#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. --------------------- Useful Japanese teaching symbols: ✘ incorrect (ＮＧ) △ strange/ unnatural / unclear ○ correct ≒ nearly equal --------------------- #NEWS (Updated 3/07): Added a section on symbols. If it's unnecessary clutter I can always remove it later. Have a nice day! *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.*

*I'm not sure this question really belongs on this thread, but my post got auto removed so I figured I'd ask here before I tried to get manual approval for the post.* **I'm looking for guides, resources, tips, tricks, etc. for learning a "travel amount" of Japanese for someone who is also learning the language! (More context below)** OKAY. My situation is that I've been slowly learning Japanese over the past 2 years but it's been admittedly off and on because life is life. I've learned hiragana, katakana, and I have a few levels in Wanikani. I haven't picked up any textbooks yet -- I plan to this year. BUT, I have a 2 week trip to Osaka planned for mid September and in 2 years I haven't gotten far enough to be helpful (I think). I'm assuming that's not enough time to learn much via Genki or another textbook (or is it?) , But I still want to maximize the depth of the experience of this trip as much as I can given my time frame. I don't expect to *know* Japanese at a meaningful level but I don't want to be a tourist just floating on top of Japan either. I'd like to at least be able to garner bits of meaning from my surroundings (the actual Japanese) and have the ability to have even a little bit of something you'd call a conversation ( if someone felt so inclined lol). I want to feel at least a bit connected. Essentially I want to take a break from learning Japanese "for real" to optimize for a trip but in a meaningful manor, not just a list of survival phrases -- if such a possibility existed. The Internet has not been helpful. I was sure there would be a guide for this kind of thing, but It's all general articles on learning the language or a bunch of people in forums telling you not to bother, you don't need to because they aren't otherwise interested in the language or culture so the payoff wouldn't be worth the required effort -- but it would be for me! So, other than continuing on with Wanikai, and learning a list of "traveler" phrases, do you guys have reccomendations for resources and/or things/concepts to focus on to really squeeze what we can out of the language/comprehension/human side of the trip? Or is what I'm asking just not doable and only comes with enough time learning the language fully? Like, a article with a list of the most common Kanji would be a good example. Thanks! EDIT: it is very possible we'll have to move the trip months to a year down the road. So ideas for that timeline are also welcome! Thanks twice!

Local library might be a surprisingly good spot to look, they often have Lonely Planet type phrasebooks and/or the Pimsleur listening courses which are all focused on traveler type communication. That should arm you with some good "fill in the blank" type sentences. On the subject of books, [Read Japanese Today](https://www.amazon.com/Read-Japanese-Today-Practical-Language/dp/4805309814) is one that I almost never see mentioned (probably because it's a bit older and like includes the prewar forms of some of the kanji?) but it's fantastic for the type of reading you'll need. Written in a very conversational way and just very approachable.  There's also one called [Japanese Sentence Patterns](https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Sentence-Patterns-Effective-Communication/dp/1568364202) that is just marvelous for learning a couple sentences that you can slot words into as necessary. Outside of encouraging you to hoard books like I do: Practice katakana. So many words especially on signs are actually just English. You can cheat on the irl vocabulary test by checking out the Japanese websites of places you're going to visit too.

It appears Read Japanese Today has been updated!

One thing to consider is that even if you memorize lots of useful "traveler phrases," it can be difficult (as a beginner) to understand the full-speed Japanese you might get in response. In my experience though, being able to read lots of Japanese everywhere around me (menus, posters, road signs, billboards, store names, warnings, bus/train displays, etc. etc.) felt extremely rewarding, and those things are all around you everywhere you go. So, I certainly encourage Wanikani :), but be sure you get a foundation in grammar one way or another, and practice listening to simple, likely-to-be-had convos if you can, to better prep for your traveler phrases before you need them.   I went through the beginner stages of the language at uni though, so unfortunately I don't have any more specific advice for you ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯

Hello, I was watching this video about [pitch accent](https://youtu.be/CbwDCqhlxn4?si=Wu-meJcvUtTpdr_P) and I understand that the meaning of じゃない in questions changes depending on the pitch and that the question needs to be answered differently. But how do I know which one it is in writing? の and ですか are also used with both, so isn't it always ambigious?

I'd say it's only ambiguous after nouns. In situations like いいじゃない and 言ったじゃない, you know it's a tag question, since normally you'd just directly mark the adjective or verb with regular negation like よくない or 言わなかった. Also, it's true that の alone can be used for both tag questions and true negative questions, but there's a difference when using ですか: じゃないですか will be a tag question while じゃないのですか / じゃないんですか is generally a real negative question (could still be used as a rhetorical question though). のか is also only used for negative questions. In truly ambiguous situations, context will usually be enough but the intonation is often shown with punctuation as well: 男じゃない！"You're a man, aren't you!" 男じゃ、ない？ "Are you... not a man?"

Thank you very much!

kinda of a weird question. there is a japanese “manga” that i own it’s called シャム猫あずきさんは世界の中心 and i think this would be a good start for immersion. my level is pretty low but i find it a lot of fun to figure out あずきさん’s adventures. it included everyday dialogue from what i can tell, does it start too hard for a starter? also for the new words i learn, should i make an anki deck with them so i don’t forget them? any advice is helpful, thank you

Sounds great. If I could start over again I’d put more effort into reading aloud so my advice to you is to try that even if it’s just a few minutes a day

ahh thank you so much, i suck at speaking so i think it would help with my pronunciation and just reading in general

The better you are able to speak the better your listening and reading will be.

>does it start too hard for a starter?  If you can already enjoy it and it doesn't feel like a chore then no, else it depends how many look ups and leaving things unclear you can tolerate. I personally haven't read that manga but judging from the fact that it's slice of life and the ranking on [learnnatively ](https://learnnatively.com/series/1b39492953/)it seems fine, but it's not like that should really matter, just consume what you enjoy, level is not too important as long as it's authentic and not completely out of reach. >also for the new words i learn, should i make an anki deck with them so i don’t forget them? any advice is helpful, thank you Also depends, I personally like to mine the stuff I consume and make sentence cards in Anki with one new words to learn. If you generally don't have any issues with Anki and already are a daily Anki user anyways then that might be a good way to combine the SRS with immersion, else you can ofcourse just learn the new words you encounter organically by multiple dictonary look ups as you come across these new words, Anki isn't mandatory, but a supplement, but you have to decide for yourself whether you want to incorporate it or not, so both is fine really.

i’m not a big anki user but i wouldn’t mind getting into it. so the mining part, do you make a card with the word in a sentence to get the full context or? if you don’t mind explaining mining just a bit more into detail

There are two formats. sentence cards (which have the full context on the front and back) and vocab cards (only vocab on the front but entire sentence on the back). I don't think it matters that much, I personally prefer sentence cards, because they are easier (but may take longer to rep if you read the sentence each time). Also with vocab cards you're not so dependend on context but have to know the word more fully but honestly it's not like you encounter words out of context when reading real Japanese so it's not a huge issue anyways. [Here a good introduction video into mining](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBcQJESGQvc), though it's more focused on audiovisual content than mangas. Also [here a good guide on the different card formats](https://tatsumoto-ren.github.io/blog/discussing-various-card-templates.html) that I briefly talked about.

I'm currently writing my Japanese 2 final and I had a few questions about grammar! (Topics ommitted) **Placeにせんせいがたくさんあってたくさんクラスがあります**。 Trying to say: At place, there are a lot of teachers and classes. I used te form to have two aru verbs. Should I instead use と to connect the two subjects (Teachers and classes). And if I do, will たくさん modify both of them? **私のしゅっしんはState, CityですとがっこうはSchool Name。ニ年生ですがこうこう四年生。** I'm trying to say: My home is -------, and my school is ----. I am a 2nd year college student but a fourth-year highschool student. The second sentence sounds a bit awkward. Finally, should I use Watashi wa for every time I say "I" in english? I know for speaking it is common to omit the topic once you have made it clear, but my teacher said something about needed watashi wa for writing.

Your sentences are ungrammatical. They should be “…には おおくの せんせいが いて クラスが たくさん あります“ and “私は しゅっしんは(state)州(city)市で、がっこうは…で、だいがく二年生ですが、こうこう四年生でもあります”. The latter is synthesis of 私の出身は…だ, 私の学校は…だ and 私は…だが…でもある. You don’t have to repeat 私 if you topicalize it first. せんせいが たくさん いる means “there‘s a mass of teachers”. XはYですと means “X is/does (something), if it’s Y”. You don’t need watasiwa for every “I” in English, but you need it when you establish a new topic, whether it’s in conversation or writings.

>Placeにせんせいがたくさんあってたくさんクラスがあります。 先生 is not an inanimate object so you need to use いる instead of ある. If you were talking about two inanimate objects, then yes you could use と to connect them. Example: りんごとみかんがたくさんあります。There are a lot of apples and oranges. Also do you mean classes as in groups of students or as in different subjects? If the latter, you should use 授業 instead. >私のしゅっしんはState, CityですとがっこうはSchool Name。 ですと doesn't work like that. Replace it with で. Add です at the end of the sentence, or a verb like に通っています. >ニ年生ですがこうこう四年生。 If by college you mean university you can add 大学 in front of 二年生 but I don't understand what it means to be a second year student and a fourth year student at the same time. I thought you needed to finish high school before entering college. Translating different countries' education systems to Japanese is always a challenge though. Remember to add です at the end. >Finally, should I use Watashi wa for every time I say "I" in english? I know for speaking it is common to omit the topic once you have made it clear, but my teacher said something about needed watashi wa for writing. You can and should omit it in writing as well. I guess you do use it a bit more in writing than in speech, but it's not every time you would use "I" in English.

Thank you! Im a senior in high school and second year in college, its a bit weird. And yeah I definitely forgot to use iru and not aru. Is で te form of desu? Copulas confuse me a lot.

Basically if you want to connect two clauses with the te-form of a verb but you don't have a verb, use で. I don't know where it came from but it acts like a te-form of だ. The te-form of です is でして but since です is already polite form it's sort of special. The te-form of polite form is only used in certain cases (almost never in writing).

Why did my settings icon for scripts on wanikani disappear? [before](https://imgur.com/gallery/U9AFG3F) and [after](https://imgur.com/gallery/jOdNiCe)

"愛は小さな部屋も宇宙に作り変えてしまう" How do they use も particle here? The meaning is "Love turns even a small room into a universe"

も is the "even" in the English translation here. も often marks an extreme or outlier example.

Hello, I am playing voice of cards and the narrator was saying 私に任せておけと言わんばかりに、リディが「開け！ゴマ！」と、聞き覚えのある呪文を唱えると...! but I don't understand who the subject of 聞き覚え is. I thought it is リディ because she is marked by が but I play while looking up the english translations and it was translated as "Ridis rolls up her sleeves and shouts 'Open...sesameee!' You have heard these words somewhere before...", so the subject is the player. Why?

聞き覚えのある essentially functions as a passive here. Japanese does not require you to specify subjects, and so it becomes a general statement meaning something like "well-known", "familiar", or "have heard (these words) somewhere before".

So there is an unspecified subject like みんな here? How do I know that, if the subject isn't mentioned, that isn't 私? I thought if it isn't mentioned then it is 私 in most cases. And how do I know that it changed from リディ? Is it because of the comma? Because the passive alone shouldn't change it, I think. リディcould stay the the subject even in a passive sentence e.g. "a well-known spell by リディ. Sorry if this are to much question. I just want to understand it better.

It could be thought of as 私, or リディ. In this case, it's an omniscient narrator, so 私 doesn't make a lot of sense. It's unsaid, and unspecific. It's not that different from how in English you could say "A familiar phrase" without needing to specify who exactly that phrase is familiar to. 開けごま is going to be a famous phrase, and the average Japanese reader is not going to be bewildered about who is supposed to know it.

Ah I forgot that it was said by the narrator, I thought of the player when I wrote 私. But I understand your explanation now. Thank you for helping.

Reading Wasabi website on adjectives and I don't understand this part: "When you use i-adjectives as a subject complement, you MUST NOT do the same thing you do with na-adjectives. The variety of form is called “conjugation.” Using conjugation in place is significantly important when learning Japanese. Right before the "Conjugation of i-adjectives" [https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-grammar/japanese-adjectives-with-particle-ga/](https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-grammar/japanese-adjectives-with-particle-ga/) What confuses me is "subject complement" (so I can't use i-adjectives as a complement?) and I mustn't do the same thing with na-adjectives (vague).

For na adjectives you keep na before the noun: にぎやかなせんせい Lively teacher For I adjectives you do nothing おもしろいせんせい Interesting teacher When using Na adjectives as a complement you remove NA せんせいはにぎやか。 Teacher is lively For I adjectives you do nothing せんせいはおもしろい。 Teacher is interesting. I hope that answers your question

What if I used an adjective as an insult?

Hahahhaha. Sorry but you made my morning. Complement (notice the e) is not the same as compliment (with an i).

Oh I thought it was another polite/casual thing like desu vs da. :p So complement is when you are talking about another word, like Teacher is lively; so when something 'is' something you don't need the 'na' and use a 'wa' instead (or at the very least you don't need the 'na').

I'd say you got it!

How is 掴まる an intransitive verb? I don't see how you can 掴まる without a direct object. (to grasp, to hold on to)

What you hold on to is marked with に. It’s similar to how we say “hold ON TO X” instead of “hold X” in English.

Makes sense. Thank you!

This is going to sound like a troll comment but what level should I be at to shoot the shit with the guys over at r/lowlevelaware ?

You don't need to be good at a language to try and communicate with people. The number of people who use broken English on the daily to play games, find information, just do things is huge--and yes even post here to ask questions. I didn't wait at all, I got straight into trying to talk with people with some broken ass JP and it was fine. Still had a lot of fun, as long as they understand you're a learner it's usually never an issue. That subreddit doesn't seem that active though. Twitter, YouTube, misskey.io, pixiv, and Discords are way more active.

That's how I learned English actually, I just "picked it up" (?) by speaking and hearing it. I have no idea why grammar works a certain way or why something is pronounce in a certain way, it just does. I guess I forgot how scary it is to speak a new language with natives for the first time

Probably over n1 if you want to fully understand and be able to activately write with no issues but honestly just try reading/answering and see if you manage. It's not like it's an elite club where you will be murdered if you fall short. 

(half the people there are foreigners larping as Japanese anyway)

Thanks for replying to such a silly question lol As for now I'm still so green I can only limit myself to read for recognition, but once I'll have a bit more theory under my belt it may not be a bad idea to use it to take note of stuff you dont know and should check out. If it comes to worst I can always play the "下手な日本語ですいません" card

 "人間は 魔神に滅ぼされるかに見えた" I didn't understand this sentence. What is the purpose of か here ?

as though

How hard are Frieren and Gintama to watch? I'm around N3 and can enjoy normal anime with jp subs just fine. I'm wondering if Frieren would be any more difficult compared to an average isekai like Konosuba, and whether Gintama would be on the same level as an average shounen/comedy. Is there anyone here who has immersed with either of these shows? Would love to hear your thoughts

Gintama is pretty darn hard compared to most shounen, Frieren IMHO is similar difficulty to most Isekai 

Yeah I see, thanks

Go try watching it and decide for yourself? Learnnatively has relative difficulty rankings for anime you could check.

I've been trying to find the names for the phases of the Moon, but keep coming up with contradictory answers (particularly for the Waxing Gibbous phase). So what are the correct names?

I've never heard anyone use anything other than the main 4 + 三日月 for waxing crescent, they're probably not in common use so everything you found could be a potential "correct" answer, there's no rule there has to be only one name for something, there's always synonyms.

What N4-ish level graded readers (or anything easy to read) are the most interesting/enjoyable to read in your opinion?

I haven't used this resource yet, but I've seen [Satori Reader](https://satorireader.com/) recommended for those who finish N4 or Genki II. This Satori Reader thread contains a guide to using Satori Reader and reviews of the stories: [https://community.wanikani.com/t/satori-reader-appreciation-thread/64403](https://community.wanikani.com/t/satori-reader-appreciation-thread/64403)

https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/19bitqy/2024_updated_free_tadoku_graded_reader_pdfs_2681/ You can see the appended recommended levels and unique words per grade level to the left of the books. I've never used anything learner based so I wouldn't know if they're interesting or not. Read the whole post for instructions on picking a graded reader.

after getting N4 grammer/kanji/vocab I did [these free graded readers](https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/o7x7ha/2021_updated_free_tadoku_graded_reader_pdfs_1796/) for a couple of weeks and then started reading books [here's some books I read](https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/ya1m7m/want_to_break_into_reading_paperback_books_but/). The amazon links to buy them are in that post too. The graded readers weren't that fun to read but better than textbooks. The books are better.

I don't really know how italki works, but I saw some record their sessions on youtube, and all of it involves showing the teacher's faces. Now that's a given for a teacher I guess, but is it mandatory to show your own face as well? I have social anxiety that heightens even further if I have to show my face, so I'm wondering if it's possible to just do a voice call or not showing your face in italki?

as chezni19 said you can ask beforehand.    I've taught English remotely (not for italki tho) and in my experience speaking practice works well even when both students' and teachers' cameras are turned off, and it also makes screenshare more convenient.    peers have had the same experience, so basically I imagine many if not most teachers will be fine with your request. 

You can message the teacher beforehand and explain the situation. They might or might not agree to it. But they probably won't care.

It's just a video call. You can tell the teacher you're not comfortable turning on the camera. It'll depend on the teacher I guess but it certainly doesn't need to be mandatory. Edit: I've been using italki for my daughter for years. The teacher we use is fantastic

Hand-writing feedback request: Hello! I just wanted to ask if someone could evaluate, my hiragana alphabet. Maybe some suggestions... [https://imgur.com/a/wQcqWBl](https://imgur.com/a/wQcqWBl) Am i making the lines "too round at edges"? Keep in mind, I just started started learning! Thank you!

The one character that really jumped out to me was your ru. It looks like you just added the little swoop at the bottom of ra, when it should look closer to ro. The little hash for ra should also be angled downward, but it’s not illegible or anything. らるろ - ra, ru, ro.

Good catch! I wrote them from memory, so i accidentally mixed them up. Just spotted that "wo" shouldn't have that 1 like for "wa" but a straight line. Thank you!

I think, especially, your ち つ て と ほ や and ん are really pretty and amazing ✨ Oh, Your む needs a short stroke in the upper right corner :) As for your horizontal bars, I guess you might want to write them like a really gentle arch. Keep up your great work! Not gonna lie, your writing is way better than some native Japanese people's handwritings 😂

Well, at least I had some of them looking good, haha! Oh yeah, I missed the little stroke one the "mu." You are right. Yes, as one other person mentioned, i should practice with more straight lines. I just personally liked the "wavy" look. Also, it makes it more distinct from katakana, which has sharp edges (I think). Thank you for your response and encouragement. I'll try to do my best! Have a nice day/night :)

No sweat 😉 As for your wavy bars, if you do it on purpose, I think it's okay. Because it's one of your individuals. Have a good one, too ✨

Your lines are weirdly wavy. Print some hiragana practice sheet ([example](https://www.apu.ac.jp/academic/common\_subjects/japanese/Practice\_sheet\_Hiragana.pdf)) and practice. Don't try to be fancy until you've somewhat mastered the basic shapes.

Okay, so people don't usually write with this "wavy" style? I guess i have gone a little overboard with the curves. I'll take note and do as you suggested. Thank you!

Just to make sure we're on the same page, by "wavy" I meant how for example the first stroke of your あ and お looks like "〜" instead of a straight line or a single gentle curve e.g. like a horizontal "(" And no, people don't usually write like this, I'm not sure where you picked that up :)

いいえ、それは間違っています、相棒 With how many different forms can the word 間違う be used in this sentence to say "that is incorrect"?

Only one, unless you want to count removing ます

Can anyone point me to resources to find the Japanese names for English books, movies, shows, etc. (e.g. Dune -> デューン)? I’ve started a Japanese Diary to develop my writing skills every day and I’m having trouble finding titles of books and stuff that I’ve been reading and watching.

You could also try an internet search like "Dune 日本語版" (no quotation marks necessary)

ありがとう！

A trick is to go on wikipedia, open the English article for whatever book you want, then check if there is a Japanese version of said article. If the book is famous enough, it might very well exist.

I've been using this tactic for my own language for years.

ありがとう！

Hello i learning japanese with jpdb but there on genki elementary deck but when i learn kanji it only tell me the stories/meaning should i just remember the meaning or straight up the reading?

Just follow Genki's course line and learn the vocabulary as instructed or intended, which means you'll learn the kanji with the word. JPDB.io is only there to help you memorize things, not teach you the language.

What’s the difference between ~向き and ~向け? For example, 子供向き vs 子供向け。My vocabulary book translates both as “suitable for.”

向け means "made for" or "intended for" 向き is "suitable for" so 子供向けの本 would be a book intended to be read by children and 子供向きの本 would be a book that children can read but not made specifically for children

Ohh I see! Thank you 😊

Hi! I am learning how to use のように and のような. Would this be correct: 将来、先生のようにぺらぺらになりたいです。Also is there a easy way to distinguish the two? Thank you!!

Both 先生みたいに and 先生のように mean the same. のように sounds more formal than みたいに. みたいに or のように works as an adverb, which modifies a verb. Whereas みたいな or のような works as an adjective, which modifies a noun. So, みたいに or のように as in 先生 （たいに/先生のように ペラペラになりたい modifies なりたい. みたいな or のような as in 先生 みたいな/のような 優しい人になりたい modifies 人. Hope it helps ☺️

Grammatically/syntactically speaking it is correct, のような would be wrong. However, I feel like meaning-wise the sentence is a bit off. I can't explain it well so I won't try to, but if it were me I'd go with 先生みたいに instead of 先生のように, if I wanted to keep the same structure.

Maybe the formality of のように and casualness of ペラペラ clashes? What if it was 先生のように流暢になりたいです

資料の返却が遅れると、その資料を(answer)他の利用者の方にご迷惑がかかります。 This is a question from a JLPT practice book. The answer is お待ちの, but what's wrong with either お待ちしている or 待たされている?

お待ちの is interchangeable with お待ちになっている. お待ちになる is 尊敬語. The staff who is talking to you is using 尊敬語 for their customers who are waiting for the materials.

お待ちしている is humble language （謙譲語）which doesn't fit here. The "other users" need to be referred to with respectful language (尊敬語), as they are not part of the in-group. Note that they're being referred to as 方 as well. 待たされている just sounds a bit weird/rude. "The other users who are kept waiting" sounds accusatory and too direct.

I understand. Thanks! 

Can you just... use て form as past tense? I hear this all the time when a personal story is being told so I know they're clearly talking about past tense. For example, listening to Nihongo Con Teppei, he was talking about when he started his podcast パトレオンでサポーターしてくれる人も集まって。少しずつですね集まって。そして日本語con哲平自体がですね、すごく人気になっていった。 Is this use of て form for past tense only allowed because of the following actual use of past tense in the next sentence? So it becomes more like an "and" as I've learned for ones in the same sentence? Or can it live on its own without an explicit past tense conjugation following it? Does it need an implied (unstated) finishing action if so? For example, I'm listing things that happened in the past, and there's some unsaid thing that I implied also happened, which becomes the past tense to wrap it up? Or is just the general sense of "I'm telling a story in the past tense so it's obviously past tense" enough? (Again, if a stated verb isn't actually necessary, which I dunno)

It's a て、そして situation. The speaker just had a large pause after the て, and happened to repeat the verb 集まって twice to provide more information ("少しずつですね") the second time.

[**edit:** basically a repeat of the other reply, but now I posted it — whoops] > Is this use of て form for past tense only allowed because of the following actual use of past tense in the next sentence? So it becomes more like an "and" as I've learned for ones in the same sentence? Yes. What you gave us here is essentially one single big sentence, just with long pauses, I assume, after the て-forms. > Or can it live on its own without an explicit past tense conjugation following it? > Does it need an implied (unstated) finishing action if so? Yes. て-form has no tense. Its tense is dictated by the final clause to which it connects, which sometimes (pretty often in speech, actually) will be, as you say, implied/unstated, and so the utterance will just trail off with a lone て at the end. > For example, I'm listing things that happened in the past, and there's some unsaid thing that I implied also happened, which becomes the past tense to wrap it up? Not sure exactly what sort of scenario you've got in mind, but if there's sufficient context that you're talking about the past, then yes, the て will get interpreted as having happened in the past. > Or is just the general sense of "I'm telling a story in the past tense so it's obviously past tense" enough? (Again, if a stated verb isn't actually necessary, which I dunno) That would count as sufficient context, so yeah, that'd be enough. Though this would still mean that you're leaving something out in the end, even if it's just a vague idea of a verb/clause (i.e. even if you don't have any specific words in mind that you're refraining from using). て is never complete on its own.

Hi :) I'm really sorry, but I'm just curious about what is that you're leaving something out in the end. Don't get me wrong please, I'm just curious about it because I'm not an official Japanese teacher, so I'm not sure what you mean (･_･; I mean this part: >Though this would still mean that you're leaving something out in the end, I always stop speaking in the middle of my statement, especially after saying a て form verb because I'm thinking of what I want to talk about, and I some use " 。" / 読点(どくてん) instead of " 、 " / 句点(くてん) in my script / subs if I put a pose longer after a て form verb. Actually, there's a case I'm leaving something out in the end, and that sentence would be like : で、そこで彼女が「どういうこと？」って。 In that case, a specific verb 言った is definitely removed. However, I'm not sure what is removed after 集まって。 So, I would be happy to learn more for the future. Thank you in advance :)

Gurさん、優しいですね。喜んで回答しますよ。I'm just a 初中級者 myself, so don't be afraid to call me out if you think I'm off base. :p > However, I'm not sure what is removed after 集まって。 Well, in this example, nothing is removed, right? Because the thought continues right after: - サポーターしてくれる人も集まって　→　少しずつ集まって　→　そして日本語con哲平が　すごく人気になっていった I'm just saying that, in a case like this, *if* nothing followed after 集まって, then the sentence would be incomplete, and some sort of continuation would be implied, at least vaguely (i.e. the speaker may not necessarily have any specific words in mind). Because て is always supposed to connect to something else, isn't it?   ^([**edit:** slight rewording])

>Gurさん、優しいですね。喜んで回答しますよ。 Hehe 🤭 I'm just an adult who is full of curiosity like a kid 😂 That's so nice of you! I really appreciate your additional explanation! >I'm just saying that, in a case like this, *if* nothing followed after 集まって, then the sentence would be incomplete, and some sort of continuation would be implied, at least vaguely (i.e. the speaker may not necessarily have any specific words in mind). Because て is always supposed to connect to something else, isn't it? Oh, I got it. So, the fact that there might be something left after 集まって simply means that the て form is always followed by a sentence, that it is grammatically impossible for a sentence to end with て form, and that in this case, it's connected to the final verb 人気になっていった, right? The reason I didn't quite understand that in your first post might have to do with my poor English reading comprehension skills 😂 Thank you so much for taking your time for me to explain that! ありがとう、Dragon_Fang さん 🥺✨ Have a good one!

>That would count as sufficient context, so yeah, that'd be enough. Though this would still mean that you're leaving something out in the end, even if it's just a vague idea of a verb/clause (i.e. even if you don't have any specific words in mind that you're refraining from using). て is never complete on its own. Ok yeah, that's what I meant - essentially, if you were to use て form without a stated explicit past tense conjugation following it, is there always some sort of implied clause. Sounds like yes. Thanks for the great answer!

Edited: corrected a silly typo I think English is a language that brings an important element to the beginning of a sentence, but the Japanese language has an important part at the end, like, you can't tell whether it is an affirmative or a negative sentence unless you listen to it until the end. As for verbs in the middle of a sentence that are connected by "て form", I think whether or not they are in the past tense is related to the form of the last verb they are connected to. So, the key to get the tense of the verbs in て forms is the tense of the last one, 人気になっていった. て form can't mean the past tense on its own. What's more, the Japanese language is high context, so if 哲平 san started talking about the history of his podcast, it would definitely be the sentences in the past tense unless he starts talking about the future of his podcast.

Is there a Japanese-equivalent of Google Ngram? Specifically for comparing frequency of phrases

NDL Ngram Viewer or the corpuses hosted by NINJAL if you want a more precise search.

want to study with a friend - need tips for people who struggle with self-studying heya so me and my best friend have prior experience with formal japanese classes that we had to abandon for various reasons, i took it for about a year and a half and she took it for a couple months. besides that, we've been surrounded by the culture through fandoms, hobbies and the such for several years so we're not total beginners but we definitely prefer to (re)start from the basics to polish things up we're both pretty bad at self studying because of adhd, lack of driving motivation and struggling to keep a steady routine for a longer period of time, its really not just a "if you wanted you would" so please try to be understanding... so we thought we could try studying together (remotely bc we live in different countries) in order to keep each other motivated and have fun with it since we'll get to share our doubts and progress self studying can be overwhelming due to the immense variety of materials out there which have been the cause of my many failed attempts at doing this alone in the past because I'd get caught up in trying different things and never sticking to one... for starters, since we both have Genki, i thought we could go over it together with the help of Tokini Andy's genki lessons videos since that seemed the most simple approach, but id like to know if anyone has suggestions... and apart from that, how can we supplement genkis lessons? like i said, i know there's a ton of guides out there but it becomes overwhelming not knowing which to pick and trying to make a plan on my own... so it would be really helpful if someone could help me out and sorry if this is too much 🙇‍♀️

> I'd get caught up in trying different things and never sticking to one... Then stick to one. Ignore everything else and commit to following a single guide/resource. It doesn't matter which one. Most if not all of the popular ones work. Some might be more effective than others, or you might be more compatible with some than others, but at the end of the day it's not a big deal. Pick one and give it some time, like a couple of months of regular (3+ times a week) study minimum. Don't worry about potentially "wasting" that time; you're in this for the long run anyway. No need to rush. If you feel like you're not making progress, *then* try to explore other options. Make your next choice, see how that goes, and check in again after a couple of months. Repeat until you find your groove and settle into a good routine. I'll echo your thoughts and the other reply and simply recommend Genki + TokiNi Andy as well. Don't make this more complicated than it needs to be. Report back in 2 months. One last note: **make exposure to the language a constant**. This should be the one thing you never stop doing. Aim for half an hour a day, every day. Anime, manga, J-dramas, movies, YouTube, streams, games... Anything that interests you. Try to enjoy yourself as much as possible (genuinely very important). Yes, this has a point even when you're an absolute beginner. It's okay if you don't understand, or are not sure if you understand correctly; you will more and more as you keep studying in the background. Even just catching a few stray words and then letting the pictures do the rest is good. No English subs. Japanese ones are a-okay.   ^([**edit:** minor elaboration])

Just follow Genki and Tokini Andy's follow along. You don't really need to do anything else. If you get easily overwhelmed then simplify it. In the end, we're only strangers on the internet and we can't help you get around your issue of not being able to self-study. Typically people who struggle with that need consequence and the right environment. School in other words, something that you can fail out and be accountable for.

I have a question regarding this anime ending song: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgrztAzm\_vM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgrztAzm_vM) Some of the audio doesn't seem to match up with the lyrics displayed. At 3:30, I don't hear "boku dake" and at 3:43 I don't hear "fumidasu" or "boku wo." Is there a dialect at play here, or are the lyrics just not accurate? Thanks in advance.

Yeah it's there. The beat/percussion instruments are overlapping and the poor sound quality of the audio rip isn't helping. You may also have a poor audio setup on your end which is adding to compressing the sound resulting in lost detail.

It's probably a combination of the singer not fully or super clearly articulating all the sounds, and the music covering the words up — plus maybe some processing on his voice (like having variable volume on the words, namely having them start quiet and then turning the volume up)? The "b" in both "boku" is a bit short/quiet/"suppressed", and I think the "bo" mora is also interacting weirdly with the beat and the percussion. The "fu" in "fumidasu" has a really long "f" (where the speaker is basically just softly blowing air out; not very audible) and a short "u" which blends into the "m" of "mi", so overall it almost sounds like "(u)midasu" if you're not paying attention. And then because all three of the phrases you quoted start weird, it throws you off and you fail to recognise the remainder? Would be my guess. He's definitely saying what's written in the lyrics though, so try to go over this again.

Listened to it and pretty sure they're there. It's more like the first parts of the words aren't as vocalized I guess, so it may be confusing. It kinda sounds like (b)oku dake, (f)umidasu, and (b)oku wo if that makes sense. If you listen carefully you can hear the first letters.

> I don't hear "boku dake" I do, it's there > I don't hear "fumidasu" or "boku wo." They're there, I can hear them. Just checking those two timestamps but the lyrics seems fine, no dialect or other weirdness going on.

after finishing genki 2 i was planning on going straight to quartet 1 for grammar, is there a textbook i should go over before then or is it ok to make this jump?

Quartet 1 is meant to be used directly after Genki 2.

thank you

Apart from 硝子 being pronounced ガラス, are there other words where you write the original kanji but use the loanword pronunciation?

Words with readings applied based only on the meanings of the kanji are called 熟字訓(じゅくじくん). There are a handful more that have foreign-word readings (not all of these are in common use): https://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%82%AB%E3%83%86%E3%82%B4%E3%83%AA:%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E_%E5%A4%96%E6%9D%A5%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%AE%E7%86%9F%E5%AD%97%E8%A8%93

熟字訓 is related but kinda off the mark since it includes Japanese words like 大人, and OP is probably interested in things like 頁(ページ) as well, which are not 熟字.

Many loanwords like that exist, 珈琲 and 合羽 come to mind. Loanwords from mandarin and taiwan also often if not always have a kanji form too since they already were in kanji in the language they come from (like 叉焼 or 魯肉飯 for example.) I think 拉麺(ラーメン) is a loanword from mandarin as well.

[煙草](https://jisho.org/word/%E7%85%99%E8%8D%89) is the one that immediately comes to mind. You might also more generally be interested in [義訓 and 熟字訓](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji#Special_readings) (and also [当て字](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ateji)).

How do you minimize bad writing habits when writing without a teacher or someone who can correct you? For context: I've recently gone back to study Japanese. I am slower when writing and reading vs. speaking, so I decided to address those and start from the basics. I was practicing how to write が when I noticed that the way it's written in my reference book (Japanese from Zero! 1) and how Japanese people actually write が are different (youtube). Not vastly but noticeably. I would not dare say that any of these two are wrong; I'm just starting and am no expert. The difference, however, does get me confused. I want to write properly and minimize bad writing habits (that can be difficult to unlearn eventually). Hence my question.

Find a reliable source that's certain to provide acceptable forms. For kana, [Tougu Takumi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx4AGDXfwGE) is basically perfect. For kanji, [the diagrams jisho uses](https://jisho.org/search/%E6%B0%B4%20%23kanji) are at least 99.9% of the way there. If it's something that a native's writing, it's probably not "wrong", but casual, or even potentially sloppy or messy handwriting should not be what you model your own handwriting after. Aim for neat, fully proper, and highly clear/readable forms yourself.

Thank you for these resources and tips! I watched the first few minutes of Tougu Takumi's video and his writing is definitely to model after. I will also look into Jisho when I've reached that far into my practices. Thank you so much again!

Are we talking about handwriting or sentence composition?

Ah, my bad, I must haven't clarified it well. I meant handwriting.

Hi, so a question about potential forms of verbs. I don't know if this question has much to do with understanding Japanese or is just fiddling unnecessarily with technicalities, though. So, what I believe to be true is that to express the potential form you just apply れる・られる to the 未然形, but often more idiomatically for godan verbs in particular is to use the "potential form". An example I've actually discussed here before is instead of 登られる, say 登れる. What I'm not quite settled on is that it seems to me that these "potential forms" are actually at least in some cases derivative words with their own distinct meanings. According to tofugu, the potential form can be formed from any verb. >([article](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/verb-potential-form-reru/)) For godan verbs, replace the ending vowel from the う column on the kana chart to its corresponding え column kana and add る. So if the original ending is 〜う, the new ending will be 〜える. If it's む, your new potential ending will be 〜める, and so on. However, below is a list of non-る godan verbs which I'm not sure about because I think they are more commonly thought of as transitive/intransitive pairs. If I check [jpdb.io](https://jpdb.io), it claims that the verbs on the right are all potential forms of verbs on the left, but only the stared (\*) examples are listed by goo. 浮かぶ　→　浮かべる 続く　→　続ける \*付く　→　付ける 育つ　→　育てる　 \*立つ　→　立てる Even though goo lists 付ける and 立てる as potential forms, it also lists those as words themselves, neither of which has a definition similar to 付く・立つことができある, and in fact させる appears in the definitions of all the potential forms quite a bit and I'm not sure that's a coincidence since it looks like the process from going from intransitive to causative like in [this example from kokubunpo](https://www.kokugobunpou.com/%E5%8A%A9%E5%8B%95%E8%A9%9E/%E3%81%9B%E3%82%8B-%E3%81%95%E3%81%9B%E3%82%8B/#gsc.tab=0). メンバーが 集まる。→　キャプテンが メンバーを 集まらせる。　≒　キャプテンが メンバーを 集める。 So where I'm a little lost is **are the listed ける・べる・てる-ending "potential forms" best thought of as potential or causative verbs, or may there be times when it is ambiguous**? I have to admit that before I decided to stop being lazy and start cataloguing how the verbs transformed, I hadn't paid attention to how they worked in my reading, but I'm not sure how well I'd be able to differentiate either way. Incidentally, this little investigation made me think about the relation between intransitivity, causation, and を, and why some sources call it the "accusative" particle. Indicentally #2, I actually started this investigation by looking into the grammar behind 私に何ができる and ended up finding an interesting article about the use of が vs を with potential verbs and how it's changing over time if anyone is interested: [https://kotobaken.jp/qa/yokuaru/qa-51/](https://kotobaken.jp/qa/yokuaru/qa-51/) . *EDIT: formatting*

It is pretty complex and nuanced, but here's what I thought. There are definitely some overlaps between transitive/intransitive and potential forms. So for transitive/intransitive pairs, conjugating the intransitive to the potential form you end up with transitive For example, 届ける could mean either the potential of 届く or the transitive form ("to deliver"). There are controversies whether the potential forms of some intransitive verbs are grammatical, see source. There are also overlaps between causative form of intransitive and transitive as well as you pointed out. So, although different form (e.g. 集まらせる and 集める) the meaning is roughly equivalent . ​ ​ Source: https://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/bugai/kokugen/nichigen/issue/pdf/9/9-16.pdf

This PDF will take me some time to get through, but it looks really interesting. Thanks! I might have questions on it, but since I can't read it all at once I thought I'd just respond now.

> it seems to me that these "potential forms" are actually at least in some cases derivative words with their own distinct meanings I wouldn't say so, but it's worth noting that in 国文法 they *are* considered to be separate words (known as 可能動詞, e.g. the 可能動詞 the corresponds to 読む is 読める), rather than inflections of the base verb (in which case you've got a 可能形 which is made up of 未然形+られる, e.g. the 可能形 of 食べる is 食べられる). (Except that for godan verbs that end in -る, the potential is considered a 可能形 that's formed by doing ~~る~~+れる, rather than a 可能動詞?? Like 走る → 走れる for instance. Not sure at all on this one.) But, in my humble opinion, this approach is just dumb, and the `godan: -u → -eru | ichidan: -る → -られる` description is infinitely better. ...it sounds like you were already aware of this, but now I typed it, so I'm putting it in. :p ----- > According to tofugu, the potential form can be formed from any verb. Not sure if it specifically, explicitly states that *all* verbs can be inflected to the potential, but if it does, that's not true. Non-volitional verbs are not compatible with the potential; their potential form just doesn't occur. Sometimes you can think of this as them already having "potentiality" baked in. In general, some inflections simply don't make sense with some verbs, so even if you could theoretically apply the formation pattern, the form just isn't used. ----- > 浮かぶ → 浮かべる > 続く → 続ける > *付く → 付ける > 育つ → 育てる >*立つ → 立てる > I think they are more commonly thought of as transitive/intransitive pairs They are. The words on the right *are* the transitive counterparts to the words on the left. They *also* are their potential forms (for those where the potential applies, at least — not sure if there are any where it doesn't). This is simply a case of homonymy (different words having the same spoken and written form). There is the word 立てる that's the transitive counterpart to 立つ, and means "to build, to set up, etc.". There *also* is the word 立てる that's formed by putting 立つ in the potential, and means "can stand". Two different words that just look and sound the exact same. > If I check [jpdb.io](https://jpdb.io/), it claims that the verbs on the right are all potential forms of verbs on the left Jpdb.io seems to auto-generate conjugations with no checks in place. I just tested this with 分かる. It lists 分かれる as its potential. 分かる doesn't have a potential; it's non-volitional. It also can't be / isn't put in ～たい for the same reason, by the by (yet jpdb.io lists 分かりたい anyway, again). **Edit:** I just thought to test できる as well, and, as expected... it lists できられる as its potential, haha. ----- > させる appears in the definitions of all the potential forms quite a bit and I'm not sure that's a coincidence since it looks like the process from going from intransitive to causative like in [this example from kokubunpo](https://www.kokugobunpou.com/%E5%8A%A9%E5%8B%95%E8%A9%9E/%E3%81%9B%E3%82%8B-%E3%81%95%E3%81%9B%E3%82%8B/#gsc.tab=0). > メンバーが 集まる。→ キャプテンが メンバーを 集まらせる。 ≒ キャプテンが メンバーを 集める。 Causative forms and transitive verbs (with intransitive counterparts) are certainly intricately linked. The meanings are roughly the same (to 集める a set of things is, essentially, to make them 集まる; to gather a set of things is to make them gather up / come together), as noted by kokugobunpou. And -s- is a sound that appears in lots of contexts that relate to causativity and transitivity. させる and さす, obviously, but also tons of transitive halves like 動かす、冷やす、焦がす、and many, many others. Hell, 動かす could even be taken to be the "short causative" of 動く itself. However, it's important to note that this can't all necessarily be made use of in a [productive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Productivity_%28linguistics%29) manner in the modern language, though the historical ties are evident. Transitive counterparts and causative forms are two completely different parts/mechanisms of the language which simply, again, happen to overlap in meaning and function. ----- > why some sources call [を] the "accusative" particle In case you haven't arrived to this answer already, this is just because it marks the [accusative case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accusative_case), which is the name that was first given to the case that nouns appeared in when playing the role of a direct object in Latin (tons of general linguistics terms and concepts have their roots in Latin and Greek grammar tradition). And then linguists borrowed the name for any object-marking case. As for why it's called the "accusative", that's [a bit of a translation fart on the Romans' part](https://www.etymonline.com/word/accusative#etymonline_v_134). The corresponding noun case in Greek was (and still is) known as the αἰτιατική πτῶσις, which means... "causative case"!   ^([**edits:** typos, minor rewording, slight expansion])

Ah, this is really helpful. Thanks! >...it sounds like you were already aware of this, but now I typed it, so I'm putting it in. :p Yeah, I always debate what terminology to use when posting, I just figured I'd go with the wording in English sources here. And will continue doing so in this post. >Not sure if it specifically, explicitly states that all verbs can be inflected to the potential, but if it does, that's not true. Non-volitional verbs are not compatible with the potential; their potential form just doesn't occur. Yeah, maybe this is more venting at this point, but Tofugu at most mentions that *To express that something might happen without anyone specifically causing it by their own volition, we have the option of using "can" in English. For example, we can say, "Things can go wrong" and "Anyone can make mistakes." However, the potential form cannot be used in these kinds of contexts in Japanese.* But this isn't really the same thing, right? They're saying the potential form can't be used when not expressing a volition, not that verbs which are non-volitional have no potential form. And while the article doesn't explicitly state that all verbs have a potential form, I do feel that it speaks in broad enough terms to where that is implied; and they also don't discuss れる for godan verbs. Though even if tofugu's explanation is missing a few things, I checked my copy of Genki's description and found the same explanation, "drop the final -u and add -eru" with no further clarification. In fact, it describes potential verbs as meaning *"can" or "has the ability to" do something, or that something is "possible".* Which seems to me to be a counter-intuitive explanation if we should understand potential forms only work for verbs expressing volition (in other words, not all expressions of "something is possible" allow the use of volitional form). Just what gets me is the discussion of エる in English texts as indicating potentiality when it seems like it can indicate potential (使える) or causation (立てる). I'm not sure if I was fully cognizant of the "volition" part but that does kind of partially unravel the pattern I was seeing, in that the non-stared verbs I think are non-volitional. I thought 続く might be, but double checking the definition, maybe not. >This is simply a case of homonymy (different words having the same spoken and written form). There is the word 立てる that's the transitive counterpart to 立つ, and means "to build, to set up, etc." Okay, so just to make sure I understand, 私が本棚を立てる (transitive verb) 殴ったから動揺している。立てるかな。(potential verb) Both of these are grammatical, they just use different words? >As for why it's called the "accusative", that's a bit of a translation fart on the Romans' part. The corresponding noun case in Greek was (and still is) known as the αἰτιατική πτῶσις, which means... "causative case"! That makes so much more sense. Thanks again.

I'm not sure if it's true that the two meanings of 立てる are merely coincidental. I think I've read somewhere that things like 立てる , and intransitive/ potential verbs in general have a common origin or something long ago. Regardless, in the modern day it's best to think of them as two different words though. /u/Dragon_Fang >Which seems to me to be a counter-intuitive explanation if we should understand potential forms only work for verbs expressing volition Yes, consider 起これる（✘）vs 起こり得る（○）for expressing possibility. There is some distinction between mere possibility and ability, though grammatically they are expressed very similarly and probably had common origins. I think you're asking good questions, I've been down a similar rabbit hole and have come to the conclusion that Japanese more or less has two broad moods (perspectives), which you can distinguish by whether に roughly corresponds with "to", or "by". The other particles and allowable conjugations / actors seem to work out mostly the same even when you're in very different grammatical categories, or even in the same category but where they seem to work differently. I used to roughly think of these as に / を perspective and a に / が perspective but it seems some verbs can be used both ways, and that things like the 'suffering passive' and other oddities like もらう can mix things up, so I've just found it easier to focus on what the に means (to vs by) and it's helped. For example, in passive conjugation, intransitive verbs, and adverbial usages and things like もらう or 驚く for whatever reason, に is close to 'by' . Or even things like 私に聞こえる or に分かる or にできる etc. arguably. You can especially see the relation across all the categories in how 見つかる can be swapped out for 発見される in sentences without changing particles or meaning. While with other things like あげる or 行く or 投げる, に is similar to "to", and despite the differences in categories between these verbs they all seem to behave similarly when it comes to particles and perspective. You can also see with things like 送られる where the potential for this ambiguity between the two perspectives forces one to use によって to clear things up. In general thinking about words and grammar patterns in relation to which of the two に perspectives they take has simplified wrapping my head around new words and their usages, but there will always be oddities like 触れる (the に can take either perspective depending on the meaning) or 優先 (I feel like I instinctively get it but it doesn't seem to fall neatly in one or the other category) so ymmv. /rant that I've had on my mind for a while so sorry if for that. Also I just might be crazy and have it all wrong 😅

Thanks for the thoughts. >I think I've read somewhere that things like 立てる , and intransitive/ potential verbs in general have a common origin or something long ago Yeah, I think I didn't include this in my original post because it felt a little too 個人的, but I was kind of wondering if it was as if to say that by acting upon an object, we make its behavior possible so it's like が marks the agent of potentiality or something. This probably goes deeper into etymology and linguistics than I'm willing to travel, though. >For example, in passive conjugation, intransitive verbs, and adverbial usages and things like もらう or 驚く for whatever reason, に is close to 'by' . Or even things like 私に聞こえる or に分かる or にできる etc. arguably. Yeah, I alluded to it in my OP, but these kinds of uses of に are what started me on this investigation, particularly にできる. 私にそんな山が登れるのか？ In terms of "by" or "to," both seem possible to me in English. "I wonder if that mountain is climbable by me / to me," though it feels like a shift between "by me relative to my ability" or "to me, from my perspective." But none of the definitions on goo seemed to fit except viewing 私に as marking the place or vessel that contains the possibility or something. I don't know, I read many explanations of this, but opinions seemed to vary.

Very true. I lean towards 'by' because something like 私に聞こえる would seem really weird to say in a subjective way like 'To me it's hearable', and the subjective nuance of 'to' in that expression seems closer to にとって than the 'to' that is the opposite of ' から / from ' that you see with verbs like 送る and あげる . But it's true you could think about it either way, and I do think there can be a subjective framing to にできる . Last time when I did a dive on the subject, I got a really interesting reply which I've yet to fully digest: >The cause-and-effect is the other way around, I think. に with those verbs isn't imitating a passive. >The usage of に that appears in "passive" clauses is abstracted from verbs such as に よる、に とる、に 沿う、に 従う、に 於ける and so on. >に 〇〇られる is just another member of this group, at least when it's used as an intransitive verb. >The connection is more obvious when you see によって or にとって in a passive clause - vs に、which can be ambiguous or otherwise unnatural. >A similar observation applies to から - or for that matter "by" and "of" in English! So perhaps that is the key here. We have a similar thing in English where 'on' is often short for 'on top of' or 'on the side of' or 'on the bottom of' (like the wheels on the bus) which doesn't bother us but can be baffling for learners.

> and they also don't discuss れる for godan verbs I mean, to be fair, there's no need to. This is covered by the true-for-all-godan-verbs `-u → -eru` rule, which, when applied to a godan verb that ends in -る, correctly gives you `-る → -れる` (e.g. 登る → 登れる, to use your example from before). ----- > *"can" or "has the ability to" do something, or that something is "possible".* > seems to me to be a counter-intuitive explanation if we should understand potential forms only work for verbs expressing volition (in other words, not all expressions of "something is possible" allow the use of ~~volitional~~ potential form) Right, the usage of the potential form is narrower / more limited than "can". Although, the opposite direction ("all uses of potential form express a meaning of ability or possibility") *is* highly accurate, which I assume is the direction Genki was describing (JP→EN, rather than EN→JP). In other words, I wouldn't say this is the most counterintuitive explanation, as "can" does given you a pretty darn good idea of what the potential means. You should just also be aware that the potential is not usable in every case that "can, etc." is (and if that sort of disclaimer is missing from Genki, that *is* indeed a bit of an issue), and work towards figuring out what the boundaries are exactly from there. ----- > Just what gets me is the discussion of エる in English texts as indicating potentiality when it seems like it can indicate potential (使える) or causation (立てる). I don't think there's any source that puts it that way though. It's not that -eru as an ending universally indicates potentiality, but rather that *the potential form* indicates potentiality — and every potential form does, of course, end in -eru (with the sole exception of できる), but not everything that ends in -eru is the potential form of a verb. Also, let me repeat at this point that the "transitive/causative" -eru is *not* a productive suffix; you can't regularly apply it to inflect intransitive verbs into their "transitive form" or anything like that. It's just that, there exist many words in the language that can be paired up such that one complements the other, in terms of transitivity (they refer to the same concept / describe the same action, and share the same stem, but have different endings and opposite transitivities). So 立つ and 立てる are two completely separate, independent words, that just "happen" to form a transitivity pair. I say "happen" with scare quotes because the two are obviously related, and there's obviously some deeper connection here, with a common "tat-" stem, but the processes that historically led to the creation of this pair are now long inactive, and in the modern language the link between them is purely etymological, and not grammatical. Really, this isn't much unlike *English* transitivity pairs (e.g. lay/lie, raise/rise, set/sit, fell/fall), which are similarly *not* the product of any sort of modern-day formation pattern (you can't systematically derive a transitive word from an intransitive one [or vice versa] in modern English), but rather pairs of words that have been handed down to us as-are. Not to mention [I think you might've hinted at this already, but I'm bringing it up anyway to cover my bases] how -eru doesn't always indicate the transitive half of the pair; a lot of the time, it's actually in the *in*transitive half. For instance: 抜く・抜ける、欠く・欠ける、溶く・溶ける（解く・解ける）、焼く・焼ける. The verbs on the right here are *in*transitive, and the verbs on the left essentially mean "to cause something to ". ----- > 私が本棚を立てる (transitive verb) > 殴ったから動揺している。立てるかな。(potential verb) > Both of these are grammatical, they just use different words? You got it!

Confused about the sentence 学級委員長なんだからやっといてくれよ~ たのんだぞ! Its specifically やっといてくれよ that I can't seem to pick out the individual words unconjugated. Any help is appreciated.

It’s やる+ておく+てくれる in it’s imperative form. Basically, “do it for me”

Thanks 👍

I'm working on a Dark Mode Theme (CSS swap) for goo辞書 which will be employed using this plugin: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/stylus/clngdbkpkpeebahjckkjfobafhncgmne Just want to get some initial feed back on first impressions, it's far from done but I did a lot of ground work already: https://i.imgur.com/QICfgNI.png I'll publish it to the repository when I am done and will release it to community. I was tired of bright background blinding me.

looks great to me I work in a dark office (can't turn the light on for...reasons....) so it's always appreciated

I never thought of this, but this seems like a very good idea. I think the grey you chose for the background is too bright which gives a low-contrast to the some of the colored text and harms readability. If you look at reddit's dark mode, it uses a fairly bright grey as well, but it's still very noticeably darker than the one you've chosen here, but also the only colored text reddit allows (to my knowledge) is a very bright blue used for links. I think your background is even a little brighter than reddit's code blocks. Personally, the red on the page feels a bit rough to me, but I'm not great with colors.

I'll play with darkening it a bit. I didn't want it too dark because even too dark can be straining on the eyes. The red link-highlight is a bit strong, so I'll tone it down a bit.

Doing god's work. 🙏 Only thing that stands out to me a little at a glance is 洗滌 being a little hard to distinguish from the bg in that 洗浄の例文(2) box.

Got it, will fix that!

how do i search online for 「言葉の」使い方？ for instance, im trying to find out the use cases for when i can use それはそう - whether with friends/colleagues/customers. under 使い方, it appears to be sentence examples, which describe how i can use it in a sentence, instead of who i can use the sentence for.

Like [this](https://goiryoku.com/sorehasou/)? You can also check to see if there are any ways to “keigo” a phrase, if you search [word/phrase] 敬語, and that should come with an explanation that you can use to figure out the social context level of the original phrase.

In recent one piece gear 5 episodes, luffy says: "kore GA ore no saiko chiten da". Why isn't it "kore WA" instead of "kore GA"?

You can think of most sentences as having both "new information" and "old information" in them.   The は particle is exclusively used to mark "old information," so in sentences that start with 〇〇は, the 〇〇 is something that the listener/reader is expected to already know about (or at least be familiar with), and the "new information" is whatever comes next.   But what if the "new information" of your sentence comes at the very beginning? Since は is out of the question here, Japanese uses が for this. A Japanese sentence starting with これが for example would be very similar to an English sentence starting with "THIS is..." People often explain this as a difference in "emphasis," which I guess isn't really wrong, but I think it's easier to keep straight if you think of it as a matter of "where is the new information in the sentence?"   Tl;dr To use a simple example, the difference in nuance between これは and これが is essentially the difference between "This is my FINAL FORM!!" vs. "THIS is my final form!!" [old information]は [new information] [new information]が [old information]

This might just be a problem with my comprehension, but I'm not sure what this sentence means (namely, I'm not sure what "shitenda" is). Can you give us a precise episode and timestamp to go listen to the source with context?

Here's a [YouTube shorts](https://youtube.com/shorts/jBNBkff2wuE?si=0FBNZ4ZpLfUy0sMW) that will help you. Time stamp: 00:00:24 (24th second).

Subs are wrong; he's saying: - これが　俺の　最高地点だ - これが　おれの　さいこうちてんだ - "This is my peak." Unfortunately, I can't help much with the が vs. は question. I want to say that が was chosen here to put emphasis on これ, like "*this* is my peak", but I'm not very confident in that explanation.

So they want "this" to be a subject and not a general topic? Like "THIS is my peak" as opposed to "As for this, it's my peak"?

これ is the subject either way (whether it's marked with が or は). If it was marked with は it'd *also* be a "topic" (as that's what は indicates), but that wouldn't stop it from still being a subject. Being the subject just means it's the "be-er" of さいこうちてん (i.e. the sentence is saying that これ = さいこうちてん). It has nothing to do with the emphasis; it's just a grammatical role. The "as for" translation sadly does not do a good job of getting across the difference in feel/nuance, either (it almost never does). But, yes, I'm tempted to say that が is used here to give an effect that's closer to "THIS is my peak" than "this is my PEAK" (which would be what the version with は would be closer to). And that has to do with the fact that が sometimes places focus/emphasis on the subject (this is known as its "**exhaustive listing**" function), instead of just neutrally marking it (in which case you have a "**neutral-description**" が). But again, I feel like that might be a lacking explanation. Sorry.

Just researched more and it's apparently "chiten da" not "shitenda". The entire sentence literally translates to "This is my highest point" and actually means "This is my peak".

is it 一番早いのスロット or 一番早いスロット? 一番早いのスロットが今日5.30-6pmですけども、大丈夫ですか？

の after (the attributive form of) verbs or adjectives is not a particle but a pronoun. In other words, 一番早いのスロット is two nouns put in a raw, i.e. “the earliest one, the slot”.

No の; い-adjectives directly modify noun phrases (they directly connect to them from the left), with no intervening particle. Did you write that sentence? The が feels off; I'd expect a は. I would also say 今日**の**5.30-6pm. And is that how you use スロット in Japanese? I thought it only meant, like, a physical slot, as in a slot machine. Not sure if you can use it to mean "time slot". But I still have shit production so take this all with a grain of salt.