3
votes
2answers
239 views
Why is this guy hesitant to call and ask her out on a date?
This is a section of text from my JLPT textbook on page 33:
...
3
votes
2answers
167 views
How does the addition of のか to the end of a sentence affect the meaning?
I've always had trouble understanding か (question particle) in casual speech. I read that in casual situations, か can be used to give the sentence an exasperated or sarcastic tone. Like in:
負けっかよ！ ...
3
votes
1answer
142 views
Meaning of “何か来るんやろなとは思ったけどな”
I saw this pic on 9gag.com! I was able to read the following line perfectly (or maybe not): 何か来るんやろなとは思ったけどな. I'm not sure what it exactly means, but I have a feeling that this is slang.
来る means to ...
6
votes
2answers
130 views
Help translating よなも in a song
This is from a Trigun soundtrack, song called Sound Life (lyrics), 3rd line:
３つ目の夜に ワルツの子は世界面にウエーブを 打つ
The 世界面 is translated as "world face", however pronunciation is given as よなも.
I can't find ...
4
votes
1answer
105 views
What does ホイっと mean?
in a manga I was reading this expression appeared.
It was about a lazy girl, who was thinking about getting herself a boyfriend (so that he can do the house chores for her), and then her friend ...
0
votes
1answer
407 views
What is おやすみNASA胃？
I've seen this in several places. Is that a set phrase? What does that mean?
I know that it's a way of saying "Goodnight," but the NASA胃 doesn't make sense.
3
votes
2answers
123 views
What is an appropriate translation of 親和感?
In 1970, Masahiro Mori proposed the theory of the Uncanny Valley, which states that
"when human replicas look and act almost, but not perfectly, like actual human beings, it causes a response of ...
5
votes
1answer
110 views
Readings of 漏斗：じょうご vs ろうと
Is there any difference in meaning between the words じょうご and ろうと, both meaning something like "funnel", both written with the kanji 漏斗?
There's some indication in the answers here that ろうと may be a ...
1
vote
1answer
111 views
Why do days of the week use on-yomi kanji readings?
I would like to know if there is detailed information as to why days of the week use on-yomi readings, for example
月 in 月曜日 【げつようび】
Were these readings (as spoken) imported from the ...
1
vote
0answers
105 views
Translation for “Those who are possessed by nothing possess everything.” [closed]
I am looking for the original Japanese phrase for the above quote by Ueshiba Morihei 植芝 盛平, and haven't been able to find it. It is in his book "The Art of Peace", but I haven't got a Japanese ...
9
votes
1answer
139 views
What is the connection between shrimp and old age?
Shrimp(えび) is written several different ways in Japanese. For example, there are the words commonly used in Chinese: 蝦 and 鰕. There is also a compound specific to Japan, 海老, and a kokuji, 蛯. Both of ...
3
votes
1answer
150 views
Using と to mark a question
I've been working on listening practice again. This time, I'm watching the first episode of an anime series called スケッチブック 〜full color's〜.
In the first episode, a certain character asks three ...
3
votes
1answer
110 views
Which time expressions take the に particle?
The textbook Japanese for busy people 1 tells me, in lesson 6, that "relative time expressions like あした, らいしゅう, こんげつ and きょねん generally do not take any particles."
They exemplify this with sentences ...
1
vote
1answer
91 views
meaning of から in following sentence
Tell me please, what is から means in the following sentence?
本当のところを言うと、この時間に悠馬さんがここを通るからと、夏目さんに教えてもらったので、待っていたんです。
Thank you very much for help!
3
votes
4answers
537 views
Is it acceptable in Japanese to write kanji characters in the Chinese style?
In Japanese, is it acceptable to write kanji letters in the Chinese style? For example, is it acceptable to write 田 with the 3rd and 4th strokes swapped, or 着 with the 6th and 7th strokes combined?
3
votes
2answers
178 views
Why is stroke order important?
While I understand that stroke order is important, I do not understand why it is important. If the final product would like the same, why does it matter? I don't have an issue following stroke order. ...
7
votes
2answers
402 views
Can kanji-heavy Japanese be easily translated into Chinese?
How much is changed or lost in translating (say) an old Japanese text that's mainly written in kanji into hanzi? How does it compare to translating into a completely foreign language like English? I'm ...
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 ...
5
votes
1answer
157 views
Words for Ginkgo in Japanese: ぎんきょう and ぎんなん
I decided to read about the words for Ginkgo in Japanese (as in Ginkgo biloba).
I was surprised to learn that Ginkgo comes from Japanese! According to
Wikipedia, Engelbert Kaempfer, while writing ...
1
vote
1answer
190 views
Interpretation of て+もらえる
In the beginning of the music video for "Guns for Hands" by Twenty One Pilots (EDIT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmv8aQKO6k0), there's some subtitles:
君だって気付いてもらえないよ
It gets translated as ...
2
votes
1answer
96 views
Is 「お礼を言う」 considered formal?
I can only think of formal occasions when I have heard "thank you" spoken this way. Is this the case? Could it perhaps also be spoken sarcastically to have the opposite effect?
5
votes
2answers
204 views
Which verb receives a negation in a Japanese sentence?
I can say 歩いて渡る which translates to "to cross by walking". However, if I would like to say "I am not going to cross by walking, but by some other means", would I say
歩かないで渡る or 歩いて渡らない?
There are ...
6
votes
1answer
173 views
Is ないで a te-form?
In this answer, Darius Jahandarie says that ないで is a te-form. I asked about this on chat, and Flaw answered with a question:
If auxiliary ください follows after てform
and ないでください exists, can we ...
3
votes
2answers
238 views
Fooling honest people, or honest people look foolish?
Clearly I'm still struggling with the use of ばかを見る, which I have asked about before.
This sentence appears in a question in my JLPT textbook:
正直者{しょうじきもの}がばかをみない 社会{しゃかい}であるべきだ。
Based on the ...
3
votes
2answers
157 views
Origin of -aru verbs: いらっしゃる、おっしゃる、くださる、なさる
I think all of the mentioned verbs are in the same class, because they all inflect irregularly in the same way: -aimasu for the polite form rather than -arimasu.
My question is how these verbs were ...
3
votes
2answers
181 views
Slip of the mouth instead of a slip of the tongue?
This sentence is in my JLPT textbook:
つい舌{した}がすべってしまい、うそがばれてしまった。
I thought that it meant something like, "with an unintentional slip of the tongue, my lie was exposed." However, the sentence is ...
7
votes
3answers
587 views
What does これ以上 (kore ijou) mean?
The whole sentence reads
これ以上 シャレてる時間はない
which is from the lyrics of this anime song.
which, according to this website, means
There's no more time to be fooling around
I understand the first ...
1
vote
1answer
234 views
Can に mean the same thing as から?
あの野郎、どんだけジークさんに恩を受けたと思っていやがるんだ！
In this sentence, does に mean the same thing as から ?
Thank you very much for help!
5
votes
3answers
276 views
Are non-base-10 numbers ever written in kanji?
This morning I was thinking about the joke "There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't". Considering if this would translate well to Japanese, I ...
4
votes
1answer
142 views
How are these two sentences not negating their premise?
In my JLPT textbook, 日本語総まとめＮ１読解, on page17, there are these two sentences (which are both part of a larger paragraph, but I hope I have included enough):
...
15
votes
4answers
747 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 ...
2
votes
1answer
102 views
Semantic meaning of 出 in 出会う, 出来る, etc
There seems to be many Japanese verbs that are mysteriously compounded with 出る, like 出来る and 出会う. What is the actual semantic role of the 出? I'm especially curious about the difference between 会う and ...
4
votes
1answer
221 views
Sound mimesis (or 擬音語【ぎおんご】 or 擬態語【ぎたいご】) of ビ and シッ
Consider this panel:
What do ビ and シッ represent? I'm conjecturing ビ is the mimesis for the raised finger, and シッ is the mimesis for the scarf as she turns around.
4
votes
1answer
147 views
Difference between すべて and ぜんぶ [duplicate]
Title basically says it all. I think meanings are very close. Are they interchangeable? Are they appropriate for different contexts or situations? Can one be applied to animate objects and other ...
8
votes
2answers
675 views
When to use ～ので vs ～から
I was looking in A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar when I saw something on page 329 which truly shocked me:
"node cannot be used and kara must be used [... when ...] the main clause is a ...
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 ...
3
votes
1answer
127 views
Origin of 信じる, 感じる, etc?
Wikipedia claims that Japanese verbs are a closed class and that loanwords from Chinese always use する. 信じる, 感じる seems to be an exception. Why aren't they 信をする and 感をする? Maybe because one kanji is too ...
4
votes
1answer
121 views
What is a good synonym for「〜のに」at the end of a sentence?
I'm trying to come up with a good synonymous expression to put on a flashcard for 「〜のに」at the end of a sentence like these
彼が出て行けばいいのに。(I wish he would go.)
あの建物さえなければ、きれいな景色が見えるのに。(If it wasn't for ...
5
votes
2answers
191 views
What is a better translation for 「自分だけバカを見る」?
I have this phrase in my JLPT textbook, as one example of the use of バカ:
自分{じぶん}だけバカを見{み}る
The translation offered in the book is:
Waste time and money among others
The English is both ...
6
votes
1answer
131 views
Does 換骨奪胎 have negative connotation?
I looked at several online dictionaries, all of which didn't seem to me that the expression doesn't have negative sense by definition. However the book I'm reading makes me feel the author implies ...
1
vote
1answer
226 views
At what level should we be able to understand Yojijukugo?
In my experience, Chinese language learners are introduced to these 4-character phrases at an early stage (around Chinese 3 in my high school); what I want to know is there a certain aptitude level ...
3
votes
1answer
224 views
Meaning/origin of 三寒四温【さんかんしおん】
Recently I was introduced to the 四字熟語【よじじゅくご】:
三寒四温【さんかんしおん】
... to describe the type of changing weather one often experiences around late Winter/early Spring.
As to the literal meaning of ...
4
votes
2answers
213 views
The topic is the restaurant, or the conversation is at the restaurant?
I have this sentence in my JLPT textbook:
話{はなし}の種{たね}に、新{あたら}しくできたレストランに食{た}べに行{い}ってみた。
I think I understand the part after the comma, which I believe is saying, "... tried to go eat at the new ...
4
votes
0answers
189 views
What's the difference between 欲{ほっ}する and 欲しがる?
Is there one? One of my dictionaries lists them as
欲{ほっ}する → to desire/to want
欲しがる → to desire/to want/to wish for/to covet
Only the latter sounds like it includes more "bad"/selfish ...
4
votes
1answer
116 views
What is the origin of the phrase 一石二鳥?
This particular 四字熟語 is exactly the same as the proverb in English, "kill two birds with one stone." I find it to be a strange coincidence that both would have this phrase independently of each other, ...
7
votes
1answer
174 views
どうか, どうにか, どうかして - differences?
I was just wondering what the essential differences are between these and how I would use them in everyday speech. Thank you.
4
votes
1answer
210 views
Difference between 「~がる」 and 「～そう」
「～がる」と「～そう」の違いは何でしょうか。感覚的に同じではないことは分かりますが、説明はできません。どうも「～がる」形はもはや口語ではあまり使われないように感じます（「怖がる」「怖そう」などの完全に意味が変わる形容詞を除く。）。そういったレジスター(言語使用域)の違いも含めての回答を期待しています。もしこの質問がDuplicateであれば、元の質問を教えていただければ幸いです。
4
votes
1answer
173 views
Is 来おった the 連用形{れんようけい} of くる plus おる → おった?
I came across the following dialogue, which occurs right as the hero arrives:
「やっと来おったか。」
I'm not sure how to parse 来おった. Is it 来{き} + 居{お}る? If so, what exactly does this form mean? Do other ...
8
votes
1answer
193 views
What is the difference between 部屋 and 室?
When referring to a room (in a building), what is the difference in usage, if any?
I looked up the definitions and checked some sample phrases, but I could not see any real difference.
I usually read ...
5
votes
2answers
254 views
What does the “~ておく” mean in “任せておく”?
Good afternoon all,
From what I understand, "~ておく" basically has 4 meanings:
to do something for a purpose / reason
used as a softener (source)
to do.. for now or for the time being (source, ...
