All Questions
17
votes
5answers
771 views
Does -ou / -you / -mashou conjugation have a negative form?
Does the -ou / -you / -mashou (the "let's X") form have a negative counterpart? For example, how do I say "let's not X" for the following?:
行こう
食べよう
寝ましょう
As far as I can remember, the Japanese ...
17
votes
4answers
929 views
How can I differentiate between feet and legs?
Feet are 足, and legs are also 足.
Is there a word or method with which I can easily talk about one and not the other? And if not, why is there no word for feet in the Japanese language?
Caveat: I ...
17
votes
4answers
378 views
What are the origins of ヶ?
The ヶ in e.g. 一ヶ月 is a bit of an odd character - it looks a lot like a small version of the katakana ケ, but is it derived from that katakana originally? Or is it a normal kanji? Or is it something ...
17
votes
2answers
463 views
Why is は pronounced as わ when used as a topic particle?
The particle は is pronounced similarly to わ (unlike the rest of the ハ行 kana) when used as a particle; why is this? What historical shifts went on to cause this irregularity?
17
votes
3answers
1k views
The many ways to say “and” in Japanese
In English, we just have one word for the conjunction and which works just fine for many categories, but in Japanese, there are separate words:
と joins nouns together in a closed list
や joins nouns ...
17
votes
4answers
2k views
What is 「々」 and how does it affect meaning and pronunciation?
I've seen this symbol in various places, such as 「日々」, 「色々」, and 「人々」. What is it, and how does it affect the meaning and pronunciation of the word?
17
votes
4answers
1k views
What differences should I look out for between male vs female speech?
I was told a story where a male westerner learnt Japanese from his girlfriend and ended up speaking more like a female. The storyteller thought this was hilarious.
What important differences should I ...
17
votes
2answers
390 views
What is the difference in nuance between 間違う and 間違える?
I've heard from a Japanese native speaker friend of mine that both 間違う and 間違える are correct usage, but he wasn't able to explain the difference in nuance between them. Is there a difference, and if ...
17
votes
3answers
373 views
Stroke order for left and right
Why are the stroke orders for 右 and 左 different?
右 starts with the vertical stroke, and 左 starts with the horizontal one.
17
votes
5answers
545 views
What does the final て in 待ってて signify?
In this scene a young girl, Yotsuba, drops in on her neighbors for some breakfast. The mother who's cooking breakfast says 「今お父さんの焼いてるからその次ねー。ちょっと待っててー」.
So I guess she's preparing her husbands food ...
17
votes
1answer
464 views
Did ありがとう come from Portuguese “obrigado”?
I have heard before that ありがとう came from the word "obrigado" in Portuguese. Is this true and is there any evidence to support this, or is it an old wives' tale?
17
votes
4answers
480 views
Differences between 度 and 回 when counting occurrences
What are the differences between using 度 and 回 when used to count number of occurrences?
For example:
そんなことは一度もしたことがない
そんなことは一回もしたことがない
Are there any restrictions on what kind of actions referred ...
17
votes
4answers
1k views
Why is it 日本語がわかります instead of 日本語をわかります?
From what I understand, は is the topic marker, が is the subject marker, and を is the object marker.
One of the first sentences I learned doesn't seem to fit the rules I described above. The sentence ...
17
votes
3answers
729 views
What does -komu (ー込む) at the end of a word mean?
There are loads of word in Japanese which end in 込む, like 吸い込む, 読み込む, 入り込む, 打ち込む, 売り込む, 送り込む, 押し込む. How does adding ー込む change the meaning? What is the meaning that links all these words?
17
votes
1answer
516 views
Do Japanese writers use underline for emphasis?
Do Japanese writers use underline to emphasize a point, or other techniques? Wikipedia mentions the use of katakana here and here, but I'm not sure if it's appropriate.
Background: I'm incorporating ...
17
votes
3answers
333 views
Use of 自分【じぶん】as a personal pronoun in direct speech
Yay, yet another first-person-pronoun question!
I know that 自分 is commonly used as a personal pronoun in indirect speech, e.g.:
マイクは、自分はなんと不注意なのだろうと言った。→ Mike said that he was very careless.
...
17
votes
2answers
548 views
The difference between が and を with the potential form of a verb.
When using the potential form of a verb, I was taught that the particle を becomes が. However, in real life this seems to not always be the case. I've even heard Japanese people use を instead of が ...
17
votes
4answers
1k views
What are the main differences between 京都弁(Kyoto-ben) and 大阪弁(Osaka-ben)
These two dialects will sound very similar to an untrained ear. Can anyone highlight the main differences between these two dialects?
17
votes
3answers
484 views
ことができる versus V~える form
Way back in the day when I was first learning Japanese, I learned that you could add ことができる to a verb to indicate potential. Like so:
食{た}べることができる
(I) can eat (something)
It became my ...
16
votes
4answers
470 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 ...
16
votes
7answers
717 views
Does anyone have advice on how to get over/through/around the intermediate language plateau? (Self-learner)
How do you get through this? Especially in regards to reading. How do you practice reading at beyond the beginner level (No little black sambo's or whatever other children's books like I found in the ...
16
votes
4answers
726 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 ...
16
votes
3answers
531 views
How 「えい」 should be pronounced in the words like 英語, 先生, etc?
P.S.: I heard that 「生」 (せい) in the word 先生 can be pronounced either as [sei] or as [see]. If it is so, is there any semantic difference between these variants?
16
votes
3answers
570 views
全然 {ぜんぜん} with positive adjective / na-adjective
In Japanese classes, I was taught that 全然 can only be used with negative-meaning words/phrases/clauses, for example:
全然出来ません
全然だめです
However, I've observed that, especially in spoken Japanese, ...
16
votes
5answers
1k views
Pronouncing が as 'nga'
I'm a beginner and am learning from CD (Pimsleur). There are two native speakers going through the dialogue. One, the man, pronounces が as I would expect - 'ga'. The other (female) pronounces it as ...
16
votes
4answers
388 views
Appropriate ただいま-like greeting for a neighbor?
I frequently pass by an elderly neighbor who lives in the same apartment when coming home from a dog walk. He's kind of an in-house carpenter for the building and is frequently seen around the garage. ...
16
votes
2answers
401 views
When and how did USA and UK come to be written as [米]{べい}[国]{こく} and [英]{えい}[国]{こく}?
I know of four countries with a specific kanji besides Japan: China, the Netherlands, the USA and UK. The last two must be quite recent (I presume 19th century) but I wonder on the details and context ...
16
votes
4answers
618 views
Difference between にかんして and について?
What is the difference between にかんして and について?
Example usage would be much appreciated!
16
votes
3answers
675 views
What is the difference between その and あの?
Superficially, I get the sense that あの is for something far away from both speaker and listener, and その is for something closer to the listener than speaker. However, I seem to get in trouble when ...
16
votes
1answer
1k views
How do I politely ask my boss for a moment of his time?
My boss is a native Japanese speaker.
In English, when I have a question or an issue to bring up, I can ask "Do you have a minute?" to see if it is an appropriate time to interrupt them. In ...
16
votes
1answer
260 views
What are the differences between 〜ので and 〜から?
When I was studying this, my 先生 kind of brushed over the point, and then years later, I realize that they are different, but I don't know exactly how.
The only thing I understand is that ので is more ...
16
votes
2answers
304 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)
...
16
votes
1answer
846 views
Must do : ～なければならない vs ～なくてはいけない
What are the differences when using ～なければならない and ～なくてはいけない, or their colloquial contracted forms ～なきゃ and ～なくちゃ when saying "must do"?
For example, what is the difference in the nuance and usage of ...
16
votes
6answers
433 views
How can I differentiate agreement with the person and agreement with the idea?
A zillion years ago, before I came to Japan, I took a short introductory course on Japanese. In it, they showed a video of a business meeting where an American businessman is speaking to a Japanese ...
16
votes
1answer
337 views
Why doesn't 分かる have a potential form?
This question may be related to What does で分かる mean? (Cf. Tsuyoshi Ito and my comments to my answer).
(Regular) verbs can be turned into the potential form by attaching -((ra)r)e-:
tabe-ru vs. ...
15
votes
10answers
2k views
What to say after someone sneezes
It's happened several times: I'll be chattering away with a friend in Japanese, and they'll sneeze, and without even thinking about it I'll revert back to English to say "bless you." Is there a set ...
15
votes
4answers
1k views
Which is correct: こんばんわ or こんばんは?
I've seen both こんばんわ and こんばんは used; which is correct here? If we interpret the は as the topic particle, は would seem correct, but it seems that わ is used quite frequently anyway...
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
624 views
Does “敬語” (keigo) just mean “politeness” or is it a technical term specifically relating to Japanese grammar?
What is the difference between the Japanese term "敬語" (keigo) and the English term "politeness" (Specifically regarding language)?
I assumed politeness is more general covering things like "please" ...
15
votes
3answers
321 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
1answer
397 views
Why is a place that sells さけ a さかや?
Is it known why a さかや normally has a か, rather than a け like in さけ?
Are there many other -や constructions for stores that change the spelling of the word added to?
15
votes
7answers
662 views
the different usages of つもり?
Hi all I understand that つもり means "intention" like say 夏休みにはゆっくり休むつもりです。 = I intend to rest during the summer vacation.
But what does 分かっているつもりだ。 means?
Well if I translate directly, it seems to be ...
15
votes
4answers
580 views
Since Japanese already had several words for rice why was “ライス” (raisu) borrowed from English?
Last night I had dinner in a ramen restaurant in northern Japan and was surprised to read the katakana "ライス" (raisu) on the menu. This is obviously the English word "rice" borrowed. But what kind of ...
15
votes
4answers
3k views
What exactly is “なの” (nano)?
I asked a female Japanese friend to translate a sentence for me and it ends in "nano" which I took to be either an alternative question particle to -ne or -ka; or possibly two particles I don't know ...
15
votes
2answers
818 views
What does the internet slang “草生えた” mean?
I came across the term 草生えた on the internet. There wasn't much context, but it didn't seem to mean that grass was growing. Is this a slang term?
What does it mean? I couldn't find it in any of ...
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?
15
votes
4answers
2k views
Why was both katakana and hiragana created?
Nowadays, katakana tends to be used for gairaigo and onomatopoeia, while hiragana tends to be used for native Japanese words. This is a slight simplification - more information is available here.
...
15
votes
4answers
744 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
2answers
265 views
Is the title ～[殿]{どの} used in modern day japanese?
Is the title ～[殿]{どの} used in modern day Japanese? If so, which people can you use it with? I've only really seen it come across in referring to [大]{だい}[名]{みょう} (feudal lords). Also it is applicable ...
15
votes
3answers
821 views
The reality of answering いいえ to a negative question
tl;dr: when answering a negative question, can いいえ be used to affirm what the question states as a whole?
I came to Japan at the age of six, and I guess I pass as a normal native speaker of Japanese ...
