New answers tagged word-choice
4
votes
Accepted
Honorific suffix in exchanges between university staff
The correct suffix is basically based on who they are, not who you are. Regardless of your current position, you use 先生 when writing to a teacher (e.g., 助教, 講師, 准教授 or 教授). Otherwise, you will use さん ...
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1
vote
Accepted
Why use 耳元 rather than just 耳?
The idea should be that objects making sounds are external to your ears. 耳元 is not a part of your body (e.g. this defines it 'close to one's ears'). Hence the choice. In that sense 耳元 refers to 風 ...
- 32.6k
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What's the difference between 初心者, 入門者 and 初級者
The nuance naturally reveals itself by considering the core meanings of the individual kanji.
We can consider 者向け first because it is common to all these terms, and quite straightforward.
[向]{む}け is ...
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2
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Is there a difference between these words for “hero”?
I was thinking about this old question recently. 勇者 as 'hero' may seem confusing to people who aren't big into pop culture, but in fantasy, especially fantasy video games (I think Dragon Quest may ...
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3
votes
Accepted
How do you say "wardrobe" (furniture)?
I don't think there are strict distinctions, at least in the ordinary language, but the word you are looking for should be クローゼット.
For example, IKEA has the following categorization. タンス for chests ...
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3
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between もとづいて and もとづき
The reason you could not find any explanation specifically about them is because the difference can be explained as a generic difference between a te-form and a masu-stem:
なく vs. なくて and stem form vs....
- 307k
1
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What is the difference between びっくりした and びっくりするじゃないの
There are a few different answers here, without full context it's hard to say which it is, but as a teenager living in Japan Noah's answer, "Wouldn't that scare anyone?" is what I think is ...
6
votes
Accepted
What's the difference between 埃{ほこり} and 塵{ちり} and 塵{ごみ}?
First, the kanji word 塵 is almost always read ちり. ごみ is usually written in hiragana or katakana.
ごみ: As you say, "rubbish", "trash". It can be big like a broken PC.
ほこり: This ...
- 307k
4
votes
Accepted
What's the difference between 開閉器 and スイッチ?
Wikipedia says:
開閉器
慣用的には、電力回路・電力機器に用いる大型のものを開閉器、電子機器に用いる小型のものをスイッチと呼ぶことが多い。
Today, ordinary people may not even understand the word 開閉器. Something like the following picture seems to be still ...
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