Rules governing construction of phrases and sentences in a language.
16
votes
4answers
479 views
Are there cases when two or more particles will occur next to each other without intervening lexical words?
Most particles seem to be postpositions but I'm sure I've seen say a noun followed by a location particle followed by "wa" or "ga" or possibly "wo" but when I've tried to use it I've only confused my ...
13
votes
2answers
497 views
When asking 'What is your name?' or 'What is your job?', why is it 'は' not 'か'?
As per the title, when asking 'What is your name?' or 'What is your job?', why is it 'は' not 'か'? For example, we are taught this:
おしごとは。
'What is your job?'
But I don't understand why it ...
12
votes
2answers
847 views
How to end a sentence in わけ
The is a certain way of talking where you can end just about anything you say in わけ.
What is the sentence structure for this way of talking?
12
votes
3answers
243 views
Sentence structure/element order
In the textbook Japanese for Busy People I, the order of the elements in a sentence is always the same (subject - when - with whom - by what means - to where - verb) at least as far as I have made it. ...
11
votes
2answers
161 views
The use of -さん when answering about oneself
If someone says,
あなた は Chris-さん です か。
Are you Chris?
Do you answer
Chris です
Or
Chris-さん です
Thanks
10
votes
1answer
174 views
Unifying concept for noun-adjectives of the pattern Xかな
Consider these:
～か：
静か
愚か
厳か
～やか:
穏やか
鮮やか
賑やか
～らか:
柔らか
滑らか
明らか
There are many more that I've not listed.
The か/やか/らか at the end of these words ...
10
votes
1answer
269 views
How did やわらかい gain its い?
As we know, there is a class of adjectives that end in 〜らか: 滑【なめ】らか, 明【あき】らか, 清【きよ】らか, 安【やす】らか, etc.
やわらか (柔らか or 軟らか) is also in this class of adjectives. However, it can also be written as the ...
9
votes
2answers
162 views
Is there a difference between この小さな街で and 小さなこの街で?
I noticed in songs, there are lyric lines that push the demonstrative adjective (*) この, その etc to the middle of sentences by switching it with an adjective/verb that describe the subsequent nouns. For ...
8
votes
2answers
147 views
How to break down who did what in AにBをCさせる
I'm trying to understand the following:
後輩にサイフを開かせることはないよ
I guess this could be generalized as AにBをCさせる.
It's confusing. Maybe if someone can break down how to understand this and then I can ...
8
votes
3answers
315 views
Problems with は and が
Consider:
[A] 猫が好きだ
To me this means [A']"I like cats."
Contrast this to:
[B] 猫は好きだ
To me this means [B']"I like cats (among other animals)"
I based my understanding of [B] from Derek ...
7
votes
2answers
269 views
Can placements of adverbs be altered freely?
I'm curious if there is any difference in nuance between these two sentences:
彼は少なくとも週に一度車を洗う。
彼は週に少なくとも一度車を洗う。
I'm aware that grammatically speaking both are 100% right, but this question is not ...
6
votes
3answers
424 views
What is the correct way to say: “where are you going?”
What is the correct way to say "where are you going?"?
Is it:
あなたはどこに行きますか
or
あなたはどこに行くの
Also, can someone please explain that の in "あなたはどこに行くの"?
6
votes
2answers
737 views
Is there a study available on the similarities between Japanese and Turkish grammars?
No I'm not claiming the Altaic hypothesis so try not to bring that up in answers.
Still there are grammatical similarities between Japanese and Turkish such as agglutination and use of postpositions ...
6
votes
2answers
198 views
Do we use odd day pronunciations outside of calendar ranges?
After reading @jkerian's comment in this post, I started thinking about this. Here's the comment in full:
On a side note, all days ending in '4' are also irregular, and use ~よっか. So the 14th is ...
6
votes
1answer
138 views
Ambiguity issues with と when performing multiple roles
My understanding of と:
と performs listing
と indicates reciprocal action
The above two uses are indivisible from each other. That is to say that this particle is special in a sense that it always ...
6
votes
1answer
288 views
Rules governing formation of adjectival and genitive modifications for Noun-Phrase
The following was observed in sawa's answer to "Can ごとに be replaced by それぞれ in this question?":
◯ 正月はそれぞれの家が門松を立てる。
× 木村さんはそれぞれの会う人に挨拶している。
◯ 木村さんは会う人それぞれに挨拶している。
それぞれの会う人 is said ...
5
votes
1answer
259 views
I have no idea what this is saying. Can you have two topics in a sentence?
白い箱はカウチの上に緑のランプは机の上にあります。
This sentence looks like it has two topics in it. But when I try to translate it, it doesn't make sense (to me obviously). My direct translation is: A white box on top of ...
5
votes
2answers
206 views
Is it true that all nouns must be able to accept a が particle and a を particle?
Is it true that all nouns must be able to accept a が particle and a を particle?
I was curious about how we could form a sentence with:
特別が
特別を
出色が
出色を
5
votes
2answers
274 views
Difference between sentence final ものだ and ことだ
My understanding is that ものだ is used to assert things which are mostly known to everyone.
誰かの家に招待されたときは、何か手土産をもっていくものだ
'When invited to somebody's home it's customary to bring presents'.
On ...
5
votes
2answers
141 views
Varying word order for stylistic effect
Sometimes, for stylistic or rhetorical effect, one wants to delay mentioning a word/concept until the end of a sentence. For example, it's often best to save the punchline for the very end:
I was ...
5
votes
1answer
84 views
Truncated adjective まっすぐ
I have a sentence in a book that goes like 甘い匂いのするまっきいろな花です。It is a kids book, so everything is in kana. I'm having trouble figuring out the bolded part. It talks about a dandelion in the context, so ...
5
votes
1answer
118 views
“unfinished” sentences ending in particles like を, に and が
This is something I've always wondered about, but can't find any info about.
When native speakers come across a sentence that ends ...を。, ...と。 or ...が！*, how do their brains parse it? Is it just a ...
4
votes
2answers
138 views
Subject following verb?
I'm translating bits of Hyrule Historia to test myself a bit and I'm a little confused by this sentence structure.
お面を使うリンク
I'm inclined to say this translates to something along the lines of:
...
4
votes
2answers
216 views
How to know if a sentence ending in the て form of a verb is imperative or not
I know that a sentence that ends in the て form of a verb can be imperative. How do you know for sure if it is? Why is「～しようとして」not imperative?
4
votes
3answers
448 views
How to separate words in a Japanese sentence?
Unlike some languages (English, French ...) , written Japanese sentences don't have spaces between words.
I know that it is the same in Chinese for example, but the fact that the Chinese language ...
4
votes
1answer
110 views
Can もはや also mean “or rather” or “actually”?
I heard this sentence pattern watching an anime
(where A and B have similar meanings, but B is much stronger):
．．．．[description A] いや、もはや [description B]と言っていい。
I looked up もはや expecting a ...
4
votes
1answer
116 views
Can the volitional form be used to nominate yourself for something?
I did a quick search on this site to see if I could find any answer to this and found this question: Does the volitional form of a verb mean both "lets" and "I want to"?
But ...
4
votes
1answer
138 views
What does ending a statement with 「っ」signify when coupled with 「・・・」?
I have seen a few sentences or exclamations that end a sentence with 「っ」. Specifically, I read the example below:
ちなみに純文学について語れなんて言われても私には、無理・・・っ！
The following sentence is listed below (However ...
3
votes
2answers
102 views
Nominalization with のが、のを
I've just learned to nominalize verbs with のを but as I was looking for more info on the web I saw that this is also done with のが and こと. The question "What is the difference between the nominalizers ...
3
votes
1answer
128 views
What is this や in 大きすぎや?
Is this a contraction along the same lines of なければ → なきゃ?
反乱を抑えるためだけが目的だとしたらリスクが大きすぎやしないか
Also, can you contract 言えば or あれば?
3
votes
4answers
385 views
Natural way to command “call <someone>”
In English and most languages I understand, the natural way to tell your phone to call someone (when using Bluetooth for example) is:
Call .
I was told that in Japanese, it is more natural to say the ...
3
votes
2answers
240 views
Sentence ending に and のに compared to their non-sentence-ending form
Consider these:
[A] 僕はいい仕事があったら美智子さんと結婚出来ただろうに
[B] 僕はいい仕事があったら美智子さんと結婚出来たのに
Is に in [A] related to the case particle に?
Is のに in [B] related to the use of のに as a conjunction in ...
3
votes
1answer
110 views
Is と necessary after a quoted phrase?
Hi all I was wondering if we want to treat a quoted phrase as a "noun", is it necessary to put a と particle behind the quoted phrase?
For example:
A) The "received" in "received from Tom"
...
3
votes
1answer
117 views
How does のは work in this sentence?
彼が持っているのは二百円です。 Supposedly this means "It is 200 yen that he has.". But I am really not familiar with this sentence construction. Therefore, I'm not sure how everything before の works with the rest of ...
3
votes
1answer
109 views
How do I say “course duration” in Japanese?
I want to say something along the lines of "all engineering courses are four years long".
Should I say something like this?:
各技術コースの専攻期間は4年くらいです。
Is there a more natural way to phrase what I'm ...
3
votes
2answers
233 views
<動詞の辞書形> + がよい ― How is this allowed?
I've come across this form many times in my Japanese Bible. The meaning is quite obvious based on context, and seems to be one of the following: ～べきです, ～ほうがいい, ～なさい, or ～ように (let it be ～).
Here are ...
3
votes
3answers
310 views
Interpreting a specific Japanese sentence
In one song (lyrics link) the line "Watashitachi no kore ga precious heartbeat" ("It's our precious heartbeat") appears, and I'm not sure how best to analyze it due to one particular grammatical ...
3
votes
1answer
245 views
Is 「なので」actually a short-form for「それなので」?
In Tae Kim's Guide there is a conversation that goes like this:
Tom: 時間がなかった。
Mary: だからパーティーに行かなかったの？
I was wondering is 「だから」 actually a short-form of 「それだから」 ?
Similarly, in the ...
3
votes
1answer
123 views
Understanding a JLPT practise question with ものなら
This sentence comes from a question in my JLPT practise book that is part of an explanation of the use of ものなら:
一度{いちど}仕事{しごと}を手伝{てつだ}おうものなら、それをいいことにあの人{ひと}は何度{なんど}でも頼{たの}んでくるから、気{き}をつけたほうがいい。
...
3
votes
1answer
97 views
Is 一緒に needed in this case?
Is 一緒に needed in this case？
A: 買い物へ行きたい。
B: そう。
A: 一緒に行きましょうか？
Or is it just ->> 行こう？
3
votes
0answers
46 views
About the relationship between 「ので」 and 「~てください」: [duplicate]
According to "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar", ので cannot be used in sentences that contains a request in the main clause.
However, in many phrases at sites or another grammar books I have ...
2
votes
3answers
203 views
Does contraction and elision affect formation of relative clause?
For example, やらなければならない can modify 時 to form やらなければならない時 and I know that the adjective い ending can simply have a noun appended after it.
However when it's contracted to やらなきゃ can I simply add a ...
2
votes
2answers
102 views
そのようにする + Recognizing a compound
そのようにしてこの巨城は、二年の長きにわたってゆっくりと攻略されてきた。
The first thing I had kind of a problem with, is そのようにして...
I just have no idea how to translate it.
Also, as for 巨城, 巨 doesn't have a prefix form, nor there is ...
2
votes
1answer
167 views
An i-adjective immediately before 「ください」?
Does it make sense to have an i-adjective (in て-form) immediately before 「ください」?
For example, when asked to choose between hot and cold coffee, can I use 「温かくてください」, or must I turn it into nominal ...
2
votes
1answer
114 views
Difference between 「来ませんでした」and「来なかったです」 [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is じゃないです equally correct as じゃありません?
Both have the same meaning ("did not come") and according to my Japanese co-workers both are acceptable while they can't define the ...
1
vote
1answer
174 views
Is みんな being used as a “counter”?
This is from Minna no Nihongo Chapter 15. It's a description of Santa Claus.
でも世界の子供はみんな私を知っています。 みんな seems like a counter of sorts (I don't know how else to describe it) for 世界の子供. I always thought ...
1
vote
1answer
67 views
How should I intepret より in this sentence
きのうは きょうより ひとが すくないです。
Is it saying:
X number of people yesterday < Y number of people today?
or
X number of people yesterday > Y number of people today?
I'm getting the ...
