Linked Questions

2 votes
2 answers
8k views

When to use 受身形 (passive voice) And when to use 能動形 (active voice)?

The Japanese passive voice has been bothering me for quite a while. I mean, We don't really use it in English, and I still have not come across many situation (at least daily situations)Where the ...
YuiPyon's user avatar
  • 29
5 votes
2 answers
404 views

Does 考えさせられる小説 make sense?

Something I learned early on when I learnt the causative-passive was that the sentences also make sense when you drop the causative-passive, e.g. 私はパンを食べさせられた。 私はパンを食べた。 Basically, "it's just a ...
hgiesel's user avatar
  • 323
8 votes
1 answer
607 views

Clarification on personification in Japanese

I struggle emotionally with this topic because it's something I love to do in English and Spanish. Yet Japanese (afaik) deem personification grammatically incorrect because non-living things don't ...
Tek's user avatar
  • 477
4 votes
2 answers
181 views

Is 懐かしくさせる地獄 natural?

Someone must join military service for 1 year of unremitting pain, exertion and tears. At graduation ceremony, he speaks on the stage and says that this duty is like a hell but he will miss it to the ...
Display Name's user avatar
  • 7,437
3 votes
2 answers
222 views

How to say that an inanimate agent makes something happen

I'm guessing that the causative form only works with animate agents, so how would I say something like: Learning Japanese makes life interesting. This is my attempt, but I'm not at all convinced ...
user3856370's user avatar
  • 29.4k
3 votes
1 answer
249 views

"Makes you/me/..." by a nonhuman agent

I'm wondering how sentences are typically made for the pattern "(some non human thing) makes me/you/etc (reaction)." For example, "reading this book makes me think." Or "going ...
Lucas's user avatar
  • 406
2 votes
1 answer
121 views

Meaning of verb stem + たもう

I'm reading a book titled 君死にたもう流星群 and translated (on the book itself) as She Was Killed by Shooting Stars; I'm trying to understand the structure of the title, but I'm kinda stumped by たもう. I found ...
Mauro's user avatar
  • 3,515
1 vote
3 answers
191 views

Please help me understand more about intransitive verb and transitive verb

I will give a sentence as an example: 本が深く教えてなかった。 The first question: Could things like book or door or etc... become subject of a transitive verb ? The second question: Could a transitive verb ...
Narutokage's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
164 views

Potential form and ~限り

映画が好きなので、時間とお金が(  )かぎり見に行っている。 I haven't been able to find a satisfactory answer as to why 許す in plain dictionary form works better here than 許せる, the potential form. 動詞につく場合は、ている形や可能動詞などにつくことが多い。 ...
octosquakk's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
129 views

Does 「テレビで言う」 mean "The TV says ..."?

A native speaker wrote the sentence 「安いので日本で有名だとテレビで言っていました。」, with the meaning intended to be "I saw on TV that it's popular in Japan because it's cheap." My question is about the phrase 「...
Hikonyan's user avatar
  • 1,900
1 vote
1 answer
139 views

How would you express "A demands B" in japanese

How would you express "A demands B" in japanese. In the sense that 'demands' is being used as a synonym of "absolutely requires". But using this expression instead of "requires" has a nuance. To me ...
Skins I's user avatar
  • 13
0 votes
1 answer
131 views

Difference between イライラする and イライラしている

I already know that the ている expresses a state after an action ended, rather than a continuous aspect in some verbs, but in some contexts I wonder why the natives would opt for する instead of している. “...
初心者's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
81 views

Is the causative-passive necessary here

The following Dialogue: A: この本、もう読んだんですか。 B: ええ、とてもよかったですよ。家族の大切さをあらためて考えさせられました。 With this causative passive, I'd translate it like this: A: Have you already read this book? B: Yes, it was ...
Narktor's user avatar
  • 4,827
1 vote
1 answer
61 views

Is ためらうわけではなかった natural?

...だからといって、昨日も、山ほど宿題を出すのをためらうわけではなかった。 (official Japanese TL) ...but it hadn't stopped her giving them a huge pile of homework the day before (original Harry Potter text) "It won't stop X doing ...
user3856370's user avatar
  • 29.4k