Questions tagged [spoken-language]
音声言語（話し言葉）. Language that is more typical of speech than writing, including contractions, omissions, and other verbal mechanisms characteristic of speech.
178 questions
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Pronouncing “安い” “薄い” and “不味い” as “やしい” “うしい” and “まじい” respectively
Contracting the final two vowels of an i-adjective to impart a rougher tone seems to be fairly popular at least in fiction in character role type language as in “ない” to “ねえ” or “うるさい” to “うるせえ”. “悪い” ...
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ということとか VS こととか
In the following extract, is there a reason why っていうこととか is used for the first circumstance, while simply こととか is used for the second circumstance?
[...]
そういう色々制限は、コロナの人は増えたけど、前よりも制限が少なくなってますね。ま、これも、...
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How do I talk to someone explicitly?
明日の朝おそいおきたら、にどねないよ！
Given this phrase in this Context I’m not sure if I talk about myself or if I talk to someone else like I intend to do.
I could add あなたは at the beginning but I know this is ...
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What are the differences between Hokkaido dialect and Tokyo dialect
I'm traveling to Sapporo in a week. I've already been learning Japanese for two years and can understand quite a bit of Japanese. Is there anything I should know about the dialect in Hokkaido? I won't ...
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"Your mom has an outie" = "son of a bitch" in English?
This might seem ridiculous, but I've now encountered "Your mom has an outie" twice in anime, and both times, it's been translated as "son of a bitch." I just want to know if there'...
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What is being said here that means "it's frowned upon if you're a smoker [in the US]"
In Shinya Shokudou, S3EP08, a Japanese lady who currently works in New York (but is back home in Japan for a bit) asks the owner of a Shokudou for a cigarette as he's smoking. The owner says "...
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How is "yowee" supposed to be written in japanese? (e.g. "anta wa yoweenda yo!", meaning "you're weak!")
When people are speaking crassly, things like じゃない will often be pronounced じゃねえ, with maybe a few variations (e.g. じゃねー, or using katakana, etc.). My question is, how does one usually do this for &...
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kamakaketa = having someone spill the beans?
In Episode 10 of "Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia", MC and love interest's older sister are talking. Older sister (as bait) says she heard love interest had confessed to MC, and MC responds all ...
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Utsukushii (美しい) deeper meaning different than just "beautiful"?
The impetus for my question is Vinland Saga, S2E23. Somewhat avoiding spoilers, T has belonged to vicious savage vikings all his life. But T, after years of murder, uniquely begins to pursue and ...
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"ツール" meaning "nerd"/"obscure"? What is being said here?
In a recent video by The Anime Man (Joey), he talks with a host (ROLAND), and they get to talking about anime, and how it's less stigmatized and more mainstream now.
Then Joey brings up the point that ...
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How to tell someone to call you by a certain name, but they're free to use whatever suffix they please?
Say my name is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but since that name is obviously nuts, they can feel free to call me by my nickname "スーパ". But I don't mean for them to just refer to me as ...
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Is it possible to use phrase 「気になってない」if you are not interested in something?
For example my friend ask me: 車は好き? (Are you interested in cars?)
And I respond: 車についてあんまり気になってない. (I am not interested in cars)
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敬語 in Informal Situation
I have noticed reading manga/light novel and speaking with friends that, despite talking in informal way, sometimes they use 敬語 (like ますand です) for one or two sentences, then switch back to informal ...
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The Vowel Lengthening in 〜ます, 〜です
I notice over hundreds and hundreds of japanese's videos, anime and podcast that Japanese (mostly women but not only) tend in speech to length the vowel in the ending like 〜まーす, 〜でーす and so on.
I don'...
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How inteligible is Japanese used in Buddhist texts?
I have started learning Japanese some time ago, but I still can't understand the sutras and chants that are used in Zen ceremonies, such as Takkesa Ge, Maka Hannya Haramita Shingyo, Fu Eku, Jin Ho San ...
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How to refer to the kanji used in a verb in speech?
Like if I wanted to refer to the 食 in 食べる do I say
食べることの漢字
eating's kanji
or
食べるの漢字 eating kanji
or
食べるものの漢字 kanji of eating
or something else entirely? Also are my translations correct?
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Differences of words like 先輩 between Japanese, Chinese, and Korean?
I understand the history of Japan's origin coming from China, which is why Japanese involves Chinese characters. However, I recently realized that there are some words in Japanese that are actually ...
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重用 - Reading Preference
Reading some 読解 Material I stumbled upon the word 重用. I read it as じゅうよう without much attention, only to notice that the furigana on top read "ちょうよう". Searching a bit on dictionaries I saw ...
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What is the meaning of 惜しいくらい?
In Kiki's Delivery Service there is a scene where the 2 girls discuss about their passions and at some point (at around 1h27m) the older one says:
絵かくの楽しくってさねるのが惜しいくらいだったんだよ
From my understanding ...
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pronunciation ん＋ [s]
For a few weeks I have been studying the pronunciation of ん and all allophones.
there are many allophones, I was able to learn almost all of them. however there is a case where I have problems
ん ＋ [s]
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Does 「兄/姉をやめたい」 sound natural?
Related to a manga which is named お兄ちゃんはおしまい!
Imagine a transgender girl who has a young brother says 兄をやめたい (I don’t want be your brother anymore), is this wired to be heard by a native speaker?
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What does よう知らん mean in その辺の仕組みはあんたらと違って よう知らん
I saw this sentence in an episode of attack on titan the speaker is referencing a power she has and that she doesn't understand how it works unlike the listeners who do
The english sub translation was
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Mora in spoken language, and syllable
I was speaking with a friend of mine about Japanese, and we come up with a doubt I found no clear answer to: as far as I know, morae are relevant in everyday Japanese, and (at least on theory) each ...
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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 Japanese in danger of being subsumed by English? [closed]
As a beginner student of Japanese I noticed that Japanese uses an incredible amount of English vocab (pronounced the Japanese way of course).
I have studied a few other languages and English has this ...
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Can you use the base of the 〜ます form to mean "and" in spoken Japanese?
When written I've read that you can use the base of the 〜ます form to mean "and". But does the same rule apply when spoken?
For example, does the following sentence make sense when spoken?
...
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Are the Japanese and Korean spoken languages somehow related?
According to Wikipedia,
Historical and modern linguists classify Korean as a language isolate. [A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical ... ...
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About addressing people by -San, -Chan and -Kun
I understand that -San is a formal way to address somebody. A unisex way of both Mr. and Mrs. Kun is a way to address males, but it's used with friends? I'm wondering about that. Now, Chan is very ...
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Spoken Japanese, words ending with わ used as the topic
So consider a noun in Japanese such as 毛皮 that ends in a わ mora. If you were to construct a sentence with such a word as the topic it would have some structure like 毛皮は which when spoken out loud, ...
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Does “Tekken” sound like “iron sword” to someone unfamiliar with the franchise?
The word “ken” has at least 2 meanings: Ken (拳) means fist, while ken (剣) means sword.
If a Japanese speaker hears about the video game Tekken (鉄拳, “iron fist”) for the first time, without seeing the ...
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Are there placeholders in spoken Japanese?
I've seen discussions of placeholders in Japanese which seem to centre on how to pronounce written placeholders like ＯＯ, XX, etc. See below for reference:
How do you pronounce "☓☓" as a ...
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Why do people say "食べる" instead of "食べましょう" or "食べよう"
From what I understand, "食べましょう" and "食べよう" both imply, more or less, the same meaning, which is 'to invite someone to eat with them', the latter being a verb conjugation of the ...
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What's the difference between じゃあね and またね?
My teacher told me years ago about またね, but recently I've heard じゃあね used similarly. What's the difference between じゃあね and またね? Which one is preferable?
Is there other phrases, that can be used to ...
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Leaving out endings to sentences
A lot of times, endings to sentences are omitted for some reason. For example, "konna ni ooki na tatemono no naka ni ita to wa" may be completed by something like "omowanakatta". I ...
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Small あ after は?
I’m trying to read a book but I came across a sentence where there are small あs after はs and I’m not sure why. Do you know why that is and what it means?
その時【とき】、子供【こども】たちの声【こえ】が聞こえました【きこえました】。
「...
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What is the meaning of バカにはええじゃないか?
I don't know how to interpret ばかにはええじゃねえか in the manga here. I believe ばかにはええじゃねえか = ばかにはいいじゃないか but I still can't make sense of this. As the picture suggests, the father says this as some sort of a ...
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How to say 2000 people attend X High School
I was wondering how I would say 2000 people go to (Name) High School in Japanese. It might be easier to say 毎日、二千の生徒はX高校に通ういます。but it would like to know how to phrase it more like X高校は二千の生徒が（verb)。...
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What does it mean についちゃ in this text? [duplicate]
こういうのも なんだが魚たちの ゴキゲンについちゃおれら 漁師が 専門家だ。
What does it mean についちゃ ? What grammar does it refer To ?
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Nominal connectors in embedded sentences: 名詞・形容動詞 ＋「である」「だという」「な」等 (+ こと) の使い分けについて
This is a general question about what to place after nominals when connecting them to constructs like こと.
Lately I've realized I've either forgotten or never knew when I should be using だということ over ...
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Japanese N1 practice questions help
Taken from question 4 and 5 of this URL:
https://japanesetest4you.com/japanese-language-proficiency-test-jlpt-n1-listening-exercise-5/
QUESTION 4:
The audio starts with: あ～ぁ、やってらんないよなあ。 I usually ...
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How can I differentiate if a word is (either fully or preferentially) used for spoken or written language?
Sorry if this has been answered before, but I couldn't find it.
I understand that when the on'yomi reading is used, this is associated with words with a more "literary" feeling or with written usage. ...
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How to address / refer to a specific kanji in speech
Original Question
When talking about kanjis or trying to explain a certain kanji, how do Japanese people usually refer to that specific kanji in speech without having to write anything or point to ...
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Saying い adjectives without pronouncing the い
As the title above, why do japanese locals remove theいfrom the いadjective when speaking. For example, I have heard words like 早、やば、高 being used when speaking. Is this only used amongst friends (very ...
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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 ...
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の and のです. What’s their semantic purpose and meaning?
So, I've reached a spoken language topic and encountered difficulties with understanding those particles that are used in spoken language. Particularly with の. My book says that, for example, の ...
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Translating "you" as 君 when giving a definition
I am trying to define the word "deceive". In English, I would say something like this (regardless of whether or not it is a good definition):
To deceive someone means that you lie to someone, and ...
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understanding what sounds like 「だけどお値段はもっていません。」
西友 CM 盛ってます編
懐中電灯盛り。 The flashlight style.
角ハンガー盛り。 The corner hanger style.
延長コード盛り。 The extension cord style.
ジャポニカ学習帳盛り。 ...
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Use of の + how to construct a phrase without it
First, this is my very first post here, and I am a complete newbie when it comes to the Japanese language. I have, however, been very interested in the Japanese language and culture: I have been doing ...
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