Questions tagged [translation]
翻訳. This site does not provide a translation service. However, questions about translation are welcome provided that they have some academic merit. For example, questions about translating uncommon words, phrases that have different meanings in different contexts, and other non-trivial topics.
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questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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Can そうにする be placed after all adjectives to form the meaning: (to pretend to be sth)
For example:
I saw 偉そうにする (to act important) in my textbook.
Could every adjective or 連用形 fit in this structure?
ex.
きれいそうにする (to act pretty)
ばかそうにする (to act like a fool)
見られなそうにする (to act as one can ...
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2
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がいると? Condtional to express "When x is around"
I've seen this a few times lately and I wanted to make sure I get it. Most recently I saw it on a video with an animal's thoughts narrated. It said この人間がいると安心できない。I take this as meaning "When ...
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Does 外公役 mean public servant?
I am just translating the Japanese wikipedia chart of the servants in the Ooku of Edo Castle. I have been doing okay until I got to the omote-dzukai part. This is the original:
表使 (おもてづかい) 外公役。...
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1
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Asking someone to sing a song with me
Ryura! Would you like to sing 'Isshin Furan' with me and a friend?
This is what I have so far...
Ryuraさん！「一心不乱」を私と一緒に歌えませんか？
Please help me make it sound more fluid if possible!
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聞いていない different meanings
So I saw somewhere that 聞いていない could mean "wasn't listening", or "didn't hear anything" but if they are all in the past, wouldn't they be 聞いていなかった?
聞く is a continous action, so ...
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Other meaning of ふたたび?
I'm reading Cardcaptor Sakura (Clear Card edition), and there is this sentence at the beginning (to explain to the reader who Eriol is), but I can't figure out the second part at all, please help!
「...
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What does ばかりで in "愉快な仲間ばかりで頼もしいぜ" mean
愉快な仲間ばかりで頼もしいぜ
I can not understand the ばかりで in this sentence. Are ばかり and で stand together or both of them stand alone?
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Can someone explain how で、だから works here diffrenttly than だ。だから?
くまは成熟したくまで、だからとても大きい。
I always see this construct as ...だ。だから never have i ever saw it used like this tried to search about it but could not find any thing useful .
How is this で、だから different than ...
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Meaning of くらい in this sentence
The Sentence
「君たちはお金をもらって会社で仕事を教えてもらい、鍛えられている。給料をもらうなんて話が逆だろう。会社がもらいたいくらいだ。授業料、持ってこい」
From my estimation (and thanks to @chocolate) this translates to: (?)
You guys are paid to be taught the work and ...
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Understanding a usage of ってこと
From the first episode of Death Note:
フッ… 楽に死なせたり苦しませて死なせたり できるってことか
I know the quoted part (up to and including って) means something like:
"one can let them die easily or let them suffer and ...
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How would a native speaker ask for ID and reason for stay?
My Japanese is pretty basic, but I know enough to know context matters. So the speaker in this would be a customs officer, like at airport security, speaking to a passenger entering the country. I ...
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Addressing a female child whose name you do not know?
I'm writing a piece in which a man tells a girl who he has just rescued from the rubble of a house to follow him. Right now, I just have him saying, “Come,” but I wonder if there's something idiomatic ...
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Detarame / 出鱈目 literal translation?
I recently encountered the Japanese phrase 出鱈目/デタラメ/detarame to mean... well, what we in English generally refer to as bull****. Which, the implications in the word from what it means is pretty ...
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Is Emmerich's translation of 特に望みもなく in Yoshimono Banana's みずうみ correct?
I'm reading Yoshimoto Banana's みずうみ in Japanese, and I decided to refer to Emmerich's translation into English to make sure I was following the beginning correctly since I'm still an intermediate ...
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How do you translate "A person who admits ignorance shows it once; the one who tries to hide it shows it often." to Japanese?
I have read that this proverb is of Japanese origin (correct me if I'm wrong), but was unable to find its Japanese form. Thank you in advance.
user40770
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Is '愛したら解放させ' a correct phrase? Is it's meaning clear?
I think I've read picked up the sentence '愛したら解放させ' somewhere a long time ago. It is supposed to mean 'if you love something then set it free'. Is it a correct sentence?
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What is the meaning of 外 after a verb?
For example, how can you translate the sentence:
前項の決定に加わる外、その他の業務を行う。
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I'd like to say "We are as flowers" as in 'similar to' for a dorama title. Is 私たちは花のようです acceptable?
So I'm looking to make up some sort of J-dorama and am looking for a proper title. The story is irrelevant, just that the title is supposed to mean that 'we are like flowers', as in 'similar to', but ...
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Meaning of しかも and それで in Yes-No question
I see that しかも and それで usually connect 2 sentence together. But I see them place at the beginning in Yes-No questions.
1)"しかも歌うんかい"
2)"それで上手いんかい"
Does it mean 1) "(Moreover) is he singing?" and 2) "...
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Interpretation of にはな in this sentence
I know that based on the title it might sound a bit odd, but thing is, there's a video game I like and it only has an English dub and Japanese subtitles.
There's a line (which is spoken by a guy), ...
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What is the meaning or usage of the に at the end of the following sentence?
あなたもできる対処法とは? 不安から日常安心できる生活に 。
So what does the に here refer to? Is it になる?
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about the translation of this sentence
**
単語検索で聴取できる男声サンプルは，ます形など，共通語では無声化されるところを無声化せずに読んでいます。また，男女ともに，名詞の音声サンプルは提供していません。
**
My translation is :As for the the male sample that could be heard by the word search, masu form and common ...
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「生かんとする」 in a relative clause
These are part of the lyrics of the fifth ending theme of Hunter x Hunter (the 2011 animation).
朝{あさ}をむさぼり 夜{よる}を吐{は}き出{だ}し
生{い}かんとする 我{わ}が性{さが}
It seems 「生かんとする」 means 「生きようとする」:
生く(archaic form of ...
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What is Yamouen/Yamoen?
I've been hearing something like yamoen for the meaning of "can't be helped". Similar to shouganai from my guess. I can't find it in any dictionary. Am I getting the word wrong or is it a colloquial ...
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Do 最愛の人 and ダーリン mean the same thing?
I looked up for the word "darling" and got two different answers and I just want to know if they both mean the same thing.
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なんてね interpretation
So we have the following situation. There is persons A, B and C. Long ago A and B were friends when according to A B suddenly betrayed her. Now A has been using C for a long while pretending to be a ...
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"I wish I could say…"
Just wondering how you would say "I wish I could say "I miss you""?
I was thinking it would be something along the lines of 「恋しい」語るできたらいいのに although I'm not sure. Thanks!
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だって, なんだって and some other interpretation questions
I have couple of issues/questions about a certain piece of monologue from a manga. Because it's from a manga I will be separating the lines based on boxes in which they are in, and using / to separate ...
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What does 丸ごとアルミホイルで包み mean here?
The following is an excerpt from a conversation between me and my language partner:
ニンニクも植えていますので、丸ごとアルミホイルで包み、オーブンで焼いて食べることがあります。
My attempt at translation:
"Because we also grow garlic, we also eat ...
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What does "なのか" mean in 彼女 が 誰 なのか わかりますか?
彼女 が 誰 なのか わかりますか。is a question which has 2 "ka" question markers? or is it 2 questions? (Could it be translated as who is she? you know? )
And what does the "なの" means here? I think I've heard other ...
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Use of なら in this context - Concerning?
I was trying to translate this song but the first couple of lines didn't make much sense to me.
There seem to be a lot of inferred particles or something, because there seem to be a bunch of unrelated ...
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Choosing the correct level of politeness when translating foreign material
Here is my question: how do you choose the correct level of politeness in Japanese, when translating foreign material that may not follow Japanese rules? Let's say we have a formal setting, e.g. a ...
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Meaning of 〜たら in 好きな人に告白したら、サインを貰いました
好きな人に告白したら、サインを貰いました。(This comes from a manga)
I get the gist of the sentence, in that it means something like "I confessed to the person I like, but I received his signature instead" or &...
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How would you apologise for not inviting someone to an event?
In English I would say something along the line of 'Sorry! I forgot to invite you to the party'. This would be in conversation to a friend. How would this translate to Japanese?
Edit (First post to ...
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Understanding なんか in 「なんで鍵なんか閉めてんの？」
I know that なんか has various uses, one of which is similar to a dismissive など, where <NOUN>なんか can mean "thing like NOUN" (dismissively).
Question: Is that what's going on here
...
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the meaning of "のこと" in this sentence
Ohayou, please i wanted to understand the exact meaning of this definition-like sentence :
"何か、機械とかに人間っぽいことをさせる、知能を持たせるみたいなまあ広い枠組みのことをAIと言って"
And because I found it difficult to really grasp ...
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Doubt about third conditional sentence
This is a sentence from Death Note. The assassin has just said "I am victorious!" thinking his plan to kill everyone was successful. But being alive and still, the detective says:
あなたはさっき、...
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What's a good way to say "liminal"?
I speak a fair amount of Japanese (from America, live in Kobe, Japan), but am having a hard time finding a good way to say liminal.
The best I can think of is things like gap or transition 間 【あいだ】
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What does「DISC...ここなら隠し場所として位置づけだない」mean?
A line of dialogue from a video game that I'm trying to translate. From what I have gathered, DISC...ここなら隠し場所として位置づけだない is referring to a disc and a hiding spot. What would be a good translation that ...
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Phrase Interpretation 一生会えない気がする。。。
もし俺がここで諦めたら、一生会えない気がする
If I give up here, I don't think I'll never see him again.
If I give up here, I feel that I'll never ever ( in my whole life ) see him again.
My question is simple, what would ...
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How do I say "for the present"?
I need to translate "fight for the present" for a personal poem and I would like to divide it into two rows: "fight" and "for the present". Is it possible?
I'm pretty ...
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ABSOLUTE necessity of particle に in "topic marker" には
"This store has all sorts of bags": この店は鞄が色々あります should be a good translation and a natural sentence, which is different from "There are all sorts of bags in this store": ...
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What does 拭いて も みて も 落ちね mean?
This is a line from a song, and the previous one is "My reflection in a mirror so tainted I can´t see a thing"
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Translation of the kagura song
おおおお…
天地に き揺らかすは
さゆらかす
神わがも
神こそは きねきこう
き揺らならば……
This is dedication to the god Gozu Tennou from the video game Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne Maniacs.
It's almost the same as the first line of one of ...
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How to say someone's (possessive) home in Japanese?
The romantic phrase "you're my home," I was wondering how you would translate that into Japanese using someone's name? More specifically, how to say "Mya's home" & "Nathan'...
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Example with 〜だけでなくて、〜も patern that I don't understand
I'm asking about a grammar patern found in Tobira, that is : 〜だけ{でなく(て)/じゃなく(て)}、〜も (not only 〜, but also 〜). In the grammar point, I can understand the given examples.
For more information, one can ...
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I'm having trouble understanding what "開き直った、とも言いますが" means
I wish I could formulate this question in a better way because there's a million people on here who have posted similar "don't know what this means, please tell me" and I don't mean this to be low ...
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てんで方向ちがいじゃない！ DB Chapter2 Double negatives
Translated as: "It's completely in the wrong direction!"
てんで = Completely / At all
方向【ほうこう】 = direction
ちがい = wrong
じゃない = is not
I'm struggling with doble negatives in japanese. In ...
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Help with translating this quote
I'm going to say a word on peace, participating in contest at university, and I have literally no one to check what I've written, and it's tomorrow.
I think of putting this quote from Ibn El Romi:
...
