Questions tagged [colloquial-language]
口語表現（話し言葉）. Words, forms and expressions used only in non-formal spoken language.
280
questions
6
votes
2answers
624 views
The meaning of 住んでる星が違う
The sentence is "諸星先生は元々住んでる星が違うし". This looks to me an idiomatic expression, but I cannot find this in dictionary.
Another interpretation I was thinking about is that the teacher in the above ...
5
votes
1answer
184 views
What are simple “No” responses?
I've learned from textbooks and online sites like Duolingo that "no" is いいえ, but I've rarely heard native speakers say that. I learned さあ today as sort of an "I don't know" response. I saw a ...
1
vote
2answers
158 views
appropriate sarcastic “almost died”
Would "死んでいたそう(ね)" be an appropriate translation for "looks like you almost died (there)"?
Imagine you throw your scarf around your neck and almost hit a person. Except a scarf hardly hurts and ...
1
vote
1answer
158 views
What is the most casual way to ask ''What do you reckon ?'' in Japanese?
I want to know a colloquial way to ask: What do you reckon/think ?
For example:
I just cooked a meal and I turn to my Japanese friend and say: What do you reckon ? (I'm seeking approval whilst ...
1
vote
1answer
113 views
Meaning and etymology of phrase or interjection いよっしゃあ?
Lately I have been watching a lot of streams and videos of Persona 5 The Royal, which has only released in Japanese. One character in that game very frequently exclaims "いよっしゃあ{LLHHHH}", "iyosshaa", ...
2
votes
1answer
65 views
The difference between 今日 and 今日ですね [duplicate]
こんにちは。えっと、今日ですね、日本についてお聞きしてるんですけど。
今日ですね always sounds a bit funny to me because I keep thinking about it as "it's today, isn't it?" (and then the answer could be "well, yes, it's not yesterday or ...
3
votes
1answer
208 views
Please help me accurately figure out the kana or kanji for a colloquial phrase said in an anime?
(I can change the question if it's too vague. 😅)
I'm trying to practice my listening comprehension by listening to anime and not fully paying attention to subtitles. For the most part I can ...
0
votes
1answer
95 views
Casual ways to ask meaning?
I know 〜はどう言う意味ですか？ but how might you ask this question in a casual setting among friends?
-1
votes
1answer
256 views
でようか slang for で良いか? [closed]
This is the sentence I heard in an anime.
コーヒーでようか or コーヒーでよか.
I definitely did not mishear it for yoi 良い. Is this some slang for yoi? If so, which is the correct one? Stress or no vowel stress.
2
votes
1answer
174 views
Difference between ばかり, ところ, and 今?
I’ve gathered that these all can be used like “just” (right?) so I’m wondering what the difference in usage is between them.
今終わった。
終わったばかり。
終わったところ。
Are these all basically the same?
(...
6
votes
1answer
177 views
What does the word 「やめにしい」 mean?
Here is the dialogue containing the word.
A: かってな推測はやめろう おれは青山なんざ...
B: 自分をごまかすのはいいかげんでやめにしいな なんでもっときびしく現実をみつめようとはせんのや
4
votes
1answer
105 views
What does “とこの” mean here?
Sentence is:
うん俺の嫌いな杉木さんとこの一人息子な
Translation is:
Yup. The only son of the Sugiki I hate.
What does とこの do here?
3
votes
1answer
164 views
伝聞を表さない、文末に来る「という」の働き
最近あるホラーゲームの実況を見ている時、一人の実況者がある段階をクリアした後、笑ってこう言っていました。
しかも、結構やっぱ、懐中電灯なくても全然暗くないっていう
前にも、一緒にプレイしている相手が何回か「懐中電灯がなくても暗くない」と意外そうに言っていたので、そちらに関連があると思いますが、この「という」の働きはわからないのです。「ということ」「らしい」「と言われる」を意味する文末の「...
0
votes
0answers
35 views
Why and when do Japanese speakers switch between formal and informal language among friends? [duplicate]
So I’ve read and noticed that Japanese speakers regularly switch from using だ to です and using both plain and 〜ます forms very frequently throughout a conversation even with friends. Why is there such a ...
4
votes
1answer
135 views
How to express action (in plays, and online)
So in most languages we can either put text in italics or between asterisks to indicate what the speaker is doing. For instance:
Looking up
It will be raining soon
Or on the Internet:
*chewing your ...
1
vote
1answer
86 views
Meaning and use of 悪くないか
悪くないか
Scenario 1: a young boy comes home and says (to his sick mother)「母さん悪くないか」。
Scenario 2: two men are moving a tv and one thinks 「なんかバランス悪くないか？！」。
I’m not following the meaning of it
3
votes
2answers
198 views
How to say “photobomb” in Japanese
Is there a word for "photobomb" in Japanese?
In English, to photobomb someone is to spoil a photograph (of a person or thing) by unexpectedly appearing in the camera's field of view as the picture ...
1
vote
1answer
116 views
Asking informal questions with 何
how do you form informal questions with 何 and without ですか？
would 何 just go at the end?
「あなたの大好きな季節何？」
and is it appropriate to leave off です or だ with な adjectives and nouns? i’ve seen 〜なの？used, but ...
4
votes
2answers
882 views
Use of さ as a filler
how often is さ used as a filler like our “like”? is it very common?
for example, could i say 「私さスタバへさ行ったさ…」？
4
votes
1answer
312 views
What does the word 「こい」mean?
I'm not sure if it is an adjective meaning strong, a noun meaning intention or neither.
Here is the sentence I came across.
僕なんとしても選手になりたかったので申しこむと沼田さんが腕ずくでこいというから...
Additional context:
The ...
1
vote
0answers
103 views
What are some Japanese euphemisms for death and dying? [closed]
Could you list some euphemisms on death and dying used by Japanese people in everyday speech? I'm writing a paper on Japanese language euphemisms and would like to know more about expressions used by ...
3
votes
1answer
132 views
When speaking informally, do native Japanese speakers always remove い after て in present continuous tense across all conjugations?
Some examples below:
言っている > 言ってる
欲しがっています > 欲しがってます
見ていた > 見てた
行っていました > 行ってました
I'm trying to sound as native as possible, so would like to know the more common way of speaking in the present ...
6
votes
1answer
156 views
What does ウン歳 mean?
I recently heard a woman describe herself as a 四十｛よんじゅう｝ウン歳｛さい｝. My guess is that it is the Japanese equivalent of "40-something", but I am not sure.
0
votes
1answer
61 views
Difference between 癒せ and 癒せる
From the Japanese tangled song ("Healing Incantation"), the lyrics go like
“傷を癒せ、運命の川”-Heal wounds, river of fate
I don't understand why 癒せ is used instead of a proper conjugation, is it a colloquial ...
5
votes
1answer
158 views
What is meant by 魔法が単なる数式みたくなって意味を見いだせなくなってしまう
I need some clarification on two sentences in the below.
My first question is that I am not sure what それ is referring to in それを自分で把握, which makes me unable to understand the next sentence.
A few ...
12
votes
1answer
1k views
Meaning of ちはース
Context: a boy shouts 「ちはース」 after seeing that a fan club for a boxer has only female members. He is happy to discover this since he is the kind of guy that always tries to flirt with pretty girls.
I ...
3
votes
2answers
264 views
0
votes
0answers
144 views
Problem with sentence ぶった！この子ぶった！ [duplicate]
What does ぶった mean in this context? I can't find the word in any dictionary.
12
votes
2answers
1k views
What does the letter 'P' at the end of an author's pseudonym mean?
There are many authors on YouTube and NicoNico whose names end with the letter 'P', for example: 鼻そうめんP, 無力P, etc. What does this 'P' stand for? Why do they all use it?
2
votes
1answer
86 views
か after short forms
In the Genki textbook, it is said that "In the casual conversational use of short forms, question sentences do not end with the question particle か, but with rising intonation alone."
Nonetheless, in ...
2
votes
0answers
55 views
け as a contraction of 来い [duplicate]
I’d like to confirm my theory that 来い at the end of a sentence can be colloquially contracted to け. I met this sentence in a comics:
置いてけ。
A meaning “Leave it here!” would be very appropriate ...
7
votes
2answers
2k views
Equivalent of saying Bruh, man, dude, etc. in Japanese?
In English a lot of people informally call their friends these terms in conversations.
Like "Dude, what are you doing?"
"Bro, what's up!"
My question is how do you informally speak to friends in ...
5
votes
1answer
161 views
Feminine speech: no だ before よ
Is it true that until recently women were expected to drop だ, ending a sentence with よ? For example:
今日、何曜日？
土曜日よ。
If it is true, was it thought to sound "gentler"? Why has this changed?
2
votes
0answers
46 views
What does the word 「しのう」 mean in this sentence? [duplicate]
It is said by an old man who looks like wanting to teach boxing to a young man.
青山くんよ ふたりきりの人目につかんところにいこう 折り入ってひみつに伝授したいこともあるしのう
I'm not sure if it is related to the word 死ぬ in volitional form ...
3
votes
1answer
97 views
What しとっても means here?
陸ではのらくらしとっても水の中ではそりゃあ素早い
I don't quite understand しとっても form here.
I guess the whole sentence will be
Even though they're slow on land, they're very quick in water.
Is しとっても another form of ...
1
vote
0answers
39 views
What does the word 「～さ…ねえっ」 mean? [duplicate]
It comes from a conversation a boy talked to a girl about an old man who ignored a story which the girl tried to tell him.
Girl:
ジョーが約束どおり片手ほりで金あみのところまでたがやしたってちゃんと報告したんよっ それなのにあたいの頭さえ見ようとしないんだ
...
1
vote
1answer
124 views
Generic Japanese greeting new people?
The most commonly cited one is Konnichiwa, but knowing that is time specific, can it be used generically in all hours of the day as a "hello" instead of a specific "good afternoon"? Ohayou and ...
5
votes
2answers
140 views
Problem with some 縮約形
I just came across some of the "contracted forms" used in conversations, which I'm not really familiar with. May you help me decoding the ones that I found impossible to understand and to translate ...
2
votes
2answers
174 views
Meaning of “さっきまで都会風ぶっこいてたんだよ”
Here's the context:
A: 始めまして
B: 始めまして
C: 東京から[引]{ひ}っ[越]{こ}して来た子だよ
B: 東京 どれくらい東京にいたの
A: [幼稚園]【ようちえん】から４月までいました
B: じゃ 私なんかよりも都会っ子だね
C: よりって ひか姉[根]【ね】っこからの[田舎]【いなか】っ子じゃん
...
2
votes
2answers
146 views
What does this conversation from a novel mean?
「おまえ、よく命が続いとるなあ」
「これが生き甲斐でござる」
「とりあえず酒でも飲め。いや、呆れたもんだよ」店主が言った。
「奢ってくれるかい？」
「奢るとも」
“You, よく命が続いとるなあ”
“This is what I live for.”
“Anyway, let’s have a drink. いや、呆れたもんだよ” said the owner.
...
3
votes
1answer
197 views
Handwritten kana that looks like ヤダ, but I can't find ヤダ in a dictionary
studying Japanese for some months now I, began translating some Japanese sentences written on pictures or drawings.
Unfortunately I came across a drawing with handwritten kana that I cannot clearly ...
1
vote
1answer
110 views
How to answer to 精一杯頑張ってきます?
I was talking with my japanese penpal and he wrote to me 精一杯頑張ってきますよ! after I wrote him おはようございます！お仕事頑張ってきてね！ because he told me he was going to work. I don't know if there's an answer or not. In ...
1
vote
0answers
35 views
Can somebody give me a grammatical insight into the following very short sentence? [duplicate]
何してんの?
The translated meaning is "what are you doing?", but I am having difficulty understanding how the て form of する is referring to the present tense (I would have expected している here).
Also, I am ...
3
votes
2answers
177 views
Translation of おい お茶
There is a tea brand known as おいお茶{ちゃ} sold near me. One question I had was that on the bottle, it says that it means "Tea, please!" I figured that would be a rather rude way to ask for tea. Is there ...
5
votes
1answer
964 views
What is なんでって a contraction of in this sentence?
The sentence I am analyzing:
「今じーちゃんとこなんでって…」
"Right now I'm at grandpa's"
(source context)
In this case the speaker is on the phone so his speech is casual and fragmented.
I already have an idea ...
4
votes
1answer
134 views
Is チョンボ commonly used to mean mistake (outside of conversations about 麻雀), even by people who don't play it?
I heard someone say チョンボを犯した in a situation where they could not possibly be talking about 麻雀. I don't know if he plays 麻雀 or not, but it made me wonder, how common is using チョンボ to mean mistake among ...
1
vote
1answer
63 views
Are the following standard ways of using katakana?
あなたの得意なスパニッシュフードを教えてください！私はそれを作ることにトライしたい。
スパニッシュフード (Spanish food).
トライ (try).
I'm a bit surprised, because I'm almost sure that there are no-katakana equivalents for words like food and try.
Is ...
1
vote
0answers
44 views
待った！ as an interjection [duplicate]
I've just noticed that in the 逆転裁判/Ace Attorney series, the interjection translated as "Hold it!" is 「待った！」I would understand if it was 「待って！」, but why would the past tense be used as an interjection? ...
8
votes
1answer
147 views
Is there a difference in (im)politeness between ～てくれ and ～て？
I understand that ～てください is the polite request form, and that both ～てくれ and simply using the ～て form are both more colloquial. I'm just not sure how they compare, my guess would be that ～てくれ is more ...
2
votes
1answer
53 views
今何をしてる vs 今何をしてるの
I think both are informal ways of saying "What are you doing (now)?"
What's the different between the る version and the るの version?
