42
votes
Accepted
Is [mathematical] 'analysis' in Japanese the same word as 'fine cuisine' in Japanese?
No. Japanese "haute cuisine" is called 懐石(料理). Mathematical analysis is 解析(学). What is true is that 懐石 and 解析 are homophones, both pronounced かいせき and, in context, both may be referred to as かいせき. ...
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23
votes
Is [mathematical] 'analysis' in Japanese the same word as 'fine cuisine' in Japanese?
While the pronunciation is the same, the words' etymologies are unrelated.
Mathematical analysis is 解析(kaiseki かいせき) while (Japanese) fine cuisine is 懐石(kaiseki かいせき).
Both 解 and 析 roughly ...
- 16k
18
votes
Accepted
Is there a particular name for the rows and columns of the hiragana/katakana charts?
The columns (or rows) that have the same initial consonant are labeled as the first item in that column (consonant + a) followed by [行]{ぎょう}. Examples of such are あ行, か行, さ行, た行, etc.
The rows (or ...
- 8,085
18
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between 外科 and 手術?
I think I can see how you are confused about these two words, but I feel like the confusion might have stemmed from the English Japanese dictionary definitions, or rather the confusing nature of the ...
- 11.5k
16
votes
Accepted
What is the correct term for cash?
現金 is the word that corresponds to cash as opposed to money in a bank account, etc.
紙幣 means paper money or banknotes as opposed to 硬貨 (coins).
- 315k
10
votes
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Difference between furigana and rubi
ルビ (rubi) is jargon which mainly refers to the characters' appearance (small annotative characters placed on top of or to the right of main text), and is preferred in the publishing industry. Even ...
- 315k
9
votes
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Expressing difference between "fluent" and "native speaker" in Japanese
I think you have a couple choices.
For "fluent":
ペラペラ。 This is a slightly colloquial word (due to being an onomatopoeia sounding like quick speech), which can mean "fluent", both in the sense of (a) ...
- 16.1k
9
votes
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Is 土方 a common term for a "construction worker"?
土方 is a common word, but if you want a neutral term that is usable in news articles, essays and such, (建築/土木)作業員 is better.
土方 tends to have a negative/derogatory undertone, and we never see it used ...
- 315k
9
votes
Accepted
Could a translation error lead to squares to not be considered as rectangles?
In Japanese, there are two sets of words we learn to describe various kinds of quadrilaterals.
Mathematical terms are 四角形【しかっけい】 quadrilaterals, 台形【だいけい】 trapezoid, 平行四辺形【へいこうしへんけい】 parallelogram, ...
- 315k
8
votes
What does 研がず mean in cooking?
Before cooking rice, many people wash the rice by "grinding" (hence 研ぐ) the individual grains against one another under flowing water until the water runs more or less clear. (In the olden days the ...
- 48.2k
8
votes
Accepted
Is ドットマトリクス valid Japanese?
ドットマトリクス is an established word, but unfortunately only among mechanical engineers. I'm not very sure how common the word is in English, but I can confirm that it's anything but what you'd hear from ...
- 50.9k
7
votes
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Is it pronounced 柄【え】? 柄【から】?柄【つか】?
I'd read it as え.
ひしゃくの[柄]{え}、フライパンの[柄]{え}、[柄]{え}の長い[箒]{ほうき}...
[柄]{え} means "handle, grip" (≈ [取]{と}っ[手]{て}).
[柄]{がら} means "pattern, design" (≈ [模様]{もよう}).
[桜]{さくら}の[柄]{がら}...
- 65.5k
7
votes
Am I using the word "Hajimari" correctly in judo?
I am not particularly knowledgeable about judo, but the usual phrases used in Japanese sports or military contexts are:
整列！ Sēretsu! ("Line up!") pronunciation
集合！ Shūgō! ("Gather!&...
- 315k
7
votes
Am I using the word "Hajimari" correctly in judo?
With all due respect, this seems to be one of those cases where learners can tell what is grammatical but only native (or near-native) speakers can tell what is really idiomatic.
Grammatically ...
- 20.8k
6
votes
What is a grammatical terminology to describe the group of the refrain of two syllable words like pera-pera, don-don, iki-iki?
So-called 擬{ぎ}態{たい}語{ご} like ギラギラ, クルクル are often referred to in English as mimetic words, mimesis, or mimetics. These identifiers seem to be more popular than ideophones on this site. See the search ...
- 315k
6
votes
Which is correct for the bushido code, 誠 or 真?
You may or may not know that the so-called "Bushido code" was popularized (and somewhat canonized) by Inazo Nitobé [sic] in Bushido: The Soul of Japan (1900) and first published in English. One could ...
- 48.2k
6
votes
Why do English speaking learners of Japanese use term "volitional" to refer to 未然形+う?
I would say probably because such a piece of grammar doesn't exist in English in the exact same way it does in Japanese, therefore there is no one word to describe it perfectly. You could explain it ...
- 739
6
votes
Accepted
Grammatically, is a 体言止めの文 a "Japanese sentence"?
When I went to school (K12 in the US during the 70's and early 80's), I was taught that a sentence had to have a subject and a predicate (usually they said verb instead of predicate). But then what ...
- 10k
6
votes
Accepted
How do you tell your parents and siblings you love them?
How do you tell your parents and siblings you love them?
I've never heard that someone especially tells their own parents and siblings they love them in my country and culture, which is Japanese.
In ...
- 3,370
6
votes
How do you say 町 (in addresses) in English?
＿都/道/府/県 ＿市 ＿区 ＿町
町 is just part of the name of an area in 市/区, so it can be written as (-)cho or (-)machi depending on its actual name. An area name does not always contain 町.
東京都町田市小山町（Oyamacho / ...
- 390
6
votes
Accepted
Is there a term for the rhetorical rephrasing of e.g. "良子はエビ天にかぶりつく。" into "エビ天にかぶりつく良子。”?
山田孝雄, a Japanese linguist, called this type of phrase/sentence 喚体句. This is used to make a sentence sound dramatic and vivid. It is especially common in poetry (haiku, lyrics, ...), but this pattern ...
- 315k
6
votes
Accepted
Terminology: Does the term 美化語 include all ご・お・etc. prefixes, or only ones outside of a 敬語 context?
In short:
敬語 consists of 尊敬語, 謙譲語 and 美化語.
お/ご as a prefix can form either 尊敬語 or 美化語, or neither.
The concepts of 尊敬語 and 美化語 are mutually exclusive, but お/ご can be found in both. You have to ...
- 315k
6
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between 買い溜め, 買い込む and 買い占める
買い込む is the most neutral of the three. It simply refers to the act of buying something in large quantities for future use. It may be for normal consumption and the stock may last only for a few days.
...
- 20.8k
6
votes
Accepted
How exactly are 準体助詞 and 形式名詞 different? In what regard? And where does の stand?
Let me use these labels in this answer:
A: あれは彼のだよ。(の as のもの)
B: 赤いのが欲しい。こんなのが欲しい。(の as もの)
C: 絵を描くのが好きだ。(の as a nominalizer)
D: 彼女は学生なのだ。彼は知っているのだ。(explanatory-の)
準体助詞 is not really a widely used ...
- 315k
5
votes
Accepted
5
votes
Accepted
How Are Verbs Taught to Native Japanese Speakers?
I'm from Japan and received Japanese education for 14 years. Yes. I think I remember being taught godan katsuyo as basic Japanese grammar class in elementary school -- around 5th or 6th grade. I don't ...
- 174
5
votes
Accepted
What is a typical Japanese term for "fake", like in "Fake News"?
There is a single word that means "fake news".
虚報【きょほう】
Besides, if you want the adjective only, you can use:
偽（の）、偽物の、嘘（の）
虚構新聞, a counterpart of The Onion in Japan says in the disclaimer:
...
- 50.9k
5
votes
Accepted
Referring to Group of Differentiated Objects
In general, I think ignoring minor items just because they are minor is not a good idea. Whenever you can, you should try to find a generic term which covers everything (3人の男＋1人の女→4人の男女, 5匹の犬＋2匹の猫＋...
- 315k
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