18
votes
What does 今日という日 mean?
今日という日 (literally "the day called today") is just an emphatic version of "today", or "this very day". This expression is commonly used in formal greetings and poems. (I tried jisho.org but got nothing ...
17
votes
Accepted
~たいだとか why is there a だ here?
だ between a verb/i-adjective and と/とか/なんて/etc adds an accusatory and/or shocked tone. In this case, this だ implies words like 死にたい and 愛を伝えたい are inappropriate because they are 軽々しい.
From 明鏡国語辞典:
...
16
votes
Accepted
What grammatical function is や performing here?
や at the end of a sentence has various meanings, but it's roughly categorized into two.
Kansai colloquial copula や (used in place of だ)
True sentence-end/interjectory particle や
Perhaps you'll see ...
12
votes
Accepted
止める vs 止める(とめる and やめる) + 息
Yes, the basic idea of these two is "to stop."
When we say 「やめる」, it implies that we give it up and it will not resume soon, or even never.
For example, when we are playing outside and are to stop ...
12
votes
Do song lyrics in Japanese typically rhyme?
Lyrics in most Japanese songs do not rhyme at the end of each line. Only some J-pop songs influenced by the western culture actively use rhymes. Japanese hip hop songs tend to use rhymes often. For ...
9
votes
Accepted
「とらわれた くつじょく は はんげき の こうし だ」Would a Japanese person understand こうし in this spoken line WITHOUT kanji? [Attack on Titan]
嚆矢 is a rare word, but it's not exceedingly rare. Along with terms like 狼煙 and 鬨の声, it's a word you might find in fantasy or historical fiction, and even in journalists' news commentary, to symbolize ...
8
votes
Is it a right interpretation of the line of this Japanese song?
を is always an object marker in modern Japanese. It never replaces personal pronouns. Where did you see such a rule?
noun + を at the end of a sentence is a fairly common device found in lyrics, ...
8
votes
Accepted
What is function of から in conditional statement?
Here are the original lyrics:
夜が明けたら一番早い汽車に乗るから
切符を用意してちょうだい
私のために一枚でいいからさ
今夜でこの街とはさよならね
わりといい街だったけどね
The から in the first line simply means "because", and the first line works as the ...
8
votes
このままだと自分だけじゃなくてこの世界壊れるだろう
I believe either が or も is missing after 世界. If you're sure you've copied this sentence correctly, perhaps it's a simple typo in the original text.
このままだと自分だけじゃなくてこの世界も壊れるだろう。
If this goes on, ...
8
votes
Accepted
雪明かり照らす町 . Is there a missing を?
I suggest you think of rewriting this in a different word order as:
雪の明かりが町を照らす
Does that help?
But 雪明かり is already a word meaning "light of the snow" or "the illumination from the ...
8
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of 死せる?
死せる is an archaic/literary equivalent of 死んでいる. 死せる餓狼 is a literary way of saying 死んでいる餓狼 or "dead starving wolf".
To break it down:
死す: An archaic variant of modern 死ぬ. It's still in use ...
7
votes
Accepted
What is いやほい from the Kyary Pamyu Pamyu song 原宿いやほい HARAJUKU IYAHOI?
Most native speakers haven't heard いやほい before this song. When an announcer asked the lyricist about this word on Nov/11/2015, he said something along the lines of "The meaning is not known and each ...
7
votes
Accepted
What does 歩けというの mean in this song?
というの asks rhetorical questions (it's literally just と, 言う, and の). If your mom told you to keep studying for a long time you might say something like 死ぬまで勉強しろというのか "you want me to study until I die, ...
6
votes
Accepted
"だなんだと" meaning
It's actually "何{なん}だ", and here 何 works as a stand-in for things that you want to avoid mentioning, or that you think are not worth mentioning, by name. So no, it's not a form of "なのです".
More ...
6
votes
Accepted
Nuance of "わね”: whose interest does「興味深いわね」refer to?
This 興味深いわね is just "That's interesting" or more specifically, "This '意識思考そのものが自律して...' is an interesting assumption." わね is a feminine sentence-end particle which does not necessarily have to be ...
6
votes
Accepted
What is the purpose of 手 here?
It more of less depends on the context, but 手が届く is a common set phrase that means "to be able to reach", "to afford", "to become possible (to achieve something)", etc. Since it's a set phrase, a ...
6
votes
Translation of the phrase: 生きる水 in context
This song is full of puns. After looking at the line for a few seconds, I thought this was probably a comical reference to 生きる道 ("way of life"), which is a recurring phrase used in poems and ...
6
votes
What is いやほい from the Kyary Pamyu Pamyu song 原宿いやほい HARAJUKU IYAHOI?
Isn't it just a 'call'? Like "yahooo!" or "hey hey!" ... at least, that's the sense with which I take sounds like that one. Basically that would mean they're saying "hi" to Harajuku in an uber-genki ...
6
votes
What does 今日という日 mean?
Remember that ...という (...と言う) means "That which is called...", because it's a useful phrase. Examples: 愛という光 (the Light called Love), 笑顔という幸せ (the happiness which is called a smile). The original ...
6
votes
Accepted
Parsing ふりする in song lyrics
I wonder if it's this かたふり:
「かたふり」とは船員用語で、船内で気が合う仲間同士で部屋に集まり、コーヒーやお酒を飲みながら自慢話やよもやま話に話を咲かせることを言います。話に熱中してくると身振りが大げさになり、自然と肩が振れるようになるという説や船の揺れに合わせて雑談をするからという説もありますが、真偽は不明です。
Translated:
かたふり is a ...
6
votes
Accepted
Meaning of を in「 未来を少しでも君といたい」
This を is probably a location marker which is roughly the same as English across or through (or sometimes along).
Making sense of transitive usage of 行く and 来る - 「を行く」 and 「を来る」
Why does 出る accept を ...
6
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of すべてはじまりそれが答えだろ
Is it missing a の? Is it a casual way of saying すべてのはじまり?
No, you usually cannot omit の at this position if "start of everything" is the intended meaning. So you should first see if this ...
5
votes
Accepted
What is the purpose of は here?
続く is an intransitive verb. It doesn't take an object and so doesn't take the particle を. This verb is used when something continues without an explicit agent i.e
いい天気はつづく
The good weather ...
5
votes
What does "オレ" in Pokemon Opening song mean?
オレ, おれ and 俺 are used by males and mean “I” or “me”. Their meanings are same but their nuances are different.
Whether オレ, おれ or 俺 is used depends on the speaker’s or the author’s preference.
The ...
5
votes
Accepted
Use and meaning of the word [綻]{ほころ}ばす
綻ばす is shorter alternative to 綻ばせる, the causative form of 綻ぶ (yet is an alternative form of 綻びる).
In this context, 綻ぶ is used synonymously with 破綻する "split at the seams; break down; fall apart", so ...
5
votes
The song 「雪が降る」 by アダモ goes --> ♪♪ 雪は降る あなたは来ない ... ♪♪
When someone wants to put two things as comparison in Japanese, they will say Aは...Bは...。 So in this song, it will be better to use は...は...。 I think maybe it can mean - Even the snow is already ...
5
votes
Accepted
「まじ」as "will not"
Auxiliary まじ stands for either negative conjecture ("must not") or negative volition ("will not"). So, 忘るまじ、我らの夏を means either "we won't forget our summer" or "we mustn't forget our summer", but never ...
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