Questions tagged [particles]
助詞. Non-inflecting function words which follow words, phrases, or entire sentences.
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Does と mean "with" or "for", here?
あたしと学校とりかえっこしてみない？
I already know it means "Why don't you try swapping school with me?", "Why don't you, and I, try swapping school?", but I wonder if it can also mean "Why ...
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I'm confused about when to use で vs を in this sentence
I want to ask whether or not it is okay to use a pen. Should I use
ボールペンでつかってもいいですか。
or
ボールペンをつかってもいいですか。
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What is the difference between が（suru-verb）できる and を（suru-verb）できる?
For example, what's the difference between the following sentences?
ゲームで勝つことで、ポイントを獲得できる。
ゲームで勝つことで、ポイントが獲得できる。
Intuitively, I felt like the first sentence sounded better and example sentences seem ...
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Why is it 4分で売り切りだった and not 4分に売り切りだった？
Why is it 4分で売り切りだった and not 4分に売り切りだった？
Could someone help explain why で is used and not に?
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Usage of か after 出向く
すっきりしたし司令部へ出向くか
From what I understand, this phrase is composed of:
すっきり - Refreshing
した - Did
し - So/and
司令部 - headquarters
出向く - go to/proceed to
か - ?
So the translation would be something along ...
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What is the funciton of the particle ぞ, and does it have any other uses?
I've only heard it - with its apparent use in this case - in phrases about knowledge specific to someone or something, as in:
かみのみぞしるあめのみぞしる。
I would normally - with my low-level understanding of ...
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Role of は when following phrases ending in particles
I have read several linguistic accounts of the particle は that claim it has two fundamental uses:
To indicate the theme/topic of the discourse (assuming that the speaker can take for granted that the ...
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How is そこを used in this sentence?
I'm having a difficult time understanding why そこを is used in the following sentence. I don't think that を is marking a direct object, but it also doesn't seem to fit the usual 経過 or 起点 interpretations....
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Why 広がる前 isn't 広がった前 in this sentence
In this NHK Easy article there's the sentence:
しかし1年{ねん}に3000万{まん}人{にん}以上{いじょう}が来{き}ていたウイルスが広{ひろ}がる前{まえ}のときのようには、すぐに戻{もど}りません。
If I remove the part I'm having trouble with:
しかし1年{ねん}に3000万{まん}人{にん}...
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What does 前かmean?
痛恨のミス。本来なら家を出る前かホームルーム前に回しておくのだが、今朝は眠過ぎてそこまで頭が回っていなかったのだ。
It's from a light novel 時々ボソッとロシア語でデレる隣のアーリャさん1
The first question is: what does 前+か mean here?
The second one is:
家を出る前かホームルーム前に回しておく
...
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When does は imply contrast when describing something
I’ve learnt that は can have contrastive meaning and can offend people when used wrongly.
E.g.
Aさん: Bさんは目はきれいです
This would imply Bさん’s eyes are pretty but the rest of his features are not or something ...
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のなら: emphasis or hearsay?
What is the additional nuance in meaning when の is inserted before なら? For example:
トムが行く(の)なら、私も行きます。
In the Tobira Gateway to Advanced Japanese (p. 69) it says
の occurs before なら when the ...
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Why do you leave out the の in some cases?
An example of this is that I have seen both 来週テスト and 来週のテスト.
Both of them mean "next week's test".
My issue is that I have no clue when to use which or what makes them different from each ...
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Why do you put 名詞 plus の before ようだ, but you put 名詞 plus な before わけだ?
I looked up the dictionary, and found "よう" and "わけ" are both grammatical nouns (形式体言). But why is the 接続 different?
Moreover, I found many sentence patterns have their own rules. ...
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Regarding the use of が instead of は
いけのなかにさかな＿たくさんいまですか。
So my question is, would the particle affect the emphasis we want to put on either asking if there ARE Fish inside the Pond, or if we are asking how MANY Fish are there in the ...
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でも良ければ, なんか良ければ, なんかで良ければ
Related to this question that I asked a while ago
柴門を雇うなんてチーム, 柴門なんてを雇うチーム, 柴門を雇うチームなんて
私なんかで良ければ、何でも相談に乗りますので
This seems to be the most common way to say it. But how do these alternatives sound?
...
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Does おり serve a necessary grammatical function in this sentence, or is it simply redundant?
２年【にねん】に１度【ど】、目視【もくし】による検査【けんさ】を行【おこな】っており、強度【きょうど】に問題【もんだい】はないという
(The bridge) is visually inspected every two years, and is said to have no strength problems.
https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/hobby/travel/...
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でも and other particles: conjunction, exclusion, and word order
I am not sure this has been asked here before. What I'm curious about is what particles get replaced by でも in its hedging usage ("or something") and what can occur alongside it and in what ...
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About the difference in these sentences with のを and のが
I've been struggling to find the difference between those two structures, is one of them wrong or they are both right and have a difference in meaning/emphasis
俺が走るのが見た
俺が走るのを見た
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Does the が particle always mark the focus when marking the subject?
I recently read lots of articles/posts from the が particle usages and there is something which isn't clear for me. So the basic usage of the が is to mark the subject of the sentence. But in addition が ...
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The nomenclature of cases regarding dative and nominative
私にそれがよく分かりません
In this sentence, 私 is said to be a dative subject and それ to be a nominative object. If they are named after their case markers, I wonder why we cannot simply regard に and が as a ...
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“は…は” usage: What’s the function of the first は?
午後は授業はありません。
I saw this sentence in my book, and from my understanding the second は marks the topic of the sentence, and in some cases “は…は” highlights the contrast between two topics, but in this ...
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Why use の instead of が?
I know that の can be used instead of が when modifying a noun like in these examples:
日本語のわかる人
私のできる日本語
But in these cases:
健康のためにあるいはリクリエーションのためにというスポーツのある一方で、スポーツが仕事というプロスポーツも存在している。
...
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Using か in casual speech
There are definitely many questions about the usage (or lack thereof) of か in casual speech. Although it is relatively common in anime, it sounds harsh, maybe rude in everyday casual speech.
Alright, ...
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Grammar meaning of でも in 何泊でもどうぞ
……まあ。本当は素晴らしい剣なのですね。そんなものをお預かりできるのでしたら、何泊でもどうぞ
I know that でも can mean something like "Even", so 何泊でもどうぞ in this context probably means something like "Even if (でも) you stay as many ...
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にで and でに confusion
So I saw these particles in a definition and a song.
First, as ひとりでに, which got translated as by itself (this got approved by the way) and then "単独にでなく", which I'm guessing means not being ...
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Grammar: understanding ～での, particle usage for なった, function of ため [closed]
Link: https://www.kanaloco.jp/news/government/article-905621.html
プール管理の担当教員が水泳の授業での新型コロナウイルス感染を防ぐために、プールの水を常にあふれさせて水質をきれいにする必要があると勘違いしたことが原因。
Why is there a の after 水泳の授業で?
同月２日の検針時に学校全体の水道料金が、...
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自殺に見せ掛ける - Particle に
Context: https://streamable.com/sk6rst
Sentence: 単なる自殺か？ 自殺に見せ掛けた 他殺か？
Question: What is the function of the particle に in 自殺に見せ掛けた ?
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日本語は話せますか, 日本語が話せますか and 日本語を話せますか what's the difference?
日本語は話せますか
日本語が話せますか
日本語を話せますか
What's the difference? Some people said it means the same thing, but when I googled it several people were saying several different things and I'm lost. I read that ...
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Is などなど a phrase-ending expression or it can be used in the middle of a sentence?
I recently learned the word などなど which means "etcetera", just like the good ol' など :
日本のものはポップでクール！車、オーディオ、家電製品、ファッション、文房具などなど。
フルーツが好きです。りんご、みかん、バナナなどなど。
Judging from these examples, I ...
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What are the particles か and だと used for in relative clauses?
I am reading a book in Japanese and the following sentence came up:
今日「私は魔女よ」と宣言したところで危険はなく、うらやましがられるか、せいぜい無邪気な気まぐれだと、困った顔をされるぐらいでしょう
The first part I translated as "nowadays, even if you ...
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Understanding 飲料水などに使う上水道で導入される
宮城県の水道事業の運営主体が4月1日から民間企業に切り替わった。特に飲料水などに使う上水道で導入されるのは全国初の試みだ。水質悪化や災害復旧の遅れなどを不安視する声が根強いが、県は「対応は今後も変わらない」と強調する。
I'm not sure how to understand the part 飲料水などに使う上水道で導入される. Particularly, I'm not sure how ...
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Why である instead of でいる？
One solution that I heard is aru can be used for people you're not close to and iru for people you are close to, so like a humble thing, but, I don't know if it's actually said, and aru is for ...
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omitted particle を can make conditional?
The translator is a native speaker of Japanese. He translated the title 70億人の頭の上に風船を as, If I Could Put Balloons on 7 Billion People's Heads. However, another old translator who was removed for an ...
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What is the usage of なら in this sentence: 予定を確認すると、次の週末なら二人とも空いていたので、急いで温泉旅館を予約しました
予定を確認すると、次の週末なら二人とも空いていたので、急いで温泉旅館を予約しました。
I stumbled on this sentence, because I don't know how to translate "nara".
Usually, "nara" means "if", but in this sentence, ...
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Omitted verbs? 想いを音に音は思いをわずかでもいい届いてくれよ！
想いを音に 音は思いを わずかでもいい 届いてくれよ！
What I'm confused about is the omitted verbs. I saw a translation from a translator (from Wiki) going something like:
"Turn your thoughts into sound, and your sound ...
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Difference between【怠けものブラシ】and【怠惰なブラシ】？
【怠けものブラシ】was the title of a brush i downloaded (for a drawing app).
【怠惰なブラシ】is what i was told is the "correct" way of putting the same phrase.
the first phrase is from a native speaker. is ...
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The purpose of には in the sentence 'こんないっぱい黒歴史持ってるには若すぎる'
https://twitter.com/sally_amaki/status/1505553739096408066
In this tweet, the English sentence
I’m way too young to have this much past to cringe about.
got translated to
こんないっぱい黒歴史持ってるには若すぎる。
If ...
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Meaning of に起こす
I'm reading a manga in which often 起こす is used with に, in situations like this:
次は工場用に こいつをパターンに起こす
The characters just finished making a test piece for a shirt, and the speaker is saying to the ...
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What does くらいちゃんと mean here?
「なによそれー！幼馴染にくらいちゃんと悩みは相談しなさい！」
What does くらい modify? ちゃんと has the opposite meaning.
Also, I can replace は with を here, can't I?
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Can the と particle be used to express a person's thoughts other than your own?
I know that the と particle can be used to express your own thoughts, such as in:
難しい質問だと思う。- I think that it's a difficult question.
But on this phrase, it's actually a question to a different ...
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と usage in 俺と同じ [duplicate]
What is the meaning of と in the following phrase?
俺と同じことをするんだ - Do the same thing I do.
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What is the meaning of 顔で聞いてる?
I was getting some new vocabulary using My First Story's song called アンダーグラウンド and then I couldn't understand the meaning of the verse 全部 同じ顔で聞いてるけど, how can you listen with your face? Is there ...
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Understanding 賃金の伸びに物価の変動を反映した実質賃金
賃金の伸びに物価の変動を反映した実質賃金
Does this mean "the real wages which reflect the fluctuation of price amid the wages increase"?
厚生労働省は８日午前、１月の毎月勤労統計調査（速報）を発表した。賃金の伸びに物価の変動を反映した実質賃金は前年同月比０・４％増と、...
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"no" in "Chōsa Heidan" - Shingeki no Kyojin [duplicate]
In Attack on Titan, Survey Corps Japanese name is (Chōsa Heidan) (調査兵団)
Chōsa (調査) means "Survey" and Heidan (兵団) means "Army Corps'
My question is why are Heidan written directly after ...
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A は A、 B は B Please help in parsing this sentence 「油ものは油もの、茶飲み茶碗は茶飲み茶碗と」
This is from Hayashi Fumiko's writing titled 生活 describing the author's daily life in 1935.
夕御飯が済んで、小さい女中と二人で、油ものは油もの、茶飲み茶碗は茶飲み茶碗と、あれこれと近所の活動写真の話などをしながらかたづけものをして、剪花(きりばな)に水を替えてやっていると、...
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When to use は、に or no particle?
I mostly understood the particles in Japanese, but there is still one thing I couldn't get over with. And that is the following problem:
I do not exactly know, when to use は、に or no particle. It's ...
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Can the は particle be a topic and contrast marker at same time?
I know the は particle can function as a topic marker or contrast marker. But can it be topic and contrast marker at the same time?
Here are a few examples:
A) ビールは飲{の}まない。
B) 肉{にく}は食{た}べないけど魚{さかな}は食{...
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を/に・通る particle help
In the sentence,
毎日、この道を通ります。
why is を used? Wouldn't it be に?
Also,
試験に通る
I thought the verb was intransitive, so I thought it would be が maybe. "the test was passed" ?
Any helpful ...
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What is the correct way to say "Why did the guy with pink camera eat my food?"
ピンクのカメラの人はなぜ自分の飯を食ってしまったのか
ピンクのカメラが人はなぜ自分の飯を食ってしまったのか
Which particle should be used before 人, の or が ?
Please explain the answer
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