Hot answers tagged slang
20
While sawa's answer does cover the basic construction rules, it's definitely worth it to go over the different use cases of わけ. Grab a comfy chair and your favorite beverage, because this is a long one.
The best and most complete analysis I've found of this use of わけ is in this 2001 paper by Atsuko Yokota:
文末【ぶんまつ】表現【ひょうげん】「わけだ」の用法【ようほう】 : ...
20
Thanks to @Chocolate, I was able to learn what this word means, which is roughly that something was funny. Here are a couple sources:
http://wikiwiki.jp/himoteplus/?%C1%F0%C0%B8%A4%A8%A4%BF
http://www.logsoku.com/r/livejupiter/1340676537/
Why does it mean something was funny? Well, as discussed in this question, strings of w (such as wwwwww) express ...
17
I believe the following theory, but I have never tried to back them up with an evidence:
It originates from a slang 中坊 (ちゅうぼう). It means “junior high student,” but often with an indication that the speaker looks down on the student he/she is talking about. (The usual word for “junior high student” is 中学生.)
On a BBS, calling someone 中坊 would be just ...
13
It's not clear exactly who or what started it on twitter, but なう does indeed come from the English "now". It became popular in 2009, shortly after the release of twitter (according to this site). Here are some Japanese articles exploring the usage:
http://nanapi.jp/258/
http://zokugo-dict.com/21na/nau.htm
http://www.paradisearmy.com/doujin/pasok_now.htm
13
っつ (sometimes つう) is a slang version of という (or an alternate version like といった, depending on the context). It's extremely informal.
冗談【じょうだん】だっつの。 (＝冗談だ【じょうだん】といったの。) I said I was joking. [Idiomatically: Chill out, I was just kidding.]
彼【かれ】はやめたいっつってんだから、やめさせてやりゃいいじゃん。 (＝彼【かれ】はやめたいといっているんだから、やめさせてやればいいじゃない。) He's saying he wants to quit, so why not ...
10
In Edo-speak (江戸言葉) or rough speak in present Japanese, a sequence of a vowel followed by a high vowel is often contracted to one long vowel. こまけー's original form is [細]{こま}かい 'detailed'. In this case, it is claiming that the other person cares too much about subtle things.
There are other patterns as well:
ai → ee, [高]{たか}い → たけえ
ei → ee, ...
10
In colloquial speech, 「あるある」 is basically a way to respond to questions like "Have you ever noticed how the more busy Jack gets, the more he sweats". あるある means something like "Yeah, I recognize that situation" or "Yeah, I've been thinking about that too" or "Yeah, I have noticed that".
One meaning of ネタ is 'humorous material' or 'joke material'. There's a ...
9
That's called 語呂合わせ and you could find full article at Wikipedia.
Quoted from Wikepedia
1 : いち、い、ひとつ、ひと
2 : に、ふたつ、ふた、ふ、つ（英語から）、じ
3 : さん、さ、みっつ、みつ、み
4 : よん、よ、よっつ、し、ふぉ（英語から）、ほ
5 : ご、こ、い、いつつ、いつ
6 : ろく、ろ、むっつ、むつ、む
7 : しち、ななつ、なな、な
8 : はち、は、ぱあ、やっつ、やつ、や、やあ
9 : きゅう、きゅ、く、ここのつ、ここの、こ
0 :
...
8
わけ is a noun meaning 'reason', but it might be better translated as 'circumstances' as Matt comments. When you put it at the end of a sentence, you are turning that sentence into an appositive clause modifying that noun. When the predicate is an adjectival noun (also called na-adjective), you need to change the ending into the adnominal ending (-な). The ...
8
As you say, ねー is a (very) informal, rather masculine, way of replacing ない at the end of words.
Works for both verbs:
行かない → 行かねー
and い-adjectives (which are kind-of-verbs anyway, but let's not get into that debate here):
危ない【あぶない】→ アブねー
in fact it also works with other "-a" kanas. E.g:
ヤバい → ヤベー
Adding のだ/んだ as you do in your example is only ...
8
I do not know if 凄い (すごい) is slang or not, so I will skip that part.
The word has an interesting origin. Daijirin explains the original meaning of the word as follows:
心に強い衝撃を受けて、ぞっと身にしみるさまの意が原義。平安時代から見える語で、良い意味でも悪い意味でも用いられた。近代以降、心理的圧迫感を伴わない用法が生じた
I do not think that I can translate this accurately to English, but anyway here is my attempt:
The ...
8
I hear 「まだ見ていない。」, which seems entirely normal, comparable to the English construction "I still haven't seen it." => "I'm in a still-continuing state of not seeing it." I suppose there's some element of volition here; it's still possible for her to see it if she wants to. For example, if a pterodactyl flew overhead, and you missed seeing it, you would say ...
8
Perhaps this site may be of use to you.
For each section there is a brief description and explanation of the choice of symbols/characters used.
The characters used for kaomoji may represent:
Eyes (usually obvious)(may be covered by arms/hand)
Ears (may be absent)
Nose (may be absent)
Mouth ( ∀ and ▽ in your examples are mouths)
Limits of the face ...
8
The word is kire-ru. Like most 下一段, it naturally derives from the 下二段 verb kir-u. It is properly written 切れる. Consider the word 途切れる. You may think of it as "堪えていた気持ちが途切れて, and now I'm pissed".
As for why it may be written as キレる: it is slang, and the katakana emphasizes this. The final -ru conjugates, so leaving it in hiragana is most natural.
Also note ...
8
No, there isn't. You will have to think of an alternative. For example:
仕事の話をする
AさんとBさんはいつも仕事の話ばかりする
A and B are always talking shop (talking about work).
専門の話をする
この2人が専門の話をしている
These two are talking shop.
7
I've taught すごい to friends as their first or second word too, it's very useful. I wouldn't say that it means "cool" though, more like "wow!". You can't use it to say "a cool guy". On its own as exclamation it means "cool" (like when you're looking at some great scenery). It's a little informal when used on it's own like that. You can definitely use it in a ...
7
Context:
Employee talking to the boss, jokingly.
As a joke, anything goes of course, but it does depend on many factors.
Boss: We received another request from our client: ...
Employee: またその話？死ねば良いのに。( -_-;;) Mata sono hanashi? Shineba ii no ni.
"Again? I wish they'd just go away/die! *groan*"
In this case I'd expect the two speakers to be ...
7
Perhaps you are assuming that 野郎 has a wide variery of levels of politeness, and that they are continuous, but they are not. Probably, 野郎 is not used in isolation as an insult word. When it is an insult word, it is used in one of the few fixed expressions like この野郎 and 馬鹿野郎.
Also, when used in isolation, a meaning of an insult word or a counterpart of ...
7
According to this explanation, 女子力{じょしりょく} refers to a woman's prowess with issues like fashion, make up, and style.
Which would be considerably different from the English "girl power", which is about a woman's particular ability to succeed in all realms of life, and implies women's ability to be just as good, if not better, than men.
6
Basically 浮く (うく) means to float, but has many other meanings.
When used for a person or an action of a person, 浮く can mean “being out of place,” “not belonging to the place he/she is,” “being the odd one out,” and “not being able to interact with others well.” For example:
田中さんは会社で浮いている。 (たなかさんはかいしゃでういている。) Mr. (Ms.) Tanaka is out of place in his (her) ...
6
It means kuuki yomenai. A friend explained this concept as follows:
In Japanese culture, the social
protocol calls for utmost attention to
the right "atmosphere." Certain
actions can only be considered
appropriate when the "atmosphere" of
the time and place allowed for them to
be carried out. In Japanese lingo, it
is "reading the air" ...
6
As with many odd slang words and phrases, it came from a quote in a particular situation.
"The distance between kneesocks and mini skirt is invicible! I can even say that it's the God's Absolute Territory..."
From: http://en.dic.pixiv.net/a/Absolute+Territory
6
It sounds like this person is suffering from hallucination, or he is reading an avant‐garde poem. Can't pick all. phirru's comment on the audio is overall wrong. It may be a political protest, but there are parts that are clearly not serious, like うなぎの遊園地.
まだ済んでねえんだよ。[...] 馬鹿野郎が。あ?青山の御本堂。うなぎの遊園地。檻から散歩してんのか？ケンジタカノ。等々力で御長女がそうして[...]したんだよ。なー。何のあれしたんだよ？
...
6
微妙{びみょう} has been going through an evolution during the time I've been in Japan. There was a time, maybe about a decade ago, when it seemed to be one of those popular words that people would over use. Similar to how there was a fad for a time, mostly with younger people, to add 超{ちょう}("ultra~") to almost everything for emphasis.
Being that slang is, by ...
6
I haven't talked to my lesbian friend in a long time, but I'll offer some words from my memory and from "Japanese Street Slang," by Peter Constantine.
レズ - This corresponds to the English dyke, or lesbian. I think it has more of a "dyke" butch feel to it than just plain old lesbian.
おたち - "The Japanese equivalent of 'bull dyke', used in lesbian circles, ...
6
真逆 seems very similar to the expression "total opposite" in English.
I think we can take 真 here to be an intensifier/emphasis rather than something that affects the meaning. It emphasizes that something is not just 少し違う, but in fact 逆.
I'd even say that not even 真逆 requires you to be absolutely precise. Let's say someone wanted to head east (0°). West ...
6
There are multiple ways "Moe" or 「萌え」can be used.
「萌え萌え」as a mimetic word (擬態語) like Ignacio's link in the comment.
「萌え！」as an interjection (感嘆詞)
「妹萌え」as a prefix (接尾辞) In this example someone has a fetish/attraction/affection/情熱/欲望 towards little sisters.
「萌える」as a verb as well. For example, 「あなたは（私から見て）萌える」
Either way you can attach 萌え to almost ...
6
I wondered the same thing the first time I saw that! In English it's rather impolite to refer to your mother (or indeed any woman!) as a "bag". ("You old bag!") This is not so in Japanese! It's actually a term of endearment. Please see this blog post on some explanation.
I'll give a section here in case the link breaks:
I can’t find anything about the ...
5
I'm not sure how SE works and why there are only comments with answers and no actual answers...
However, ワンコイン, as mentioned by Dave and others in the comments, is not a term for any particular coin, but just a sales practice by any shop. Whenever they sell items where you can pay using just one coin, then it's a sales point they'll put on signs.
It could ...
5
The difference between these two hinges on whether or not the action has been completed at the time the statement was made:
説明書を読んでも分かりにくい
This could be taken in one of two ways:
Even if you (I) read the instructions, it will [still] be hard to understand.
Even after reading the instructions, it is [still] hard to understand.
So with the ～ても form in ...
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