26
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How to say "How do you say~?"
I'd personally use...
～は日本語【にほんご】で何【なん】と言【い】いますか？
For years, I used the...
～は日本語で何ですか？
But I had a Japanese native tell me it was more natural to use it with the verb 言う (polite form is 言います).
...
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22
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20
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How to translate ‘To be or not to be, that is the question’
This sentence is indeed regarded as one of the most difficult translation challenges. This sentence has been translated variously by many translators. Kawai Shunichiro, one of the translators of ...
- 307k
19
votes
Can I eat here?/ Is it ok to eat here? in Japanese
It can be also
ここで食べてもいいですか？
or more casually
ここで食べてもいい？
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Can I eat here?/ Is it ok to eat here? in Japanese
You are almost there. Using your words, you could connect them as such.
ここで食べても大丈夫ですか？
Using も after after the -te form of a verb is useful for asking questions and has a meaning similar to "even ...
- 5,661
15
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How to say "I miss ◯◯" when ◯◯ is a non-living thing?
This type of "miss" is tricky to translate. Options include:
(前の携帯が)なくてつらい, なくて大変だ: if you are actually having trouble because you don't have it
(前の携帯が)懐かしい: if you are just feeling ...
- 307k
13
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How do you call someone "Tryhard"?
So here's the Urban Dictionary's definition:
A person who puts a large amount of effort into achieving a certain image, or counter-image, to the point where it is obviously contrived. Rather than ...
- 307k
13
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What difference between ほしい (hoshii) and したい (shitai)?
The 〜たい -tai form attaches to the masu-stem of a verb to form "to want to [verb]", e.g. 食べたい tabetai "to want to eat". The form したい shitai is only the special case of 〜たい attached ...
- 48k
13
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Does 今度 mean "this time" or "next time"?
Does 今度 mean “this time” or “next time”?
It is very annoying but it has both meanings. How do you use it or interpret it?
I think an answer in italki gives the best answer to OP's question.
I found ...
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12
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Question about supposedly a Japanese proverb
It's actually an observation of the Japanese people written by a Jesuit missionary:
"[The Japanese people] are so crafty in their hearts that nobody can
understand them. Whence it is said that ...
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12
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How to say "How do you say~?"
The general pattern is:
「something」は日本語で何ですか。
To break things down a bit:
「something」は = the phrase
日本語で = "in Japanese"
何ですか = "is what?"
In this context, the で particle is used to mean "in ...
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11
votes
How to say "One day at a time" in romaji
I think a simple one is 一日一歩｛いちにちいっぽ｝ which in romaji is ichinichi ippo. This literally means "one day one step" and it bears the meaning of "one day at the time" in English.
There is as well another ...
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What is an appropriate, respectful, and pleasing to the other person response to the statement "Your Japanese is very good"?
The safest and easiest response a beginner can use would be どうも (dōmo) or ありがとうございます (arigatō gozaimasu).
(A tourist who knows only a few Japanese words should not try to say something more ...
- 307k
11
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Is an English "uppercase letters puzzle" possible in the Japanese language?
Japanese happens to have two sets of characters for representing the sounds of the language that could be used the same way. These are called hiragana and katakana.
For instance here are 5 of the ...
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10
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How to say "less" in Japanese (I want to do X less)
Literal translations such as 「(もっと/より)少なく + verb + したい」 would sound unnatural... There would be several ways to say that, but off the top of my head right now, I think you could probably use 「～を少なくしたい」...
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10
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How to say "Ok, then I take X" after your first choice is not available
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 ...
- 5,661
10
votes
What is the Japanese word for video views on the Internet?
How about 「[視聴]{しちょう}[回数]{かいすう}」?
I think [再生]{さいせい}回数 would also work.
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10
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What is cyan color in Japanese?
If you think of cyan in a technical sense, for example as one of the primary colours in the CMYK model (so (100,0,0,0)) (in the RGB model probably (0,255,255)), then in Japanese it would be シアン (シアン ...
- 48k
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votes
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When talking about English 文型, how to say "a sentence"? 文章?
As you have correctly guessed, 文章 refers to a group of sentences/paragraphs.
To refer to a single sentence, simply use 文, which is perfectly fine as a technical term, too.
一文 means "one sentence". ...
- 307k
9
votes
Japanese equivalent to ASAP
I think there are quite a few acceptable ways to say it.
Here are a few of them I can think of.
大至急
できるだけ早く lit. as soon as possible.
出来る限り早期に lit. as soon as possible.
今すぐ used ...
- 5,661
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votes
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How to say, "Where is the best izakaya close by to here?"
Your attempt is good, but you need to use この辺り【あたり】の instead of ここの to say "around here".
この辺りのいちばんの居酒屋はどこですか。
Related: Difference between 辺り and 周り
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8
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How to say "100% virus free"?
ウイルス等が検出されませんでした sounds more like "No virus were detected", which is different from "Virus-free".
The first thing I'd like to mention is that most sophisticated Japanese e-commerce sites do not say ...
- 307k
8
votes
Is there a way to say the two best?
As a prefix, you could use 二大｛にだい｝- as in something like 二大政党: two major parties.
As a predicate, 双璧｛そうへき｝ e.g. 奈良を訪れる（に あたって）一番いい時期（として）は、春と秋が双璧だ (though it's pointless to apply it to 2 out of only ...
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8
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What is the Japanese Onomatopoeia for the sound a chainsaw makes?
Basically, for very common sounds there is less variance in what onomatopoeia is used, but when it comes to uncommon sounds, there is a lot more diversity.
IMO Chainsaw is a relatively uncommon sound, ...
- 15.6k
7
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How to say "I grew up thinking about X"?
If you connect the two sentence like 私は育ちました and 私は日本のことを思っています, you can say 私は日本のことを(いつも or 常に)思いながら育ちました.
You can use "～ながら", it means "with" and "while".
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7
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How to say "Please correct my sentences"?
文章を[直]{なお}してください is fine. You can also say 書いた文を[訂正]{ていせい}してください because 訂正 gets used a lot and implies that you gotta correct something. You don't use [正]{ただ}す, [訂]{てい}する in daily speech and [改]{あらた}...
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