Questions concerned with the fact that many kanji (漢字) may share a reading or pronunciation.
16
votes
2answers
303 views
What's the difference between “家” (ya), “屋” (ya), and “や” (ya) as used in the names of shops/stores/restaurants?
As a gyudon addict I have noticed that the names of the three major national restaurant chains all end in "ya" but they used two different characters:
"吉野家" (Yoshinoya)
"松屋" (Matsuya)
"すき家" (Sukiya)
...
15
votes
2answers
340 views
What's the difference between the kanji forms for わかる?
The verb わかる can be written using either 分かる, 判る, or 解る - what's the semantic difference between these forms, if any?
13
votes
2answers
212 views
Kitten: 子猫 vs 小猫 vs 仔猫
Are there any differences (nuances or usage) when using prefix 子, 小 or 仔 for denoting young animals?
Examples:
Kitten: 子猫 vs 小猫 vs 仔猫
Puppy: 子犬 vs 小犬 vs 仔犬
Pony: 子馬 vs 小馬 vs 仔馬
Calf: 子牛 vs 小牛 vs 仔牛
...
13
votes
1answer
275 views
まち: what's the difference between 町 and 街?
My impression is that 町 tends to be used for smaller cities and 街 tends to be used for larger ones. Is this correct? If not, what is the difference?
12
votes
3answers
208 views
Dissecting つく verbs
I think we all are familiar with する verbs, which are verbs that are formed by appending する to nouns. Examples include 勉強する, 愛する etc. This pattern is very convenient because it can be appended to ...
12
votes
2answers
490 views
How do you write someone's name if you don't know what kanji to use?
Since kanji can have multiple pronunciations, how would you know how to write someone's name if you've only heard it spoken? What's the convention? Would you just guess, or maybe write it out in ...
11
votes
6answers
370 views
Computer: 計算機 or 計算器?
What is the difference between the two kanji variants for 「けいさんき」, the other word for 「コンピューター」?
計算器
計算機
11
votes
1answer
174 views
What is the difference between “河” and “川”?
I saw the first (河) used for "Hippopotamus", literally mimicking the Greek name (River Horse) but I expected to see 川 in its place...
Also, apparently you can use "河川" to mean river*s* (plural)?
But ...
11
votes
2answers
252 views
Nuances between the different kanji spellings of あける：明ける vs. 開ける vs. 空ける
開ける, 明ける and 空ける are all read as あける.
From their kanji, it is obvious that 開ける has to do more with opening (a door etc), 明ける with dawning and 空ける with emptying...
However, JMDict gives the exact ...
9
votes
2answers
179 views
What's the difference between 迷う and 紕う?
I was looking in a dictionary and both were listed as being defined as "to lose one's way, to hesitate, or to waver," but I don't understand why there are two different kanji for the word.
9
votes
2answers
312 views
do people actually respect the nuances of 探す vs 捜す?
Part 1
I understand 探す to be to search for something (general)
and 捜す to be to search for something lost
But do people actually care about the difference in nuance when they use it?
I mean do ...
9
votes
1answer
175 views
Was there a single word/concept もの which was later split into two (now distinct) kanji 者 and 物?
Given that もの has a rather similar usage as a generic modifier for turning a property into a thing with that property (as 物) or turning a property into a person with that property (as 者) -- it seems ...
8
votes
1answer
133 views
What is the difference between 恰好 and 格好?
Is there any difference between the words 格好 and 恰好? Can I actually call them different words, or is it that they are just the same word written differently? I've been told that they have exactly the ...
8
votes
1answer
162 views
Separate kanji for おそい when referring to being late and being slow
The i-adjective はやい can refer to being fast or being early, but each of the meanings has affinity towards separate kanji: 速い (fast) and 早い (early). Yet, while it's not surprising that the antonyms of ...
7
votes
3answers
344 views
[父]{ちち} vs. [乳]{ちち} — father vs. breast
Can one differentiate by pronunciation between [父]{ちち} and [乳]{ちち} (as for 雨 and 飴)?
If not, does anyone have a reasonable explanation for why 父 and 乳 have the same pronunciation? It seems unlikely ...
7
votes
2answers
235 views
When to use 聴く vs 聞く vs 訊く?
When should one use 聴く instead of 聞く? Is there a precise rule for which one to use in which situation?
I have a feeling that 聞 is used more when the source of the sound is a person or other living ...
6
votes
2answers
261 views
Which kanji for はじめます? There seem to be two
I thought the kanji for はじめます was:
始めます
However, one of my friends tweeted using 初:
トマト鍋初めて食べたけどおいしかった
Which is correct? Is there a difference in nuance between the two? jisho.org brings ...
6
votes
1answer
135 views
What's the difference between 平行 and 並行?
They both seem to mean "parallel". In my プログレッシブ dictionary, it seems to point to the former being the more mathematical sense of the definition (two co-planar, non-intersecting lines), while the ...
6
votes
1answer
142 views
What's the difference between 作る、造る、創る？
According to jisho.org they have the same meaning. How to know which to use?
6
votes
1answer
142 views
Which つける do I use?
So I looked up つける and saw it can be written as:
付ける
着ける
附ける
And they all seem to have the exact same definition: to attach, to join, to add, to append, etc. So are these "spellings" ...
6
votes
1answer
169 views
Distinguishing 沙 from 砂
I looked up both 沙 and 砂 in my 学研{がっけん} 漢和辞典{かんわじてん} today. It appears that they share the same list of readings (サ、シャ、すな、いさご). I also see that some words can be written with either kanji. Here are ...
5
votes
2answers
286 views
Japanese don't learn kanji meaning only readings? Does it make sense for a kanji to have a key meaning to identify it?
As I understand it works like this. By the time Japanese kids enter first grade they have more or less decent vocabulary of words they know. So when kanjis are taught I can't even imagine how to tell ...
5
votes
1answer
121 views
もっとも: distinguishing between 尤も and 最も
I found a page in Japanese with title "世界でもっとも汚染された10の都市". Having encountered the phrase 「もっとも」 for the first time, I looked it up on WWWJDIC and found two entries:
尤も 【もっとも】 (adj-na,adv,conj,n) ...
5
votes
1answer
199 views
which instruments use 弾く and which use 引く?
I was wondering how do we identify what instruments may be used with the verb 引く, or 弾く, or both?
If both 引く and 弾く can be used is there any difference in nuance between one vs the other?
5
votes
1answer
117 views
Are the two kanjis 箇所 and 個所 interchange?
Our customer uses 箇所 but my manager uses 個所 when emailing project status. Are both kanji interchangeable?
The context of usage in a sentence is:
一箇所変更しました。
A portion (of the code/software) ...
4
votes
5answers
176 views
Rust: 錆 vs 銹 vs 鏽 vs 鏥
In doing some looking around today I found four characters that all mean rust and are all read さび. Is there any distinction that can be made between these characters?
錆
銹
鏽
鏥
4
votes
2answers
128 views
The differences between 速さ, 早さ, and 速度
I was emailing a friend and used the phrase "タイピングすることの早さ" which I discovered was very incorrect. I did some searching on Google and here is what I discovered:
タイピングの速度 <-rare
タイピング速度 ...
4
votes
2answers
227 views
What's the difference between 上る、登る and 昇る?
According to jisho.org, they all have the same meanings, to climb, to rise, to ascend. Is that true? And do they have differences in usage?
4
votes
2answers
162 views
What is the difference between 楊 and 柳 which both mean “Willow”
I've come across two kanji, which are both read やなぎ and both mean "willow".
From what I've found out so far, 柳 has an On'yomi of リュウ and it seems to mean more "things with the qualities of a willow"; ...
4
votes
1answer
154 views
Are the meanings of 煙 and 烟 identical?
I noticed that 煙 in the phrase 茶煙永日香{ちゃえんえいじつかんばし} sometimes appears as 烟. For example, here is a teapot with 茶煙永日香 and a scroll with 茶烟永日香. Is there a difference in meaning between 煙 and 烟?
煙 and 烟 ...
4
votes
1answer
128 views
“Dive” = “fly into”?
The words 飛ぶ and 跳ぶ are both read as とぶ, the former meaning "to fly" and the latter meaning "to jump" (generally; don't know if they are interchangeable at all).
The compound-verb suffix 〜込【こ】む means ...
3
votes
1answer
155 views
What is the difference between 上{あ}げる and 挙{あ}げる?
I searched examples for the verb "ageru - raise" and I found it written with two different kanji:
挙げる
上げる
Mostly their meaning is "raise".
I found them with the following examples:
棚に箱を上げる。Put a ...
3
votes
1answer
225 views
しゅっぱつしんこ〜, what is Yotsuba-chan saying?
Which しんこう is the one Yotsuba-chan meant when she said 「しゅっぱつしんこ〜」 in the manga excerpt below? WWWJDIC lists so many two-kanji words that read as しんこう, and even after eliminating totally irrelevant ...
3
votes
1answer
116 views
Kanji pairs that mean and are pronounced the same by themselves
I have found several pairs of kanji that are pronounced the same and mean the same when they are used individually:
目 and 眼
足 and 脚
木 and 樹
This especially bugs me because, in Chinese (my native ...
3
votes
2answers
136 views
微温い versus 温い versus ぬくい versus ぬるい
According to WWWJDIC,
ぬるい and ぬくい are both written 温い.
Anthy and the iOS Japanese input systems agree.
However a native speaker and the input of an electronic dictionary (広辞苑）say that
温い is read ...
2
votes
1answer
152 views
Is punning with homophonic kanji common?
I recently discovered that the mascot for テレビ[塔]{とう} is テレビ[父]{とう}さん.
Answering whether this was a deliberate pun is probably impossible, but I'd like to know, in general, is it common to replace one ...
2
votes
0answers
99 views
same reading, similar meaning, different Kanji [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
do people actually respect the nuances of 探す vs 捜す?
There are many kanji that I have come across with similar meanings, and (seemly coincidentally) identical readings. ...
1
vote
1answer
160 views
What is the difference between the two kanji pairings for 'jellyfish'?
I am aware that animal names are generally written in katakana (although sometimes hiragana), but kanji is sometimes used. I stumbled upon the Japanese word クラゲ, meaning jellyfish. The dictionary said ...
