Hot answers tagged differences
13
火事 means "fire" like what you shout when a building is burning down. Or when we say "my house was lost in a fire", it's that "fire". The big kind that burns things it isn't supposed to.
火 is a more generic word for fire. It's what's on a candle or a torch or in a fireplace.
For your first sentence...it depends on if the fire is burning down your ...
13
I'll base my answer around this Japanese thesaurus entry which discusses the difference between 思う and 考える.
思う is more subjective or emotional - for example: worries, hopes, affection, supposition/imagination (as in 'It wasn't as big as I had imagined (thought) it would be') etc.
考える is for more objective and logical thought.
At the bottom of the ...
12
我 (also written 吾) is an older way to say "I", not as common as the other ways you listed but still in use, particularly by older men.
I asked my friend when one would hear it, and she gave the context of a older guy giving a speech in a company setting, where the assumed tone would be masculine and slightly formal (this is a subjective opinion). Perhaps ...
12
I completely agree that the difference between 食べる and 飲む is whether you chew it or not. For example, “eat some soup” is スープを飲む, not スープを食べる.
The entry for のむ (飲む, 呑む) in Daijisen has a slightly more detailed explanation in a usage note, although the purpose of the note is to explain the difference between のむ and 吸う:
...
11
First, I think speculating on what people actually know based on what options the language provides is too speculative. For example, I don't know the difference between a porpoise and a dolphin, even though the English language provides the option to specify either one. So the issue of what Japanese speakers know should simply be put aside.
However, it is ...
11
In the modern form, ず is only used as an adverbial (食べずに出る leave without eating). ぬ can replace ない.
In 文語, the the grammar used in writing until the reformations after WWII and still in many forms of poetry, songs, and very formal documents, the use of ず and ぬ was/is grammatically constrained in a manner no longer present in modern Japanese. ぬ was used with ...
10
When it comes to personal/social relations, Japanese is more delicate than most other languages in the world. English is on the other extreme. It does not even have a simplex word to distinguish "younger brother" and "older brother" or "younger sister" and "older sister", and people call even teachers by their first name without polite prefix in English, and ...
10
As Gradius said, the mathematical term “triangle” is 三角形, and never 三角. As part of compound words, 三角 also appears; an example is 三角関数 (trigonometric functions).
(As for the use of 三角 in compounds words, I think that there is a general tendency to prefer to two-kanji words than three-kanji words when they are used adjectivally in compound words. See also ...
10
I think that 部屋 usually refers to a room in a house/apartment, where someone resides. 室 is somewhat broader and often refers to a room with a particular function.
This seems to be reflected in the names of the rooms in a house/apartment:
Rooms with a particular function
寝室
客室
地下室
Rooms that are lived in
子供部屋
仕事部屋
おもちゃ[部屋]{べや} or 遊び部屋
In other ...
10
Comparing
ぜひ来てくださいね。
きっと来てくださいね。
ぜひ expresses a hope/wish, whereas きっと expresses an expectation. (必ず would express obligation.)
A teacher telling his students "きっと来てくださいね" means more like "I am expecting everyone to come". Thus きっと feels stronger (it's an expectation, after all), but may just mean that whoever is inviting really wants you to come.
...
9
違い simply means "difference". 差 means difference in the sense of a margin or gap, and seems to relate to things that are "calculate-able".
誤差【ごさ】 → Margin of error
時差【じさ】 → Difference in time : 時差ぼけ → Jet lag
It seems like you could replace most instances of 違い with 差, but not the other way around. 差 is definitely more appropriate when talking ...
9
向こう requires a reference line (which may be overtly expressed or not expressed). It means A and B are on opposite sides with respect to C.
店は川の向こうにある。
A = current location, B = store, C = river
向かい requires a "forward" direction. It means that along a line starting from A and facing the forward direction, there is B.
佐藤さんの向かいが山田さんだ。
9
修理 means "fix/repair" and almost, if not always refers to fixing something that is physically broken.
直す can also mean "fix" as in something broken, but has more metaphorical uses. "Fix" as in correct a mistake (often seen as a compound verb 〜なおす: 書き直す to rewrite); "fix" as in straighten out, put right, etc.; "Fix" as in change/alter (a plan, etc.)
8
I agree in general with istrasci's answer. Just to add, 差 is used particularly for things whose difference is evaluated by the difference in the mathematical sense (that is, by subtracting the value of one from that of another). Times and ages are usually compared in this way, so it it appropriate to use 差.
違い is a general term for describing differences. ...
8
Even though they are both used, there is an official one and those that are not.
When you consider the history of kanji incorporation into Japanese, first, there were Chinese writings. Then, people tried to read them as Japanese. Two techniques appeared: (i) kaeri-ten, which marks how the Chinese characters in the original Chinese writing are to be ...
8
It is not clear cut, but my impression is that the tendency is that 日曜日 means a particular day that is Sunday whereas 日曜 means Sunday in general or series of Sundays.
日曜日に出掛けます。
'I will go out on next Sunday.'
日曜に出掛けます。
'I go out on Sundays.'
When it is clear that it is not about a particular day but is about a series of days, this ...
8
It might be something as simple as:
三角 (something that is "triangular" where the focus is having attributes similar to that of triangles ie: three sides, three corners)
三角形 (a polygon that IS a triangle)
For example: 「三角屋根」 is a way to describe a roof that is "triangular" in comparison to other roofs of different shapes. It has attributes similar ...
8
This page on alternative renderings of kanji compounds says that in order to simplify the kanji set, some compounds which contained uncommon kanji had components replaced with common homophonous kanji.
One set of changes was promulgated by the 国語審議会 in 1956, but the page also lists a number of changes which came into de facto use. 恰好→格好 is one such pair.
...
8
There are many, many examples of this kind. There are always different ways of saying the same thing. The 漢語 (Chinese-derived word) plus する verb is often the more formal version, whereas the simple native Japanese word is less formal. When comparing 車を直す and 車を修理する, 直す and 修理する both mean "to repair", but the latter sounds a tad more technical, but probably ...
7
I think 文盲 would be the best translation to describe someone who can't read or write, and 無学 would be the best word for someone uneducated and ignorant.
I don't think I've ever seen the words 無筆、一文不通、一文不知... I didn't even know how to read the latter two... (Maybe because I'm just so ignorant...)
As for 活字離れ, I think it's a rather new word, describing the ...
7
From the excellent A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
Vmasu+方 means either "way" or "manner". Thus 飲み方が大事です means either "The way of drinking is important" or "The manner in which one drinks is important" so you have to provide additional context. To put into context:
この[薬]{くすり}は[飲]{の}み[方]{かた}が[大事]{だいじ}。[必]{かなら}ず[食前]{しょくぜん}に[飲]{の}んでください。[It is ...
7
あれから１０数年
It means 10 plus several years passed. like 14 to 17 years. 10 to 19 years passed. (corrected)
あれから１０年後
It means exactly 10 years later.
すう‐ねん【数年】
2、3か5、6ぐらいの年数。
source: デジタル大辞泉
じゅう‐すう〔ジフ‐〕【十数】
［語素］単位を表す語の上に付いたり、助数詞を伴ったりして、それが10以上20未満であることを表す。「―メートル」「―人」
source: デジタル大辞泉
7
姿 almost always refers to a person's appearance in a kind of poetic sense. Usually when you refer to 姿 you're referring to some kind of beauty or special quality to someone's appearance. It's possible to use this to describe an object, but as I mentioned it takes on a little bit more of a poetic quality. For example:
(4)物のかたち。ありさま。 「―の美しい山」
形 on the ...
7
They both can mean the same thing but they are not the same. Probably a similar problem to 目標 and 目的.
The main difference to me is the point of view.
User's point of view => 要求
Dev's point of view => 要件
要求 would be functionalities the user is looking for. While 要件 would be functionalities the system need to do to answer the 要求.
In my company, we first ...
6
In my feeling, those sound quite different.
世間 : the Japanese society.
ex. "世間の常識" = common sense of our society.
世界 : the whole world on the globe. Particularly outside of Japan.
ex. "世界のニュース" = international news. "世界一周" = a round-the-world trip.
In short, "世間" sounds like more local stuff.
is it strictly poetic and reserved for flowery ...
6
-ぬ is an archaic form of -ない. I suspect its use in song lyrics has more to do with fitting the word into the right number of syllables; as far as I know, there is no difference in meaning.
-ず, on the other hand, indicates that one action took place without or in the absence of another action (the one with -ず). For example, 待たずに先に行く: to go on ahead without ...
6
There are also 出版, 印行. Their uses are as follows
出版 is the process of printing, binding and distributing (does not include newspapers)
発行 refers to the process of printing something of value (books, money, stamps, etc.) and distributing it
刊行 is usually the process of publishing something at a fixed interval, e.g. daily (like newspapers), monthly (like ...
6
They do have differences in usage. I've gathered a few examples that, I hope, differentiate the meanings. First, I'll try to put them in English:
上る Go up
登る Climb
昇る Ascend / rise
But I don't know how helpful that is. Certainly there isn't a one-to-one mapping between those English words and those ways of writing のぼる. I think you'll get a better ...
5
誇り is a kind of pride concerned with your characteristics like: membership to some group (i.e., nationality, alumnus status, etc.), your belief, activity, or achievement.
誇りを持って仕事をしている
日本人であることに誇りを感じている
自尊心 is the pride about being yourself, and is not tied to any of the particular characteristics mentioned above.
自尊心を持つことは、よい人格形成にとって必要だ
...
5
As Chocolate suggests, one difference is that かけ implies that the activity is not completed, whereas ぱなし means that the activity is completed, and as a result, some negative situation (messed up, etc.) is left.
やりかけた 'had started working on something (but have not completed)'
やりっぱなし 'completed doing something, (and have not cleaned/put away the tools ...
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