Hot answers tagged suffixes
9
The short answer to your initial question is no. The historical/etymological spelling of 〜ましょう was 〜ませう, which is the expected form of the volitional, since the irrealis (未然形) stem of 〜ます is 〜ませ. Regular sound change explains the rest: せう becomes しょう.
The same story applies to the consonant-stem (五段活用) verbs: the old spelling for 行こう was 行かう (as seen here) ...
8
A方{ほう}がB means "more B if A" or "Ber if A":
早く行った方が良かったでしょう。
It would have been better [more good] if (we/you/I etc) had gone early, would it not?
The 方 here indicates a direction/side when comparing 2 or more things ([3] （イ） of this definition at Daijirin), in this case implying going early would have been better than going later.
7
Written Japanese contains a syllabary (like an alphabet) called Kana. All of the "letters" in this syllabary, with the exception of the "letter" "N" (ん/ン) end in a vowel. Thus anytime a foreign word ends in a consonant (with the exception of "N"), it is natural for a Japanese speaker to pronounce this consonant with a vowel after it. This is not a question ...
6
It does not seem to me that you have any trouble translating the sentence in question, but here is my translation.
やってみよう:ブラウンコーパスのニュースとロマンスの 2 つのジャンルのデータを利用して、どの曜日がもっとも新聞っぽく、どの曜日がもっともロマンチックかを調べてみよう。
Try this: Using the data of the genres News and Romance in the Brown Corpus, find out which day of the week is the most newspaper-ish and which day is ...
5
Context is important. With passive verbs you should look for a に before the verb that will mark the person or thing that performs the verb. This is not the same as the subject of the verb.
For example, if you see the short phrase: お兄さんに食べられた。 You can figure out pretty quickly from the に that this is not the potential. The subject of the sentence is an ...
5
The primary difference is that 出す implies something sudden or unexpected. For example, consider the sentence 私は泣き出した and 私は泣きはじめた. In the first we get a natural expression which implies that you (beyond your control) started crying. The second one is grammatically correct, but by using 始めた you're implying a sense of purpose, like you're making yourself cry ...
4
I think that it is simply a typo for “自分たちの,” unless it is a dialectal vocabulary which I am not aware of.
The usage to indicate exasperation which you mentioned in the question probably refers to the たら which was originally といったら, but たら in your example cannot be this word because this word cannot be followed by case particles such as の.
4
In general, trying to translate specific sentences from English into Japanese isn't the best way to learn Japanese grammar (although it can be part of a greater experience). Japanese grammar doesn't work exactly the same as English grammar and has different "building blocks", so things don't always translate directly over. Nevertheless, here are how you ...
4
The very rough outline of the pattern is as follows:
-n -> Nothing added.
-t, -d -> Add -o.
-s -> A phonemic -u is added, but is often not pronounced.
-tch(-ch) -ge -> A phonemic -i is added, but is often not pronounced.
-k(-c/-ck), -g, -z, -f, -b, -p, -m, -r, -sh -> Add -u.
What I write as -u is really a close back vowel ...
3
I agree with Cypher's explanation, and with Ignacio's definition of 方 as a noun.
I would like to propose an alternative translation of the sentence:
早く行った方が良かったでしょう。
"The sooner you went, the better."
"The sooner you had gone, the better."
"It probably would have been better if you had gone sooner."
3
話しかける or 話し掛ける means to address or speak to someone.
You can think of it as two suffixes shi + kakeru, but it looks more like two verbs to me. There are many verbs with かける (掛ける) attached. For example, 投げ掛ける meaning to "throw at" or 呼び掛ける meaning "to call out to".
With your example, the difference between 話して and 話し掛けて might be that the latter assumes that ...
3
I am not sure if there is meaning 3). What example sentences do yo have in mind?
Your sentence has まい with meaning 1). In both of your translations, you are dropping なる 'be in a good situation'. That is why your translations do not work. A literal translation is:
'Whatever it is, if it's necessary, it probably won't be good if I do not buy it.'
This ...
2
I think the difference mainly lies in the following.
The ～がる forms make an assumption about the described person's internal state, whereas the ～そう form is a statement about the person's external appearance. (Maybe a bit like the difference between sympathy and empathy.)
For example for 寒がる・寒そう, using 寒がる refers to your empathizing with the person who is ...
2
I think the best place start an answering your question is by addressing the differnce between 直接的に/直接に and 絶対/絶対的に.
In both cases the ~的 adverb is used to describe more abstract matters:
Compare:
～と直接に|eyeball-to-eyeball with
～について自身で直接に学ぶ |learn at first hand about
To:
直接的に in a direct way/in a straightforward fashion/in a straightforward ...
2
Building on what the other answers gave, but adding a bit more detail:
Japanese's "syllables" are known as "mora". One mora consists of at least a vowel and possibly preceded by a consonant. (They're not quite syllables, as two mora can combine to make one syllable). This makes Japanese a moraic language.
A consonant following a vowel in a syllable is ...
1
The latter half of your translation is right. Working from your newly corrected sentence:
自分の事しか考えぬおまえには...
自分の事 is literally "one's own things". 事 is often used with verbs like 考える to mean "(everything) about", so in this case 自分の事を考える is "to think about oneself". The noun suffix しか means (when coupled with a negative verb ending) "nothing but", so ...
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