All Questions
Tagged with sentence-structures or syntax
695 questions
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What does も mean in this sentence?
This passage was taken from a membership announcement for a music producer's Youtube channel. At the end of some of his videos he says:
お集まりの皆様。LadyMonstersをご愛聴いただき、誠にありがとうございます。この度、我々の世界に、より深く浸かりたい「...
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0
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27
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i-adjective + に [duplicate]
Stupid question I know, but I can't find any explanation as to what an i-adjective followed by に is supposed to mean. For example:
明日もアサッテも忙しいに決まってんだろ！
I know what everything else is, even the ...
- 251
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1
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What does this use of でいい mean?
Context: A Japanese character is watching a video featuring Americans and is in awe at the behavior of people from the what she refers to as the "Land of the Free". During this moment, she ...
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2
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whats does ては and みた mean in this sentence?
Context: A character is remembering a conversation he had with his father, and he then thinks:
でかいこと言ってはみたものの、
I know that でかいこと言う means "say something big", but I don't know what ては means,...
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Why is 負ける here used transitively?
This is not the transitive 負ける that means "to reduce the price of a good".
During (sort of) mecha-fight, villain responds to hero who says that they will take the helm and fight and protect ...
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Help understanding a section of "Why" from Crisis Core
I'm translating the song "Why" from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. The section below is giving me a hard time for several reasons.
視線をそらす あなたの瞳に
一人で寂しい夜に抱きしめられる
そんな温かさ知ってる？
Is this a long ...
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1
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Understanding なの after an adjective in a question
I'm trying to translate the song "Why" from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Some bits of the sections given below are giving me a hard time. One being:
世界の全てを手にしたとしても
それがあなたの幸せなの？
The ...
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1
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What does masu + そな mean?
In the song "World's End Dancehall" by wowaka, there is a line that goes:
パッとフラッと消えちゃいそな
I can, from what I know, translate this as (We) suddenly, by chance, completely disappear, but this ...
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1
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What does トコ mean in this sentence
TW: Some minor adult content. I'm not sure if this is warrented but I know anyone of any age could be on here so just in case.
Context: In the scene, a girl is describing why she hates someone. She ...
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3
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When can まで mean "only"?
Officer is describing the events following a recent kidnapping by a crime syndicate of a debt collector:
そして止めてあった車に
― 集金人を押し込むと
― 動く奴がいなくなるまでもう一度車上射撃を食らわせた
その車の車種およびナンバーは ？
黒いセダン日本車ということまで
...
- 1,605
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137
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1
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1
answer
47
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に or を？Grammar help
In the sentence トムはそのときこうえんをあるいていた how come you use を instead of に for こうえん? Is it because grammarly the park can not do something to someone? I read something about intransitive and transitive verbs ...
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ちかく (chikaku) 's position in a phrase
I see both "ちかく の XXX" and "XXX の ちかく", but I don't see when to apply which pattern. In the latter case, I think the word "vicinity" in my mind. In the former case, I ...
- 145
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1
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Nuance of とだけいうのは here
From anime 夜のクラゲは泳げない, B asks A about their thoughts on a social media account dedicated to exposing e-celebs:
A: 暴露アカウントですよね？
B: あれについては どう思う？
A: 最低だと思います。 んっ…。
とだけ言うのは
いい子ちゃんぶり過ぎなのかなって。
顔を隠して ...
- 1,605
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1
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why is で being used in 買ってくるか で
The following is my transcription from a podcast for learners of Japanese. The speaker is listing a few 家庭料理 dishes.
コロッケはね、どこのうちでも作るか, それかスーパーとかで買ってくるかで、よく食べる料理の一つだと思います。
Why is the で in bold being ...
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1
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What does 腕鳴らしに殺されてくれ mean
For context. The character is introducing herself to the villain. After she states her name, she wields a sword made from the bones of someone she just killed and says this before engaging in a fight ...
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0
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General patterns in syntactic preferences
Today I wanted to explain basic particles to someone, so I started with an English sentence that I translated in Japanese while keeping the syntax the same. I ended up with:
昨日、(私は)東京に妹と電車で行きました。
...
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1
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こよ at the end of a sentence
Context: I'm reading a manga, and there is a scene where a class of high schoolers are talking to their class pet, who can also talk as well. One girl asks "Why doesn't the class pet just run ...
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4
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1
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What does はね mean
私の夢はね誰かに抱きしめてもらう事だったんだ
I knows this sentence translates into "My dream was for someone to hug me". What I'm confused about is the はね part. As far as I understand, は is the topic marking ...
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4
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1
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Analysis of a sentence with a double -は
I have a problem with the following sentence from Saito's Japanese Folktales for Language Learners: Legends and Fables in Japanese and English. I'm interested in breaking down the sentence ...
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1
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Adverb position before object / before verb
I'm only about 4 months in, and I'm sure there isn't proper kanji in the following Duolingo example, but...
The sentence to translate was: On Friday, I'm going to return home early.
My answer was: 金曜日 ...
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1
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315
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What does こちらとしても mean?
（君が）そこまでの無理を強いるのはこちらとしても不本意なんだが！
I'm confused by what こちらとしても means. Here's what I can put together so far. こちら means "this direction" and generally refers one's side or oneself. として, the ...
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1
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Explain the gramatical structure of this sentence + use of あまり and より
（君は）照れを隠すあまりより惨事になってるけど、大丈夫？
The（君は）is just for added context.
I'm having trouble understanding the structure of this sentence. as well as the use of あまり and
より. From what I can pull, it means either ...
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2
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126
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Is it possible to use のが twice in a sentence?
I'm doing a project for my Japanese class and I'm trying to write the question "I enjoy learning about Japan." And the only way I can think to do that is 「私は日本を学ぶのがするのが楽しいです。」 is that ...
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The logic and literal meaning of 実感もくそもある (How does it mean what it means?)
The context is about a high school entrance ceremony. The scene had cut from the day of the middle school graduation ceremony to the day of the entrance ceremony, and the main character has stated how ...
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1
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100
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Can you attach たち to a verb?
I was watching an anime and I got stumped on this sentence (Context: the speaker is an old man character explaining the concept of soulmates). "運命の人同士が出会うとき全身にビビーンと衝撃が走りたちどころに互いを好きで好きでたまらなくなる&...
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1
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107
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What does 女子が好きな趣味の人 mean here?
This is an answer for a question from a 腐女子 about whether having their shipping changed ex a loves a female and b loves another is a source of annoyance or not this is the answer :
...
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1
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189
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What is the nuance of this のです?
約40億年前に誕生した生命は、その営みをずっとこの地球上で重ねてきました。しかし、この宇宙には、地球のほかにもさまざまな天体が無数に存在しています。星や太陽を観察することは、宇宙のしくみを知り、わたしたちの住む世界について学ぶことなのです。さあ、夜空をながめ、宇宙について学んでいきましょう。
I'm trying to understand the syntax behind of that ...
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Meaning of き in 唾をぶっかけて.き.やがるからな。
If I am correct, then ぶっかける and やがる are verbs but what is the き doing in between them?
Full sentence:
~
この辺では、言葉に気をつけた方がいいぜ。町のこちら側に住んでいるやつらは、口笛を吹いただけでも顔に唾をぶっかけてきやがるからな。
~
You have to be careful about ...
2
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1
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165
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On the direction of もらう
When talking about verbs of giving/receiving, textbooks tent do talk about only the relation between 1st person and the other persons (i.e. くれる 2/3→1, あげる 1→2/3, もらう 1←2/3), and let learners ...
2
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1
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118
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Development of existential verbs ゐる / いる (居る), をる / おる (居る)
How did the verbs 居{ゐ}る / 居{い}る, 居{を}る / 居{お}る develop their function as existential verbs?
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Does 表示する have the meaning of "view"?
I saw a sentence on X(twitter):
このアカウントの所有者はポストを表示できるアカウントを制限しているため、このポストを表示できません。
and was confused about the subject of "このポストを表示できません".
If 表示する has the meaning of "view", I ...
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にて / で adverbializer?
にて is older form of で, and now has literary or archaic nuance. にて itself was created by adding suffix て to に, which is form of copular verb n-.
Traditional interpretation (e.g. here) is that 2 main ...
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2
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丸腰を見る and no-adjectives
There is some controversy about whether no-adjectives exist.
I have chosen a random no-adjective (not having another meaning as noun): [丸腰]{まるごし}
Sentence with this word with case particle:
丸腰を見る
Is ...
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1
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159
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Tense of sentences ending with のだ such as 楽しかったんだ
From what I can find,
楽しかったんだ
is considered to be in the past tense, which confuses me.
I would have thought that の nominalized the preceding phrase, and the sentences as a whole was then placed in ...
2
votes
1
answer
102
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Can the direct object (with を) appear before the instrumental (with で)?
I apologize if this question is too basic, but I was doing some beginner exercises on an app (no, not that app), and it marked this as incorrect:
あのアメリカ人はラーメンをフオークで食べていますね。
The correct order, it ...
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1
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295
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Why is 「人」から「物」を借りる wrong?
An example sentence I've seen is 「彼にビデオを借りました。」 which was prompted with "I borrowed a video from him." and for a long time I would accidentally say 「彼からビデオを借りました。」 instead the first time. ...
2
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1
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234
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Past conditional with ていても/ていた
I've looked into this and it seems they are multiple ways with multiple nuances of saying "if (A) would have happened, then (B) would have happened. (third conditional ?)
My question is about:
...
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2
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107
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Keigo ます after a noun
I found this sentence in an anime.
娘さんたちも悲しみます
The context is that this lady is dying and a guy says to her that her daughters will be sad.
I understand that he transformed the adjective 悲しい into a ...
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2
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そこが可愛いとこでもあるんだけどね
It is my first time posting anything on a language forum, and i've come to it after searching all over the internet for the past hour to find an answer to this grammar question.
So I hope you guys can ...
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1
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172
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Disjointed dialogue in Zelda: Ocarina of Time?
Near the beginning of the game, an NPC says this dialogue, explaining some controls:
This seems to defy all conventions of building a complete sentence, which seems strange since it's supposed to be ...
- 2,418
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2
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188
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How is 役に立った ( helpful ) formed?
My guess is that the phrase is derived from the composition of the following:
役 (yaku) : service, use
に：particle for destination
立った：perfective of 立つ (tatsu)
So it's extended meaning like "...
3
votes
1
answer
154
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How to analyze the structure of this sentence?
私たちの会社は、従業員のうち、エンジニアは、技術力を持つ重要な存在であるとし、経営の基盤として認めている。
My own analysis is:
1.In this sentence, 「とし」is the continuative form of 「とする」.
2.the phrase before 「とし」 should be seen as a clause， which means ...
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2
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312
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Why is there a comma between 初めて and the following part it modifies?
In the sentence:
大学生になって初めて、その本の本当の価値が分かるようになった
If 初めて is an adverb, it should modify the phrase behind it, which is a rule of Japanese. So here it should modify「その本の本当の価値が分かるようになった」, but why there ...
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1
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105
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Is this the use of には in this scentence natural? [closed]
立憲君主制を取るヴェレンシア国では、王族は政治家ではなく、外交官としての役割を期待される。諸外国に外遊し、自国のイメージを高め、商品や技術を高く売るのが王族の仕事だ。ヴァレンシア国のスポークスマンと言ってもいい。
そのため、王族の子女の世話をする保母や従者には、ネイティブの外国人が二年の任期でつく。王子、または王女が、...
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1
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What does 適度な所で斜め上に向かって穴を掘る mean here?
出る時は斜めに掘る必要があるな。いや、待て待て。
縦の穴。酸素はどうなっている？ マズイ、死ぬ？ 俺は慌てて斜め上に向かって穴を掘り、脱出する。
反省。次は空気の通り道を考えながら、掘ってみた。
基本、斜め掘り。適度な所で斜め上に向かって穴を掘る。俺の中のイメージの井戸とは全然違うが、要は空気が流れればよい。
最終的に下に向かって掘っていれば問題はないだろう。
So, a guy tries ...
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1
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I'm struggling to understand how to use がち
The sentence I came up with was:
私は、学生は勉強を完了するために睡眠時間を短くする寝がちですから、これが起こると思います。
So essentially I was using がち to say how students "tend to/have a tendency to" sleep less. My 先生 said I used ...
1
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1
answer
143
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noun + の + verb + こと VS noun + を + verb + こと
I was just wondering if the following sentence was correct:
日本語の話すこと
It doesn't sound wrong to me, as the whole「話すこと」part becomes a noun, but I'm not quite sure.
I think the more standard way to say ...
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0
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73
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What's the structure of the second part of this sentence?
人と話すだけでも緊張するのに、それが年上の女性とくればなおさらだ
Here I think それ refers to 話し相手 and the second part is made from these 2 sentences:
それが年上の女性とくる
なおさらだ（no subject）
And then the particle ば is used to connnect the two ...
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1
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Why are there multiple topic markers (は) in this sentence?
To be clear, my level of Japanese is about as elementary as it gets, so it's possible that this question is simply beyond my understanding. Still worth an ask, though!
I was looking at the Wiktionary ...
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