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.
33
questions
6
votes
2answers
3k views
2
votes
2answers
792 views
わからない vs わかね in My Boss My Hero
I was watching My Boss My Hero, and I could have sworn he said わかね instead of わからない. Is this feasible? Is there some dialect that drops off ない for ね?
34
votes
3answers
5k views
全然 {ぜんぜん} with positive adjective / na-adjective
In Japanese classes, I was taught that 全然 can only be used with negative-meaning words/phrases/clauses, for example:
全然出来ません
全然だめです
However, I've observed that, especially in spoken Japanese, ...
19
votes
5answers
3k views
How do Japanese speakers transition from polite to plain form amongst friends?
When you first meet somebody, polite language is, on the whole, the most commonly used form of Japanese. Children may differ, and I understand that not everyone will use plain form, but regardless a ...
14
votes
3answers
3k views
In actual Japanese society, how often are second-person pronouns used?
My Japanese professor (I'm in first-year Japanese) advised us to primarily avoid the use of second-person pronouns like あなた or 君 or おまえ throughout the year, and essentially treated their utterance as ...
25
votes
5answers
10k views
How does pitch accent work in Japanese?
My studies taught me there's two ways to say each mora in Japanese, with the way you normally talk and when you put a bit more emphasis on a mora, i.e. when someone says なつかしい, the word would be ...
4
votes
3answers
647 views
In real life, do Japanese speakers exclaim things like 熱っ！ or 痛たた… or 寒！?
In anime and Japanese television and so forth, I've noticed that people confronted with a sudden undesired stimulus, like heat or pain or cold, will often utter something like 熱っ【あつっ】！ or 痛たた【いたたた】… ...
7
votes
2answers
2k views
Etymology of もん・もの
How do I make sense of the 終助詞 もん as in
おいしいもん
そうなんだもん
Although I have only heard it in 時代劇 speak, I guess it comes from もの, which I think should be も + の.
But what も can follow the 終止形 and ...
23
votes
7answers
6k views
おっす！ An abbreviation for … what exactly?
Going hiking here in Japan, you can hardly pass anyone without either saying お疲れさまです, おはようございます (I go hiking in the morning) or こんにちは.
Some people (young males in particular) greet you with either ...
10
votes
1answer
297 views
かかったためしない - how can this be translated?
I encountered the following sentence in a comic book which I could not make sense of.
The comic strip depicts a character using a simple bird trap and saying:
「長年やってるけどかかったためしないなあ」
The first part, ...
7
votes
1answer
416 views
What is the よっか in はじめよっか?
I'm still playing Game Boy Wars Advance 2, and I keep running into colloquial forms I'm unfamiliar with. Here's one I haven't been able to look up:
じゃ、さっそく、はじめよっか。
My guess is that はじめよっか is a ...
2
votes
2answers
277 views
Does using the characters です at the end of a sentence make almost everything(depending on the sentence) sound polite?
For example if i say something like,"あなたはやさしい人です”。
Versus if I say,"あなたはやさしい人".
Is the second sentence (stated above) grammatically correct or does there "need" to be a particle at the end of my ...
8
votes
1answer
329 views
How to hear the difference between て and で, た and だ, か and が, etc.?
How can I learn to hear the difference between て and で, た and だ, か and が, etc.?
For example, when I people say "わたし", it sounds to me like "wa da shi" instead of "wa ta shi". The same things happens ...
4
votes
1answer
178 views
Is 隠れていなくて correct?
I found this in a phrase: 隠れていなくて.
I can translate it simply as "aren't hiding" or "were hiding"?
By the way, is it correct or is 隠れていません better?
By the way, the whole phrase is
...
3
votes
2answers
2k views
Is “da” used often in the casual speech?
Is "da" used often in the casual speech? Or is it often omitted whenever it's possible? For example:
1) Genki (da)?
2) Suki (da)?
3) Ke wa atsui (da) ne?
35
votes
2answers
7k views
Where does “もしもし” (moshimoshi) for answering the telephone come from?
Does the term "もしもし" (moshimoshi) predate the telephone? Does it have any use besides answering the phone? Where does it come from, is it just a reduplication of "もし" (moshi) "if", and if so how does ...
20
votes
3answers
54k views
Using なるほど (naruhodo) and やっぱり (yappari) in the same situation
I know, since they are of different word classes, なるほど (naruhodo) and やっぱり (yappari) may not be used interchangeably within the same sentence, but can they be used within the same situation instead?
...
3
votes
1answer
4k views
The usage of いや in response to questions
My question is about the usage and meaning of いや in response to questions. Take, for example, the 2 examples below.
1)
「僕たちは、もっと親睦を深める必要があると思うのでござるよ」
「いきなりどうしたのよ、何か思うところでも？」
「いや、...
15
votes
1answer
13k views
What are the stereotypical characteristics of yakuza speech?
When people imitate yakuza speech, what are the major things they do to make it recognizable as such?
If possible, how accurate is this compared to actual yakuza speech?
I've seen mention elsewhere ...
6
votes
2answers
234 views
Distinguishing between んな/な, んの/の, etc
I'm learning Japanese, but I'm still very early on in my education (Rosetta Stone, some books and a Japanese-speaking friend). I'm pretty sure I'm grasping the basic concepts okay, but I'm having ...
5
votes
1answer
679 views
What does こういうの refer to in こういうのって天然が一番怖いのよ
どこまでドジっ娘なのよ、あの子
あはは…ま、まあ、わざとじゃないんだし
こういうのって天然が一番怖いのよ
context: あの子 forgot something back in her room that they need and is in the process of going to get it and the other two then begin to ...
9
votes
2answers
295 views
About cutting the sentences short
I've been told during my Japanese classes, and I've also observed in anime and Japanese dramas & movies, that sometimes when talking Japanese people tend to stop halfway and omit the end of ...
6
votes
1answer
612 views
Pronunciation of ううん
The pitch contour of the interjection ううん has been described as high, low, middle. Alternatively, it has been described as a falling-rising tone. In either case, this appears to be unique in ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views
What does やっぱり mean in [そこまでなんだって、思っちゃうもん……やっぱり]
「もうみーくん、またそういうこと言って」
「駄目ですか？」
「ううん、それも嬉しい、ドキドキする」
「そこまでなんだって、思っちゃうもん……やっぱり」
I'm a bit confused as to what this やっぱり is doing in the sentence above.
3
votes
1answer
269 views
What does それ refer to in それでいい in this exchange?
「ええい、御託はいい！！それより流星。お前は見たくはないのか？嫁達の喜ぶ姿を。」
「嫁達の喜ぶ姿…」
「しかも温泉で！」
「お、温泉で…」
「…わ、分かった。嫁達の健康と笑顔には変えられん。」
「ふははははっ、それでいい、それでいいのだ、流星！」
In this exchange I'm a bit confused as to what the それ is actually ...
12
votes
2answers
678 views
What do I do when I encounter “Written Japanese”?
I have read in grammar dictionaries some words/phrases that are labelled as "Written Japanese" and should not be used in normal speech.
Let's take for example the sentence-ending こと indicating a ...
7
votes
1answer
476 views
What does うんたらかんたら mean?
I recently heard this phrase being told in a show, but I just couldn't make sense of what it means...And what really caught my attention was that the listener was really surprised to hear this phrase ...
4
votes
1answer
434 views
の意味は何 versus はどういう意味
What is the difference between の意味は何 and はどういう意味? When asking for the definition of a word, I've been told to use the latter, but I don't know why the former is incorrect.
4
votes
2answers
205 views
Meaning of 一度や二度じゃ、とうてい伝えきれないくらいに
その返事と、その笑顔が、一番たまらなかった。
一度や二度じゃ、とうてい伝えきれないくらいに。
My main confusion is with the 一度や二度じゃ part of the above. The character just confessed his feelings to someone and after hearing her response we ...
3
votes
2answers
2k views
What does the expression くそかわ mean?
I read many times the expression くそかわ referred to babies, what does it exactly mean in english?
I know that くそ means "damn" while かわ comes from かわいい, right?
So damn cute?
Thank you!
3
votes
2answers
397 views
How to use the emotional って？
That comes from Ranma 1/2. Ranma asked Akane to wake up him up, and she did that by throwing water on him.
He then said:
何しやがるんだ！
What the hell are ya doing!
When she left, he then thought out ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Relationship between どゆこと and どういうこと
I came across the expression "どゆこと" in the show "世界の日本人妻は見た!". For example, at 21:12 in an episode involving a Mongolian husband.
The phrase is also mentioned in the Wikipedia article about the show:
...
2
votes
3answers
786 views
