23
votes
Why does 'アプリストア’ mean appstore?
The word application in Japanese is 「アプリケーション」. The shortened form (akin to app) is 「アプリ」, rather than just 「アップ」 as one might expect coming from English.
Therefore the word for app store is, as you'd ...
- 495
19
votes
Accepted
What is the significance of ココ and サ in emoji?
🈂 is for サービス, as in receiving something for free. However, I've seen several other sources say this means "service charge", which is the complete opposite of free. So I'm not positive if it's one ...
- 43.9k
15
votes
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Meaning of ちはース
This is just "Hi".
こんちゃ/こんちわ/ちわ/ちは/etc is a very casual version of こんにちは. Of course this は is pronounced "wa".
For "ーす", see: What does っす at the end of a sentence mean?
Jisho.org also has an entry ...
- 307k
14
votes
Accepted
Why does the word for "high school" use 校 instead of 学?
First of all, 小学, 中学 and 高校 are abbreviations. The full (non-abbreviated) forms are:
小学校
中学校
高等学校
大学
You can already see some inconsistencies. Only 高等学校 has two characters before 学. 大学 are ...
- 307k
14
votes
Accepted
Japanese symbol for "Japanese language"
ES, DE, EN are all ISO codes -- "ISO" as in "International Standards Organization" (technically, it's the "International Organization for Standardization"). These codes ...
- 36.9k
12
votes
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Pronunciation of「ww」(笑い)
This is usually not intended to be read aloud, but the most prevailing "reading" is not わらう but わら. For example, ww is わらわら.
笑うを意味する「ｗｗｗ」をなんて読んでる？ 「ｗは読まずに前の文を笑いながら」「わらわらわら」
You can mainly hear this ...
- 307k
10
votes
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How does one pronounce ≒ the symbol for "approximately"?
We pronounce/read ≒ as 「ニアリーイコール」 in maths class in Japanese schools.
For example, we read these:
10 ÷ 3 ≒ 3.3
「じゅうわるさん ニアリーイコール さんてんさん」
√2 ≒ 1.414
「ルート に ニアリーイコール いってんよんいちよん」
参考：
https://sci-...
- 65.3k
9
votes
Accepted
Leaving away the 目 suffix for ordinal numbers
Nページ can mean "N page(s)" referring to the number of pages (eg 300ページの本 = a 300-page book). However, Nページ can also mean "page N", the page marked with that number. On the other ...
- 307k
8
votes
Accepted
How is 向 pronounced in 男性向同人?
Yes, 男性向 is a valid abbreviation, and still pronounced だんせいむけ. Okurigana is often omitted, especially in longer compounds like 男性向同人.
Similar examples:
受け付け = 受付け = 受付 = うけつけ ("reception")
申し込み = ...
- 307k
8
votes
Accepted
What's the difference between すべき (subeki) and べき (beki)?
べき is used with a verb in its "dictionary form".
[verb]べき
should [verb]
As you can see, べき by itself corresponds to "should", but it never appears by itself (just like "...
- 48k
7
votes
Accepted
What does ㊙︎DVD mean?
This is a common abbreviation style to suggest a certain phrase by enclosing a single kanji in the word. Some frequently used symbols are now officially available on the computer (see 1, 2) due to ...
- 50.7k
7
votes
Why does the word for "high school" use 校 instead of 学?
Additional post to provide a bit more detail.
Appearance of 高校
FWIW, it appears that the term 高校 first appears around 1949, shortly after the 1948 promulgation of a new Japanese educational law, ...
- 36.9k
6
votes
Accepted
6
votes
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Japanese chat romaji based acronym/abbreviation usage and meanings
See KY語 in Wikipedia. There is even a dictionary for this type of words, but this trend is something in the past, and most of them are completely forgotten.
As of 2019, ones that are still sometimes ...
6
votes
Why does 'アプリストア’ mean appstore?
From what I can tell it's actually called the "App Store" in English letters, where they sell アプリ.
As for the reason they prefer アプリ...
Japanese like to shorten foreign borrowed words if ...
- 161
5
votes
5
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of 副助?
Dictionaries usually list abbreviations. 副助 stands for 副助詞 "adverbial particle", i.e. [副助] = [adv. part.].
The suffix 詞 is added to all parts of speech and is omitted in the abbreviations. There are ...
- 48k
5
votes
Accepted
Is 食べてたい correct?
“食べてたい” is a colloquial and contracted form of - ”食べていたい - I want to keep eating.”
Likewise, “寝てたい – I want to stay in bed,” “起きてたい ‐ I want to stay up (all night),” and “(一晩中)喋ってたい - I want to ...
- 9,505
4
votes
Accepted
Understanding a colloquial sentence and meaning of やっぱ
It's probably やっぱり男じゃないと（できない）な or やっぱり男じゃないと（だめだ）な.
Probably referring to the character wanting a male teacher because of some internal reason (perhaps his image of teachers are male or there is ...
- 4,037
4
votes
のです abbreviated to んで？
This is just ので, as you surmised. Since the sentence ends there, it probably refers to something the speaker said just before this. Here you could translate the ので/んで kind of like the ", you see." in "...
- 1,849
4
votes
Accepted
体言止め can only be applied to サ変名詞 when する is just する (and not past or passive), right?
Note that you don't have to use 体言止め. It's very common, but still is a kind of rhetorical device to make a sentence look more vivid, dramatic, concise, etc. Plain Japanese sentences usually do not use ...
- 307k
4
votes
Accepted
Abbreviation and meaning of 「よか」?
Yes, this よか is a slangy variant of よりか "(rather) than ～", which in turn is a colloquial version of より. See this entry.
Wikipedia says this is originally nothern-Kanto dialect but has been ...
- 307k
4
votes
why does "ru" turn into "n" at times?
This is not a conjugation: this is an abbreviation or contraction that happens due to the sounds involved and the biomechanics of the shape of the mouth when articulating these sounds.
This is similar ...
- 36.9k
4
votes
3
votes
Abbreviations (etc.)
I think there is no formal research about abbreviation of Japanese vocabularies; however some people who are involved into Japanese language education for non-native speakers seem to have tried to ...
- 129
3
votes
Is there a specific reading for 常訓 and 常音?
As noted by naruto in the comments, neither of these are regular words, and both look like abbreviations. I suspect that 常訓 is short for 常用【じょうよう】訓【くん】読【よ】み, and that 常音 is short for 常用【じょうよう】音【おん】読【...
- 36.9k
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