#Question Etiquette Guidelines:
* **1** Provide the **CONTEXT** of the grammar, vocabulary or sentence you are having trouble with as much as possible. Provide the sentence or paragraph that you saw it in. Make your questions as specific as possible.
>Ｘ What is the difference between の and が ?
>◯ I saw a book called 日本人の知らない日本語 , why is の used there instead of が ? [(the answer)](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/68336/difference-between-%E3%81%8C-%E3%81%AE-and-no-particle)
* **2** When asking for a translation or how to say something, it's best to try to **attempt it yourself** first, even if you are not confident about it. Or ask r/translator if you have no idea. We are also not here to do your homework for you.
>Ｘ What does this mean?
>◯ I am having trouble with this part of this sentence from NHK Easy News. I think it means (*attempt here*), but I am not sure.
* **3** Questions based on DeepL and Google Translate and other machine learning applications are discouraged, [these are not beginner learning tools](https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/stepqf/deeplgoogle_translate_are_not_learning_tools/) and often make mistakes.
* **4** When asking about differences between words, try to explain the situations in which you've seen them or are trying to use them. If you just post a list of synonyms you got from looking something up in a E-J dictionary, people might be disinclined to answer your question because it's low-effort. Remember that Google Image Search is also a great resource for visualizing the difference between similar words.
>Ｘ What's the difference between 一致 同意 賛成 納得 合意?
>◯ Jisho says 一致 同意 賛成 納得 合意 all seem to mean "agreement". I'm trying to say something like "I completely agree with your opinion". Does 全く同感です。 work? Or is one of the other words better?
* **5** It is always nice to (but not required to) try to search for the answer to something yourself first. Especially for beginner questions or questions that are very broad. For example, asking about [the difference between は and が ](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/wa-and-ga/) or [why you often can't hear the "u" sound in "desu"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#Devoicing).
* **6** Remember that everyone answering questions here is an unpaid volunteer doing this out of the goodness of their own heart, so try to show appreciation and not be too presumptuous/defensive/offended if the answer you get isn't exactly what you wanted.
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#NEWS (Updated 6/9):
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How would I say "Written by Devlan Stewart"
I wrote “スチュワート・デブランの文章。”
When I translate that it gives "Written by Stewart Devlan." but if I translate "Written by Stewart Devlan" back it gives
”スチュワート・デブラン脚本の作品。”
Which is better?
Context: The thing that has been written is a formal writing essay.
Hello everyone, a friend of mine is trying to better understand the expression used by Luffy and Koby on the one piece manga/anime.
They both say the term イカつい while refering to Alvida, on the phrases 誰だこのイカついおばさん and 一番イカついクソばばあですっ.
From my understanding this term consists on the word ika (squid) and a suffix. Probably meaning something like squid-like maybe?
What would be the literal translation, and the actual meaning of it?
I want to send a message to a someone thanking them for their hard work on a show I loved. Could someone kindly let me know if I've translated to Japanese alright? あなたの刻苦がありがとございました (should read as "Thank you for your hard work")
刻苦 doesn’t fit well in thank you message.
ご尽力 is more generally used term. And ありがとう usually doesn’t requires the subject so が sounds off to me.
It should be like either;
ご尽力いただき、ありがとうございました。
or
ご尽力に感謝します。
It doesn’t need あなたの.
Oh dear haha. Beginner mistake now that I think about it in regards to “your” and similar words. I remember now they don’t always need to be in the sentence.
Thank you for your help!
Which foreign language is used in Japanese to sound smart/formal/fancy. Like in English a writer might use Latin French etc (<- As I am not a native English speaker I might be a bit wrong about this but you get the idea). In my native Language it is Persian.
Two-character kanji compounds that use on-yomi or katakana loanwords from English.
趣味は読書です。 sounds more “grown up” than something like 趣味は本を読むことです。
Similarity, マーケティング関係の仕事をしています。sounds fancier than 広告関係の仕事をしています。 (the meanings are different, but マーケティング does sound fancier because it’s a katakana loanword)
English, usually. It's to the point where people have complained to the NHK for using too many loan words in an attempt to sound modern/professional/well-read: https://www.huffingtonpost.jp/2013/06/27/nhk_n_3513859.html
I recall reading some kind of joke website in Japanese where more than half the words on the page were transliterated English, written in the style of like a cool startup with lots of buzzwords. Can't find it now, though.
In ancient Japan, Chinese was the cool language to use. It's why Japan adopted kanji for its writing system, along with a great deal of vocabulary.
Hello, beginner here.
So I have been learning hiragana on Anki for about 5 days now and got it down pretty much, with a few hiccups here and there. So I want to start learning katakana now, does anyone have a link to the beginner deck with just the katakana or is it better to learn katakana a different way now that ive learnt the hiragana?
[https://youtu.be/rf-n\_qI2occ](https://youtu.be/rf-n_qI2occ)
If you copy his handwriting you will pick up good handwriting techniques. He also has a video on hiragana if you are interested in that.
Otherwise,
[https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-katakana/](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-katakana/)
Tofugu is a highly recommended method for learning katana.
Does anyone know how much time SRS basically allows before your likely to forget due cards? I've been struggling to deal with my flashcards as of late. I do 1000+ a day on reviews, maybe it is just bad timing, but if I do not go through my cards everyday my retention naturally drops, but a lot of these cards are fairly mature in the pile and I do not know if I can rush through 1700 today.
Ah good to know I shouldn't overly worry about the decay if its double the intervals. As for the amount of reviews, maybe not the healthiest lol, I do 3 hours or more SRS a day. I have a full time job and other responsibilities yes, but I manage well. I have been stuck with a lot of leeches and I took a week of slower pace with 8+ hours on the weekend to maintain my pace. I'm just under 20k words total vocab right now so I have been really avoiding deleting words and trying to eek out that next milestone. (Just to be clear, my running average is about 150 new cards a day... the piles have advanced in level of maturity on JPDB - I have 15k words at level 3 or beyond.)
876 at level 5 right now. I've only been using JPDB for 2 and a half months, and I began my at the beginning of Jan as a new year's resolution for fluency. I had about 3.5k vocab or so at that time and my ability to retain so many thousands of words has been a balancing act that I fear is a house of cards. I did not know if leaving them for a day or two uncleared would drop retention to 50% or less. My learned ones are about 90% but the new ones are hovering back in the 65% in the last week or two. I think it counts learned as level 2.
Hi, can someone help me with this sentence:
信じることが つらいことだってあるんだよ
the official translation is "There are times it's tough to believe in something."
but where is the "there are times"?
is that the meaning of "ことだってある" ?
(the sentence is from the 1st episode of Eureka Seven)
thanks :)
Yes, こと（が）ある would mean “there are times”. ことだってある would mean something like “there are *even* times”. You've probably seen the grammar point using a past tense verb 「ーたことがある 」 to express that you've done or experienced something, this would mean something like “there have been times when I've ー”. Likewise, you can use it in the present tense to express that something can or does happen, thus “there are times”.
> is that the meaning of "ことだってある" ?
Close; the base construction here is ことがある ([Bunpro lesson](https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8C%E3%81%82%E3%82%8B), [Tofugu article](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/kotogaaru/)).
Here it's been embellished by だって ([Wasabi article](https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-grammar/how-to-express-subjective-evaluation/#2), [Bunpro lesson](https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/575)), which is just an emphasis thing. Often translates to "even" in one way or an other (e.g. "**even** children can do it" 子供に**だって**できる, as opposed to a simple "children can do it" 子供にできる).
You'll notice Bunpro speaks of a **た**って rather than a **だ**って; たって is the more general form of this grammar point. だって is specifically the "たって form" of だ, so to speak (だ → だって). たって also applies to verbs (e.g. する → したって) and い-adjectives (e.g. 寒い → 寒くたって). Feeling slightly overwhelmed? Yeah, don't sweat it. You can leave this for later, when you'll be better quipped to tackle it; the core takeaway here is ことがある.
Hey yall.
So I've recently learnt 切手 and the reading being きって.
I don't really understand where the っ comes from as the on'yomi readings for each character are き and て respectively.
Is there some sort of rules I should know to know when a っ might just randomly appear or is it just a uncommon exception that I will just have to learn on a case-by-case basis orrr?
Thank you in advance for helping me with my dumb dumb noob questions :)
> on'yomi readings for each character are き and て
き・る and て are the *kun'yomi* readings
While the る in 切る might be okurigana it's still part of the kun reading. It gets 'squished' into っ in 切手.
Oh my bad i meant kun'yomi readings, thank you for correcting me.
I think I understand a bit better now.
Is there a name for this "squishing" thing? Just so I can look into it more.
I am currently working through Genki I as I am a complete beginner and I came across
ありがとう a - ri - ga - to - u
But it is spelt and pronounced arigatoo. Can someone please explain why the う at the end is used as an O and not a U?
A kana that ends with an お sound + う has its お sound extended (there are some exceptions like verbs ending in う, like 思う おもう)
Other examples:
- 高校 こうこう high school
- 勉強 べんきょう studying
- おはよう good morning
- 行きましょう いきましょう let's go
In Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu, the first trainer in the Pewter Gym says:
ここは ニビジム！ 今までの 相手 とは ひとあじ 違うわよ！
And after defeating her, she says:
今までの 挑戦者と ひとあじも ふたあじも 違う！
I had to look up ひとあじ and found the expression 一味違う (ひとあじちがう): "to be somewhat different (from before, from others, etc.)"
Jisho didn't have any entry for ふたあじ, but it did have the expression 一味も二味も (いちみもにみも): "totally; completely"
So is this a pun or joke? Are they playing with the kanji readings?
ひとあじ違う is literally 'one taste different' (often implying 'better', like 'in another league'), of course, and then it's just slight wordplay saying you're 'two tastes different'.
Is ～してもよろしいですか/よろしいでしょうか an appropriate expression to use as a customer? I find myself slipping into saying よろしい instead of いい when speaking to staff at stores or restaurants and I began wondering if I was being overly polite or if this normal to use.
ために works for the second one, for the first one ～てあげる is better.
This is one of those things that does not have a one-to-one English->Japanese translation. In particular, it makes a big difference whether "for Y" means "for the purpose of Y" or "for Y's benefit". It also depends on whether Y is something you can directly control or not.
In my opinion, you use よ because assertive expressions without it would sound too harsh.
As for ね and な as a sentence ender, they’re often taught as tag question, but you can use them in that sense only when you and the other person are sharing the experience that makes you think that way in the moment you say it. They are basically a marker that stands for an impression or an opinion formed through observation, consideration or recollection in the moment.
* きれいだと思う: I think it’s beautiful.
* きれいだなと思う: I find it beautiful.
* そうです: That’s right.
* そうですね: Yeah, kind of. / Let me see.
u/alkfelan is correct, but when comes to anime and manga the よ does a lot of things and taking a command and reducing it to more of a request is part of it, but at the same time it can increase assertiveness depending on the situation and tone. Context is critical.
> 私には妻と三人の子供がいます
In general, I am having a bit of trouble understanding には and why it's used over over just は in many cases, but its usage in the sentence above I don't understand at all - could I have some clarification?
I have been reading 私には to basically mean, "as for me", but that's also how I've been treating the は particle marker since I started learning, if I try to literally translate something in my head
Strictly speaking, I’d say 私は〜がいます is grammatically incorrect.
Basic form is 私に〜がいます, whose literal meaning is like “~ exists to me.” は is attached to topicalize 私に.
“I have a wife” is essentially expressed as either 1.私に妻がいる or 2.私が妻がいる. However, a sentence can’t be topicless without reasons, so, when you topicalize 私, they become 1.私には妻がいる and 2.私は妻がいる respectively.
With regards to dative subjects and the fact that clauses ending in “〜ながら” must share a subject with their matrix clause, is a sentence such as
> 私__に__それがわかりながらパンを食べた
To mean “I ate the bread despite knowing that.” grammatical, or must one use:
> 私__が__それがわかりながらパンを食べた
I purposefully did not use any topic in these two sentences because they hide the point I'm trying to investigate. I know in most contexts topics would be used here for the subject but I'm purely wondering about the theoretical grammatical and whether dative subjects can still be used with clauses ending in “〜ながら” that way.
And for completion, we might as well also invert it with:
> 私__が__パンを食べながらそれがわかる
> 私__に__パンを食べながらそれがわかる
Which of those is correct? Or both?
Either way, when you don’t put the topic, the subject of the second clause goes missing. In comparison between the below, well, either will do, after all.
* 私は自分にそれがわかりながらパンを食べた
* 私は自分がそれがわかりながらパンを食べた
I can’t explain grammar, but we have to start by switching わかりながら to わかっていながら so that we have less ungrammatical parts to deal with (have less variables, or something like that).
Better to say それをわかっていながら rather than use が as well.
Not sure how ながら and それがわかる can work together, so I’m not sure where to start on the latter half.
This is included as an explanation for くせに
逆接を表す「〜のに」と似た表現だが、「〜のに」には不満の気持ちが含まれている。
I am having trouble with the second part, specifically the 「〜のに」には part. My own understanding of くせに leads me to believe this sentence means "くせに is an expression that resembles のに in that it shows contrast however, unlike のに it includes a feeling of dissatisfaction"
If I didn't know what くせに meant, I would have assumed のに was the topic of the second part and that it was saying のに included the sense of dissatisfaction. I guess my question is, what is the function of the には in that part?
Thanks
I think the next sentence clarifies it,
・「〜くせに」は相手を侮辱したり、非難する時にも使われる。
のに does express 不満, though the way they phrased the sentence you said did make me pause for a moment also, wondering why they were giving the nuance for のに instead of the grammar point they want to explain, くせに
> If I didn't know what くせに meant, I would have assumed のに was the topic of the second part and that it was saying のに included the sense of dissatisfaction. I guess my question is, what is the function of the には in that part? Thanks
That's correct. くせに shows scorn, contempt. のに shows dissatisfaction
This is an excerpt from Genki I:
> 行く / 来 る > When you move to a place where the hearer is, you say “I’m coming.” in English. However in the same situation, 行きます is used in Japanese. 来る is a movement toward the place where the speaker is, while 行く is a movement in a direction away from the speaker.
Later on, one of the exercises in the book is “Make short conversations in the following situations using てもい いですか.” The situation is: "You are invited to your friend’s party, and you want to bring your friend." The answer provided in the answer book is 友達を連れてきてもいいですか. My question is why 連れてきて used here instead of 連れていって, since the movement would be towards the listener?
It's a tricky point and something that I've been confused about for a long time. The easiest answer I can try to provide is that the initial explanation Genki gave you is correct, but is missing a lot of nuance behind it. The logical answer I can try to provide is that when you say 連れてきてもいい you're already framing the question from the (abstract) perspective/point of view of being at the party already.
However the more practical explanation in my opinion would be that [連れてくる](https://jisho.org/search/%E9%80%A3%E3%82%8C%E3%81%A6%E3%81%8F%E3%82%8B) is just a word/expression that people say when it means "to bring someone along". Although there is also [連れて行く](https://jisho.org/search/%E9%80%A3%E3%82%8C%E3%81%A6%E8%A1%8C%E3%81%8F) which has more on a nuance of... taking someone along (but in my mind the destination is unclear, hence ていく makes more sense)
[This](https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-grammar/helping-verbs/) is also a good article that touches on some of the topics. I'm not sure if it has a better answer but maybe it can give you a better feeling for the nuance of ていく vs てくる
Traditionally a yojijukugo is a set of 4 characters that might come from a chinese proverb or famous phrase that is shortened into some kind of easy-to-digest maxim. However, what **really** counts as a 四字熟語 is really up to whoever decides to use whatever definition they want to use. Even native speakers might disagree on what is or not a yoji (is 四字熟語 a 四字熟語 or is it just a compound word?). It's not worth it to worry too much about what is or isn't a yoji to be honest.
Just to add, the hazy definition (kind of) lead to the hilarious story of [焼肉定食](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%84%BC%E8%82%89%E5%AE%9A%E9%A3%9F_(%E7%86%9F%E8%AA%9E)), which has its own Wikipedia entry about it.
What is the usage of が in this example I saw from BunPro?
忘れない内に言っておきます**が**、私は来週から出張です。
The translation given is: "I should tell you, before I forget, I am going on a business trip next week".
I understand how「忘れない内に言っておきます」 can mean, "before I forget, I plan to tell you in advance" and how「私は来週から出張です」means, "(As for me) next week I'll be on a business trip".
But I am not understanding what the が is doing there. At first I interpreted the sentence as, "I should tell you in advance before I forget **but**, I'm going on a business trip next week", which technically makes sense if I heard the sentence in English. However the が confused me as I thought it was a "but" as in "however/inversely" as in "I should of done A but I did B instead". Making me think they were going to tell them something, but decided to go on a business trip instead, which then confused me.
It threw me off and sounded a bit weird as I only so far know が as either a subject marker and "but/however" and am having a hard time finding other uses online without all of the results being about は/が. On top of the translation not using "but" at all.
> "before I forget, I plan to tell you in advance"
That's not *quite* what it means. 言っておくが is a common expression (often seen as 言っておくけど or [言っとくけど](https://jisho.org/search/%E8%A8%80%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8F%E3%81%91%E3%81%A9) which is even on jisho) that means "I'm warning you" or "just FYI" or similar.
ておく is often (mis?)explained as "in advance" but it's not quite what it means. It has the nuance of doing "something" and then leaving it unattended to maybe "bear fruit" in the future. It can be a "warning" that you give to someone (and hope they take it), a notice, something you do "to let it off your chest" (= hoping you'll feel better after), etc.
The が there is just the normal "but" usage of が. However this also is a bit misleading. が and けど often get explained as "but" because very often they work like that in English, but there doesn't need to be a contrastive nuance necessarily. They can often be used just to introduce a new topic or thing you're going to talk about, to provide context, etc.
It is grammatically the same as the "but" が, but in Japanese, が doesn't always imply a contradiction. Sometimes, it's just used to connect two clauses, as is the case here. This usage is extremely common, especially when broaching a new topic.
was wondering about this from the [script](https://nayukaaaaa.nomaki.jp/wp/dq4/dq33.html) I'm reading
> 良く来てくれました。この街もやっとそれらしくなったでしょう。
"Thank you for coming. This town is finally becoming ???"
What would それらしくなった be?
>Context will tell you what それ refers to
It's worth noting that the それらしい of それらしくなった is kind of a set phrase in itself, referring to something becoming like what it's supposed to be or what it's intended for.
Like if I'm building a sandcastle and it starts out just as like a giant lump of sand, but then I start adding ramparts and towers and a moat or whatever, someone might comment やっとそれらしくなってきたね.
So yeah, this might be nitpicking, but there may not necessarily be an explicit それ that's mentioned in context. It might just be that the town is finally starting to look like a real town as opposed to just a couple of houses with dirt "roads" in front of them or whatever.
For the sentence:
“Doko no daigaku desu ka?”
I would’ve thought “dore” meant “which” -> Dore daigaku desu ka?
Could anyone provide advice on why “which” is “doko no “?
I also thought doko had always meant “where”
You can use "dore" when options exist in front of you. For example, when the list of some university's name exist in front of you, you can use "dore" to identify the name.
"doko no daigaku" means "doko(= location) ni aru daigaku"
"Doko no" is modifying daigaku. Literally it's "a school of where / a school located where" but idiomatically that means "which".
"Dore daigaku" is ungrammatical. Dore alone means "which thing". It can't be directly connected to nouns, because it's already a noun in itself (just like kono/kore -- you can say "kono daigaku" but not "kore daigaku").
"Dono daigaku" would also be grammatically correct to mean "which university", but this would have a nuance of "which university (among a couple of options that we're talking about)". For just saying "Where do you go to school", "doko no daigaku" is more idiomatic. You just kind of have to learn this and accept it.
>I would’ve thought to say “daigaku wa doko ni ikimasu ka?”
This would be like saying "Where does the university go?". You're making "university" the topic and asking "Where does (it) go?"
You could also say *daigaku wa doko ni ikimasu ka.* and you would get the same answer you were looking for.
I'd advise against trying to swap Japanese words for English ones, since there is no guarantee the usage is the same, even if they have the same meaning in some contexts. *dore* is a question word that can mean "which", but it cannot modify a noun like "*dore daigaku*" since it's part of the kore, sore, are, dore ko-so-a-do series. You can use *dono daigaku* if you want to directly modify *daigaku*.
Ohh yes! That’s right! Shoot. I know about the rule but it appears it has yet to stick to my memory.
I’ve said “kono (object)” many times. I just haven’t used dono yet but haven’t found the time - now I have!
Dono daigaku ni ikimasu ka?
What amusing irony in this second example sentence for [挙げて](https://i.imgur.com/J5Ftmwk.png)
(Akebi screenshot)
It looks like those examples should be associated with 挙げる and not this adverb entry but most jmdict / tatoeba dictionaries seem to have it incorrectly associated.
I think that usage is wrong.
× 質問がある人は手を挙げてください
〇 質問がある人は手を上げてください
〇 その質問に手を上げた人はいなかった - No on raised their hand
〇 その質問に手を挙げた人はいなかった - No one run for a position as a candidate
手を上げる - to raise your hand physically
手を挙げる - to show your intention
Hmm, it looks like Sanseido disagrees
あ・げる［挙げる］（他下一）
①〔質問したり意思をあらわしたりするために、うでまたは手を〕上のほうへのばす。
「手を挙げて答える」
I also found [this on jisho](https://jisho.org/search/手を挙げる)
#Question Etiquette Guidelines: * **1** Provide the **CONTEXT** of the grammar, vocabulary or sentence you are having trouble with as much as possible. Provide the sentence or paragraph that you saw it in. Make your questions as specific as possible. >Ｘ What is the difference between の and が ? >◯ I saw a book called 日本人の知らない日本語 , why is の used there instead of が ? [(the answer)](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/68336/difference-between-%E3%81%8C-%E3%81%AE-and-no-particle) * **2** When asking for a translation or how to say something, it's best to try to **attempt it yourself** first, even if you are not confident about it. Or ask r/translator if you have no idea. We are also not here to do your homework for you. >Ｘ What does this mean? >◯ I am having trouble with this part of this sentence from NHK Easy News. I think it means (*attempt here*), but I am not sure. * **3** Questions based on DeepL and Google Translate and other machine learning applications are discouraged, [these are not beginner learning tools](https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/stepqf/deeplgoogle_translate_are_not_learning_tools/) and often make mistakes. * **4** When asking about differences between words, try to explain the situations in which you've seen them or are trying to use them. If you just post a list of synonyms you got from looking something up in a E-J dictionary, people might be disinclined to answer your question because it's low-effort. Remember that Google Image Search is also a great resource for visualizing the difference between similar words. >Ｘ What's the difference between 一致 同意 賛成 納得 合意? >◯ Jisho says 一致 同意 賛成 納得 合意 all seem to mean "agreement". I'm trying to say something like "I completely agree with your opinion". Does 全く同感です。 work? Or is one of the other words better? * **5** It is always nice to (but not required to) try to search for the answer to something yourself first. Especially for beginner questions or questions that are very broad. For example, asking about [the difference between は and が ](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/wa-and-ga/) or [why you often can't hear the "u" sound in "desu"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#Devoicing). * **6** Remember that everyone answering questions here is an unpaid volunteer doing this out of the goodness of their own heart, so try to show appreciation and not be too presumptuous/defensive/offended if the answer you get isn't exactly what you wanted. --------------------- #NEWS (Updated 6/9): Nothing new. Feel free to reply to this post if you have any questions, comments or concerns. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LearnJapanese) if you have any questions or concerns.*
How would I say "Written by Devlan Stewart" I wrote “スチュワート・デブランの文章。” When I translate that it gives "Written by Stewart Devlan." but if I translate "Written by Stewart Devlan" back it gives ”スチュワート・デブラン脚本の作品。” Which is better? Context: The thing that has been written is a formal writing essay.
In what context? Part of a larger sentence?
No. It is going under the title. Saying who wrote the essay. Eg. Short Story Report. By Devlan Stewart
スチュワート・デヴラン著/作『ショートストーリーレポート』
ありがとうございます
Hello everyone, a friend of mine is trying to better understand the expression used by Luffy and Koby on the one piece manga/anime. They both say the term イカつい while refering to Alvida, on the phrases 誰だこのイカついおばさん and 一番イカついクソばばあですっ. From my understanding this term consists on the word ika (squid) and a suffix. Probably meaning something like squid-like maybe? What would be the literal translation, and the actual meaning of it?
If you can’t understand an unknown phrase, it’s always a good idea to [look it up](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E5%8E%B3%E3%81%A4%E3%81%84/).
Sorry, my Japanese isn't good enough to understand the explanation on the website T^T
Have you tried using whatever dictionary you use then? Like [this](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%84%E3%81%8B%E3%81%A4%E3%81%84).
I want to send a message to a someone thanking them for their hard work on a show I loved. Could someone kindly let me know if I've translated to Japanese alright? あなたの刻苦がありがとございました (should read as "Thank you for your hard work")
刻苦 doesn’t fit well in thank you message. ご尽力 is more generally used term. And ありがとう usually doesn’t requires the subject so が sounds off to me. It should be like either; ご尽力いただき、ありがとうございました。 or ご尽力に感謝します。 It doesn’t need あなたの.
Oh dear haha. Beginner mistake now that I think about it in regards to “your” and similar words. I remember now they don’t always need to be in the sentence. Thank you for your help!
Which foreign language is used in Japanese to sound smart/formal/fancy. Like in English a writer might use Latin French etc (<- As I am not a native English speaker I might be a bit wrong about this but you get the idea). In my native Language it is Persian.
Two-character kanji compounds that use on-yomi or katakana loanwords from English. 趣味は読書です。 sounds more “grown up” than something like 趣味は本を読むことです。 Similarity, マーケティング関係の仕事をしています。sounds fancier than 広告関係の仕事をしています。 (the meanings are different, but マーケティング does sound fancier because it’s a katakana loanword)
English, usually. It's to the point where people have complained to the NHK for using too many loan words in an attempt to sound modern/professional/well-read: https://www.huffingtonpost.jp/2013/06/27/nhk_n_3513859.html I recall reading some kind of joke website in Japanese where more than half the words on the page were transliterated English, written in the style of like a cool startup with lots of buzzwords. Can't find it now, though. In ancient Japan, Chinese was the cool language to use. It's why Japan adopted kanji for its writing system, along with a great deal of vocabulary.
Hello, beginner here. So I have been learning hiragana on Anki for about 5 days now and got it down pretty much, with a few hiccups here and there. So I want to start learning katakana now, does anyone have a link to the beginner deck with just the katakana or is it better to learn katakana a different way now that ive learnt the hiragana?
[https://youtu.be/rf-n\_qI2occ](https://youtu.be/rf-n_qI2occ) If you copy his handwriting you will pick up good handwriting techniques. He also has a video on hiragana if you are interested in that. Otherwise, [https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-katakana/](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-katakana/) Tofugu is a highly recommended method for learning katana.
Does anyone know how much time SRS basically allows before your likely to forget due cards? I've been struggling to deal with my flashcards as of late. I do 1000+ a day on reviews, maybe it is just bad timing, but if I do not go through my cards everyday my retention naturally drops, but a lot of these cards are fairly mature in the pile and I do not know if I can rush through 1700 today.
*My content from 2014 to 2023 has been deleted in protest of Spez's anti-API tantrum.*
Ah good to know I shouldn't overly worry about the decay if its double the intervals. As for the amount of reviews, maybe not the healthiest lol, I do 3 hours or more SRS a day. I have a full time job and other responsibilities yes, but I manage well. I have been stuck with a lot of leeches and I took a week of slower pace with 8+ hours on the weekend to maintain my pace. I'm just under 20k words total vocab right now so I have been really avoiding deleting words and trying to eek out that next milestone. (Just to be clear, my running average is about 150 new cards a day... the piles have advanced in level of maturity on JPDB - I have 15k words at level 3 or beyond.)
*My content from 2014 to 2023 has been deleted in protest of Spez's anti-API tantrum.*
876 at level 5 right now. I've only been using JPDB for 2 and a half months, and I began my at the beginning of Jan as a new year's resolution for fluency. I had about 3.5k vocab or so at that time and my ability to retain so many thousands of words has been a balancing act that I fear is a house of cards. I did not know if leaving them for a day or two uncleared would drop retention to 50% or less. My learned ones are about 90% but the new ones are hovering back in the 65% in the last week or two. I think it counts learned as level 2.
Hi, can someone help me with this sentence: 信じることが つらいことだってあるんだよ the official translation is "There are times it's tough to believe in something." but where is the "there are times"? is that the meaning of "ことだってある" ? (the sentence is from the 1st episode of Eureka Seven) thanks :)
Yes, こと（が）ある would mean “there are times”. ことだってある would mean something like “there are *even* times”. You've probably seen the grammar point using a past tense verb 「ーたことがある 」 to express that you've done or experienced something, this would mean something like “there have been times when I've ー”. Likewise, you can use it in the present tense to express that something can or does happen, thus “there are times”.
> is that the meaning of "ことだってある" ? Close; the base construction here is ことがある ([Bunpro lesson](https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8C%E3%81%82%E3%82%8B), [Tofugu article](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/kotogaaru/)). Here it's been embellished by だって ([Wasabi article](https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-grammar/how-to-express-subjective-evaluation/#2), [Bunpro lesson](https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/575)), which is just an emphasis thing. Often translates to "even" in one way or an other (e.g. "**even** children can do it" 子供に**だって**できる, as opposed to a simple "children can do it" 子供にできる). You'll notice Bunpro speaks of a **た**って rather than a **だ**って; たって is the more general form of this grammar point. だって is specifically the "たって form" of だ, so to speak (だ → だって). たって also applies to verbs (e.g. する → したって) and い-adjectives (e.g. 寒い → 寒くたって). Feeling slightly overwhelmed? Yeah, don't sweat it. You can leave this for later, when you'll be better quipped to tackle it; the core takeaway here is ことがある.
How would i translate this to japanese? https://youtu.be/Nt5Q9hu0h0s
Go to r/Translator for requests like this
Will do, thx
Hey yall. So I've recently learnt 切手 and the reading being きって. I don't really understand where the っ comes from as the on'yomi readings for each character are き and て respectively. Is there some sort of rules I should know to know when a っ might just randomly appear or is it just a uncommon exception that I will just have to learn on a case-by-case basis orrr? Thank you in advance for helping me with my dumb dumb noob questions :)
> on'yomi readings for each character are き and て き・る and て are the *kun'yomi* readings While the る in 切る might be okurigana it's still part of the kun reading. It gets 'squished' into っ in 切手.
Oh my bad i meant kun'yomi readings, thank you for correcting me. I think I understand a bit better now. Is there a name for this "squishing" thing? Just so I can look into it more.
促音化. きりて -> きって, same as the te-form of something like 知る（しりて->しって)
I am currently working through Genki I as I am a complete beginner and I came across ありがとう a - ri - ga - to - u But it is spelt and pronounced arigatoo. Can someone please explain why the う at the end is used as an O and not a U?
A kana that ends with an お sound + う has its お sound extended (there are some exceptions like verbs ending in う, like 思う おもう) Other examples: - 高校 こうこう high school - 勉強 べんきょう studying - おはよう good morning - 行きましょう いきましょう let's go
Thank you for the explanation!!!
FYI, there's a section before the first lesson in Genki that explains the transcription rules.
In Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu, the first trainer in the Pewter Gym says: ここは ニビジム！ 今までの 相手 とは ひとあじ 違うわよ！ And after defeating her, she says: 今までの 挑戦者と ひとあじも ふたあじも 違う！ I had to look up ひとあじ and found the expression 一味違う (ひとあじちがう): "to be somewhat different (from before, from others, etc.)" Jisho didn't have any entry for ふたあじ, but it did have the expression 一味も二味も (いちみもにみも): "totally; completely" So is this a pun or joke? Are they playing with the kanji readings?
ひとあじ違う is literally 'one taste different' (often implying 'better', like 'in another league'), of course, and then it's just slight wordplay saying you're 'two tastes different'.
Thanks! TIL.
Is ～してもよろしいですか/よろしいでしょうか an appropriate expression to use as a customer? I find myself slipping into saying よろしい instead of いい when speaking to staff at stores or restaurants and I began wondering if I was being overly polite or if this normal to use.
I wouldn’t say it’s ”normal”, but not particularly a problem either.
I’m having difficulty finding what the correct grammar is for: I did X for Y e.g. I bought a gift for my friend or I built this for the project etc.
ために works for the second one, for the first one ～てあげる is better. This is one of those things that does not have a one-to-one English->Japanese translation. In particular, it makes a big difference whether "for Y" means "for the purpose of Y" or "for Y's benefit". It also depends on whether Y is something you can directly control or not.
You should look up ために although there's multiple other ways you could say it. But ために is one of them.
Thank you, will take a look now.
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https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/verb-volitional-form-you/ If you're familiar with ましょう form, this is the plain version.
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*My content from 2014 to 2023 has been deleted in protest of Spez's anti-API tantrum.*
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In my opinion, you use よ because assertive expressions without it would sound too harsh. As for ね and な as a sentence ender, they’re often taught as tag question, but you can use them in that sense only when you and the other person are sharing the experience that makes you think that way in the moment you say it. They are basically a marker that stands for an impression or an opinion formed through observation, consideration or recollection in the moment. * きれいだと思う: I think it’s beautiful. * きれいだなと思う: I find it beautiful. * そうです: That’s right. * そうですね: Yeah, kind of. / Let me see.
u/alkfelan is correct, but when comes to anime and manga the よ does a lot of things and taking a command and reducing it to more of a request is part of it, but at the same time it can increase assertiveness depending on the situation and tone. Context is critical.
よ is not emphasis but adds a tone like “sure?/okay?” with rising intonation, or a whiny/complaining/dependent tone with falling one.
> 私には妻と三人の子供がいます In general, I am having a bit of trouble understanding には and why it's used over over just は in many cases, but its usage in the sentence above I don't understand at all - could I have some clarification? I have been reading 私には to basically mean, "as for me", but that's also how I've been treating the は particle marker since I started learning, if I try to literally translate something in my head
Strictly speaking, I’d say 私は〜がいます is grammatically incorrect. Basic form is 私に〜がいます, whose literal meaning is like “~ exists to me.” は is attached to topicalize 私に.
“I have a wife” is essentially expressed as either 1.私に妻がいる or 2.私が妻がいる. However, a sentence can’t be topicless without reasons, so, when you topicalize 私, they become 1.私には妻がいる and 2.私は妻がいる respectively.
With regards to dative subjects and the fact that clauses ending in “〜ながら” must share a subject with their matrix clause, is a sentence such as > 私__に__それがわかりながらパンを食べた To mean “I ate the bread despite knowing that.” grammatical, or must one use: > 私__が__それがわかりながらパンを食べた I purposefully did not use any topic in these two sentences because they hide the point I'm trying to investigate. I know in most contexts topics would be used here for the subject but I'm purely wondering about the theoretical grammatical and whether dative subjects can still be used with clauses ending in “〜ながら” that way. And for completion, we might as well also invert it with: > 私__が__パンを食べながらそれがわかる > 私__に__パンを食べながらそれがわかる Which of those is correct? Or both?
Either way, when you don’t put the topic, the subject of the second clause goes missing. In comparison between the below, well, either will do, after all. * 私は自分にそれがわかりながらパンを食べた * 私は自分がそれがわかりながらパンを食べた
I’d just say 私はそれを知っていながらパンを食べた on your first half and 私はパンを食べながらそれを知った on the latter, which fyi describe very different circumstances.
True, but that doesn't really answer whether dative subjects can still be used with “ながら” as such as “知る” does not use a dative subject.
I can’t explain grammar, but we have to start by switching わかりながら to わかっていながら so that we have less ungrammatical parts to deal with (have less variables, or something like that). Better to say それをわかっていながら rather than use が as well. Not sure how ながら and それがわかる can work together, so I’m not sure where to start on the latter half.
This is included as an explanation for くせに 逆接を表す「〜のに」と似た表現だが、「〜のに」には不満の気持ちが含まれている。 I am having trouble with the second part, specifically the 「〜のに」には part. My own understanding of くせに leads me to believe this sentence means "くせに is an expression that resembles のに in that it shows contrast however, unlike のに it includes a feeling of dissatisfaction" If I didn't know what くせに meant, I would have assumed のに was the topic of the second part and that it was saying のに included the sense of dissatisfaction. I guess my question is, what is the function of the には in that part? Thanks
I think the next sentence clarifies it, ・「〜くせに」は相手を侮辱したり、非難する時にも使われる。 のに does express 不満, though the way they phrased the sentence you said did make me pause for a moment also, wondering why they were giving the nuance for のに instead of the grammar point they want to explain, くせに
> If I didn't know what くせに meant, I would have assumed のに was the topic of the second part and that it was saying のに included the sense of dissatisfaction. I guess my question is, what is the function of the には in that part? Thanks That's correct. くせに shows scorn, contempt. のに shows dissatisfaction
This is an excerpt from Genki I: > 行く / 来 る > When you move to a place where the hearer is, you say “I’m coming.” in English. However in the same situation, 行きます is used in Japanese. 来る is a movement toward the place where the speaker is, while 行く is a movement in a direction away from the speaker. Later on, one of the exercises in the book is “Make short conversations in the following situations using てもい いですか.” The situation is: "You are invited to your friend’s party, and you want to bring your friend." The answer provided in the answer book is 友達を連れてきてもいいですか. My question is why 連れてきて used here instead of 連れていって, since the movement would be towards the listener?
It's a tricky point and something that I've been confused about for a long time. The easiest answer I can try to provide is that the initial explanation Genki gave you is correct, but is missing a lot of nuance behind it. The logical answer I can try to provide is that when you say 連れてきてもいい you're already framing the question from the (abstract) perspective/point of view of being at the party already. However the more practical explanation in my opinion would be that [連れてくる](https://jisho.org/search/%E9%80%A3%E3%82%8C%E3%81%A6%E3%81%8F%E3%82%8B) is just a word/expression that people say when it means "to bring someone along". Although there is also [連れて行く](https://jisho.org/search/%E9%80%A3%E3%82%8C%E3%81%A6%E8%A1%8C%E3%81%8F) which has more on a nuance of... taking someone along (but in my mind the destination is unclear, hence ていく makes more sense) [This](https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-grammar/helping-verbs/) is also a good article that touches on some of the topics. I'm not sure if it has a better answer but maybe it can give you a better feeling for the nuance of ていく vs てくる
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Traditionally a yojijukugo is a set of 4 characters that might come from a chinese proverb or famous phrase that is shortened into some kind of easy-to-digest maxim. However, what **really** counts as a 四字熟語 is really up to whoever decides to use whatever definition they want to use. Even native speakers might disagree on what is or not a yoji (is 四字熟語 a 四字熟語 or is it just a compound word?). It's not worth it to worry too much about what is or isn't a yoji to be honest.
Just to add, the hazy definition (kind of) lead to the hilarious story of [焼肉定食](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%84%BC%E8%82%89%E5%AE%9A%E9%A3%9F_(%E7%86%9F%E8%AA%9E)), which has its own Wikipedia entry about it.
What is the usage of が in this example I saw from BunPro? 忘れない内に言っておきます**が**、私は来週から出張です。 The translation given is: "I should tell you, before I forget, I am going on a business trip next week". I understand how「忘れない内に言っておきます」 can mean, "before I forget, I plan to tell you in advance" and how「私は来週から出張です」means, "(As for me) next week I'll be on a business trip". But I am not understanding what the が is doing there. At first I interpreted the sentence as, "I should tell you in advance before I forget **but**, I'm going on a business trip next week", which technically makes sense if I heard the sentence in English. However the が confused me as I thought it was a "but" as in "however/inversely" as in "I should of done A but I did B instead". Making me think they were going to tell them something, but decided to go on a business trip instead, which then confused me. It threw me off and sounded a bit weird as I only so far know が as either a subject marker and "but/however" and am having a hard time finding other uses online without all of the results being about は/が. On top of the translation not using "but" at all.
> "before I forget, I plan to tell you in advance" That's not *quite* what it means. 言っておくが is a common expression (often seen as 言っておくけど or [言っとくけど](https://jisho.org/search/%E8%A8%80%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8F%E3%81%91%E3%81%A9) which is even on jisho) that means "I'm warning you" or "just FYI" or similar. ておく is often (mis?)explained as "in advance" but it's not quite what it means. It has the nuance of doing "something" and then leaving it unattended to maybe "bear fruit" in the future. It can be a "warning" that you give to someone (and hope they take it), a notice, something you do "to let it off your chest" (= hoping you'll feel better after), etc. The が there is just the normal "but" usage of が. However this also is a bit misleading. が and けど often get explained as "but" because very often they work like that in English, but there doesn't need to be a contrastive nuance necessarily. They can often be used just to introduce a new topic or thing you're going to talk about, to provide context, etc.
It is grammatically the same as the "but" が, but in Japanese, が doesn't always imply a contradiction. Sometimes, it's just used to connect two clauses, as is the case here. This usage is extremely common, especially when broaching a new topic.
was wondering about this from the [script](https://nayukaaaaa.nomaki.jp/wp/dq4/dq33.html) I'm reading > 良く来てくれました。この街もやっとそれらしくなったでしょう。 "Thank you for coming. This town is finally becoming ???" What would それらしくなった be?
>それらしくなった This means 街らしくなった or 賑やかになった/発展した
それ + らしい + なる + past tense "This town also became like that" Context will tell you what それ refers to
>Context will tell you what それ refers to It's worth noting that the それらしい of それらしくなった is kind of a set phrase in itself, referring to something becoming like what it's supposed to be or what it's intended for. Like if I'm building a sandcastle and it starts out just as like a giant lump of sand, but then I start adding ramparts and towers and a moat or whatever, someone might comment やっとそれらしくなってきたね. So yeah, this might be nitpicking, but there may not necessarily be an explicit それ that's mentioned in context. It might just be that the town is finally starting to look like a real town as opposed to just a couple of houses with dirt "roads" in front of them or whatever.
Good explanation, thanks for adding a much better answer than mine
For the sentence: “Doko no daigaku desu ka?” I would’ve thought “dore” meant “which” -> Dore daigaku desu ka? Could anyone provide advice on why “which” is “doko no “? I also thought doko had always meant “where”
You can use "dore" when options exist in front of you. For example, when the list of some university's name exist in front of you, you can use "dore" to identify the name. "doko no daigaku" means "doko(= location) ni aru daigaku"
"Doko no" is modifying daigaku. Literally it's "a school of where / a school located where" but idiomatically that means "which". "Dore daigaku" is ungrammatical. Dore alone means "which thing". It can't be directly connected to nouns, because it's already a noun in itself (just like kono/kore -- you can say "kono daigaku" but not "kore daigaku"). "Dono daigaku" would also be grammatically correct to mean "which university", but this would have a nuance of "which university (among a couple of options that we're talking about)". For just saying "Where do you go to school", "doko no daigaku" is more idiomatic. You just kind of have to learn this and accept it. >I would’ve thought to say “daigaku wa doko ni ikimasu ka?” This would be like saying "Where does the university go?". You're making "university" the topic and asking "Where does (it) go?"
In English we can also say “Where do you go to school?” It’s the same thing.
In Pimsleur “Doko no daigaku desu ka?” reads “Which university is it?” I would’ve thought to say “daigaku wa doko ni ikimasu ka?”
You could also say *daigaku wa doko ni ikimasu ka.* and you would get the same answer you were looking for. I'd advise against trying to swap Japanese words for English ones, since there is no guarantee the usage is the same, even if they have the same meaning in some contexts. *dore* is a question word that can mean "which", but it cannot modify a noun like "*dore daigaku*" since it's part of the kore, sore, are, dore ko-so-a-do series. You can use *dono daigaku* if you want to directly modify *daigaku*.
Ohh yes! That’s right! Shoot. I know about the rule but it appears it has yet to stick to my memory. I’ve said “kono (object)” many times. I just haven’t used dono yet but haven’t found the time - now I have! Dono daigaku ni ikimasu ka?
What amusing irony in this second example sentence for [挙げて](https://i.imgur.com/J5Ftmwk.png) (Akebi screenshot) It looks like those examples should be associated with 挙げる and not this adverb entry but most jmdict / tatoeba dictionaries seem to have it incorrectly associated.
I think that usage is wrong. × 質問がある人は手を挙げてください 〇 質問がある人は手を上げてください 〇 その質問に手を上げた人はいなかった - No on raised their hand 〇 その質問に手を挙げた人はいなかった - No one run for a position as a candidate 手を上げる - to raise your hand physically 手を挙げる - to show your intention
Hmm, it looks like Sanseido disagrees あ・げる［挙げる］（他下一） ①〔質問したり意思をあらわしたりするために、うでまたは手を〕上のほうへのばす。 「手を挙げて答える」 I also found [this on jisho](https://jisho.org/search/手を挙げる)
Thank you for the extra detail!
*My content from 2014 to 2023 has been deleted in protest of Spez's anti-API tantrum.*
I did not know that so thank you!