Dave

5,366 reputation

1037

bio	website	kanjibox.net
	location	Kyoto
	age	92
visits	member for	1 year, 11 months
	seen	8 hours ago
stats	profile views	932

Many years of living in Japan, none with formal Japanese-language classroom studying, mean I have:

horrible grammar
decent conversational level
pretty good Sprachgefühl...

Gauge my contributions accordingly.

	5,366 reputation	bio	website	kanjibox.net	visits	member for	1 year, 11 months
1037 badges		location	Kyoto		seen	8 hours ago

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Jul 27	comment	Relation between kanji readings and meanings I think the reason the data you are looking at is not offering what you are looking for, is that you are looking at the wrong data: the examples above are (mostly) not kanji, they are words (that are sometimes made up of one kanji, often with some okurigana). If you simply use wwwjdic and look up words that contain your kanji (and possible okurigana ending, and nothing else), you'll get exactly what you are looking for.
Jul 25	comment	Why is there a “tsu” in Nippon (にっぽん)? PS: I cleaned up the comments. Please keep it courteous and on-topic.
Jul 25	comment	Why is there a “tsu” in Nippon (にっぽん)? @Aerovistae: while at the library, perhaps you could actually inquire on an actual paper textbook for learning Japanese (surely they have one, no matter how old). No proper textbook would mangle such obvious aspects as kana pronunciation (but a 20-line personal website on the internet probably might).
Jul 24	comment	Why is there a “tsu” in Nippon (にっぽん)? Small quibbling (and really, we shouldn't have to be explaining the pronunciation of basic kana here), but "ni [small pause] pon" would rather be "にーぽん"... a slightly closer description would be "nip [small pause] pon".
Jul 23	comment	How to know what Okurigana signify? As an aside (and please, if you want to discuss it further, take it to chat or to meta, where it could become a useful point of FAQ): I don't think JLU is a good fit for a 100%-from-scratch learning of Japanese. That is not to say that you necessarily need to invest in classes or textbooks, but you cannot expect JLU Q&A format to replace an actual structured lesson, that is not its purpose.
Jul 23	comment	How to know what Okurigana signify? Chris beat me to it, but I was going to recommend you had a look at the meta site, and particularly the entry on resource. My "as usual" comment referred to the fact that you acknowledged yourself that most of your questions were getting downvoted: it would seem a reasonable approach then to look into the problems (and possibly ask on meta), rather than keep throwing questions. Finally, I honestly did not quite see how Flaw's (otherwise very informative) answer fit with your question, but your own comment to his answer was: "That actually didn't really answer the question".
Jul 23	comment	How to know what Okurigana signify? @Aerovistae: as hinted by Ignacio, you seem to be confusing okurigana (which belong to the word) and counter suffixes (which are separate words added to the word). In many cases, dictionaries give you "example" uses of the kanji that include non-okurigana parts (such as 'ひと-つ'), presumably to put that particular reading in context.
Jul 23	comment	How to know what Okurigana signify? (I didn't downvote but) as usual, your question is unanswerably vague and seems to look for a one-answer sum-up of an entire language structure and grammar. It is pretty hard to understand, let alone satisfyingly answer your question (as shown by current attempts). Furthermore, you seem to be making strong (and inaccurate) assumptions on what okurigana are and how they work. Perhaps a much better question would have been along the line of "what is the role of okurigana with numbers" (the answer having to do more with counters than okurigana anyway).
Jul 22	comment	Is there a difference between these words for “hero”? @dotnetN00b: I think you are confused about the meaning of the word 'romaji' (what you are thinking here is 'katakana').
Jul 21	comment	“Mari” or “wari” ? Is this a consonant sound that changes with inflection? Hi Michael, this question could benefit from a little more context. What are the words in question? If possible, the full sentences, even...
Jul 16	comment	Can genki be pronounced as henki? @nkjt probably gave the answer... and should have done so as a real answer... Can you move your comment to an answer, please?
Jul 14	comment	Can ご無沙汰 be used in a sexual context? Interesting... Is it a case where using it in a conversation for its original meaning would elicit unintended giggles?
Jul 13	comment	How do I “understand” kaomoji? (Japanese smilies) Hello @Nensha. As you will have noticed, a large proportion of JLU users seem to consider your question is not appropriate for this forum. I will not close and leave it up to the community (although with 4 votes out of 5 necessary, it is likely your question will soon be closed). Among the many potential problems with your question is the fact that it is extremely vague, subjective and does not have any specific answer. If you correct these issues, you might have better luck asking it again.
Jul 11	comment	When Chinese personal names are written in Japanese in kanji is there always an obvious reading? @Pacerier: I think you are looking at this in the wrong direction. For names of places (unless you mean 'business', as covered by atlantiza above), you rarely pick a kanji and its pronunciation. These things evolve "on their own" over time and, as a result, you tend to get all sorts of exotic readings, yes.
Jul 11	comment	What is the etymology of the word プラスアルファ? I'm with @Matt: the 'mistakenly identified' theory sounds fairly dodgy to me (for a start, why would people mistake a commonly used romaji, for a not so commonly used greek letter??). On the other hand, 'α' is a pretty acceptable variable name for a small, unknown quantity (whereas 'x' would be a more generic unknown).
Jul 9	comment	When Chinese personal names are written in Japanese in kanji is there always an obvious reading? @Pacerier: as atlantiza said, it doesn't have much to do with grammar... But as for "can one assign any arbitrary reading to a kanji (in a name)", the answer is a clear and resounding yes. This is true for Japanese as well as foreigners. I believe it is explicitly stated in the naming rules that, as long as you are using kanji from the accepted set, you can assign any pronunciation you want. It is done by parents who want their child to have a quirky name (and endless headaches dealing with administration officials later on).
Jul 4	revised	Can someone explain the use of 水 in 水商売? edited body
Jul 4	awarded	Nice Question
Jul 4	revised	Is すごい slang or just informal? added 3 characters in body
Jul 3	comment	Why are the words for prefecture so complicated? @sawa: sorry if I was unclear: I did not mean to imply that the suffix necessarily had legal implications (although according to fefe below, it might). In this case, I would say rather political than legal... As you point out yourself, it comes down to politics and communication strategy: I doubt you will find a strong logic behind it.