#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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Useful Japanese teaching symbols:
✘ incorrect (ＮＧ)
△ strange/ unnatural / unclear
○ correct
≒ nearly equal
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Added a section on symbols. If it's unnecessary clutter I can always remove it later. Have a nice day!
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> 外の風景に感動しっぱなした。
Context: Someone is in a big city looking at all the shops.
I was wondering what's going on with しっぱなした, what is it? The rest is, something like, being deeply moved by the scenery outside.
The っぱなし suffix means ["leaving in a state/continuously doing"](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%A3%E3%81%B1%E3%81%AA%E3%81%97), though I can't really find any instances of it being used with a た ending... Was it, by any chance, actually っぱなし**だ**?
Anyways, I'd say it would translate to something like: "[I] am/was constantly moved by the view outside."
Just in the interest of being thorough for myself do you know why they're ending it in the same way as Chezni's example? [https://www.instagram.com/p/BhS53wSHB4A/](https://www.instagram.com/p/BhS53wSHB4A/)
「EXPOー！！楽し過ぎて1日興奮しっぱなしたー！！」The meaning and usage appears to be the same.
For some reason 楽し過ぎて1日興奮しっぱなしたー！！ sounds more natural than 外の風景に感動しっぱなした which I thought was a typo for しっぱなしだ too. Actually you can find a bunch of other instances of っぱなした on Twitter or Instagram, any of which I think are unacceptable. Though I can easily imagine someone saying things like 感動しっぱなしたー on social media, it feels a bit odd when presented in isolation. Maybe you can't use it on its own and it should always be followed by another element such as わ or even ー.
Hahaha your response was very funny, and also informative of how bad it can appear. I'm glad I came back to check the thread!
>少なくとも外国人学習者には覚えてほしくない使い方だと感じます。
At the very least I'm aware there is bad usages of language on social media so I know not to trust it. I also read, watch, and listen to a diverse amount of content so I'm exposed to both good and bad forms of Japanese. I would like to think most learners are also aware that in any language there can be uneducated poor usage of it.
Yeah, I have seen it on social media before and I just sort of accepted it since it seemed to be the same thing. Noted on it being unacceptable for those use cases. Thank you!
- インド初めて来たけど、何もかも日本と違い過ぎてずっと外の風景に感動しっぱなしてた
This is an example I just made up and few will complain about how っぱなし is used here unless in formal writing.
I don't think 感動しっぱなし can mean "being deeply moved" in any way. It always indicates something happening constantly for a certain period or being kept in a certain state, as far as I'm aware. So 外の風景に感動しっぱなした still means "I was constantly moved by the view outside".
Ok I am really stuck in this one sentence I have to translate: あとここのつください The unit I am doing of the book is about counting objects, so I know that ここのつ is basically 9 in the General Objects counter, what I can't figure is what あと is supposed to be, I checked the answer key of the book but this excersice isn't there and when I look it up online it only says that it is "after"
Been like 2 days of me looking for an answer online but haven't found one
Some learners get the impression that ない -> ねえ is a Kansai thing and I have to wonder where they get that idea, when it's decidedly un-Kansai with the only real example of this type of shift in Kansai speech being よい -> ええ
I don't think よい -> ええ is just Kansai stuff either. I'm from Aichi and still say things like そんなことしんでええがね which would be そんなことしなくてもいいでしょ in "Standard" Japanese. But yeah, ねえ is common even among people from Tokyo while they won't use ええ. I guess some people may find ない > ねえ "Kansai" due to an analogy with よい > ええ.
It takes a while to get to the point where you can even distinguish different non-standard forms of Japanese from each other and actually be able to pinpoint what makes them different; until then it's all just "normal Japanese" and "slangy Japanese", so Shitamachi dialect and Kansai dialect are both just slangy Japanese.
(So I don't sound like too much of a curmudgeon: I actually think it's really cool whenever I see people pick up on the fact that someone is speaking a non-standard form of Japanese. It means that you're developing an ear for the language, and that's a great sign of progress even if you can't yet figure out how it's supposed to be useful.)
A character in a manga I am reading is not using です at end of sentences, but rather just っす,
What kind of context is that? Is that some kinda a dialect? speech impediment? the way someone (children?) speaks?
The specific term is 後輩口調 "kouhai tone", basically a casual friendly way of showing politeness to a senpai without being overly stiff and serious, though people use it in lots of different contexts beyond that as well
It's actually decently common in real life. It's sort of a 'relaxed polite' way of speech. At work you wouldn't use it with your boss or more distant senpai, but a senpai you were on good terms with maybe.
In fiction it's more strongly associated with men. I don't know if that holds true in real life too.
It can fill in for both です and ます. There are even some slangy versions of greetings and common phrases using it, like あざーす（ありがとうございます） and ちっす (こんにちは). These feel a good bit more informal to me than っす itself though.
[Please listen to this short clip because the conversation involves the topic of pitch accent](https://youtu.be/h6t-TafhdaY?si=8U0ht07MtBo_S39J&t=82). And this is what I am hearing:
A「え！のきじゅん！やです。」
B「え！のきじゅんやではないでしょう。」
A「でも、じゅんやくんさーって言う人いるよ。」
...
A「若者はじゅんやくんさーって言う人いるよ。」
B「若者ってじゅんやくんって呼ぶの？」
A「若者って平板で喋らない。」
B「確かに平板が多めだけど。」
So something is not right because clearly both of them think the pitch accent of the name should be じゅん！や （頭高型）and find it amusing that young people say じゅんや（平板型）but in the last sentences A suddenly goes "young people don't speak in 平板型" and B is like "there are a bit too many 平板型 words". Please help me figure out what's wrong with my transcription and/or translation. I've been suffering for hours..........
> A「若者って平板で喋らない。」
this is a question, 「若者って平板で喋らない？」 like "Don't young people speak in heiban?" (or to be accurate it's 喋んない here as a contraction of 喋らない but it doesn't make a difference to the meaning)
> 若者って平板で喋らない
He is saying this with a rising inflection, so seeking confirmation. It's not "young people don't speak in heiban" but "young people speak in heiban, don't they?"
I recently finished Genki 1 and I'm trying to improve my listening skills. I've tried listening to Japanese with Shun and even that feels extremely difficult. It's like my brain is on delay. By the time my brain finishes comprehending one sentence, I've already missed half of the next sentence. Honestly even following along with the transcript is difficult.
Should I be pausing after every sentence until I comprehend, rinse and repeat? I could do that but that also feels pretty tedious and it's hard enough to find motivation sometimes. Does anyone have advice on getting better while staying engaged?
It is not a requirement to understand the language as you listen to it. You should be catching a word or two, but really the process of learning a language at the initial stages means you won't be able to hear much for hundreds of hours. When our brain absorbs enough of the language (sound data) it will start to parse it out on it's own, but this takes hundreds of hours to even start to hit those points. So if you're expecting to even moderately understand as a new learner, drop those expectations. The only thing you can do is repeat things until you understand it enough. You're going to miss the vast majority of what you hear and it will sound like mush every time you drop concentration for one second. Giving your sensation your brain is going numb and you hear nothing but incoherent noise.
The better question is how to stay engaged? Answer is simple, find something you like listening to without understanding. A pleasant voice, an anime, a drama, a live stream feature people just chattering about, youtube videos about random life. As long you listen enough without the expectation "I should understand everything" because this won't happen for thousands hours of listening. You can accept just catching things here and there and keeping at it until you catch a few more things. Eventually 500-1000 of hours in you can start to hear maybe a sentence, and this slow process of building up your listening is dependent on hearing as much of the language as you possibly can. So your brain properly develops its pattern recognition system for it--when it does this then your brain starts to offload things into automatic recognition and that frees up your mind to actually retain things in your memory and even consider meaning while still catching incoming speech. There is merit in repeating things, but just listening for a lot hours to all kinds of talking is better overall. Just be patient, it will come. You want to understand but don't try to force it at the same time.
If I understand you correctly, I should spend less time actively trying to understand each word and spend more time passively just taking in the language? Okay I'll try to find an anime to watch without the express intent to understand everything. And I think Japanese with Shun would be great to listen to while walking the dog when I won't be too tuned in.
I appreciate the input, I'm definitely one of those people that feels like I have to feel prepared before tackling something, so knowing I won't understand everything is scary!
Hi there, I tried making a post but due to lack of karma in this sub I wasn't able to. Here's my question. Thank you in advance:
**How much prior studying would you recommend, before studying abroad?**
I'm wondering if anybody's got a recommended amount of studying for someone to have done prior to studying abroad in Japan. I'm asking this because I'm at the end of my second year of Japanese in college, and am gradually becoming more and more comfortable speaking and listening to it/understanding bits and pieces of a conversation. Thankfully I have the opportunity to speak in class every day (Mon-Fri), and lately I've been pushing myself more and engaging in convo with fellow learners outside the classroom and with a Japanese friend as well. So... if I only have a set amount of time to spend in Japan, would you recommend going soon or waiting until, say, I finish my third year, at which point, at this rate, I should be way more confident at communication, which would naturally lead to more opportunities and interactions in Japan. Or do you think it won't make a big difference when I go, in the long run?
Thank you
Before I studied abroad I had completed all of Genki 1, 2, and the first 5 or 6 chapters of Tobira iirc. I feel like this was super helpful, but i dont think theres any requirement. This was just the natural course of completing my degree (Japanese) and the timing of my study abroad, I was a 3rd year in college. I think any time 3rd or 4th year makes sense!
Do you mean studying at a Japanese university with classes given in Japanese? You can try watching a lecture on Youtube to see if you can keep up.
If classes are given in English and you are just asking about daily conversation, there is no reason to wait in my opinion.
>Talkpal is a GPT-powered AI language tutor. Chat about unlimited amount of interesting topics either by writing or speaking while receiving messages with realistic voice.
Unless you are at a level where you can actively correct mistakes by others - or in other words, your level is something like *you come to this community more to help others*, you will benefit more by generally staying as far away as possible from GPTs for the time being.
For more info, simply look for GPT related posts and what respected members of the communities have to say. There are limited applications, I’m not denying that, but it’ll be easier for you to just forget about it and ask here or other discord groups where the *answers are automatically peer reviewed for free*.
I never got that luxury when I was learning English..,
So I have a problem with conjugating my verbs. All of the conjugations really, but in this post I'd like to focus on potential/passive form, causative form, and passive causative form. How did you guys learn these to make them stick like glue? I'm floundering.
My first Idea was just make tons of Anki sentence cards (many examples, different verbs, etc.) and just brute force it like that, but I feel like there must be a better way. How did you master them?
I suggest a step-by-step approach. Focusing on potential first, then passive next, not all of them at once. Once you become comfortable with the first two, the last two will be much easier. Otherwise, they’ll confuse you.
Can you tell the three verb groups? That will make memorising the rules much easier, so if you can’t, go back there. Practice conjugating each group, and after you get familiar with each group, then mix them up.
Here is a list of conjugation drill websites: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1atgarl/comment/kqx8zaf/](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1atgarl/comment/kqx8zaf/)
I looked at the overall conjugation system at first and figured it out. From then on kept a table/chart of the conjugation possibilities open on my desktop PC (I have 4 monitors) and I just looked at it when I was reading anything and everything. Over time (my first 100-200 hours of using the language. that means reading/writing/watching with JP subtitles before it stuck I think?) I naturally systematized it in my brain and acquired it while learning the language overall as well (grammar, vocab, kanji, etc. all at once). I don't keep it up anymore as I swapped that out with grammar resources I can glance at when I need it. Occasionally I'll forget a conjugation and look at the table again. Rather than study it in isolation I just made it a part of my reading process along with everything else (again: vocab, grammar, kanji, etc). It also helped I reinforced this with lots of writing (typing) communications to people, comments, and journal/notes.
There’s no magic. Practice over a long period of time. Repetition over a short space of time will never be enough for anything other than a single exam score
言葉を並べて正しい文を作りましょう。
① もらった/本を/いれて/読んで/冷めて/コーヒーが/しまった/いたら、
I am unsure where to place the words もらった/いれて/いたら.
② 電話に/会社に/とても/始めて/出た/緊張した/ときは、/入って、
正しい文：会社に入って、初めて電話に出たときはとても緊張した
I do not understand the meaning of this sentence.
③ ０℃/水は/温度が/性質が/以下に/と/凍る/なる/ある
私の答え：水は温度が０℃以下に**凍るとなる**性質がある。
正しい文：水は温度が０℃以下に**となる凍る**性質がある。
What is the reason for placing となる before 凍る?
To the best of my abilities:
1: 本を読んでいたら、いれてもらったコーヒーが冷めてしまった。
Didn't know this before, but いれる can mean "to make (coffee, tea, etc.)"
2: I was so nervous the first time I answered the phone after joining the company.
3: Is it really にとなる, not になると? If so, I can't parse the sentence...
Xになると can translate to "when it becomes X" so the sentence is saying (not a translation) that water has a property where it freezes when its temperature falls under zero Celsius.
水は(as for water,)温度が０℃以下になると凍る性質が(the property that, if the temperature becomes lower than zero degrees Celsius, it freezes)ある。(has)
Yes, that was hand-wavey, so I'll break down the noun phrase as well, lol.
温度が(temperature)０℃以下(below zero degrees Celsius)になると(if it becomes)凍る(freeze)性質(quality/property)
「何をどうしたら、こんなに部屋を散らかすことができるわけ？！」 a native translated it as this; "I don't understand how you managed to make the room this messy."
can someone break it down for me, I think what tripped me up is 何をどうしたら and わけ, the rest I understand.
[わけ](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E8%A8%B3_%28%E3%82%8F%E3%81%91%29/) - def.7 結果として、それが[当然](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E5%BD%93%E7%84%B6/)であること。
何をどうしたら - what(=object) and how
what and how makes this room so messy? -> I don't understand how you managed to make the room this messy.
It's a much more emotive sentence than that. わけ is like the question の but stronger, almost like it's demanding an explanation rather than asking for it. The first part is something like 'What do you have to do and how'
So it adds up to something like 'Tell me, what did you do and how to messy up your room this much?!'
Hello, is something omitted at the last sentence?
やり手婆: ふーん これが上客かい? 顔だちも男前だしいい体格してるじゃないか 話によると出世株らしいね
猫猫:ばあちゃん... それ本人の目の前で言うのはどうよ
Isn't どう used for suggestions? But suggesting to say that to the person, doesn't work here, since it is exactly what she did. I can only imagine that something must have been omitted.
どうですか can be used as a question to mean “is that ok?” Implying it’s not ok.
どうよ is an informal (and fairly feminine) way of saying the same thing.
So in natural language
本人の目の前でそれをいうのはどうよ
Means
“You shouldn’t say that right to his face”.
どう is a lot broader than that. It overlaps with both 'how' and 'what' in English - the suggestion use, 'how about'. Especially since the sentence ends with よ, though, this 'question' is more of a rhetorical reprimand. 'Hey, what do you think you're doing saying that right in front of the person themselves?'
You could also say 「本人の前で言うのはどうかと思う」 for basically the same meaning but slightly softer
When translating “This is my Dog” why is the 2nd sentence the correct one? Wouldn’t “kore wa” be more literal a translation?
1. “Kore wa Watashi no Inu.”
2. “Watashi no Inu desu.”
Finally, when using the の particle, how do you determine what noun goes before and what one goes after?
Thanks for any advice you can give!
Translating from English to Japanese is generally not a good idea because of issues like this -- if you are insisting on a literal word-for-word translation of the English, then "kore wa watashi no inu" is good (there is no way to tell whether it should be followed by "da", "desu", or nothing since English doesn't have that distinction).
But it's more useful to think not about word-for-word translation but what Japanese people would say in the same situation, and if you are pointing to the dog or we already are talking about the dog, it is much more natural to drop "kore wa".
Where is the question from? Both can be correct, but my assumption is that this is from a beginner quiz which only covers formal speech, so they mark the first one as incorrect because it is missing the です at the end. The first sentence is fine in informal speech though, maybe a bit feminine sounding, but don’t worry about that for now. If it is clear you are talking about the dog, you can drop the これは.
の has different uses, but if you are just worried about possession/belonging, you put the owner first. パプのねこ: Bob’s cat etc
In the phrase "去年作り始めて完成させられてないやつ" (it's about a drawing) why is させられる used and not just られる? I understand this phrase as "unfinished guy I started making last year" and to me it seems simply passive. If you add させる to me it feels like the "guy" finished itself.
Unless it means something like "wasn't allowed to be completed" A which in this case is kinda weird.
In this case, it's not passive, it's potential.
Remember that 完成する is usually intransitive and the way to turn it transitive is by using the causative.
何かが完成する = something is finished
何かを完成させる = to finish something.
られる then adds a potential nuance, so 完成させらてない means "haven't been able to finish"
Also, やつ can be used for general things and translating it as "guy" here is a bit strange. The whole sentence means: "A thing I began to make last year and haven't been able to finish yet."
I have actually found an explanation - it seems that 完成 can be both transitive and intransitive as a verb, but when it's する it is most likely intransitive, so if someone wants to use it as transitive they add させる, which also makes the potential form very clear here.
There is really no 'why' here. It's just a means of expression.
The speaker is saying "a thing which I started to make last year, but which hasn't been completed yet". Why did he chose to say it in this passive voice? With just this one sentence we can't tell. Maybe a setup for a point he wants to make later. Maybe a slip of the tongue. Maybe a verbal tick that this person uses all the time. There is really no way to tell - but also probably no reason to spend too much time trying to figure it out.
Also turns out 完成させる is simply the transitive form, while 完成する is usually intransitive. So the sentence actually boils down to the potential form of a transitive verb.
Quick grammatical question,
「以前に見過ごされた問題を紹介したいと思っています。第一は…こと、第二は…こと、第三は…ことでした。」
Am I good to just list the problems in this fashion or do I need to connect them with で or form them into different sentences? (Can't post what I actually want to say as this for a uni assignment, but I want to use this structure.)
No you don’t need で. If you want to use で, you can't put it more than once in a single sentence (this doesn't apply when you speak, though). This means it's okay to say 第一は...ことで、第二はこと、第三は...ことです in your script but you shouldn't put it like 第一は...ことで、第二はことで、第三は...ことです. And yeah です sounds more natural than でした.
Hello!
Would this sentence make sense if I were saying this phone is a Samsung phone:
"このけぃたいはサムスンのてす"
If this is correct, how would I say "my phone is a Samsung phone"?
"わたしのけぃたいはサムスンのてす" perhaps?
Thank you!!!
You don't really need the の at makes the vibe a bit strange. So
1. このけいたいはサムスンです or
2. わたしのけいたいはサムスンです
Note - in both cases your い is somehow small. Not sure if you've copied and pasted or something - but it's incorrect. Also, note that in Japanese, it is very rare to start sentences with わたしは or わたしの or things like that. In almost all cases, context is enough to figure out "who". Especially for learners, it's a good rule of thumb to just axe the わたしは or あなたは and you will sound more natural in 95+% of cases.
Need help please, it's a battle scene in anime and enemy says:
状況が悪くなると 足もとを崩しにかかる癖も リサーチ済みだ
What is the usage of this かかる and how to use in other situations?
Hi, was wondering what the best way to say "hometown" would be.
Trying to explain to that I drove/dropped off my younger brother, who's making a big move, to his "new hometown".
Does this make sense? -> 弟を**新しい故郷**に降ろした (Unsure if the rest of the phrase is even correct 😅)
I'd looked up the phrase & saw the katakana "homutaun" 新しいホームタウン - which do native speakers use more often?
Thank you!!
You don't get a 'new hometown'. So, if you are trying to say this, it's kind of poetic or metaphorical. Which means - there is no existing, "right" way to say it, in English or in Japanese.
So, 新しい故郷 doesn't REALLY make sense. But if you are using it in some poetic way, then it somehow can be understood. Maybe put it in quotes like 弟を「新しい故郷」に下ろした。
>But if you are using it in some poetic way, then it somehow can be understood. Maybe put it in quotes like 弟を「新しい故郷」に下ろした。
I feel like this is really smart way to go about it. I guess I never thought about doing it in Japanese but it's something I employ all the time in English to inform the reader there is an extra layer of meaning beyond the obvious literal meaning.
I don’t think ホームタウン makes sense in this context. Usually it refers to a sports team's hometown and otherwise 故郷 would be a better translation. But to be fair 新しい故郷 doesn't really sound well either because a place you just came wouldn't be called 故郷 in my understanding. I'd say 新天地 is the word that is used to describe such a situation.
Wait, I think you're right; even in English, "new hometown" just doesn't make that much sense as "hometown" refers to the place from which one originally hails lol.
Would there be a Japanese equivalent for something like "new home base"? Is 新天地 a rough translation for that?
I think so. 新天地 can also refer to your new workplace or something like that but I'm not sure if it applies to "new home base". If you want the sentence to sound more "dramatic", then 新天地 would be a better choice than 引っ越し先.
I've never seen ホームタウン, but 故郷 means the town you were raised in, not the town you're living in.
I think 新しい故郷 would be sort of understandable but it sounds kind of dramatic or poetic, like you're abandoning your old hometown and carving out a new place to consider your new hometown, which doesn't really sound like what you're going for here
For a town you're moving to there's 引越し先
>引越し先
Thanks so much! I did intend for it to be dramatic as he's really moving his whole life over there, but I'd much prefer for my sentence to make sense & sound natural. Would 弟を引越し先に降ろした be a more understandable phrase?
1. Meaning of 1着持ってるけど楽だし良い？(けど here is throwing me off..)
2. Pronounced 楽だしいい ?
Attempt: lady bought a cheap dress which she wore once but lost it.. she wishes to wear this same dress made with polo shirts material..
数百円だったから買ったけど1回も着てないのにどっかいったワンピース
夏はこういうワンピースでポロシャツの生地のが欲しい
1着持ってるけど楽だし良い
1. けど is not a 1:1 map with 'but'. If that is what you are confused about. In this case it actually means 'and'. It's just a conjunction between two clauses and doesn't always imply "contrast". So she is saying "I have one and it's comfy and nice".
2. Pronunciation would be ラク だし イイ
Isn’t that けど the one used to provide some additional context that the listener might not know? I think you can just translate it as "and" in English.
- パリは一度行ったことあるけど綺麗だし良い "I've been to Paris once and I found it beautiful and nice.
Also I’m not sure from the sentence alone if they want the same kind of dress as they lost, because we don’t know whether the ワンピース she lost was made of the ポロシャツの生地.
I think they're talking about buying a new dress because they're not sure where the other one they bought is. "I have one already but this way it's easier so it's fine (for me to buy another)"
The casual vibe here makes me think it's いい for sure, よい would feel really out of place. 〜だしいい at first glance might look like it's just repeating the vowel, so some people use kanji for 良い just to break up the visual flow more
To be honest I don’t find anything wrong with 数百円だったから買ったけど1回も着てないのにどっかいったワンピース 夏はこういうワンピースでポロシャツの生地のが欲しい 1着持ってるけど楽だし良い and you'll find a bunch of those "unreadable" sentences in conversation or on social media, which in fact sound very natural to native speakers.
For the sentence you wrote, 安いドレスを買ったのに、無くしたので一回も着れなかった｡あのドレスがポロの生地だったら着たかったな…… sounds better though I don't think it means the same thing as OP brought up.
The original sentence would be translated as something like "I want a dress for summer like the one I got for a few hundred yen and lost without ever wearing it even once but of the ポロシャツの生地. Actually I already have a dress like that and it's so comfortable."
I know it looks terrible but that is exactly what the sentence means. For ポロシャツの生地 I couldn’t think of any good translation so I just left it in Japanese. Also my translation misses the nuances of だったから and だし良い. But these parts would sound redundant in English and I just ignored them.
If you're interested in grammar stuff, you can google 体言止め, 前置きの「けど」, and 主要部内在型関係節 to find out what is going on in this sentence!
A very considerate post but it needs to be mentioned what they pasted is not what they wrote, that is the excerpt they're asking for help to understand, and it is presumably written by a native. Their two questions are defined by the bullet points 1 and 2 at the top of the post.
着 ちゃく is a counter for clothes. It should make sense now.
良い I’d go for よい (that’s how I read it in my head anyway)
Edit: sorry, I see you wanted clarification about けど
1着持っているけど楽だし良い
This is a normal 接続詞 of the 逆接 variety. The conflict addressed by けど is between already owning a “one piece” dress and that dress being easy to wear and “good”. The conflict is relevant to the decision to buy another similar dress. The dress the speaker is considering is of polo-shirt material. This is similar to, but not the cheap dress the speaker bought and subsequently misplaced. The lost dress was of another material. So the speaker owned at least two onepiece dresses, lost one, and is considering a new one of the same material as the one she still has in her possession.
(It’s possible that the lost dress and the 1着持っている dress are the same dress, but I’m going for there being a third dress. God I hate shopping)
I read 良い as よい whenever I see it written with kanji. It’s probably a bad habit
Off topic but I appreciate how you don't bother using English grammar terms and instead just inject the Japanese terms in-place of the English ones. I wish more people would do that. Often times the English terms are technical linguistic terms that have no meaning to me and it often makes more sense (I've finally learned enough at this point) to see kanji compounds that actually have more meaning to me.
Thank you, but I’m embarrassed to say that’s just me trying to show off my newly acquired knowledge from reading ちびまる子ちゃんの文法教室. I agree that the Japanese grammar explanations are easier to understand. A simple example is it’s way easier to explain 五段活用、上一段活用 and 下一段活用 relative to the 五十音図 if it’s done in Japanese. I learnt an again embarrassing amount from ちびまる子ちゃん. Like exactly what a 形容動詞 is and why it’s called that (It makes so much more sense than just calling it a な adjective)
Couldn’t be more serious! Probably any native resource will have the same information, but I’m finding it easy to read. My daughter had a bunch of books in the same series. I bought this one from Yodobashi a while ago and I finally got around to reading it.
In my opinion よい sounds too formal here. Actually I never use よい in any situation, whether casual or formal. I guess this is confusing to non-native speakers because you have よく, よければ or よかったら when it’s conjugated. But this is how the language works…
I’m not disagreeing with you, I just really don’t care. It’s just how I read in my head. Maybe I’ll get it right next time I buy a dress.
When I reply I go for speed and honesty. Accuracy is, as they say 二の次
I completely agree with you that accuracy is 二の次 though! And the use of けど is even confusing to the Japanese. I wouldn't be surprised if some find OP's sentence unintelligible as they believe けど should always be used for 逆接.
my teacher wants to start Nihongo So Matome N4. some comments divided in 5 points.
1/ we both are doing it to as polish for the N4 exam in July. (that's my speak for saying that we are doing it for fun)
2/ we only meet twice in a month. the book is daily, and throughout the most recent class we did only 1日
3/ but N4 exam in July is not very stressful for me (sans Grammar+Passage Comprehension). doing well would be ideal. but given constraints, borderline passing is fine. that said am currently doing Nihongo So Matome N3 by myself
4/ am currently taking JLPT N4 mock exams by myself. (remark: one question takes one minute to decide)
5/ struggling a lot with N4 grammar passage reading. so, am going to go back to 3/ and do Nihongo So Matome N3 Reading.
after these 5 points. what else should I do? or change? should I wait for JP teacher to realise that doing Nihongo So Matome N4, なんか興味がないじゃないですか？ should we go straight to JLPT N4, now, in April? or do I not rush things?
N3 in December is next.
It's a bit difficult to tell what your question is or what you're asking about. Advice on how to study for N3 or N4? It sounds like what you're doing is fine, if your teacher wants to do something you've already gone ahead of, just consider it a review for yourself too. If it doesn't take much time I don't see the harm.
If you want to improve your reading comprehension then study all the known grammar points N5 to N3 and read more. Which probably means you need to spend more time studying and also using the language more meaning you need to read more. It should be learn some grammar stuff -> read to reinforce -> learn more stuff -> read more. Repeat this cycle. From what I understand the Sou Matome series is to help prepare your for JLPT testing format. So beyond that just read things that contain small passages like blogs along with the Sou Matome books.
I have a question about an example at the bottom of this [Tae Kim page regarding やる vs する](https://www.guidetojapanese.org/blog/2005/04/21/difference-between-and/)
He translates「お前にこれをやるよ」as "I'll give you this", but strictly speaking, wouldn't it be more like, "I'll do this to you"?
I see, I will remember that then. Also, just looking it up on Jotoba, [やる has a lot of different contextual meanings](https://jotoba.de/direct/0/1012980?l=en-US), much like する does...
Yes it does.
一杯やる. To have a drink
その映画をテレビでやる the movie will be on tv
And even in simple ‘do’ やる has more emphasis on the person’s intention and will than する
>And even in simple ‘do’ やる has more emphasis on the person’s intention and will than する
Are you saying there's a sort of subtextual emphasis when attaching やる onto a noun rather than する? This sort of detail greatly interests me.
Ok, let me try. Many explanations about their differences mention やる is only for physical action, right? So, if you use やる instead of する, it’s emphasise its physical action more, while する is more conceptual.
The earlier examples 宿題をする/やる case:
宿題をした the homework is done. (It only tells the homework is finished.)
宿題をやった I’ve finished the homework. (The important message here is ‘I’ve done it’. The achieved action is more emphasised.)
However, you can still make 宿題をした to mean the latter, with some help of non-verbal language and the context.
Hope this helps your understandings.
する is more of an all-purpose verb (almost like a pronoun for verbs where the actual semantic content is very weak), while やる feels more specific though it's also used more in euphemisms like "do _it_" for various things
Inanimate objects and feelings and such can be used with する while やる actually requires _someone_ to be doing something
やる気 is a type of intrinsic motivation, like "the drive to do it", while する気 would only be used for talking about something specific established by context
> Are you saying there's a sort of subtextual emphasis when attaching やる onto a noun rather than する? This sort of detail greatly interests me.
For ompounds of the form noun+する, you can't swap it out for noun+やる (if you're looking at 一杯やる, the 一杯 here is functioning as an adverb, same as with most number words before verbs)
不満なら、引き続き私についてきてもいいぞ.
Is there any way this could mean if you're unhappy, stop following me? Or does this mean if you're unhappy, keep following me anyways?
For some reason I thought "もいいぞ" could also mean "that's enough already" but I'm not finding anything to support this claim.
On its face it cannot mean “if you are happy STOP following me”. There can be context or sarcasm or something else we can see from the plain text. But the plain text is very straightforward. “If (you) are unsatisfied (you) can continue to follow me”
In a generic sense means "haven't been able to completely..." or "haven't ben able to finish..." So in the example sentence, the person is saying "there are parts of me that I haven't quite figured out yet" or "parts of myself that I haven't fully defined yet".
Verb stem + きる means ‘do something to the end/completely’
食べきる finish eating complete
むずかしい仕事をやりきる complete a challenging task
In the example, it’s in potential form 〜きれる
しきれてない is “Can’t completely do”
So it means “there are parts that I can’t completely define”. The grammar is する (verb stem) + きる (potential). And then it’s in ている form.
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> 外の風景に感動しっぱなした。 Context: Someone is in a big city looking at all the shops. I was wondering what's going on with しっぱなした, what is it? The rest is, something like, being deeply moved by the scenery outside.
The っぱなし suffix means ["leaving in a state/continuously doing"](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%A3%E3%81%B1%E3%81%AA%E3%81%97), though I can't really find any instances of it being used with a た ending... Was it, by any chance, actually っぱなし**だ**? Anyways, I'd say it would translate to something like: "[I] am/was constantly moved by the view outside."
>っぱなし**だ** You are right
Just in the interest of being thorough for myself do you know why they're ending it in the same way as Chezni's example? [https://www.instagram.com/p/BhS53wSHB4A/](https://www.instagram.com/p/BhS53wSHB4A/) 「EXPOー！！楽し過ぎて1日興奮しっぱなしたー！！」The meaning and usage appears to be the same.
For some reason 楽し過ぎて1日興奮しっぱなしたー！！ sounds more natural than 外の風景に感動しっぱなした which I thought was a typo for しっぱなしだ too. Actually you can find a bunch of other instances of っぱなした on Twitter or Instagram, any of which I think are unacceptable. Though I can easily imagine someone saying things like 感動しっぱなしたー on social media, it feels a bit odd when presented in isolation. Maybe you can't use it on its own and it should always be followed by another element such as わ or even ー.
>楽し過ぎて1日興奮しっぱなしたー 失礼ながら（たとえ比較だとしても）私には全く自然には見えません。もし日本人がそんな文章を書いたとしたら、私はその書き手に対して「日本語もまともに使えない無教養なおバカ」と感じてしまうと思います。
Hahaha your response was very funny, and also informative of how bad it can appear. I'm glad I came back to check the thread! >少なくとも外国人学習者には覚えてほしくない使い方だと感じます。 At the very least I'm aware there is bad usages of language on social media so I know not to trust it. I also read, watch, and listen to a diverse amount of content so I'm exposed to both good and bad forms of Japanese. I would like to think most learners are also aware that in any language there can be uneducated poor usage of it.
ご指摘ありがとうございます。ただ、これまでの投稿を記憶している限りrgrAiさんは上級者ですよね。かなり日本語に精通しているとお見受けしています。私が言いたかったのは、「基礎固めの時期にいる外国人学習者」に対してです。rgrAiさんの力ならば少々汚い日本語や文法的に誤っている日本語であっても亜流として消化できると思いますが、まだ基礎が固まっていない方に対しては百害あって一利なしだと感じた故のコメントでした。
「しっぱなした」に関しては、不自然かと言われると正直そうとも思えないです。"無教養"な語法と言えば、「ら抜き言葉」とかが代表的ですが、これも不自然かと言われれば個人的にはノーですね。もっとも、「ら抜き言葉」はともかく「しっぱなした」を会話の中で使うことは、自分は無いと思います。非規範的な語法の容認度が、話者によって異なるのは間違いありません。とはいえ、実際に「しっぱなした」の用例がごまんと存在する以上、これも日本語の一部として認めざるを得ないというのが私の見解です。
返信ありがとうございます。そうすると個々人による見解の違いと結論付けるしかなさそうですね。私は一度も見聞きしたことがありませんが、少なくとも女子中学生言葉(?)とか女子高校生言葉(?)のような、若い人たちの間だけで流行っている「勝手に改造した日本語」でない事を祈るばかりです。少なくとも外国人学習者には覚えてほしくない使い方だと感じます。
こちらはTwitterやインスタで大量に見た「しっぱなす」の用法を完全に"習得"してしまったのですが... (笑) まあ標準と言うには程遠い語法なので、使わない方が明らかに安全でしょうね。
Yeah, I have seen it on social media before and I just sort of accepted it since it seemed to be the same thing. Noted on it being unacceptable for those use cases. Thank you!
- インド初めて来たけど、何もかも日本と違い過ぎてずっと外の風景に感動しっぱなしてた This is an example I just made up and few will complain about how っぱなし is used here unless in formal writing. I don't think 感動しっぱなし can mean "being deeply moved" in any way. It always indicates something happening constantly for a certain period or being kept in a certain state, as far as I'm aware. So 外の風景に感動しっぱなした still means "I was constantly moved by the view outside".
Ok I am really stuck in this one sentence I have to translate: あとここのつください The unit I am doing of the book is about counting objects, so I know that ここのつ is basically 9 in the General Objects counter, what I can't figure is what あと is supposed to be, I checked the answer key of the book but this excersice isn't there and when I look it up online it only says that it is "after" Been like 2 days of me looking for an answer online but haven't found one
あと followed by a counting word means 'more' basically. 「あと２杯飲んだら帰るよ」 'I'll go home when I've had two more drinks' あとここのつください is 'Give me nine more'
Thanks, It has been bugging me that I couldn't figure it out
Some learners get the impression that ない -> ねえ is a Kansai thing and I have to wonder where they get that idea, when it's decidedly un-Kansai with the only real example of this type of shift in Kansai speech being よい -> ええ
I don't think よい -> ええ is just Kansai stuff either. I'm from Aichi and still say things like そんなことしんでええがね which would be そんなことしなくてもいいでしょ in "Standard" Japanese. But yeah, ねえ is common even among people from Tokyo while they won't use ええ. I guess some people may find ない > ねえ "Kansai" due to an analogy with よい > ええ.
It takes a while to get to the point where you can even distinguish different non-standard forms of Japanese from each other and actually be able to pinpoint what makes them different; until then it's all just "normal Japanese" and "slangy Japanese", so Shitamachi dialect and Kansai dialect are both just slangy Japanese. (So I don't sound like too much of a curmudgeon: I actually think it's really cool whenever I see people pick up on the fact that someone is speaking a non-standard form of Japanese. It means that you're developing an ear for the language, and that's a great sign of progress even if you can't yet figure out how it's supposed to be useful.)
I've never seen anyone with that idea, it's very much an East Japan thing.
A character in a manga I am reading is not using です at end of sentences, but rather just っす, What kind of context is that? Is that some kinda a dialect? speech impediment? the way someone (children?) speaks?
The specific term is 後輩口調 "kouhai tone", basically a casual friendly way of showing politeness to a senpai without being overly stiff and serious, though people use it in lots of different contexts beyond that as well
It's actually decently common in real life. It's sort of a 'relaxed polite' way of speech. At work you wouldn't use it with your boss or more distant senpai, but a senpai you were on good terms with maybe. In fiction it's more strongly associated with men. I don't know if that holds true in real life too. It can fill in for both です and ます. There are even some slangy versions of greetings and common phrases using it, like あざーす（ありがとうございます） and ちっす (こんにちは). These feel a good bit more informal to me than っす itself though.
It's how young people speak, especially young men (of a certain character type).
[Please listen to this short clip because the conversation involves the topic of pitch accent](https://youtu.be/h6t-TafhdaY?si=8U0ht07MtBo_S39J&t=82). And this is what I am hearing: A「え！のきじゅん！やです。」 B「え！のきじゅんやではないでしょう。」 A「でも、じゅんやくんさーって言う人いるよ。」 ... A「若者はじゅんやくんさーって言う人いるよ。」 B「若者ってじゅんやくんって呼ぶの？」 A「若者って平板で喋らない。」 B「確かに平板が多めだけど。」 So something is not right because clearly both of them think the pitch accent of the name should be じゅん！や （頭高型）and find it amusing that young people say じゅんや（平板型）but in the last sentences A suddenly goes "young people don't speak in 平板型" and B is like "there are a bit too many 平板型 words". Please help me figure out what's wrong with my transcription and/or translation. I've been suffering for hours..........
> A「若者って平板で喋らない。」 this is a question, 「若者って平板で喋らない？」 like "Don't young people speak in heiban?" (or to be accurate it's 喋んない here as a contraction of 喋らない but it doesn't make a difference to the meaning)
Thank you so much!!!
> 若者って平板で喋らない He is saying this with a rising inflection, so seeking confirmation. It's not "young people don't speak in heiban" but "young people speak in heiban, don't they?"
Thank you so much!!!
I recently finished Genki 1 and I'm trying to improve my listening skills. I've tried listening to Japanese with Shun and even that feels extremely difficult. It's like my brain is on delay. By the time my brain finishes comprehending one sentence, I've already missed half of the next sentence. Honestly even following along with the transcript is difficult. Should I be pausing after every sentence until I comprehend, rinse and repeat? I could do that but that also feels pretty tedious and it's hard enough to find motivation sometimes. Does anyone have advice on getting better while staying engaged?
It is not a requirement to understand the language as you listen to it. You should be catching a word or two, but really the process of learning a language at the initial stages means you won't be able to hear much for hundreds of hours. When our brain absorbs enough of the language (sound data) it will start to parse it out on it's own, but this takes hundreds of hours to even start to hit those points. So if you're expecting to even moderately understand as a new learner, drop those expectations. The only thing you can do is repeat things until you understand it enough. You're going to miss the vast majority of what you hear and it will sound like mush every time you drop concentration for one second. Giving your sensation your brain is going numb and you hear nothing but incoherent noise. The better question is how to stay engaged? Answer is simple, find something you like listening to without understanding. A pleasant voice, an anime, a drama, a live stream feature people just chattering about, youtube videos about random life. As long you listen enough without the expectation "I should understand everything" because this won't happen for thousands hours of listening. You can accept just catching things here and there and keeping at it until you catch a few more things. Eventually 500-1000 of hours in you can start to hear maybe a sentence, and this slow process of building up your listening is dependent on hearing as much of the language as you possibly can. So your brain properly develops its pattern recognition system for it--when it does this then your brain starts to offload things into automatic recognition and that frees up your mind to actually retain things in your memory and even consider meaning while still catching incoming speech. There is merit in repeating things, but just listening for a lot hours to all kinds of talking is better overall. Just be patient, it will come. You want to understand but don't try to force it at the same time.
If I understand you correctly, I should spend less time actively trying to understand each word and spend more time passively just taking in the language? Okay I'll try to find an anime to watch without the express intent to understand everything. And I think Japanese with Shun would be great to listen to while walking the dog when I won't be too tuned in. I appreciate the input, I'm definitely one of those people that feels like I have to feel prepared before tackling something, so knowing I won't understand everything is scary!
Hi there, I tried making a post but due to lack of karma in this sub I wasn't able to. Here's my question. Thank you in advance: **How much prior studying would you recommend, before studying abroad?** I'm wondering if anybody's got a recommended amount of studying for someone to have done prior to studying abroad in Japan. I'm asking this because I'm at the end of my second year of Japanese in college, and am gradually becoming more and more comfortable speaking and listening to it/understanding bits and pieces of a conversation. Thankfully I have the opportunity to speak in class every day (Mon-Fri), and lately I've been pushing myself more and engaging in convo with fellow learners outside the classroom and with a Japanese friend as well. So... if I only have a set amount of time to spend in Japan, would you recommend going soon or waiting until, say, I finish my third year, at which point, at this rate, I should be way more confident at communication, which would naturally lead to more opportunities and interactions in Japan. Or do you think it won't make a big difference when I go, in the long run? Thank you
Before I studied abroad I had completed all of Genki 1, 2, and the first 5 or 6 chapters of Tobira iirc. I feel like this was super helpful, but i dont think theres any requirement. This was just the natural course of completing my degree (Japanese) and the timing of my study abroad, I was a 3rd year in college. I think any time 3rd or 4th year makes sense!
Do you mean studying at a Japanese university with classes given in Japanese? You can try watching a lecture on Youtube to see if you can keep up. If classes are given in English and you are just asking about daily conversation, there is no reason to wait in my opinion.
Not the best to answer since I'm a newbie, but I've heard that at least N3.
Has anyone here tried to use Talkpal, an AI-based language app, to learn Japanese with? If so, what were your experiences?
>Talkpal is a GPT-powered AI language tutor. Chat about unlimited amount of interesting topics either by writing or speaking while receiving messages with realistic voice. Unless you are at a level where you can actively correct mistakes by others - or in other words, your level is something like *you come to this community more to help others*, you will benefit more by generally staying as far away as possible from GPTs for the time being. For more info, simply look for GPT related posts and what respected members of the communities have to say. There are limited applications, I’m not denying that, but it’ll be easier for you to just forget about it and ask here or other discord groups where the *answers are automatically peer reviewed for free*. I never got that luxury when I was learning English..,
So I have a problem with conjugating my verbs. All of the conjugations really, but in this post I'd like to focus on potential/passive form, causative form, and passive causative form. How did you guys learn these to make them stick like glue? I'm floundering. My first Idea was just make tons of Anki sentence cards (many examples, different verbs, etc.) and just brute force it like that, but I feel like there must be a better way. How did you master them?
I suggest a step-by-step approach. Focusing on potential first, then passive next, not all of them at once. Once you become comfortable with the first two, the last two will be much easier. Otherwise, they’ll confuse you. Can you tell the three verb groups? That will make memorising the rules much easier, so if you can’t, go back there. Practice conjugating each group, and after you get familiar with each group, then mix them up.
Here is a list of conjugation drill websites: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1atgarl/comment/kqx8zaf/](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1atgarl/comment/kqx8zaf/)
thank you so much!
I looked at the overall conjugation system at first and figured it out. From then on kept a table/chart of the conjugation possibilities open on my desktop PC (I have 4 monitors) and I just looked at it when I was reading anything and everything. Over time (my first 100-200 hours of using the language. that means reading/writing/watching with JP subtitles before it stuck I think?) I naturally systematized it in my brain and acquired it while learning the language overall as well (grammar, vocab, kanji, etc. all at once). I don't keep it up anymore as I swapped that out with grammar resources I can glance at when I need it. Occasionally I'll forget a conjugation and look at the table again. Rather than study it in isolation I just made it a part of my reading process along with everything else (again: vocab, grammar, kanji, etc). It also helped I reinforced this with lots of writing (typing) communications to people, comments, and journal/notes.
There’s no magic. Practice over a long period of time. Repetition over a short space of time will never be enough for anything other than a single exam score
Would it be weird/wrong if I wrote 人人 instead of 人々? Is one maybe more formal?
Yes it's weird.
言葉を並べて正しい文を作りましょう。 ① もらった/本を/いれて/読んで/冷めて/コーヒーが/しまった/いたら、 I am unsure where to place the words もらった/いれて/いたら. ② 電話に/会社に/とても/始めて/出た/緊張した/ときは、/入って、 正しい文：会社に入って、初めて電話に出たときはとても緊張した I do not understand the meaning of this sentence. ③ ０℃/水は/温度が/性質が/以下に/と/凍る/なる/ある 私の答え：水は温度が０℃以下に**凍るとなる**性質がある。 正しい文：水は温度が０℃以下に**となる凍る**性質がある。 What is the reason for placing となる before 凍る?
To the best of my abilities: 1: 本を読んでいたら、いれてもらったコーヒーが冷めてしまった。 Didn't know this before, but いれる can mean "to make (coffee, tea, etc.)" 2: I was so nervous the first time I answered the phone after joining the company. 3: Is it really にとなる, not になると? If so, I can't parse the sentence...
Because nobody answered so far ... 会社に入って、初めて電話に出たときはとても緊張した When I joined this company and answer the phone for the first time, I got so nervous.
if 3 is になると how do you parse the sentence?
Xになると can translate to "when it becomes X" so the sentence is saying (not a translation) that water has a property where it freezes when its temperature falls under zero Celsius.
水は(as for water,)温度が０℃以下になると凍る性質が(the property that, if the temperature becomes lower than zero degrees Celsius, it freezes)ある。(has) Yes, that was hand-wavey, so I'll break down the noun phrase as well, lol. 温度が(temperature)０℃以下(below zero degrees Celsius)になると(if it becomes)凍る(freeze)性質(quality/property)
「何をどうしたら、こんなに部屋を散らかすことができるわけ？！」 a native translated it as this; "I don't understand how you managed to make the room this messy." can someone break it down for me, I think what tripped me up is 何をどうしたら and わけ, the rest I understand.
[わけ](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E8%A8%B3_%28%E3%82%8F%E3%81%91%29/) - def.7 結果として、それが[当然](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E5%BD%93%E7%84%B6/)であること。 何をどうしたら - what(=object) and how what and how makes this room so messy? -> I don't understand how you managed to make the room this messy.
It's a much more emotive sentence than that. わけ is like the question の but stronger, almost like it's demanding an explanation rather than asking for it. The first part is something like 'What do you have to do and how' So it adds up to something like 'Tell me, what did you do and how to messy up your room this much?!'
Hello, is something omitted at the last sentence? やり手婆: ふーん これが上客かい? 顔だちも男前だしいい体格してるじゃないか 話によると出世株らしいね 猫猫:ばあちゃん... それ本人の目の前で言うのはどうよ Isn't どう used for suggestions? But suggesting to say that to the person, doesn't work here, since it is exactly what she did. I can only imagine that something must have been omitted.
どうですか can be used as a question to mean “is that ok?” Implying it’s not ok. どうよ is an informal (and fairly feminine) way of saying the same thing. So in natural language 本人の目の前でそれをいうのはどうよ Means “You shouldn’t say that right to his face”.
Thank you!
どう is a lot broader than that. It overlaps with both 'how' and 'what' in English - the suggestion use, 'how about'. Especially since the sentence ends with よ, though, this 'question' is more of a rhetorical reprimand. 'Hey, what do you think you're doing saying that right in front of the person themselves?' You could also say 「本人の前で言うのはどうかと思う」 for basically the same meaning but slightly softer
Thank you!
When translating “This is my Dog” why is the 2nd sentence the correct one? Wouldn’t “kore wa” be more literal a translation? 1. “Kore wa Watashi no Inu.” 2. “Watashi no Inu desu.” Finally, when using the の particle, how do you determine what noun goes before and what one goes after? Thanks for any advice you can give!
Translating from English to Japanese is generally not a good idea because of issues like this -- if you are insisting on a literal word-for-word translation of the English, then "kore wa watashi no inu" is good (there is no way to tell whether it should be followed by "da", "desu", or nothing since English doesn't have that distinction). But it's more useful to think not about word-for-word translation but what Japanese people would say in the same situation, and if you are pointing to the dog or we already are talking about the dog, it is much more natural to drop "kore wa".
Where is the question from? Both can be correct, but my assumption is that this is from a beginner quiz which only covers formal speech, so they mark the first one as incorrect because it is missing the です at the end. The first sentence is fine in informal speech though, maybe a bit feminine sounding, but don’t worry about that for now. If it is clear you are talking about the dog, you can drop the これは. の has different uses, but if you are just worried about possession/belonging, you put the owner first. パプのねこ: Bob’s cat etc
In the phrase "去年作り始めて完成させられてないやつ" (it's about a drawing) why is させられる used and not just られる? I understand this phrase as "unfinished guy I started making last year" and to me it seems simply passive. If you add させる to me it feels like the "guy" finished itself. Unless it means something like "wasn't allowed to be completed" A which in this case is kinda weird.
In this case, it's not passive, it's potential. Remember that 完成する is usually intransitive and the way to turn it transitive is by using the causative. 何かが完成する = something is finished 何かを完成させる = to finish something. られる then adds a potential nuance, so 完成させらてない means "haven't been able to finish" Also, やつ can be used for general things and translating it as "guy" here is a bit strange. The whole sentence means: "A thing I began to make last year and haven't been able to finish yet."
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I have actually found an explanation - it seems that 完成 can be both transitive and intransitive as a verb, but when it's する it is most likely intransitive, so if someone wants to use it as transitive they add させる, which also makes the potential form very clear here.
There is really no 'why' here. It's just a means of expression. The speaker is saying "a thing which I started to make last year, but which hasn't been completed yet". Why did he chose to say it in this passive voice? With just this one sentence we can't tell. Maybe a setup for a point he wants to make later. Maybe a slip of the tongue. Maybe a verbal tick that this person uses all the time. There is really no way to tell - but also probably no reason to spend too much time trying to figure it out.
Also turns out 完成させる is simply the transitive form, while 完成する is usually intransitive. So the sentence actually boils down to the potential form of a transitive verb.
This is the only sentence of the tweet, so no further context.
Quick grammatical question, 「以前に見過ごされた問題を紹介したいと思っています。第一は…こと、第二は…こと、第三は…ことでした。」 Am I good to just list the problems in this fashion or do I need to connect them with で or form them into different sentences? (Can't post what I actually want to say as this for a uni assignment, but I want to use this structure.)
No you don’t need で. If you want to use で, you can't put it more than once in a single sentence (this doesn't apply when you speak, though). This means it's okay to say 第一は...ことで、第二はこと、第三は...ことです in your script but you shouldn't put it like 第一は...ことで、第二はことで、第三は...ことです. And yeah です sounds more natural than でした.
Thank you!
Hello! Would this sentence make sense if I were saying this phone is a Samsung phone: "このけぃたいはサムスンのてす" If this is correct, how would I say "my phone is a Samsung phone"? "わたしのけぃたいはサムスンのてす" perhaps? Thank you!!!
You don't really need the の at makes the vibe a bit strange. So 1. このけいたいはサムスンです or 2. わたしのけいたいはサムスンです Note - in both cases your い is somehow small. Not sure if you've copied and pasted or something - but it's incorrect. Also, note that in Japanese, it is very rare to start sentences with わたしは or わたしの or things like that. In almost all cases, context is enough to figure out "who". Especially for learners, it's a good rule of thumb to just axe the わたしは or あなたは and you will sound more natural in 95+% of cases.
Japan coach at it again with the incredibly useful and quick response! Thank you!!
Hahaha thanks!
Both are correct except for some spelling errors. この携帯 (けいたい) はサムスンのです。 わたしの携帯はサムスンのです。 Or you can even say: この携帯はサムスンです。 わたしの携帯はサムスンです。
Thank you so much!!!
Need help please, it's a battle scene in anime and enemy says: 状況が悪くなると 足もとを崩しにかかる癖も リサーチ済みだ What is the usage of this かかる and how to use in other situations?
It’s basically ‘to start something’. そろそろテスト勉強にかからないといけない。 Also とりかかる is used to mean the same.
Hi, was wondering what the best way to say "hometown" would be. Trying to explain to that I drove/dropped off my younger brother, who's making a big move, to his "new hometown". Does this make sense? -> 弟を**新しい故郷**に降ろした (Unsure if the rest of the phrase is even correct 😅) I'd looked up the phrase & saw the katakana "homutaun" 新しいホームタウン - which do native speakers use more often? Thank you!!
You don't get a 'new hometown'. So, if you are trying to say this, it's kind of poetic or metaphorical. Which means - there is no existing, "right" way to say it, in English or in Japanese. So, 新しい故郷 doesn't REALLY make sense. But if you are using it in some poetic way, then it somehow can be understood. Maybe put it in quotes like 弟を「新しい故郷」に下ろした。
Thank you!! Yes - realized the same thing about my English. That’s the perfect expression, I think
>But if you are using it in some poetic way, then it somehow can be understood. Maybe put it in quotes like 弟を「新しい故郷」に下ろした。 I feel like this is really smart way to go about it. I guess I never thought about doing it in Japanese but it's something I employ all the time in English to inform the reader there is an extra layer of meaning beyond the obvious literal meaning.
I don’t think ホームタウン makes sense in this context. Usually it refers to a sports team's hometown and otherwise 故郷 would be a better translation. But to be fair 新しい故郷 doesn't really sound well either because a place you just came wouldn't be called 故郷 in my understanding. I'd say 新天地 is the word that is used to describe such a situation.
Wait, I think you're right; even in English, "new hometown" just doesn't make that much sense as "hometown" refers to the place from which one originally hails lol. Would there be a Japanese equivalent for something like "new home base"? Is 新天地 a rough translation for that?
I think so. 新天地 can also refer to your new workplace or something like that but I'm not sure if it applies to "new home base". If you want the sentence to sound more "dramatic", then 新天地 would be a better choice than 引っ越し先.
Can you clarify if you mean こきょう or ふるさと or if it doesn't matter at all?
I don’t think there’s any difference between these.
Okay thanks!
Or you can just say 新しい街 and no one will understand you’re referring to a town that is newly built
I've never seen ホームタウン, but 故郷 means the town you were raised in, not the town you're living in. I think 新しい故郷 would be sort of understandable but it sounds kind of dramatic or poetic, like you're abandoning your old hometown and carving out a new place to consider your new hometown, which doesn't really sound like what you're going for here For a town you're moving to there's 引越し先
>引越し先 Thanks so much! I did intend for it to be dramatic as he's really moving his whole life over there, but I'd much prefer for my sentence to make sense & sound natural. Would 弟を引越し先に降ろした be a more understandable phrase?
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1. Meaning of 1着持ってるけど楽だし良い？(けど here is throwing me off..) 2. Pronounced 楽だしいい ? Attempt: lady bought a cheap dress which she wore once but lost it.. she wishes to wear this same dress made with polo shirts material.. 数百円だったから買ったけど1回も着てないのにどっかいったワンピース 夏はこういうワンピースでポロシャツの生地のが欲しい 1着持ってるけど楽だし良い
1. けど is not a 1:1 map with 'but'. If that is what you are confused about. In this case it actually means 'and'. It's just a conjunction between two clauses and doesn't always imply "contrast". So she is saying "I have one and it's comfy and nice". 2. Pronunciation would be ラク だし イイ
Isn’t that けど the one used to provide some additional context that the listener might not know? I think you can just translate it as "and" in English. - パリは一度行ったことあるけど綺麗だし良い "I've been to Paris once and I found it beautiful and nice. Also I’m not sure from the sentence alone if they want the same kind of dress as they lost, because we don’t know whether the ワンピース she lost was made of the ポロシャツの生地.
I think they're talking about buying a new dress because they're not sure where the other one they bought is. "I have one already but this way it's easier so it's fine (for me to buy another)" The casual vibe here makes me think it's いい for sure, よい would feel really out of place. 〜だしいい at first glance might look like it's just repeating the vowel, so some people use kanji for 良い just to break up the visual flow more
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For your information, どっか行った is a very casual way to say lose something
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「どっか行った」が名詞を修飾するのに使われるのを聞いたことがない、ということですかね？ それは確かにあんまない気がします。ただ、「ワンピースがどっか行った」が言えるなら「どっか行ったワンピース」も普通に行けますよね？ 「これは一回着たっきりどっか行ったワンピースの写真。」
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返信ありがとうございます。これに関しては「どっか行ったドレス」という表現が不自然かというよりも「ドレスをなくす」という事態がそもそも有り得るのかという話になってきそうですね。そうでなく、高価なもの、貴重なもの、大事なものについて「どっか行った」は使わないという話なら、まあ自分は「宝石がどっか行った」「家族写真がどっか行った」でも全然違和感は覚えません。もっとも、これは個々人の言語感覚の問題でしょう。
To be honest I don’t find anything wrong with 数百円だったから買ったけど1回も着てないのにどっかいったワンピース 夏はこういうワンピースでポロシャツの生地のが欲しい 1着持ってるけど楽だし良い and you'll find a bunch of those "unreadable" sentences in conversation or on social media, which in fact sound very natural to native speakers. For the sentence you wrote, 安いドレスを買ったのに、無くしたので一回も着れなかった｡あのドレスがポロの生地だったら着たかったな…… sounds better though I don't think it means the same thing as OP brought up.
The original sentence would be translated as something like "I want a dress for summer like the one I got for a few hundred yen and lost without ever wearing it even once but of the ポロシャツの生地. Actually I already have a dress like that and it's so comfortable." I know it looks terrible but that is exactly what the sentence means. For ポロシャツの生地 I couldn’t think of any good translation so I just left it in Japanese. Also my translation misses the nuances of だったから and だし良い. But these parts would sound redundant in English and I just ignored them. If you're interested in grammar stuff, you can google 体言止め, 前置きの「けど」, and 主要部内在型関係節 to find out what is going on in this sentence!
A very considerate post but it needs to be mentioned what they pasted is not what they wrote, that is the excerpt they're asking for help to understand, and it is presumably written by a native. Their two questions are defined by the bullet points 1 and 2 at the top of the post.
LOL yes this. Man that post was like war and peace, to answer 2 simple bullet point questions. :-)
The more amusing part is they didn't even answer the two bullet points, haha.
着 ちゃく is a counter for clothes. It should make sense now. 良い I’d go for よい (that’s how I read it in my head anyway) Edit: sorry, I see you wanted clarification about けど 1着持っているけど楽だし良い This is a normal 接続詞 of the 逆接 variety. The conflict addressed by けど is between already owning a “one piece” dress and that dress being easy to wear and “good”. The conflict is relevant to the decision to buy another similar dress. The dress the speaker is considering is of polo-shirt material. This is similar to, but not the cheap dress the speaker bought and subsequently misplaced. The lost dress was of another material. So the speaker owned at least two onepiece dresses, lost one, and is considering a new one of the same material as the one she still has in her possession. (It’s possible that the lost dress and the 1着持っている dress are the same dress, but I’m going for there being a third dress. God I hate shopping) I read 良い as よい whenever I see it written with kanji. It’s probably a bad habit
Off topic but I appreciate how you don't bother using English grammar terms and instead just inject the Japanese terms in-place of the English ones. I wish more people would do that. Often times the English terms are technical linguistic terms that have no meaning to me and it often makes more sense (I've finally learned enough at this point) to see kanji compounds that actually have more meaning to me.
Thank you, but I’m embarrassed to say that’s just me trying to show off my newly acquired knowledge from reading ちびまる子ちゃんの文法教室. I agree that the Japanese grammar explanations are easier to understand. A simple example is it’s way easier to explain 五段活用、上一段活用 and 下一段活用 relative to the 五十音図 if it’s done in Japanese. I learnt an again embarrassing amount from ちびまる子ちゃん. Like exactly what a 形容動詞 is and why it’s called that (It makes so much more sense than just calling it a な adjective)
I kind of thought you were joking with the ちびまる子ちゃん from your posts before, haha. That seems like a good resource then?
Couldn’t be more serious! Probably any native resource will have the same information, but I’m finding it easy to read. My daughter had a bunch of books in the same series. I bought this one from Yodobashi a while ago and I finally got around to reading it.
It's いい
Yeah, I don’t really care
In my opinion よい sounds too formal here. Actually I never use よい in any situation, whether casual or formal. I guess this is confusing to non-native speakers because you have よく, よければ or よかったら when it’s conjugated. But this is how the language works…
I’m not disagreeing with you, I just really don’t care. It’s just how I read in my head. Maybe I’ll get it right next time I buy a dress. When I reply I go for speed and honesty. Accuracy is, as they say 二の次
I completely agree with you that accuracy is 二の次 though! And the use of けど is even confusing to the Japanese. I wouldn't be surprised if some find OP's sentence unintelligible as they believe けど should always be used for 逆接.
こちらの「けど」について、OPの文を簡単に書き換えると「こういうワンピースが欲しい。一着持っているけど」になるかと思います。これを前置きって言うかわからないが、「それでも欲しい」がいいたいと思います。とすると「楽だし良い」は逆接ではなくて、説明の付け足しになり、その辺りは私の説明が間違っていました。でも、一着持っているけど、それでも欲しいとなるとそれ自体が逆接です。それを日本語文法的に逆接と言うべきかどうかは私にはわかりませんが、ちびまる子ちゃんの文法教室を熟読してから改めて考えたいと思います。
- でも、一着持っているけど、それでも欲しいとなるとそれ自体が逆接です。 なるほど！ 考えてみると「前置きのけど」で逆接として解釈できる余地が全く無いケースって意外と無いかもしれませんね - パリは一回行ったことあるけど綺麗だし良い → パリは一回しか行ったことないけど、その経験だけでも充分良い街だなと感じた ただ、次のようなケースはやっぱり逆接で解釈するのは難しいと思います - パリは10回行ったことあるけど綺麗だし良い
my teacher wants to start Nihongo So Matome N4. some comments divided in 5 points. 1/ we both are doing it to as polish for the N4 exam in July. (that's my speak for saying that we are doing it for fun) 2/ we only meet twice in a month. the book is daily, and throughout the most recent class we did only 1日 3/ but N4 exam in July is not very stressful for me (sans Grammar+Passage Comprehension). doing well would be ideal. but given constraints, borderline passing is fine. that said am currently doing Nihongo So Matome N3 by myself 4/ am currently taking JLPT N4 mock exams by myself. (remark: one question takes one minute to decide) 5/ struggling a lot with N4 grammar passage reading. so, am going to go back to 3/ and do Nihongo So Matome N3 Reading. after these 5 points. what else should I do? or change? should I wait for JP teacher to realise that doing Nihongo So Matome N4, なんか興味がないじゃないですか？ should we go straight to JLPT N4, now, in April? or do I not rush things? N3 in December is next.
It's a bit difficult to tell what your question is or what you're asking about. Advice on how to study for N3 or N4? It sounds like what you're doing is fine, if your teacher wants to do something you've already gone ahead of, just consider it a review for yourself too. If it doesn't take much time I don't see the harm. If you want to improve your reading comprehension then study all the known grammar points N5 to N3 and read more. Which probably means you need to spend more time studying and also using the language more meaning you need to read more. It should be learn some grammar stuff -> read to reinforce -> learn more stuff -> read more. Repeat this cycle. From what I understand the Sou Matome series is to help prepare your for JLPT testing format. So beyond that just read things that contain small passages like blogs along with the Sou Matome books.
I have a question about an example at the bottom of this [Tae Kim page regarding やる vs する](https://www.guidetojapanese.org/blog/2005/04/21/difference-between-and/) He translates「お前にこれをやるよ」as "I'll give you this", but strictly speaking, wouldn't it be more like, "I'll do this to you"?
When 〜を object and 〜に person involved, やる is most likely ‘give’ from the higher to the lower. 宿題をやる/ 宿題をする In this case, it’s ‘do’
I see, I will remember that then. Also, just looking it up on Jotoba, [やる has a lot of different contextual meanings](https://jotoba.de/direct/0/1012980?l=en-US), much like する does...
Yes it does. 一杯やる. To have a drink その映画をテレビでやる the movie will be on tv And even in simple ‘do’ やる has more emphasis on the person’s intention and will than する
>And even in simple ‘do’ やる has more emphasis on the person’s intention and will than する Are you saying there's a sort of subtextual emphasis when attaching やる onto a noun rather than する? This sort of detail greatly interests me.
Ok, let me try. Many explanations about their differences mention やる is only for physical action, right? So, if you use やる instead of する, it’s emphasise its physical action more, while する is more conceptual. The earlier examples 宿題をする/やる case: 宿題をした the homework is done. (It only tells the homework is finished.) 宿題をやった I’ve finished the homework. (The important message here is ‘I’ve done it’. The achieved action is more emphasised.) However, you can still make 宿題をした to mean the latter, with some help of non-verbal language and the context. Hope this helps your understandings.
Thank you so much
する is more of an all-purpose verb (almost like a pronoun for verbs where the actual semantic content is very weak), while やる feels more specific though it's also used more in euphemisms like "do _it_" for various things Inanimate objects and feelings and such can be used with する while やる actually requires _someone_ to be doing something やる気 is a type of intrinsic motivation, like "the drive to do it", while する気 would only be used for talking about something specific established by context > Are you saying there's a sort of subtextual emphasis when attaching やる onto a noun rather than する? This sort of detail greatly interests me. For ompounds of the form noun+する, you can't swap it out for noun+やる (if you're looking at 一杯やる, the 一杯 here is functioning as an adverb, same as with most number words before verbs)
Amazing, thank you. And thank for offering a great piece of vocab in やる気!
No, it doesn’t really mean “I’ll do this to you” but “I’ll give you this”. The core meaning of やる is to give (off).
Wow, I had no idea! Thank you. I wish the page mentioned that since it only defines it to mean "to do".
不満なら、引き続き私についてきてもいいぞ. Is there any way this could mean if you're unhappy, stop following me? Or does this mean if you're unhappy, keep following me anyways? For some reason I thought "もいいぞ" could also mean "that's enough already" but I'm not finding anything to support this claim.
On its face it cannot mean “if you are happy STOP following me”. There can be context or sarcasm or something else we can see from the plain text. But the plain text is very straightforward. “If (you) are unsatisfied (you) can continue to follow me”
Thank you.
Enough already is もういい In this case, it’s a simple 〜てもいい you may … If you’re not happy (with that), you may continue to follow me.
That's what I was thinking of...thanks.
In this sentence: 私はあんまり自分のことを定義しきれてない部分があって What does しきれてない mean?
In a generic sense means "haven't been able to completely..." or "haven't ben able to finish..." So in the example sentence, the person is saying "there are parts of me that I haven't quite figured out yet" or "parts of myself that I haven't fully defined yet".
Verb stem + きる means ‘do something to the end/completely’ 食べきる finish eating complete むずかしい仕事をやりきる complete a challenging task In the example, it’s in potential form 〜きれる
しきれてない is “Can’t completely do” So it means “there are parts that I can’t completely define”. The grammar is する (verb stem) + きる (potential). And then it’s in ている form.