All Questions
2
votes
1answer
190 views
Why aren't マンション mansions? Or are they?
And no, this isn't about property sizes in Japan!
As Katakana Mysteries: 6 loan words Japan got wrong put it:
Bill Gates or Warren Buffet might be very surprised if they were to
buy a Japanese ...
4
votes
0answers
150 views
Etymology of 赤字/黒字
赤字 and 黒字 seem to correspond directly to the English expressions 'red ink' and 'black ink', meaning a (financial) deficit/loss and surplus, respectively. If Wiktionary is to be trusted, Mandarin, ...
2
votes
1answer
95 views
What is the background of the phrase 背中で教える, and where does the meaning “to teach with one's back” come from?
I came across this phrase today while doing a lookup on 背中.
背中で教える
I checked several sources, and all listed the meaning, amongst others, "to teach with one's back". It seems related to ...
3
votes
1answer
115 views
Question regarding えば〜ほど
I have a question regarding えば〜ほど。My understanding of it is that it means, the more/less (property), the more/less (property).
If I want to say, the more experiences one has, the more ~ , should it ...
3
votes
1answer
130 views
When we should use kanji?
I just confuse about kanji. I just learn a bit of kanji. But I want to know when exactly we use it? is there a rule about that?
3
votes
3answers
318 views
Polite way of asking if someone's received an email
What's a polite way of asking in an email if you've received a previous email?
In my case, "polite" means "I'm emailing the tourism information staff of a place that mainly deals with domestic ...
4
votes
1answer
224 views
What is the よっか in はじめよっか?
I'm still playing Game Boy Wars Advance 2, and I keep running into colloquial forms I'm unfamiliar with. Here's one I haven't been able to look up:
じゃ、さっそく、はじめよっか。
My guess is that はじめよっか is a ...
3
votes
3answers
364 views
Can Japanese names be anything?
I've read lots of mangas and seen many animes, and it seems a Japanese person can have virtually any kind of name (the meaning of a name can be something completely ridiculous). Is it true in real ...
7
votes
3answers
327 views
Why is the meaning of人一倍 opposite of what it seems to say?
This could be just me, but at first glance the word (phrase?) 人一倍 looks like it would mean "one's own share of the work". I assumed 人 to mean one person, and 一倍 means "one share, one amount". I was a ...
3
votes
2answers
138 views
へうげもの - Hyouge Mono?
There's this manga that is called へうげもの. However, this name is romanized as Hyouge Mono. Although I know little Japanese, I think the kana there spell something like Heuge Mono.
Why does this ...
-1
votes
1answer
94 views
Usage of そして、ごかぞく、ときどき and some questions on forming sentence [closed]
I'm trying to write a simple japanese composition using phrases i have learnt (yes, it's a homework). And I encountered a number of questions and would greatly appreciate any advice.
Below I have ...
5
votes
1answer
115 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 ...
1
vote
1answer
97 views
Can't parse sentence with 「へったくれもない」
In my JLPT textbook, they have this sentence:
自分{じぶん}のない者{もの}に表現{ひょうげん}もへったくれもない。
The book provides a translation, which is this:
You can't talk about expression if you have none (of your ...
4
votes
2answers
174 views
Difference between “そば”, “となり” and “よこ” [duplicate]
While doing exercises, I am bit confused with "そば", "となり" and "よこ". Can anyone explain me the difference between them. Is it so that "よこ" is used when the object is at either left or right side of the ...
0
votes
0answers
92 views
How do you get Japanese e-books to read? [closed]
Sorry if this question is only marginally related to Japanese culture/learning, but I find nowhere else to ask such a question.
I have been studying Japanese for years and now want to read some ...
4
votes
3answers
262 views
Sorry, I wasn't listening
What is the Japanese expression for:
Sorry, I wasn't listening
For example, for when you're asked a question and realize that you have no idea what it's about as you've been thinking about ...
3
votes
1answer
107 views
What's the difference between どうして and どうやって?
I've read on stackexchange that どうやって can be used to mean "what did you do in order to x"
どうやってお医者になったか? - What did you do in order to become a doctor?
This definition makes alot of sense to ...
5
votes
1answer
129 views
Is む sometimes pronounced more like ん?
I'm curious what the relationship is between む and ん. I have the feeling that sometimes, む is pronounced more like ん:
むむむ: is this really /mumumu/? Or does it become /mmm/?
うむむ: is this really ...
5
votes
1answer
158 views
Why is topology called 位相幾何学?
Topology in English is called 位相幾何学 in Japanese; also, topological space is called 位相空間. But why is topology called 位相幾何学? What is the correspondence between topo and 位相? What is the origin of 位相?
6
votes
0answers
103 views
Precedence of symbols used to delimit lists in Japanese
A while back, I asked a question about ます, and as part of my research effort, I looked the word up in 学研全訳古語辞典. Unfortunately, I misread the list of conjugations!
The entry in question uses a ...
5
votes
1answer
157 views
Is there a standard for where to put spaces in kana-only Japanese?
I've noticed that when Japanese is written mostly or entirely in kana,
it's often written with spaces. For example, a lot of old video games had spaces. I've also seen this in children's books:
...
3
votes
1answer
150 views
How can I make sense of あるような無いような?
I'm still playing Game Boy Wars Advance 2, and it contains this dialogue:
聞いたことあるような無いような・・・
どこの軍でしたっけ？
The first sentence has me confused. My intuition tells me the meaning of the sentence ...
5
votes
1answer
177 views
How to say: (one) month through (another) month
I'm working on my Japanese homework, and we're practicing describing weather. We're given charts on temperature to say things like:
カイロは九月が一番あついです。Or, "In Cairo, September is the hottest month."
...
3
votes
1answer
130 views
~ろ・~ろも・思うて・~たった in 越後 dialect (新潟弁?)
At the start of this book the family are stated to be from 亀田町{かめだまち}, an area which is now part of 新潟市{にいがたし}, but it's also set historically (1919 at the start of the book). I'm presuming the ...
4
votes
1answer
111 views
Are 行きゃあ and 行きゃ both contractions of 行けば?
I started playing another old game, Game Boy Wars Advance 2, and I ran across this bit of dialogue:
ま、どのみち、マクロランドに行きゃあ、
いやでも戦わなきゃなんねえんだ。
I think this is something like:
ま、どのみち、マクロランドに行けば、
...
3
votes
1answer
114 views
Meaning and translation 働かせっぱなし
Help me please with translation 働かせっぱなし in the following sentence
それって、朝からずっと働かせっぱなしの人間に対して、掛ける言葉じゃ、ないと思うんだけど
The main problem is that I cannot understand how to correctly translate 働かせっぱなしの人間, ...
2
votes
1answer
111 views
What does “僕が来る前からこーだったんですが?” mean?
Well, the title says it.
The sentence is from a manga, where a boy lives together with her very lazy aunt, so the boy has to take care of laundry, cleaning dishes, cooking etc. while she's drinking ...
5
votes
1answer
133 views
Are all words stripped of bikago when listed in dictionaries?
When checking dictionaries (jisho.org and Wiktionary) for お名前, I found that it wasn't listed as お名前, but only as 名前. Do most dictionaries strip bikago from all words, or do they typically strip bikago ...
2
votes
1answer
122 views
Alternate meaning of 見えない when used as an expression?
I've always learned that 見えない means "unseen" or "invisible".
However, lately I've been seeing quite a few Japanese people in online games that, upon failing to complete some (usually very difficult) ...
2
votes
1answer
170 views
What does 手になる mean?
As the title says. I found it on weblio dictionary and it says ある人がその事に当たる。, but that doesn't help me a lot, as I can't find example sentences (and the one I have on the book I'm reading isn't too ...
8
votes
1answer
283 views
What is the significance of number of Kanji in a name?
There are several one-character surnames:
[林]{はやし}
[森]{もり}
[堤]{つつみ}
Most surnames have two-characters:
[鈴木]{すずき}
[山田]{やまだ}
[藤井]{ふじい}
[酒井]{さかい}
[松村]{まつむら}
A few surnames have ...
1
vote
1answer
120 views
Is this sentence using はず complete?
I have this sentence in my flashcards, which I pulled from a JLPT textbook of mine a while back. Long enough ago that I've lost the source. It looks strange to me now, though, and I wonder if maybe I ...
2
votes
1answer
112 views
How do you break down “かといって”?
In the phrase かといって or かと言って, meaning having said that, on the other hand, I'm not sure what the か and と are.
My first guess is that these are the generic particles (か+と+いって), but I couldn't find any ...
1
vote
1answer
51 views
help checking a sentence
[...]その天の命により、陛下がこのたび皇帝として即位し、天下を平和にし、文明を一層促進するための治世を開かれました。
My rough interpretation:
"by virtue of the Mandate of Heaven, Your Majesty now sits on the throne as an emperor, keeps all the world in ...
4
votes
1answer
90 views
How do you read 遅ランチ?
I read 遅ランチ and while I think the meaning is pretty clear ("late lunch" unless I'm mistaken), I wasn't sure how to read it. I wanted to say おそ, but the lack of okurigana suggests to me that isn't the ...
2
votes
2answers
121 views
Is there a Japanese saying like その頑張りは、すべてむだというかそういう気持ちになる , related to the working conditions of doctors in a hospital?
On NHK NewsWatch 9 yesterday, they were talking about the shortage of emergency room doctors, and the resulting situations lately where hospitals were forced to turn away emergency patients. In many ...
3
votes
2answers
100 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 ...
1
vote
1answer
204 views
Meaning and translation お納めになられる
Tell me please, what is the meaning of お納めになられる in the following sentence.
Is it just passive ?
Thanks for help!
3
votes
1answer
145 views
What was the base for Japanese numbers?
I'm curious what the numerical base the Japanese used before their introduction to the wider western world.
I've been taught in my Japanese language classes that they move the comma to a different ...
7
votes
1answer
140 views
What does 外国人のように imply in this sentence?
My friend is reading a book, and it contains the following sentence:
すると、高畑は外国人のように両手を上げる仕草をした。
Why does this say 外国人のように? Are foreigners known for a particular gesture in which we raise both ...
6
votes
1answer
145 views
Translating volitive expressions in ads into English
I saw this on an advertisement outside the construction site of a company that makes wooden houses:
木{き}の家{いえ}と、暮{く}らそう。
I'm trying to think of a way to translate it other than:
Live with a wooden ...
0
votes
0answers
64 views
increasing vocabulary [closed]
I have just started studying japanese and am currently on chapter 8 of the genki book.I wanted to know how I can increase my vocabulary? I tried reading some mangas like yotsubato but find myself ...
6
votes
2answers
203 views
How do I say “requirements” in an IT context?
So I work at a Japanese company as a developer
and I have seen the word "requirements" written as both 要件 and 要求
What is the difference between these 2 words?
Which one would I use in these examples?
...
0
votes
2answers
135 views
How long would it take on average to learn japanese [closed]
i know a small bit of Japanese from back in high school but stopped when it was never made clear that Japanese went for 2 semesters instead of 1 and by the time they told me about it (even though i ...
2
votes
1answer
127 views
Why is なんて the correct answer for this question?
Here's a question from N3文法スピードマスター。
英語も中国語もスペイン語もできる*なんて*、素晴らしいですねえ。
This question is multiple-choice, so the other incorrect choices were: なんと、など、なんか just for your information.
Here's my ...
3
votes
1answer
75 views
なにかと思ったら meaning
なにかと思ったら, I have come across this sentence a couple of times when talking to Japanese people, but I seem to struggle with the actual meaning.
I translate it as "if I am thinking of something" but the ...
4
votes
1answer
96 views
What's the difference between ことがある or ことはある?
In Tae Kim's guide, he wrote a few example sentences:
徹夜して、宿題することはある。
一人で行くことはありません。
パリに行ったことはありますか。
お寿司を食べたことがある。
そういうのを見たことがなかった。
In these examples, I don't really understand why some sentences ...
9
votes
1answer
106 views
「はは」(母) and ハ行転呼
It occurred to me the other day that if ハ行転呼 had affected all applicable environments without exception, 母 /haha/ (or I guess properly it was /ɸaɸa/, right?)should have become /hawa/.
The Japanese ...
3
votes
1answer
92 views
What's the difference between 程 and 程度?
What the difference between 程 and 程度?
I haven't been able to find any using my dictionary.
5
votes
1answer
196 views
What is the relation between the two verbs 思われる and 思う?
If 思われる is "its own verb," meaning "to seem; to appear," and is independent of the separate verb 思う, meaning "to think," is there a conceptual relation between the two? I ask because I initially ...
