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What is the difference between 調子【ちょうし】 (choushi) and 具合【ぐあい】 (guai)?
They are very similar, but I feel the threshold between よい調子 and 悪い調子 is higher than that between よい具合 and 悪い具合.
彼は調子が良い: He is at his best
彼は調子が悪い: He is not in his best condition, if not ill
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10
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Is 娘 (musume) a good way to address a girl?
As a simple noun, 娘 does mean "(young) girl" as well as "daughter". Basically this usage is bookish, and it's not used outside established set phrases (e.g., 看板娘) in casual speech.
...
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9
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What is the difference between 会社 and 社 when referring to a company?
会社【かいしゃ】 kaisha is an independent word meaning "company" or "corporation". In compounds it describes a type of company (and is always pronounced がいしゃ gaisha)
航空会社【くうこうがいしゃ】 kūkō gaisha airline ...
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What is the difference in meaning between 先生 and 教師？
教師 means "a teacher".
先生 means "a teacher", too. But 先生 can be used for the title of teacher, doctor, writer, politician, artist, and so on.
For example, when a student greets to the teacher in the ...
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8
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What is the origin of the foreign word サクランボ?
From Japanese (and perhaps some Chinese)
There is no borrowing here, as the opening part explicitly shows Japanese sakura. The etymology is, as most often assumed,
さくらんぼ < 桜{さくら}の坊{ボウ}
, where 坊 ...
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7
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What is the difference in meaning between 先生 and 教師？
先生 can be used as a profession or as a title, and you can call a lawyer or a doctor with sensei. But 教師 is the teacher profession.
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Tense in noun modifying clauses?
In this case past tense 見た人 is correct and it's irrelevant if it's a person or an inanimate object.
But there are more points to be careful about in your sentence:
no need to use に after the 昨日
いる ...
- 6,557
7
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面 and 顔 difference?
顔【かお】 is the primary word for face (of animal/human). You should be using this word in most situations.
面 read as つら is an uncommon slangy/rough word that is mainly used in dirty conversations and ...
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7
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Does 同棲 always have a romantic connotation?
Does 同棲 always have a romantic connotation, or is it possible to use it in a non-romantic sense.
I think it always has a romantic connotation... I've never heard it used in a non-romantic sense.
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7
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Parents-in-law in Japanese
A corpus is a good tool to answer this type of question yourself.
舅姑: 30 Hits (Many instances are from the same author born before 1960's)
義父母: 50 Hits (Many are from blog articles and chiebukuro ...
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7
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Importance of からだ in this sentence
First off, I think you got the actors the wrong way round.
A また太っちゃった。
I ended up getting fat again.
B あまいものばかり食べているからだよ。
That's because you eat nothing but sweets.
Can you remove からだ? ...
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Reason for 風が強い vs. 雨だ or 雪だ
It seems like 雨 or 雪 are viewed as weather phenomena, which are more black-and-white (either it rains/snows or it doesn't) whereas wind lies on a continuous spectrum. So to say "windy weather" (which ...
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7
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Is the ''o'' in ''osara'' (plate) an honorific o 御 or just a normal o お?
In osara, the o is indeed honorific and it is commonly written in kana as お, but sometimes also as 御. As you are likely aware, there is often some flexibility in choosing between kanji, hiragana and ...
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7
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When to use 仕上げ and when to use 仕上がり?
仕上げ is a noun corresponding to transitive to finish and 仕上がり to intransitive to finish.
仕上げ means someone's action of finishing/having finished something
仕上がり means something's finished state
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6
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What is the difference between 会社 and 社 when referring to a company?
No, they are not interchangeable at all.
会社{かいしゃ} This is a word, meaning "company", large or small
社{しゃ} This is a single character, which as so often happens corresponds to about half of a word. ...
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Difference between 母 and 妣
母 is a very common term for mother. 妣 is rarely used nowadays and usually understood as "late mother", but it may be used as a variant of 母.
母に万葉で「妣」の字を宛てたのは、歿後の父母なる事を示したと言ふ事も出来ようが、唯母と通用したものだらう。そして、...
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use of particles on direct object
Many Japanese verbs have transitive and intransitive versions. Basically, 終わる (owaru) is an intransitive verb. 終える (oeru) is the transitive equivalent. So here are the most basic usages:
...
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What is the Equivalent of Adding -er to a verb to make it "One who does x"?
Some kanji suffixes can be used for this.
Probably the most generic and closest to -er is -者{しゃ}：
医{い}者{しゃ} (doctor, physician)
歯{は}医{い}者{しゃ} (dentist)
忍{にん}者{じゃ} (ninja)
責任者{せきにんしゃ} (person ...
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Confused on why 日の出 and 日の入り mean what they do
The picture here is actually about the horizon (地平線).
日の出 means that the sun "comes out" from the horizon.
日の入り means that the sun "goes into" the horizon.
Hope this could be helpful to you.
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What does this mean? - help with 続き and なら
Maybe writing it out with all needed Kanjis would help:
日本語で続きを読むなら手伝いますよ！
"If you read the rest in Japanese then I will lend you a hand."
With this, in the next sentence, she's saying:
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Is the word Canon キヤノン (camera brand) related with キャメラ?
Searching for キヤノン 由来 one quickly finds the relevant official page for the origin of the name Canon.
It seems that the company name itself was derived from the English word "canon":
Canonの語源には、「正典」...
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6
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What is the difference in meaning between 先生 and 教師？
Another thing to add is that since 先生 is an honorific term, it is quite impolite to refer to yourself as 先生 even if you are a teacher.
I was instructed by a native teacher to introduce/refer to my ...
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Difference between 自己 and 自分
I'm pretty sure that the meaning is about 'self'. Now there are differences in the two words. I myself am not really sure about all the little differences in meaning of these two words. But I am ...
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Turning verbs into nouns
Both 料理するのが上手です and 料理が上手です are perfectly valid and natural. People say the latter more often simply because it is shorter.
Note that you have to use different particles when there is a target.
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6
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Are there other words like 甲斐?
How about 「接尾語になる名詞」 or 「複合語の後ろの要素になる名詞」, perhaps?
「教える[甲斐]{かい}」「教え[甲斐]{がい}」
「困ること」「困りごと」
「サボる[癖]{くせ}」「サボり[癖]{ぐせ}」
「置く場所」「置き場所」
「行く場」「行き場」
「送る先」「送り先」
「帰る道」「帰り道」
「食べる[時]{とき}」「食べ[時]{どき}」
「食べる物」「食べ物」
「...
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