse it more directly you could break it up into\n聞いたことがある気がする。聞いたことない気もする。 But this doesn't really flow the same way. So you\ncan say 聞いたことあるような気がする. So it's something more like \"I have a feeling like I\nhave heard it before,\" and then double that with the negative ないような気がする. Then\njust remove the 気がする to make it even more wistfully ambivalent:\n聞いたことあるようなないような・・・\n\nIt's a pattern of ambivalent uncertainty.\n\nYou can use it in other situations, too. お腹が空いてるような空いてないような気がする, or \"I feel\nboth hungry and not hungry at the same time,\" or \"I'm not sure if I'm hungry,\"\nor whatever equivalent expression you want to go for.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2013-03-31T16:34:41.847", "id": "11602", "last_activity_date": "2021-02-05T22:54:21.053", "last_edit_date": "2021-02-05T22:54:21.053", "last_editor_user_id": "30454", "owner_user_id": "1797", "parent_id": "11601", "post_type": "answer", "score": 10 } ]

[ { "body": "Short answer: no.\n\nFor details, read on.\n\nThere aren't any rules (as far as I know, anyway). Generally the insertion of\nspaces in texts written purely in hiragana serves only to improve readability.\nThe writer can take liberties in doing this. Some common patterns do arise,\nthough.\n\nFirst, you _generally_ tend to break things up word by word, so each\nindividual unit of meaning may be separated by spaces. Of course this is a\nwiggly concept to begin with so the spacing has similar liberties.\n\nSecond, particles and the like tend to be connected to the words that precede\nthem. So for example you can have 「わたしの なまえは 〇〇です。」\n\nThird, either of these rules can be broken at any time, so don't sweat it too\nmuch. I've linked some pages written entirely in hiragana. If you look you can\nsee the general way in which units tend to be broken up by meaning, and that\nthey usually follow this kind of pattern, but sometimes you see several words\ngrouped into one or compound particles on their own when it makes sense in the\ntext.\n\nThe above is a good rule of thumb, but ultimately the only real criteria is\n\"does it make sense for these words to be connected?\" That's from the\nstandpoint of both meaning and readability.\n\n * [ひらがなせいかつ への いざない](http://n.h7a.org/blog/entry/1594)\n * [Sendai Library: Kids Page](http://lib-www.smt.city.sendai.jp/kids/guide_kana.html)\n * [ひらがなだけでかくすれっど そのじゅうさん](http://awabi.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/korea/1323622046/) (this one uses half width spaces so they're hard to see but it follows the patterns pretty well)", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-01T12:14:59.033", "id": "11606", "last_activity_date": "2018-11-20T21:25:08.907", "last_edit_date": "2018-11-20T21:25:08.907", "last_editor_user_id": "19278", "owner_user_id": "1797", "parent_id": "11604", "post_type": "answer", "score": 11 } ]

[ { "body": "The correspondence isn't direct; if 位相幾何学 were loan translated into English it\nwould be 位相 (topological) 幾何学 (geometry).\n\nInterestingly, though, 位相 means phase (i.e. of a sinusoidal function) as well\nas topology, and that means that the term 位相空間 is ambiguous between phase\nspace (in physics) and topological space (in mathematics).\n\nEDIT: To clarify the etymology:\n\nThe first morpheme in topology is Gk. τόπος 'place', which corresponds to 位\n(position). I would suggest that 相 in this context means 'aspect',\n'behaviour', and not 'mutual' (its other sense). In Chinese, the two senses of\n相 have different readings (xiang4 vs xiang1). Putting it all together, the\nterm 位相 refers to the disposition of place -- that is, how the place is\narranged; in other words, its topology.", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-02T13:37:02.097", "id": "11612", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-03T12:03:00.833", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-03T12:03:00.833", "last_editor_user_id": "816", "owner_user_id": "816", "parent_id": "11611", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "むむむ is actually just a grunt. It is not read mumumu, literally.\n\nbut phonetically, it does sound more of an \"n\" sound than an \"m\" sound, but\ngrunting in the \"m\" sound exagerates the line theatrically and has the effect\nof making it sound comical, less serious, or over the top.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-02T17:52:33.150", "id": "11614", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-02T17:52:33.150", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3330", "parent_id": "11613", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "I think that どうやって is a method, whereas [何]{なに}で is asking for \"by means of\nwhat?\". So, for your example\n\n> どうやって作文を書いたんですか\n\nasks for the whole process for you to be able to have written your essay. E.g.\nwhat sources did you read? What parts are you quoting? How are you organizing\nyour references? etc.\n\n> 何で作文を書いたの?\n\nshould be answered \"by hand\" or \"I typeset it in LaTeX\" or something similar.\n(Remember, で is sometimes called \"instrumental marker\".)\n\n> どうして作文を書いたんですか\n\nin this case feels just like asking for the \"why\" and not for the \"how\". どうして\ncan mean how, but is not expecting a particularly practical answer, for\nexample\n\n> どうしてそんなことができるの? \n> How can you do that?\n\nin the sense of\n\n> How come you can do that? \n> Why can you do that?\n\nTo summarize,\n\n * どうやって asks for an instructive explanation (やる \"to do\")\n * 何で asks for a means (で instrumental marker)\n * どうして asks for a reason (that may be rooted in an action)", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-02T22:22:35.340", "id": "11616", "last_activity_date": "2019-03-15T11:33:28.127", "last_edit_date": "2019-03-15T11:33:28.127", "last_editor_user_id": "1628", "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11615", "post_type": "answer", "score": 9 } ]

[ { "body": "It all depends, of course.\n\nIf you just want a translation of \"Sorry, I wasn't listening\" then there is\n\n> ごめんなさい、聞いていませんでした。\n\nBut if someone is explaining something to you, I might sidestep to\n\n> ごめんなさい、もう一回説明してくれますか \n> Sorry, could you repeat that (explanation)? \n> Sorry, could you explain that again?\n\neven in English.\n\nMore often than one might think, however, the issue of not listening to\nsomeone is avoided completely with\n\n> あ、そうですか。\n\nif the situation suggests you should express mild surprise or doubt, or\n\n> そうですね。\n\nif the situation suggests you should just agree with whatever your collocutor\nsaid. Of course the Japanese do value people who listen to them, but they are\nmuch more forgiving to people who nod in agreement, even though they have\nevidently no idea what has been said. In certain contexts, making the speaker\nrepeat right there and then (which you certainly would imply by saying \"I\nwasn't listening\") may be rude and the more polite thing would be to just let\nit be, until it is apparent that you didn't understand. Then, if your\ncollocutor would be so kind as to tell you again, you should make it clear\nthat you are willing to try to listen once again.\n\nA bit more context would certainly help make this answer more specific.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-02T23:45:03.850", "id": "11618", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-02T23:45:03.850", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11617", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 }, { "body": "If you want to be brutally honest and admit you were simply zoned out, you\ncould say something like\n\n> 本当にすみませんでしたが、実は（無我）夢中でした。（もう一度説明してくれますか） → I'm so sorry, but honestly I was\n> daydreaming/spaced out. (Could you repeat that explanation?)", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-03T14:31:08.067", "id": "11619", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-03T14:31:08.067", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "78", "parent_id": "11617", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "I think you could say... \n●ごめん、聞いてなかった。 / ごめん、なんて？/ ごめん、もう一回。 to your friend/family. \n●すいません、聞いてませんでした。/ すいません、もう一回お願いします。 to your teacher / in class. \n●すみません/申し訳ございません、もう一度お願いします/もう一回お願いします/もう一度お願いできますか。 to your boss / in a\nbusiness meeting.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-06T13:41:30.760", "id": "11648", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-06T13:41:30.760", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11617", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "With \"そば\", you picture thing A that's nearby thing B. It is omni-directional\nin the sense that it doesn't matter which way those two things are facing.\nThey just need to be close enough.\n\nWith \"よこ\", first picture a \"そば\" relationship but with an additional constraint\nthat two things are side ways --- this word is no longer omni-directional. So\nfor this to work, thing A has to have something that resembles a front (such\nas a building), and relative to this front of thing A, this B is at the 90\ndegree direction. Or thing B going tangental to thing A (like one street\ncrossing another.)\n\nWith \"となり\", first picture a \"よこ\" relationship with an additional constraint\nthat two things are next to each other.\n\nI hope that puts those three words in context.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-04T15:20:37.880", "id": "11626", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-04T15:20:37.880", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3059", "parent_id": "11621", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Here's my take on it:\n\n * そば - to be around, `いつもあなたの そば にいる`: always by your side\n * となり - next to, adjacent, `となりの人`: the person next to me, the person next door\n * よこ - sideways, on the side, `よこになる`: to lay oneself one the side, i.e. to lay down\n\nand for completeness as of [X is near or next to Y. Is my understanding of\nthis correct?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/9798/x-is-near-or-\nnext-to-y-is-my-understanding-of-this-correct/9800#9800)\n\n * ちかく - near, vicinity, `郵便局のちかく`: somewhere near the post office\n * ところ - at someone's place, `田中さんのところへ`: to Tanaka's place vs. `田中さんへ` to Tanaka (himself)\n\nWhen does one use \"そば\" then? Well, mostly from a gut feeling I'd say. The\ndifference amounts to as much as \"close by\", \"nearby\", \"in the vicinity\",\n\"next to\" etc. do.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-05T11:29:55.063", "id": "11638", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-05T11:29:55.063", "last_edit_date": "2017-04-13T12:43:44.260", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "1537", "parent_id": "11621", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "The common idiomatic form of hettakure is `～もへったくれも<negative>`. The negative\nis often just `nai`, but it can also be `V-nai` or even `aru mono ka` (=nai).", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-04T11:27:54.177", "id": "11623", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-04T11:27:54.177", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1141", "parent_id": "11622", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "In my experience, there is usually some other context that was previously\ngiven, or is _completely_ obvious even though it's omitted. I refer to the\nformer as a kind of \"back reference\" to whatever was said before.\n\n> * A: めっちゃ難しい... → It's so hard/difficult\n> * B: 何 **が** ？ → What is? (Since you would say Ｘが難しい) \n> \n> or\n> * A: 明日母に送るわ。 → I'll send it/this to my mother tomorrow. (Perhaps person B\n> is out of the room and cannot see what A is talking about)\n> * B: 何 **を** ？ → What (will you send)? (Since you say Ｘを送る)\n>\n\nor\n\n> * ルールに書いてあります。キーパー以外の選手がボールに手を触れないように **と** → It's written in the rules.\n> \"No player besides the goalie shall touch the ball with their hands\". →\n> Here, the と is the quotation marker, making the entire second sentence the\n> \"it\" that's referenced in the first.\n>\n\nSome examples I often see of the implied-yet-omitted context are like\n\n> * 良い一日 **を** ！ → Have a good day → The \"have\" is omitted, but could/would\n> be something like 過ごしてください\n>\n\n`ように` is **very** common to see at the end of a sentence to indicate \"May\nsomething happen\" / \"Let it be that 〜\"\n\n> * 今年も祝福いっぱいの一年になりますよう **に** → (Said to someone on their birthday) \"May\n> this year (also) be one full of blessings\" → The omission is clearly\n> something like \"I hope\" (願っています) or \"I pray\" (祈っています)\n>\n\n* * *\n\nFor the book in your first example link, it's titled `夢に日付を！`. It even says in\nEnglish at the bottom \"Date Your Dream\", which, while grammatically correct,\nwould be better translated as \"Set a date for your dream (to come true)\". In\nthis case, the \"Set\" part is what is omitted, so the full Japanese could be\nsomething like `夢に日付を入れる`. I can't really explain how, but leaving off the\n`入れる` gives is more of an impact as a book title.", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-04T14:41:57.583", "id": "11625", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-04T14:55:26.430", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-04T14:55:26.430", "last_editor_user_id": "78", "owner_user_id": "78", "parent_id": "11624", "post_type": "answer", "score": 8 } ]

[ { "body": "1. `そして` is fine here, but I would say そしてことし **は** 25さいです to emphasize **this** year.\n 2. Just `かぞく`; use `ごかぞく` when you're speaking _to_ him about his family\n\n> ごかぞくはおげんきですか？\n> 3. You're fine with just `いっしょに` **IF** you've already established `私たち`\n> is a previous sentence/context. Otherwise put both. The second part should\n> be something like `メニューのやすいレストラン`.\n> 4. Correct\n> 5. Correct\n> 6. Translation is OK, but I'd say something like \"Since our lives aren't\n> very interesting...\" In this context, I suppose \"lacks action\" is OK, but\n> that's not a direct translation. The Japanese sentence is fine though.\n> 7. This is incorrect. To nominalize a verb, you need the dictionary form +\n> `の／こと`. So the sentence should be `私たちはおさけをのむこととたばこをすうことことがだいすきです。`\n> 8. `よく`, not `よこ`; `もういちど`, not `もいちど`\n> 9. No, do not end this with `です`, plus it should be `オーストラリアへのりょこうにいきます`\n> or more simply `オーストラリアにいきます`. For with him, you forgot to add `かれと`. Also,\n> the katakana says \"Australia\" even though you wrote \"Phillipines\".\n>\nI realize you're probably a beginning, but man it's hard to read and write\nonly in kana!", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-04T16:20:39.873", "id": "11628", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-04T16:20:39.873", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "78", "parent_id": "11627", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 } ]

[ { "body": "へうげもの is old kana usage (see for example\n[here](http://www32.ocn.ne.jp/~gaido/kana/taoin0.htm) for some tables of\ncurrent/old spelling). According to the wikipedia article on this manga, the\nreading for へうげもの is ひょうげもの, so it is being romanised as it would be\npronounced.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-04T18:19:25.297", "id": "11632", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-04T18:19:25.297", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "571", "parent_id": "11629", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 }, { "body": "This is a difference between historical kana use\n([歴史的仮名遣](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2%E7%9A%84%E4%BB%AE%E5%90%8D%E9%81%A3%E3%81%84))\nand modern kana use\n([現代仮名遣い](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%8F%BE%E4%BB%A3%E4%BB%AE%E5%90%8D%E9%81%A3%E3%81%84)).\n\nThe kana orthography has been changed over time to reflect newer\npronunciations. In this case, the title is written using an older spelling.\nTake a look at this [official cabinet\nannouncement](http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/hakusho/nc/k19860701001/k19860701001.html)\n(from 1986) and scroll down to the bottom half. It contains a rather large\nchart, and in this chart you can find へう under historic spellings. According\nto the chart, this spelling corresponds with the modern spelling ひょう and the\nmodern pronunciation ヒョー.\n\nI suppose spelling it the old way gives it a more authentic historical feel,\nbut I don't think it changes the meaning. It's still the same word.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-04T18:21:29.943", "id": "11633", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-04T18:21:29.943", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11629", "post_type": "answer", "score": 9 }, { "body": "It is called the history kana orthography, in Japanese\n[歴史的]{れきしてき}[仮名]{かな}[遣]{づか}ひ.\n\nAround the time this kana orthography was introduced, Japanese sounded\ndifferent than today, words were pronounced differently. As the language\nchanged, the old spelling was preserved.\n\nThe technical details of the following are taken from \"A History of the\nJapanese Language\", Frellesvig, Cambridge 2010, 1st ed. (Look up \"historical\nkana spelling\" in the index.)\n\nThis kana spelling was established at the beginning of the 13th century. Kana\nhad been introduced earlier, and around that time certain phonological (sound)\nshifts took place so that the mapping kana:syllable was not 1:1 anymore. For\ninstance, the loss of \"w\", as in ゐる>居る.\n\nLeaving aside the details, as a result some syllables could be written in\nmultiple ways, eg 川 could be spelled either かわ or かは, and to resolve this and\nsettle upon a unique spelling, the historical spelling principle was\nintroduced, first proposed by Fujiwara no Teika, after whom it was also\nrefered to by the name 定家仮名遣い. In essence, this principle meant that words\nshould be written the way they were pronounced earlier.\n\nThe situation is similar to English. A main factor as to why English\northography is not very phonetic (writing the way you speak), is the great\nvowel shift and that English spelling is based upon how words were pronounced\nearlier and upon their etymological roots - historical.\n\nNote that the people of that time could only reconstruct from source texts how\nwere pronounced much earlier, andmistakes are bound to happen, eg 遠 was\nspelled とを, while とほ (as in Old Japanese) would have been correct\netymologically.\n\nAlso, small kana were not officially introduced until the spelling reforms\nafter WW II, and traditionally, there was no distinction between voiced and\nunvoiced consonants in writing. Syllables beginning with more than one\nconsonant (きゃ, にょ, くゎ etc.) arose from around 800AD onwards. ん and っ also\nentered Japanese around that time, and several ways of dealing with them were\ndeveloped, including (a) leaving it out [もて for 持って, late 9th century; しし for\n死んじ); (b) む; (c) つ; as well as some other letters. つ might have been inspired\nby its use to denote a syllable final -t, used ti transcribe imported Chinese\nwords ending in -t and pronounced without a vowel until well after 1609AD.\n\nFortunately, the historical kana spelling was abolished in favour of a much\nmore phonological one. Thus, we do not need to possess active knowledge of it\nanymore, being able to read it suffices.\n\nWhen given a text with old spelling and/or non-modern grammar, here are a few\npractical guidelines to convert it into modern Japanese, which is fortunately\nmuch easier than the other way around.\n\n * っ/ん not found in the old te-form of quadrigrade verbs (u-verbs): かひて, もちて, よみて, とひて, etc.. Their equivalents in modern (standard) Japanese grammar and spelling are 買って, 持って, 読んで, and 飛んで.\n\n * ha becomes wa in non-intial positions: かは>川, は>わ (the particle, a survivor in the new orthography), あはん>会わん, はな remains 花\n\nAs an exception, はは stays 母.\n\n * h becomes silent before other vowels: かひあけ>買い上げ, さへ>さえ (as 子供にさえ分かる), はひ>這うい, へ>え(the particle); ひま stays 暇\n\n * kwa becomes ka: せうくゎい>商会\n\n * we becomes e, wi becomes i: ゐる>居る, おうヱん>応援, を>を (the particle)\n\n * du becomes zu, di becomes ji: つつ(=づつ)>ずつ, みづ>水, ちちい(=ぢぢい)>爺(じじい)\n\nMany vowel changes:\n\n * au becomes ou, except for verbs in the standard dialect(会う, 買う etc.): かんさう>乾燥, きゃうき>狂気, あうき>扇,とはう (from 飛ばむ) > 飛ぼう \n\n * ou>long ō, ei>long ē\n\n * eu > yō: せうせつ>小説, えういん>要因, せつめう>絶妙, てうさ>調査, \n\n * iu > yū: いう>言う,いうか>優雅, まむゆう>漫遊\n\n * Ciu>Cyu: しうき>周期, きうかく>休学, こひう>誤謬\n\n * multiple changes may apply: さふらふ (h silent) > さうらう (vowel contraction) > そうろう(=候う), わうゐ>あうい>王威, けふ>けう>今日\n\n * Use context to infer when つ>っ, む>ん, and when to apply ゛and ゜.\n\n * It was common to use katakana instead of hiragana. 世界八其々ノ時代二其々ノ課題ヲ有シ、其解決ヲ求メテ、時代カラ時代ヘト動ヒて行ク。\n\n * Also, の and other _okurigana_ were frequently omitted with nouns: 此恨は初め… > この恨みは初め…", "comment_count": 9, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-09-20T18:14:35.370", "id": "12889", "last_activity_date": "2013-09-20T20:19:27.893", "last_edit_date": "2013-09-20T20:19:27.893", "last_editor_user_id": "3275", "owner_user_id": "3275", "parent_id": "11629", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "According to\n[大辞林](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E4%B8%80%E5%80%8D&stype=0&dtype=0&dname=0ss),\none of the meanings of 一倍 is as follows:\n\n> ある数量を二つ合わせた数量。二倍。倍。\n\nThe first example it gives includes `人一倍`, so you're right that `人一倍` is the\ncombination of `人` and `一倍`. The surprising part is that `一倍` means `二倍`!\n\nAs [Wikipedia](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%80%8D) explains, for much of\nthe history of Japan, `倍` was a suffix indicating a number of times _in\naddition_ to one. In other words, `一倍`, `二倍`, and `三倍` used to mean 2x, 3x,\nand 4x. In modern Japanese, they generally mean 1x, 2x, and 3x, but as you've\ndiscovered, the old meaning of `倍` is not entirely gone--it's preserved in\nwords like `人一倍`.\n\nYou may also want to read the answers on this [similar question in\nJapanese](http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/1230733.html).", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-05T00:06:03.300", "id": "11636", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-05T00:06:03.300", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11634", "post_type": "answer", "score": 15 }, { "body": "snailplane is right about her explanation. Not sure about Nihongo but in\nMandarin, the confusing one is `一倍` and `二倍` is used interchangeably. Meaning\nmight be different at different context. So just read carefully.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-17T13:03:47.077", "id": "11730", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-17T13:13:55.887", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-17T13:13:55.887", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3379", "parent_id": "11634", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 }, { "body": "Snailplane-san is right. In Yedo era there were two words indicating multiple\nnumber: 倍 and [層倍]{そうばい}. A single word 倍 means two times and a single word 層倍\ndoes one time. 2倍 means 3 times and 2層倍 is two times.\n\nIn Meiji era there comes European mathematics and the above-mentioned way to\nuse of 倍 and 層倍 was banned.\n\nToday we use 2倍 as two times. 3倍 means three times. But the old way to use of\n倍 remains in some phrases, such as [倍]{ばい}にして[返]{かえ}す, [倍返]{ばいがえ}し and\n[人]{ひと}の[倍]{ばい}[働]{はたら}く. Most of us have never heard of the word 層倍.\n\nJust like you, many Japanese wonder about [人一倍]{ひといちばい}. I must study English\nwith sense of language like you. Good luck for your studying Japanese!", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-18T00:58:49.760", "id": "11734", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-11T20:39:58.230", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-11T20:39:58.230", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3378", "parent_id": "11634", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "A given name can be in theory virtually anything --- a decade ago or so, there\nwas a family who gave his son the name 悪魔 (devil) and that became a news. When\nyou register a newborn to the local government, apparently they cannot really\nrefuse a name just because it's stupid --- so despite various people\nrecommending against it, the child did get his name in the end.\n\nOn the other hand, in practice, parents give their children reasonable names.\nWhat they consider reasonable names do change over the time, but an essential\ncomponent of it is a positive meaning, so it's very, very unlikely that you\nfind a real person whose name means something completely ridiculous.\n\nCharacters that appear in games, animations, and/or some novels sometimes get\nnames that you will not find in real life. This is a common technique to\ncreate a world that's intentionally away from the reality --- if you are\nreading a fantasy book, you do not want to see the kind of names you see in\nyour everyday life!\n\n**EDIT:**\n\nDono was right and I was wrong. The parents and the city settled and the kid\ndid not get that name. The other thing I incorrectly understood was that\nkanjis used in names must come from 常用漢字 plus alpha (known as 人名用漢字). So it's\nfar from \"virtually anything.\"", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-05T05:03:00.223", "id": "11637", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-06T15:08:18.393", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-06T15:08:18.393", "last_editor_user_id": "3059", "owner_user_id": "3059", "parent_id": "11635", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 }, { "body": "Although the number of Japanese names (and the possible combinations) is\npractically limitless, there is an imposed limit on the way they can be\nwritten. As far as kanji are concerned, only the [Jinmeiyō\nkanji](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinmeiyo_kanji) and the [Jōyō\nkanji](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanji) can be used in names\nin Japan. As of now, that's a total of roughly 3000 characters that can be\nused. Hiragana and katakana can be used, as well, of course.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-05T21:53:32.870", "id": "11641", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-06T01:19:10.970", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-06T01:19:10.970", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "3340", "parent_id": "11635", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Another point that I'd like to add here is that the readings of the kanji can\nalso be totally arbitrary. The only real requirement is that the kanji come\nfrom the list. A recent example of this phenomenon is the name るな written as\n月. For those who don't see the connection, るな comes from \"luna,\" the Latin for\n\"moon,\" and of course 月 means \"moon.\"", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-08T02:40:07.137", "id": "11666", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-08T04:43:50.177", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-08T04:43:50.177", "last_editor_user_id": "1797", "owner_user_id": "1797", "parent_id": "11635", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "Nice guess :) As noted in the comments, はじめよっか is basically a shortened\nversion of はじめようか.\n\nAlso, more than generalizing about that type of phrasing... I'd almost want to\nsay it's more of just a way to make a phrase sound more \"clipped\" (e.g.\nsomething of a glottal stop, or possibly, a contraction...) or maybe even just\nan alternative way to put an accent or stress on a part of a phrase... as\nopposed to something grammatically formal or defined.\n\nFor example, the phrase \"getting good\" in English is sometimes phrased as\n\"gettin' good\" (in this case, read as \"get-tin' good\".) The syllable count is\nthe same for each phrase... but the latter phrase can potentially sound more\nclipped (see [glottal stops](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottal_stop))\n_though this example is not necessarily an exact match to the ようか / よっか\nchange._\n\n**Usage note:** you may want to be careful with using that style of speech\nunless you are older than the person with whom you are speaking. _(Or if you\nare somehow related... or are really familiar with the person.)_", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-05T21:10:44.260", "id": "11640", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-08T16:28:04.997", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-08T16:28:04.997", "last_editor_user_id": "1188", "owner_user_id": "1188", "parent_id": "11639", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "This is just an extended comment, but...\n\nI think it depends on what you consider a polite way to ask whether someone\nreceived an email in English. Usually, pressing for an answer is just not\nsomething very polite to do. If you sent an email, I would call them and\nmention that you sent an email, but would like to ask directly. From the extra\neffort beyond the mail you sent already it should be obvious that you are\nexpecting an answer soon, and the Japanese are certainly very fast to pick up\non that.\n\nIf it has to be by email, then just asking the same thing again is just not\nvery polite, not even in English. If you can come up with something else to\nask, you could slip into that mail that you had already sent an email. (And\ninclude the mail you sent before at the bottom.)\n\nI don't think I would send an email, but if I had to, I might start it like\n\n> 先日メールでご連絡をさせていただきましたが、もう一つ伺いたいことがございます。 \n> I contacted you a few days ago by email, but I would also like to enquire\n> about the following.\n\n(I should add though, that polite language in written form is my weak point.\nMaybe somebody would be kind enough to correct/edit me.)", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-06T00:56:15.043", "id": "11643", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-06T00:56:15.043", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11642", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "It depends why you want to know if they received it. (Rhetorically) Do you\nwant to reference the sent email in a follow-up question? Or did the mail\ncontain some kind of data/information (like an account registration, etc.) and\nyou merely want to ensure that it was actually received by someone?\n\nIt seems that @user1205935 answered the former question in his/her response.\nIf your situation is the latter, you might say something like\n\n> お世話になっております。先日／先程メールを送りましたけれども、届いたかを確認したいんですけど。 → O-sewa ni natte orimasu*.\n> I sent an email the other day/earlier; I'd like to confirm if/that it got\n> there (was delivered). \n> \n> * Momentarily spacing out on a good translation for お世話になる.\n\nAs a foreigner, you'll always sounds more polite if you start off with\n`お世話になっております`. Also, since you're a client of them, I'd say that you don't\nneed to use \"extreme\" Keigo with them (like you would speaking to a business\nclient). A modest amount of Keigo is probably enough since they're providing\nyou some service. Even Teineigo could possibly be enough, but that might be\npushing it.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-06T01:35:40.407", "id": "11644", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-06T22:49:02.967", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-06T22:49:02.967", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "78", "parent_id": "11642", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I'd write:\n\n> * ([恐]{おそ}れ[入]{い}ります。)\n> [先日]{せんじつ}[送]{おく}らせていただいたメールですが、ご[確認]{かくにん}いただけましたでしょうか。\n> * (恐れ入ります。) 先日メールを送らせていただいたのですが、ご[覧]{らん}いただけましたでしょうか。\n>", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-06T12:28:45.447", "id": "11647", "last_activity_date": "2020-01-20T17:58:19.343", "last_edit_date": "2020-01-20T17:58:19.343", "last_editor_user_id": "9831", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11642", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "Up to a certain point, the basic rule of thumb is to use it whenever you can.\nIn other words, if you are writing a word and there's a kanji for it, always\nprefer kanji. When I say \"up to a certain point\", I'm thinking about\n[常用漢字](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B8%B8%E7%94%A8%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97%E4%B8%80%E8%A6%A7),\n2000+ letter set designated as a common kanji character set for everyday use.\nFrom the sound of what you are saying, you are well within this bound, so you\nshould just use as much as you can.\n\nI could have stopped here, but when I asked myself \"how do _I_ choose when to\nuse kanjis?\", it got more interesting.\n\nUnless you are writing to kids, I think the basic rule of thumb still applies,\neven to native Japanese. I can't recall any occasion where I thought \"I know\nthe kanji but let's stick to hiragana.\" In fact the stigma of using hiragana\nwhere one should be using kanji is so strong that when you know you should be\nusing kanjis but can't remember how to write it, you see people writing it in\nkatakana, to indicate that those are supposed to be kanjis (this also has a\npractical benefit of assisting readers, as all-hiragana text would be very\nhard to read.)\n\nI should also note that there are some kanji expressions that are\ndisappearing, such as 有難う. While both kanjis in this is in 常用漢字, it's more\ncommon now to write this as ありがとう. The former expression is far from wrong,\neven correct in some context, but it sounds more formal and rigid. If I think\nmore, I can probably come up with a few more.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-06T14:58:03.980", "id": "11650", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-06T14:58:03.980", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3059", "parent_id": "11645", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "Both examples are OK (I'd probably say 経験を積めば積むほど). In fact, if anything the\nfirst one sounds slightly off.\n\nWhen used on verbs, the way I think of this expression is that it represents a\nrepeating of an act, or to keep on doing something. So when I hear it with a\nverb like ある that represents a state of something, it feels little bit\nstrange.\n\nOn adjectives, the way you think of it is that it represents a sliding scale\nand correlation of one property to another. As in\n多ければ多いほどよい、美しければ美しいほど敵が増える、etc. What's embedded in the construction is the\nnotion of correlation, and not more/less.\n\nAnother way to put it is that, unlike the English expression \"the more\nexperiences one has\", \"れば～ほど\" does not work with nouns.", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-06T14:33:55.777", "id": "11649", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-06T14:33:55.777", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3059", "parent_id": "11646", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "To understand what this expression means, picture a father and a son. The\nfather is a craftsman, who spends most of his time awake at work. He's not\nvery eloquent, and while he cares about the son, he won't really say much. The\nson goes through the usual juvenile process, struggling with the meaning of\nhis life, not ready to accept the simple life of his father. Eventually the\nfather dies, and the son becomes a grown man. He'd then say\n親父は背中で俺に教えてくれていたんだな to refer to his father not really telling him how to live\nbut showing him how.\n\n背中で教える means teaching without words. Because teaching by explaining requires\none to face the other, this expression uses 背中 to emphasize the lack of words.\nAs you wrote, this almost always refers to such teachings as morals and way of\nlife, and not for specific techniques or knowledge.\n\nAs far as I know, this is just one of many 慣用句, and it does not have anything\nthat suggests a historical background. None of the examples you cited in\nweblio.jp actually use this expression.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-07T01:50:14.773", "id": "11653", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-07T05:48:24.557", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-07T05:48:24.557", "last_editor_user_id": "3221", "owner_user_id": "3059", "parent_id": "11651", "post_type": "answer", "score": 9 } ]

[ { "body": "In bookkeeping, [losses were written in red](http://gogen-\nallguide.com/a/akaji.html). [Gains were written in black](http://gogen-\nallguide.com/ku/kuroji.html).\n\nThis starts from this.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2014-01-21T00:27:35.283", "id": "14254", "last_activity_date": "2014-01-21T04:01:46.187", "last_edit_date": "2014-01-21T04:01:46.187", "last_editor_user_id": "78", "owner_user_id": "1065", "parent_id": "11652", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 }, { "body": "Over the years, I've found Shogakukan's 国語大辞典【こくごだいじてん】 (KDJ) to be a good\nresource for etymologies and term dating. Their entry [here at\nKotobank](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%B5%A4%E5%AD%97-186590#E7.B2.BE.E9.81.B8.E7.89.88.20.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E5.9B.BD.E8.AA.9E.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E5.85.B8)\nlists a first citation in Japanese to 1929, roughly in line with the\nappearance of the term _\"in the red\"_ in English, dated to 1926 [in this\nWiktionary entry](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/in_the_red).\n\nThe Japanese Wikipedia article on\n[黒字【くろじ】と赤字【あかじ】](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%BB%92%E5%AD%97%E3%81%A8%E8%B5%A4%E5%AD%97)\nlists a slightly later appearance in 1931, close enough to the KDJ for rough\npurposes. This article notes that the Japanese term may have arisen as follows\n(my explanatory addition [in square brackets]):\n\n>\n> 日本語【にほんご】の「赤字【あかじ】」「黒字【くろじ】」は、この西洋【せいよう】式【しき】簿記【ぼき】に直接【ちょくせつ】由来【ゆらい】するか、あるいは上記【じょうき】の西洋語【せいようご】からの借用【しゃくよう】と見【み】られる。 \n> The Japanese terms \"red figures\" and \"black figures\" may be derived\n> directly from this Western bookkeeping [writing income and gains in black,\n> and expenditures and losses in red], or they may be borrowings from the\n> aforementioned Western languages.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2020-04-08T17:13:02.300", "id": "76454", "last_activity_date": "2020-04-08T17:13:02.300", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "5229", "parent_id": "11652", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 } ]

[ { "body": "I have nothing to back this up, but following on from Zhen Lin's comment:\n\nIt may have come from the British English \"mansion block\", which I think was a\nVictorian invention - the typical one would be something rather impressive in\nred brick within a suitably posh London postcode.\n\nThey often have names of the form \"XYZ Mansions\", for example Albert Hall\nMansions and the individual apartments within are called \"mansion flats\". The\nterm is still in use (but tends to refer to a period building rather than a\nnew build).\n\n[This](http://gogen-allguide.com/ma/mansion.html) site says the term in\nJapanese really started up in the 1960s - so then again it might just have\nbeen the adoption of a word that made the apartments in question sound more\nluxurious - the same reason for the establishment of the phrase 'mansion\nblock' in English in the first place.", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-07T12:22:28.210", "id": "11656", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-07T12:22:28.210", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "571", "parent_id": "11654", "post_type": "answer", "score": 9 } ]

[ { "body": "> My understanding is that ます is an inflectable function word (助動詞), so I'm\n> wondering why the negative form ends with ん. Is that a contraction of ぬ\n> perhaps?\n\nYes, the final -n is from negative -nu. This should make sense as -nu attaches\nto the irrealis, which is ma-se since mas- is サ変.\n\n> (Also why is the 未然形 ませ rather than something more regular, like まさ?)\n\nmasu is assigned the サ変 conjugation. As such, the irrealis is ma-se.\nConjugation types can change over time, but サ変 is used in other words as well,\nso there is currently no motivation for such a change. That said, in the early\nstages of masu, there are a few extant usages of irrealis ma-sa indicating\nexperimentation as a 四段 conjugation; though this form is rare and never\nprevailed.\n\n> The really weird thing for me is でした (the past inflection of the polite\n> copula), showing up for the negative past-polite form. Has this always been\n> the way to handle this sort of semantics, even in Classical Japanese, or is\n> this a recent introduction to the language?\n\nThere were originally several competing negative past polite forms:\nmasenkatta, masen datta, and masen desita. Early citations for masen desita\nappear around 1860s. As desu became more common and standard, the past polite\nstandardized on masen desita by the 1890s. At this point, it is modern\nJapanese, not classical.", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-07T15:19:50.643", "id": "11657", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-07T15:39:00.967", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-07T15:39:00.967", "last_editor_user_id": "1141", "owner_user_id": "1141", "parent_id": "11655", "post_type": "answer", "score": 11 } ]

[ { "body": "According to 日本国語大辞典, 冷やかし comes from the verb 冷やかす, which in addition to the\nobvious ‘to cool’ has these meanings:\n\n> (2)遊郭で、登楼しないで張り見世の遊女を見て回る。\n>\n> (3)用もないのに盛り場や場内などを歩きまわる。買う気もないのに、品物の値段を尋ねたり商品などを見て回ったりする。\n>\n> (4)悪口など言って興をさます。嘲弄する。冷評する。また、からかう。\n\nObviously, sense (3) is the one that the ‘window-shopping’ meaning of 冷やかし is\nderived from, and I suppose sense (2) is a special case of sense (3). On the\ntopic of etymology, the dictionary says:\n\n> （(2)について）\n> 浅草山谷の紙漉業者が、紙料を水に冷やかしている間、新吉原を見物して回ることをいったことから〔嬉遊笑覧・海録・三養雑記・大言海・話の大事典＝日置昌一〕。\n\nApparently, sense (2) comes from stories of the paper-makers in Asakusa\n“window-shopping” in Shin-Yoshiwara while the water for their paper-making\ncooled.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-07T18:41:49.777", "id": "11659", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-07T18:41:49.777", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "578", "parent_id": "11658", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "I think the difference between the is really captured by their appearance\nalone. As you mentioned, ～ sometimes has a sort of wavy 'tremolo' type feel to\nit, or at least that's the image evoked by looking at it. I'm not sure how\nmany times you would _actually_ fluctuate the pitch like that in an actual\nreading, though. I usually associate it with a kind of\nlightheartedness/plyfulness/nonseriousness. This kind of ties into the second\none you mentioned, with it being \"cute.\" If something is said in a\n(supposedly) cute way then you can imagine it being potentially tremolo'd,\nmaybe more childish or stereotypically feminine. For example, can you see the\ndifference between 行きたくなーい and 行きたくな～い？ The first one sounds more bored and\ndisinterested while the second feels a little less めんどくさい. Or at least that's\nthe feeling I get! Similarly you get the difference between あ～～～ and あー. One\nis like \"あ～～いや～～～～\" and one is like \"あー、そっか.\"\n\nAnother example is the vending machines here. For cold drinks the machine says\nつめた～い and the hot have あったか～い. It just makes it a little warmer and more\ninviting.\n\nAlso to get technical about it you wouldn't use ~ in katakana words, so no\nラ～メン or ウ～ロン茶", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-07T23:50:27.567", "id": "11662", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-07T23:50:27.567", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1797", "parent_id": "11660", "post_type": "answer", "score": 12 }, { "body": "I think that the long vowel marker is used for long vowels, like in バーモント,\nアーモンド, etc. As though usually used with カタカナ, sometimes it is used with ひらがな\nas well. For example\n\n * in ひらがな mimeses like びゅーびゅー, where the うs in びゅうびゅう are evidently just \"long vowel markers\"\n * in children's books, which write everything in ひらがな, and therefore カタカナ words (with the long vowel dash) in ひらがな as well\n * in ads or headlines, where a word should be Japanified; e.g. らーめん is a very popular ひらがな + long vowel dash combination\n\nThe tilde (～ にょろ) in principle goes everywhere a long vowel marker should not\ngo, because the word doesn't have a long vowel. E.g. 行ってきま～す, あ～疲れた～, etc.\n\nThat said, of course there are people who confuse these uses and use ー where\nthere is no long vowel in the word. (But I have never seen ～ being used where\na long vowel marker should go...)", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-07T23:57:07.303", "id": "11663", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-07T23:57:07.303", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11660", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I generally agree with what ssb and Earthlin say, and would add the following\nthought: consider the potential consequences of using the long vowel marker\nindiscriminately. It can look an awful lot like the kanji for \"one\", i.e. 一\n(いち). That could potentially be confusing. In many cases, readers could figure\nit out by context, but by using ~, you very clearly delineate in Japanese that\nwhat you want is a \"hyphen-style\" effect and not the kanji いち. That's why I\nthink in Japanese, outside of cute situations or very informal text, you see ~\nbeing used.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2014-03-26T15:40:30.717", "id": "15067", "last_activity_date": "2014-03-26T15:40:30.717", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "4594", "parent_id": "11660", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 } ]

[ { "body": "It's not immediately obvious to me what it means for a name to \"make sense\" or\nbe \"comprehensible\" in this context. If I told you that my name was Schterice,\nyou would probably believe me, and likely wouldn't think it any odder than any\nother unfamiliar name you've heard in the past.\n\nI think what you want to know is **if any combination of Japanese sounds could\ntheoretically be a name,** and the answer is **yes,** as the characters\napproved for names include not only the 常用 kanji and the 人名用 kanji, they\ninclude both _katakana_ and _hiragana_ (which essentially encompass all\nJapanese sounds).\n\nIf that's not what you want to know, I suggest you reword your question to\nclarify what you mean.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-08T23:55:38.963", "id": "11673", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-08T23:55:38.963", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "384", "parent_id": "11661", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 }, { "body": "In Japanese law, **any** of the approved kanji can be used in a surname in\n**any** order, and **any** reading can be ascribed to them. This sounds like a\nrecipe for disaster, until you bear in mind that Japanese law doesn't allow\nyou to change your name arbitrarily, so in practice, most names are very\ntraditional.\n\nThere is one exception to this: foreigners. If your name is say, Robinson, you\nwould be perfectly entitled to choose some arbitrary kanji for your name (say,\n山田 -- a very common surname) but instruct everybody to read it as \"ロビンソン\" (a\nJapanized pronunciation of \"Robinson\"). But you'd struggle to open a bank\naccount....", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-12T06:55:17.607", "id": "11698", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-12T10:30:17.620", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-12T10:30:17.620", "last_editor_user_id": "1187", "owner_user_id": "1187", "parent_id": "11661", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "First off, you cannot really think of ている as \"progressive verb\" because it\nrepresents more than that. Second, you're right that there are adjectives, but\nthese ている forms are _not_ forms of the adjective but rather forms of their\nrespective verbs, 太る and 悲しむ.\n\nている in the case of 太っている represents a resultant state. 太る on its own means\nsimply \"to get fat,\" so if you say 私は太ります it doesn't mean \"I am fat\" but\nrather \"I will get fat.\" So by saying 太っている you are expressing a resultant\nstate, namely that you have gotten fat (太って) and still are fat (いる).\n\n悲しむ, as it appears, means to be sad about something, and in the same way as\nthe above, the resultant state refers to the state of being sad.\n\nNow for meat'n'taters of what you're asking: the difference in usage. 太い\nrefers generally to cylindrical objects, like a tube or a string or a tree or\nsomething with a large diameter. You can refer to a person as 太い but it would\nsound a little more.. mean, I think. For example, you could safely someone's\nfingers are 太い, supposing they weren't self conscious about it.\n\n悲しい人 as it stands is a little strange, since when referring to other people we\ntend to say 悲しがっている (to \"show signs\" of being sad) or 悲しそう (look sad). More\nbroadly, though, I don't think there is too much difference between 悲しむ and\n悲しい. One is an adjective and one is a verb, and I think it's just made a\nlittle trickier because of the fact that they look similar. If you now the\ndifference between うれしい and 喜ぶ I think it's the same sort of thing. Also when\nyou ue 悲しむ you can use it with an object, so for example you can say\n父の死を悲しんでいます. You can also say 父の死で悲しい, but note how the focus shifts. In\nEnglish it might be the difference between \"I am grieving my father's death\"\nand \"I am sad about my father's death.\" I think using the verb shows a feeling\nthat's a little more pervasive and perhaps stronger.\n\nLast, 悲しい can be used to describe things as well as people. So you can have a\nmovie that is sad, a 悲しい映画, but you cannot have a 悲しんでいる映画.", "comment_count": 6, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-08T01:49:54.260", "id": "11665", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-08T01:49:54.260", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1797", "parent_id": "11664", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "It reads: \"[撥]{ばち}の[音]{おと}も[加]{くわ}えた _gliss_ \". This literally means: \"The\nsound of drumsticks\"-too \"added to\"-gliss, and in translation:\n\n`Glissando complemented by the sound of drumsticks.`\n\nIt seems a bit rendundant, knowing that a Marimba would only allow for\ndiscrete glissando.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-08T16:57:49.427", "id": "11669", "last_activity_date": "2015-07-30T11:21:53.723", "last_edit_date": "2015-07-30T11:21:53.723", "last_editor_user_id": "104", "owner_user_id": "1537", "parent_id": "11667", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "Not _quite_ sure I understand what you're asking, but I think a lot of it\nboils down to understanding the context of what is being said, and vocabulary\nassociated with this context.\n\nSince you will encounter the `〜て` form of verbs very frequently, knowing the\nrules of making this form for different verbs will clue you in. For example\n\n> * 来（き）て ください → Please come\n> * 切（き）って ください → Please cut it / Please turn it off (power, etc.)\n>\n\nHowever, some situations may be harder to distinguish, yet may have the\nsame/similar meanings.\n\n> * 待（ま）って → Wait! (friendly request)\n> * 待（ま）て → Wait! (strong/stern command)\n>", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-08T19:34:03.960", "id": "11672", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-08T19:34:03.960", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "78", "parent_id": "11668", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "て and って sound different. The /t/ sound in the latter is longer (or you might\nperceive is as if the latter has two /t/ sounds).\n\nThis is called gemination. Gemination is rare in some languages (including\nEnglish), so you might not be used to listening for it. One example is the /t/\nsound in \"hat trick\" versus \"Patrick\". You might pronounce the t longer in the\nformer.\n\nIn Japanese, all \"big\" kana and little っs should take up approximately the\nsame amount of time when speaking (the rest of the \"small\" kana modify the\nprevious kana, but don't change its length). It's as if each kana takes up one\nbeat in a fairly stable rhythm. In って, you should be able to hear the rhythm\nresting on the /t/ sound for a whole beat.\n\nおう doesn't have gemination, but its length should still be approximately twice\nthe length of お. In the rhythm of one beat per kana, おう lasts two beats, お\none.\n\nI think I've heard that some Japanese teachers teach their students to\npractice this by clapping a steady rhythm while pronouncing.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-09T06:51:07.853", "id": "11676", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-09T06:51:07.853", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1073", "parent_id": "11668", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "The title sounds like the exam is \"about your hobbies\".\n\nIt might be a good idea to begin by talking about your hobbies... or, perhaps,\nby asking your conversation partner about their hobbies.\n\nI would not recommend using \"しゅうみについてどう思いか？\", though. You might want to start\nout by using something simple like: ＿＿さん／＿＿先生のしゅみはなんですか？", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-08T19:12:39.360", "id": "11671", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-08T19:12:39.360", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1188", "parent_id": "11670", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 }, { "body": "As @summea said, the title of the exam is \"About your Hobbies\". As you said\nthat it is an oral exam, I would expect your teacher to ask you questions\nabout your hobbies, such as 趣味【しゅみ】は何【なん】ですか? Or if you are the one asking\nquestions, you should ask questions like that. There are many appropriate\nanswers to questions of this sort, but they include:\n\n * 趣味【しゅみ】は **アニメを見【み】ること** です。\n * **本【ほん】を読【よ】むこと** が好【す】きです。\n\nMost importantly, use what you've learned!\n\nAs an aside, しゅみについてどう思いか would be a strange thing to say, because a) it is\ngrammatically incorrect, and b) it is somewhat off-topic. The correct\ngrammatical form would be 趣味【しゅみ】についてどう思【おも】いますか, and that would be a bit\nbetter, but I don't think \"What do you think about hobbies?\" is really the\nquestion you want to be asking under these circumstances.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-09T01:01:15.637", "id": "11674", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-09T01:01:15.637", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "384", "parent_id": "11670", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 } ]

[ { "body": "Konnichiwa is MAINLY used as an Greeting as in \"Hello\" While Konbanwa is used\nto greet people in the evening.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-09T08:39:48.160", "id": "11677", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-09T16:21:22.623", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-09T16:21:22.623", "last_editor_user_id": "3121", "owner_user_id": "3121", "parent_id": "11675", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "They are both common greetings. The \"ban\" in \"konbanwa\" means \"evening\". The\n\"nichi\" in \"konnichiwa\" means \"day\".\n\nWe use \"ohayou gozaimasu\" before about 10:30 am, \"konnichiwa\" after about\n10:30 am, and \"konbanwa\" in the evening.", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-12T06:44:27.150", "id": "11696", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-12T06:44:27.150", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1187", "parent_id": "11675", "post_type": "answer", "score": 19 }, { "body": "Kon'nichiwa sometime used as saying Good afternoon or Hello. Konbanwa is good\nevening.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2015-05-11T14:33:03.720", "id": "24254", "last_activity_date": "2015-05-11T14:33:03.720", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "10063", "parent_id": "11675", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 }, { "body": "Konichiwa is the basic hello. ~10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.\n\nKonnbanwa is good evening, an other greeting. ~7:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.\n\nohayou gozaimasu is good mornning ~1:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2015-05-12T20:56:49.550", "id": "24281", "last_activity_date": "2015-05-12T20:56:49.550", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "9379", "parent_id": "11675", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "The `わ` in these words is actually the 未然形 of the\n[継続の助動詞「ふ」](http://kobun.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%B5), which historically\nattached to the 未然形 of other verbs. In this case, the combination of `嘆く` and\n`ふ` formed the verb `嘆かふ`, and the combination of `忌む` with `ふ` produced\n`忌まふ`. It is these words that combined with the `し` suffix:\n\n> [嘆かふ](http://kobun.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%AA%E3%81%92%E3%81%8B%E3%81%B5) →\n> 嘆かは + し \n>\n> [忌まふ](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E5%BF%8C%E3%81%BE%E3%81%B5&stype=0&dtype=0&dname=0ss)\n> → 忌まは + し\n\nIn modern Japanese, the `は` becomes `わ`, and the classical 終止形 `し` is replaced\nwith the 連体形 `しき`, which loses its /k/ and becomes `しい`:\n\n> 嘆かは + し → 嘆かわ + しい \n> 忌まは + し → 忌まわ + しい\n\nSo as you can see, these words aren't really exceptions. Your list includes\n`呪う` and `呪わしい`, and that word can be explained in the same way. And in all of\nthese examples, the suffix `しい` is attaching directly the 未然形 of a verb.\n\nBy the way, there's some interesting discussion in English of the auxiliary\n`ふ` in [this blog post on\ntumblr](http://bottlegrotto.tumblr.com/post/1117231887/o-repetition-and-\ncontinuation-auxiliary-verb).", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-09T23:02:08.527", "id": "11679", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-10T17:31:13.427", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-10T17:31:13.427", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11678", "post_type": "answer", "score": 13 } ]

[ { "body": "I did a rough translation of the text:\n\n> So I took a look at this prepartory sheet that Mio had set aside for me. Now\n> with the stuff that Mio chose for me, if I prepare in a very small area and\n> am able to get some good points for it, then I should be able to get through\n> tomorrow's test – _I think_.\n\nAs far as I am concerned, と思う and と考える are interchangeable, with と考える being a\nbit more on the calculative side vs. と思う expressing an opinion based on good\nfaith.\n\nAs in the text, the test-taker wants to go probabilistically, learning only a\npart of the exam and expecting that the odds will be on his side that this\npart is being tested on. Of course he is aware that this can backfire badly,\nhence the quadruple stars.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-10T09:51:50.393", "id": "11681", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-10T09:51:50.393", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1537", "parent_id": "11680", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "The second sentence means \n\n> それ(=The workbook that 澪 prepared for\n> me)は、『(俺が)指定された範囲で高得点をとることが出来れば、明日の再テストでまずまずの結果を残せるだろう』と(澪が)考え **_て_**\n> 、澪が選んでくれたものだった。 \n>\n\n(澪 chose the workbook for me, thinking\n\"指定された範囲で高得点をとることが出来れば、明日の再テストでまずまずの結果を残せるだろう\".) \n\nThe それ refers to 澪が用意してくれた問題集. The subject for とることが出来れば and 残せるだろう is the\nwriter(俺), and the subject for と考え(て) is 澪. The 考え(て) could be rephrased as\nと思い / と思って.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-10T13:15:05.153", "id": "11684", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-10T13:15:05.153", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11680", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "It is easiest to give a familiar example\n\n> Operation Desert Shield｜砂漠の盾作戦\n\nie place the name of the operation in front of 作戦 （さくせん）\n\nI think you could get away with using katakana words for foreign activties.", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-10T12:12:50.357", "id": "11683", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-10T13:35:37.820", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-10T13:35:37.820", "last_editor_user_id": "1556", "owner_user_id": "1556", "parent_id": "11682", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "It is considered proper to use 尊敬語 to refer to anyone who is 目上 to you. That\nincludes relationships within your company, organization, or office. However,\nyou must remember that you do not use 尊敬語 to refer to people that are part of\nyour \"in-group\" when the person you're talking to is part of your \"out-group\".\nInstead, you use 謙譲語 to refer to them. If my understanding of 丁重語 is correct\n(I've never heard this term used before, so I may be missing the point here),\nthen it is generally used whenever you would use 尊敬語・謙譲語.\n\nWhether or not you use 丁寧語 is almost completely unrelated to your use of\n尊敬語・謙譲語, it instead depends on your relationship with the person you're\nspeaking to, not the status of who you're talking about. You should use 丁寧語 at\nwork in general, especially if you're talking to someone 目上. If you're talking\nto someone who is 目下 to you, then you don't need to speak to them with 丁寧語 but\nyou can.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-16T02:25:44.427", "id": "11723", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-16T02:25:44.427", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1769", "parent_id": "11685", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 }, { "body": "> In particular, inside a company, would it be normal to use 尊敬語・謙譲語・丁重語 with\n> anyone older or higher in rank? It seems like that might be too excessive.\n> Does usage depend on factors such as context or personality?\n\nThis is very tricky even for a native Japanese, and it does vary among\ncompanies. One has to observe others and gauge what the temperature is (aka\n空気を読む).\n\nThat said, in business settings, 尊敬語・謙譲語 as opposed to 丁寧語 is generally not\nused if you speak often with the person. This is probably because it's\nsomewhat more cumbersome to communicate, and it also signals a distance. If\nyou are using 尊敬語・謙譲語, you are in theory being respectful, but it also means\nyou aren't going to have a close relationship. Therefore it's possible to\noffend people by using 尊敬語・謙譲語. Also, if you use overly respectful language\nwhen the situation doesn't warrant it, you can actually sound disrespectful\n(aka 慇懃無礼). With 丁寧語 you are generally safe.\n\nConversely you can offend people by using タメ口, but when you are very close to\na higher ranking/older person and the person isn't very 体育会系 (i.e. cares a lot\nabout hierarchy), then using タメ口 can bring the relationship much closer. It's\nall about being very observant, like many aspects of life in Japan are ;)\nHowever, with 丁寧語 you can become very close, too so it's not an issue if you\nhave to use 丁寧語.\n\nTo recap, if you are in doubt, stick with 丁寧語. If the person is so higher\nranking that you are unlikely to talk to them on a daily basis (like 3 ranks\nabove etc.), then it should be safe to use 尊敬語・謙譲語.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2014-02-28T23:53:15.940", "id": "14671", "last_activity_date": "2014-02-28T23:53:15.940", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "499", "parent_id": "11685", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "Great question! This is something that I have struggled with (especially early\non... when trying to read any large section of text...) but believe me, it\ndoes get easier with time and practice.\n\nIt may already be something you are using, but there is at least one thing\nthat has helped me, and that is to look for\n[particles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_particles) in a given\nsentence. This doesn't always help... but it _can_ provide boundaries for\nwhere many words (or phrases) begin and end.\n\nOther than that, with time and practice it will become more evident where\nwords begin and end as your vocabulary is further enriched!", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-11T05:56:44.060", "id": "11688", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-11T05:56:44.060", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1188", "parent_id": "11687", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "Certainly vocabulary helps, but you can get quite far by considering the\nstructure of a sentence.\n\n * Nouns are usually written in kanji (or katakana) and are _practically always_ followed by a particle (を, が, は, から, etc.) (unless they are followed by a copula で, だ, です, etc.)\n * The stem of verbs (including adjectival verbs, or \"i-adjectives\") is usually written in 漢字, with the ending (the conjugated part) written in kana (called 送り仮名).\n * Adverbs are often written in kana\n * Adjectival nouns (AN) (\"na-adjectives\") are usually written in kanji and usually followed by な.\n\nWith that information, you can usually parse a sentence without knowing any\nvocabulary (but you need to know a list of particles and knowing the possible\nconjugation for verbs also helps).\n\nFor example,\n\n> 住宅地域における本機の使用は有害な電波妨害を引き起こすことがあり、その場合ユーザーは自己負担で電波妨害の問題を解決しなければなりません。\n\nbecomes\n\n> (N) 住宅地域 \n> (P) に \n> (V) おける \n> (N) 本機 \n> (P) の \n> (N) 使用 \n> (P) は \n> (AN) 有害な \n> (N) 電波妨害 \n> (P) を \n> (V) 引き起こす \n> **(N)** こと \n> (P) が \n> (V) あり、 \n> **(D)** その \n> **(N)** 場合 \n> (N) ユーザー \n> (P) は \n> (N) 自己負担 \n> (P) で \n> (N) 電波妨害 \n> (P) の \n> (N) 問題 \n> (P) を \n> (N) 解決 \n> (V) しなければなりません。\n\nwhere for the bold lines, I needed to know that\n\n * こと is a nominalizer, i.e. some sort of auxiliary noun, and thus is not written in 漢字\n * その is a determiner and not an adverb\n * 場合 is also an auxiliary noun and doesn't take a particle here.\n\nBut as you can see, you get quite far with the handful of rules above.", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-11T05:58:02.437", "id": "11689", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-22T18:34:37.283", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-22T18:34:37.283", "last_editor_user_id": "1628", "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11687", "post_type": "answer", "score": 24 }, { "body": "Separating words in a sentence, at least when done by computer, is called\nsegmentation (分かち書き) or tokenization (トークン化). When using an IME to input\nJapanese, when you hit the space bar to convert the kana to kanji, the IME has\nto segment whatever it is that you typed, then use a dictionary to replace the\nkana with its kanji. As you've probably learned by now, the IME is not 100%\naccurate. As for general tokenization rules, it depends on what you're\ntokenizing and what you define as a word or token.\n\nFor example, [Kuromoji](http://www.atilika.org/), an open source morphological\nparser, will segment Earthliŋ's sentence above this way:\n\n> 住宅 | 地域 | における | 本 | 機 | の | 使用 | は | 有害 | な | 電波 | 妨害 | を | 引き起こす | こと | が\n> | あり | 、 | その | 場合 | ユーザー | は | 自己 | 負担 | で | 電波 | 妨害 | の | 問題 | を | 解決 |し |\n> なけれ | ば |なり | ませ | ん | 。\n\nEven though Earthliŋ parsed the last word しなければなりません as a single token,\nKuromoji parsed it as 6 tokens. How you parse depends on what information you\nwant to extract. Kuromoji uses a dictionary to aid the parsing, but another\nparser, [TinySegmenter](http://chasen.org/~taku/software/TinySegmenter/), is\npattern based and also does a very good job:\n\n> 住宅 | 地域 | に | おける | 本機 | の | 使用 | は | 有害 | な | 電波 | 妨害 | を | 引き起こす | こと | が\n> | あり | 、 | その | 場合 | ユーザー | は | 自己 | 負担 | で | 電波 | 妨害 | の | 問題 | を | 解決 | し\n> | なけれ | ば | なり | ませ | ん | 。\n\nAs you can see, there are a few differences between Kuromoji and TinySegmenter\n(both of these you can use right in the browser). Although no person can\ntokenize the sentence in the manner these small programs do, it should come\nnaturally and unconsciously as you learn Japanese.\n\nIf short on time however, a very crude way to tokenize is to just group\ncharacters contiguously by script (hiragana, katakana, kanji):\n\n> 住宅地域 | における | 本機 | の | 使用 | は | 有害 | な | 電波妨害 | を | 引 | き | 起 | こすことがあり | 、\n> | その | 場合 | ユーザー | は | 自己負担 | で | 電波妨害 | の | 問題 | を | 解決 | しなければなりません | 。 |\n\nThe way Earthliŋ parsed the sentence above was in fact still vocabulary\nintensive. For example, in order to segment `引き起こすことが` into `引き起こす | こと | が`\n(and not, say, `引き起 | こすこ | とが`) he probably first started with the fact that\nこと is a nominalizer and so is a token. Next, delimiting the token こと then\nyields all 3 tokens `引き起こす | こと | が`. If he didn't know beforehand that こと is\na nominalizer he would not have known that it was a token and so he would not\nhave been able to choose between the parsings `引き起こす | こと | が` (correct) and\n`引き起 | こすこ | とが` (incorrect).\n\nWell, I'm just guessing. Obviously I don't actually know what went on inside\nthe head of Earthliŋ, but I wanted to draw attention to the fact that when it\ncomes to segmenting, having a vocabulary (or a dictionary if you're a\ncomputer) results in different segmentation strategies.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-06T17:01:47.470", "id": "11834", "last_activity_date": "2019-10-29T12:54:04.527", "last_edit_date": "2019-10-29T12:54:04.527", "last_editor_user_id": "22352", "owner_user_id": "1454", "parent_id": "11687", "post_type": "answer", "score": 17 } ]

[ { "body": "I don't have expertise in this area, but here's the extent of what I've been\nable to find about it.\n\nThe main distinction that you'll be looking for is between 謙譲語 and 丁重語. Both\nserve to elevate the listener, and they overlap quite a bit. The key, however,\nis that the main use of 謙譲語 shows respect to those who appear in the\nconversation while 丁重語 expresses direct respect to the listener. This use is\nbasically a subset of normal humble speech.\n\nSo for example, let's say you're talking to your boss. I'm borrowing these\nexample sentences from the source below:\n\n 1. その件は、部長に御説明しました。…「御説明する」謙譲語Ⅰ\n 2. その件は、部長に説明いたしました。…「説明いたす」謙譲語Ⅱ(丁重語)\n\nIn the first one you are expressing respect for your boss through using ご説明\nwith him/her explicitly in the conversation. In the second one you are using\n説明いたす to show respect _to the listener_ , in this case still your boss.\n\nTo make it a little clearer you can switch 部長 to your friend 山田. He is the\nsame rank as you and therefore doesn't take formal speech. So we take the\nfollowing examples:\n\n 1. その件は、山田に御説明しました。…謙譲語Ⅰ\n\n 2. その件は、山田に説明いたしました。…謙譲語Ⅱ（丁重語）\n\nIn this situation, 1 is incorrect because you are using ご説明 to show respect to\n山田 who is of the same rank as you. 2 is ok because you are _not_ elevating 山田\nwith ご説明 but you _are_ elevating your boss (whom you are speaking to) by using\n説明いたす. This is 丁重語.\n\nAnd you can take it one step further. You're talking to your 部長 about your 課長.\nWhat happens then?\n\n 1. その件は、課長に御説明しました。…謙譲語Ⅰ\n 2. その件は、課長に説明いたしました。…謙譲語Ⅱ（丁重語）\n\nIn this case 1 is not necessarily wrong because you are using ご説明 to refer to\n課長. You just have to be careful not to upset your 部長 by using formal speech\nfor 課長 but not for him (that is, using 謙譲語 but not 丁重語). 2 solves that by\nincorporating both forms.\n\nAll examples were borrowed from here:\n\n<http://www.e-hoki.com/column/current/68.html>", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-12T05:27:19.080", "id": "11694", "last_activity_date": "2014-03-01T01:25:21.140", "last_edit_date": "2014-03-01T01:25:21.140", "last_editor_user_id": "1556", "owner_user_id": "1797", "parent_id": "11692", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "OK I posted this as a comment because I wasn't 100% sure of the correctness\nbut to escape the \"post answers as answers\" problem I'll just say it here.\n\nSo here you've got a speaker referring to this fella マルス. He's quite far\nremoved from the current setting, it seems, or perhaps metaphorically distant\nas in on a different level as the wielder of the falchion, so this speaker is\nreferring to マルス as あの子.\n\nLater on the speaker wants to repeat this reference and say \"guide this\n(aforementioned) kid.\" The speaker just said あの子 so by saying そのあの子 he/she is\nreferring to あの子 more as a linguistic thing, something that was just said,\nrather than as a person who is both in and out of certain contexts. I think\nthis idea is supported by the fact that the speaker changes it to マルス\nmidstream.\n\nあの子＝マルス (some mystical/legendary/whatever boy removed from the current context\nand therefore あの)\n\nそのあの子＝そのマルス (その emphasizing the description just given about legends and\nwhatnot)\n\nWeird way of saying it? Maybe. But I think that's why it changed in the text\nitself back to マルス.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-12T06:49:49.490", "id": "11697", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-12T06:49:49.490", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1797", "parent_id": "11693", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "I do not think the nuance you listed gives the full picture.\n\n 1. 国へ帰るとき、かばんを買いました。\n\nThis can be said if you bought the bag before you returned (i.e., on the\nairplane, in the departure airport, etc.).\n\n 2. 国へ帰ったとき、かばんを買いました。\n\nThis can be said if you bought the bag before you returned, or when you\ncompleted returning.\n\nSo, the natural reading of the second sentence is probably that the bag was\nbought when you returned, but it's rather ambiguous and could easily mean\nbefore you returned.\n\n* * *\n\nThere is a more important difference between the sentences though, which is\nthat the former sentence does not necessarily imply that you got home:\n\n> 国へ帰る時、かばんを買いました。でもやっぱり帰りませんでした。 \n> \"When I was returning to my country, I bought a bag. But, it turns out that\n> I never actually got home.\"\n>\n> 国へ帰った時、かばんを買いました。でもやっぱり帰りませんでした。 \n> Semantically invalid, 帰った conflicts with 帰りませんでした.\n\nAs mentioned, your first sentence does not necessarily imply that you got\nhome, which is why you can add でもやっぱり帰りませんでした.\n\n* * *\n\nNote, that behavior of the plain form in relative clauses only works like that\nfor a state-change verb (e.g., 帰る), not for action verbs (e.g., 走る).\n\n> 道を（毎日）走る時、宇宙人を見たことがありました。 \"Back when I was running the streets (every day),\n> I saw an alien.\"\n\nWhen your embedded verb (走る) is an action verb in plain form, if the matrix\npredicate (ある) is past-tense, the embedded verb is forced to take on a\nhabitual reading.\n\nIn this case adding でもやっぱり走りませんでした, \"but I never ran\" does not make sense\nsemantically.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-16T00:13:12.307", "id": "11722", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-16T17:49:39.817", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "3097", "parent_id": "11699", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "I'm Japanese. I hope to improve my English and use English more often, so I'll\nanswer your question.\n\nAs Darius-san wrote, 2 is ambiguous, and most Japanese think that she arrived\nin her country and then bought the bag. But if I translate these sentences\nwithout thinking well, I might do both to \"I bought a bag when I went back to\nmy country.\" Given this, I come to think that this English sentence is also\nambiguous. When do you think the speaker bought a bag?\n\nBy the way, the sentence \"国へ帰る時、かばんを買いました。でもやっぱり帰りませんでした\" Darius-san wrote is\npretty strange. Japanese never say so.\n\nIf you say this, it is correct:\n\n> 国に帰るためにかばんを買いました。でも、やっぱり帰りませんでした。 \n> I bought a bag to return to my country. But it turns out that I never\n> actually got home.\n\nYour first sentence necessarily implies that she got home.\n\nMy English may prevent you from understanding. Sorry.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-17T05:35:52.423", "id": "11728", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-21T15:17:03.720", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-21T15:17:03.720", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3378", "parent_id": "11699", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "The quick answer: rather than interpreting this as だけ \"only\", this is 丈\n(\"length\"). Normally read as take, voices during compounding.\n\nBefore someone calls me out on it, the more precise answer: both are the [same\nword](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&stype=0&dtype=0&dname=0ss&p=%E3%81%A0%E3%81%91).\nThe word dake \"only\" is written as 丈 and derives from 丈 (take). The\ntranslation \"only\" is not always appropriate as is clear in this case.\n\n> Are there other question words that have だけ in them?\n\nYes. At least the following: \\- これだけ \\- それだけ \\- 及ぶだけ \\- 出来るだけ\n\nAs the above dictionary link mentions, remenants of take can be found in words\nなるたけ and ありったけ.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-12T13:31:09.987", "id": "11702", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-12T13:50:15.857", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-12T13:50:15.857", "last_editor_user_id": "1141", "owner_user_id": "1141", "parent_id": "11701", "post_type": "answer", "score": 9 } ]

[ { "body": "According to the book I have here \"All about particles\" (Chino, 1991), もの is\none of the sentence final particles and its primary meaning is \"because\" or\n\"reason is.\" Chino says もの \"indicates an excuse, a dissatisfaction, or a\ndesire to be indulged or pampared.\" I believe もん has the same meaning but used\nby mainly children and women in casual conversations.\n\nPlain(short) form + もん Often used with んだ.\n\n宿題したくなーい。むずかしいんだもん。\n\nジェットコースターは乗りたくない・・・。こわいんだもん。\n\nえー買ってくれないの？！じゃあ、いいもん。自分で買うもん。だってどうしてもほしいんだもん！\n\nお母さん：そんなお菓子食べて・・・。おいしいの？\n\n子ども：おいしいもん！（怒）お母さんにはわかんないよ！\n\nＡ：今日夕飯いらない。\n\n女：えー、一緒に食べようと思って、待って（い）たのにー！もーいいよ！一人で食べるもん！（怒）", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-12T22:07:21.457", "id": "11704", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-12T22:07:21.457", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3368", "parent_id": "11703", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "If I ignore semantics and discuss syntax only, I think that it went like this:\n\n 1. もの was originally 物, a lexical noun (実質名詞), which could be modified by a relative clause ending in 用言の連体形.\n 2. It was then grammaticalized into a formal noun (形式名詞), losing its literal meaning but still appearing in the same syntactic position, after a relative clause ending in 用言の連体形. \n 3. After the morphophonological merger of 連体形 and 終止形, it was possible to reanalyze 連体形＋もの as 終止形＋もの because the two looked and sounded the same. This in turn made it possible to reanalyze もの as a 終助詞.\n 4. Once it was possible for もの to be treated as a 終助詞, it became possible for it to appear after だ.\n\nSo now もの (or its contracted form もん) can appear as a 形式名詞 or a 終助詞. And of\ncourse the original word 物 is still around.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2014-02-05T07:25:02.883", "id": "14411", "last_activity_date": "2014-02-05T07:49:41.900", "last_edit_date": "2014-02-05T07:49:41.900", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11703", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "Did you look this up in a dictionary? Even WWWJDIC has\n\n> 学生 student (esp. a university student) \n> 生徒 pupil \n> 児童 children, juvenile\n\nwhich is quite accurate I'd say. 生徒 is pupil, not just for elementary school.\nIf you want to be more specific about the level, there are\n\n> 小学生 elementary school pupil \n> 中学生 middle school pupil \n> 高校生 high school pupil \n> 大学生 university (undergraduate student) \n> 大学院生 graduate student", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-13T11:29:09.473", "id": "11707", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-13T11:51:00.340", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-13T11:51:00.340", "last_editor_user_id": "1628", "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11706", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 }, { "body": "Students are 学生 for most of their educational life:\n\n> kindergarten 幼稚園児(ようちえん･じ) \n> elementary school 小学生(しょうがく･せい) \n> middle school 中学生(ちゅうがく･せい) \n> high school 高校生(こうこう･せい) \n> university 大学生(だいがく･せい) \n> graduate school 大学院生(だいがくいん･せい), 博士課程の学生(はくし･かていのがくせい)\n\nI would always pass myself off as はかせかていのメンバー (member of the doctorate\ncourse). I was never corrected on this.\n\nThe other two act as group descriptors, rather than something a student would\nrefer itself as:\n\n> 児童 \"children\", up to including elemenatry school \n> 生徒 \"a member of the body of students\", middle school and up\n\nAccording to Japanese animated television series, Japanese spend what is\ncalled their life in school and then transform into a rigid plant-like\nlifeform. Hence there are a lot of other terms describing that growth phase,\nsuch as:\n\n * [弟子]{でし} (novice of some craftsman)\n * [在校生]{ざいこうせい} (enrolled high school student)\n * [在学生]{ざいがくせい} (enrolled student)\n * [書生]{しょせい} (scholarly student)\n * [学僕]{がくぼく} (student learning under and working for a teacher)", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-13T11:56:38.230", "id": "11708", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-16T07:13:42.990", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-16T07:13:42.990", "last_editor_user_id": "1537", "owner_user_id": "1537", "parent_id": "11706", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 }, { "body": "# 日本語\n\nI think 生徒 is for elementary school>>残念ながら、本来は違うんです・・・^^; \n\n大学で教育関係の勉強をしたときに、[文部科学省]{もんぶかがくしょう}の定めるところでは、\n\n> 幼稚園では「[幼児]{ようじ}」、 \n> 小学校では「[児童]{じどう}」、 \n> 中学・高校では「[生徒]{せいと}」、 \n> 大学以上では「[学生]{がくせい}」 \n>\n\nとされると知りました。だから、厳密には「高校生・中学生」は「学生」ではありませんし、「小学生」も「生徒」ではありません。 \n \nでも！ \n \n日本では多くの人が、日常会話でよく、高校生を「学生」と呼びます。（もちろん、中学・高校の先生は「うちの学生」ではなく「うちの生徒」と言いますが。）小学生を「生徒」と呼ぶ人もよくいます。（もちろん、小学校の先生は「うちの生徒」ではなく「うちの児童」と言いますが。）ニュースや新聞では、正しく使い分けられているはずです。 \n \nまた、「教師」に対して「教えてもらう側」という意味では、小学生・大学生・大人に対しても、よく「生徒」を使います。例えば・・・「うちの書道教室の児童」よりも「うちの書道教室の生徒」のほうが自然です。\n\n# English\n\nTranslated Version:\n\n\"I think 生徒 is for elementary school\"\\--I'm sorry, but I don't think this is\nright.\n\nAs established by the Ministry of Education,\n\n> Kindergarteners are 幼児, \n> Elementary/primary school students are 児童, \n> Middle/secondary/junior high and high school students are 生徒, \n> College and university students are 学生\n\nSo strictly speaking, 高校生 and 中学生 are not 学生; and 小学生 are not 生徒.\n\nBut!\n\nIn Japan, it is not uncommon in everyday conversations that 高校生 are called 学生,\nand there are many people who use 生徒 for 小学生. (But of course, 中学・高校 teachers\ndon't say うちの学生, they say うちの生徒; and 小学 teachers don't say うちの生徒, they say\nうちの児童.) As for things like newspapers, we would expect the words to be\ncorrectly used.\n\nAlso, people who are under instruction, as opposed to providing instruction,\nare frequently called 生徒. For example, the phrase \"Our calligraphy class\nstudent(s)\" is more naturally realised as \"うちの書道教室の生徒\" than \"うちの書道教室の児童\".", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-13T12:59:30.360", "id": "11709", "last_activity_date": "2019-03-23T16:05:03.847", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11706", "post_type": "answer", "score": 19 }, { "body": "This is the clearest answer that I found.\n\n学生 are who studies (at some institution). 生徒 are who are taught (from some\nteacher).\n\nI teach tai chi privately and therefore my students are referred to as 生徒.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2023-03-02T01:13:30.963", "id": "98763", "last_activity_date": "2023-03-02T01:13:30.963", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "55917", "parent_id": "11706", "post_type": "answer", "score": -1 } ]

[ { "body": "There's no such word as あたたかった/あったかった at least in standard Japanese...^^ You'd\nsurely be corrected if you wrote あたたかった in your essay or written test in\nprimary school. You wouldn't find あったかった in children's books, too. I believe\nit's just a typo and doubt people (who speak Kanto or Kansai dialect at least)\nreally use it in normal or casual conversations. \n \nあたたかった appears in the song 「君に逢いたくて」by Gackt, but many people have pointed out\nthat it's wrong Japanese, for example\n[here](http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm15701027),\n[here](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1160747731)\nand [here](http://www.sam.hi-ho.ne.jp/~shuno/speech/050109.htm). \n \nIt seems pretty hard for young children to pronounce あたたかかった/あったかかった,\nespecially the たた and かか parts, so I think they tend to pronounce it as\nあたたかった/あったかった. I don't know if the あたたかった/あったかった used online is new internet\nslang, and I suspect some of its writers might be imitating children's speech,\ntrying to sound childlike or cute. \n \nAs for [暖]{あたた}かい/[暖]{あたた}かかった or [暖]{あたたか}い/[暖]{あたたか}かった, I normally use the\nformer because I was taught to write it that way and also because I've seen it\nwritten that way more often. Maybe the latter is more used by older\npeople...^^", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-15T16:26:13.860", "id": "11721", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-16T12:42:25.220", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-16T12:42:25.220", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11710", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "The primary difference is that 出す implies something sudden or unexpected. For\nexample, consider the sentence 私は泣き出した and 私は泣きはじめた. In the first we get a\nnatural expression which implies that you (beyond your control) started\ncrying. The second one is grammatically correct, but by using 始めた you're\nimplying a sense of purpose, like you're making yourself cry for some reason.\nYou cannot use 出す to express will or volition, so the sentence 歩き出しましょう would\nbe strange.\n\nThe tricky part about trying to find a distinction here is that no matter how\nmany rules you try to apply you're going to be finding exceptions. At the very\nbasic level you can think of 出す as something unexpected or sudden, possibly\nboth, possibly just one. I'm going to borrow a citation from one of the pages\nbelow:\n\n> 講談社インターナショナルの『日本語使い分け辞典』からの引用です。\n> 「～だす」は「～始める」よりも客観的で、自分の意志での動作や行動には使いません。また、「～始める」は単に、ある動作・行動・状態の初期だということですが、「～だす」は、その動作・行動・状態を予想していなかったという「軽い驚きや戸惑い」の感情を含んでいます。（引用終わり）\n\nI agree with the bit that suggests a slight surprise or confusion, even in\nsituations like スタートの合図が鳴り、彼らはいっせいに走り出した。 Even if you expect them to start\nrunning, there's still an air of unexpectedness to it because the signal comes\nsuddenly. 出す suggests that they were still and suddenly started moving. If it\nwere 走り始めた then it would have the same general meaning but that nuance of\nsudden change is gone.\n\nAlso just to briefly mention it, 出す also has a spatial meaning of movement\nfrom inside to outside, like in ポケットからナイフを取り出す, but that's unrelated to the\nsense of beginning.\n\nAs for your other points, I don't think there is a real difference in\nformality. I can imagine both being used in formal speech as long as the\noccasion calls for the nuances associated. You mentioned the part about\ndeliberateness and control which is correct for 始める in some situations, but\nit's important to note that it can have general connotation of expectedness\nwhen it's out of the control of the speaker, like 太陽が沈み始める. And I agree that\nthere is more of an emphasis on the 'beginning' of an action with 始める while 出す\ntends to express more of the sudden change between two states.\n\nCheck these sources out for more info:\n\n 1. [http://nihongo-online.jp/bbs/artview.cgi?id=30&mode=view&page=2&num=640&sort=1&back=tree](http://nihongo-online.jp/bbs/artview.cgi?id=30&mode=view&page=2&num=640&sort=1&back=tree)\n 2. <http://nihongo-online.jp/tree02/treebbs.cgi?log=9657>\n 3. <http://nihongo-online.jp/tree02/treebbs.cgi?log=9659>\n 4. <http://nihongo-online.jp/tree02/treebbs.cgi?log=9660>", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-15T00:30:58.410", "id": "11714", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-15T00:30:58.410", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1797", "parent_id": "11711", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "の[方]{ほう} is just a way of emphasizing \"about\".\n\n> Apart from that, what about the public safety department?\n\nLiterally, it means \"direction\". A similar way of saying Xの方 in English would\nbe with \"on the X side of things\", i.e.\n\n> Apart from that, what about the public safety department side of things?\n\nP.S. There was a [similar\nquestion](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/11023/%E6%96%B9-also-\nread-%E3%81%BB%E3%81%86-when-referring-to-a-person) where the OP confused\nの[方]{ほう} with の[方]{かた}, which is grammatically viable (replace a noun with\nanother noun), but doesn't make as much sense here.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-14T23:26:25.947", "id": "11713", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-15T03:23:46.433", "last_edit_date": "2017-04-13T12:43:44.157", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11712", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "To give a few working examples:\n\n> **私は** 猫が **怖い** 。 \n> **I'm scared** of cats.\n>\n> 恵美子ちゃんは猫は平気みたいだけど、 **私は怖い** らしい。 \n> Emiko seems to be fine around cats, but apparently is **scared of me**.\n>\n> **僕は怖い** よ。 \n> **I'm scary** , just so you know.\n\nThat makes 私は怖い officially ambiguous and the answer to your question must be\n\"both, depending on the context\".", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-15T08:03:35.723", "id": "11716", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-15T08:35:04.770", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11715", "post_type": "answer", "score": 18 } ]

[ { "body": "For the general difference between these two kanji it may be better to avoid a\ndirect comparison between the versions of こわい and look at their other uses. In\nparticular I associate the kanji 恐 with the word 恐ろしい, which you would usually\nnot alternately write as 怖ろしい, which is very similar to 怖い but carries more of\nan objective sense of \"scary\" while 怖い tends to be more of a subjective thing.\n\nI think this example sentence taken from\n[here](http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/4279195.html) shows the difference pretty\nsuccinctly:\n\n> 「草原で恐ろしい毒蛇にあい、怖かった」\n\nSo you see a snake, which we can all probably agree was pretty frightening (in\nappearance, etc.), and the speaker felt afraid on a personal level as well.\nThat's why we write 恐竜, essentially a scary dragon. [This\nanswer](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1310528873)\nalso backs up this idea. If you want to use 恐い I'm sure the nuance can carry\nover along with the kanji.\n\nAs for the origins of おそらく, if the explanation on [this\nsite](http://okwave.jp/qa/q902235.html) is to be trusted, then the kanji 恐 in\nChinese includes a meaning of possibility, and it was absorbed into Japanese\nhundreds of years ago through scholars and their 漢文.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-15T14:01:43.423", "id": "11718", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-15T14:01:43.423", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1797", "parent_id": "11717", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 }, { "body": "`怖い` is for more in-your-face \"terror\", while `恐い` is a more abstract notation\nof \"fear\", or \"dread\". `怖い` is used more for something seen or experienced\nfirst-hand, while `恐い` is used for things one may never actually encounter\nfirst-hand. Compare the following:\n\n> * 地震は恐い → \"Earthquakes are scary\"; a general concept - you don't have to\n> have actually experienced one to believe this\n> * 地震は怖かった → \"The earthquake was scary\"; you were in this earthquake - it\n> gave you personal, scary/terrifying feelings\n>\n\nAs for `恐らく`, it means \"regrettable\" in the sense of \"I'm afraid that...\"\n\n> I'm **afraid** I don't know the answer. = **Regrettably** , I don't know the\n> answer.\n\nIn this day and age, \"not knowing the answer\" to something does not actually\nmake you scared or fearful. Although I can see how this modern usage might\nhave carried on from older times, when a servant had to tell regrettable news\nto a master/king/etc., and might actually have feared receiving some\npunishment for delivering bad news.\n\n`恐らく` is really more translated as \"perhaps\" or \"probably\", but you can see\nthe overlap in the following sentence:\n\n> 恐らくそれは見つからないだろう → I am afraid it will not be found. / It is not likely to be\n> found.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-15T14:55:23.143", "id": "11719", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-15T14:55:23.143", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "78", "parent_id": "11717", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "This text, even with the context taken into account, does not make much sense.\n存分に refers to doing something seriously with one's full might. So it doesn't\nfit where the homework solves itself without human interventions.\n\nI'd say this is a mistake of \"その名に恥じず放置すればするだけ自然と進行してくれればそれは非常に楽だけど\"\n\nThe previous line from the girl asks the boy to stop studying and play with\nher, so this line translates to something like \"It'd be very convenient if it\n[the homework or something?] would make progress on its own just by literally\nleaving it alone [but it doesn't, so I have to do my homework]\"", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-16T15:08:48.670", "id": "11727", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-16T15:08:48.670", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3059", "parent_id": "11724", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "If に marks the source of something then it can be replaced by から, eg：\n\n> 父にもらいました｜I received it from my father.\n>\n> だれに聞きましたか。｜Who told you?\n\nIf に marks an agent then it cannot. eg:\n\n> 僕はアメリカ人に英語を教えてもらいました。｜I had an American teach me English.\n>\n> (兄は私に五時間も運転させました。｜My older brother made me drive for 5 hours.)\n\nAlso, に＝>psychological closeness to the human source so sometimes から has be\nused, eg:\n\n> ビルさんは[文科省]{もんかしょう}から／に＊[奨学金]{しょうがくきん}をもらいました |\n>\n> Bill received a scholarship from the Ministry of Education.\n\nIn your example either is fine.\n\n_Reference: Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar - ni(3)_", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-16T14:23:50.650", "id": "11726", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-18T14:54:22.740", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "1556", "parent_id": "11725", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I don't think that native Japanese distinguish both ～に…をもらった and ～から…をもらった.\nUntill I read your question have I never thought about this. Japanese use both\nand the two are completely natural. I myself might prefer ～から…をもらった.\n\nWhen we ask a hearer, for example, whom he/she got money from, we use both\nだれからもらったの and だれにもらったの. There is no difference between both sentences.\n\nI am learning English. As a learner I think this way: If there are two words\nhaving approximately same usage, I would like our teacher to tell us that both\nof them can be used. That would bring us to the use of foreign languages\nwithout worrying about mistakes. I'm sorry I sound so selfish.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-18T13:18:32.117", "id": "11739", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-18T13:18:32.117", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3378", "parent_id": "11725", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 } ]

[ { "body": "Certain forms of caligraphy get closer to poetry (like\n[漢詩](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%BC%A2%E8%A9%A9)), so it could use\nphrases and sequences of Kanjis that you won't see anywhere else. As\ncaligraphy is a form of art, it is more interesting to intentionally deviate a\nbit from common words, because it gets the reader thinking.\n\nI'd consider 一味一禪 to be one of those. I can only guess its meaning, but my\nguess would be something like \"every tea making is an act of zen\", or\nsomething close to 禅茶一味. Its use of 異体字 (different more traditional forms of\nthe same kanji) 禪 not 禅 also adds another angle to the deviation.\n\nWhether one calls it \"correct\" Japanese or not is red herring, in my opinion.\nBut you probably don't want to use it in e-mail or other everyday writing.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-17T13:51:13.827", "id": "11732", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-17T14:04:54.863", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-17T14:04:54.863", "last_editor_user_id": "3059", "owner_user_id": "3059", "parent_id": "11729", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I think you got the parsing wrong, sir! I think the sentence divides into the\nfollowing:\n\n> ((格好いいよりも可愛い路線で売っていきたい)(アイドル集団の末席が指定席みたいな)(コジンマリとした)少年)のような笑顔を向けてみた。\n\nI don't feel anything wrong with 骨董品みたいなコジンマリとしたお皿, so using multiple\nadjectives by itself is not a problem. I think your \"something is wrong\"\nfeeling is because \"looks like a reserved seat\" doesn't make sense as an\nadjective for a boy.\n\n(I have to say the sentence is poorly written, though. Adding ','\nappropriately makes the sentence a whole lot more readable!)\n\n> 格好いいよりも可愛い路線で売っていきたい、アイドル集団の末席が指定席みたいなコジンマリとした少年のような笑顔を向けてみた。", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-17T14:01:29.227", "id": "11733", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-17T14:01:29.227", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3059", "parent_id": "11731", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I think 格好いいよりも可愛い路線で売っていきたい modifies (アイドル集団の)末席.\n\n> (格好いいよりも可愛い路線で売っていきたい)アイドル集団の末席 \n> the lease popular member of an idol group (who's trying to catch on by\n> being cute rather than hot) \n>\n\nAnd I think 格好いいよりも可愛い路線で売っていきたいアイドル集団の末席が指定席みたいな and コジンマリした modify the 少年.\n\n> ((\"格好いいよりも可愛い路線で売っていきたい)アイドル集団の末席\"が指定席みたいな)(コジンマリとした)少年... \n> ... a quiet boy (who looks as if he's stuck in the least popular position\n> in an idol group (who's ~~~))", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-21T21:13:39.253", "id": "11758", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-21T21:24:23.810", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-21T21:24:23.810", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11731", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 } ]

[ { "body": "50,000 is usually the number given for the number of Kanji characters since\nthe dawn of time.\n\n2,000 is roughly the number than comprises compulsory education.\n\n5,000 is often assigned to particularly well-read persons (e.g. university\nprofessors).\n\nI remember reading a newspaper article about one of these \"[living national\ntreasures](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_National_Treasures_of_Japan)\",\nwho was supposedly able to read 10,000 characters. (I have yet to find a\nreference.) One does have to wonder, however, how they determined the number.", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-18T07:30:59.923", "id": "11736", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-18T09:31:55.083", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-18T09:31:55.083", "last_editor_user_id": "1628", "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11735", "post_type": "answer", "score": 10 }, { "body": "An authoritative classic, the [Kāngxī\ndictionary](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangxi_dictionary), lists over 47,000\ncharacters. The [Hanyu Da\nZidian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanyu_Da_Zidian), a more modern\nreference, has over 54,000 characters; the [Dai Kan-Wa\nJiten](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Kan-Wa_jiten), the Japanese\nequivalent, has over 50,000. Even more recently, the [Zhōnghuá\nZìhǎi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhonghua_Zihai) has over 85,000\ncharacters, but apparently many of those are variants.\n\nOf course, such counting is more-or-less academic. In Japan, there are only\n2,136 [Jōyō kanji](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanji) (lit.\ncommonly-used kanji), which are the ones taught in school, though literate\npeople usually know more. The equivalent list in Chinese is the [Xiàndài Hànyǔ\nChángyòng\nZìbiǎo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiandai_Hanyu_Changyong_Zibiao), which\nhas about 3,500 characters.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-18T07:39:50.970", "id": "11737", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-18T07:39:50.970", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "578", "parent_id": "11735", "post_type": "answer", "score": 26 }, { "body": "For what it's worth, according to\n[wikipedia](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97#.E6.BC.A2.E5.AD.97.E3.81.AE.E6.95.B0),\nthe current largest compendium of Chinese characters, 異体字辞典([Yitizi\nZidian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhonghua_Zihai#Other_dictionaries)), has\n106,230 entries, which includes all forms (including alternate versions) of\neach character.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-18T07:50:41.957", "id": "11738", "last_activity_date": "2014-02-25T04:39:26.887", "last_edit_date": "2014-02-25T04:39:26.887", "last_editor_user_id": "1797", "owner_user_id": "1797", "parent_id": "11735", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I feel like this question is lacking a super detailed answer, so I'm going to\ngive an excruciatingly detailed breakdown of various kanji thresholds.\n\n1,500ish: This is probably the range of kanji that the average person\nremembers how to actually handwrite directly from memory.\n\n2,136: This is the number of jouyou kanji. These are the kanji that are\nrequired to be taught in compulsory education (elementary and middle school,\nwhich goes through 9th grade in Japan). This list is followed closely by\ngovernment documents, and most newspapers also will restrict themselves to\nthese, but it isn't closely followed by anything else.\n\n2,999: This is the number that includes the jinmeiyou kanji. These are the\nkanji legally allowed to be used in names, in additional to the jouyou kanji.\nThere are 863 kanji on this, which brings the total to 2,999. Despite the\nprimary use (and 人名用 literally meaning \"for use in names\"), not every kanji on\nthe list is exclusively on it for its use in names. For example, 臭 is on the\nlist, and no one in their right mind would give a kanji for \"stench\" as the\nname of a child (and as far surname websites can tell me, no one has it as a\nfamily name either). Rather, 212 of the kanji are just the traditional form of\nthe jouyou kanji that were simplified after ww2.\n\n3,500~4,000: This is about the number of kanji a normal Japanese person can\nread within the context of a word. I can only find guesses of this, since I\ncan't find a study that covers the number.\n\n6,300ish: We have two major thresholds. First, this is the number of kanji\ntested that the highest level of the kanji kentei. This is far beyond what\nmost Japanese people can do, and is mainly gotten to look good on ones resume,\nbut someone who really likes kanji may also consider it.\n\nAlso at this level is the number of kanji encoded levels 1 and 2 of JIS X 0213\nencoding standards (6,355). This was all you could reliably expect a generic\ncomputer system in the '80s to support. The kanji on both closely match,\nthough there are differences. There are kanji on the level 1 kanken exam which\nare at a higher level of JIS encoding, and over a hundred kanji in the JIS\nlevels aren't included due to being only in very rare place names, or in some\ncases, not in anything at all (the 幽霊漢字). Basically, when created back in the\n'70s, there were a few kanji that were surely mistakes/misprints that were\nincluded into the standard. They obviously had to be continued to be supported\nin later updates, even though use of them is very dubious.\n\n6,715: This is the number of kanji when you include IBM select characters\nwhich was included with DOS and the early versions of Windows. These were\nincluded to maintain support with older systems that included those kanji. Not\nall systems would support these in the '80s/'90s, but some did. The only use\nof these kanji I've ever seen is in names, either because the name existed\nbefore Japan started enforcing the Jinmeiyou kanji, because they are\nChinese/Korean and are keeping their kanji from there, or just as something\nthat isn't their legal name, but that they personally use anyways.\n\n10,134: This is the number of kanji in the latest JIS standard (JIS X 0213),\nplus the 84 from the IBM select characters that weren't included in the\nstandard so we keep our set increasing.\n\n13,322: This is the number of kanji in JIS X 0213 combined with the old\nsupplemental standard in JIS X 0212, plus the remaining 34 kanji in IBM select\nthat was in neither. This is basically the number of kanji that were part of a\n\"major\" JIS version.\n\n14,664 - This is the number of kanji supported by Adobe-Japan1-7, the de facto\nstandard Japanese font specification. The extra stuff here from beyond the\nlast mentioned one is pulled from a wide variety of sources. This is basically\nthe limit as far as Japanese kanji goes.\n\nThe two ways to increase from here is if we wish to extend to the number of\nJapanese characters in general or from the number of han characters in\ngeneral. Since the latter is already covered in the other answers (over\n100,000), we will go with a final number of Japanese characters of around 15\nthousand characters, adding in hiragana, katakana (including the ones used\nspecifically for Ainu), hentaigana, and bonji.", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2021-10-06T16:14:31.780", "id": "90644", "last_activity_date": "2021-12-15T17:25:42.200", "last_edit_date": "2021-12-15T17:25:42.200", "last_editor_user_id": "38831", "owner_user_id": "38831", "parent_id": "11735", "post_type": "answer", "score": 9 } ]

[ { "body": "I answered this question a while back, but unfortunately I only half-\nunderstood it, and there was some wrong information in it. After some time\nresearching this question, and now an entire semester of a course about\nJapanese adjectives, I am ready to answer it again. As such, I have deleted my\nprevious answer.\n\nSo, since しい appears to attach to the 未然形 of a verb, why with some small\nsubset, does it attach to the -o- form of the 未然形 rather than the -a- form?\n\nThat is because **しい does not attach to the 未然形 of a verb**.\n\nRather, **it attaches to the 被覆形【ひふくけい】 1 of a verb**. Most often, this form\nresembles the 未然形 -a-2, but there are a number of other examples。Some examples\nwhich still exist in modern Japanese include: `乏【とぼ】しい` `恐【おそ】ろしい` `恨【うら】めしい`\n`宜【よろ】しい`\n\nAs far as I can tell (and indeed, as far as I can find in the literature),\nthere is not a solid rule for determining the 被服形 of a verb. -a- is the most\ncommon, e.g. 喜【よろこ】ぶ→喜【よろこ】ば + しい. However, as seen in the examples above, for\nwords in which the previous syllable ends in -o (ぼ, そ, ろ, の, etc.), there is a\ntrend toward the 被覆形 also ending in -o.3\n\n* * *\n\nNotes: \n1 The 被覆形 is essentially a linking form. It is most often seen in reference to\ncompound nouns, e.g. 雨【あめ】 + 雲【くも】 = 雨雲【あまぐも】 (め→ま) and 白【しろ】 + 橋【はし】 =\n白橋【しらはし】 (ろ→ら）. The opposite of 被覆形 (i.e. the form when used as a standalone\nword) is 露出形【ろしゅつけい】.\n\n2 This is perhaps easily understood because (at the very least after 上代),\nJapanese only has 5 vowels and it will thus almost certainly look like\n_something_.\n\n3 In fact, modern 喜ばしい was also originally *喜ぼしい. e.g.\n\n> **ヨロコ** ボシ［悦］伊豫国与利白祥鹿平献奉天在札方有札志与呂許保志止奈毛見流 （四十六詔・続紀神護景雲三［769］年）\n>\n> `伊豫国【いよのくに】より白【しろき】祥【しるし】鹿【しか】を献奉【たてまつり】て在【あ】ればうれし よろこぼし となも見る`\n\nNote: The example above was originally printed vertically, with the bold\ncharacters having a vertical line to the left.\n\n* * *\n\nReferences: \n蜂矢真郷(2012)「上代の形容詞」『萬葉』(萬葉学会) 第212号, pp. 1-35", "comment_count": 10, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2014-07-05T05:16:57.240", "id": "17669", "last_activity_date": "2014-07-05T14:21:13.790", "last_edit_date": "2014-07-05T14:21:13.790", "last_editor_user_id": "384", "owner_user_id": "384", "parent_id": "11740", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "Double negatives are used not just in Japanese.\n\n> It's not that I'm not hungry...\n\nSince (-1)•(-1)=1, it makes only sense to use a double negative, if its\nmeaning is different from the positive, viz. either stronger or weaker than\nthe positive.\n\nIn English, the double negative feels weaker than the positive. In Japanese,\nthe double negative is stronger than the positive. Maybe because negation is\nin general felt to be quite strong. (To me) it makes sense, then, that double\nnegation would be stronger than no negation.\n\nI don't think double negation is used often to give a strong positive\nstatement. But the negative question, like\n\n> お茶を飲みに行かない？\n\nis likewise applied to negative forms, e.g.\n\n> あまりおいしくなくない？ \n> Don't you (also) think it's not very good?\n\nOf course the idea of negating a negative can be extended ad infinitum, like\nin the phrase これよくない？よくないこれ？よくなくなくなくなくせいいぇい\n([YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=HSQNaXBjA5c#t=130s)).\n\nCaveat: Sometimes the double negative can have the same meaning as the\nnegative. E.g.\n\n> よくない？\n\nasks whether something is good. Then the answer\n\n> よくなくない。\n\ncan mean \"not good\".\n\nI guess the better strategy is to rely on other factors than the number of\nnegations...", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-20T12:40:22.147", "id": "11742", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-20T12:54:13.780", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-20T12:54:13.780", "last_editor_user_id": "1628", "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11741", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "In addition to the previous answer, often these forms are seen with an\nparticle in the middle (は or も), and are used followed by for such as が・けど\n(examples borrowed/stolen from internet, any translation mistakes my own)\n\n気持ち分からなくはないけど... It's not that I don't understand his feelings, but... (I\n**do** understand, but I still don't approve of his actions/won't change my\nmind/etc)\n\nまあ、言わなくもないけど… 時と場合によるよ... Well, it's not that I wouldn't say that... it\ndepends on the situation... (I **would** say that... but maybe not at this\ntime/in this case)", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-22T12:02:16.677", "id": "11763", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-22T12:02:16.677", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "571", "parent_id": "11741", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "> Are these simplified Chinese versions of the kanji sometimes used in place\n> of the Japanese version?\n\nThe answer is yes, if the Chinese simplification coincides with the\nsimplification used in Japan. These simplifications have existed long before\nthe writing reform in the 1960s and so it is only natural that there would be\nsome overlap.\n\nThese 略字 are often employed in handwriting (as are カタカナ and ひらがな where\nappropriate) to avoid having to write full 漢字 characters. One example would be\nuniversity lectures delivered on the blackboard, where a lot of characters\nhave to be written in a limited time.\n\nAs far as I know, 略字 are not used in print.\n\nLike I commented, 門 _is_ in fact simplified to \nand, e.g., 関 would be simplified to \nwith 关 _inside_ (not on its own).\n\nLikewise 機 is simplified to 木偏 plus キ, and 個 is simplified to 人偏 plus 口, so\nthat all of the examples you claim to be not have simplifications, do in fact\nhave simplifications (which just don't coincide with the simplification for\nSimplified Chinese). However, 言偏 can be simplified to 讠, as in Simplified\nChinese.\n\nI think Japanese 略字 don't include any lopsided characters like 广.", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-21T04:00:37.520", "id": "11752", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-21T15:11:33.147", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-21T15:11:33.147", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11743", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "I think 眼 and 樹 are restricted in usage:\n\n * 樹{き} refers specifically to 立ち木 according to my 漢和辞典. Once you chop it down, it ceases to be a 樹. Although a standing tree can be 木 or 樹, a wooden object can only be made of 木, not 樹. \n\nI also think that perhaps 樹 might seem a bit more literary or grandiose. I've\nmostly seen it used to refer to very large (still standing) trees in fiction.\n\n * 眼{め} refers specifically to physical eyeballs. 目 can express that too, but it also has plenty of figurative uses that 眼 does not. For example, I believe you can write ひどいめ (\"a terrible experience\") as ひどい目, but it would be strange writing it as *ひどい眼.\n\nIn both cases, the simpler kanji (木 and 目) are more general and encompass the\nmeanings of the more specific kanji (樹 and 眼).\n\nIf you'd like to read about 足{あし} and 脚{あし}, I suggest you read Tsuyoshi Ito's\nanswer on [ How can I differentiate between feet and legs?\n](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/558/1478).", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-20T19:40:20.067", "id": "11748", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-20T19:40:20.067", "last_edit_date": "2017-04-13T12:43:44.157", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11744", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "In the text-like style: 私は自分の立場として何を着ていくことが正しいのだろうかと思って・・・\n\nMore literarily: 私は自分の立場として何を着ていくことが正しいことなのだろうかと考えて・・・\n\nBecause \"～的に\" is used, the speaker will be a young person. About \"着てくのが\" I can\ntell you two things: one is that many Japanese drop \"い\" from \"～ていく\" in a usual\nconversation, and the other is that \"の\" in front of particles is the same as\n\"こと\". Two things About \"正しいんだろうって\": one is that \"ん\" is a euphonic change form\nof the particle \"の\", and the other is that most Japanese use \"って\" instead of\n\"と\" in a usual conversation.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-21T01:48:45.673", "id": "11750", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-21T02:48:45.320", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-21T02:48:45.320", "last_editor_user_id": "3378", "owner_user_id": "3378", "parent_id": "11745", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "私は立場的に何を着ていくのが正しいのだろうと思って\n\n着てく = 着ていく = 着て行く = wear + go\n\nんだろうって = のだろう + casual って quotation particle\n\nAfter that it's pretty simple!", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-21T01:50:39.223", "id": "11751", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-21T01:50:39.223", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1797", "parent_id": "11745", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "(I'm not sure what is puzzling you but...) I think the sentence can also be\nwritten as: \n\n> 『私は立場的に何を着てくのが正しいんだろう？』って思って・・・ \n>\n\n * 立場的に is like [立場上]{たちばじょう}, \"considering my position / status, or relationship to other people who attend the occasion.\" To me, 立場的に sounds a bit more casual than 立場上. \n\n * 着てく is a colloquial, shortened version of 着て行く, \"wear and go\" or \"wear and attend (the occasion)\". \n\n * The の is a nominalizer. (See: [verb nominalization の](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_particles#no)) Here it nominalizes the verb 着てく, so that it can be followed by the case particle が. \n\n * The ん in 正しいんだろう is the colloquial version of the nominalization particle の. The subject for 正しい is (私が)何を着て行くこと, \"What for me to wear for the occasion.\" \n \nIt has the same structure as (and a similar meaning to):\n\n> 「私は立場上、何を着て行くことが適切なのだろうか？」と思って・・・。", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-21T16:21:08.200", "id": "11757", "last_activity_date": "2018-05-06T02:23:54.440", "last_edit_date": "2018-05-06T02:23:54.440", "last_editor_user_id": "9831", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11745", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 } ]

[ { "body": "From what I know, Katakana which is usually used to write words of foreign\norigin is also often used to put emphasis on a word. I have also seen the use\nof Hiragana instead of Kanji in children speech.\n\nHope this helps, there may be other usages which I am not yet familiar with.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-20T14:35:10.053", "id": "11747", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-20T14:35:10.053", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3138", "parent_id": "11746", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 }, { "body": "I'm no expert yet, but I'll try my best to answer your questions:\n\n 1. If a word or concept can be expressed with a kanji then it usually is. Kana tends to be used for particles (の、は、etc) and verb/adjective inflections (to indicate tense, direction or action, etc). (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana>)\n\n 2. Whether kanji or kana are used usually depends on the complexity and sophistication of the media they're used in. Advanced sources, like newspapers and such, use kanji chiefly, whereas media aimed at children and younger audiences use kana (or furigana - kanji with kana written above, like in your example for your 2nd point).\n\n 3. Without an example, it's difficult to say. However, sometimes whether kanji or kana is used is dependent on the character in manga using it - children's speech will often use kana even when a kanji could be used. This is just what I've noticed though, and may not be a strict rule - can't say for sure!\n\n 4. The 頁 kanji you used is known as a \"counter\". Counters are used when counting a specified number of a particular item - in this case, pages. For instance, 三頁 would mean literally \"Third Page\", whereas \"ページ数\" means \"Page Three\". Both make sense, but are used in different \n\nHope that helps!", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-20T21:40:26.033", "id": "11749", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-20T21:40:26.033", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1502", "parent_id": "11746", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "I think possible reasons are:\n\n 1. Writer may be aiming for a particular kanji/kana balance.\n 2. Use of a kanji version over hiragana may supply a particular nuance or reduce ambiguity.\n 3. Use of the kanji form may reduce overall character count.\n 4. Use of the kanji may just indicate personal preference on the part of the writer (particularly in non-official works like doujinshi).\n\nFor something like ある you would have to be careful as there are different\noptions with different nuances (在る for existence and 有る for possession). Using\n成る for なる is not that uncommon when it is standing alone **but** should\ngenerally not be used if it's a case like できなくなる, only for the verb standing\nalone. There are cases like 居{い}る・要{い}る where you have completely different\nwords (there's a joke I know that relies on this particular ambiguity), and so\nthere may be occasions where the use of kanji makes the meaning clearer.\n\nIn some of the other examples, as pointed out on chat already, it's just a\nmatter of brevity. 米国 and 頁 are shorter than the alternatives. Traditionally\nnewspapers, and nowadays places like twitter, are very concerned about\ncharacter count, so tend to use a kanji-heavy, condensed style. In fact you\ncan use just 米 for \"America/USA\" (仏 for France, 露 for Russia etc). There is an\nalternative condensed way to write メートル in kana： ㍍ and I think 米 for \"meter\"\nis less common than 頁.\n\nIn addition, as kurosekai32 pointed out, 頁 is being used as a counter in your\nlinked example, and I have a feeling (which I can't substantiate), that it's\nmore likely to turn up as a counter than as a noun (e.g. in something like\nページを開く).\n\nSince 亜米利加 and 亜細亜 don't have the advantage of reducing the character count,\nthey are not often used compared to something like 米国. (Although there is a\n亜細亜大学 and other proper noun cases where using the katakana would be\nincorrect).\n\nWhen people are writing for themselves and therefore not constrained by a\nstyle guide/publishers requirements (particularly given that computers make\nwriting in kanji much easier), you will see an increase in the use of non-\nstandard variants. It may be just author preference - I used to read a cooking\nblog where the author continuously used words like 胡麻{ごま} (sesame) and\n胡椒{こしょう} (pepper), and I don't think there was a deeper reason for it than\nthat she preferred the kanji versions. 炬燵{こたつ} will fall into this section.\n\nThere are particular examples like きれい・奇麗・綺麗 where the \"official\" version is\noften avoided. 奇麗 is the \"joyo\" version, where 奇 is used for sound, replacing\n綺 but has a different meaning which doesn't really fit with the word - so some\npeople will use きれい to avoid the use of 奇, and others will use 綺麗.", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-21T10:50:01.697", "id": "11756", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-21T10:50:01.697", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "571", "parent_id": "11746", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "ごうと音 is a sound, a short version of ごうごうと meaning \"thundering\". The full\nsentence then would be something like\n\n> ごうと音がして、魔女の手の中で火炎が燃え盛る。 \n> There was a thundering sound and fire blazed from the hands of the witch.\n\nThe と indicates that ごう is used as adverb.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-21T05:34:40.367", "id": "11754", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-21T05:53:03.287", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-21T05:53:03.287", "last_editor_user_id": "1628", "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11753", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 }, { "body": "\"ごう\" is an onomatopoeic word and you know that the fire blazes furiously.\nJapanese can hear sound of \"ごう\" from furiously burning fire.\n\n\"ごうと音がして\" could be translated into \"with a roar\".", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-21T06:12:35.727", "id": "11755", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-21T06:12:35.727", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3378", "parent_id": "11753", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "「大根{だいこん}を正宗{まさむね}で切る{きる}。」 essentially means \"Using a precious sword ([a\nMasamune](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masamune)) to cut an everyday daikon.\"\nIt's [an example](http://kotowaza-allguide.com/ta/daikonwomasamunedekiru.html)\nof using something very important for something mundane. For example, if\nsomeone earned a [Doctor of\nPhilosophy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Philosophy) but the only\njob they ended up doing after graduation involved teaching a kindergarten\nclass, this expression could be used.\n\n「言{い}い出{だ}しっぺ」 is an expression that has to do with the [idea](http://zokugo-\ndict.com/02i/iidasippe.htm) that if a speaker initially brings up an issue in\nconversation (or initially puts the blame of something on someone else,) it\nprobably means that the problem lies with the speaker. In other words, _\"He\nwho smelt it, dealt it.\"_", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-21T23:45:33.723", "id": "11760", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-21T23:50:59.657", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-21T23:50:59.657", "last_editor_user_id": "1188", "owner_user_id": "1188", "parent_id": "11759", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "They do appear to be shortenings, but perhaps not of any _particular_ wording.\n大辞林 says they're short for sentences like the following:\n\n * こんにちは is short for sentences such as [今日は御機嫌いかがですか](http://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BB%8A%E6%97%A5%E3%81%AF)\n * こんばんは is short for sentences such as [今晩はよい晩です](http://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BB%8A%E6%99%A9%E3%81%AF)\n\nIn each case, 大辞林 marks the sentence in quotes with など, implying it doesn't\nnecessarily come from those sentences _specifically_ , but sentences _such as_\nthe above. The Iwanami Kokugo Jiten does the same thing; when I looked up\nthese words, I found the following examples in 「」 quotes:\n\n * こんにちは is short for sentences such as 「今日はよいお天気です」\n * こんばんは is short for sentences such as 「今晩はお寒うございます」\n\nIn each case, the dictionary marks the sentences with など to illustrate that\nthey're the sorts of sentences that _could_ complete こんにちは or こんばんは, not that\nthose specific words are implied by the greetings.", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-22T11:24:19.807", "id": "11762", "last_activity_date": "2014-03-31T14:57:41.890", "last_edit_date": "2014-03-31T14:57:41.890", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11761", "post_type": "answer", "score": 12 } ]

[ { "body": "From googling, \"見守りっち\" is the name of a product which monitors temperature for\nthe purpose of warning if there is a danger of heatstroke.\n\nSo in this case I think we have:\n\n見守り - \"masu-stem\" used as a noun.\n\nっち - suffix sometimes used on names to form a nickname (あだ名{な})\n\nThere is a very famous product which uses a similar name. If you were a kid at\nthe right time, you may have had one - commonly romanised as Tamagotchi\n(たまごっち). Comparing the look of the two products, I think this may be a direct\nreference.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-25T10:12:06.660", "id": "11767", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-25T10:12:06.660", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "571", "parent_id": "11766", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "For the first situation, づき is not its own word. It's part of the verb\n近{ちか}づく, which means \"to get near,\" which has been conjugated to fit the ～すぎる\nconstruction, so it becomes 近づきすぎる, or \"get too close.\"\n\nYou have a slight misunderstanding on the second one. While ～てみる _does_ have\nthe meaning of try in many situations, this is a case where it doesn't and in\nfact it is using the literal meaning of 見る. Your clue to this can be the fact\nthat the 見る is written with kanji whereas in the てみる \"try\" construction it is\nusually written without kanji.\n\nSo to break it down a little more, 近づきすぎないようにして means something like \"be\ncareful that you're not too close,\" and connected to 見る it's advising you not\nto sit too closely to the TV _when watching_.", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-25T13:13:42.510", "id": "11769", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-25T15:03:34.303", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-25T15:03:34.303", "last_editor_user_id": "1797", "owner_user_id": "1797", "parent_id": "11768", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "For equivalent English sounds, you can find the Japanese じょ sound in certain\nnames and words:\n\n * Joe\n * Joad\n * joke\n\nYou can also find the Japanese よ sound in certain words:\n\n * yo-yo\n * yo _(slang)_\n\nHere is an example of a phrase in Japanese that uses **longer forms** for each\nof the sounds じょ and よ on this website: [JOUYOU\nKANJI](http://www.forvo.com/word/%E5%B8%B8%E7%94%A8%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97/)\n\nOn that page is an audio recording of someone named \"akitomo\" speaking a\nphrase that includes both the じょ and the よ sounds: \"JOUYOU KANJI\". _(In that\nrecorded phrase, can you hear the difference between the first part \"JOU\" and\nthe second part \"YOU\"?)_\n\nAs your native language is Spanish, you could almost think of Brazilian\nPortuguese pronunciation for _(at least some cases of)_ the letter \"j\" when it\ncomes to pronouncing the じょ sound, as well. Do keep in mind, however, that the\nBrazilian Portuguese pronunciation might be slightly different _(i.e. more of\na softer \"j\" sound)_ than the Japanese pronunciation of じょ.", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-25T23:31:52.303", "id": "11771", "last_activity_date": "2016-11-24T13:59:32.787", "last_edit_date": "2016-11-24T13:59:32.787", "last_editor_user_id": "11104", "owner_user_id": "1188", "parent_id": "11770", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "There will be times where you'll want to use both ON and KUN readings for\nnumerals in different situations.\n\nFor example, when you are counting objects, you might be using KUN readings,\nlike this:\n\n一つ{ひとつ}、二つ{ふたつ}、三つ{みっつ}\n\nIf you were looking at months of the year (January, February, March, etc.) you\nwould most likely be using ON readings, like this:\n\n一月{いちがつ}、二月{にがつ}、三月{さんがつ}\n\nAnd do keep in mind that there are a few \"weird\" numerals (4, 7, and 9) that\nhave their own sets of rules. Sometimes the 4 will be read as し and other\ntimes 4 will be read as よん. Sometimes 7 will be read as しち and other times 7\nwill be read as なな. Sometimes 9 will be read as きゅう other times 9 will be read\nas く _and even other times_ , 9 will be read even differently (for example,\nここのつ for \"9 things\"; and this can happen for even other numerals! _For\nexample: 1, 8, 10, etc._ )\n\nAs you continue to study, it is helpful to learn both the ON and KUN readings\nof numerals (even though it is more content to learn) because you will use\nboth, in everyday Japanese.\n\nMore information about Japanese numerals can be found on [this Wikipedia\npage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_numerals), as well.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-26T02:00:17.030", "id": "11773", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-27T02:56:09.850", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-27T02:56:09.850", "last_editor_user_id": "1188", "owner_user_id": "1188", "parent_id": "11772", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "As a general rule...\n\n * You will use ON readings for numbers most of the time when using specific counters. As @summea mentioned, there are numerous times when certain numbers have alternate pronunciations.\n * You will use the KUN readings when specifically using the \"generic\" counter (`一つ`, `二つ`, `三つ`, ...).\n * Then there is a third group of counters that use KUN for the first two, and then switch to ON from there on. I'll have to look up some other examples in my reference book later, but the one I immediately think of is when counting \"groups\" (`グループ`). \n * `ひとグループ`, `ふたグループ`, `さんグループ`, `よんグループ`, ...", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-26T14:44:13.980", "id": "11774", "last_activity_date": "2017-11-20T05:31:11.730", "last_edit_date": "2017-11-20T05:31:11.730", "last_editor_user_id": "10156", "owner_user_id": "78", "parent_id": "11772", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "I believe it's `いってんさ` as you said.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-27T20:59:38.957", "id": "11777", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-27T20:59:38.957", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "78", "parent_id": "11776", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "I also believe it is いってんさ。\n\nIt means a one point difference (or gap)\n\n一点、二点 etc ＝one point, two point etc\n\n差＝difference, eg 差がある＝there is a difference or gap.\n\nPossibly\n\n> てんさ／点差 | the difference in points\n\nis more common than 一点差 （？）eg:\n\n> 2点の点差で負けた｜We lost the game by two points.\n>\n> ライオンズは点差を広げた｜The Lions widened their lead.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-29T16:01:09.860", "id": "11784", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-29T16:21:15.290", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-29T16:21:15.290", "last_editor_user_id": "1556", "owner_user_id": "1556", "parent_id": "11776", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "I think you might find the explanation of agency you are looking for in the\nintroduction to the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (which I have not got\nto hand right now) but the other approach is to think of different ways of\nconveying what you want to say eg\n\n\"There aren't people I can talk to\".\n\n(which even in English feels like a rather clumsy construction anyway(?))\n\n= There is nobody I can talk to/with = There is nobody who can talk to/with me\n\n= 僕と話せる人がいない\n\nor perhaps even;\n\n僕と話せる人は誰もいない", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-29T16:16:57.690", "id": "11785", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-30T20:14:44.020", "last_edit_date": "2013-04-30T20:14:44.020", "last_editor_user_id": "1556", "owner_user_id": "1556", "parent_id": "11778", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 } ]

[ { "body": "I believe that you cannot put two を since it marks a direct object. If I am\ncorrect, you would use this if the classmate can see something\n「それをクラスメイトに見られて以降」. If you use を after classmate, I'm pretty sure it means\nthat the classmate is the one being observed and most likely would be written\nas 「そのクラスメイトを見られて以降」. But I believe that you would want to use\n「それをクラスメイトに見られて以降」. Sorry if I'm incorrect, I haven't gotten too far in my\nJapanese studies yet.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-28T16:58:28.177", "id": "11780", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-28T16:58:28.177", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3392", "parent_id": "11779", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 } ]

[ { "body": "I agree with Chocolate that it is 擬態語. Thus if I understand correctly it is a\nsibling of onomatopoeia, but not quite the same thing, because ヘニャッ doesn't\ncome from sound.\n\nThe mental picture this word should evoke is something soft that buckles or\ncollapses. So in the context of what you provided, I think it's a (tired)\nhuman body that buckles (onto the lap of the girl/boyfriend or something like\nthat I'd imagine, since you say 甘えたい)", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-29T16:52:20.270", "id": "11786", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-29T16:52:20.270", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3059", "parent_id": "11781", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "As with any mimetic word in Japanese, the meaning is strongly connected to how\none would imagine an action would sound like. Considering the context of\n\"wanting to be spoiled or pampered\", it can be related to letting go of all\nmuscular control and folding up or lying flat like a sheet of dough (as\nopposed to something that has bones and joints).\n\nIf we were to extend the sound to ヘニャァァ or something similar, then it would\nconjure an image of something slowly spreading outwards, like a gel -- a more\nemphatic form of the action discussed in the previous paragraph.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2014-08-07T00:57:53.597", "id": "18144", "last_activity_date": "2014-08-07T00:57:53.597", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "6961", "parent_id": "11781", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 } ]

[ { "body": "I applaud your courage to try something new and more sophisticated, when you\ncan so easily use some safe & mandane expressions like お久しぶり!\n\nUnfortunately, things like this entirely depend on the context and what your\nperceived character is to the other person, for there's always some context in\nwhich almost any expression is appropriate.\n\nFor example, if you and he have some shared memory around that particular\nphrase, it'd be very much desirable to use 恥を知れ!. Or if you've been known to\nhim as a very frank person and he had promised you to reach back to you when\nhe didn't. I can imagine you saying something\nお前結婚式には呼ぶっていってたじゃんよ、奥さんに昔の恥ずかしい話をしてやろうと思ってたのに。恥を知れ（笑）.\n\nInterestingly because the phrase itself is a pretty strong one as you note,\nI'd say there's actually little chance of this being taken as offensive. When\nyou receive an e-mail like this from an old acquaintance, you just can't\nimagine anything that warrants such anger, so really you can only assume that\nhe meant it lightly.\n\nAnd the use of frank, straight phrases creates an intimacy and closeness,\nwhich is a good thing if you are writing to an old buddy.\n\nIf you want advices on possible other expressions, I think you need to provide\na lot more context, such as whether you are a male or female, the nature of\nfriendship, how old/young you are, etc.", "comment_count": 6, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-29T17:04:18.740", "id": "11787", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-29T17:04:18.740", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3059", "parent_id": "11783", "post_type": "answer", "score": 10 }, { "body": "わたしなら..... \n\n> ●ちょっとぉ～。久しぶり(orやっとかめ？)すぎるんじゃないの？ど～ゆうこと？ \n> ●ナニソレ。結婚なんて聞いてなかったけど。(≒ 俺に黙って結婚するとか、アリ？) \n>\n\netc...と言うかな・・・と思います。", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-02T07:38:14.993", "id": "11807", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-02T07:45:00.707", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-02T07:45:00.707", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11783", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "One of the definitions of `なる` (`成る`) is to be completed (`完成する`), or to\nsucceed (`成功する`), and thus carries the implication of \"good\". Consequently,\n`ならない` then means not completed; not successful; \"it won't become (good)\".\nConsider in English, if you say \"That won't do\", it begs the question: won't\ndo _what_? But it has been ingrained in your mind to know that \"that won't do\"\n= \"that's no good\".\n\nSo to break it down into parts, `〜なければ` means \"if you don't 〜\", and as we just\nsaid, `ならない` by itself means \"no good\" or \"that won't do\", you get \"That won't\ndo/be good if you don't 〜\". Thus implying that you must do it.\n\nThis is why there are multiple ways to express having to do something. Instead\nof `ならない`, you can substitute `いけない` or `だめ`, both of which also express \"no\ngood\"/\"bad\". And instead of `〜なければ`, you can substitute `〜なくては`. The\ntranslation changes slightly from \"If you don't 〜\", to \"Not doing 〜\", but\ngives the same overall semantics. Compare\n\n> * 全部食べなければならない → It's no good if you don't eat all of it\n> * 全部食べなくてはならない → Not eating all of it is/would be no good\n>\n\nSo I know this doesn't exactly answer your question of _when_ this expression\ncame into Japanese, but you can more easily see how the structure makes sense.", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-30T15:20:52.997", "id": "11790", "last_activity_date": "2022-09-01T16:50:20.460", "last_edit_date": "2022-09-01T16:50:20.460", "last_editor_user_id": "78", "owner_user_id": "78", "parent_id": "11788", "post_type": "answer", "score": 17 }, { "body": "なければならない is a double negation - something found in many languages. Other older\nexpressions (in the sense that when they are used now they sound archaic)\ninclude\n[-ざるべからず](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%81%96%E3%82%8B%E3%81%B9%E3%81%8B%E3%82%89%E3%81%9A-512547)\nand\n[-ねばならぬ](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%81%AD%E3%81%B0%E3%81%AA%E3%82%89%E3%81%AC-595486).\n\nScholars seem to agree that at least partially the kanbun kundoku (漢文訓読) of\nthe Chinese expression 不可不 contributed to the establishment of Japanese\nexpressions such as ずはあるべからず and ざるべからず.\n[(Source)](https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1870273/65) It looks like these\nexpressions appeared earlier than なければならない and なくてはならない as long as we are\ntalking about auxiliary verbs - so including Xしなくてはならない, but not including\nXがなくてはならない.\n\nI think this can be considered a calque, or something close to it.\n\nNow, as to how 不可不 might or might not be related to -なければならない, through -ざるべからず\nor otherwise, I couldn't find much evidence either way. However, I note that\n-なければならない used auxiliary verbs, seems fairly absent in the texts from the Edo\nperiod and earlier. I'm inclined to imagine it became popular more recently\nand dwarved the other expressions that had played the same role, considering\nits widespread usage in the Meiji period through the Reiwa period. It seems\npossible that someone re-translated -ざるべからず into -なければならない and it got\ntraction. (Again, this is mostly my guess, and I don't have direct evidence to\nsupport the last part. I'm happy to be proven wrong.)", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2022-09-01T23:26:57.517", "id": "96074", "last_activity_date": "2022-10-28T08:16:58.337", "last_edit_date": "2022-10-28T08:16:58.337", "last_editor_user_id": "10531", "owner_user_id": "10531", "parent_id": "11788", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 } ]

[ { "body": "While I hope the time has led the questioner to the correct understanding of\nthis problem, I find it a rather interesting question being asked.\n\nIt's true that a precise phonetic analysis reveals differences between\nrealizations of the vowel //u// by its environments, or generally, that a\nvowel's sound quality slightly differs according to its preceding (succeeding)\nconsonants in most languages of the world. But as a whole, differences inside\na vowel don't grow as large as those between different vowels in a specific\nlanguage or dialect.\n\nBased on what as far as I can get from the question's way of thinking, and if\nI'm guessing correctly that mentioned \"Chinese\" is Standard Chinese, it's\nhighly probable that OP was just misled.\n\nFirst, there's no approximate Standard Chinese counterpart of Standard\nJapanese //u//. It's more backward than _ü_ in SC _lü_ , more fronted than _u_\nin SC _lu_ , and more rounded than _i_ in SC _si_ (which is a wicked \"vowel\"\nthat almost is a consonant in phonetic perspective, but ironically being\ncloser to what SJ //u// sounds especially when devoiced).\n\nSecond, not all consonants adopt aforementioned vowels in SC. The _ü_ only\nappears after _n, l, j, q, x_ , and the _-i_ after _z, c, s_. Only _u_ gets\nalong with any consonant.\n\nTherefore, if you have Chinese ear (it's sort of mindset rather than\nhearing...) and hear SJ //su//, you can translate it to closest SC _si_ , but\nwhen you hear SJ //ku//, you can't make you believe it's _ki_ (sorry for\nabusing pinyin) or _kü_ because they're not in your phonological inventory, as\nthe result you think it must be _ku_.\n\nGenerally speaking, there's little chance that a sound of a foreign language\nhit the \"sweet spot\" of any sound you already know. Whatever it is recognized\nto you, I bet it must be more or less \"off\" from decent sound in your native\ntongue. Knowing to accept those \"waffling\" sound as is would be the first step\nto learn foreign pronunciation.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2015-04-29T14:21:48.333", "id": "24022", "last_activity_date": "2015-04-29T14:21:48.333", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "7810", "parent_id": "11789", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "In English, you might be able to think of those forms like this:\n\n`思った` ー _(I)_ thought\n\n`思ってた` and `思っていた` ー _(I)_ was thinking, _(I)_ had thought, or _(I)_ had been\nthinking.\n\nDo note that 思ってた and 思っていた are the same... but 思っていた is more of a form you\nwould want to use in formal writing. In conversational writing, however, you\nare often free to use either form (depending on the audience to whom the\nwriting is being addressed.)", "comment_count": 7, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-04-30T19:20:15.220", "id": "11792", "last_activity_date": "2013-04-30T19:20:15.220", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1188", "parent_id": "11791", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "Your first guess is right. N1などN2 is \"N2 such as N1\" or \"N2 (for example N1)\"\n\nWhen we say など is followed by a particle, such as N1などが, it should be probably\nthought of as a suffix decoration to a noun, as in \"N1 (and several other\nthings like N1)\"", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-02T04:43:03.127", "id": "11805", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-02T04:43:03.127", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3059", "parent_id": "11794", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "\"られる\" has different meanings (be able to, used to polite expression, someone's\nact to our side) depend on the context as you know, In this case, \"Sana and I\nwould like to be the partner who accept Airi's true self\".", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-01T19:44:23.727", "id": "11798", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-01T19:44:23.727", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3429", "parent_id": "11797", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "相手 doesn't necessarily translate to \"partner\". Here it's more like 相手 in\n[話]{はな}し相手, \"someone (to talk to).\" →\n[話し相手](http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E8%A9%B1%E3%81%97%E7%9B%B8%E6%89%8B) \nThe sentence can be rephrased as \n\n> アイリちゃんが素直な自分をぶつけられる人(or友達)に、サナや俺がなれるなら、喜んでなってあげたかった。 \n> アイリちゃんが言いたいことを素直に言えるような人(or友達)に、サナや俺がなれるなら、喜んでなってあげたかった。 \n> (I and サナ would have gladly been the ones to whom アイリちゃん could show her\n> true self.) \n>\n\nThe ぶつけられる here means the same as ぶつけることができる. (The られる is the potential\nauxiliary verb, not passive or honorific.)", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-01T21:23:44.633", "id": "11799", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-01T21:40:30.417", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-01T21:40:30.417", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11797", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "Yes, that is correct. I think it's usually more obvious, especially when they\nappear in paragraphs.", "comment_count": 6, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-02T04:07:02.737", "id": "11802", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-02T04:07:02.737", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3059", "parent_id": "11800", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "分野 is indeed bit more distinctive than other two. It refers to a specific\nsection / discipline / field of something systematically organized, like\nscience or human activities.\n\n領域 have a more territorial feeling to it (because 領 refers to ownership and 域\nrefers to bounded area.) You picture a line drawing in sand and someone\nclaiming that this side of the line belongs to something. 範囲 also refers to a\nbounded region, but compared to 領域 this word refers to a space of more\nabstract things, I think.\n\nI don't think the distinction between 領域 and 範囲 are very clear, even for\nnative Japanese speakers.\n\nWith that said, there are several common idiomatic use of these words, as in\n試験範囲、交際範囲、研究分野、得意分野 and so on. Remembering some of those might be more\nfruitful than trying to grok the difference in the meanings of these words.\n\n(And because of this, 外の大学との交流が進んで研究の分野が広がった would make just as much sense to\nme as 領域)", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-02T04:26:50.000", "id": "11803", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-02T04:26:50.000", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3059", "parent_id": "11801", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "範囲 establishes a beginning and end point and is used to show the **extent** or\n**limit** to something. That's why it is most appropriate for the first one,\nas it establishes the extent of the test (although 17課まで seems like a very\ndifficult test...).\n\n領域 and 分野 are similar and can overlap. For example, 専門領域 and 専門分野 can both be\nused. However, there is a difference between the two, 分野 is generally used for\n**categorizing** things and is often used for activities done by humans. While\n領域 is less of a categorization, but just establishes an **area** that is\ncovered. 領域 doesn't necessarily try to discern itself from other things.\n\nHowever, the second question of your test is terrible, i.e. 研究の分野が広がった does\nnot make any sense to me.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-02T04:28:26.843", "id": "11804", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-02T04:28:26.843", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1217", "parent_id": "11801", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "You are right that ◯ is used here to mask a letter.\n\nThere are several related but different reasons as to why one would do this.\nThe comment section already refers to one such use, where certain words are\ndeemed inappropriate (especially on broadcasting), the equivalent of f*ck. But\nI don't think that explains this one.\n\nIn this case, I think the intention is to poke fun at 統一教会 in several ways.\n\nFirst, by disgracing their name, by implying that it needs masking, as in the\nsame league of f*ck and such. It also implies that the content refers to them\nin a negative way, which would actually make it more attractive to certain\naudience (who despise them.)\n\nAnd finally, because the masking in this case doesn't really mask anything,\nfor those who do not see 統一教会 nagatively, this sends a signal that they\nshould.\n\n(Perhaps you aren't aware of the controversies surrounding 統一教会, and if so,\nreading upon it a bit might make it easier to understand this.)", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-06T16:05:26.470", "id": "11833", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-06T16:05:26.470", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3059", "parent_id": "11810", "post_type": "answer", "score": 31 }, { "body": "I think they are just trying to not offend a particular denomination, though\nit's pretty obvious which one they are talking about.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-28T02:36:56.853", "id": "11981", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-28T02:36:56.853", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3541", "parent_id": "11810", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 }, { "body": "It's to ward off potential legal issues. The idea is that if you use a brand\nname or real name of an organization they could claim a trademark or that the\nsketch was about them or whatever. Changing one letter is a kind of fig leaf.\n\nIt can also be done as a kind of joke, where the author is acknowledging that\nwhat they are saying is somewhat questionable or might anger the owner of the\nmark.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-31T08:24:12.637", "id": "12022", "last_activity_date": "2020-03-31T09:53:02.513", "last_edit_date": "2020-03-31T09:53:02.513", "last_editor_user_id": "3558", "owner_user_id": "3558", "parent_id": "11810", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "First I think in usage って is simply a colloquial version of と. Thus (2) and\n(5) are equivalent, and so are (1) and (4).\n\n(3) has a 言う (in parentheses). Without 言う, it would just be the colloquial\nversion of (5). With 言う (followed by a comma) it makes little grammatical\nsense: it should rather be 言って.\n\nI think a universal format would be\n\n> 「Quote A」(と)(言って)、「Quote B」と言う\n\nwhere you can replace と with って in colloquial writing/speech and 言って would\noften be omitted. E.g.\n\n> みんなに「すごい」、「素晴らしい」と言われた。 \n> みんなに「すごい」とか/ー、「素晴らしい」とか/って言われた。(casual) \n> Everyone was telling me \"great\" and \"wonderful\".\n>\n> 「今日は時間がない」から「また今度遊ぼうね」って律子ちゃんが言ってたけど、今度っていつなの？ \n> Ritsuko told me \"I don't have time, let's play together again next time\",\n> but when is next time?\n\nIn the second example the と does _not_ mean \"and\". Rather, the quoting\nparticle could be thrown in there to make sure that the first part is also a\nquote, which to the listener would not be obvious.\n\nAs an aside, as far as I understand the quoting particle と is enough to give a\nquotation. The brackets are inserted only for easier reading. (In particular,\nthere is no clear distinction between \"direct\" and \"indirect\" quotations.)\n\nAlso, the quoting particle between the quotes can be omitted, but this works\nbest when the quotes are short (usually one-word, see snailboat's examples in\nthe comments) and it only works unambiguously in writing (or else, there is no\ndifference between quoting 「しまった。イタい。やばい。」 and 「しまった」「イタい」「やばい」).", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-04T12:02:45.323", "id": "11812", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-05T01:04:19.380", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11811", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "Do you think it reasonable that it was a fixed English expression, referring\nto consecutive public holidays, which has fallen out of use after the Japanese\npicked up the term from English?\n\nI think \"golden week\" is perfectly good English and makes some sense when one\nunderstands \"golden\" to be a synonym for \"happy, prosperous, peaceful\" (e.g.\n[The Free Dictionary](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/golden)), like in\n\"golden days\" or \"golden age\".\n\nThe association with consecutive public holidays (and the capitalisation of\n\"golden week\") may be 和製 (Since 1951), but in my opinion that does not mean\nthe phrase \"Golden Week\" should be considered 和製英語. (The Ngram you link to\nwould support this interpretation.)", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-04T13:31:41.270", "id": "11815", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-04T13:31:41.270", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11813", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "Normally, I think there would need to be some sort of connecting form\n（て、し、り、など）before the comma on your example #2, as noted by Darius Jahandarie.\n\nIf you do need to combine sentences like in your example #2, you would\nprobably want to find a way to clarify to the reader _(or audience)_ what you\nare really wanting to say, as well.\n\nFor example, you might want to add some sort of noun or phrase after each という\n(or at least after the last という) so that the reader _(or audience)_ knows what\nyou are trying to say-- _otherwise, the example #2 sentence makes me wonder if\nyou mean the A thing... or the B thing... (unless you explain how A and B\nrelate --perhaps A and B are a respective series or are labels of something?)_", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-05T06:24:32.190", "id": "11821", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-05T06:57:34.090", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-05T06:57:34.090", "last_editor_user_id": "1188", "owner_user_id": "1188", "parent_id": "11814", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 }, { "body": "Based on [a document from\n文部省](http://www.bunka.go.jp/kokugo_nihongo/joho/kijun/sanko/pdf/kugiri.pdf),\nit's not ungrammatical, and it's a pattern used only when the two parts of the\nsentence (before and after the 読点) have the same structure (like those in your\nexample).\n\nExamples:\n\n> 父も喜んだ、母も喜んだ。 \n> クリモキマシタ、ハチモキマシタ、ウスモキマシタ。\n\nHere is the brief explanation it gives:\n\n> 終止の形をとつてゐても、その文意が続く場合にはテンをうつ。", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2014-10-01T10:07:12.320", "id": "18891", "last_activity_date": "2014-10-02T02:24:06.240", "last_edit_date": "2014-10-02T02:24:06.240", "last_editor_user_id": "6840", "owner_user_id": "2972", "parent_id": "11814", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "For the first part of your question, family names _(or surnames)_ are often\nrecognized by your computer... but first names _(or given names)_ are not\nalways recognized. There are a lot of possible character combinations for\nfirst names... so your computer will not always know the correct character\ncombination for a specific first name.\n\nAs long as the characters on your computer end up matching up to the actual\ncharacters of the first name you are typing _(and this might take multiple\ntries at finding the right characters,)_ don't worry about if the computer\ndoesn't \"guess\" the correct characters on the first try!\n\nFor the second part of your question, you could try translating your sentence\nlike this (literal version:)\n\n> \"My friend's name is (called) Mr/Mrs Ajiko Yasuda.\"\n\nOr simply:\n\n> \"My friend is called Mr/Mrs Ajiko Yasuda.\"", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-04T22:32:44.277", "id": "11817", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-05T00:32:12.753", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-05T00:32:12.753", "last_editor_user_id": "1188", "owner_user_id": "1188", "parent_id": "11816", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "味子(あじこ?) is such a weird name... As @Earthliŋ has pointed out in his comment\nit might be read as みこ. I'd rather expect みこ (as a girl's name) to be spelled\nas 美子, 実子 or something, though. \n \nThe といいます (its plain form is という) means \"と呼ばれている\", \"to be called/named\". See\nNo.1 in\n[プログレッシブ和英中辞典「という」](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/je2/52678/m0u/%E3%81%A8%E3%81%84%E3%81%86/). \n\n> 私の友達の名前は、安田味子さんといいます。 \n>\n\nmight look redundant but actually we often use 「～～の名前は～～といいます」, and I don't\nthink it's regarded ungrammatical.\n\n> 私の友達の名前は、安田味子さんといいます。 \n> 私の友達は、安田味子さんといいます。 \n> 私の友達の名前は、安田味子さんです。 \n>\n\nAll of the above sound alright to me. Compare: \n\n> 私の名前は、安田味子と申します。(申します is the humble form of 言います.) \n> ねえ、名前、[何]{なん}ていうの？(\"What's your name?\"--casual/friendly) \n> その[方]{ほう}、[名]{な}は[何]{なん}と いう/[申]{もう}す？(archaic)", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-04T23:59:03.303", "id": "11819", "last_activity_date": "2015-11-29T05:00:41.377", "last_edit_date": "2015-11-29T05:00:41.377", "last_editor_user_id": "9831", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11816", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "The choice of radicals (部首{ぶしゅ}) as in the dictionary radicals (as opposed to\nany other selection of components), comes from Chinese and presumably was\nadopted alongside the kanji themselves.\n\nThe first source to use radicals was a second-century Chinese dictionary\ncalled Shuōwén Jiězì (說文解字 - in Japanese 説文解字{せつもんかいじ}). This included 540\nradicals. The set of 214 radicals popularly used today are often called Kangxi\nradicals from the name of a standard Chinese dictionary of the 18th century\nwhich used them (but they were used in earlier works). There is more\ndiscussion on the Kangxi radicals in an earlier question\n[here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/8216/). The Kangxi\nradicals are generally used to be consistent, but there could be lots of ways\nof splitting up the characters. Simplified Chinese uses a set of 187 radicals\n(Xinhua Zidian radicals), for example.\n\nThe point of the radicals was never to tell you what the meaning of a\ncharacter was, but to simply provide a way of indexing. Using a paper\ndictionary, if the characters are indexed by radical rather than sound it is\npossible to look up characters you don't know the reading of (even if you have\nto check a couple of possibilities). When using a physical dictionary, that's\nquite useful and saves time.\n\nWith computers there are other methods to find kanji, even when you can't\ncopy-paste or don't know the reading (multi-radical/component search,\nhandwriting input), so knowing what the dictionary radical is becomes less\nimportant.\n\nThere are still many cases where there are obvious patterns, and these can\nhelp particularly when remembering how to write a kanji. e.g. 金 on left hand\nside is normally related to metal in some way - names of metals or things made\nout of metals - 金、銀、鉛、鈴、銅、鍵、etc.\n\nMany body parts have 月 in (in these kanji this radical was 肉 originally and is\nsometimes called 肉月), as can be seen in 肺、臓、胆、肝、脚、胴, etc, and I believe in\nthis case it's pretty much always on the left hand side.\n\nOr how about 犭? Actual beasts (猪・狼・猿・猫), kanji with a connection to hunting\n(狩, 猟、 狙, 獲 ), and kanji that you can connect metaphorically to beasts (犯 and\n猛, for example), all feature.\n\nYou don't have to know the names of all the radicals or what they originally\n\"meant\" (in many cases the exact origin of a kanji is not 100% clear anyway),\nbut being aware of common components can provide a sort of memory hook for\nthose cases where there's some sort of connection between the components and\neither the meaning or reading of the kanji.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-05T01:14:01.257", "id": "11820", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-05T01:14:01.257", "last_edit_date": "2017-04-13T12:43:43.857", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "571", "parent_id": "11818", "post_type": "answer", "score": 13 } ]

[ { "body": "～てもらう can also mean \"to have s.o. do sth.\". In your first example\n\n> 悪いが俺に譲ってもらうぜ。 \n> Sorry, but I'll have you hand it over to me.\n\nThis usage obviously derives from the usage you already know, where もらう means\n\"to receive\".\n\nSimilarly for your second example:\n\n> ここで自由に過ごしてもらうようにしてる。 \n> We are having them move around freely here.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-05T22:51:57.427", "id": "11826", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-05T22:51:57.427", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11822", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 }, { "body": "In 私は彼女に弁当を作ってもらいました, \n([①私は][②彼女に][③弁当を作って]もらいました) \n①私 is the receiver and ②彼女 is the giver. \nie. ②彼女 does ③お弁当を作る for ①私. \n\nIn 悪いが俺に譲ってもらうぜ, \n(悪いが[①俺は][②お前に][③それを俺に譲って]もらうぜ) \n①俺 is the receiver and ②お前 is the giver. \nie. ②お前 do ③それを俺に譲る for ①俺. \n\nIn [幼馴染]{おさななじみ}たちにはここで自由に過ごしてもらうようにしている, \n([①菩乃花さんや自分(=the writer?)は][②幼馴染たちに(は=topical\nparticle)][③ここで自由に過ごして]もらうようにしている) \n①菩乃花さんや自分 are the receivers and ②幼馴染たち are the givers. \nie. ②幼馴染たち do ③ここで自由に過ごす for ①菩乃花さんや自分. \n(菩乃花さんや自分 want 幼馴染たち to do ここで自由に過ごす.)", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-06T00:08:09.857", "id": "11828", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-06T00:36:38.340", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-06T00:36:38.340", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11822", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Hepburn would be the romanization of choice, which is used almost exclusively\nin road signs, train stations, etc. That said, Hepburn uses ō (macron) for\nlong vowels (and Kunrei uses ô), which you'd have trouble implementing. You\ncould also allow more than just one system.\n\n> Do you believe that a word game in romaji actually has potential?\n\nIf the game is to be played only by Japanese, then I think the concept is not\nvery sound. Why should Japanese play a game in Japanese, but use ローマ字 for the\nwords? It would make more sense, if either all languages are allowed\n(including romanized Japanese), or if it is just a game for learning English.", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-06T01:04:06.383", "id": "11829", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-06T12:03:09.163", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-06T12:03:09.163", "last_editor_user_id": "1628", "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11823", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I think, this is not only the question of familiarity, but also of game\nmechanics, and that side is more important. For native Japanese there would be\nno problem using either Kunrei-shiki or Hepburn romanization, but they provide\ndifferent means to make words.\n\nFor example, if a player has three tokens for \"a\", \"s\", \"i\", and Kunrei-shiki\nis used, then he/she would be able to arrange word \"asi\" (\"leg\"), but if\nHepburn is used, this would not be an option. The player would be forced to\nget a token with \"sh\" (or two tokens \"s\", \"h\") for the correct Hepburn\nspelling \"ashi\". This constraint would sound unnatural for native Japanese\nplayers, because し \"shi\" is kana symbol from the \"s\"-row.\n\nIn that sense, Kunrei-shiki looks more preferable in the sense that it\nreproduces the logic of kana more orthogonally. On the other hand, it would be\nworth adopting some features of Wapuro romanization, e. g. making long vowels\nout of two short vowel signs (spelling \"Tōkyō\" as \"Toukyou\" or \"Tookyoo\").\n\nIf your game is a computer game, then you can easily implement tokens changing\ndepending on context, like \"s\" when it is shown alone, and \"sh\" when combined\nwith \"i\". If you develop a table game, then the token can be marked as \"s\n(sh)\" to make it combinable with different vowels. These solutions may look\nugly, but I feel that it would be uglier to make different tokens \"c\" or \"ch\",\nand \"t\", and maybe even \"ts\", for consonants from one kana row.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-07T08:09:13.457", "id": "11835", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-07T11:46:04.023", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-07T11:46:04.023", "last_editor_user_id": "3453", "owner_user_id": "3453", "parent_id": "11823", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Like you say こ～ means close to the speaker, so\n\n> こんなにおいしい。\n\nwould be appropriate, when he is actually eating the food, e.g.\n\n> こんなにおいしいとは思わなかった。 \n> I never thought it'd be _this_ good.\n\n* * *\n\nそ～ means close to the listener.\n\n> そんなにおいしかったの？ \n> It was _that_ good?\n\n* * *\n\nあ～ means far from both the listener and the speaker (in my opinion not\nnecessarily equidistant).\n\n> あんなにおいしい焼き鳥を食べたのは初めてだった。 \n> First time I had 焼き鳥 _that_ good.\n\nAt the time of speaking the tasty 焼き鳥 is far from both the speaker and the\nlistener. Here far doesn't necessarily mean far in terms of distance, but\ncould be far in time. Then memories are always far from both listener and\nspeaker and あんなに is usually appropriate.\n\nIn English, too, using \"this\" for memories does not work.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-05T23:12:35.410", "id": "11827", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-05T23:12:35.410", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11824", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 }, { "body": "I am not going to contradict the previous answer (it applies principles I was\ntaught and still use intuitively) but last year came across a slightly more\nadvanced explanation which I find more useful when making sense how ko-/so-/a-\nwords are used to refer to matters of emotion / previous sentences / memories:\n\n> そ-words usually refer to what was said previously\n>\n> こ-words are often used to refer to matters of emotional importance to\n> speaker\n>\n> **あ-words are used in personal statements referring to remembered things**\n\n**To give an example of an a-word:**\n\n> **子供のころ、近くの公園でよく遊んだ。あの公園はまだ残っているだろうか。**\n\nTo apply these principles to your sentences:\n\n> In the first sentence Suzuki-san refers back to the yakitori-ya of his\n> previous sentence ie\n>\n> => a そ-word is used to refer to what was said previously.\n>\n> In the second sentence the kachou is recalling how good that yakitori-ya-san\n> was\n>\n> => an あ-word is used to refer to a memory.\n>\n> In the third sentence Suzuki-san is referring to the kachou's memory. \n> => Here the use of a そ-word can be attributed to a reference to what was\n> previously said (although the principle it is referring to something closer\n> to the \"listener\" than the speaker also works).\n\n**I think this by itself answers your question** but for completeness it might\nbe useful to explain the differences between the ko-/so-/a- words and give\nexamples to explain the application of the ko-/so- principle explained above:\n\n_Differences between the ko-/so-/a- words_\n\n> それ／これ：refer to objects/what was said (what=> can be whole sentence)\n>\n> そこ／ここ：refer to places or parts of a whole\n>\n> その／この：used to define, limit or specify\n>\n> そんな、こんな／そういう、こいう：refer to state or condition\n>\n> こう／そう：refer to the previous sentence, used with a verb like an adverb\n\n_Examples to explain the application of the ko-/so- principle explained\nabove:_\n\n(imp = important)\n\n> 友達から[指輪]{ゆびわ}をもらった。これは今、私の[宝物]{たからもの}である。(ko=imp emotionally)\n>\n> 進学するお金がない。それが問題だ。\n>\n> [港]{みなと}について船を降りた。そこで母が待っていた。\n>\n> この曲は始めのメロディが好きだ。ここはなんど聞いても[飽]{あ}きない(ko=imp emotionally)\n>\n> 明日、ある会社の社長に会う。その会社は大阪にある。\n>\n> 今年の誕生日に山に行った。この日は非常に寒かった。(ko=emotional)\n>\n> 妹は一日１２時間も寝る。こんな人は[珍]{めずら}しいのではないか。(ko=imp emotionally)\n>\n> この川では最近まったく魚が[釣]{つ}れない。そういうことは今までなかった。\n>\n> 困ったとき助けてくれる友達がいる。そう思うと安心する。\n>\n> 忙しい、時間がない。こう言いわけするのが私の[癖]{くせ}だ。(ko=imp emotionally)\n>\n> 毎日[朝夕]{あさゆう}５分間ずつ英語を聞く。こうすると聞き取りが[上達]{じょうたつ}する。(ko=imp emotionally)\n\nI will tidy this is answer up if readers find this is not clear but you can\nalso find a better explanation in _新完全マスター文法 N３_ (my source for this answer).", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-06T11:22:42.610", "id": "11831", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-13T22:01:29.163", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-13T22:01:29.163", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1556", "parent_id": "11824", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "This should fall under the anaphoric usage of the demonstrative series1, which\nis slightly different from the ordinary usage of the こそあど:\n\nOrdinarily, こ～ is used for \"nearer to speaker\"; そ～ for \"nearer to listener\";\nand あ～ for \"removed from both\".\n\nBut for this discussion, the こ-series is used as if the object being brought\nto the conversation is visible and present with the speaker. The listener is\nunable to use これ to refer to the object even though in the ordinary use of the\nこれ, both the speaker and listener are able to. Once both speaker and listener\nestablish that the object is well-known by both of them in the discourse the\nuse of あ～ takes over, and the use of こ～ becomes unacceptable.\n\nThe そ-series is used when the speaker perceives that the listener does not\nknow the referent of the demonstrative; the speaker refers to the\nknowledge/experience that he perceives that the listener is not familiar with.\n\nThe あ-series is used when the speaker perceives both himself and listener to\nknow the referent of the demonstrative; the anaphoric demonstrative refers to\nthe shared knowledge or experience between them.\n\nI'll try to fit the case given within the above analysis1.\n\n* * *\n\n> 鈴木「焼き鳥屋ですか。その店、いかがでしたか。」\n\nIn this line, その is used ordinarily. その refers to the 焼き鳥屋 that 部長 had\nmentioned in a previous context.\n\n* * *\n\n> From this, I would think that the tastiness of the 焼き鳥 is much closer to the\n> 部長 (he was there and had them, 鈴木さん was not), and, therefore that he would\n> use こんなにおいしい, but my textbook says (but doesn't explain why) to use あんなに\n> when talking about one's memories of a past experience.\n\nBy using あんなに, the speaker(部長) perceives that the knowledge of the extent of\ntastiness is shared (even though it may not necessarily be so).\n\nI think the 部長 is referring to a shared maximum point; that what one human\nthinks is a great extent of tastiness is not too different from another human,\ntherefore the use of あんなに is reasonable. \n(This is not too unreasonable a perception. If you allow me to reverse the\npolarity, I think if something is \" _that_ disgusting\" then there would be a\nreasonably large majority that would agree on the extent of disgust. So if\nsomething was \" _that_ delicious\", it tends to conjure a maximum deliciousness\nimage)\n\n* * *\n\n> 鈴木「そんなにおいしかったんですか。」\n\nそんなに is used ordinarily, and refers to the 部長's last comment; the extent of\nhow the 焼き鳥 was delicious. The usage of そんなに is not different from the use of\nその in その店. It refers to something last said by the other person.\n\n* * *\n\n1 Chapter 24 of _The Structure of the Japanese Language_ , Susumu Kuno.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-12T17:33:26.827", "id": "11876", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-13T06:14:20.297", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-13T06:14:20.297", "last_editor_user_id": "542", "owner_user_id": "542", "parent_id": "11824", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "Comparing\n\n> ぜひ来てくださいね。 \n> きっと来てくださいね。\n\nぜひ expresses a hope/wish, whereas きっと expresses an expectation. (必ず would\nexpress obligation.)\n\nA teacher telling his students \"きっと来てくださいね\" means more like \"I am expecting\neveryone to come\". Thus きっと feels stronger (it's an expectation, after all),\nbut may just mean that whoever is inviting really wants you to come.\n\nMaybe it's a bit like this\n\n> また来てくださいね。 \n> See you (again).\n>\n> ぜひ来てくださいね。 \n> Please (by all means) come again.\n>\n> きっと来てくださいね。 \n> You'll come again, won't you? \n> You'll have to come again. (friendly tone)\n>\n> 必ず来てくださいね。 \n> You are required to attend.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-06T01:18:34.483", "id": "11830", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-06T01:18:34.483", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11825", "post_type": "answer", "score": 14 } ]

[ { "body": "Totally unrelated. \n山 さん [mountain] is a Chinese word \"shān\" assimilated in Japanese. \nさん as a honorific suffix is an old さま undergone some phonetical change. \nThere are many homophones in Japanese besides that.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-07T12:01:45.537", "id": "11838", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-07T12:11:47.450", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-07T12:11:47.450", "last_editor_user_id": "91", "owner_user_id": "3453", "parent_id": "11837", "post_type": "answer", "score": 9 } ]

[ { "body": "For starters, **could** 「・・・食べる食事」 also mean:\n\n> \"a meal that (I/you/we)\n> (\"[can](http://news.infoseek.co.jp/article/nanapi_00005169)\"/will) eat\"?\n\nAnd couldn't 「・・・食べられる食事」 mean something more like:\n\n> \"a meal that (I/you/we) (can/are able to) eat\"?\n\n_Context is important, though, as well; I'd be scared if the food was the one\nwho was doing the eating... ;)_", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-07T17:14:33.070", "id": "11840", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-07T18:49:39.360", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-07T18:49:39.360", "last_editor_user_id": "1188", "owner_user_id": "1188", "parent_id": "11839", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "In the verb+noun construction (in fact, this is a sentence+noun construcion),\nthere is no strict rule that the noun is meant to be a subject for the verb's\naction. This is the most frequent case but no rule at all. The noun can also\nbe a direct object, an indirect object, or something just associated with the\naction. Thus, 食べる人 can mean \"the person that eats\", and 食べる食事 \"the meal that\nis eaten\". The interpretation chosen is the most natural one, and taking\ncontext into account.\n\nThe person being eaten is not the usual situation, so the context should imply\nit somehow. And then, it is up to context. If there is one person eating\nanother, then 食べる人 seems to mean \"the one person that eats\". But if there is a\nmonster eating someone (and leaving some other people alone), then 食べる人 could\nalso mean \"the person that is eaten\". 食べられる人 sounds a bit too complex, and it\ncan be avoided in favour of simpler 食べる人, if that would not cause confusion.", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-07T18:11:18.820", "id": "11841", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-07T18:11:18.820", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3453", "parent_id": "11839", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 }, { "body": "A)\n\n 1. 食べる羊 can be\n\n * \"the sheep that eats\" 羊 is the subject for 食べる. \n\n「羊が食べる」>>「食べる羊」\n\n * \"the sheep to eat\" \"the sheep you/someone eat(s)\" 羊 is the object for 食べる.\n\n「羊を食べる」>>「食べる羊」\n\n 2. 食べられる羊\n\nWhen the 羊 is the subject for 食べられる. 「羊が食べられる」>>「食べられる羊」 \nThe (ら)れる can be:\n\n * a passive auxiliary verb. \"the sheep that is eaten\" \n\ne.g. 狼に食べられる羊\n\n * a potential auxiliary verb. \"the sheep that can eat\"\n\ne.g. 硬い木の芽を食べられる羊\n\n * an honorific auxiliary verb. \"the sheep that eats\" \n\ne.g. お食事を食べられる(=召し上がる)羊\n\nWhen the 羊 is the object for 食べられる. 「羊を食べられる」>>「食べられる羊」 \n(人が/の/に)食べられる羊 can be:\n\n * \"edible sheep\" / \"the sheep you can eat\" The られる is potential.\n\ne.g. 1: あなたは(or に)羊を(or が)食べられる(you can eat sheep)/その羊は食べられる(the sheep is\nedible) >>「(あなたが/に)食べられる羊」\n\n * \"the sheep you eat\" The られる is honorific.\n\ne.g. お客様が羊を食べられる(=召し上がる) >>「お客様の/が食べられる羊」\n\n * The れる can be passive too.\n\ne.g. 1: うちの羊が[襲]{おそ}われた[狼]{おおかみ} (うちの羊を襲った狼 would be more natural though) \n\"The wolf which my sheep were attacked by\"\n\ne.g. 2: うちの娘が指を[噛]{か}まれた同級生 (うちの娘の指を噛んだ同級生) \n\"A classmate who bit my daughter's finger\" (<< My daughter had her finger\nbitten by a classmate)\n\n* * *\n\nB)\n\n_Note_ : 起こす is the causative form of 起きる. 起きる is intransitive and 起こす is\ntransitive.\n\n 1. 起きる人 (人 is the subject for 起きる)\n\n\"the person who gets up\"\n\n「人が起きる」>>「起きる人」\n\n 2. 起きられる人 (人 is the subject for 起きられる) \n\n * potential. \"the person who can get up\"\n\ne.g. 「人が朝早く起きられる」>>「朝早く起きられる人」\n\n * honorific. \"the person who gets up\"\n\ne.g. 「お客様が起きられる」>>「起きられるお客様」\n\n 3. 起こす人\n\n * \"the person who wakes up someone / the person to wake up someone\" \n\n人 is the subject for 起こす.\n\ne.g. 「人が(寝ている犬を)起こす」>>「(寝ている犬を)起こす人」\n\n * \"the person who someone wakes up / the person for someone to wake up\" \n\n人 is the object for 起こす.\n\ne.g. 「私が人を起こす」>>「私が起こす人」\n\n 4. 起こされる人\n\n * passive: \"the person who is woken up (by someone/something)\"\n\n人 is the subject for 起こされる, and the object for 起こす.\n\ne.g. 白雪姫は王子様に起こされる。>>王子に起こされる白雪姫(れる=passive)\n\n * honorific: \"the person who wakes up (someone)\" \n\n人 is the subject for 起こす.\n\ne.g. 王子様が白雪姫を起こされる。>>白雪姫を起こされる王子様(れる=honorific)\n\n * honorific: \"the person who someone wakes up\" 人 is the object for 起こす. \n\ne.g. 王子様が女性を起こされる。>>王子様が起こされる女性(れる=honorific)\n\n(The potential form of 起こす is 起こせる.)\n\n* * *\n\n## 補足\n\n 1. Some intransitive verbs can be used in the passive voice, eg.\n\n * その人は雨に降られた。S/he got caught in the rain. \n→雨に _降られた人_ A person who got caught in the rain\n\n * その人は妻に死なれた。The man lost his wife. \n→妻に _死なれた人_ A man whose wife up and died on him\n\n * 僕は弟にテレビの前に立たれた。My brother stood in front of TV (so I couldn't see it) \n→弟にテレビの前に _立たれた僕_ Me, who couldn't see TV because my brother stood in front of\nit\n\n * 私は２階の人にピアノを弾かれた。[See this post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/4946/passive-verb-forms-for-intransitive-verbs/4947#4947) \n→２階の人にピアノを _弾かれた私_\n\nBut these can't be directly transformed into the active voice; we don't say\n*妻が夫を死ぬ, *弟がテレビの前に僕を立つ etc. (See [Wiki間接受身-\n迷惑の受身](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8F%97%E5%8B%95%E6%85%8B) )\n\n 2. Some intransitive verbs (or more specifically, motion verbs/移動動詞) can take ～～を, like 道を歩く, 全国を回る, [角]{かど}を曲がる, but we don't say *道が歩かれる/私に歩かれた道, *全国が回られる/私に回られた全国 or *角が曲がられる/私に曲がられた角.", "comment_count": 6, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-07T19:45:39.753", "id": "11842", "last_activity_date": "2018-08-19T03:30:47.470", "last_edit_date": "2018-08-19T03:30:47.470", "last_editor_user_id": "9831", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11839", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "I don't think this indicates a place of existence (February is not located in\nJapan), but a limitation/focusing on the statement that follows: Considering\nthe weather in Japan, February is the coldest month. Out of mountains that are\nin Japan, Mount Fuji is the tallest, etc.\n\nThis で can be used with non-location words:\n\nチーターは陸上{りくじょう}の動物で一番速いです (Cheetahs are the fastest land animals)\n\n家族で一番強い人は姉です (My sister is the strongest person in my family)", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-08T16:21:11.913", "id": "11848", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-08T16:21:11.913", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "571", "parent_id": "11844", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "Assuming the following rendering: 次の目的地はべただけれど、シカゴ。\n\nIn this context I'd say that べた means cliche or typical. This is a group of\ntourists whose next destination is Chicago, which is described as べた because\nit's a common tourist spot.", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-08T15:51:06.110", "id": "11847", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-08T15:51:06.110", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3461", "parent_id": "11845", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "ご存じです is an irregular honorific form of the verb 知る. It functions exactly the\nsame with respect to subjects, objects and so on.\n\nMore than that, there is a regular honorific form of verbs お+Vi+です (Vi is a\n-ます stem). For example, お聞きです from the verb 聞く. It also has an internal form\nnoun+copula, but functions as a verb.\n\nIt seems like any predicate, be it verb, adjective, or noun+copula, can\nfunction like a verb, if there are some logical slots for subjects, objects or\nmodifiers in its meaning,", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-08T17:10:36.603", "id": "11849", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-08T17:10:36.603", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3453", "parent_id": "11846", "post_type": "answer", "score": 8 } ]

[ { "body": "I don't think `タイピングすることの早さ` is incorrect; it just sounds very strange, like\n\"the speed of the act of typing\" in English.\n\nI think the `の` is more commonly left out when dealing with `熟語`, while it's\nmore, if not completely necessary when using `単語`.\n\n> * タイピングの速度 → \"The speed **of** typing\" (correct, but sounds a little\n> stiff)\n> * タイピング速度 → \"Typing speed\"\n> * タイピング速さ → Sounds incorrect; possibly ungrammatical\n> * タイピングの速さ → Again, \"The speed **of** typing\", but rolls off the tongue\n> smoother than the first one, so maybe that's why it's more common.\n>", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-09T02:43:53.810", "id": "11851", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-09T02:43:53.810", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "78", "parent_id": "11850", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 }, { "body": "The nouns 早さ and 速さ are derived from the adjectival verbs 早い and 速い, which\nboth can mean both \"fast\" and \"early\". Being derived from adjectival verbs,\nthey are native Japanese words.\n\nOn the other hand, 速度 is a Chinese-derived word, which means \"speed\" or \"rate\"\n(and doesn't mean \"earliness\").\n\nThe kanji 早 is usually used for the sense of \"early\" and 速 usually for speed,\nalthough these concepts overlap a little. (E.g. 早いですね doesn't need to be \"you\nare early\", it could be \"wow, you were fast\" in the sense of \"you got here\nearlier than I expected\".)\n\nFor the question about typing speed, you can interpret タイピング to have the\nstatus of a Chinese-derived word in the following sense:\n\nChinese-derived nouns (which are usually two-characters long) can form\ncompound nouns simply by concatenation (without a joining particle like の).\nE.g. 自宅教育 \"home-schooling\" from 自宅 \"home\" and 教育 \"education\".\n\nOn the other hand, Japanese-derived nouns are usually connected to other nouns\nwith の.\n\nThus we get\n\n> ○ タイピング速度 \n> × タイピングの速度 \n> × タイピング速さ \n> ○ タイピングの速さ\n\nwhich concurs with your findings on Google. (Although you shouldn't trust\nGoogle counts!)\n\nHere ○ and × indicate what sounds most natural in the sense of the above\nexplanation. Of course, you can always combine two nouns with の, so タイピングの速度\nis grammatically correct as well.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-09T02:59:19.870", "id": "11852", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-09T10:40:41.707", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-09T10:40:41.707", "last_editor_user_id": "1628", "owner_user_id": "1628", "parent_id": "11850", "post_type": "answer", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "As @snailboat and @Chocolate have noted, I think you are actually thinking\nabout something called 複合動詞{ふくごうどうし} (or _compound verbs_.)\n\nIt is interesting to consider combining more than two verbs when creating\n複合動詞{ふくごうどうし}... and it certainly is possible, according to the example word\nlists given in [this\npaper](http://doors.doshisha.ac.jp/webopac/bdyview.do?bodyid=BD00012642&elmid=Body&lfname=016000410007.pdf)\nby 林 翠芳 (LIN Cuifang). LIN gives examples of times where 複合動詞{ふくごうどうし} can\ninvolve the process of combining three separate verbs into one compound verb\n(三次結合複合動詞{さんじけつごうふくごうどうし} vs 二次結合複合動詞{にじけつごうふくごうどうし}).\n\nFor example:\n\n> 書{か}く＋立{た}てる＋すぎる ＝ 書{か}き＋立{た}て＋すぎる ＝ 書{か}き立{た}てすぎる\n>\n> 立{た}つ＋止{と}まる＋かける ＝ 立{た}ち＋止{ど}まり＋かける ＝ 立{た}ち止{ど}まりかける\n\n**So in answer to the first question,** while there are times where three-\nverb-combined verbs exist, it's possible that the reason two-verb-combined\nverbs are more commonly seen is because the words have a simpler meaning or\ndefinition. In other words, the more convoluted a word becomes, the more\ncomplex its meaning.\n\n**In answer to the second question,** there has been [at least one similar\nquestion](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/45/what-does-\nkomu-%E3%83%BC%E8%BE%BC%E3%82%80-at-the-end-of-a-word-mean) asked in regard to\nthe meaning of ー込{こ}む when used at the end of a verb. Though the meaning _may_\nat times go beyond what is listed in the current list of answers for [that\nother question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/45/what-does-\nkomu-%E3%83%BC%E8%BE%BC%E3%82%80-at-the-end-of-a-word-mean), I would still\nrecommend reading that other question in order to get a better idea of any\nadditional subtleties related to ー込{こ}む.\n\nFinally, verbs ending with ー回{まわ}る are fairly straightforward _(typically\nbeing related to something \"around\" or \"about\", as you noted.)_\n\nAs far as 複合動詞{ふくごうどうし} go in general, I would recommend taking a look at\n[this paper](http://www.geocities.jp/niwasaburoo/26hukugoudousi.html) when\ntime permits. [The\npaper](http://www.geocities.jp/niwasaburoo/26hukugoudousi.html) better\nexplains different functions, meanings, and aspects of 複合動詞{ふくごうどうし}.", "comment_count": 12, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-09T17:37:48.690", "id": "11854", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-09T17:37:48.690", "last_edit_date": "2020-06-17T08:18:27.500", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "1188", "parent_id": "11853", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]

[ { "body": "[Snailboat's link](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/11855/why-\nis-%E3%80%9C%E3%81%AB%E5%8F%97%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8B-used-to-mean-to-\npass#comment25372_11855) is a very interesting read and you should read it if\npossible (the following answer is mainly based on it).\n\nFirst, one should note that the first usages of `受かる` exist from the Meiji\nperiod. This means it is a relatively _new_ word. Around this time, there was\nsomething called [言文一致運動]{げんぶんいっちうんどう}, where people were trying to change the\nwritten language to match what was spoken. As [noted in this\nlink](http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E5%8F%97%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8B), `受かる` is\nmainly used in _spoken_ language (`主に、話し言葉で用いる`), so it may have existed\nbefore the Meiji period in spoken language, but the main point from this is\nthat **it is a _relatively_ new word which evolved out of spoken language.**\n\nAs you may have already noticed, `受かる` is somewhat _irregular_. It comes from\nthe verb `受ける` but **only means** `合格する` and has no other meaning in modern\nJapanese (according to any modern dictionary). (However, this always wasn't\nthe case though, as there was the usage `電波が受かる`).\n\nNote that many verbs come in pairs (which can be seen as\ntransitive/intransitive), for example `見る/見える` or `温める/温まる`, were `を` is used\nfor the former and `が` is generally used for the latter. Originally, `受かる`\nfollowed this pattern and `が受かる` was used. However, this evolved into the\nmodern usage `に受かる` and the `が` usage has died out. Why? Because `受かる` has a\nrestricted meaning, i.e. it only means `合格する` and nothing else. Note that this\nmeaning _is not_ the intransitive form of receive, and using the が form would\nmake it look like that. Also, since the opposite is `試験に落ちる` which uses `に`,\n`に` becomes a nice fit.\n\nSo, how did 受かる come to have such a restricted meaning? Simply due to the fact\nthat there is no _need_ for an intransitive form of 受ける. Any intransitive use\ncan be replaced by another verb which is more appropriate, like 電話がかかる for\n電話を受ける. Also, when you think of the transitive/intransitive pairs, generally\nthe intransitive form is _the result_ of the transitive. For example, in the\nexamples 牛乳を温める/牛乳が温まる, the result of the act of warming milk is having warm\nmilk. But what is the result of taking a test? The result would be whether you\npassed or failed, not just the fact that you have taken it, this why it\nnaturally flows that 受かる came to mean \"to pass\".\n\nThere is a lot more in the pdf that explains things better than I do, but to\nsum it up\n\n * 受かる evolved naturally out of spoken language.\n\n * It does not carry the meaning of the intransitive form of receive because it can be replaced by better alternatives and there is no use for it.\n\n * It changed to the に form because it better fits with the opposite に落ちる and because it does not fit into the transitive/intransitive pairs like other verbs.\n\nI may have mistakes in the above, so please let me know, but hopefully this\nhelps!", "comment_count": 16, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-13T22:40:10.080", "id": "11885", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-13T22:53:51.847", "last_edit_date": "2017-04-13T12:43:44.397", "last_editor_user_id": "-1", "owner_user_id": "1217", "parent_id": "11855", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "> Is either of コーヒーを・は飲み得ない, 飲むわけにはいかない more correct and/or preferable?\n\nNo.\n\n> Or would something without potential, like 飲みにくい・づらい・がたい work better?\n\nHmm... no. 飲みにくい/飲みづらい might sound like you're having difficulty\nswallowing/drinking because you have some problem in your throat... or maybe\nyou really hate the smell of coffee...\n\n> Since that's not the case and I'm using \"can't\" to really mean \"I won't\n> because of the undesirable after effects\", those two seem wrong.\n\nEven so, I think 飲めない would be the best choice.\n\n> \"No thanks, I can't drink coffee because it upsets my stomach.\"\n\nI'd say 「胃が痛くなるから、コーヒーは飲めないんです。」「コーヒー、飲めないんです。おなかの調子が悪くなるんで…」or\nmaybe「私、コーヒー、おなかに(or胃に)来るからダメなんですよ/無理なんですよ。」etc.", "comment_count": 3, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-09T22:47:58.923", "id": "11857", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-21T23:44:24.000", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-21T23:44:24.000", "last_editor_user_id": "162", "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11856", "post_type": "answer", "score": 7 }, { "body": "Unfortunately, 〜飲み得ない might be better used in poetry rather than everyday\nconversation.\n\nAnd 〜飲むわけにはいかない or 〜飲むわけにはいけない might rather be used more for when something is\njust \"undrinkable\" _(perhaps something not **potable** )_ instead of something\nyou **_personally_** cannot _(or possibly don't like to)_ drink.\n\nAt any rate, along with @Chocolate's point about「〜飲めないんです。」 another possible\noption (depending on your audience) could be something simple like:\n「私はコーヒーがだめです。」 _(And some of those particles can even be dropped...)_\n\n_Sometimes simplicity is better, in Japanese._", "comment_count": 2, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-09T23:22:46.490", "id": "11858", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-09T23:22:46.490", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1188", "parent_id": "11856", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 }, { "body": "In this particular context, you could just say 「コーヒーは…」 with a troubled voice.\nEverything else is implied, and your co-worker would probably offer you\nsomething else instead.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-15T06:46:36.013", "id": "11895", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-15T06:46:36.013", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "3447", "parent_id": "11856", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "I would say,\"コーヒーは飲めないんです” I think only this sentence works. It's like\n\"お酒はのめないんです。”This sentence implies that you cannot drink it because it affects\nyour stomach or maybe you're allergic to that. But if that person asks why, I\nwould say,\"お腹が痛くなります\".or ”気持ちが悪くなります。” If it seriously affects your stomach, I\nwould say, ”体が受け付けません” It means that my body doesn't accept it.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-15T11:42:25.023", "id": "11896", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-15T12:01:10.120", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-15T12:01:10.120", "last_editor_user_id": "3499", "owner_user_id": "3499", "parent_id": "11856", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 } ]

[ { "body": "Glad that you gave the translation a try! _(I think that in itself should keep\nthis question open for answers... at the very least.)_\n\nAnyway, from looking at your original text, I would possibly translate this\nas:\n\n> Even if it's just me going on and on [in talking], I feel out of place (and\n> it feels awkward.)\n\nWould this make any sense given the context? If not, would you be able to\nprovide any more source context for the given sentence?", "comment_count": 4, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-11T16:10:07.327", "id": "11865", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-11T16:10:07.327", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "1188", "parent_id": "11862", "post_type": "answer", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "From what I [can\ngather](http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/shinsuke2512rock/27672469.html), this shirt\nappears to be made somewhere other than in Japan, as the top and bottom line\nof characters mean nothing intelligible _(unless you start making up your own\nmeanings for each section of the random list of characters.)_\n\nThe middle line is closer to something that makes sense, and it almost reads:\nSapporo Beer. _(But the characters are slightly out of order, and there is a\nrandom period next to one of the characters.)_\n\nThis might be a parody T-shirt... where the characters are switched just\nenough in order to avoid legal problems from an actual brand _(Sapporo Beer\nmixed with Heineken, in this case.)_ It would be interesting to know where\nthis shirt was found... _(perhaps Thailand?)_", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-11T15:59:38.150", "id": "11864", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-12T02:24:50.163", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-12T02:24:50.163", "last_editor_user_id": "1188", "owner_user_id": "1188", "parent_id": "11863", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 }, { "body": "\n\nI would just use Google Translate on a smartphone with a touch screen. It's\npretty accurate.\n\nEdit: Guys, I don't get the downvotes. The question was\n\n_Is there a way of typing Japanese characters when you have no knowledge of\nthe language?_\n\nAnd I say: Yes indeed, you can just draw whatever character(s) you see in the\ndrawing box. サッポロ is just an example to show that you can draw multiple\ncharacters next to each other and it will be recognized. Besides, the\ncharacters for サッポロ show up on the T-shirt.\n\nI could have drawn anything, for example 鬱. The correct stroke order is not\nimportant either.", "comment_count": 5, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2014-04-24T22:01:37.520", "id": "15565", "last_activity_date": "2014-04-25T03:33:40.827", "last_edit_date": "2014-04-25T03:33:40.827", "last_editor_user_id": "3484", "owner_user_id": "3484", "parent_id": "11863", "post_type": "answer", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I've actually got two methods I use, depending on if I'm using my phone or\nlaptop.\n\n* * *\n\n**Radical Lookup**\n\nThis method is used in several places—the most notable ones I've seen it in\ninclude NJStar's built-in kanji dictionary and Jim Breen's KANJIDIC search on\nthe Monash University website. I primarily use it for looking up characters I\ndon't know when I'm on my phone, using an app formerly called Kotoba! (which,\nfor some stupid reason, later decided to change its name to \"i-mi-wa?\").\n\nAs the name implies, this method is pretty straightforward. You're presented a\ntable with the 214 Kang Xi radicals (and, often, several variants of certain\nones). Whereas a traditional dictionary would require you to look up by the\nofficial radical for a character, these dictionaries have indexed all the\nkanji so that any radical that appears as a component in the character can be\nselected; hence you can build the character from the elements you can identify\nand then select from there. More advanced implementations even let you filter\nby the stroke count of the character you're searching for to help eliminate\njunk results.\n\n* * *\n\n**Searching Related Characters Using Kotoeri**\n\nOn my laptop, Apple's Kotoeri IME has an awesome feature built in where you\ncan type a character and then find similar ones from there by selecting it and\nhitting either Ctrl+1 (\"Convert to Related Character\") or Ctrl+2 (\"Search\nSimilar Kanji\").\n\nSo, for example, if I type in 照 and hit Ctrl+1 (Related Characters), it offers\nme the following:\n\n> 瞾\n\nIn this case, a very obscure character which, according to EDICT, is an 異体字\nfor 照, and therefore has all the same readings.\n\nIf we try 人, we get something else rather interesting:\n\n> 亻㆟\n\nInstead of variant characters, per se, it produces the standalone radical\nforms (にんべん, ひとやね, etc.). This combines with the next trick (Ctrl+2 = \"Search\nSimilar Kanji\") to make looking up obscure characters a breeze at times.\n\nThe great thing about the Search Similar Kanji function is that it doesn't\nhave to search based on just one character at a time—you can select several at\nonce and it will attempt to find a character that combines them.\n\nSo, let's say that I'm a beginning Japanese student, and saw the character 他,\nbut didn't know how to write it. I do know 地, however. What I can do then is\ndo a search similar on 地, which offers the following:\n\n> 垣 垤 坦 **也** 蟯 基 培 場 涅 蛙 澆 曉 (and so on—about 40-50 characters total are\n> suggested)\n\nFourth character in the list I spot 也, which happens to be the element I'm\nlooking for. Using the trick above to get 亻, I then select both and have it do\na search based on 亻也, which produces:\n\n> **他** 但 侄 估 倛 倍 俍 位 蓓 (and so on again, for about 40 options or so)\n\nAs you can see, the obvious option came out on top, and then it tries other\nless-obvious ones from there. Also of note is that it does allow you to use\nkatakana as part of a search (e.g. リ instead of 刂).\n\nAdmittedly, at times it can feel like it gets hooked on the part you're not\ninterested in (it tends to prioritize variants based on the same radical first\nbefore offering the other parts of a character separately), however with a\nlittle bit of patience it's very rare to find a character that this system\nwon't handle.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2014-04-25T04:21:56.710", "id": "15576", "last_activity_date": "2014-04-25T04:21:56.710", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "4914", "parent_id": "11863", "post_type": "answer", "score": 1 }, { "body": "In addition to what other people have mentioned, there is another technique\nthat can sometimes be useful for this sort of thing, if you have an Android\ndevice which supports it.\n\nThe Google Lens application will allow you to point your camera at anything\nwith written text (in all kinds of languages), and will attempt to identify\nand isolate the pieces of text in the image, and allow you to select them by\ntapping on them. The idea is that you could then use Google Translate on them\n(which is not always going to give you the best results, IMHO), but you don't\nhave to do that. You can also just copy it to your clipboard and then paste it\ninto other things as well.\n\nObviously, how well this works can depend on a lot of factors, such as the\nquality of the image (there might be some issues with this shirt considering\nhow worn some parts of it are, for example), the font used, and so forth. If I\nremember correctly, Google Lens is not supported on all devices either (it\nrequires some particular hardware acceleration features, I believe). If it\ndoes work, it may still not actually get everything, and it might get some\ncharacters wrong, but if nothing else it can give you a good start to work\nwith which can then be filled in or fixed up by some of the other methods\npeople have mentioned.", "comment_count": 0, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "creation_date": "2021-05-04T23:55:55.843", "id": "86477", "last_activity_date": "2021-05-04T23:55:55.843", "last_edit_date": null, "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": "35230", "parent_id": "11863", "post_type": "answer", "score": 0 } ]

[ { "body": "[It appears](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%A3) that one more-formal way\nto describe characters like 「っ」 is to use the phrase 「小書{こが}き」文字{もじ} or\nsimply「小書{こが}き」。 So, in the case of 「っ」, it would be something like:\n小書{こが}きの「つ」.\n\n_But in an informal context, something like「小さい『つ』」would probably get the\npoint across._\n\nFor more information, there is [a more detailed\nwriteup](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1163793136)\nby a user named \"nullstrings27\" that further explains 小書{こが}き文字{もじ} in\ngeneral.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-11T19:13:21.953", "id": "11867", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-11T19:23:39.333", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-11T19:23:39.333", "last_editor_user_id": "1188", "owner_user_id": "1188", "parent_id": "11866", "post_type": "answer", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "Like user1205935 said, 私のあなたへの愛、 or あなたへの私の愛、 or あなたに対する私の愛 seems to be the\ntranslation. In my experience, things like \"for you\" get turned into\nstatements of possession. The only other case I can think of is when thanking\nsomeone for something- you don't even use の, it just turns into 何何～ **を**\nありがとう。 為に is more along the lines of for the purpose, implying some end in\nmind- which in this case doesn't make sense.", "comment_count": 1, "content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "creation_date": "2013-05-12T00:34:31.110", "id": "11870", "last_activity_date": "2013-05-12T00:37:50.747", "last_edit_date": "2013-05-12T00:37:50.747", "last_editor_user_id": null, "owner_user_id": null, "parent_id": "11869", "post_type": "answer", "score": 2 } ]