14
votes
Accepted
其之 what's the exact meaning of this?
其之 is a rare kanji version of その meaning "its". The kanji 其 on its own means "it" and 之 means "～'s". Today その is almost always written in kana, but they used difficult kanji for archaism. Is the comic ...
- 337k
11
votes
どのｖｓどれ- can I use them interchangeably?
Both translate to "which" in English but are interchangeable in 0% of cases.
どの
Your grammar book says どの is used with a noun. That is exactly the difference. Notice your first example:
...
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6
votes
これ・それ・あれ when referring to products in a store
Provided that:
you are referring to something exists in your range of view, not your memory
you are talking to the store's staff, who is not your acquaintance
You can use...
これ when:
the item is ...
- 52.7k
6
votes
Accepted
basic grammar of pointing words
For the series of location words colloquially known as the こそあど (ko-so-a-do) series, it's important to break these up into a few groups -- these groupings will help you understand how to use these ...
- 4,458
4
votes
Accepted
Can その be used as a possesive pronoun?
How the その works
You are correct on how to interpret the sentence.
What may feel odd to you is likely because "その" can refer not only to something explicitly mentioned, but also to something ...
- 2,776
3
votes
Accepted
Why did こなた and そなた fall out of use but not あなた?
The original meanings of あなた/そなた/こなた are "that/this way", and these original meanings have fallen out of use, regardless of whether it's あ, そ, or こ. Today, we always say あちら/そちら/こちら.
On the ...
- 337k
3
votes
Accepted
そう、こう、ああ、どう confusion
The literal translation should not be that long. This simply means:
博愛とか慈愛とかそういうの
benevolence, philanthropy and such
そういうの means "things like this/that/these", "something like this/...
- 337k
3
votes
Accepted
そんなだから A little help for translation
According to a dictionary, そんな/こんな is a na-adjective (形容動詞). It usually works attributively (i.e., directly modifies the following noun) and means "such" (そんな人 = "such a person"). It sometimes works ...
- 337k
2
votes
What is the ethymology of the word どのこと?
Your question is about usage yet your title is about etymology. I will assume you were wondering about usage here.
You can think of どのこと as どの 'which' and こと 'thing'. Here, the friend is saying "...
- 589
2
votes
Accepted
Who こっち refers to here?
こっち always refers to the speaker's side. But 迷惑だ in this context means "(I'm) troubled" or "(it) is a trouble", not "(I'm) causing trouble". This is an ambiguity similar ...
- 337k
1
vote
What is the ethymology of the word どのこと?
This is not an etymology (you seem to be confused about what that word means in English), but you may find it useful to think about this way:
どれ is "what/which one", i.e. the question ...
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1
vote
其之 what's the exact meaning of this?
The normal meaning was explained clearly by previous people, as a Chinese learning Japanese I want to say some other things.
其:
Chinese: it's(Third person possessive pronoun)
Japanese: it(Third ...
1
vote
あのレストラン vs そのレストラン in this conversation
Both あの and その work perfectly fine. そのレストラン simply refers to the restaurant A is talking about. あのレストラン sounds like B is imagining the restaurant and referring to it.
You can think あのレストラン sounds a ...
- 337k
1
vote
Accepted
Origin of こんな, そんな, あんな and どんな
These are derived (see e.g. the relevant entry on 大辞林第三版) from the following:
「この様{よう}」「その様{よう}」「あの様{よう}」「どの様{よう}」
which are all adjectival nouns, so using に after them is simply a remnant of ...
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1
vote
Accepted
Why is そう used to refer to something the speaker just said?
I don't think you have misunderstood at all, but just like the distinction between "this" and "that", no textbook definition will ever exactly match.
In this case (you saying something yourself)
...
- 1,339
1
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これ・それ・あれ when referring to products in a store
(Basically copying comment)
It is considered that it's quite alright to use あれ for something far away from both the speaker and the listener, for example...
In a restaurant when you're ordering some ...
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