Questions tagged [suffixes]
接尾辞. Endings which can be added to the end of a word and change its meaning or function in some way. Often divided into inflectional (屈折的) and derivational (派生的), although it's not always clear which category a suffix belongs to. Suffixes and prefixes are both types of "affix". Often referred to as 接尾語.
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Differences among -たら, なら, -と, -んだったら, -ば, etc
The Japanese language has a lot of patterns for "if" clauses. What are the differences among the following patterns and how do we choose to use one over the others?:
行くと
行ったら
行くなら
行けば
行くんだったら
行くのなら
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What does -komu (～込む) at the end of a word mean?
There are loads of words in Japanese which end in 込{こ}む, like 吸{す}い込む, 読{よ}み込む, 入{はい}り込む, 打{う}ち込む, 売{う}り込む, 送{おく}り込む, 押{お}し込む. How does adding ～込む change the meaning? What is the meaning that links ...
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What is the difference between -さ and -み suffixes to make a noun out of an adjective?
For example, both 悲しさ and 悲しみ are glossed as “sadness” in JMdict. What's the difference?
According to A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, 〜み “is more emotive and concrete characterization of some ...
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What is the usage of 〜げ and how does it differ from 〜そう or 〜っぽい?
How do these two differ, for example:
寂しそう vs 寂しげ
楽しそう vs 楽しげ
言いたそう vs 言いたげ
大人げ vs 大人っぽい（...？ Not sure if this one works.)
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"slightly/somewhat" の 「～[目]{め}」: Usage and limitations
I'm somewhat confused about the usage and limitations of the ～め suffix that means "somewhat/slightly". I've only ever heard it on a handful of words:
大きめ
小さ目
多め
少な目
早め
and maybe a ...
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Meaning behind adding 'め' after someone's name?
I've come across this once or twice where people will say someone's name and then add 'め' in an irritable/victorious tone [e.g: ヒカルめ, マコトめ, etc.], but I've yet to find a textbook example explaining ...
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What is ~げに suffix actually?
Today, while looking up random words in WWWJDIC, I stumbled upon an example sentence for the word いとしい as below:
少女は人形をいとしげに抱き締めた。 The girl squeezed her doll affectionately.
The sentence uses ~げに ...
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ち suffix I've never heard of before
Ok, so I've been reading よつばと recently, and I've been seeing a suffix coming up that I cannot seem to find a meaning for. It's not in any dictionary, and I'm not sure if it's a name suffix, or some ...
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What's the reading of -中 as a suffix?
I see this all the time, but I don't know that I've heard it spoken.
For example: インストール中
Is it simply "なか"?
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How to distinguish between passive and potential forms of the verb?
I've read that potential form of the ru-verb is formed by replacing る with られる, which is exactly the same for the passive form of ru-verbs. How can we tell the passive form and potential apart in this ...
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What is the origin of っこない?
There's a construction V+っこない which means something like "have no way of doing V".
お前には分かりっこないでしょう。
There's no way you would understand.
Is it known what this construction originates from? ...
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-的 adjectives modifying nouns without な
Am I correct in thinking that these are ok without a na:
1) 印象的な事実
2) 印象的事実
3) 客観的な事実
4) 客観的事実
But these need a na?:
5) 明らかな事実
6) ＊?明らか事実
7) 簡単な事実
8) ＊?簡単事実
(From a quick look, ...
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Usage of the suffixes 流, 風, 式, 的 and 様
If I was to put the suffixes 流{りゅう}, 風{ふう}, 的{てき}, 式{しき} and 様{よう} on the end of a noun etc, what would be the difference between them?
I could be wrong, but the following all seem to me to mean ...
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"Do completely" suffixes (〜しまう, 〜きる, 〜ぬく) or verbs and their differences
What is the difference between
(verbて) しまう (in it's "do completely" meaning),
( verbStem) きる,
(verbStem) ぬく (if any)?
In examples for しまう for this meaning it didn't seem to overlap with ...
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How would you express "sphere" or "world" in the Japanese language?
How would you express the concept of "sphere" or "world" in Japanese? For example, "Anglosphere" or "Indian speaking world". Is there a repeating pattern or suffix for this purpose, or are there just ...
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How to understand 抄 in Japanese?
In the names of cartoon movies 桜花抄, 百鬼夜行抄, what's the special meaning of 抄? Is it a kind of synonym of 物語?
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Is the only time 得る read as うる when it's a suffix?
Just wondering If choosing a reading is as simple as whether
得る is a suffix.
This is from tatoeba.org, a wiki-like sentence mine, so I'm not sure if える, the reading entered is correct.
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Is there a general purpose equivalent for the "agent suffix" -er of English?
In English any verb can be turned into a kind of noun called an "agent noun", that just means the do-er of the action:
to drive - driver
to walk - walker
to think - thinker
to drink - drinker
...
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What are the rules for the plural suffix ～ら
I came across the following in a newspaper article:
藤沢健太教授（宇宙物理学）らの研究グループ
The first part (藤沢健太教授) is the name of a professor (Professor Kenta Fujisawa). The parentheses say "Astrophysics", and ...
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The meaning of 切る on the end of verbs
Is there a general meaning for 切る on the end of verbs?
I think it might have to do with "completely doing" something. If that's the case, how does ～切る on the end of verbs differ from ～てしまう, for ...
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What are the characteristics of the suffix ～びる?
The word 大人びた is in common use in Japanese, but I noticed that I couldn't think of another use of ～びる apart from that. EDICT lists only 大人びた and 鄙びた. Kotobank lists 田舎びた and 古びる, although according ...
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Is there a pattern to the usage of 〜的 on the end of words?
Sometimes I think it's more obvious when to use 〜的 as a suffix for example 国家 "nation/state" vs 国家的 "national", but in a lot of other cases I think the distinction might be more blurred, and they ...
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Doesn't ～ニン（人）as a suffix imply that it is a counter of people
I was looking to some examples of the use of 人 and I found this one in Jisho.org
http://jisho.org/search/人
２００人{にん}の人{ひと}が昨年コレラで死んだ。
Two hundred people died of cholera last year.
With furigana ...
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Adding つき to the end of nouns
湯ぶねに体を沈めると、どばーっと色つきのお湯があふれた。
When he sank his body into the bath, the coloured hot water gushed over.
I took me a while to figure out that 色つき meant 'coloured'. It isn't in the bi-lingual ...
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Meaning of る in 問われたる
From the beginning of the novel "The Grove", what does the る mean in
検非違使に問われた る 木樵りの物語
問われた is the passive of 問う, but where does the る come from? Is it the short form of いる?
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Relation between -ますよ and -ましょう
They sound alike. Are they cognate historically?
Morphologically, is よ in both cases a particle or part of the morpheme in -ましょう?
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Placing a quantifier between a noun and particle?
this is my first question here so please bare with me.
Until the other day I was aware of two different ways use counters
As an adverb.
ペンを３本買いました。
As a noun.
３本のペンを買いました。
The ...
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Is "お寿司屋さん" personification?
"寿司屋" means just a "sushi restaurant". I've heard "お寿司屋さん" spoken a few times. As far as I know, only a person's name can be suffixed with "さん". So, is "お寿司屋さん" a personification?
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Any rules for a suffix on english words?
(Note: I'm part of the "I know bits and pieces of Japanese from watching anime" group, so I lack an in-depth knowledge of Japanese)
As I'm hearing Japanese occasionally there will be an English word ...
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Use of 物 as a noun suffix, specifically 配達物
More pain with Duolingo. I've come across the word 配達物{はいたつぶつ}. It's supposed to mean "delivery" but it's not in Jisho, it's not in Weblio, it's not in my beginner paper dictionary and it's ...
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What does the word 「っぴい」 mean?
Here is the sentence containing the word.
おことわりだね おまえみたいな 弱｛よわ｝っぴいと組むなんて！
やるんなら おれひとりでやらあ。
In my opinion, I think it would be transformation of the word 弾き or 'player' but I'm not uncertain if it is ...
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What is "masu-stem + ざま"?
Here is a part of a sentence from my book:
・・・・手裏剣をよけざま・・・・
I can't find any help in any of my references on the pattern of "masu-stem + ざま", which makes me hesitant to say that's exactly what it ...
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Pronunciation of 対応済
Is the pronunciation of 対応済 たいおうすみ or たいおうずみ ?
Context: Software
Example:
ユーザが押したときに問題が起こらないように対応済
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Is 可能 a productive suffix?
I learnt the phrase 再生可能なエネルギー today. The meaning of 再生可能 is clear, but it doesn't appear in any dictionaries I've looked at. In this case 可能 is like adding the suffix '-able' in English.
I wonder if ...
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「めく」の使い方、どのような場合に「めく」を使うのが自然ですか。
goo辞書によると、「めく」という接尾語はいくつかの品詞（動詞を除く）に付き、五段の動詞を作ります。作られた動詞の意味は「〜という感じがする」に似ています。質問は、一般に「めく」という接尾語はどのような言葉に付きますか。
辞書の事例を見ると、「今更めく」や「仄｛ほの｝めく」などといった例が辞書に項目を持っているので、「めく」の使い方には制限があると感じます。
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Shop or Shop Owner
If you have the name of a shop plus さん, what possibilities are there for the translation? I get the sense that it can either be a formal way to speak, or it can mean the store person.
薬屋 = pharmacy
...
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ほしがっている versus ほしそうだ
I don't really understand the differences between the following sentences.
彼は新しい車をほしがっている。
彼は新しい車をほしそうだ。
In both sentences, the speakers made conjectures based on the sign that the third person (彼) ...
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What is the best way to translate 中？?
Although this seems to be more of an English question, it deals with Japanese usage, so I would like some help here.
We know the kanji 中; I am talking about when this is used for processes that are ...
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Adding っぷり to a word: Does this have some easily defined meaning?
I came across the following sentence in a Manga:
コケっぷりもかわいいです。
and I looked the sentence up in the translated Manga, where I found something like (translation was into German):
And she's also ...
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meaning of さ after noun?
I can't figure out why in the sentence
「煙を吐き、その煙さに波香は自分で顔をしかめた。」
the second 煙 is followed by a さ. I know さ as a way to nominalize a noun. But 煙 already is one... so what function does it have ...
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What is 「たもうた」 in 「 神の創りたもうた世界」?
I'd like to know what is the suffix たもうた used in the example phrase 「 神の創りたもうた世界」. I've found several more occurrences of it and it seem to work like some honorific equivalent of くださる used in ...
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How to pronounce 上 with the meaning of "when"?
I know how to pronounce and translate 上 in 1, but not sure if it is pronounced うえ or じょう in 2 and if it is also translated "when". Could someone explain case 2 please?
利用上{りようじょう}の注意{ちゅうい}
...
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What is the difference between 出す and 始める when used as a suffix?
Judging from examples I've seen, these are some differences I think there are:
始める:
1: More formal than 出す
2: When the focus in more on the beginning of the verb than the verb itself
3: When the ...
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クラウド上で - pronunciation?
I've seen 上で quite a few times recently, in contexts like:
In the cloud
クラウド上で
and：
On the computer
コンピュータ上
In this case, is it pronounced うえ, as in クラウドうえで, or じょう?
Silly little question, but ...
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Difference between 「~がる」 and 「～そう」
「～がる」と「～そう」の違いは何でしょうか。感覚的に同じではないことは分かりますが、説明はできません。どうも「～がる」形はもはや口語ではあまり使われないように感じます（「怖がる」「怖そう」などの完全に意味が変わる形容詞を除く。）。そういったレジスター(言語使用域)の違いも含めての回答を期待しています。もしこの質問がDuplicateであれば、元の質問を教えていただければ幸いです。
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What does「新聞っぽい曜日」mean? Newspaperish? Commonplace? Routine?
This is a practice problem from a textbook on natural language processing:
やってみよう:ブラウンコーパスのニュースとロマンスの 2 つのジャンルのデータを利用して、どの曜日がもっとも新聞っぽく、どの曜日がもっともロマンチックかを調べてみよう。
"Which day of the week is newspaperish?...
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か as a suffix to mean "a few": Why is 何__かがVERB not allowed
Here is yet another puzzling sentence for me from a dictionary I am using:
何ページ か 欠けている。 A few pages are missing. (研究社)
My understanding is that while 何ページ ambiguously means "what/which/how many ...
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Is ～がる suffix limited to specific adjectives only?
I noticed that there are some adjectives that have ～がる suffix to make them into verbs. Some examples from WWWJDIC:
ほしがる
こわがる
いたがる
くるしがる
さびしがる
うれしがる
Apparently ～たい form also can take the ～...
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What's the origin of ～み following a 形容詞?
I found a HiNative question where someone asked about the difference between [痛]{いた}さ and [痛]{いた}み. A native Japanese speaker gave this answer:
「痛さ」は形容詞「痛い」が名詞化した名詞です。
「痛み」は動詞「痛む」の連用形が名詞化した名詞です。
I ...
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たら as an emotional suffix [closed]
In this phrase I couldn't find another meaning of たら (I guess it's not -た＋ら）:
自分たらの事しか考えてなかった
I'd translate it as "I think only of my own business" or "I think only of myself".
I found in Denshi ...
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