Tagged Questions
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 ...
4
votes
2answers
152 views
不被下候: When was it common, and what were the rules?
In a shrine graffito written in 1559, two carpenters complain:
其時座主ハ大キナコスデオチヤリテ一度モ焼酎ヲ不被下候
'At that time, the high priest (stingy bugger!) gave us not even a drop of shochu to drink.'
The form ...
10
votes
4answers
353 views
What determines whether a word gets a kanji compound or katakana?
I read electronics/computing articles, and I find an incredible amount of terms are written either in kanji (almost similar to Chinese) or katakana. There are times when it's confusing as to know why. ...
3
votes
1answer
139 views
What is the proper term for the use of archaic kanji?
I noticed that in various works of Japanese art, the artists sign their work with a seal whose contents range from fairly regular kanji to very abstract variations of kanji. I have also seen it used ...
8
votes
6answers
773 views
Why are there 3 ways of writing in Japanese?
Why are there kanji, hiragana and katakana? Is there a logical reason behind this or just tradition?
13
votes
4answers
822 views
Distinguishing certain characters in handwriting and print
Japanese has some sets of characters which look very similar or even identical. Obviously, context is usually more than enough to distinguish which character is intended, but I'm wondering if there ...
9
votes
3answers
619 views
Is it possible to tell whether a word is kanji or hiragana without reading it?
Is it possible to tell whether a word would be written in kanji or if it would be written in hiragana without actually reading it, like it is reasonably easy to tell if a word is likely to be written ...
7
votes
3answers
1k views
Can I write Japanese name “Midori” this way - 緑?
There is female Japanese name "Midori," and I want to know the ways I can write it. I know it means "green," but maybe the name and "green" are different words sometimes.
I used google-translator to ...
6
votes
8answers
465 views
The many ways to write {かっこいい}
Apparently there are so many ways to write {かっこいい}.
Hiragana/katakana only:
かっこいい
カッコいい
カッコイイ
EDICT:
格好いい
かっこ好い
Other possible variants:
格好良い
かっこ良い
カッコ良い
格好好い
恰好いい ...
11
votes
3answers
865 views
About writing numbers using Japanese numerals vs using Arabic numerals
I noticed that even though Japanese language has kanji characters for numbers (e.g. 十、百、千、万 etc), there are many places where Arabic numerals are used instead, for example, prices for shop items are ...
