Questions tagged [compounds]
複合語. Words formed by putting two or more words or other elements together.
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Is my understanding of 太陰太極 (たいいんたいきょく) correct?
I saw the term in the song 螺鈿の骨、氷雨 (Graphic - Babuchan songs are graphic in general). The line I saw it in - 太陰大極 (たいいんたいきょく) 而二不二 (ににふに) The context - 煩悩即菩提 (ぼんのうそくぼだい) 生死即涅槃 (せいしそくねはん) 入不二 (いりふじ) ...
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How to approach compound verbs?
I'm at a point where I keep encountering new compound verbs and I'm not sure how I should approach them to study. Is there a list or category of "main" compound suffixes (like 続ける, 始める, etc.)...
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Does 〜ようにする mean both 'make sure' and 'try'? (Grammar reference clarification)
On pg554 of Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, it says that [sic] 〜ようにする (to try to ~) is an idiomatic use of 〜ように (so that ~). However, pg562 gives the meaning 〜ようにする (to make sure that ~).
It ...
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Phonological terminology: what to call the /h/ → /p/ shift?
Japanese has various kinds of sandhi or 連音 (ren'on), of which sequential voicing or 連濁 (rendaku) is probably one of the best known.
There's also gemination or 長子音化 (chōshiinka), where we get things ...
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Understanding 「性格悪いのお前」
In
そんなことしたら性格悪いのお前だけになるぞ」
What is 性格悪い? I assume it's an i-adj formed from 性格+悪い that means "personality-is-bad"?
But if 性格悪い is an i-adj, how is 性格悪いのお前 grammatical? I assume it means &...
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Are there any general rules for guessing the pitch accent of 1- or 2- mora nouns in compounds?
I've already looked up here but so far most are only concerned with 3 or 4 mora suffixes or are overly specific. I'm looking for a generic rule I can apply for compound suffixes made up of 1 to 2 ...
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Meaning of 繋ぎ合う
I'm currently translating the Japanese versions of some Final Fantasy songs. I found the compound verb "繋ぎ合えた" in the song "Yakusoku no Basho" from FFXIII-2 as a relative clause, ...
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Understanding the usage of だらけ
I've come across this in the following sentence:
油断だらけのこの背中
油断 means "reckless" or "negligence" and だらけ means "full of" or "riddle with".
While I can decipher(...
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What does うち農家 mean? [duplicate]
うち農家で兄弟も多いからオレが料理することが多かったんだ
Is 農家 normally used for just one person, a family or a place?
If it means "farmhouse" in this sentence, then I think うち could mean "home" and it could ...
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Kanji with multiple readings of identical meaning
Are there other instances in Japanese where a kanji compound has two or more readings that all carry the same or very similar meanings, akin to the use of 明日 for tomorrow, which can be read as あした, あす,...
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Adding honorific prefix in a compound construction? (E.g. 買ってくれになる)
I'm currently learning how to use くれる/あげる correctly, and I want to practice using 敬語 in my sentence. However, I am not sure where I should put the pre-verb honorific prefix お used in おVERB+になります as I ...
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Why does 子 often default to male in compunds?
Was it just assumed if sex of the subject was not stated the subject would be male or is there a different reason?
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what does 素 mean in 素数?
Composite number is translated as 合成数 (by google translation to Japanese), which makes sense.
Prime number is called 素数, but what does 素 means here?
I am trying to trace the source of it. We ...
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Is 大元【おおもと】the right word here? Or should it be 大本【おおもと】?
Is 大元 a mistake in this quotation, or is it acceptable?
本音【ほんね】を言【い】えないことは、多【おお】くの人【ひと】の悩【なや】みの大元【おおもと】にある
The inability to express one's true feelings is at the root of many people's problems.
https:/...
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Color compound words
Is there a logic behind using color noun + noun rather than using color i-adjective + noun? For example, 黒ドレス and 黒タイツ seem to be more used than 黒いドレス and 黒いタイツ. Regardless, the i-adjective way seems ...
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What are the pitch-accent rules for compound nouns?
I've been trying to learn the pitch-accent of standard Japanese, but this is more difficult as it should be as it's hard to find good learning resources that provide proper descriptions of how the ...
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How to unambiguously express, as noun constructs, "dependent" and "dependee"?
"dependent": the thing that depends on another
"dependee": the thing
that is depended upon
I was thinking 「依存しているもの」 and 「依存されているもの」.
While 「依存されているもの」 probably works to ...
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Is the adjective インディペンデント actually used as an adjective?
I saw a movie labeled
インディペンデント作品
The adjective インディペンデント does not end in i and is followed by neither na nor no here. Is this meant as a strange compound noun (katakana + kanji)? Or is this a ...
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Why is the い in 多い left out in 「本が多すぎる」?
The translation I was going for was "(there's) too many books." I wrote 「本が多いすぎる」but autocorrect changed it to 「本が多すぎる」.
I then tried to use a na-adjective instead of an i-adjective, writing ...
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The verb after conjugation in たり compound sentence, is still a verb? And if so, why is it despite する being the verb？
雨の日は滑ったり、転んだりする。
If する is the verb, then what is the role of the 転んだり in the grammatical sense? I understand that it is a verb which is transformed into 転んだり in a compound sentence but is it still ...
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Difference between 俺物語 and 俺の物語
There is an anime/manga called 俺物語!! which is translated as "My Story!!" or "My Love Story!!" depending on which site you visit. The way I have learned it, it should be "...
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The difference between 辞書 and 字引
My dictionary lists both 辞書{じしょ} and 字引{じびき} as simply, "Dictionary."
On tatoeba.org I can only find example sentences of 字引 where it is used in the phrase:
生き字引 = A walking dictionary
Example:
...
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What is the correct reading of 火防女?
I was playing around in the Japanese version of Dark Souls, and i came across the word 火防女 , which in english they translated as "Firekeeper".
I have not been studying japanese for long, but ...
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Rules or criteria for 連濁: Voiced or unvoiced syllables in compound words
Examples first.
空 {そら}.
Almost all compound nouns for which 空 is the second component pronounce it as ぞら zora:
青空 {あおぞら}
夜空 {よぞら}
星空 {ほしぞら}.
There is at least one exception though: 美空 {みそら}.
蕎麦 {...
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Can '渡 + country' be generalized to say 'going to country' for any country?
Some of the examples that appear in jisho.org are:
渡米: Going to the United States
渡印: Going to India
渡英: Going to the UK
However, if I want to say 'Going to Afghanistan', can I say "渡亜"?
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can the same compound have different readings when having the same meaning?
I know that kanjis can have many readings. But I thought compounds (combinations) had only one meaning. For what I've read in the board, a compound can have different readings for different meanings. ...
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Adjectives ending in らしい
I found some adjectives ending in らしい seem to be the combination of "stem of an adjective" and "らしい," e.g., かわいらしい, きたならしい, にくらしい, and いやらしい (there are certainly more). What ...
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Clarification on Compound Japanese nouns
I've sort of thought of making sentences for words in my custom Anki deck to sort of improve my sentence writing skills.
Now, the word is 矛盾{むじゅん}, which means "contradiction"
The sentence I'...
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Kanji compounds with the same meaning
I've come across a lot compunds of kanji where the kanjis mean the same thing. For example,
状態=state, 態=state, 状=state
表面=surface, 表=surface, 面=surface,mask
Can someone explain how these two kanji ...
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the omission of an implied "の" creates the appearance of a 四字熟語{よじじゅくご}?
I believe that www.yojijukugo.com has a pretty thorough list of 四字熟語? Is there a better site?
However, I know that I've seen a lot of 4, or more, adjacent kanji that are not listed as 熟語。An example ...
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Why a compound noun instead of XのY?
視界左上に固定表示されている細い横線が、わずかにその長さを縮める
from ソードアート・オンライン1アインクラッド
I'm curious to know why the author chose to use this construction instead of 視界の左上.
Edit: And unrelated to that, I just noticed that the ...
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What does まんが in this passage mean?
まんが日本昔話みたいな婆ちゃんの声に、説得力があった。
Is it manga as in 漫画? If so why is it not 日本昔話まんが but まんが日本昔話?
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What's the difference between 取り消す vs 取り下げる?
I was adding sample sentences to my flash cards when I noticed that 取り消す means withdraw.
前言を取り消す
withdraw [retract] one's statement
This reminded of a sample sentence for 取り下げる
告訴を取り下げる
...
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Compound word ending with an adjective stem (形容詞語幹) and used as a noun or a na-adjective
The word 大忙{おおいそが}し is classified as a noun or a na-adjective.
If I analyze it correctly, the word 大忙し consists of the prefix (接頭語) "大" and the i-adjective stem of "忙しい." In addition, there is no ...
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What's the difference between compound words 複合語 and kanji compound 熟語?
Can someone tell me what's the difference between compound words (fukugougo) and kanji compound (jukugo)?
From what I've read, only a combination of two letters from kanji is called compound word. ...
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A name for common words that use uncommon kanji?
I didn't see a duplicate for this in the similar questions, so here goes. Is there either a list of words like this, or a name for this type of word (made of two very rare/complex kanji, but the word ...
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Why isn't 日本料理 written as 日本の料理?
Both 日本 and 料理{りょうり} are nouns but why aren't they concatenated with の? I think it should be written as 日本の料理 rather than 日本料理.
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What does the word 「ちゃらくさい」mean?
It comes from the following sentence which is spoken by a boy who normally uses Tokyo dialect.
おれもだあ! おれもヘッドギャなんてちゃらくさいもんはいらんっ グローブも体重に関係なくいちばんでっかい十二オンスだ
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What is 上がり refering to in this sentence?
I came across the following paragraph in a book.
一日の始まりは、まず基礎{きそ}体力の鍛錬{たんれん}。腹筋、屈伸{くっしん}、腕立{うでた}て伏{ふ}せ。お定まりの筋力トレーニングを、呼吸が上がり床{ゆか}に這{は}いつくばるまで
繰{く}り返す。
Is 上がり being used as a noun plus noun ...
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Order of compound particles
I came across the following sentence:
彼氏と大喧嘩して、お前とはもう別れたいとまで言われた。
Why are と and まで in that order?
Would "別れたいまでと言われた" be incorrect?
Is there a rule concerning the order in which particles must be ...
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Why is Katakana not pronounced Katagana?
I am a beginner in Japanese and I've noticed that when two words are compounded into one word the first letter of the second word changes.
hira + kana = hiragana
ko + hayashi = kobayashi
ori + kami ...
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Compound words with 漢字 and カタカナ? (例えば：新メニュー）
Today, a magazine about restaurants in my area arrived in my mailbox. It proudly proclaimed :
１０月の新メニュー！
I am quite curious as to the following points:
How is this pronounced ? I would have gone ...
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Pronunciation of 年
The general rule to choose between kun (とし) and on (ネン) readings does not seem to work here. Are 今年, 去年, 来年, 毎年, 半年, etc. different kinds of compounds justifying using different readings? Is this the ...
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Why is the State of the Union Address Called 一般教書演説?
The President of the United States gives a speech referred to in English as the "State of the Union". Why is this speech called 一般教書演説{いっぱんきょうしょえんぜつ} in Japanese?
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grammar - 接続 of compound words ending with verb-ず
In my understanding, the part of speech of a compound word is determined by its ultimate morpheme. (複合語の品詞は、後にくる語（形態素）の品詞によって定まります)
蒸す(V)＋暑い(Adj) → 蒸し暑い(Adj)
持つ(V)＋物(N) → 持ち物(N)
and a verb in its -...
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How to parse "あけぐち"?
I'm working out my Japanese by trying to read everything around me, including food packages.
On my milk carton written inside a large arrow pointing to the spout is "あけぐち" in hiragana.
Obviously ...
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What does 通常進行 mean in the context of a two week serialized mangaka job?
I can understand both words separately, and even together in some specific contexts. I can't understand the meaning of these two together in the following phrase and context:
「締切りを３日早めてほしいの。...
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How to pronounce noun compounds
How do I determine the pronounication of compound nouns such as 来年夏.
Obviously 来年の夏 is pronounced らいねんのなつ but what happens when I remove the の? Does it just become らいねんなつ? My guess from everything I'...
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Negation in a verbてverbてはならない/いけない compound
I saw this sample sentence while looking up 乗せる on a dictionary:
バスが乗客を乗せたり降ろしたりしているときは注意して通らなくてはならない。
While a bus is loading and unloading, you must be very careful passing it.
What I do not ...
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Does Japanese have morphemes that span two kanji?
I read once (in this comment by Victor Mair on Language Log) that Chinese has single morphemes that span two hanzi. The example given was the Chinese word pútáo 葡萄. At the time, I assumed it applied ...
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