question dict | answers list | id stringlengths 1 6 | accepted_answer_id stringlengths 2 6 ⌀ | popular_answer_id stringlengths 1 6 ⌀ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
{
"accepted_answer_id": null,
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "While learning Japanese I'd like to watch some Japanese television, whether it\nis children's programming, drama, or news.\n\nI've found a few places online that allowed me to stream snippets, but nowhere\nto watch full shows. Is there a service similar to... | [
{
"body": "<http://tvfromjapan.blog.fc2.com/blog-category-21.html>\n\n<http://wwitv.com/television/106.htm>\n\n<http://multilingualbooks.com/online-tv-japanese.html>\n\n<http://beelinetv.com/>\n\n[http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/?play_vc24&all](http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/?play_vc24&all)\n\n<http://www.ustream.tv/tec... | 1 | null | 2 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "11",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "I came across a Japanese girl in Germany who talked using words like あたし\ninstead of わたし, or ちっちゃい instead of ちいさい. When I asked her, she said that\nthese words or usages of words are more common in Japan.\n\n * Is this true?\n * How does the majority of... | [
{
"body": "Yes, they're common, but those words in particular are very casual and あたし is\nonly used by girls. Many women will not use it since it's so effeminate, but\nit's not uncommon.",
"comment_count": 2,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-05-31T18:58:37.357",
"id": "6... | 3 | 11 | 11 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": null,
"answer_count": 9,
"body": "When a person is learning は and が in terms of particles, what are the best way\nto relate them to English equivalents?\n\nThe closest I can come to explaining them to others is \"the\" and \"a\" but I'm\nnot sure if there's a better way to explain them.\n\... | [
{
"body": "The problem is that as you learn more about particles you will come to realize\nthat not all of them have simple equivalents in other languages. Some express\ndifferent ideas based on what they are attached to (e.g. 電車で (\"by train\"), 鉛筆で\n(\"with a pencil\")), and others would require modifying the... | 7 | null | 342 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": null,
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "I often run into kanji that I don't recognize and need some way to translate\nthem into kana, so that I'm able to look up the meaning.\n\nWhat's the most useful utility (in any form, web-based, application, iPhone\nprogram, etc) for performing this task? S... | [
{
"body": "There are dozens of methods and approaches. Some you might have heard of are\n\"Bushu radical decomposition\", \"SKIP\", stroke-reading (as you directly copy\nthe kanji).\n\n<http://jisho.org/kanji/radicals/> is a pretty handy method if you're decent\nat decomposing kanji into radicals.",
"commen... | 8 | null | 13 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "263",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "I am a native Japanese speaker with a casual interest in languages. I\nsometimes have trouble explaining the Japanese grammar in English because I do\nnot know the established English translation of some technical terms in the\nJapanese grammar such as _j... | [
{
"body": "Sounds like you are looking for a technical dictionary (i.e. [Japanese -\nEnglish Dictionary of Technical\nTerms](http://www.kanji.org/cjk/samples/japterm.htm)) which is more or less\nthe Japanese term followed by the English term and the reading. These tend to\nbe very specialized and domain specifi... | 9 | 263 | 263 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": null,
"answer_count": 1,
"body": "Japanese uses both native and Chinese numbering numbering systems, the Sino-\nJapanese pronunciations being いち, に, さん, etc. and the native being ひと, ふた, み,\netc. For the most part they are used for different things. However, numbers\npast 10 generally alwa... | [
{
"body": "八百長 (やおちょう) is one word, if you extract first two \"八百\", it will become \"はっぴゃく\"\n(meaning - 800) there is no relation between those two.\n\nRegarding the word \"八百長\" timeline,\n[Wikipedia](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%AB%E7%99%BE%E9%95%B7), and\nGogen guide, it started to be used in the Me... | 19 | null | 162 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "51",
"answer_count": 5,
"body": "When is it correct to use は but not が, and when is it correct to use が but not\nは? Are there any times when you can use either without changing the meaning of\nthe sentence? How does switching change the meaning of a sentence?",
"comment_count": 4,
"co... | [
{
"body": "は and が are a bit complex because they have several meanings, and some of the\nshades of meaning of wa and ga are a bit hard to distinguish casually.\n\nThe best coverage of this that I have read is [\"The Structure of the Japanese\nLanguage\"](https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/0262110490... | 22 | 51 | 51 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "28",
"answer_count": 1,
"body": "When looking at the hiragana ぬ ( _nu_ ), ね ( _ne_ ), and る ( _ru_ ) one\nnotices a small circle in the symbols. In fact that circle is the only\ndifference when comparing them with the hiragana め ( _me_ ), れ ( _re_ ) and ろ\n( _ro_ ).\n\nIn the history of h... | [
{
"body": "They all originate from the cursive versions of kanji with the same/similar\npronunciation as the hiragana. Here's a picture [from\nWikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana#History) to illustrate:\n\n\n\nTo answer your question - t... | 23 | 28 | 28 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": null,
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "What are the essential Japanese counter words?\n\nFor example -dai for machines, -mai for papers and stuff like that.\n\n * What else to expect/know? \n\nThank you",
"comment_count": 3,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-05-31... | [
{
"body": "The [article at Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_counter_word)\ncovers the common ones as well as a decent number of extended ones, and lists\nthe exceptions for days, people, etc. as well as rendaku and number word\nchanges (e.g. 300->san*bya*ku, 4:00-> *yo*ji).",
"comment_count"... | 24 | null | 26 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "35",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "As per the title, what should I look for in a dictionary to help me study\nJapanese? Are there certain things that I should look for in the dictionary or\nare they all pretty much the same?\n\nTo elaborate a bit, what should one be looking for when they ar... | [
{
"body": "There are a couple things to keep in mind when looking for a dictionary:\n\n 1. **How easy is it to find what I am looking for?** A given dictionary might prove to cover every single word in the Japanese language, but if you can't find what you are looking for then you will think it is just a waste ... | 25 | 35 | 35 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "39",
"answer_count": 6,
"body": "I saw a sentence like:\n\n> 「それ使{つか}ってる **っ** す。」\n\nand none of my dictionaries have an entry for just \"っす\". Is it a verb form,\ngobi, or something else?",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
"creation_date": "2011-05-31T19:36:3... | [
{
"body": "It's a contraction of です. It's not quite as polite as that though - it's\nalways sounded a bit like \"thinking that one needs to be polite but not\nbothering to do it properly\" to me. I guess it comes somewhere between\nteineigo-level polite and casual in the politeness spectrum.",
"comment_coun... | 36 | 39 | 39 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "48",
"answer_count": 1,
"body": "I'm trying to understand why 先 is not the best choice to use in these\nsentences. Is it wrong to use it in this way?\n\n× 先、学校で何かが起こった。 \n○ 以前、学校で何かが起こった。\n\n× 先の書いた本から十年間が過ぎました。 \n○ 前に書いた本から十年間が過ぎました。",
"comment_count": 5,
"content_license": "CC BY-... | [
{
"body": "I'm going to assume you mean 先 as in さっき. It's usually written in hiragana to\navoid confusion.\n\nI think the first sentences are just fine. The × one sounds like spoken\nlanguage and ○ one sounds more like written language.\n\nIn the second × sentence, though, さっき would not work because it's used f... | 44 | 48 | 48 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "159",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "There are loads of words in Japanese which end in 込{こ}む, like 吸{す}い込む,\n読{よ}み込む, 入{はい}り込む, 打{う}ち込む, 売{う}り込む, 送{おく}り込む, 押{お}し込む. How does adding ～込む\nchange the meaning? What is the meaning that links all these words?",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_lic... | [
{
"body": "Usually it means to do something more thoroughly, completely, or intensely.\n\nSometimes it can also be like adding \"into\" after the verb: 押す, \"to push\"\nbecomes 押し込む, \"to push into.\"",
"comment_count": 2,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-05-31T20:04:46.487"... | 45 | 159 | 159 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "59",
"answer_count": 7,
"body": "I've heard some names pronounced with 〜さん added to them (such as 佐々木さん) and\nsome without it. I believe it is related to respect or the age of the person\nnamed. What would be the guidelines or general principles to follow regarding\n〜さん?",
"comment_coun... | [
{
"body": "I would only use a persons name _without_ suffixing さん if I knew them very\nwell and they were at the same social standing (in whatever given context) as\nme.\n\nIn fact, scratch that, it would feel wierd not using -さん in any given\nsituation unless it was referring to family.",
"comment_count": ... | 49 | 59 | 59 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "3157",
"answer_count": 5,
"body": "Looking at [this](http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/verbparticles),\nit seems that when the word 何 is used with the で particle, it roughly\ntranslates into \"by means of what\" or \"in what context.\" Personally, that\nsounds like asking \"how... | [
{
"body": "Short answer is yes, 何で can mean 'how' as in 'How did you become a doctor?'.\nIt does however also mean 'Why did you become a doctor?' so it's a little\nambiguous.\n\nTo avoid that confusion you can use 「どうやって」 instead i.e.\n\nどうやってお医者さんになりましたか？\n\nHope this helps.",
"comment_count": 2,
"cont... | 50 | 3157 | 56 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "105",
"answer_count": 8,
"body": "I have progressed pretty far in Japanese, but when I construct Japanese\nsentences, I still get these two particles mixed up. For example, when talking\nabout being inside something, I don't know when to use \"の中に\" and when to use\n\"の中で.\" Likewise, whe... | [
{
"body": "They are pretty similar, but で usually indicates that an action took place at\nthat location. So you use に when you're talking about _being_ inside or next\nto something, etc. and で when you talk about _doing something_ inside or next\nto something.\n\n**Edited to add** : 部屋の中で泣いている is correct, becau... | 60 | 105 | 105 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "67",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "Studying Japanese on my own, I've learned that in order to make a question,\nyou usually add the particle \"~か\", like this:\n\n> 今何時ですか。\n\nIt's also true that a question can be asked without it, using the rising tone\nof voice.\n\nBut then I found out th... | [
{
"body": "You may want to look\n[here](http://jaerik.tatersalad.org/japanese/Particles/particlesexplained.html)\nand [here](http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/question).\n\nOutside of polite language, か should be used with care. Generally, it has a\nvery masculine and rough sounding atmosphere. Gener... | 64 | 67 | 73 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "69",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "二十歳 is a (to me) bizarre exception to the usual number+さい rule for discussing\nage. Is this rooted in 20 being the Japanese age of majority?\n\n_Added:_ To be more specific: why _isn't_ it pronounced にじゅうさい like the rest\nof the さい words for age?",
"comm... | [
{
"body": "The はた there is part of the same series of Japanese readings for numbers as\nひとつ、ふたつ、みっつ and so on. Where the ち comes from - that I do not know. It also\nmakes an appearance in some other common words, such as 二十日（はつか）, although in\na slightly mangled form.\n\nThere are readings for the tens after th... | 65 | 69 | 69 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "72",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "Stolen _directly_ from Grigory M's question in the definition phase:\n\n<http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/7526?phase=definition>",
"comment_count": 1,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-05-31T21:05:18.160",
"favorite... | [
{
"body": "They both mean \"to fix\"/\"to repair\"/\"to correct\", but\n[治す](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E6%B2%BB%E3%81%99&stype=0&dtype=3) is\nused in the sense of \"to heal or cure\" (\"to fix a disease\").\n\"[直す](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E7%9B%B4%E3%81%99&stype=0&dtype=3)\" is\nused for fixin... | 70 | 72 | 72 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "79",
"answer_count": 6,
"body": "I've always had trouble choosing which first person pronoun to use - 私\n(watashi), 僕 (boku), or 俺 (おれ). What kind of factors should I keep in mind\nwhen choosing between these? Is it common to vary one's choice by the social\ncontext, or do people tend to ... | [
{
"body": "First off, if it's obvious from context that you're the subject of the\nsentence, then you do not need to say \"I\". If you need to use a pronoun, these\nare your most likely choices:\n\n * 私（わたし）- canonical, formal form. This should be your default.\n * 私（あたし）- same as わたし, but feminine (women can... | 74 | 79 | 79 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "84",
"answer_count": 8,
"body": "Can you use へ and に interchangeably, as in:\n\n> 北海道 **へ** 行く\n\nand\n\n> 北海道 **に** 行く ?\n\nAre there any subtle differences in the use of these two?",
"comment_count": 1,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
"creation_date": "2011-05-31T21:46:23.797",... | [
{
"body": "There is a very subtle difference between the two--with に, the destination is\nmore important; with へ, the journey is more important. You might use に if you\nwant to say you're going \" _to_ the store\" and へ if you want to say you're\ngoing \" _in the direction of_ the store [and ending up there].\"... | 80 | 84 | 84 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "96",
"answer_count": 1,
"body": "Whenever I communicate with my Japanese coworkers, I always finish my emails\nwith どうぞよろしくお願いします。I guess in the context of an email in English it could be\nakin to saying \"Cheers\" \"Regards\", so I unless I write どうぞよろしくお願いします, I will\nbe worrying that I... | [
{
"body": "Your question is \"is there a scenario when finishing with [] would be\nconsidered out of place or context?\".\n\nAs you noted, 宜しくお願い is similar to \"Cheers\" or \"Regards\", but the main\ndifference is that neither of the latter are calls to action, whereas the\nformer has more of a feeling of aski... | 83 | 96 | 96 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "95",
"answer_count": 3,
"body": "When on business in Japan last year, a Japanese colleague said よろしくおねがいします to\nme as the group were leaving after dinner.\n\nI'm aware of its usage in initial greetings, as is usually taught in\ntextbooks, but what is its English meaning in this context?",... | [
{
"body": "Very roughly it translates I believe to 'treat me well please' but without the\nnuance those words carry in English.\n\nI think in the context you're describing it conveyed a feeling of wanting to\ncontinue a good (working!) relationship in the future.",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license":... | 87 | 95 | 95 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "109",
"answer_count": 1,
"body": "Sometime in the early 20th century, usage of the now-historical kana ゐ and ゑ\n(and their katakana equivalents) dropped off, being replaced with い and え in\nmodern Japanese. What exactly happened here and why?",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "... | [
{
"body": "Because the pronunciation was lost. \"Wi\" and \"we\" are still in some dialects,\nbut standard Japanese does not have those sounds. These characters were just\nspelling. Similarly in English, we pronounce \"through\" as \"thru\" because the\n\"gh\" sound is long gone and \"thru\" is now a common var... | 88 | 109 | 109 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "113",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "The verb わかる can be written using either 分かる, 判る, or 解る - what's the semantic\ndifference between these forms, if any?",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-05-31T22:23:21.390",
"favorite_count": 0,
"id"... | [
{
"body": "The answer lies in the kanji. This data is from EDICT/Jim Breen's kanji\nlookup:\n\n * 分: \"...understand; know...\"\n * 解: \"unravel...explanation; understanding; untie; undo; solve; answer...explain...\"\n * 判: \"judgement; signature; stamp; seal\"\n\n分かる is clearly the most common - just to kno... | 89 | 113 | 113 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "748",
"answer_count": 3,
"body": "I've heard this used (also as 寝ぼけんじゃねぇよ！) in informal situations with nothing\nbut smiles all around. But when I tried to use it in an informal situation\nwith a colleague, I got the distinct feeling I'd just insulted him. I know\nit's tough (for me, at l... | [
{
"body": "This phrase is definitely too informal for using with a colleague at work, for\nthree reasons:\n\n 1. It makes the assumption that the listener's mind is fuzzy from drowsiness, which (unless this detail is offered by the listener) is kind of a rude thing to assume.\n\n 2. It uses a strong negative ... | 94 | 748 | 106 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "99",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "I was told a story where a male westerner learnt Japanese from his girlfriend\nand ended up speaking more like a female. The storyteller thought this was\nhilarious.\n\nWhat important differences should I look for between male and female speech?",
"comme... | [
{
"body": "It's not so much pronunciation as it is word selection. This includes things\nsuch as あたし vs. 僕, かしら vs. かな, わ vs. よ, and so on.",
"comment_count": 3,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-05-31T22:51:16.510",
"id": "98",
"last_activity_date": "2011-05-31T22:51... | 97 | 99 | 99 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "125",
"answer_count": 3,
"body": "Are there web sites that transliterate Japanese text (katakana, hiragana and\nkanji) into romaji characters without translating the words into the English\nlanguage?\n\n(Note to moderators: I'm merely asking a yes/no question, not asking what\nsomeone's f... | [
{
"body": "I don't know of a website that does this, but I do know of software that does\nit. A Japanese guy in the early 2000s created something called \"kana2rom\". It\nhad been long neglected.\n\nMy coworker rescued it, transformed it slightly, and it is now a [Ruby open\nsource project on GitHub](https://gi... | 101 | 125 | 103 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "111",
"answer_count": 7,
"body": "Is it a nuance difference? Is it formality?\n\n**EDIT**\n\nFor example:\n\n> 請求書のお支払いは現金のみとなりますので、ご了承くださいませ。\n>\n> 請求書のお支払いは現金のみになりますので、ご了承くださいませ。\n\nI just made that example up, but for some reason, my gut tells me it's the\nfirst one, even though I don'... | [
{
"body": "Pretty finely nuanced, I'd say. と is a quotative particle, but is also used to\ndescribed the manner in which something is done, often figurative. ～となる can be\nused to mean \"become like a ~\" while ～になる is literally \"become a ~\".",
"comment_count": 5,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
... | 108 | 111 | 739 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "116",
"answer_count": 5,
"body": "I've noticed that there seems to be different usage for 下さい and ください. Is this\npurely a personal preferences or is there an actual difference their usage?\n\nThis was actually a question the Japanese people at my work had a discussion\nabout, but couldn't... | [
{
"body": "Almost purely personal preference. Also, more Chinese characters gives a more\nformal feeling to a document. This has been compared to the way we use\nLatin/Greek for formal (\"salutations\") and Anglo-Saxon for less formal\n(\"hello\"). This is easier to see when sino-Japanese words are over native\... | 110 | 116 | 116 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "122",
"answer_count": 5,
"body": "I have heard that Japanese has the largest number of words of any language\nbecause every Chinese word can also be a Japanese word. Is there any truth to\nthis statement?",
"comment_count": 8,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "201... | [
{
"body": "The _Chinese_ calligraphy came to Japan approximately 1,500~2,000 years ago,\nso I'd argue that that statement goes the other way: Chinese people can read\nmany Japanese words and grasp quickly what they mean.\n\nChinese, on the other hand, uses many, many kanji that are not found in\nJapanese's ~2,0... | 114 | 122 | 122 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "133",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "Are there cases where gairaigo used in every day speech (`パン`, `アイスクリーム`,\netc...) have been ousted by native Japanese words?",
"comment_count": 2,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-05-31T23:44:29.440",
"favorite_count": 0,... | [
{
"body": "Not all of them have one, but looks like \"アイスクリーム\" have this \"氷菓子\", but not\ncommonly used, so answer is No. They havn't ousted by native Japanese words.",
"comment_count": 2,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-05-31T23:50:19.870",
"id": "121",
"last_act... | 118 | 133 | 133 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "139",
"answer_count": 5,
"body": "At work, it is wrong to simply say 分かる to say that you understand something.\nIn what situation should I opt to use one of the previously mentioned forms?",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T00:03:50... | [
{
"body": "かしこまる／承知する are used mostly for answering requests from superiours (bosses,\nclients, etc.). Like, \"Yes, I understand what you're asking me to do (and I'll\ndo it).\" 分かる just implies you mentally understand.\n\n了解 is not formal as far as I know, and I hear it quite often. I learned it to\nmean almos... | 129 | 139 | 139 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "137",
"answer_count": 5,
"body": "There are a number of verbs where there is a 〜xasu → xaseru transformation to\nproduce an transitive verb from an intransitive, eg:\n\n * 死なす→死なせる\n * 生かす→生かせる\n * 飲ます→飲ませる\n\nIs this some kind of generalized rule? (perhaps a classical conjugation?) Or... | [
{
"body": "There is another base form before ~asu, and yes, there is rules for that.\n\n```\n\n - 死ぬ (die) ⇒ 死なす (let ~ die) \n ⇒ 死なせる (make ~ die)\n - 生きる (live) ⇒ 生かす (let ~ live) \n ⇒ 生かせる (make ~ live)\n - 飲みます(drink) ⇒ 飲ます (let ~ drink) \n ... | 130 | 137 | 238 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "136",
"answer_count": 6,
"body": "I've seen both こんばんわ and こんばんは used; which is correct here? If we interpret\nthe は as the topic particle, は would seem correct, but it seems that わ is used\nquite frequently anyway...",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creatio... | [
{
"body": "こんばんは is correct. The former is mostly a stylistic/emphatic usage.",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T00:11:22.743",
"id": "135",
"last_activity_date": "2011-06-01T00:11:22.743",
"last_edit_date": null,
"last_editor_user_i... | 131 | 136 | 135 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "146",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "If you follow any Japanese speakers on Twitter, you'll almost certainly see\nthem use [なう](https://twitter.com/#search?q=%E3%81%AA%E3%81%86) at the end of\na sentence, to say \"I am in this place/doing this thing **now** \". Where does\nthis use come from... | [
{
"body": "Twitter came from the US, so I'd argue that original Japanese twitter-ers\npicked it up from the English feeds that they followed. Additionally, \"now\" is\ncommon enough of a word that most Japanese know it in English, even if they\ndon't speak English fully, so I reckon it just caught on like that.... | 140 | 146 | 146 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "145",
"answer_count": 5,
"body": "You see a lot of w and ww and even www in Twitter and casual chat. What does\nit mean? I've always thought it was わいわい but never found out. How is it\npronounced?\n\nHere's an example from\n[Twitter](https://twitter.com/ayav_v/status/75719460031430656)\n\... | [
{
"body": "www is Internet slang like lol in Japanese. It stands for warai (笑い), often\nused on online message boards\n\n笑 is like www, it's another internet slang, like lol in Japanese. You will\nalso see people adding 笑 at the end of sentences on the Internet just like the\nexample you gave.",
"comment_co... | 143 | 145 | 145 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "153",
"answer_count": 3,
"body": "Recently I came across this sentence in a computing-related technical\ndocument:\n\n> some software と連携させ、 some feature のカスタマイズを作成します。\n\nI get the meaning (after having integrated some product, we will customize\nsome feature), but my question is:\n\nIn ... | [
{
"body": "Just する. 連携する -> 連携させ is correct, 刺す has separate meaning.",
"comment_count": 1,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T00:41:30.200",
"id": "152",
"last_activity_date": "2011-06-01T00:41:30.200",
"last_edit_date": null,
"last_editor_user_id": null... | 151 | 153 | 153 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": null,
"answer_count": 3,
"body": "かしら is generally considered to be a question particle for use by females; are\nthere any situations or dialects in which it is usable by males? I'm aware\nthat historically, it was used by both male and female speakers; I'm mostly\nconcerned about modern u... | [
{
"body": "Well, you are always free to use かしら, whether if people think if you are a\nweird is a different matter.\n\nIt's not as much as being inappropriate(in a social sense) as to sounding\nweird.\n\nLinguistically it's usually used by female speakers and male speakers who are\ncross-dressers/gay as far as ... | 164 | null | 744 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "193",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "「神{かみ}のみぞ知{し}るセカイ」 is the title of a manga/anime series but I'm not asking\nabout the anime. I'm just curious about the 「ぞ」 part in the title.\n\nI know there is a ぞ particle that is similar to よ, such that 行{い}くぞ is similar\nto 行くよ. But I have never enco... | [
{
"body": "It's an emphatic particle from old Japanese. _Only_ God/Gods. There's another\none used with questions to show more uncertainty. \"どこぞで休んでいくか\" (デジタル大辞泉)",
"comment_count": 3,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T01:37:23.057",
"id": "182",
"last_activit... | 170 | 193 | 182 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "179",
"answer_count": 6,
"body": "I know the following two sentences give implication that \"not expecting me to\nunderstand (it)\" but I have a feeling that they give different nuances that I\njust can't put my finger on:\n\n> それは分{わ}かる **わけがない** でしょう。 _sore wa wakaru **wake ga nai** des... | [
{
"body": "I believe the difference emphasis.\n\nそれは分かるわけがないでしょう。 sore ha wakaru wake ga nai deshou. - I'd read this as\nわかりようがない\n\nそれは分かるはずがないでしょう。 sore ha wakaru hazu ga nai deshou. - and this as he doesn't\nhave a chance to understand this. This is the stronger of the two.",
"comment_count": 4,
"con... | 171 | 179 | 179 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "192",
"answer_count": 1,
"body": "`ご[馳走様]{ちそうさま}でした` is the greeting that people say after being offered a meal\nwhile `ご馳走` by itself means “a feast”.\n\nI looked up this word in the dictionary to learn more about the kanji\ncharacters. It turned out that both `馳` and `走` have the meanin... | [
{
"body": "The original meaning is not a feast. 馳走 means to prepare food and treat\nguests, and also to run around doing a bunch of stuff. ご馳走 means that someone\nhas worked hard and treated their guests well.",
"comment_count": 2,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T01:4... | 172 | 192 | 192 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "187",
"answer_count": 3,
"body": "I recently came across the expression `前提に`:\n\n>\n> feature1はfeature2と同じく各コンテンツに分類用の識別子を埋め込む機能ですが、統制を重視したユースケースを前提に設計されているため柔軟さに欠けます。 \n> 'feature1, just like feature2, is a way to embed classification into\n> content, but it is designed for rigidity-f... | [
{
"body": "前提 has a meaning of on the assumption that, or on the premise of.\n\nIn your case its meaning is closer to\n\n> it is designed under the assumption of rigid focused use cases.\n\nor\n\n> Designed with rigid focused use cases in mind.\n\nAnother example from a site for something completely different:\... | 175 | 187 | 187 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "191",
"answer_count": 6,
"body": "I'm a beginner and am learning from CD (Pimsleur). There are two native\nspeakers going through the dialogue. One, the man, pronounces が as I would\nexpect - 'ga'. The other (female) pronounces it as 'nga'.\n\nHow common is the latter? Which should I used... | [
{
"body": "\"Ga\" and \"Nga\" are same in Japanese, just a personal difference. Some used to\nsay that old Japanese people used \"Nga\" more frequently than \"Ga\"",
"comment_count": 5,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T01:44:12.947",
"id": "191",
"last_activity... | 177 | 191 | 11832 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "234",
"answer_count": 6,
"body": "I have been hearing **死ねばいいのに** twice last week, including once in a context\nwhere a bit of formality was required.\n\nWhat does it mean? Is it as violent as it sounds to me?\n\nI am not looking for a word-by-word translation. I think it has to be taken ... | [
{
"body": "ばいいのに is used when you express regret that something isn't a certain way.\n\"Man, it'd be great if you died/gosh, why aren't you dead?/I wish I were dead\"\n(depending on the subject).",
"comment_count": 2,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T01:39:27.157",
... | 181 | 234 | 234 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "202",
"answer_count": 6,
"body": "Some song lyrics in the official lyric book that accompanies the CD is sung as\nanother word. Usually, the way it is sung is given as a furigana on the kanji:\n\n> Written: 君が希望に変わってゆく \n> ![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wjP7X.... | [
{
"body": "Songs are poetry; poets work hard to get _exactly_ the feeling they want from\nthe reader/hearer. Since kanji have semantic values to them, with readings\nthat fluctuate anyway, this happens pretty often. I guess here it gives the\nfeeling of a dream which is a hope, not just a vision seen while slee... | 198 | 202 | 202 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "216",
"answer_count": 3,
"body": "Why are the stroke orders for 右 and 左 different?\n\n右 starts with the vertical stroke, and 左 starts with the horizontal one.",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T02:20:31.227",
"favorite_count": 0,
... | [
{
"body": "Left side of those two words are different originally\n\n\n\n\n\nThere is some meaning that shorter stroke mean 手のひら \"Palm\", longer one is 腕\n\"arm\".\n\nNormally,... | 204 | 216 | 216 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "213",
"answer_count": 7,
"body": "In English it seems that cold is just always cold just as warm and hot\nregardless of whether the word describes a person's experience or the actual\nphysical state of an object. In Japanese however there seems to be a strange\ncase where when describing ... | [
{
"body": "\"寒い\" is typically used to describe weather, \"冷たい\" is used to describe a cold\nphysical object.",
"comment_count": 2,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T02:30:31.290",
"id": "208",
"last_activity_date": "2012-01-02T09:51:52.483",
"last_edit_date... | 207 | 213 | 213 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": null,
"answer_count": 6,
"body": "最近、漫画好きな外国人が増えたので、日本のアニメや漫画で日本語を勉強する外国人も多くなっています。アニメの日本語が日常の会話であまり使わないので、アニメで日本語を勉強することで日本語をちゃんと学べると思いますか。\n\n(Many foreigners have been learning Japanese through manga and anime due to\nits popularity outside of Japan. Due to the fact that many phrases in... | [
{
"body": "While i agree with you that there is a lot of Japanese from anime that can't\nbe used in daily conversation, it can still be a valuable learning tool in ear\ntraining, pronunciation, culture acquisition and vocabulary acquisition. And\nknowing the culture goes along way towards learning how the langu... | 215 | null | 218 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "225",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "Last week I saw the word 閾値 and when looking it up in Gjiten I see two\npronunciations, both marked as \"popular\":\n\n * 閾値 (いきち) (n) threshold (amount, dose, etc.); (P); \n * 閾値 (しきいち) (n) threshold (amount, dose, etc.); (P); \n\nWhich one should I us... | [
{
"body": "I can't say I really know, but the koujien definition for しきいち just refers to\nthe いきち entry, so perhaps the latter is more common or correct?",
"comment_count": 1,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T03:04:19.367",
"id": "223",
"last_activity_date": "2... | 217 | 225 | 225 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "229",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "A slight expansion of the existing thread [What is the difference between\n「はずがない」 and 「わけがない」?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/171/what-\nis-the-difference-between-hazu-and-wake), but what is the difference or use\ncases for when to use はずが... | [
{
"body": "One differnt with しょうがない than others is\n\n * You can use しょうがない alone, which means \"there is no way\", but はず、and わけ need a phrase before those.",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T03:08:35.263",
"id": "226",
"last_activity_date... | 222 | 229 | 229 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "237",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "I always get this two whenever I make a mistake. I think that more or less\nthey are similar but kind of have the feeling that 突っ込まれる has a bit stronger\nmeaning than 指摘される, is this correct?\n\nFor example,\n\n```\n\n He pointed out my mistakes (rough... | [
{
"body": "指摘される looks more formal usage to me, like you got 指摘された by your manager, but\n突っ込まれる is more frank, like your college に突っ込まれる because you did something not\ncorrect.",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T03:27:38.703",
"id": "232",
"... | 230 | 237 | 237 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "245",
"answer_count": 7,
"body": "-ず and -ぬ are two alternatives to the negative form -ない / -ません. But I noticed that depending on the word, it's either -ず or -ぬ, although it seems like some words can take both suffixes. Some examples I have encountered:\n\n# -ず\n\n知らず (lyric in song \"タッチ... | [
{
"body": "This is an excellent question. I always think of this and don't know why I\ndidn't think to post it.\n\nAnyway, **-zu** seems to usually be an adverbial, connective form (often as\n**-zu** or **-zu ni** ), whereas **-nu** seems to be a modifier.\n\n> * 誰も知らずに家に入った - I entered the house without anyo... | 235 | 245 | 245 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "246",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "If you visit ニコニコ動画 or any Japanese message boards often you are bound to see\ncomments like ニコ厨 or 東方厨. Does anyone have good idea how did this originate\nand what do they mean?",
"comment_count": 3,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_dat... | [
{
"body": "The [dictionary](http://www.eudict.com/?word=%E5%8E%A8&go=Search&lang=jpkeng)\nsays:\n\n> someone who makes childish posts (on a BBS, etc.) 厨 [ちゅう]\n\nAlso:\n[dic.nicovideo.jp/a/ニコ厨](http://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E3%83%8B%E3%82%B3%E5%8E%A8)\nhas a detailed definition.",
"comment_count": 1,
"cont... | 239 | 246 | 246 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "251",
"answer_count": 7,
"body": "How do you get through this? Especially in regards to reading. How do you\npractice reading at beyond the beginner level (No little black sambo's or\nwhatever other children's books like I found in the local free bin when I was\na teenager) when a light n... | [
{
"body": "I've written down and practiced with flash cards alike programs for several\nhundred/thousands times for ~2000 kanjis when I was intermediate level at that\ntime.\n\nEdit: My method may be different with other does somehow. My aim was not to\ntranslate to another language to understand Japanese, but ... | 241 | 251 | 251 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "255",
"answer_count": 3,
"body": "There is a clause pattern 「XければXほどY」. For example, 「近【ちか】ければ近【ちか】いほど便【べん】利【り】」\nwhich means something like \"the nearer it is, the more convenient it will be\".\nCan I shorten the clause to 「近【ちか】いほど便【べん】利【り】」? Will it have the same\nmeaning?\n\nBut I hav... | [
{
"body": "Yes, you can shorten it and it will have the same meaning.",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T05:31:28.780",
"id": "250",
"last_activity_date": "2011-06-01T05:31:28.780",
"last_edit_date": null,
"last_editor_user_id": null... | 243 | 255 | 255 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "249",
"answer_count": 1,
"body": "What is the difference between the \"わ\" sentence ender used by women in general\nand the one that is used by both Males and females in the Kansai area?\n\nI've asked my Japanese co-workers about it specifically and they said that\nthere is a difference t... | [
{
"body": "One is feminine and the other is just very emphatic. Both are particles so\nboth can be used in the same context. The wa used by males is likely to be\nused with less formal language, but only because of the common language of its\nusers, not any grammatical constraint.",
"comment_count": 3,
... | 244 | 249 | 249 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "259",
"answer_count": 1,
"body": "My teacher who practices haiku told me that in haiku they still use the\n[traditional names for\nmonths](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_calendar#Common_names). I was\nwondering which other words are still used in haiku.",
"comment_count": 0,
"c... | [
{
"body": "Similar one would be [Kigo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kigo) (season names)\n\n * Kigo list - [http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/季語一覧](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AD%A3%E8%AA%9E%E4%B8%80%E8%A6%A7)\n\n * Kigo collections - <http://www.geocities.jp/tokihikok/masaji/haiku/kigo/>",
"comment_count... | 258 | 259 | 259 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "308",
"answer_count": 3,
"body": "I have been taught that they are used when receiving something (or a favor)\nfrom someone. But how exactly do they differ? I've searched the web for an\nanswer and\n\n * One site suggests that くれます is impolite, もらいます is normal and いただきます is polite.\n * ... | [
{
"body": "Polite forms are like this\n\n * kureru → kuremasu → kudasaimasu\n * morau → moraimasu → itadakimasu\n\nSo, if you want to use polite form, use kudasaimasu, or itadakimasu depends on\nsituation. or choose the formers if you prefer normal form.\n\nDifference between kuremasu and moraimasu is depends... | 260 | 308 | 308 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "310",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "I'm accustomed to saying `together with` using the `~ to issho ni` fragment,\nbut I've been noticing that some people I talk to phrase this using `~ totomo\nni` instead.\n\ni.e.\n\n> 彼女と一緒に日本へ来た。 \n> Kanojo to issho ni Nihon e kita.\n\nand\n\n> 彼女とともに日本... | [
{
"body": "It could be the case that とともに is more formal version of 一緒",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T08:36:18.420",
"id": "266",
"last_activity_date": "2011-06-01T08:36:18.420",
"last_edit_date": null,
"last_editor_user_id": nul... | 264 | 310 | 315 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "270",
"answer_count": 1,
"body": "As the equivalent of Enlgish \"Oh really?\" / \"Yes really.\" as lone utterances I\nseem to hear both \"本当\" (hontō) and \"本当に\" (hontō-ni) in Japanese - is there a\ndifference?\n\nIt seems that hontō is a noun and -ni changes it into an adverb but that t... | [
{
"body": "There is no difference in utterances for both words, if you speak those alone.\n\nBut if you add some words after that, you might need to use \"本当に~\" to get\ncorrect grammar.",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T08:49:17.600",
"id": "2... | 267 | 270 | 270 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "280",
"answer_count": 5,
"body": "When asking for something I seem to hear sentences end in both ください (kudasai)\nand お願いします (onegaishimasu). Is there a difference and how do I know when to\nuse which?",
"comment_count": 1,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06... | [
{
"body": "[Here](http://japanese.about.com/library/blqow15.htm) there's a nice\nexplanation, but I'll quote it here for easy reference, with some additional\ninfo:\n\nください and お願いします are both used when making a request.\n\n * ください (kudasai) is used:\n\n> 1. After the particle \"o\" を, for example when order... | 269 | 280 | 280 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "277",
"answer_count": 3,
"body": "「ゆう」 is neither the kun'yomi nor on'yomi of 「昨」 and 「べ」 is not a pronunciation\nof 「夜」 either. The same can be said about the pronunciation 「きょう」 for 「今日」.\n\nSo how come the pronunciations of the two words are like those? If they are\nspecial, what was t... | [
{
"body": "The reading ゆうべ comes from the still-in-use word 夕べ（ゆうべ）, which [apparently\ncame\nfrom](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E3%82%86%E3%81%86%E3%81%B9&dtype=0&dname=0na&stype=0&pagenum=1&index=22829818716400)\nan old reading for 夕方（ゆうへ）(today usually read ゆうがた). The kanji are just\n\"gikun\"... | 271 | 277 | 277 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "276",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "Saying \"now\" is easy, with 今, but in my experience that doesn't express so\nmuch \"right now, this instant\" as it does \"currently\". I am looking for\nstructure that translates these examples well:\n\n * I have just now been thinking about that.\n *... | [
{
"body": "I would translate \"Right Now\" to \"tadaima\"「只今」 and \"At that exact moment\" to\n\"choudo sono toki\"「ちょうどその時」\n\nI would tranlste that two sentenses to\n\n * 只今、それを考えていました。\n\n * ちょうどその時、X がありました。",
"comment_count": 2,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T... | 272 | 276 | 276 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "306",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "It is common to ask [the difference between just \"へ\" (-e) and \"に\"\n(-ni)](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/80/when-going-somewhere-\nis-there-any-difference-between-e-and-ni) but it seems to get even more\ncomplicated when you also mix in ... | [
{
"body": "It's hard to imagine a Japanese ask you specifically どこまで? A taxi driver\nmaybe?\n\nWith まで they ask you your exact destination as would a taxi driver.\n\nAs for どこの方, it just reads \"doko no kata\", asking for a person's origin\n(country, city, where are you from)\n\nYou would use ~の方 (no hou) with ... | 275 | 306 | 306 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "290",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "I've seen it used in many places, and sometimes it feels like a connection\nbetween words.\n\nFor example in 「鳥の詩」 (tori no uta), it looks as if the の is connecting 鳥\n(tori) and 詩 (uta), and I would like to know what it represents, in this case\nat least... | [
{
"body": "My Japanese teacher taught me to think of の to mean \"of\" and translate the {X\nno Y} as \"Y of X\". Her favorite example:\n\n_**watashi no tomodachi no amerika no chizu_** \nthe map of America of a friend of mine\n\nSo {tori no uta} would mean \"the song of birds\".",
"comment_count": 7,
"... | 283 | 290 | 287 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "294",
"answer_count": 3,
"body": "How to write hiragana and katakana in Windows (XP/Vista/7)? My current locale\nis Swedish and I have a hard time writing hiragana and katakana characters.\n\nUsually I have a txt-file open in notepad and copy the individual characters,\nbut that is (obvio... | [
{
"body": "You need to setup an additional Japanese keyboard IME in the 'Region and\nLanguage' options in your 'Control Panel'. On Windows XP you may be required\nto enter a XP disk for the installation though I think that might only be\nprompted for Asian fonts (which I presume you already have since you are u... | 289 | 294 | 294 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "301",
"answer_count": 5,
"body": "I've seen this symbol in various places, such as 「日々」, 「色々」, and 「人々」. What is\nit, and how does it affect the meaning and pronunciation of the word?",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T10:12:46.593"... | [
{
"body": "That's the repetition sign, called _kurikaeshi_. It means the kanji that\nprecedes it is repeated. It changes the meaning and sometimes the\npronunciation. For example, 「人々」in your example means \"people\" or \"everybody\"\nand is pronounced \"hito-bito\". 「日々」on the other hand has no change in\npron... | 295 | 301 | 301 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "338",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "Recently a friend of mine threw the term 意味くじピーマン (imi kuji pi-man) into a\nstory she was telling, and it totally threw me off. At first I thought,\nbecause I wasn't sure how to parse the くじ part, it meant something like\n\"meaningful peppers.\"\n\nThen a... | [
{
"body": "It is the slang used amoung young people in Okinawa, kanji \"意味\" was not used\nin original phrase, but katakana is used instead.\n\nイミ or イミヨー means \"意味がわかんない\" in Okinawa dialect, also \"イミクジピーマン\" is one form.\n\nAnd looks like some people use ~ピーマン in end of the phrase in Okinawa.\n\nrefs:\n\n ... | 299 | 338 | 338 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "325",
"answer_count": 6,
"body": "Given that there has been discussion by the Japanese government to use the\n[Japanese Language Proficiency Test\n(JLPT)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Language_Proficiency_Test) as\none of the measures by which permanent residences or citizenship ... | [
{
"body": "First and foremost the JLPT does not have a speaking component. This means you\nmay be able to recognise and understand grammar when reading or listening, but\nyou may be unable to actually _speak_ the language with any proficiency. This\nis my case exactly, I can understand far more than what I can ... | 303 | 325 | 325 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "313",
"answer_count": 3,
"body": "How do you handle learning new verbs that have both transitive and\nintransitive forms? Is it best to immediately memorize both forms?",
"comment_count": 2,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T12:45:01.530",
"favorite_c... | [
{
"body": "There are rules to transform each others most of the time, you don't have to\nmemorize both.\n\nHere is a list about 1200 verbs and derivation to transitive and intransitive\nforms.\n\n * <http://homepage3.nifty.com/jgrammar/ja/data/trans.htm>",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-... | 309 | 313 | 313 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "323",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "The phrase 心の冷たい人 (which is given by Japanese-English dictionary on OS X)\nlooks wrong to me, but given that it's an example in a respected dictionary\nand confirmed by tens of thousands of Google hits, I have to assume it's\ncorrect. It's a lot less clum... | [
{
"body": "This doesn't strike me as the slightest bit unusual. Relative phrases such as\nthis are very common in Japanese. You can easily substitute similar phrases\nfor 心が冷たい, such as 背が高い:\n\n * あの人は背が高いです。 (\"That person is tall.\")\n * 背が高い人 (lit. \"A person who is tall\"; \"A tall person\" [with the emp... | 316 | 323 | 323 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "318",
"answer_count": 5,
"body": "There are several situations in which one of these words (phrases?) should be\nused but there's not usually a 1:1 mapping between any two languages.\n\n * Get somebody's permission. English: \"excuse me\", \"I beg your pardon\"; Spanish: \"disculpe\"\n ... | [
{
"body": "On a basic level, すみません is to apologize for something that you have a \"right\"\nto do, such as when passing through a crowd or getting a waiter's attention at\na restaurant. ごめんなさい, on the other hand, is for when you have done something\ninappropriate. So on the way through a crowd, you would say すみ... | 317 | 318 | 318 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "322",
"answer_count": 1,
"body": "There are at least four verbs that mean \"to do\" in Japanese: する, なさる, いたす, and\nやる. What is the purpose of each, and when is it appropriate to use them?",
"comment_count": 3,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-01T13:54:40... | [
{
"body": "する is the most general, neither too polite nor too formal. やる is more informal\nand could tend to lean toward rudeness. Note that やる cannot replace する in\nsino-Japanese compounds. For example, 電話する could not change to 電話やる. なさる is\nkeigo (尊敬語), used for someone \"higher\" than yourself. いたす is humble... | 319 | 322 | 322 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "333",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "Here's a question for you experts. I've actually asked this to my Japanese\nfriends, but I want to see how you guys answer too.\n\nExplain the differences in the following verbs and which one(s) appear more\ncommonly in everyday speech:\n\n 1. [掴]{つか}む\n... | [
{
"body": "Ignoring the passives, which can be inferred:\n\n * 掴む: grasp. 腕を掴む. The action ends once your hand closes on the object. This is in contrast to 握る, which focuses on the time spent gripping the object after it has been taken in the hand.\n * 捕る: capture, as in an animal. 魚を捕る. Can be substituted wi... | 327 | 333 | 333 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "331",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "Two numbers in Japanese have two pronunciation alternatives.\n\n * 四 / 4 can be pronounced either \"よん\" (yon) or \"し\" (shi)\n * 七 / 7 can be pronounced either \"しち\" (shichi) or \"なな\" (nana)\n\nI know that \"し\" (shi) can be avoided because it has th... | [
{
"body": "I don't know that there are any rules, per se. I just know that in certain\nsituations, you use one and not the other. Like ４月 is し・がつ, not よん・がつ, and\n9:00 is く・じ, not きゅう・じ. I think it's just a matter of memorizing these\n\"irregularities\".",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-S... | 328 | 331 | 331 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": null,
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "I think I know the answer to this, but it still creeps up in my mind all the\ntime; something I'd like to research more. I want to know technical\ndifferences as well as common usage.\n\nWhen do you use the passive form of a transitive verb versus just usi... | [
{
"body": "Generally, the difference between a transitive phrase and ukemi transitive\nphrase is emphasis. For example:\n\n```\n\n ① 田中さんが村田さんに他動詞の使い方を教えた。\n ② 村田さんは田中さんに他動詞の使い方を教えられた。\n ③ 村田さんは他動詞の使い方を田中さんから教わった。\n \n```\n\nThe first sentence (transitive) is very much focused on 田中さん. 村田さん is only\... | 329 | null | 346 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "15597",
"answer_count": 5,
"body": "Given the close proximity and long history of interaction of various kinds\nwithin East Asia, the great influence of Chinese in both Japanese and Korean,\nand the similar structures of Japanese and Korean, are there any old words\nknown to have come int... | [
{
"body": "I won't vouch for its accuracy, but here's a list of words that\n[EDICT](http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/edict.html) claims to be of Korean\norigin:\n\n```\n\n て拳道 [てこんどー] /(n) (uk) Tae Kwon Do (kor:)/\n アイゴー /(int) argh (kor: aigo)/sigh/\n アボジ /(n) father (kor:)/\n ウォン /(n) won (unit ... | 332 | 15597 | 15597 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": null,
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "Both \"ようこそ\" (yōkoso) and \"いらっしゃいませ\" (irasshaimase) seem to mean \"welcome\" but\nwhat are the precise circumstances under which each should be used?\n\n * \"いらっしゃいませ\" (irasshaimase) is uttered in unison by all the staff whenever you walk into a rest... | [
{
"body": "ようこそ means welcome but it's mostly used in written context rather than\ncolloquial. いらっしゃいませ actually means \"please come in\" (literally) but it often\ncarries the meaning of welcome, this is why you hear staff saying that\nwhenever you visit a store, it is mostly colloquial.\n\nIn a big event you m... | 337 | null | 340 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "370",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "What's the difference between ね and な as tag questions? For example: そうですね vs\nそうだな\n\nIs there any difference in level of politeness? Does one sound more masculine\nthan the other?\n\nEdit: The examples above are pretty vague (or even just plain wrong in... | [
{
"body": "な by itself does not indicate a tag question; it is used to add emotional\nemphasis to a sentence. However, it can be combined with か. 〜かな can generally\nbe translated as \"I wonder if ...\".\n\nThere's also the other, unrelated form of 〜な which forms a casual command to\nnot do something. For exampl... | 343 | 370 | 370 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "355",
"answer_count": 1,
"body": "I'll be visiting Yamagata City soon and would like to ask:\n\n * as an armchair linguist what features of the local dialect to look out for?\n * what are some common words, phrases, pronunciation differences that I could try to effect to make a nice imp... | [
{
"body": "I can't help you with first-hand knowledge, but you can start by looking\n[here](http://www.jvnet.or.jp/~badz9005/tendo/hougen.htm). Some of the\ncomparisons (like 「んだ」 instead of 「そうです」) seems to be part of the standard\nTouhoku-ben fare.\n\n## Edit\n\nAccording to the [Wikipedia\narticle](http://ja... | 345 | 355 | 355 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "352",
"answer_count": 4,
"body": "The ヶ in e.g. 一ヶ月 is a bit of an odd character - it looks a lot like a small\nversion of the katakana ケ, but is it derived from that katakana originally? Or\nis it a normal kanji? Or is it something else entirely?",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_licens... | [
{
"body": "From [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_ke):\n\n> It is an abbreviation for the kanji 箇, which is used as a counter word.\n> Although it resembles the katakana character ke (ケ), it is pronounced ka, ga\n> or ko, not ke.",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
... | 347 | 352 | 352 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "353",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "The particle は is pronounced similarly to わ (unlike the rest of the ハ行 kana)\nwhen used as a particle; why is this? What historical shifts went on to cause\nthis irregularity?",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date":... | [
{
"body": "The sound 「わ」 used to be written は in old kana usage in some cases. Old kana\nusage was much more irregular than it is nowadays. The old way of writing has\nkind of stuck in some words.\n\nIt's the same thing with the readings for the particles へ and を too - the\nmodern sound 「え」 used to be written a... | 348 | 353 | 353 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "357",
"answer_count": 8,
"body": "Romaji is somewhat of a conversion from kanji and kana to the Roman alphabet.\n\nWhat are the disadvantages of learning only or mostly romaji aside from being\nunable to read/write in kanji? I don't think there are many advantages.",
"comment_count": 7,... | [
{
"body": "The disadvantages are all in the corner cases. Some romanizations represent づ\nand ぢ as \"zu\" and \"ji\" respectively, which is less than perfectly accurate\nsince those are also used to represent ず and じ (I represent them as \"dzu\" and\n\"dji\" myself, but one can't force others to do so). And tha... | 354 | 357 | 357 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "363",
"answer_count": 3,
"body": "I know that romaji is the conversion from those to the roman alphabet, but\nwhat are the differences or characteristics between katakana, kanji, and\nhiragana?\n\nAre they used on a different context? Is one of them more formal than the\nothers? Do they h... | [
{
"body": "I think the [Wikipedia article on the Japanese writing\nsystem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_system) explains it\npretty well, but to summarize:\n\n * Hiragana and katakana (collectively referred to as kana) are syllabic writing, that is, each character represents a syllable such as... | 362 | 363 | 363 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": null,
"answer_count": 3,
"body": "These two dialects will sound very similar to an untrained ear. Can anyone\nhighlight the main differences between these two dialects?",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-02T00:19:31.950",
"favorite_co... | [
{
"body": "What I see often is that Kyoto-ben has this emphasis expression \"～え\" sentence\nending, like \"ええお天気どすえ\", \"いきまっせ!\" (ますえ contracted to まっせ), while Osaka-ben\nwill use \"～で\" sentence ending, like \"そないあほなことすると怪我するで。気をつけなあかんで。\". Osaka is\nmore likely to use わ ending.\n\nAlso, some verbs like 来ない a... | 367 | null | 3588 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "373",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "This comment can be seen very often on Japanese message boards.",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-02T02:08:26.273",
"favorite_count": 0,
"id": "372",
"last_activity_date": "2017-09-07T13:48:26.9... | [
{
"body": "KY is short form of 空気読めない (Kuuki Yomenai)\n\nKY means _being unable to read the situation_ or _being unable to pick up on\nthe mood of a conversation_.",
"comment_count": 7,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-02T02:10:48.297",
"id": "373",
"last_activity... | 372 | 373 | 373 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "381",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "There is a song with title {hajimete no asa} and another song with title\n{hajime no hi}. There is also a manga title {hajimete no aku}, and not to\nforget the popular boxing manga {hajime no ippo}.\n\nSo what is the difference between 「はじめてのX」 {hajimete ... | [
{
"body": "はじめ _hajime_ is \"the beginning\", so はじめの日 _hajime no hi_ should be translated\nas \"The day of the beginning\" or \"The day it begun\" and はじめの一歩 _hajime no\nippo_ as \"The step that started it\".\n\nはじめて _hajimete_ is \"for the first time\", so はじめての朝 _hajimete no asa_ would be\n\"(My) first morni... | 375 | 381 | 381 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "451",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "In Nate Glenn's answer to bdonlan's qestion [\"Why were ゐ and ゑ\neliminated?\"](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/88/why-were-and-\neliminated) he states:\n\n> \"Wi\" and \"we\" are still in some dialects, but standard Japanese does not\n> have... | [
{
"body": "It really all depends on how you define preservation, and whether you consider\nthe Ryukyuan languages (such as Okinawan) separate languages or dialects of\nJapanese, since ゑ and ゐ are used in _some_ Ryukyuan spelling systems (other\nsystems use other conventions such as writing these sounds as うぇ an... | 376 | 451 | 451 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "449",
"answer_count": 1,
"body": "As far as I know only three words (or particles) have irregular, non-phonetic\nspelling in Japanese:\n\n * \"は\" - The topic particle is pronounced \"wa\" but the kana is otherwise pronounced \"ha\"\n * \"へ\" - The movement towards particle is pronounce... | [
{
"body": "I'll give you the same one I gave to the other question: Yes, the sounds of\nthese words has changed since their spelling was set down. In general, no\nmatter the language, whenever you see a discrepancy between spelling and\npronunciation that is not entirely regular, this is the result of sound\nch... | 379 | 449 | 449 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "385",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "As far as I know, 「[同じ]{おなじ}」 is not a 形容詞{けいようし} (-i adjective) so how does\nit become 「[同じく]{おなじく}」? Or does 「同じく」 not come from 「同じ」?\n\nAlso, are there any other non i-adjectives that have -ku counterparts\n(regardless of the answer for above)?",
"c... | [
{
"body": "同じ is mainly used as 形容動詞 ([Adjectival\nnoun](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjectival_noun_%28Japanese%29)) like:\n\n> 彼と父親の趣味は同じだ。 (His and his father's hobbies are the same.)\n\nbut it also can be used as an adjective (形容詞) with an irregularity that the\n`-i` ending is dropped. For example:\n\n> 彼は... | 380 | 385 | 2433 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "387",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "When thanking someone, what is the rule for using ありがとうございます vs. ありがとうございました?\nMy sensei taught us to use ありがとうございました when the action you're thanking someone\nfor occurred in the past, but I've heard ありがとうございます used plenty of times right\nafter the action... | [
{
"body": "In my opinion,\n\nYou can use ありがとうございます most of the time, but ありがとうございました cannot used when the\nrequest is not finished yet. For example.,\n\n> Aさん: この報告の確認を頼んでもよろしいでしょうか？ (Could you please check the report?)\n>\n> Bさん: 了解! (ok)\n>\n> Aさん： ありがとうございます。\n>\n> (Bさん havn't finished yet the checking, so ... | 384 | 387 | 387 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "389",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "What is the difference in usage between 行ったから and 行ってから and 行くから?\n\nIs there a sense of sequence implied in one and not the other?\n\nIn the following examples where would i be buying the book and where would i\nbe saying this? Like in I bought the book ... | [
{
"body": "~ってから shows \"one after another\". \n行ってから means \"after I go\".\n\n~ったから shows \"cause & effect\". \n行ったから means \"because I went\".\n\nNote that 行くから is also valid, which means \"because I (plan to) go\"\n\nEDIT:\n\nTo answer additional question added by OP:\n\n> アメリカに行くから本を買う\n\nI'm going to buy... | 388 | 389 | 389 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "400",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "I've been told during my Japanese classes, and I've also observed in anime and\nJapanese dramas & movies, that sometimes when talking Japanese people tend to\nstop halfway and omit the end of sentence especially when the sentence has\nsome negative connot... | [
{
"body": "In my opinion,\n\n> 鈴木: これをもっと安くしませんかねえ。\n>\n> 田中: それはちょっと。。\n\n。。。 would be\n\n> それはちょっと(安く)出来ないですねぇ。\n\nAbove could be intentionally omitting the rest to get more politeness by not\ndirectly saying the rejections.\n\nRegarding ambiguities of the word \"ちょっと\", please take a look at this Research\nP... | 391 | 400 | 400 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "1784",
"answer_count": 6,
"body": "The Japanese language has a lot of patterns for \"if\" clauses. What are the\ndifferences among the following patterns and how do we choose to use one over\nthe others?:\n\n * 行くと\n * 行ったら\n * 行くなら\n * 行けば\n * 行くんだったら\n * 行くのなら\n * 行くとしたら\n * 行くこ... | [
{
"body": "I would translate those as\n\n> * 行ったら - If you went (there), ...\n>\n> * 行くなら - If you going to go (there), ...\n>\n> * 行けば - If you go (there), (you will) ....\n>\n> * 行くんだったら - If you are about to go (there), ...\n>\n> * 行くのなら - If you (have plan/are thinking) to go (there), ...\n>\n> ... | 393 | 1784 | 1784 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "398",
"answer_count": 1,
"body": "In some situations everybody around me use 重い, and when I went to the bicycle\nshop everyone was only using 重たい.\n\nBoth mean heavy, but what is the difference in meaning or context between\nthem?\n\nCan something be 重い but not 重たい? Or 重たい but not 重い?",
... | [
{
"body": "重たい is supposed to be used when talking about personal opinions (subjective),\nwhile 重い is for general usage (objective).\n\nBut that said, when someone uses 重たい in a situation, another person may use\nthe same word unintentionally because they are very similar.\n\nPersonally, I think 重たい has more fe... | 397 | 398 | 398 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "406",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "My brother got on a scholarship to go to university in Japan, he was given a\nyear an half language training and then had to apply to Japanese universities.\n\nI suggested he study in Osaka as I'd visited there and knew some people he\ncould hang about wi... | [
{
"body": "There is a lot of people from Osaka in Tokyo, so that Kansai-ben (Osaka-ben)\nare not so strange here. And I don't think they will get looked down for that\ncase.\n\nBut many of non-Japanese's pronunciation and intonations are a bit different\nwith native, so some people with less international commu... | 401 | 406 | 415 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "404",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "Just to avoid repeatedly saying いただきました too much, can I occasionally switch it\nwith 下さりました or 下さいました?",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-02T10:33:40.843",
"favorite_count": 0,
"id": "402",
"last... | [
{
"body": "いただきました is past tense of いただく, which is a polite version of もらう, which means\n'to receive'.\n\n下さいました is past tense of 下さる, which is a polite version of くれる, which means 'to\ngive'.\n\nThey are different words but can be used in the same context as long as you\ncorrectly assign who is the giver and w... | 402 | 404 | 404 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "525",
"answer_count": 2,
"body": "I recently confused 励{はげ}ます for the ~ます form of 禿{は}げる.\n\nAlthough this actually lead to a rather amusing conversation, I'm wondering if\nthere are other examples of this to watch out for?",
"comment_count": 2,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"c... | [
{
"body": "While YOU's examples all end in ～ます, you can easily see that they are not\nproper ～ます verbs, because they don't match the conjugation patterns for either\ntype of verb.\n\nBut this is an interesting question, so I wrote a quick python script to\nconjugate 3,100 verbs from EDICT and compare the ～ます fo... | 405 | 525 | 422 |
{
"accepted_answer_id": "413",
"answer_count": 3,
"body": "As in the question title, what is the difference between the two sentences\nbelow?\n\n> 一{いち}時{じ}間{かん}ほどかかります。 \n> ichijikan hodo kakarimasu.\n>\n> 一時間ぐらいかかります。 \n> ichijikan gurai kakarimasu.\n\nHow do we choose to use one over the other?",
"commen... | [
{
"body": "Those two sentences mean the same thing, but the one with ほど sounds somewhat\nmore polite. When they're used in the meaning \"approximately\", I'd say they're\nmore or less interchangeable.",
"comment_count": 0,
"content_license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
"creation_date": "2011-06-02T12:00:03.843"... | 408 | 413 | 413 |
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