The omission of sounds or letters from words. Contractions can be characteristic of dialects or modes of speech. A frequently observed contraction may become a new word in a language.
14
votes
2answers
526 views
What connotation does なんだ add?
Specifically, in the expression 好きなんだ (I love you) why not just say 好きだ or 好きです?
6
votes
1answer
563 views
Difference between ~なきゃ and ~なくちゃ
I know what one of them is なくてはいけません and the other one なければなりません, I just don't know which is which, also a few example sentences would help a lot, thank you.
8
votes
4answers
552 views
のだから vs のだ (んだから vs んだ）
When I learnt this grammar point a while ago, my teachers told me not to use it with "から". There reasoning for this was that のだ already implies a reason or supporting information for a conclusion.
...
9
votes
4answers
347 views
Use of ～のか (～んですか) in questions not seeking a yes/no answer
I would like to know if there is a shift in nuance in questions such as these:
誰が参加したんですか。 vs. 誰が参加しましたか。
いつ着いたんですか。 vs. いつ着きましたか。
I wish to limit discussion to only non-yes/no questions ...
4
votes
2answers
208 views
What are these forms: かけちゃお, つないじゃお?
I'm trying to understand the lyrics of a closing song of 「崖の上のポニョ」.
First verse is simple, but the second stopped me:
ペタペタ ピョーンピョン
足っていいな かけちゃお
ニギニギ ブンブン
お手てはいいな つないじゃお
What happened to arms and ...
4
votes
3answers
263 views
Can 【～たら】 be a short form of 【～てから】?
I picked up a bad habit of using ～たら (a form of conditional) when I mean ～てから (once something happens, something else will happen) from a friend many years back while learning Japanese.
In the years ...
15
votes
1answer
908 views
What does っつの mean?
I recently saw 冗談だっつの. What does it っつの mean, or how does it modify the meaning of a sentence?
10
votes
1answer
555 views
Where does the verbal form しとく come from?
In a manga I am currently reading, one of the character exclaims:
安心しな。秘密に しとく から。
The general meaning of the second part ("I'll keep it a secret") is quite obvious, and it seems that "しとく" ...
8
votes
2answers
180 views
Where does the suffix 〜がる come from?
I've read that several bits of Japanese come from contractions with ある:
だ comes from で + ある (source)
なる comes from に + ある (source)
たり comes from て + あり (source)
たり comes from と + あり (source)
...
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 ...
27
votes
6answers
741 views
What does っす at the end of a sentence mean?
I saw a sentence like "それ使ってるっす" and none of my dictionaries have an entry for just "っす". Is it a verb form, gobi, or something else?
