41
This question frequently comes up among foreigners in Japan, especially men, as it seems there's a feeling that sticking with 私{わたし} is somehow too "textbook". It's as if using 私{わたし} is an indication of still learning, or perhaps not yet having been integrated into Japanese language and culture enough.
Men often wonder if they should use 僕{ぼく}, or 俺{おれ} ...
22
but I am constantly baffled by why certain loan words from English are constructed using certain katakana sounds.
Loan words do not necessarily need to be borrowed from English. In fact, most old loan words (in the 外来語 sense) were borrowed from Portuguese.
For example, if someone asked me to say "energy" in Japanese, I would have guessed エナジー or maybe ...
19
The particle な indeed has both meanings: "Don't do ～" and "Do ～". From デジタル大辞泉:
１ 動詞・動詞型助動詞の終止形、ラ変型活用語の連体形に付く。禁止の意を表す。「油断する―」「まだ帰る―」「かの尼君などの聞かむに、おどろおどろしく言ふ―」〈源・夕顔〉
２ 《補助動詞「なさる」の命令形「なさい」の省略形》動詞・動詞型助動詞の連用形に付く。命令の意を表す。「早く行き―」「好きなようにやり―」
To distinguish, な means "don't" when it follows the dictionary-form, and "do" when it follows the masu-stem.
するな。 ...
18
The first thing to understand here is that じゃん forms a tag question, so it's entirely different than the negative form:
このゲームは楽しい。 This game is fun.
このゲームは楽しいじゃん。 This game is fun, isn't it?
このゲームは楽しくない。 This game isn't fun.
このゲームは楽しくないじゃん。 This game isn't fun, is it?
じゃん is an informal version of じゃない; this use of じゃない as a tag question ...
17
They're contracted from かけちゃおう and つないじゃおう, which are colloquial versions of 駆{か}けてしまおう and 繋{つな}いでしまおう, "let's run" and "lets connect", in this case 手を繋ぐ, "hold hands"
The auxiliary verb しまう usually means "do something accidentally", but in this case in the volitional form, it's used to express carefreeness.
手を繋いじゃおう Let's hold hands (and not care ...
16
Your two examples are incorrect in the “standard” dialect.
Some dialects (such as the Gunma dialect and the Saitama dialect) use ん instead of の in a question as in your first example. The second example may also be used in some dialects.
15
1 and 2 are conjunctive だって used at the beginning of a sentence.
買わなかったよ。だって、高かったんだ。
I didn't buy it. [After all / Because] it was expensive.
「買えって言ったでしょう？」「だって、高かったんだ。」
"Didn't I tell you to buy it?" "But it was expensive!"
This kind of だって is used to argue back, or to provide further explanation to convince someone. It's translated as "but" ...
15
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 for this. Other variations include ちわっす, こんちゃっす, ちゃーっす, ちゃーす, ちっす and ちーす.
13
Unfortunately, it is unlikely that these Japanese letters have anything to do with summer.
These are mascots of Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd., a company run by Takashi Murakami, the artist who painted this Google Doodle. Also note that the same mascots appear in the Winter Solstice Doodle, too.
12
Chakoshi to the rescue! (Chakoshi is a tool for searching both the Aozora and conversational Japanese corpora at Nagoya University.)
A quick search for a "[noun]ん[noun]" pattern in the conversational corpus gives 262 results, most of which are what you are asking about. Broken down, there's actually not much variety in the nouns that follow ん:
とき (99): ...
12
をば is basically the particles を + は combined together. It works like を but places extra emphasis on the object (in theory; in practice this "extra emphasis" might be diluted so that it basically just signals formal style).
So this sort of をば works like the を in "ご協力を！" (as a complete utterance) -- there is an action implied, but the actual verb is left ...
12
This doesn't only happen with じゃない > じゃねえ, but generally /ai/ > /ee/, like
きたない > きたねえ
やばい > やべえ
(食{た}べたい = ) 食{く}いたい > 食いてえ
As in the other answer, this is extremely informal and in the wrong context can easily be considered plain rude.
Xと違う = to differ from X
完成前 = before completion
Edit.
For completeness, there's also
/ae/ > /ee/
e.g. お前 > おめえ
/...
12
I'm Japanese and don't know well about the English idiom "to be out of it." But I think I know some useful Japanese words for your situations.
「頭が働かない」
This expression is natural to say when you have a cold, fever or other bad condition and can't understand or think about things well temporary. "I'm sorry I have a cold so I'm a bit out of it." ...
11
The タ-verb (plain past) form + って pattern is most similar, if not identical, to the ～ても pattern:
そんなこと言ったってしょうがない。（＝そんなこと言ってもしょうがない。） It doesn't help matters to say things like that.
名前を変えたって基本的な問題はそう簡単に消えてくれない。（＝名前を変えても基本的な問題はそう簡単に消えてくれない。） Even if you change the name, the fundamental problem won't disappear so easily.
This construction is mostly ...
11
As rintaun says, ゲーマー is the most general term for "some one who plays video games".
In its narrower sense, when describing a person, it can mean a "hardcore gamer" as opposed to just ゲーム好き (げーむずき, casual gamer). For example, if someone wants to say she's just a casual gamer, she might say things like ゲーム好きだけど、ゲーマーじゃありません。
If you need to differentiate ...
11
It's fairly common for both ai and ae to be slurred to ee in colloquial speech.
For example:
じゃない → じゃねぇ janai → janee
のみたい → のみてぇ nomitai → nomitee
おまえ → おめぇ omae → omee
てまえ → てめぇ temae → temee
Your example has an additional contraction. When a vowel is dropped between r and n, you end up with rn. This isn't pronounceable, so it ...
11
It's ambiguous whether いらして would be a form of いらしる or いらす, but neither verb exists in the standard language.
いらす isn't listed in dictionaries as a word because it's not a separate verb with a full range of forms. It would be more accurate to say that いらし is a reduced form of いらっしゃっ, the 音便形 of いらっしゃる. (The 音便形 is the altered form of the 連用形 that appears ...
11
That P (simply read ピー) stands for プロデューサー ("Producer"). Traditionally, P has been used like a name suffix for a super-high executive in the showbiz/broadcasting/anime industry (someone even higher than a "D", or 監督/director). However, after the success of the Idolm@aster franchise, where a "producer" has a role closer to that of an agent or a manager, this "...
10
I honestly don't think there's any way to answer this given the condition that it should be polite, even with Japanese's overgrown arsenal of euphemisms and niceties.
I can't think of one in English either; probably because any insinuation of the sentiment "get lost" is universally obvious.
But depending on the situation, you might be able to get away with ...
10
It's a shortening of って言うの! or って言っているの! and shows some irritation on the part of the speaker. "What I'm telling you is . . .!" There's some good explanations here: http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/1847367.html
10
As Tsuyoshi says, there is no truth to it. The earliest reference given in the [日]{に}[本]{ほん}[国]{こく}[語]{ご}[大]{だい}[辞]{じ}[典]{てん} is from the mid-13th century [観]{かん}[智]{じ}[院]{いん}[本]{ぼん} edition of the [類]{るい}[聚]{じゅ}[名]{みょう}[義]{ぎ}[抄]{しょう}:
盖 オホフ カフル
Even English barely had the word cover at that point.
Also, according to the same dictionary, かぶる is derived ...
10
The second paragraph can be answered in large part by What changes are made to the pronunciation of gairaigo? and by Less-approximate and more-approximate forms of loan words and by Different transcriptions for words with related origin .
As for the third paragraph, Wikipedia says the Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁) at the Ministry of Education of Japan (...
10
The first sentence could be expanded to
高いなんてもんじゃないよ。むちゃくちゃ高いんだよ。
It's not (just) huge. It's humongous.
and the first part would be written as
高いというものじゃないよ。
As for the second sentence, separating the sentence as
人が多かったの 何の って
the 何の is used to repeat the structure of the first part, but could be replaced with anything, indicating that the ...
10
Like @himself noted, it does mean 葉人をつかまえたんだな. While some dialects do have this change, more importantly it's used to characterise the speaker as a stereotypical wise old male (usually in anime or otherwise in a fiction).
10
～っぴ/～っち is a sort of "suffix" which generates cute-sounding nicknames. Think of it as an rough equivalent of -ie as in doggie, walkie-talkie, etc.
へたっぴ (下手【へた】 + っぴ, clumsy person)
けろけろけろっぴ (けろけろ + っぴ)
たまごっち (たまご + っち)
弱っぴい itself is not common (probably I haven't seen this before), but it should simply mean "weak boy/guy".
10
For casual, which is acceptable as a client I would go with
じゃあ、カレーにします。
If you want to be more polite then
それなら、カレーにします。
じゃあ means : then; well; so; well then
それなら means : if that's the case
10
There are at least three types of omission of く, which should be distinguished.
The "traditional western" euphoric change is called ウ音便 and is described in this question, this one and a chart in this page. ku becomes (y)u, etc. This sounds old-fashioned and elegant. While this is commonly heard in samurai dramas, only a few courteous elder people use this ...
9
じゃん sometimes means 'actually'. For example できるじゃん。= actually you can do it.
and we use it with past-capable form. I don't know how to explain it but it's like "Actually we could play there = そこで(there) 遊べた(could play) じゃん(actually)).
It is not a formal saying. So don't use じゃん when you are talking to someone formally, and you can put it no where but at ...
9
The なう that you hear in the Bus announcements is actually "なお" meaning "furthermore" or "in addition". If I recall correctly, it is often used in the part of the announcement that is describing the locations near the next stop.
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