Unanswered Questions
354 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
11
votes
0answers
826 views
Iterative / repetitive る evolving from classical 連体形【れんたいけい】
This is somewhat related to the discussion of classical auxiliary verb ふ, mentioned in the answer to snailboat's question, What is the わ in 忌まわしい and 嘆かわしい?.
Another apparent iterative / repetitive ...
9
votes
1answer
228 views
Are there more terms similar to 上京 or 来阪 for going to Japanese cities?
I've seen that 上京する "going to Tokyo", 来阪する "going to Osaka" are used to refer to visiting these cities.
What other terms are in use for visiting other cities? Which of them are commonly understood?
9
votes
1answer
514 views
In Okinawan, what is the ン in ウチナーンチュ?
The Okinawan word for "Okinawa" is ウチナー, for "person" is チュ, and for "Okinawan" (person) is ウチナーンチュ.
I'd like to know where this ン comes from between the part for "Okinawa" and the part for "person". ...
8
votes
0answers
368 views
Understanding difficult handwriting/calligraphy
I'm having trouble deciphering this handwriting. So far, I can definitely tell that the first column says 参拾弐 in 大事, and the fourth column says 手本. Really struggling with column two and some of column ...
8
votes
1answer
589 views
The meaning of 吸口 in this context
The situation (story from Edo period, but in contemporary Japanese, at most stylised on old language): three thieves A, B, and C working in a group. Pickpocket A is caught in a crowd, B disappears ...
7
votes
1answer
263 views
Why is graduating from graduate school 修了 instead of 卒業?
I noticed that on Japanese 履歴書s, graduating from graduate school is marked with 修了 instead of 卒業 like for undergraduate and primary/secondary education. I'm curious as to the reason this difference ...
7
votes
1answer
561 views
How has Japanese kanji and kana usage changed since 1945
How has the percentage of writing using each script changed since 1945? With script reform, increasing influx of loanwords, and stylistic choices, several factors affect how much certain parts of the ...
7
votes
2answers
102 views
第 [dai-] vs 目 [-me] in forming ordinal numbers
As I understand fo now 第 [dai-] and 目 [-me] both turn 5 to fifth.
五匹の犬 [go-hiki no inu] five dogs
五匹目の犬 [go-hiki-me no inu] the fifth dog
Here everything is clear.
Articles and books say you ...
7
votes
2answers
569 views
Particles after time expressions like “三週間”
I am a beginner in Japanese so I was trying to write some simple sentences to practice my vocabulary and grammar.
I wanted to write the sentence:
My friend is in Japan for three weeks.
as:
...
7
votes
2answers
1k views
Meaning of, Transitive verb in “te form” + iru vs Intransitive verb in “te form” + iru
When I learnt Japanese I was taught that a transitive verb in its "te form" followed by the verb "iru" represents a continuous action. However, this is not the case with intransitive verbs which ...
6
votes
1answer
153 views
Are both of these correct sentences: 「ここに住所を書いてくださいますか？」「ここに住所を書いてくださいませんか？」？
I believe 「ここに住所を書いてくださいますか？」 means “Could you please write the address here?”
And 「ここに住所を書いてくださいませんか？」 means “Would you please write the address here?”
An exercise I’m doing shows the second ...
6
votes
3answers
211 views
What's the word regularly used to describe “working from home”?
I've seen a few words in a cursory search:
[在宅勤務]{ざいたくきんむ}
テレワーク
[在宅]{ざいたく}ワーク
but I'm interested in the situation where your usual place of work requires commuting, but you are temporarily working ...
6
votes
1answer
660 views
Casual Speech Particles in Classical Japanese
I'm writing a simple Japanese skit for my class and there is a place where an ancient samurai needs to speak a few sentences of Classical Japanese.
I can mostly make the sentences, but it seems weird ...
5
votes
1answer
182 views
あいだ, ところ、しまった in a sentence
トイレに行っているあいだに電車が行ってしまった。
The choices were either あいだ or ところ but the answer is あいだ.
Google translate it :
The train went while I was in the bathroom.
I thought it meant :
I was about to go in ...
5
votes
1answer
243 views
A name for common words that use uncommon kanji?
I didn't see a duplicate for this in the similar questions, so here goes. Is there either a list of words like this, or a name for this type of word (made of two very rare/complex kanji, but the word ...
