Words, forms and expressions used only in non-formal spoken language.
16
votes
4answers
728 views
Commonness of casual phrases like “あたし” and “ちっちゃい”
I came across a Japanese girl in Germany who talked using words like あたし instead of わたし, or ちっちゃい instead of ちいさい. When I asked her, she said that these words or usages of words are more common in ...
15
votes
3answers
666 views
Is it ok for non-japanese to refer to themselves as 僕{ぼく} and if not why?
Grammatically speaking it shouldn't be an issue, but I have heard from some people that a non-japanese using 僕{ぼく} sounds really weird. Has anyone else heard this? And if so, is there a reason?
15
votes
3answers
322 views
Can I end sentences with ん?
One friend of mine told me when she was living in Japan, she liked to end her sentences with ん (maybe instead of の).
Examples:
明日学校にいくん？
明日学校に行かないと思う…風邪引いたん。
Actually I've never seen it! But my ...
15
votes
4answers
747 views
Who decides what katakana will be used to form English loan words?
I love katakana, mostly because of how the characters look. But I am constantly baffled by why certain loan words from English are constructed using certain katakana sounds.
For example, if someone ...
15
votes
3answers
531 views
「～たじゃない」 expression in spoken Japanese
I noticed in an anime I watched, one of the characters said something like below:
さっき食べたじゃない。
And what I think the meaning is: Didn't you just eat a few while ago?
From what I have learned in ...
12
votes
4answers
510 views
Where does なう on Twitter come from?
If you follow any Japanese speakers on Twitter, you'll almost certainly see them use なう at the end of a sentence, to say "I am in this place/doing this thing now". Where does this use come from? Who ...
12
votes
2answers
305 views
What does とな mean (and how do I use it)?
I came across this on Twitter, it seems to be mostly a question but sometimes an exclamation. Is it とは, or maybe とか? How do you use it? My dictionary has a とな as word that come at the end of a ...
11
votes
2answers
302 views
What is the Japanese term for a gamer?
As in "some one who plays video games". Could I just use ゲーマー?
11
votes
2answers
198 views
Colloquial Contraction Confusion
This is taken from one of the mindless pop songs I shouldn't even be listening to:
なんてったって ラッキー！
I know what なんて and ラッキー mean, of course, but I can't figure out in a way that makes sense to me ...
10
votes
3answers
315 views
What are the rules for substituting の with ん?
I've noticed that sometimes the hiragana の can be shortened to ん.
For example,
部屋のなか → 部屋んなか (inside of the room)
俺のうち → 俺んち (my house)
俺のところ → 俺んとこ (my place)
(More examples can ...
10
votes
3answers
934 views
Usage of ～じゃん (～じゃない)
I'd like to know if I can put ～じゃん at the end of every adjective, if there are any exceptions to that usage, and if it's different from ～じゃない.
Adj (na) + じゃん
便利じゃん
便利だったじゃん
便利じゃないじゃん
...
10
votes
1answer
194 views
Contraction of particle の to ん before nouns in colloquial Japanese
I am familiar with contraction of の to ん before です (and variants で, だ, でした etc) but I noticed that の is also contracted before 家 in spoken set-phrases like あたしんち and おれんち.
Are there any other ...
9
votes
4answers
561 views
How commonly are “あたし” or “[僕]{ぼく}” used?
My friend and I are learning Japanese. For a time, all we knew was 私, but after we learned more words, she started to use あたし when referring to herself, and I began using 僕. What I'm wondering is, how ...
9
votes
1answer
248 views
Is it true that にしたって is the colloquial form of にしたところで?
I've been thinking if it is true that にしたって is the colloquial form of にしたところで. In other words, are the bottom two sentences identical in meaning and nuance?
1) ...
8
votes
4answers
215 views
Meaning of: イベントの前ふりをば。
A colleague is organizing an event and sent everyone an email beginning like this:
田中イベント担当の田中です。
イベントの前ふりをば。
... (explanation about the event)
The first line is a funny intro (the guy ...
8
votes
2answers
152 views
What is the meaning of かい and き in Google's Summer Solstice Doodle?
I was wondering what the meaning of かい and き is for the Google Summer Solstice Doodle pictured here:
I'm guessing it has some relation to summer, but what?
8
votes
2answers
276 views
Origin of onsen term “wani”
Why was "wani" (crocodile or alligator) chosen as a term for a gawker at a konyoku (mixed gender onsen)?
Was it because of the animal's ability to stare, the fact that it is a predator, or was it ...
8
votes
1answer
224 views
can we use ねー as a question?
I've read that people usually change ない to ねー to make it more manly, like:
したくないよ becomes したくねーんだ
So basically i often heard questions ending with ない but have not heard anyone end a question with ねー
...
7
votes
6answers
482 views
How to say “What's it to you?” in Japanese?
What would be appropriate expressions or idioms to convey the typical English response:
What's it to you?
(in a sense that goes somewhere between "None of your business" and "This is not your ...
7
votes
3answers
293 views
How to sound more manly when sneaking popcorn into the cinema
OK, really esoteric question time:
So I went to the cinema with a female friend on the weekend.
I was going to buy some of the horrendously overpriced popcorn there, but then she said:
持ってきちゃった!
...
7
votes
2answers
145 views
About cutting the sentences short
I've been told during my Japanese classes, and I've also observed in anime and Japanese dramas & movies, that sometimes when talking Japanese people tend to stop halfway and omit the end of ...
6
votes
2answers
164 views
Anti-causal/Non-causal relationship
How do I form a sentence of these patterns "X does not arise from Y", "X not due to Y", "X not because of Y", "There are other reasons for X". Since obviously I cannot simply slap ない onto から or ので to ...
6
votes
1answer
214 views
Colloquial contraction of だろう into ろ after past tense verb (e.g. 言ったろ)
I noticed in many anime I watched that 「言っただろう」 is often contracted into 「言ったろ」 in conversations between friends and families. I'm guessing this contraction is both colloquial and standard (as in, ...
5
votes
2answers
230 views
Colloquial use of「〜て〔い〕ない」, maybe instead of 「〜なかった」
It's not the first time I hear it, but I've found it in this scene. I understand that, as in 知る or 始まる, a started action whose consequence remains is expressed in continuous form. However, I thought ...
5
votes
3answers
368 views
In actual Japanese society, how often are second-person pronouns used?
My Japanese professor (I'm in first-year Japanese) advised us to primarily avoid the use of second-person pronouns like あなた or 君 or おまえ throughout the year, and essentially treated their utterance as ...
5
votes
2answers
105 views
Help to understand the ending verb “動かねーんじゃね”
Original sentence: アドビやら、お絵描き系のアプリは、誰かが実証しない限り、動かねーんじゃね？
I can't understand the structure of the last verb. So far I understood that 動か(conjugated form) + ねー(negative particle) + んじゃ(???) + ね(question ...
5
votes
1answer
365 views
What is な-particle doing in `ってなわけで`?
I noticed that ってなわけで is commonly used as a substitute for というわけで in colloquial speeches, but what exactly is the purpose of the な-particle in that phrase? Does it make the context that the phrase ...
5
votes
2answers
329 views
How can I say “make a big deal [about/out of/of] X”?
See title. I'm looking for idiomatic ways to say something like this - over-emphasizing something, worrying about it overly much, etc.
Bonus points if a literal 大 (whether read as だい or おお) is ...
4
votes
1answer
143 views
Does 被【かぶ】る have any relation to “cover”?
Topic. I've heard/seen somewhere that 被【かぶ】る was "gairaigo-fied" (?) from the English word "cover" (similar to ダブる or デモる), and then presumably given ateji from 被【おお】う since the meanings overlap so ...
4
votes
2answers
298 views
What is that expression used to generally mean “…is what I would say, but…”?
Forgive me if this is a bit anecdotal, but I often hear a sentence pattern in speech which basically is of the form "[statement]...is what I would/want to say, but..." I usually hear this when the ...
4
votes
1answer
328 views
Why does 微妙 become “sucky” in slang usage?
Technically the word 微妙 means
as per WWWJDIC:
(adj-na,n) (1) delicate; subtle; sensitive; (2) difficult; delicate (situation); complicated; (3) doubtful; questionable; dicey;
However, last ...
4
votes
1answer
55 views
Is ネコでも分かる・サルでも分かる idiomatic?
I heard the expression ネコでも分かる... mentioned in a TV drama as title for a (fictional) book, in the sense of "...for dummies". A quick search on Amazon brings up a few (real) titles ネコでも分かる... or ...
4
votes
1answer
227 views
What is the よっか in はじめよっか?
I'm still playing Game Boy Wars Advance 2, and I keep running into colloquial forms I'm unfamiliar with. Here's one I haven't been able to look up:
じゃ、さっそく、はじめよっか。
My guess is that はじめよっか is a ...
3
votes
1answer
257 views
What is the usage of 「つー」, what does it mean and what other ways are there to express the same thing ?
I've seen this many times in mangas, here's one example:
アンタなんかが手にしていいお金じゃない*っつーの*！！！
Context: A girl catches a thief that stole today's takings at the shop she's working at.
Thank you! ...
3
votes
1answer
280 views
Is 暖かった standard Japanese?
I know Google hits aren't necessarily reliable, but I nonetheless searched for the following two forms:
暖かかった - 約 2,770,000 件
暖かった - 約 2,810,000 件
The numbers are much further apart if I search ...
3
votes
2answers
172 views
Usage of “～だぴょん”
A fair while ago someone said something like 嘘だぴょーん！ in a comment.
But what kind of a connotation and usage does ～だぴょん have? Can it be used in a kind of humorous sort of way?
Edit: Realized it was ...
3
votes
2answers
242 views
What does なのね at the end of a sentence mean?
A certain character in an anime series I watch would literally end each sentence with なのね. What does this imply? He was a pretty flamboyant character who was supposed to be Italian, if that offers any ...
3
votes
2answers
167 views
How does the addition of のか to the end of a sentence affect the meaning?
I've always had trouble understanding か (question particle) in casual speech. I read that in casual situations, か can be used to give the sentence an exasperated or sarcastic tone. Like in:
負けっかよ！ ...
3
votes
1answer
207 views
Trying to translate 遊ばにゃ損なってなもんだろうがおう！
I'm reading a manga and have run into a tricky phrase, so I am asking for help and some explanations:
...遊ばにゃ損なってなもんだろうがおう！
遊ばにゃ (or にや) - can't understand what the verb form is used here...
損なって - ...
2
votes
2answers
189 views
Using な or ね when addressing a mixed-gender group?
I have the basic understanding that ね is generally more formal/feminine and な is generally more informal/masculine. I was told that you tend to use ね as an emphasis if you are a) a female yourself or ...
2
votes
1answer
219 views
やってもた → やってしまった? What is the grammatical rule behind this?
I recently saw 「やってもた」 used in a Japanese conversation, I don't remember the context exactly, it was something like：
久々にやってもた。
After asking my Japanese friend, it turns out to be some kind of ...
2
votes
1answer
112 views
What is the most common way to pronounce 運?
So 運 is spelled うん, but I seem to hear most of my friends pronounce it as あん. My friends and family are 20-60 years of age and come from mostly Tokyo and Ibaraki area. I am living in the US now and so ...
2
votes
4answers
293 views
How does this meaning of 笑えないかな work?
In this Bump of Chicken song, the line 笑えないかな is used a number of times.
For example:
全て受け止めて笑えないかな
If only I could just accept everything and smile.
誰かに優しく出来ないかな 全て受け止めて笑えないかな
If ...
2
votes
1answer
180 views
How would you define っプル?
I have a fuzzy understanding that っぷる is something like っぽい (-ish) or っぷり (manner, style). Could you offer a more clear definition?
For example someone eating salad for dinner says:
...
2
votes
0answers
85 views
What is this colloquial / dialect form? 〜たるけんね
I'm still playing Final Fantasy VI, and I came across this bit of dialogue:
マリアの頭にオモリ
落としたるけんね。
I understand it up to 落とし. Orthros is going to drop the weight on her head! I can't make ...
1
vote
1answer
133 views
0
votes
1answer
152 views
Need help translating 「俺が威嚇射撃する ゴーを出したら 突入だ」
《俺が威嚇射撃する ゴーを出したら 突入だ》
I will fire a warning shot, when GO begins (must) rush in.
My shot at figuring out a translation above.
I figure it's something like, I will fire the warning shot, then ...
0
votes
3answers
276 views
what does 言われなくちゃなんねェんだよ mean?
A manga character says this to someone who told him to やめろ:
なんで やめろまで言われなくちゃなんねェんだよ!!
Is that 言われなくてはならない and if it is, how can it be part of a question (with "nan de")? I don't really ...
