Hot answers tagged grammar
13
Repeating the same noun twice as inNounというNoun here has the meaning of "all":
…窓という窓が夕日に照らされて赤くキラキラ輝いている。
"...all of the windows are being shined on by the evening sun and are sparkling red."
Separately, Time NounというTime Noun can also emphasize time words, but that's a different usage, e.g.:
今日という今日
"today of all days"
(Reference: definition ...
12
１日おきに = ２日ごとに (every other day, every second day)
●○●○●○●...
２日おきに = ３日ごとに (every three days, every third day)
●○○●○○●○○●...
ごとに(毎に) http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%94%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AB
おきに(置きに) http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/2%E6%97%A5%E7%BD%AE%E3%81%8D%E3%81%AB
おき(置き) came from the verb 置く(leave). I think it's like "an interval (between the ...
11
First, eating in Tokyo is expressed by で: 東京で食べる (eating "at" Tokyo).
(Aside from my friends who ate there), I also ate at Tokyo. → 私も東京で食べた。("I, also, ate in Tokyo.")
(Aside from the other places where I tried local cuisines), I also ate at Tokyo. → 私は東京でも食べた。 ("I ate also in Tokyo.")
(Aside from shopping and other activities), I also ate at ...
10
As phoenixheart6 wrote, suffix -さ makes a noun from an adjective. I am not sure if you have a problem with this. But it seems that you have a misunderstanding about the role of に. In a sentence
品揃えの多さについつい買い込んでしまった。
に means “because of.” 買い込む means “to buy many things.” Therefore, it means:
Because of the variety of goods they sell, I ended up ...
10
っこ is a suffix that attaches to verbs (in 連用形). It means の事 or する事. It is most commonly found in the form of っこない which expresses a strong denial as in 絶対…しない or …するはずがない. This may also be っこなし. It typically indicates multiple people are involved in the activity. Here it means "there will be no running away". The next line continues with: ...
10
WWWJDIC writes しいて (adv) as 強いて "by force". In your sentence, しいて食べる is roughly equivalent to 無理して食べる, i.e. overdoing it in some way. A more literal translation might be
食べたくなければしいて食べることないから、食べられるものだけ食べてね。
If you don't want to eat anything, don't force yourself (to eat) and just eat as much as you can/want.
10
If you're talking about yourself you can't really use it that way. Ending it with に makes it sound like a kind of friendly request, like in お大事に. As such it sounds like you're telling someone "楽しみにしてください" because of the に ending. For yourself you just say 楽しみ or 楽しみにしています. Generally do not leave a に dangling by itself at the end to refer to your own ...
9
とは限らない is a fixed expression meaning "not necessarily", and if I were you I would memorize it as such. I'm not sure there's an intuitive way to understand it logically. For example, there's no とは限る.
As for your bonus question, your two sentences mean pretty much the same. 必ずしも is an expression which needs to go with some negative expression after it, and ...
9
As snailplane says, for practical purposes, just think of 葉っぱ as a word meaning 'leaf'. In colloquial speech 葉っぱ is probably more common than 葉.
I haven't been able to find decisive evidence, but I conjecture that the っぱs occuring in (at least) the below words
葉っぱ
原っぱ
下っ端
木端微塵{こっぱみじん}
is the same morpheme, meaning "something unimportant", ...
8
As a Phenomena of Fast/Casual Speech
As Tsujimura(2007) describes, this a non-mandatory phonological process (not a syntactical one) called nasal syllabification. Consider these examples and a non-example as they might be written in native orthography:
来るのなら → 来るんなら
君のうち → 君んち
しらない → しんない
かえらない → かえんない
おくらない → おくんない
学者になる → 学者んなる
僕のうち → ...
8
If the sentence ends in a verb or -い adjective, do not use -だそう. Here's an example:
Nagano has delicious soba: 長野はそばがおいしいです。I hear Nagano has delicious soba: 長野はそばが>おいしいそうです。According to the travel agency, Nagano has delicious soba： 旅行会社による>と、長野はそばがおいしいそうです。
If the sentence ends in a -な adjective or a noun, use -だそう:
Mount Fuji is beautiful: ...
8
げ can be attached to the stem of a selected set of subjective i-adjectives or nouns to turn them into a na-adjective meaning "seemingly ...". With adjectives that you cannot use this, you can use そう instead. With nouns, you cannot replace it with そう.
涼しそう 涼しげ 自慢 自慢げ
Your rewrite will change the meaning.
This belongs to derivational morphology, and is ...
8
It's the joke that made you laugh...
The に of 冗談には indicates what made you laugh, but you can't say
冗談が私を笑わせた。
since 冗談 can't make people laugh actively. (Which is different from English. Compare this answer of mine about the difference of usage of the passive in Japanese and English.)
In some sense, the sentence above would be more complete as
...
8
what is the verb and its form?
The verb is tamar- (堪る) "bear, endure". The form is irrealis (未然形), hence tamara. To this -zu is attached and expresses negation.
From the commentary, you seem to understand the grammar and meaning, but are unable to interpret it as a whole. Think of it as "I am so worried that I cannot endure it anymore."
8
手裏剣をよけざま
「よけ」 should be 避ける（avoid/dodge）. 「～しざま」 means "while / the moment / at the same time". It can be rephrased like 「～する際」 「～しながら」. So the sentence appears to be "he did something while he dodged the shuriken". It needs more context to be accurate.
さま2 【様・▽方】
［2］ 現代では普通「ざま」の形をとる。動詞連用形に付く。
（イ） …する瞬間、…すると同時の意を表す。
すれ違い―
...
8
SUMMARY
Options 3 & 4 both mean "must not" because they are both variations on べきではない tested at JPLT N1 (in fact べからざる is a variation on べからず (see on)). The trick is to understand which best fits the context of the sentence when we apply "usual" JLPT level N1 definitions but even if we do not fully understand the context we can still get the question ...
8
I would like to propose that the answer book is wrong.
In the example sentence ものか could only be used to express complete disbelief or rejection of the idea that the economy will improve.
ものか is used to flat out deny an idea as false.
(きっぱりと否定する意を表す)
And trying to follow that with 悪化する一方であった would be strange grammatically and in terms of meaning.
どころか is ...
8
It is usual to say AからB without まで when you use a range in place of a number, and you repeat units. Therefore, “for two to four hours” is 2時間から4時間. 2時間[乃至]{ないし}4時間 is a very formal way to state the same thing, as ssb stated.
Your sentence has a few other incorrect or unnatural points.
As oldergod stated, the usage of を is incorrect. The duration of an ...
8
As @Flaw flawlessly explains, Japanese sentences can have clausal predicates. This is what causes what is commonly known as double-subject constructions, although I believe "clausal predicates" really illustrates the structure better.
I assume you have heard constructions like
彼は髪が長い He has long hair
Some teachers/textbooks might explain this away by ...
8
Is either of コーヒーを・は飲み得ない, 飲むわけにはいかない more correct and/or preferable?
No.
Or would something without potential, like 飲みにくい・づらい・がたい work better?
Hmm... no. 飲みにくい/飲みづらい might sound like you're having difficulty swallowing/drinking because you have some problem in your throat... or maybe you really hate the smell of coffee...
Since that's not the ...
7
Peter Sells (1995) calls ないで as verbal gerund and なくて as adjectival gerund. When you have participial constructions, they do not make difference, but Sells notices that only the verbal gerund can be selected by an auxiliary verb:
食べないでおいた
* 食べなくておいた (Sells 1995:287)
Similarly to that, when you want to use these forms adverbially as in your ...
7
I'm pretty much just saying what everyone else has already, but to add some examples etc...:
基づく means "to be based on", so に基づいて means "based on":
税金はこの表に基づいて計算されています。
Taxes are calculated based on this [table/chart].
応じる means "to respond", so に応じて means "in response to", "dependant on", "in accordance with" etc. Aに応じてB can have nuances of "B is ...
7
You may want to see a similar question I asked about using lists.
Bottom line, what you have there is a list of things, 観光と買い物と, "sightseeing and shopping".
When listing things, you can put と after the end of each word, or you can put と after each item except the last.
In the sentence you offer, the author has opted to put と after each listed item, and ...
7
Let me shamelessly steal the explanation by sawa and an example by Chocolate to make up a slightly different explanation.
も signifies that there are other things than the thing to which も is attached. It is sometimes used with けれど or a similar conjunctive, and in this case the thing to which も is attached is contrasted to something else, which is often ...
7
It's not completely clear from your question whether the problem asks for "any grammatical order" or "the most natural order". While your answer is grammatically correct, the "correct answer" is more natural, and I'll try to explain why.
While "annoying" is one translation of 迷惑, often a more fitting translation is "inconsiderate". Although I have seen the ...
7
I think in that context, that わかるな？ uses sense 3 of this entry at Daijirin to "seek agreement or a response". It might be similar to わかるよね？ ("you understand, right?")
I think すわんな would be a more colloquial form of 座りな/座りなさい "sit down". I think な here is a shortened form of なさい to make a command as in this entry. Note this is different from the ...
7
The first sentence sounds fine, but the second sentence (more specifically the 何度も失敗をものともせず part) sounds awkward to me. I think I'd rather say:
"[度重]{たびかさ}なる失敗をものともせず・・・".
Maybe it's because 度重なる is a 連体形 verb and modifies 失敗, while 何度も is an adverb and "何度も...ものともせず" sounds awkward... Maybe when 何度も modifies a negative verb, it's interpreted as a ...
7
Your sentence:
ジェームズがもう買って来てくれたので大丈夫。
Implies that he went to buy and also came back. This is known because of the two verbs - 買って + 来て.
If you want to say that he went to go get ice cream for you, then how about saying something like:
ジェームズがもう買いに行ってくれてるので大丈夫。
This way it states that he went to go buy it (but hasn't come back).
EDIT: I forgot ...
7
Consulting Daijisen, っこ means …のこと or …すること (as in 〜慣れっこ "being used to" etc) according to sense (1)(1).
Daijisen also lists in sense (1)(2) "an action done mutually with two or more people" as in とりかえっこ "an exchange" or sense (1)(3) "an action where two or more people compete" as in 駆けっこ "race"/"sprint".
A common usage of っこなしにしよう might be like this ...
7
As you have already discovered, -domo attaches to the hypothetical form (仮定形). Historically, this was known as realis (已然形). The kere here is the hypothetical / realis form of -keri. -keri is an obsolete suffix (助動詞) which expresses hearsay recollection.
-keri itself may be further split apart as a contraction of -ki ari, where -ki is another obsolete ...
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