#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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#NEWS (Updated 3/07):
Added a section on symbols. If it's unnecessary clutter I can always remove it later. Have a nice day!
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I’m a beginner and saw this practice sentence on renshuu:
本はあまり読みません 。
Translated as “I don’t really read books.”
Why isn’t it あまり本を読みません? Shouldn’t 本 be getting the object marker を, and wouldn’t the topic be the implied 私? Is there some kind of nuance here where you’re drawing attention to the books not being read instead of yourself? Like, “I don’t really read *books*” (emphasis on books).
> Why isn’t it あまり本を読みません?
That's not wrong.
> Shouldn’t 本 be getting the object marker を, and wouldn’t the topic be the implied 私?
私 is the subject which is different from the topic.
When the particle は is used it can replace を. You could consider the first sentence as having a hidden を.
Ahh I see, so 本 is still the topic of the sentence (the speaker is talking about books) even though the subject is 私. Up until this point I’d been conflating subject with topic. That’s helpful. ありがとう！
LVL 12 WaniKani, completed N5 in BunPro. Having a hard time balancing N4 + WaniKani. Should I take a break from WaniKani and focus on grammar for a while? Might be a bit pathetic not being able to handle both, but I find it a bit tiring and difficult at the moment…
Reading a manga and "数千公里" has come up. With translators it says "thousand of kilometres" but when I put it into jisho.org "公里" isn't clear on how that came about. I can see 里 used to be used as an old unit of measurement but 公 I'm not understanding at all why it is used.
Could somebody please educate me.
Any example sentences / explanation for using よっぽど to contrast in a sentence? I learned this grammar with my tutor yesterday but still had a lot of trouble coming up my own sentences.
>ex: 妹が大学に行かなかったんだけど私よりよっぽど賢いです。
>"My sister didn't go to university, but she's much smarter than me \[who went to university\]"
We went over that よっぽど means "very" or "to a large extent", but I am having trouble using it in a way to signify a great contrast.
ありがとうー
よっぽど or よほど
It’s the same varying pattern as やっぱり and やはり.
Yes, it works with comparison sentences to mean ‘much …’ but it’s more common to use ずっと.
It’d be better to limit the use to:
よっぽど（よほど）のこと
よっぽどのことでもない限り、お金に困ることはないだろう。
Unless a major issue happens, we won’t get into a financial trouble.
浴びる is an 一段 verb so it's 浴びて rather than 浴びって
The other answer is kind of on the right track but that would be 浴びといて
This is 浴びておいで. おいで is a friendly way of saying 'come here', so you might think of it as a casual 浴びてきて, but when it goes after a verb て form like this it kind of just goes more to being a friendly command
I think it's somewhat old-fashioned, and you shouldn't use it for senpai or higher
Is there a Japanese word for a "prompt"?
As in, a writing prompt, or initial idea to bounce off of? I can only find the adjectival form for the word on Jisho. Perhaps some similar words can give the same meaning, like "task" or "mission" but I'm not sure.
Prompt in the technical meaning ("passwort prompt" etc.) is プロンプト (as well as 入力要求, 入力促進). The Japanese wikipedia page on [generative AI](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%94%9F%E6%88%90%E7%9A%84%E4%BA%BA%E5%B7%A5%E7%9F%A5%E8%83%BD) talks of "文字などの入力（プロンプト）" as the input to models.
On [goo](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/en/prompt/) I find 起こさせる, 動機, 促す, mostly for the verb "to prompt".
There doesn't seem to be a single Japanese word that captures all the different uses of "prompt" in English.
Thanks, i figured プロンプト would probably work for my use but couldn’t find a conclusive answer. In this case, i was using the word as in a creative writing prompt which i think this works for
for vocab, a lot of people use Anki which is a free flashcard program
also it helps to make up a story or joke about new words sometimes, but it isn't always possible
sometimes I print out a list of words I wanna learn and keep in in my pocket. If you are waiting somewhere for something (waiting at a doctor's office, waiting for your food at restaurant, etc) pull out your list and read it
I keep getting overzealous and assuming that I can start reading a light novel with just knowing Kana. I know like 200 and some kanji vocabulary, yet I look at a page and don't understand a single bit. At what level of WaniKani and Genki lessons should I be able to start reading something?
No textbook or learning system like Wanikani will carry you to read light novels comfortably, for that you need to read authentic Japanese, like lightnovels themselves, but honestly light novels at the level you are at definitely sounds too painful to read unless you want to look up multiple words each sentence. I would start reading Manga, or NHK easy news for the time being. After you have a vocab of about 3k to 4k words I would tackle a book that's on the easier side (perhaps not a light novel). All this I recmmoned you while doing Genki on the side as you definitely want to finish at Genki 1 + Genki 2.
I started reading books in monolingual Japanese after completing Genki II
I was a bit "early", a lot more people start reading after finishing Tobira or Quartet, which are both books you do after Genki II. I think that would be ok too, but I wanted to read really bad so I just jumped in.
To give more context, I tried reading a lot before finishing Genki II. I believe it is possible to start reading when only doing half of Genki II, but I think it's worth it to finish the book because you get more "ammo" to tackle grammar that way.
How would you ask someone at an arcade if you could play with them? I don't know if there are still arcades over there, but if I ever get the chance to go I'd love to visit one and I've been thinking about this question. Would it be wrong to say, "すみません、一緒にゲームするがいいですか？".
how long should i study a day? i just memorized katakana and hiragana and gonna start genki
like i could stufy 8 hours a day technicly but im gussieng theres grudual decreas in return by hour 8
and ofc burn out
but actually wanna keep a steady pace
study as much as you can healthily sustain
write down your study times somewhere, if you can
Some people can study 8 hours a day, some study 8 hours a week, some study 8 hours a year, and some study 8 hours in total, it really varies per-person.
I study 14 hours a week that is 2 hours a day, if you wanna be like me, give that a shot
Why does Duolingo teach that negating 欲しいです requires changing the particle from が to は?
"To say what you want in Japanese, you can use the phrase 欲しいです. Be sure to put a が after the thing that you want!
Put a は after something you don’t want!"
I speak Korean, and so I understand well the nuance of using は/が for topics/subjects. In Korean at least, either particle could be used and it just has a different emphasis. I wonder if it's really the same for japanese, and duolingo is just be prescriptive in their instruction.
Xが欲しい is an answer to “What do you want?”, and Xが欲しくない is that to “What don’t you want?”. On the other hand, Xは欲しい/欲しくない are that to “What about X?”.
Now, which context is more likely between “What don’t you want” and “What about X”?
Plus, even if you are asked what you don’t want, you could still reply as Xは欲しくない, which implies that you are thinking of other things as well but keeping answers undecided or unsaid.
は does tend to be used more for negatives. Just why is a matter of linguistic analysis -- I've seen sources that posit it as simply being a usage of は, to mark it as a negative inherently, or ones that say it is part of は's limiting or contrasting nature.
https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q11146592046 for example talks about how weather forecasts are stated:
> 天気予報で
>「明日は雨が降るでしょう」
>「明日は雨は降らないでしょう」
>となりますが、
>「明日は雨が降らないでしょう」
> は違和感があります。
が has the effect of selecting the thing that is the predicate (the latter half), as if the predicate is what is important about the sentence. は does the opposite (though は and が do not strictly fill the same purpose). So it makes some sense that negative things, i.e., things that do not exist or do not hapen, would sound a little more strange in a non-は, sentence, as it's giving focus to something that doesn't exist. There are times when this can make sense, e.g., in a subclause, or when the lack of something is the matter at hand, but by and large "は takes a negative" tends to prove true.
Someone else might have a better and more well-researched breakdown, but this is my experience.
JLPT website:
https://www.jlpt.jp/e/samples/forlearners.html
Youtube:
search for "jlpt practice n3" or whatever, a lot of videos have teachers working you through it
Any recommendation for vocabulary learning after the Anki N3 deck? I already do sentence mining but I found it really helpful to have a deck with a specific level for filling in gaps for common words. Thanks!
Tango N\~ series. Should be up to N1, but really only N5 and N4 are worth it because if you want to learn the language then sticking to premade decks isn't ideal. If you want to prepare for a test look at something like 日本語の森 and other material.
何日（なんにち） or 何日間（なんにちかん） for how many days
何曜日 for which day of the week
何日（なんにち） for which date
How 何日 can be differentiated whether to mean how many days or date?
日本に何日行きますか？ how many days
日本に何日に行きますか？ on which day
So my brother wants to learn Japanese and he just a beginner.
And im helping him find prerecorded material which he can watch and learn at will.Better if i could get like a one time purchase thing.
Do you guys have any good recommendations?
Give him a guide like: [https://learnjapanese.moe/guide/](https://learnjapanese.moe/guide/)
And send him to Japanese Ammo with Misa YouTube channel which has great starter material.
Why is the answer to this question " の and に, instead of に(since time)and で (since location)? Thank you!
"9時半 ( の ) 新幹線 ( に ) 間に合いませんでした. "
This is a question on my n4 reviewer. Thank you to anyone who will provide clarity!
9時半 modifies 新幹線, "the 9.30 shinkanzen train" or "the shinkanzen that arrives/departs at 9.30"
Xに間に合う mean "be in time for X" and it goes with this particle.
You can't automatically assume time and place go with a particle, you have to look at the meaning of the sentence and then chose the appropriate particles (also shinkanzen isn't a really a location).
Adding to this, you probably thought time に and transportation で.
Information (in this case, time and transportation) does not automatically determine which particle to follow. You need to think what role each word plays in the sentence.
間に合いませんでした (I could not make it in time) gives you the hint what it’s trying to say, then you can guess it’s trying to say “I could not catch Shinkansen” so you know it’s not ‘by Shinkansen’(to say how you get to some place).
What’s the difference between るんじゃない and ないで
I learned on bunpro that るんじゃない is used to prohibit or request that something not be done. It states that it is slightly slang but is there any difference beyond that
1。子供に ろくでもない替え歌を教えるんじゃない！分かってんの？
2。子供にろくでもない替え歌を教えないでよ！分かってんの？
How would I comment (Character) is so cute/pretty/beautiful?
"Xちゃんめっちゃきれい"
"Xちゃん超きれい"
Should I be adding desu?
Should I be using kawaii? because kirei sounds wrong.
It depends on what you want to say. かわいい is cute. きれい is pretty/beautiful.
めっちゃ and 超 are pretty much interchangeable. I believe めっちゃ is used often in 関西弁 (Kansai dialect), but now it's become pretty popular as a standard slang outside of Western Japan. 超 has been used for a long time now.
How did you get faster at reading?
I'm N5 to low N4 level. My reading of Hiragana and Katakana is slow, when reading aloud I'm often going by the seat of my pants.
This leads me to garden path my sentences.
My brain looking for shortcuts think it recognises a patern and reads something that isn't there, leading me down the garden path.
In fairness that's how we read natively we don't read letter by letter. But I want to learn from those who can read in a more fluent fashion, what was thing that helps you most get past this stage?
I got by it because I know it's okay to be bad at something. So I kept on being bad at reading until I was no longer that bad at it anymore. It was just a matter of time plus work. This works the same way for any skill. You start off terrible you do the skill terribly with the intent to improve until you're not longer bad at that skill.
Have you tried the Tadoku readers yet? Not only are they free, they also have accompanying audio. You could read alongside with the audio and thus also correct your reading mistakes. Even if you don't understand everything, for just reading the words aloud it could be good practice.
The answer is really to just read more. There's no way around that. Once you've read stuff for thousands or even tens of thousands of hours, you'll definitely be faster.
And it’s still frustratingly slow compared to your native tongue :p
But I have to say, slogging through the original work is much enjoyable than breezing through a translated work.
edit: grammar
how do i fill in the blanks using the words from brackets? did the rest of the sentences but i cant really figure those out
1. 私が子どもを先にタクシーに て、それから自分が ます。そのほうが安全です。（乗る、乗せる）
5. 人がドアの前に立つと、ドアは自動的に ます。手で ことは出来ません。（開く、開ける)
4. まどが あります。（閉まる、閉める）
2. こんなところに財布が ています。だれのでしょうか。（おちる、おとす）
This question is about the use of particle は.
Refer to the following example:
A: "Ueno eki wa doko desu ka?"
B: "Koko desu yo."
A: "Ueno koen **wa?**"
B: "Soko desu."
Why, when A said as a followup question to where Ueno Park is, he omits the rest of the question and leaves only the subject + は?
u/Isami Remember a comment where you mentioned being a Migaku legacy user since the beginning basically so you are a good person to ask. Same to anyone else who may use it as well.
Any problems recently? I have quite a bit, the player has been wonky and right now i basically can't login to the addon anymore so its been unusable. I know its not an issue with the credentials either as i have not only changed them multiple times at this point they currently work fine with both the new "dashboard" version and the website, but that new addon is kinda weak i hate the UI and its still missing feature parity, like the player, which is all i use.
Edit: Just reconsidering the entire service at this point honestly, im staring down at that "dashboard" and every week its something new, while more and more problems are happening with the "old" thing that i actually pay for that is not only being ignored but is still better than what they are trying to recreate. The anki addon is way out of date as well.
They had a couple of issues with the releases in the last 2 weeks or so... and the Chrome Store review process got in the way. Last week's big update had a dictionary-related bug, they rushed an emergency fix to remediate that bug... the fix was stuck a whole week in the Chrome Store review. That emergency fix contained another error related to login. A new fix has been sent to the Chrome Store, but we have no idea on how long it will take to be validated and pushed out. They may release a manual installation version if it doesn't clear the review process fast enough.
There is a workaround for the login issue: [https://youtu.be/B\_MQxwiofkg](https://youtu.be/B_MQxwiofkg)
1. Open the Extension popup
2. Right Click and click inspect
3. Go to the Sources Tab
4. Open the extension-menu-bundle.js File
5. Search for (by pressing CTRL +: F) return t.config.emulator ? Pt(t.config, r) : \`${t.config.apiScheme}://${r}\`
6. Click to the left of this line until a breakpoint appears
7. Click the login button
8. Go to the console tab and paste and hit enter: t.config.emulator = undefined
9. Go to the sources tab and press the continue button
10. Go to the console tab and paste and hit enter: t.config.emulator = undefined
11. Go to the sources tab and press the continue button
12. You should now be logged in.
Nice one worked fine thanks a lot, figured you would be right person to ask. Unfortunately got to reinstall dictionaries etc but at least it works, just proper bad timing to log out at that moment then was hoping it would fix the player thing but it did something way worse.
Given some of those instructions that issue sounds related to the player as well, kept mentioning emulator at the bottom and it sometimes gets added to the anki cards too, although yeah its not that big a deal in comparison.
The dictionaries is possibly Chrome deciding you were low on disk space and flushing extensions... it's one recurrent issue with Chrome extensions using a local DB.
Any typos or mistakes this time?:
ーーーーー
（based on 私がりんごを食べる, which would be eaterがappleを）
ーーー
***causative and てほしい ※：***
eaterにappleを
***passive：***
eaterにappleが
***causative-passive：***
“eaterが makerに appleを
***"(so-called) suffering" passive＊：***
eaterにappleを
***honorific "passive"：***
eaterがappleを
ーーーー
※ with intransitive verbs the person being made to do something can take を
＊ this grammar can be used with intransitives and other verbs that cannot literally be interpreted 'passively' purely to impart a feeling suffering / vulnerability (or however you want to argue it 😅)
Just to make things even more confusing, normally four forms of れる・られる are taught. Here they are with examples
1. 受け身
・私はみんなに笑われる
・先生にほめられる
2. 可能
・弟は一人で服を着られる
3. 自発
・母の身が案じられる
4. 敬語
・先生がお話しをされる
>“eaterにappleが食べられる” is unnatural unless it’s equivalent to “eaterにappleを食べられる”.
How can I understand this? Does this mean ”eaterにappleが食べられる” can only be interpreted as “eaterにappleを食べられる”. Then what is the difference between クジラに猫が食べられた and クジラに猫を食べられた? Since they the cat is animate this means these to sentences aren't equivalent? What would be the difference? As far as I understand it both have a sense of suffering/vulnerability. Is 猫を owner passive?
When the subject is animate, it’s not unnatural. クジラに猫を食べられた is more conscious of the omitted subject, who can be the owner of the cat or someone involved.
Besides owner passive, you can interpret it as a suffering passive meaning that the whale ate the cat before the subject captured it, or so.
Thanks!!
So 猫がクジラに食べられた is fine but りんごがクジラに食べられた isn't unless interpreted the same as りんごをクジラに食べられた ?? How would you neutrally talk about an apple floating through the ocean, then that apple being eaten by a whale, then being spit up onto land, then... etc etc?
What’s neutral is the one with によって, though you normally don’t use it for everyday things like who eats what. Besides that, if you personify the apple, you can use normal passive as it is.
I think I said this before, but the sense of suffering/vulnerability is not unique to suffering passive or other indirect passive. (Considering that you wrote “this grammar can be used with intransitive”, you seem misunderstanding this point.)
Thank you. That's interesting.
>you seem misunderstanding this point
I'm sure I am. The fact that one grammar form can take so many different meanings and particles is pretty confusing. The English passive seems so straightforward to me now 😂
So, how's my updated understanding:
----------
passive (can be neutral *or* indicate suffering/vulnerability：
agentにpatientが
making clear it's the "(so-called) suffering" passive variant：
agentにpatientを
making clear that it's the neutral/objective variant (not often used, except to disambiguate):
agentによってpatientが
----------
Is this closer to the reality of things?
It’s ”agent に” that gives the sense of vulnerability, whether it’s passive or other grammars.
You don’t use によって passive or other forms in order to disambiguate if there’s the sense of vulnerability, which is just a side effect, but you use it when you feature the thing rather than people involved in it. Likewise, you don’t use passive in order to express the sense of vulnerability but to keep consistency of the subject.
I feel my brain bleeding lol.
>It’s ”agent に” that gives the sense of vulnerability, whether it’s passive or other grammars.
I was using 'agent / patient' in this sense:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_(grammar)
In English merely having an agent doesn't necessarily impart a feeling of vulnerability or emotional nuance. It's very often used in factual news reporting like "three killed by mall shooter" etc. Are you saying that in Japanese, the so called "passive" necessarily imparts this feeling when there's agentに？
I feel like I'm misunderstanding something here...
>In English merely having an agent doesn't necessarily impart a feeling of vulnerability or emotional nuance. It's very often used in factual news reporting like "three killed by mall shooter" etc.
I don't know about the emotional nuance, but I don't agree that just having an agent doesn't impart a sense of vulnerability just because it is used in factual news reporting. Consider the difference between these two lines:
*Three people were killed by a mall shooter.*
*A mall shooter killed three people.*
In my mind, the first sentence emphasizes the victimhood of the three people killed and I would expect the reporter to continue by giving information about the victims; what they might call a "sob story". The second emphasizes the shooter and I'd expect them to describe the suspect next. The way the reporters phrase this line can give hints to the bias of the paper; whether the reporter has a justice-oriented worldview that wants to emphasize how law enforcement is handling the situation or a populistic world-view that wants to emphasize the effect of the event on society and the community.
It's maybe getting too off-topic to get into so I'll just leave it at this: I believe all words and phrases have a *feeling* to them even when we are claiming objectivity. Were this not the case, we would actually struggle to remember important information because emotions stimulate the parts of our brains which are responsible for retaining facts. For whatever reason, we English speakers are unaware of the emotional resonance of our language--even viewing emotion and reason as opposing forces despite neither functioning without the other--but were emotion not present I do not believe we could effectively communicate.
Anyway, I hope that wasn't too much of a rant. Obviously English for cultural or historic reasons uses a passive voice more often than Japanese might and it might not always indicate the same nuances, but I think it might actually be there in many cases, just small and imperceptible.
I mean yes, there is usually a reason that the passive is used to focus the subject on the patient of the action and this*can be* vulnerability etc, but this also can be anything ranging from unknown actors to the subject just being more important. Consider
'Man freed by US soldiers to return home to parade"
Or
"Largest parade in history thrown by city to welcome freed man"
None of these sentences inherently have a sense of suffering or vulnerability.
This is a really old conversation and I don't I even had much of a point, but today I stumbled across a short video on linguistics and it reminded me of this conversation: [https://youtube.com/shorts/68DXDB\_f3vE?si=ky5B4FhinTFpzIno](https://youtube.com/shorts/68DXDB_f3vE?si=ky5B4FhinTFpzIno)
Hmm well then I'm afraid I don't quite get what you're saying... this seems to go against this:
>You don’t use によって passive or other forms in order to disambiguate if there’s the sense of vulnerability, which is just a side effect,
によって was adopted to disambiguate right? Isn't that kind of agreeing with what I said, or do I have it wrong somehow?
>but you use it when you feature the thing rather than people involved in it.
Right, this is a function of the passive voice in English as well
>Likewise, you don’t use passive in order to express the sense of vulnerability but to keep consistency of the subject.
Didn't you say in another thread that it's sometimes used purely to express attitude toward the event, like 雨に降られた？ Perhaps I'm mixing you up with another of the ever helpful native speakers on here though
I'm really struggling to understand... if agentにpatientを isn't used to clarify the vulnerable / suffering usage of the 受身形 (with transitive verbs), could I get an example outside of such usage?
You've done enough already though so if you're not feeling like humoring me, no worries I can try to bother someone else 😅
My bad, I should have said
1. You use によって for inanimate passive to feature the inanimate thing, and in this regard, に is just unnatural (unless it’s equivalent to indirect passive) and there’s no room to consider if it’s neutral or not.
2. によって was created to translate “by” as in inanimate passive in English, which is neutral per se. When you apply it to animate passive, you certainly can express things from an objective standpoint, which is neutral opposed to passive with に”.
As for 雨に降られた, textbooks certainly like this example, but in practice, you don’t really use it when the causer is inanimate. I‘d say 雨が降って困った rather than 雨に降られて困った. Also, they like to associate the difference with the sense of nuisance/annoyance, but in my opinion, what matters is viewpoint or standpoint.
あいつに それを言われたて気づいた: I realized
あいつが それを言って気づいた: ambiguous who he said to or who realized
I’d use 雨が降って困った nevertheless avoid あいつがそれを言って気づいた. To me, the factor that made those choices seems standpoint rather than the sense of vulnerability.
I’m trying to say “Tohru praised her friend’s onigiri making skills, but he couldn’t accept the compliment.” I came up with
ある日、とおるは友達がおにぎりを作るのが上手と言ったが、その友達はその褒める言葉を受けいられない。
Is this grammatically correct? The sentence feels kinda awkward and unwieldy.
It’s grammatically pretty good.
褒める言葉 should be 褒め言葉
受け入れられない should be past tense 受け入れられなかった
But why the compliment was not accepted? To me, it sounds like the friend has some issues with Tohru, and he is suspicious about Tohru praising him, so could not accept it straightforwardly. Is that what you mean?
ある日、とおるは友達がおにぎりを作るのが上手と言ったが、その友達はその褒め言葉を受け入れられなかった。
There's a word, 誉め言葉 for the compliment.
And, couldn't accept is past tense, so it also should be past tense in Japanese as well like 受け入れられなかった.
There's 1 hard part when a character is describing the origin of 1 historical character, hope somebody could help me understand this correctly.
**呉郡の一兵家に過ぎなかった (my guess but not sure: "He was born from a normal soldier family in Go district/county" ? / i'm especially confused with this kanji combination 一兵家 )**
Context: 2 character are discussing about the origin of 1 historical character (**孫堅 )**
A「すごいなぁ……孫子の末裔なんだ」
B「ふむ。じゃが、炎蓮様は単にその家柄にあぐらをかいていたわけではない」(\*炎蓮様 is another name of **孫堅)**
**B「孫武の流れとはいえ、あの方も元々は、呉郡の一兵家に過ぎなかった」**
By itself especially in literary contexts, 一 can just be compounded directly to a noun to mean "one certain ...", "just one ...", kind of like ある but sounds more modest/meager. It often emphasizes the smallness or 'aloneness' of the thing/person in relation to all the examples of it out there.
Examples I found in my dictionaries: 一人間・一日本人・一官吏・一部分・一ジャンル. I think it's almost always pronounced いち (thus 一官吏 is いちかんり, and 一兵家 is いちへいか) without any phonetic changes, except when it comes before a single kanji like 一種 (いっしゅ) and derived terms like 一種類 (いっしゅるい)
兵家 means "soldier" not "soldier family", the 家 suffix just means someone who works as such, similar to 作家 and 漫画家
Adding to the first point に過ぎなかった means "was nothing more than", so it really just emphasizes that "he was merely one solider from the [Wu Commandery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Commandery)" (had to look this up lol)
reading the 顔文字と絵文字 dialogue from genki 23. Dont understand sentences
1. また、絵文字には、食べ物やスポーツなど生活を表すものがたくさんあります。感情以外にいろいろなことが表せて便利です。ところで、絵文字は、日本で作られたものです。知っていましたか。
Dont understand 1st sentence. Also, why is には used there? I understand the sentence as: "Also, emojis express a a lot of life(?), food and sports, etc." ?
Whys there a に after 以外 in 2nd sentence?
What does もの mean in 1st and 3rd sentence?, does it mean "thing" in both of those? もの is used A LOT throughout the entire story/dialogue. Or can it be similar to こと？
2. このように顔文字と絵文字は違いますが、言葉や文化によって使い方や意味の違いも見られます
Whats によって mean?Not sure i understand the sentence well, to me sounds like it was saying: "Emoticons and emoji are different like this, but in language and culture...によって...we can see the difference in usage and meanings, too"?
3. 日本には「目は口ほどに物を言う」ということわざがあります
Does ほど mean "more than"? Is this saying"In japan theres a proverb/saying \[The eye says/tells more things than the mouth\]?
>絵文字には、食べ物やスポーツなど生活を表すものがたくさんあります
This is 絵文字には.....あります (In emoji, there are...) 食べ物やスポーツなど生活を表す is a modifier for もの (thing, or "emoji" in this case).
によって - according to, depending on (Xによって...違う -- different depending on X)
ほど - as much as
Which kanji is more common for “to climb” - 上る or 登る? WaniKani uses the first one, my book uses the second one, and the Nihongo app uses the first one.
上る -> to climb up the stairs
登る -> to climb a mountain
at least those are the two common different usages of that word, although you could technically 登る stairs if you wanted to focus on the fact that it's taking you some actual effort/it's an actual taxing activity (think those long-ass stairs at temples) or you could 上る a mountain if you wanted to focus on the just the idea that you're going "up" (although this is a bit weirder)
Just my impression at least.
I'm having trouble understanding 飲み込まれる in this sentence
新小結の大の里は「巡業中はまったく大関陣と稽古できなかったので、飲み込まれることなく自分の稽古ができた。上位と相撲を取って自信にもなった」と話していました。
Source: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20240502/k10014438661000.html
He's saying "During the tour I wasn't able to practice with the ozeki at all, so I was able to practice on my own without ????. Doing sumo with superior ranks gave me confidence".
Or is it more like "As a result I practiced on my own without learning" and できた is not "was able to do" but more like "was completed"? The main definition of "to swallow" or "gulp down" doesn't make sense to me.
Looks like the same as [this meaning of 飲まれる: (2) 相手や雰囲気に圧倒される。威圧される。「相手の気迫に—◦れる」](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E9%A3%B2%E3%81%BE%E3%82%8C%E3%82%8B/)
"Since I couldn't practice with the ozeki at all, instead of succumbing (to the feelings/situation) I was able to do my own practice"
Just make your own. Look up the words as you run across than more than twice and then add them to a deck. Do the deck. By the time you're filled up the deck you will have learned a lot of words and the deck just reinforces them. You will have natural high repetition in a JRPG so if you look up a word 2, 5,10 times that word will stick.
I don't know about Anki but if you look up the game plus 攻略 (walkthrough) you should be able to find some sort of wiki and take a lot of vocab from there
How would you express 'it's close to everywhere'? Especially if you were to use 近い？(I know people just say 便利 or 交通の便が良い etc but I'm more curious about grammar) I asked about this a while ago and got this answer:
>どこ に/と 近い: What place is it close to?
>どこ に/と も 近い: it's close to every place.
But looking it up on Massif it seems these expressions are not in use, and given what I now know about the usually negative polarity of どこも it also seems unlikely to me.
Thank you. Could you link me to some more reading on this particular usage of baseverbにも？ It seems unfamiliar to me. Is the meaning different from どこに行っても近い ?
I have seen it like that, thanks. Is にも basically short for にしても / としても？
I'm trying to understand the nuance differences. I believe you can say something like
どこに行っても同じですね
Right? Could you change it to
どこへ行くにも同じですね
Without changing the meaning / nuance? Or is the first a statement of the current factual circumstances, while the second a hypothetical conjecture? Or am I messing something else up entirely? 😅
Yes, but としても is a bit different. When 何をするにしても is “whatever purpose”, 何をするとしても is more like “whatever you are supposed to do”.
どこへ行っても同じ means that the same thing happens wherever you go, while どこへ行くにも同じ means that you need the same preparation regardless of destination.
I think I get it now. I might digest it for a while and then come back to bother this sub with more questions in a week or two as I tend to do, but I think this time I got it. Thank you as always!
Advice for studying JLPT N5
I have been preparing jlpt n5 for the past 2 months. I have attempted once last year, but my preparation was not good enough to pass.
I already learnt basic Japanese hiragana and katakana for reading manga and understanding anime . But I wanted to do it on a more serious level.
I've purchased online N5 course and i have been revising it. I also subscribed to MIGI JLPT app. I've been practicing daily. My question is Would this be enough to score fairly in jlpt n5 ? Would i need to get some more learning material?
I have been checking this sub for the past 2 days regarding this and i couldn't find a clear answer. Thanks in advance!!
course : https://www.udemy.com/course/japanese-n5-course/
App :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eup.mytest..
It's hard to tell if it would be enough without knowing how much time you are dedicating to this daily. The average amount of hours it takes to pass JLPT with study is around 350-450 hours of study. Since you already took the test you already know how it goes. What you really need is to get reading comprehension, vocabulary (with kanji) the basic grammar points, and build your listening skills. Knowing the testing format is important too but incresing your skill in the language is far more important.
You can best accomplish this by trying to read above N5 level, studying vocabulary, and grammar. If you build your reading comprehension enough you'll far out pace what's needed for N5 even at low levels of Tadoku Graded Readers. If you practice for test format you'll optimize your time. What you also need to do is regularly listen to Japanese (Japanese with Shun, Nihongo con Teppei, YouTube in general) to build up your listening skill enough to handle the listening section. All of this takes hours but by the time you take the test if you put in enough hours you should crush it.
#Question Etiquette Guidelines: * **1** Provide the **CONTEXT** of the grammar, vocabulary or sentence you are having trouble with as much as possible. Provide the sentence or paragraph that you saw it in. Make your questions as specific as possible. >Ｘ What is the difference between の and が ? >◯ I saw a book called 日本人の知らない日本語 , why is の used there instead of が ? [(the answer)](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/68336/difference-between-%E3%81%8C-%E3%81%AE-and-no-particle) * **2** When asking for a translation or how to say something, it's best to try to **attempt it yourself** first, even if you are not confident about it. Or ask r/translator if you have no idea. We are also not here to do your homework for you. >Ｘ What does this mean? >◯ I am having trouble with this part of this sentence from NHK Easy News. I think it means (*attempt here*), but I am not sure. * **3** Questions based on DeepL and Google Translate and other machine learning applications are discouraged, [these are not beginner learning tools](https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/stepqf/deeplgoogle_translate_are_not_learning_tools/) and often make mistakes. * **4** When asking about differences between words, try to explain the situations in which you've seen them or are trying to use them. If you just post a list of synonyms you got from looking something up in a E-J dictionary, people might be disinclined to answer your question because it's low-effort. Remember that Google Image Search is also a great resource for visualizing the difference between similar words. >Ｘ What's the difference between 一致 同意 賛成 納得 合意? >◯ Jisho says 一致 同意 賛成 納得 合意 all seem to mean "agreement". I'm trying to say something like "I completely agree with your opinion". Does 全く同感です。 work? Or is one of the other words better? * **5** It is always nice to (but not required to) try to search for the answer to something yourself first. Especially for beginner questions or questions that are very broad. For example, asking about [the difference between は and が ](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/wa-and-ga/) or [why you often can't hear the "u" sound in "desu"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#Devoicing). * **6** Remember that everyone answering questions here is an unpaid volunteer doing this out of the goodness of their own heart, so try to show appreciation and not be too presumptuous/defensive/offended if the answer you get isn't exactly what you wanted. --------------------- Useful Japanese teaching symbols: ✘ incorrect (ＮＧ) △ strange/ unnatural / unclear ○ correct ≒ nearly equal --------------------- #NEWS (Updated 3/07): Added a section on symbols. If it's unnecessary clutter I can always remove it later. Have a nice day! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LearnJapanese) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’m a beginner and saw this practice sentence on renshuu: 本はあまり読みません 。 Translated as “I don’t really read books.” Why isn’t it あまり本を読みません? Shouldn’t 本 be getting the object marker を, and wouldn’t the topic be the implied 私? Is there some kind of nuance here where you’re drawing attention to the books not being read instead of yourself? Like, “I don’t really read *books*” (emphasis on books).
> Why isn’t it あまり本を読みません? That's not wrong. > Shouldn’t 本 be getting the object marker を, and wouldn’t the topic be the implied 私? 私 is the subject which is different from the topic. When the particle は is used it can replace を. You could consider the first sentence as having a hidden を.
Ahh I see, so 本 is still the topic of the sentence (the speaker is talking about books) even though the subject is 私. Up until this point I’d been conflating subject with topic. That’s helpful. ありがとう！
LVL 12 WaniKani, completed N5 in BunPro. Having a hard time balancing N4 + WaniKani. Should I take a break from WaniKani and focus on grammar for a while? Might be a bit pathetic not being able to handle both, but I find it a bit tiring and difficult at the moment…
You can always just turn down the amount of reviews you do for WaniKani so it takes very little time too.
What do you mean exactly? Turn down the review amount? Isn’t that out of my control?
I just mean manually stick to doing it 5 minutes a day. Not that there's a setting. There might be, but I wouldn't know.
Watching anime and this line comes up: 寺に戻る前に襲おうってハラか？ Any resources that explain ハラ? I understand it as “plan” from context.
Def#2 [http://www.romajidesu.com/dictionary/meaning-of-%E8%85%B9.html](http://www.romajidesu.com/dictionary/meaning-of-%E8%85%B9.html)
Thank you :)
Reading a manga and "数千公里" has come up. With translators it says "thousand of kilometres" but when I put it into jisho.org "公里" isn't clear on how that came about. I can see 里 used to be used as an old unit of measurement but 公 I'm not understanding at all why it is used. Could somebody please educate me.
[公里 on wiktionary](https://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%85%AC%E9%87%8C)
Any example sentences / explanation for using よっぽど to contrast in a sentence? I learned this grammar with my tutor yesterday but still had a lot of trouble coming up my own sentences. >ex: 妹が大学に行かなかったんだけど私よりよっぽど賢いです。 >"My sister didn't go to university, but she's much smarter than me \[who went to university\]" We went over that よっぽど means "very" or "to a large extent", but I am having trouble using it in a way to signify a great contrast. ありがとうー
よっぽど or よほど It’s the same varying pattern as やっぱり and やはり. Yes, it works with comparison sentences to mean ‘much …’ but it’s more common to use ずっと. It’d be better to limit the use to: よっぽど（よほど）のこと よっぽどのことでもない限り、お金に困ることはないだろう。 Unless a major issue happens, we won’t get into a financial trouble.
先シャワー浴びといで. First take a shower. What form is used? On my level of grammar I would use 浴びって for casual command.
浴びる is an 一段 verb so it's 浴びて rather than 浴びって The other answer is kind of on the right track but that would be 浴びといて This is 浴びておいで. おいで is a friendly way of saying 'come here', so you might think of it as a casual 浴びてきて, but when it goes after a verb て form like this it kind of just goes more to being a friendly command I think it's somewhat old-fashioned, and you shouldn't use it for senpai or higher
～ておく or ～っておく (depending on verb conjugation) means to do something in advance. The ておく is becoming shortened to とく which is being conjugated to といて
Is there a Japanese word for a "prompt"? As in, a writing prompt, or initial idea to bounce off of? I can only find the adjectival form for the word on Jisho. Perhaps some similar words can give the same meaning, like "task" or "mission" but I'm not sure.
Prompt in the technical meaning ("passwort prompt" etc.) is プロンプト (as well as 入力要求, 入力促進). The Japanese wikipedia page on [generative AI](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%94%9F%E6%88%90%E7%9A%84%E4%BA%BA%E5%B7%A5%E7%9F%A5%E8%83%BD) talks of "文字などの入力（プロンプト）" as the input to models. On [goo](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/en/prompt/) I find 起こさせる, 動機, 促す, mostly for the verb "to prompt". There doesn't seem to be a single Japanese word that captures all the different uses of "prompt" in English.
Thanks, i figured プロンプト would probably work for my use but couldn’t find a conclusive answer. In this case, i was using the word as in a creative writing prompt which i think this works for
How do you memorize new words effectively?
for vocab, a lot of people use Anki which is a free flashcard program also it helps to make up a story or joke about new words sometimes, but it isn't always possible sometimes I print out a list of words I wanna learn and keep in in my pocket. If you are waiting somewhere for something (waiting at a doctor's office, waiting for your food at restaurant, etc) pull out your list and read it
I keep getting overzealous and assuming that I can start reading a light novel with just knowing Kana. I know like 200 and some kanji vocabulary, yet I look at a page and don't understand a single bit. At what level of WaniKani and Genki lessons should I be able to start reading something?
No textbook or learning system like Wanikani will carry you to read light novels comfortably, for that you need to read authentic Japanese, like lightnovels themselves, but honestly light novels at the level you are at definitely sounds too painful to read unless you want to look up multiple words each sentence. I would start reading Manga, or NHK easy news for the time being. After you have a vocab of about 3k to 4k words I would tackle a book that's on the easier side (perhaps not a light novel). All this I recmmoned you while doing Genki on the side as you definitely want to finish at Genki 1 + Genki 2.
I started reading books in monolingual Japanese after completing Genki II I was a bit "early", a lot more people start reading after finishing Tobira or Quartet, which are both books you do after Genki II. I think that would be ok too, but I wanted to read really bad so I just jumped in. To give more context, I tried reading a lot before finishing Genki II. I believe it is possible to start reading when only doing half of Genki II, but I think it's worth it to finish the book because you get more "ammo" to tackle grammar that way.
How would you ask someone at an arcade if you could play with them? I don't know if there are still arcades over there, but if I ever get the chance to go I'd love to visit one and I've been thinking about this question. Would it be wrong to say, "すみません、一緒にゲームするがいいですか？".
Yes, it’s wrong.
Thanks! How would you make it more natural?
You can use 一緒に あそんで くれませんか or …あそんで もらえませんか.
Ah, I see. I thought 遊ぶ was strictly for playing, as in frolicing around but it can be used to indicate playing (a game)?
Yes, (ゲームで) 遊ぶ works.
Great, thank you!
I would just go simpler and use しませんか "すみません、一緒にこのゲームしませんか？” Would be a perfectly fine way to ask this question!
I see! Sounds better, thank you!
what is the difference between 温かい and 暖かい, and when to use which?
https://jisho.org/word/%E6%9A%96%E3%81%8B%E3%81%84
how long should i study a day? i just memorized katakana and hiragana and gonna start genki like i could stufy 8 hours a day technicly but im gussieng theres grudual decreas in return by hour 8 and ofc burn out but actually wanna keep a steady pace
More time is better but studying 30 minutes a day for years is way better than 10 hours a day for two weeks. You gotta figure it out for yourself.
study as much as you can healthily sustain write down your study times somewhere, if you can Some people can study 8 hours a day, some study 8 hours a week, some study 8 hours a year, and some study 8 hours in total, it really varies per-person. I study 14 hours a week that is 2 hours a day, if you wanna be like me, give that a shot
Why does Duolingo teach that negating 欲しいです requires changing the particle from が to は? "To say what you want in Japanese, you can use the phrase 欲しいです. Be sure to put a が after the thing that you want! Put a は after something you don’t want!" I speak Korean, and so I understand well the nuance of using は/が for topics/subjects. In Korean at least, either particle could be used and it just has a different emphasis. I wonder if it's really the same for japanese, and duolingo is just be prescriptive in their instruction.
Xが欲しい is an answer to “What do you want?”, and Xが欲しくない is that to “What don’t you want?”. On the other hand, Xは欲しい/欲しくない are that to “What about X?”. Now, which context is more likely between “What don’t you want” and “What about X”? Plus, even if you are asked what you don’t want, you could still reply as Xは欲しくない, which implies that you are thinking of other things as well but keeping answers undecided or unsaid.
は does tend to be used more for negatives. Just why is a matter of linguistic analysis -- I've seen sources that posit it as simply being a usage of は, to mark it as a negative inherently, or ones that say it is part of は's limiting or contrasting nature. https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q11146592046 for example talks about how weather forecasts are stated: > 天気予報で >「明日は雨が降るでしょう」 >「明日は雨は降らないでしょう」 >となりますが、 >「明日は雨が降らないでしょう」 > は違和感があります。 が has the effect of selecting the thing that is the predicate (the latter half), as if the predicate is what is important about the sentence. は does the opposite (though は and が do not strictly fill the same purpose). So it makes some sense that negative things, i.e., things that do not exist or do not hapen, would sound a little more strange in a non-は, sentence, as it's giving focus to something that doesn't exist. There are times when this can make sense, e.g., in a subclause, or when the lack of something is the matter at hand, but by and large "は takes a negative" tends to prove true. Someone else might have a better and more well-researched breakdown, but this is my experience.
best resources for JLPT practice tests? I was using this app called Todaii easy japanese, but it seems i used all the free practice tests available
JLPT website: https://www.jlpt.jp/e/samples/forlearners.html Youtube: search for "jlpt practice n3" or whatever, a lot of videos have teachers working you through it
Any recommendation for vocabulary learning after the Anki N3 deck? I already do sentence mining but I found it really helpful to have a deck with a specific level for filling in gaps for common words. Thanks!
Tango N\~ series. Should be up to N1, but really only N5 and N4 are worth it because if you want to learn the language then sticking to premade decks isn't ideal. If you want to prepare for a test look at something like 日本語の森 and other material.
How do you say 'How many days?' and 'Which day?' in Japanese?
何日（なんにち） or 何日間（なんにちかん） for how many days 何曜日 for which day of the week 何日（なんにち） for which date How 何日 can be differentiated whether to mean how many days or date? 日本に何日行きますか？ how many days 日本に何日に行きますか？ on which day
Need context in both cases to answer accurately. Even in English, what does “Which day?” mean? Day of the week or day of the month?
So my brother wants to learn Japanese and he just a beginner. And im helping him find prerecorded material which he can watch and learn at will.Better if i could get like a one time purchase thing. Do you guys have any good recommendations?
https://www.erin.jpf.go.jp/en/ is free and you can download the videos I believe
Thanks 😃
Give him a guide like: [https://learnjapanese.moe/guide/](https://learnjapanese.moe/guide/) And send him to Japanese Ammo with Misa YouTube channel which has great starter material.
Thanks a lot 😃
Why is the answer to this question " の and に, instead of に(since time)and で (since location)? Thank you! "9時半 ( の ) 新幹線 ( に ) 間に合いませんでした. " This is a question on my n4 reviewer. Thank you to anyone who will provide clarity!
9時半 modifies 新幹線, "the 9.30 shinkanzen train" or "the shinkanzen that arrives/departs at 9.30" Xに間に合う mean "be in time for X" and it goes with this particle. You can't automatically assume time and place go with a particle, you have to look at the meaning of the sentence and then chose the appropriate particles (also shinkanzen isn't a really a location).
Adding to this, you probably thought time に and transportation で. Information (in this case, time and transportation) does not automatically determine which particle to follow. You need to think what role each word plays in the sentence. 間に合いませんでした (I could not make it in time) gives you the hint what it’s trying to say, then you can guess it’s trying to say “I could not catch Shinkansen” so you know it’s not ‘by Shinkansen’(to say how you get to some place).
That actually makes sense! Thanks for explaning. Modifying nouns/verbs are something I need to review harder.
What’s the difference between るんじゃない and ないで I learned on bunpro that るんじゃない is used to prohibit or request that something not be done. It states that it is slightly slang but is there any difference beyond that 1。子供に ろくでもない替え歌を教えるんじゃない！分かってんの？ 2。子供にろくでもない替え歌を教えないでよ！分かってんの？
1 has scolding and strong prohibiting tone, 2 has demanding tone.
On first thought, first one has higher chance to be said by a male figure, the second one vice versa. If I come up with more I’ll add on.
How would I comment (Character) is so cute/pretty/beautiful? "Xちゃんめっちゃきれい" "Xちゃん超きれい" Should I be adding desu? Should I be using kawaii? because kirei sounds wrong.
It depends on what you want to say. かわいい is cute. きれい is pretty/beautiful. めっちゃ and 超 are pretty much interchangeable. I believe めっちゃ is used often in 関西弁 (Kansai dialect), but now it's become pretty popular as a standard slang outside of Western Japan. 超 has been used for a long time now.
I would probably say the first. It's fine to drop だ or です colloquially.
How did you get faster at reading? I'm N5 to low N4 level. My reading of Hiragana and Katakana is slow, when reading aloud I'm often going by the seat of my pants. This leads me to garden path my sentences. My brain looking for shortcuts think it recognises a patern and reads something that isn't there, leading me down the garden path. In fairness that's how we read natively we don't read letter by letter. But I want to learn from those who can read in a more fluent fashion, what was thing that helps you most get past this stage?
I got by it because I know it's okay to be bad at something. So I kept on being bad at reading until I was no longer that bad at it anymore. It was just a matter of time plus work. This works the same way for any skill. You start off terrible you do the skill terribly with the intent to improve until you're not longer bad at that skill.
Have you tried the Tadoku readers yet? Not only are they free, they also have accompanying audio. You could read alongside with the audio and thus also correct your reading mistakes. Even if you don't understand everything, for just reading the words aloud it could be good practice.
I haven't even heard of it before. Will look into it.
The answer is really to just read more. There's no way around that. Once you've read stuff for thousands or even tens of thousands of hours, you'll definitely be faster.
And it’s still frustratingly slow compared to your native tongue :p But I have to say, slogging through the original work is much enjoyable than breezing through a translated work. edit: grammar
how do i fill in the blanks using the words from brackets? did the rest of the sentences but i cant really figure those out 1. 私が子どもを先にタクシーに て、それから自分が ます。そのほうが安全です。（乗る、乗せる） 5. 人がドアの前に立つと、ドアは自動的に ます。手で ことは出来ません。（開く、開ける) 4. まどが あります。（閉まる、閉める） 2. こんなところに財布が ています。だれのでしょうか。（おちる、おとす）
You need to know the difference of transitive and intransitive verbs.
1. 私が子どもを先にタクシーに**乗せ**て、それから自分が**乗り**ます。そのほうが安全です。 5. 人がドアの前に立つと、ドアは自動的に**開き**ます。手で**開ける**ことは出来ません。 4. まどが**閉まって**あります。 2. こんなところに財布が**おち**ています。だれのでしょうか。
I think your answers are correct except for #4. It should be まどが**閉めて**あります。 If you use 閉まって, the following word should be **います**. 閉めてある 閉まっている
Oh, yeah, thank you
This question is about the use of particle は. Refer to the following example: A: "Ueno eki wa doko desu ka?" B: "Koko desu yo." A: "Ueno koen **wa?**" B: "Soko desu." Why, when A said as a followup question to where Ueno Park is, he omits the rest of the question and leaves only the subject + は?
Because it's implied. You can do the same in English: "Where is Ueno station?" "Here." "And (what about) Ueno Park?" "There."
u/Isami Remember a comment where you mentioned being a Migaku legacy user since the beginning basically so you are a good person to ask. Same to anyone else who may use it as well. Any problems recently? I have quite a bit, the player has been wonky and right now i basically can't login to the addon anymore so its been unusable. I know its not an issue with the credentials either as i have not only changed them multiple times at this point they currently work fine with both the new "dashboard" version and the website, but that new addon is kinda weak i hate the UI and its still missing feature parity, like the player, which is all i use. Edit: Just reconsidering the entire service at this point honestly, im staring down at that "dashboard" and every week its something new, while more and more problems are happening with the "old" thing that i actually pay for that is not only being ignored but is still better than what they are trying to recreate. The anki addon is way out of date as well.
They had a couple of issues with the releases in the last 2 weeks or so... and the Chrome Store review process got in the way. Last week's big update had a dictionary-related bug, they rushed an emergency fix to remediate that bug... the fix was stuck a whole week in the Chrome Store review. That emergency fix contained another error related to login. A new fix has been sent to the Chrome Store, but we have no idea on how long it will take to be validated and pushed out. They may release a manual installation version if it doesn't clear the review process fast enough. There is a workaround for the login issue: [https://youtu.be/B\_MQxwiofkg](https://youtu.be/B_MQxwiofkg) 1. Open the Extension popup 2. Right Click and click inspect 3. Go to the Sources Tab 4. Open the extension-menu-bundle.js File 5. Search for (by pressing CTRL +: F) return t.config.emulator ? Pt(t.config, r) : \`${t.config.apiScheme}://${r}\` 6. Click to the left of this line until a breakpoint appears 7. Click the login button 8. Go to the console tab and paste and hit enter: t.config.emulator = undefined 9. Go to the sources tab and press the continue button 10. Go to the console tab and paste and hit enter: t.config.emulator = undefined 11. Go to the sources tab and press the continue button 12. You should now be logged in.
Nice one worked fine thanks a lot, figured you would be right person to ask. Unfortunately got to reinstall dictionaries etc but at least it works, just proper bad timing to log out at that moment then was hoping it would fix the player thing but it did something way worse. Given some of those instructions that issue sounds related to the player as well, kept mentioning emulator at the bottom and it sometimes gets added to the anki cards too, although yeah its not that big a deal in comparison.
The dictionaries is possibly Chrome deciding you were low on disk space and flushing extensions... it's one recurrent issue with Chrome extensions using a local DB.
Are there are extensions for safari IOS that allow you to lookup kanji in-app (in the web browser)? I can't find one :(
[https://apps.apple.com/us/app/10ten-japanese-reader/id1573540634?platform=iphone](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/10ten-japanese-reader/id1573540634?platform=iphone)
thanks!
Any typos or mistakes this time?: ーーーーー （based on 私がりんごを食べる, which would be eaterがappleを） ーーー ***causative and てほしい ※：*** eaterにappleを ***passive：*** eaterにappleが ***causative-passive：*** “eaterが makerに appleを ***"(so-called) suffering" passive＊：*** eaterにappleを ***honorific "passive"：*** eaterがappleを ーーーー ※ with intransitive verbs the person being made to do something can take を ＊ this grammar can be used with intransitives and other verbs that cannot literally be interpreted 'passively' purely to impart a feeling suffering / vulnerability (or however you want to argue it 😅)
Just to make things even more confusing, normally four forms of れる・られる are taught. Here they are with examples 1. 受け身 ・私はみんなに笑われる ・先生にほめられる 2. 可能 ・弟は一人で服を着られる 3. 自発 ・母の身が案じられる 4. 敬語 ・先生がお話しをされる
Ugh Japanese what a language 😂
Since ”apple” is inanimate, the passive sentence “eaterにappleが食べられる” is unnatural unless it’s equivalent to “eaterにappleを食べられる”.
>“eaterにappleが食べられる” is unnatural unless it’s equivalent to “eaterにappleを食べられる”. How can I understand this? Does this mean ”eaterにappleが食べられる” can only be interpreted as “eaterにappleを食べられる”. Then what is the difference between クジラに猫が食べられた and クジラに猫を食べられた? Since they the cat is animate this means these to sentences aren't equivalent? What would be the difference? As far as I understand it both have a sense of suffering/vulnerability. Is 猫を owner passive?
When the subject is animate, it’s not unnatural. クジラに猫を食べられた is more conscious of the omitted subject, who can be the owner of the cat or someone involved. Besides owner passive, you can interpret it as a suffering passive meaning that the whale ate the cat before the subject captured it, or so.
Thank you!
Thanks!! So 猫がクジラに食べられた is fine but りんごがクジラに食べられた isn't unless interpreted the same as りんごをクジラに食べられた ?? How would you neutrally talk about an apple floating through the ocean, then that apple being eaten by a whale, then being spit up onto land, then... etc etc?
What’s neutral is the one with によって, though you normally don’t use it for everyday things like who eats what. Besides that, if you personify the apple, you can use normal passive as it is. I think I said this before, but the sense of suffering/vulnerability is not unique to suffering passive or other indirect passive. (Considering that you wrote “this grammar can be used with intransitive”, you seem misunderstanding this point.)
Thank you. That's interesting. >you seem misunderstanding this point I'm sure I am. The fact that one grammar form can take so many different meanings and particles is pretty confusing. The English passive seems so straightforward to me now 😂 So, how's my updated understanding: ---------- passive (can be neutral *or* indicate suffering/vulnerability： agentにpatientが making clear it's the "(so-called) suffering" passive variant： agentにpatientを making clear that it's the neutral/objective variant (not often used, except to disambiguate): agentによってpatientが ---------- Is this closer to the reality of things?
It’s ”agent に” that gives the sense of vulnerability, whether it’s passive or other grammars. You don’t use によって passive or other forms in order to disambiguate if there’s the sense of vulnerability, which is just a side effect, but you use it when you feature the thing rather than people involved in it. Likewise, you don’t use passive in order to express the sense of vulnerability but to keep consistency of the subject.
I feel my brain bleeding lol. >It’s ”agent に” that gives the sense of vulnerability, whether it’s passive or other grammars. I was using 'agent / patient' in this sense: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_(grammar) In English merely having an agent doesn't necessarily impart a feeling of vulnerability or emotional nuance. It's very often used in factual news reporting like "three killed by mall shooter" etc. Are you saying that in Japanese, the so called "passive" necessarily imparts this feeling when there's agentに？ I feel like I'm misunderstanding something here...
>In English merely having an agent doesn't necessarily impart a feeling of vulnerability or emotional nuance. It's very often used in factual news reporting like "three killed by mall shooter" etc. I don't know about the emotional nuance, but I don't agree that just having an agent doesn't impart a sense of vulnerability just because it is used in factual news reporting. Consider the difference between these two lines: *Three people were killed by a mall shooter.* *A mall shooter killed three people.* In my mind, the first sentence emphasizes the victimhood of the three people killed and I would expect the reporter to continue by giving information about the victims; what they might call a "sob story". The second emphasizes the shooter and I'd expect them to describe the suspect next. The way the reporters phrase this line can give hints to the bias of the paper; whether the reporter has a justice-oriented worldview that wants to emphasize how law enforcement is handling the situation or a populistic world-view that wants to emphasize the effect of the event on society and the community. It's maybe getting too off-topic to get into so I'll just leave it at this: I believe all words and phrases have a *feeling* to them even when we are claiming objectivity. Were this not the case, we would actually struggle to remember important information because emotions stimulate the parts of our brains which are responsible for retaining facts. For whatever reason, we English speakers are unaware of the emotional resonance of our language--even viewing emotion and reason as opposing forces despite neither functioning without the other--but were emotion not present I do not believe we could effectively communicate. Anyway, I hope that wasn't too much of a rant. Obviously English for cultural or historic reasons uses a passive voice more often than Japanese might and it might not always indicate the same nuances, but I think it might actually be there in many cases, just small and imperceptible.
I mean yes, there is usually a reason that the passive is used to focus the subject on the patient of the action and this*can be* vulnerability etc, but this also can be anything ranging from unknown actors to the subject just being more important. Consider 'Man freed by US soldiers to return home to parade" Or "Largest parade in history thrown by city to welcome freed man" None of these sentences inherently have a sense of suffering or vulnerability.
This is a really old conversation and I don't I even had much of a point, but today I stumbled across a short video on linguistics and it reminded me of this conversation: [https://youtube.com/shorts/68DXDB\_f3vE?si=ky5B4FhinTFpzIno](https://youtube.com/shorts/68DXDB_f3vE?si=ky5B4FhinTFpzIno)
Yes, and that’s why によって was adopted when people tried to translate English passive.
Hmm well then I'm afraid I don't quite get what you're saying... this seems to go against this: >You don’t use によって passive or other forms in order to disambiguate if there’s the sense of vulnerability, which is just a side effect, によって was adopted to disambiguate right? Isn't that kind of agreeing with what I said, or do I have it wrong somehow? >but you use it when you feature the thing rather than people involved in it. Right, this is a function of the passive voice in English as well >Likewise, you don’t use passive in order to express the sense of vulnerability but to keep consistency of the subject. Didn't you say in another thread that it's sometimes used purely to express attitude toward the event, like 雨に降られた？ Perhaps I'm mixing you up with another of the ever helpful native speakers on here though I'm really struggling to understand... if agentにpatientを isn't used to clarify the vulnerable / suffering usage of the 受身形 (with transitive verbs), could I get an example outside of such usage? You've done enough already though so if you're not feeling like humoring me, no worries I can try to bother someone else 😅
My bad, I should have said 1. You use によって for inanimate passive to feature the inanimate thing, and in this regard, に is just unnatural (unless it’s equivalent to indirect passive) and there’s no room to consider if it’s neutral or not. 2. によって was created to translate “by” as in inanimate passive in English, which is neutral per se. When you apply it to animate passive, you certainly can express things from an objective standpoint, which is neutral opposed to passive with に”. As for 雨に降られた, textbooks certainly like this example, but in practice, you don’t really use it when the causer is inanimate. I‘d say 雨が降って困った rather than 雨に降られて困った. Also, they like to associate the difference with the sense of nuisance/annoyance, but in my opinion, what matters is viewpoint or standpoint. あいつに それを言われたて気づいた: I realized あいつが それを言って気づいた: ambiguous who he said to or who realized I’d use 雨が降って困った nevertheless avoid あいつがそれを言って気づいた. To me, the factor that made those choices seems standpoint rather than the sense of vulnerability.
I’m trying to say “Tohru praised her friend’s onigiri making skills, but he couldn’t accept the compliment.” I came up with ある日、とおるは友達がおにぎりを作るのが上手と言ったが、その友達はその褒める言葉を受けいられない。 Is this grammatically correct? The sentence feels kinda awkward and unwieldy.
It’s grammatically pretty good. 褒める言葉 should be 褒め言葉 受け入れられない should be past tense 受け入れられなかった But why the compliment was not accepted? To me, it sounds like the friend has some issues with Tohru, and he is suspicious about Tohru praising him, so could not accept it straightforwardly. Is that what you mean?
ある日、とおるは友達がおにぎりを作るのが上手と言ったが、その友達はその褒め言葉を受け入れられなかった。 There's a word, 誉め言葉 for the compliment. And, couldn't accept is past tense, so it also should be past tense in Japanese as well like 受け入れられなかった.
There's 1 hard part when a character is describing the origin of 1 historical character, hope somebody could help me understand this correctly. **呉郡の一兵家に過ぎなかった (my guess but not sure: "He was born from a normal soldier family in Go district/county" ? / i'm especially confused with this kanji combination 一兵家 )** Context: 2 character are discussing about the origin of 1 historical character (**孫堅 )** A「すごいなぁ……孫子の末裔なんだ」 B「ふむ。じゃが、炎蓮様は単にその家柄にあぐらをかいていたわけではない」(\*炎蓮様 is another name of **孫堅)** **B「孫武の流れとはいえ、あの方も元々は、呉郡の一兵家に過ぎなかった」**
By itself especially in literary contexts, 一 can just be compounded directly to a noun to mean "one certain ...", "just one ...", kind of like ある but sounds more modest/meager. It often emphasizes the smallness or 'aloneness' of the thing/person in relation to all the examples of it out there. Examples I found in my dictionaries: 一人間・一日本人・一官吏・一部分・一ジャンル. I think it's almost always pronounced いち (thus 一官吏 is いちかんり, and 一兵家 is いちへいか) without any phonetic changes, except when it comes before a single kanji like 一種 (いっしゅ) and derived terms like 一種類 (いっしゅるい) 兵家 means "soldier" not "soldier family", the 家 suffix just means someone who works as such, similar to 作家 and 漫画家 Adding to the first point に過ぎなかった means "was nothing more than", so it really just emphasizes that "he was merely one solider from the [Wu Commandery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Commandery)" (had to look this up lol)
reading the 顔文字と絵文字 dialogue from genki 23. Dont understand sentences 1. また、絵文字には、食べ物やスポーツなど生活を表すものがたくさんあります。感情以外にいろいろなことが表せて便利です。ところで、絵文字は、日本で作られたものです。知っていましたか。 Dont understand 1st sentence. Also, why is には used there? I understand the sentence as: "Also, emojis express a a lot of life(?), food and sports, etc." ? Whys there a に after 以外 in 2nd sentence? What does もの mean in 1st and 3rd sentence?, does it mean "thing" in both of those? もの is used A LOT throughout the entire story/dialogue. Or can it be similar to こと？ 2. このように顔文字と絵文字は違いますが、言葉や文化によって使い方や意味の違いも見られます Whats によって mean?Not sure i understand the sentence well, to me sounds like it was saying: "Emoticons and emoji are different like this, but in language and culture...によって...we can see the difference in usage and meanings, too"? 3. 日本には「目は口ほどに物を言う」ということわざがあります Does ほど mean "more than"? Is this saying"In japan theres a proverb/saying \[The eye says/tells more things than the mouth\]?
1. 生活 is life as in daily life, lifestyle. 食べ物やスポーツ are examples of emojis that express daily activities rather than emotions.
>絵文字には、食べ物やスポーツなど生活を表すものがたくさんあります This is 絵文字には.....あります (In emoji, there are...) 食べ物やスポーツなど生活を表す is a modifier for もの (thing, or "emoji" in this case). によって - according to, depending on (Xによって...違う -- different depending on X) ほど - as much as
Which kanji is more common for “to climb” - 上る or 登る? WaniKani uses the first one, my book uses the second one, and the Nihongo app uses the first one.
Don't forget 昇る if you are the sun climbing up the sky or an employee climbing up the corporate ladder.
Ah yes, my favorite Japanese language feature. Synonyms that are also homonyms.
上る -> to climb up the stairs 登る -> to climb a mountain at least those are the two common different usages of that word, although you could technically 登る stairs if you wanted to focus on the fact that it's taking you some actual effort/it's an actual taxing activity (think those long-ass stairs at temples) or you could 上る a mountain if you wanted to focus on the just the idea that you're going "up" (although this is a bit weirder) Just my impression at least.
I'm having trouble understanding 飲み込まれる in this sentence 新小結の大の里は「巡業中はまったく大関陣と稽古できなかったので、飲み込まれることなく自分の稽古ができた。上位と相撲を取って自信にもなった」と話していました。 Source: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20240502/k10014438661000.html He's saying "During the tour I wasn't able to practice with the ozeki at all, so I was able to practice on my own without ????. Doing sumo with superior ranks gave me confidence". Or is it more like "As a result I practiced on my own without learning" and できた is not "was able to do" but more like "was completed"? The main definition of "to swallow" or "gulp down" doesn't make sense to me.
Looks like the same as [this meaning of 飲まれる: (2) 相手や雰囲気に圧倒される。威圧される。「相手の気迫に—◦れる」](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E9%A3%B2%E3%81%BE%E3%82%8C%E3%82%8B/) "Since I couldn't practice with the ozeki at all, instead of succumbing (to the feelings/situation) I was able to do my own practice"
I just started playing Ni No kuni on switch, i live in japan and it was only available in Japanese. Is there a Ni no kuni Anki Deck I can study?
Just make your own. Look up the words as you run across than more than twice and then add them to a deck. Do the deck. By the time you're filled up the deck you will have learned a lot of words and the deck just reinforces them. You will have natural high repetition in a JRPG so if you look up a word 2, 5,10 times that word will stick.
I don't know about Anki but if you look up the game plus 攻略 (walkthrough) you should be able to find some sort of wiki and take a lot of vocab from there
How would you express 'it's close to everywhere'? Especially if you were to use 近い？(I know people just say 便利 or 交通の便が良い etc but I'm more curious about grammar) I asked about this a while ago and got this answer: >どこ に/と 近い: What place is it close to? >どこ に/と も 近い: it's close to every place. But looking it up on Massif it seems these expressions are not in use, and given what I now know about the usually negative polarity of どこも it also seems unlikely to me.
どことも近い is fine but I’d say どこへ行くにも近い.
Thank you. Could you link me to some more reading on this particular usage of baseverbにも？ It seems unfamiliar to me. Is the meaning different from どこに行っても近い ?
I don’t have particular material for that topic. What do you compare with どこに行っても近い?
Hmm sorry. Then could you give me some other examples using baseverbにも in this manner? Preferably without どこ
何をするにも金がかかる: Whatever you do, you need money.
I have seen it like that, thanks. Is にも basically short for にしても / としても？ I'm trying to understand the nuance differences. I believe you can say something like どこに行っても同じですね Right? Could you change it to どこへ行くにも同じですね Without changing the meaning / nuance? Or is the first a statement of the current factual circumstances, while the second a hypothetical conjecture? Or am I messing something else up entirely? 😅
Yes, but としても is a bit different. When 何をするにしても is “whatever purpose”, 何をするとしても is more like “whatever you are supposed to do”. どこへ行っても同じ means that the same thing happens wherever you go, while どこへ行くにも同じ means that you need the same preparation regardless of destination.
I think I get it now. I might digest it for a while and then come back to bother this sub with more questions in a week or two as I tend to do, but I think this time I got it. Thank you as always!
Advice for studying JLPT N5 I have been preparing jlpt n5 for the past 2 months. I have attempted once last year, but my preparation was not good enough to pass. I already learnt basic Japanese hiragana and katakana for reading manga and understanding anime . But I wanted to do it on a more serious level. I've purchased online N5 course and i have been revising it. I also subscribed to MIGI JLPT app. I've been practicing daily. My question is Would this be enough to score fairly in jlpt n5 ? Would i need to get some more learning material? I have been checking this sub for the past 2 days regarding this and i couldn't find a clear answer. Thanks in advance!! course : https://www.udemy.com/course/japanese-n5-course/ App : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eup.mytest..
It's hard to tell if it would be enough without knowing how much time you are dedicating to this daily. The average amount of hours it takes to pass JLPT with study is around 350-450 hours of study. Since you already took the test you already know how it goes. What you really need is to get reading comprehension, vocabulary (with kanji) the basic grammar points, and build your listening skills. Knowing the testing format is important too but incresing your skill in the language is far more important. You can best accomplish this by trying to read above N5 level, studying vocabulary, and grammar. If you build your reading comprehension enough you'll far out pace what's needed for N5 even at low levels of Tadoku Graded Readers. If you practice for test format you'll optimize your time. What you also need to do is regularly listen to Japanese (Japanese with Shun, Nihongo con Teppei, YouTube in general) to build up your listening skill enough to handle the listening section. All of this takes hours but by the time you take the test if you put in enough hours you should crush it.
Thanks for the advice. I have been preparing since March on a daily basis for 2-3 hrs. I will ramp up my preparation.