Japanese Language Stack Exchange Community Digest

Top new questions this week:

How do you say "...is worth the wait" in Japanese?

I kind of understand the phrase やった甲斐があった from a post by Sjiveru, but how do you express the notion that doing something now or in the future is worth it? For example, how would you say "The wait ...

grammar translation  
user avatar asked by Curulian Score of 7
user avatar answered by dvx2718 Score of 2

Difference between ひらがな and 漢字 in this poetry

A friend of mine shared this poetry to me, and just for fun i decided to translate it in my first language, Italian. The author is 穂村 弘 Homura Hiroshi, a contemporary writer. あした世界が終わる日に あした世界が終わる日に ...

kanji hiragana poetry  
user avatar asked by Jacopo Ziroli Score of 6
user avatar answered by aguijonazo Score of 6

Is it 日本人 or にほんじん?

I've been studying Japanese on my own for only three days. Why does the word "Japanese" sometimes appear like this 日本人 and also like this にほんじん?

kanji hiragana spelling  
user avatar asked by PurpleInk Score of 6
user avatar answered by naruto Score of 21

When to use を with 気になる

Most things I've seen claim that 気になる is an intransitive verb and that one major difference from 気にする is the transitivity. This includes examples from this site. However, a native speaker recently ...

transitivity  
user avatar asked by Ringil Score of 4
user avatar answered by naruto Score of 3

What does やけに上から来る means about a person?

I met this expression when reading, MC called to an "大沢退魔師紹介所/ Exorcist Referral Agency" (Ghost Buster ?) since he needs to solve a series of paranormal incidents at his school. There are 2 ...

grammar meaning expressions reading-comprehension  
user avatar asked by terran94 Score of 3
user avatar answered by Damith Asanka Score of 2

The Vowel Lengthening in 〜ます, 〜です

I notice over hundreds and hundreds of japanese's videos, anime and podcast that Japanese (mostly women but not only) tend in speech to length the vowel in the ending like 〜まーす, 〜でーす and so on. I don'...

spoken-language vowels  
user avatar asked by Jacopo Ziroli Score of 3
user avatar answered by sundowner Score of 3

How to differentiate between various usages of もの?

Recently I have a big problem with this. I have this massive sentence: そして、かけがえのないものといわれる人生の価値は、たったの三時間でわかってしまうものであるようだ。もちろんその価値は、あくまで向こうが決めるものであって、普遍的なものではないのだろう。 Do all of them simply mean "...

grammar  
user avatar asked by sieman Score of 3

Greatest hits from previous weeks:

Why were hiragana and katakana never merged into one system?

I am familiar with the history of why these two writing systems were invented, and my question comes more from a modern practical standpoint. In my understanding, hiragana and katakana both have same ...

katakana orthography hiragana  
user avatar asked by Larper Score of 9
user avatar answered by Eiríkr Útlendi Score of 25

Differences among -たら, なら, -と, -んだったら, -ば, etc

The Japanese language has a lot of patterns for "if" clauses. What are the differences among the following patterns and how do we choose to use one over the others?: 行くと 行ったら 行くなら 行けば 行くんだったら 行くのなら ...

grammar conjugations suffixes conditionals  
user avatar asked by Lukman Score of 144
user avatar answered by Derek Schaab Score of 137

How many ways to say "but" are there in Japanese?

So far, I remember 4 ways to say "but" in Japanese, but I bet there are more, aren't there? kedo demo daga shikashi Are there other ways to say "but" in Japanese? What about ...

word-choice words  
user avatar asked by Pablo Score of 6
user avatar answered by Tommy Score of 13

Using なるほど (naruhodo) and やっぱり (yappari) in the same situation

I know, since they are of different word classes, なるほど (naruhodo) and やっぱり (yappari) may not be used interchangeably within the same sentence, but can they be used within the same situation instead? ...

word-choice spoken-language  
user avatar asked by Lukman Score of 17
user avatar answered by Derek Schaab Score of 15

How to choose between "よん" (yon) vs "し" (shi) for "四" (4) and "しち" (shichi) vs "なな" (nana) for "七" (7)?

Two numbers in Japanese have two pronunciation alternatives. 四 / 4 can be pronounced either "よん" (yon) or "し" (shi) 七 / 7 can be pronounced either "しち" (shichi) or "なな" (nana) I know that "し" (shi) ...

word-choice pronunciation numbers readings  
user avatar asked by hippietrail Score of 68
user avatar answered by Ken Li Score of 35

Saying something is like/not like something else

How does one say "this is like/similar to that" or "this is not like that" in Japanese in essence? An example sentence is "In this way, the English are like the Japanese" ; I have not been able to ...

grammar syntax  
user avatar asked by miikaelf Score of 9

What's the difference between なぜ、どうして and なんで when meaning 'why'?

I've been meaning to ask this for a while. What is the difference between these 3 words. I was taught they all mean "why", but obviously, being different words they convey different nuance and would ...

word-choice grammar  
user avatar asked by phirru Score of 52
user avatar answered by Lukman Score of 26

Can you answer these questions?

What does "word + っちゃ/といえば word" mean?

Things like 好きっちゃ好きかも、大変っちゃ大変なんですけど、仕方がないっちゃ仕方がない, what does it mean?

grammar  
user avatar asked by prdel smradkava Score of 1

辞書形 + が + Adjective/Noun

In this sentence 一日に千里の道をゆくよりも、君と一里をゆくが楽しき why this part「ゆくが楽しき」is said like this and not「ゆくのが楽しき」? I thought that before particles like は, が or を, if you put a verb, you must say のは, のが or のを, adding ...

grammar  
user avatar asked by kanachan Score of 1

The fuction of を in this specific sentence

I was reading this short 小説 about a difficult love relationship bewteen a man and a woman, and this sentences show up. 叶わない恋は存在するとは思います。 でも、二人が望んでいるなら、 超えられる事を多くあると信じています。 So, despite be able to ...

usage particle-を  
user avatar asked by Jacopo Ziroli Score of 3
You're receiving this message because you subscribed to the Japanese Language community digest.
Unsubscribe from this community digest       Edit email settings       Leave feedback       Privacy
Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow, 110 William Street, 28th floor, New York, NY 10038

<3