Questions tagged [spelling]
Which sequences of kanji and/or kana form accepted ways to write a given word, particle, or other speech sound.
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What is the most appropriate way to indicate a long vowel in Katakana?
I know that often, when rendering a long vowel in Katakana, a hyphen is used.
For example, the Katakana rendering of the English word "coat" is often shown as コート .
I have seen both "ko-...
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Can I convey a meaning in a name with only kana? If not, what Kanji should I use for the name "Mimi" to convey "Beautiful Ocean"?
I'm working on a logo design project and was thinking of using the name "Mimi" as I saw somewhere that it might represent "beautiful ocean".
I don't understand much about the ...
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What is the difference between 上がる and 挙がる?
Both 上がる and 挙がる are read the exact same way — as あがる — and in the dictionaries I looked them up, they appear under the same entry, and seem to show up as alternate spellings of the same word.
Is is ...
JNat♦
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Is it 日本人 or にほんじん?
I've been studying Japanese on my own for only three days. Why does the word "Japanese" sometimes appear like this 日本人 and also like this にほんじん?
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Kanji for darkness: 暗 vs 闇, nuance? meaning? use cases?
In Heisig's book Remembering the Kanji, 16th edition, kanji #519 (暗) is named Darkness. In Yu-gi-oh however the darkness element uses 闇
According to the following link, 暗 does indeed mean dark, ...
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Why do dictionaries differ so much in terms of spelling and is there an established standard for how a word should be written in contemporary text?
If we look at thee はまる, きこり, しじま and うつつ as three examples of many, they are spelt differently in different well known dictionaries.
はまる has 填まる first in Kenkyusha and Daijisen, while Meikyo and Shin ...
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What is the difference between 始めに and 初めに?
I'd learned 始{はじ}めに to mean "in the beginning" or "firstly" a while back, and recently I came across 初{はじ}めに to have the exact same meaning.
I looked it up on the dictionary, and ...
JNat♦
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Wondering if this translates to exactly what i am wanting
My friend is really into Japanese stuff and manga, and he's also learning Japanese. I wanted to make him a shirt with an inside joke/nickname I have for him, and I was planning on putting it in Kanji, ...
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When to use ンネ vs ッネ?
For example, why the correct spelling is トンネル rather than トッネル ?
Is it an arbitrary/historical choice, or is there a rule that explains it? Would the pronunciation differ?
This wiki page says that ッ &...
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Why do some Japanese verbs have different spellings?
I have been wondering, why some japanese verb have a variety of ways to spell. Does it matter which spelling I used or does the variety of spelling serve a purpose. And if it doesn't matter, then why ...
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How are different spellings sorted in the Daijisen dictionary?
To to my knowledge, The Daijisen is one of the most authoritative dictionaries of Japanese, at least for contemporary usage. When they provide several writings for the same entry, are there any rules ...
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噓憑き: what is it and how is it different from 嘘つき?
While looking at song lyrics I found the word 噓｛うそ｝憑｛つ｝き . What kind of kanji usage is this, and how does it differ from 噓｛うそ｝つき?
Since 憑 means "haunt, possess" and the song is about ghosts ...
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Why is ゴミ箱 written in katakana usually?
I know katakana can be used for loanwords, onomatopoeia, strange plants, animals, for emphasis, and more. However, I don't understand why ゴミ箱 is written in katakana. Can anyone shed some light on the ...
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Do you have to use the kanji 何 for nani (なに 'what' ) ? And kanji vs hiragana in general
What I remember is that the only point of Kanji is to distinguish words that have the same hiragana (homophones?) Did I misremember? If so, then what's the point of using Kanji when I could use ...
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Where to break line? [closed]
I have a few sentences that I needed translated to Japanese, and found someone to do it for me. However, I have no clue where I can break the sentences on two lines (as some don’t fit in the space I ...
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Synonym of もちろん?
In Fruits Basket S2E5, around 20:30, Hanajima says something that sounds like "mochi atabou yo", which is subbed as "of course". I guess from this and her character that it's ...
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is it grammatically correct to write ニ as ンイ
I was looking at the list of kana, and I realized something. Say, you wanted to write the syllable “ni”, you would write “ニ”, right? Is it possible to write “n” syllables using “ン” and vowels? For ...
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Is おにょみ a valid spelling/pronunciation of 音読み?
I assume the answer is no.
I am asking, because my IME (Mozc) converts おにょみ into 音読み (same with くにょみ→訓読み).
I think this is simply a matter of convenience to save the user from having to press [n] ...
user40476
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我艦隊於黄海清艦撃沈之圖 how do you say this in Japanese?
I am working on an essay for school and
I was looking at a wood-block print called,
" 我艦隊於黄海清艦撃沈之圖 " by Kobayashi Kiyochika.
According to websites, in romaji this is,
"Waga kantai Kôkai ...
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When is Kanji REALLY used? [duplicate]
Whenever somebody tells you about kanji, they say something like this:
Kanji are used for writing nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs.
However, the further I go, the more realize that this ...
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Why is アタマ written in katakana in the following passage?
I am watching a series of videos about the life of 手塚【てづか】治虫【おさむ】. In the video number 8, the word アタマ in 「子供のアタマ」 is spelled in katakana:
Is this a way to emphazise or highlight something? or what ...
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The ''is it included in the kanji or not'' phenomenon?
Some expressions can be written part kanji part hiragana.
Sometimes I'm not sure how many hiragana actually condense into the kanji.
Example:
おとうさん
Is it お父さん or お父うさん ?
ちいさい
Is it 小さい or 小いさい ?
I ...
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Why does 全員 sound like zein but is written zenin (ぜんいん)?
Is the middle "n" silent? Am I just not used to hearing it and can't identify it?
The duolingo pronunciation sounds like "zein" https://www.duolingo.com/dictionary/Japanese/%E5%85%A8%E5%93%A1/...
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希硫酸, 稀硫酸? What’s the difference?
希硫酸, 稀硫酸. My dictionary says they are both “dilute sulfuric acid”. What is the difference in usage here? Is there just one optional radical?
English has “sulfuric” and “sulphuric”, and that’s an ...
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Why "ついてきてください" and not "付いてきてください"
I found some similar questions regarding Japanese switching out relatively "easy" kanji for hiragana, but I still can't seem to understand why it's done.
I saw this sentence from a movie:
参加される方は ...
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Spelling out over the phone [duplicate]
If a native Japanese does not know how a kanji is pronounced and want to ask about its reading over the phone, how would he 'spell out' the kanji?
Maybe this is why faxes are still popular in Japan, ...
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In kanji 外, why is タ used instead of ソ? [closed]
Why is タ used instead of ソ in 外 despite it's read as ソト?
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The different ways to write "fox" [duplicate]
When writing "fox", what is the difference between these two ways?
狐
or
キツネ
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Hi I want to know if the correct written characters for boketto (To daydream) is spelled ぼけっと or ボケっと
Hi I want to know if the correct written characters for boketto (To daydream) is spelled ぼけっと or ボケっと
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Why the specific spelling "一つひとつ"?
I'm reading a book and the author keeps using the spelling "一つひとつ" for "one-by-one". I found this a bit curious: The word itself is just a doubled 一つ, so why not spell both parts the same? Does ...
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Changing from "S" to "Z" sound in Katakana [duplicate]
The katakana form's ジ sound comes from two bases: from "sh," as in "sheep" AND from the "ch" sound in "cheese." When I am asked to identify the character, during study, that is producing the ジ sound,...
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A grammar issue?
What is the meaning of the "long hyphen," --, a DASH really, for grammar, translation, and punctuation? For example :
シャワーヘッド (Shawaheddo)? Thank you
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Elongated お in the volitional verb form
In native Japanese words (that I know of at least) like 通り and 大きい, to elongate the お-sound, another お is added when written in Hiragana (instead of う like in Sino-Japanese words). However, it just ...
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おはよう written as おはよ?
Playing through the intro of Let's Go Pikachu, I came across what looks to me like the greeting おはよう, but written instead as おはよ.
Is this a known alternate spelling, or perhaps a simplification aimed ...
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Structure of -しい adjectives
Are they all of the form [kanji]しい or can they also be of the form [kanji][kana]しい? ([kana]しい can also probably be found in the case of uncommon kanji.)
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Are they the same: コショウ vs コショー
The question is are these two pronounced the same.
If they are how would one know how to spell them.
This applies to any case of ウ vs 一.
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Where does ドンピシャ come from?
The fact that ドンピシャ (meaning "right on, fitting to a T") is written in katakana makes me wonder if it comes from a foreign phrase, but I can't figure out which one (out of the European languages I ...
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What are the common practices for writing Korean names?
Some manga made by Korean writers and illustrators write their names entirely with kanji (especially without any clue as to how to pronounce them), while credits in anime write Korean staffers' names ...
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Ocha in Hiragana [duplicate]
I'm pretty early into learning Japanese. I've started learning hiragana, when writing "ocha" in hiragana I've noticed it comes up as おちゃ now I know お is "o" and normally ち is "chi" while ゃ is ya. Now ...
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Possible misspeling of 音葉? [closed]
I encountered follwoing sentence
という音葉は胸にしまっておく。
And I think that 葉 is probably just misspelling, i.e. は entered twice instead of once. But I'm not sure. Can someone help?
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気をっけて - Why the small っ? [closed]
I'm currently viewing a bunch of tweets about Typhoon Jebi in Kansai, and I'm seeing a lot of people writing 気を[っ]{L}けて specifically with a small っ.
Is this just some type of stylization? If so, ...
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Translate German name "Markus" to Japanese
I'm trying to translate my German name Markus to Japanese, which seems quite difficult.
My first approach was just to transcribe it.
Ma → ma → マ
r → ru → ル
ku → ku → ク
s → su → ス
giving ...
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Making a sign one column vertically. Don't know anything about Japanese
I'm helping a friend making a vertical neon sign for an installation with the word hikikomori. As I don't know anything about Japanese I just googled the translation, but can't understand how to order ...
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Why is it 二ヶ月 and not 二か月? [duplicate]
I was studying kanji, and this word came up. I know the romaji is nikagetsu, meaning two months, so I was a little confused as to why it has a little "ケ". Do you know if this is correct, and if it is,...
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what does "甘えるって" mean?
甘 is sweet right?
甘えるって is to be sweet or does it mean something completely different?
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What’s the correct Hiragana/Kanji for ‘nokuseni’
I don’t know how to write or pronounce it but I was watching a Japanese movie and one person goes ‘nokuseni’ which I think roughly translates to ‘even though’? Or something negative? I know it’s vague ...
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Etymology of ゴミ
I'm curious why is ゴミ commonly spelled in Katakana. What word is it derived from, if any?
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Why is こおり spelt with an お rather than an う?
I thought that syllables with an "お" sound get lengthened by an "う" rather than another "お".
I've seen this question asked on hinative, which mentions 遠い（とおい）, 大きい (おおきい), 多い (おおい), 通り (とおり/どおり) and ...
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Need help on pronunciation
Words like 「滅入る」and 「翻る」I just cant understand. When I look at the spelling for えいる and がえる, it just doesn't match with what I hear. with えいる I hear "eh-E-ru", but since い extends え (I think it does) ...
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What is the difference between spellings of 組み付ける? [duplicate]
I'm reading some technical documents and have come across two spellings:
組み付ける
and
組付ける
Both are used in nearly identical situations and both seem to mean "assemble" as a directive. Is there a ...
