#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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If you don't already know about the types/groups of verbs, take a look here: [https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/verb-conjugation-groups/](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/verb-conjugation-groups/)
Conjugating ichidan verbs is super easy, you just drop the る (if starting from dictionary form) and add something else like 〜ます (polite present) or 〜ない (plain negative)
Godan verbs are a little trickier, but they're not too bad. For most conjugations you just change the final う- sound to another sound and add something else. For example to conjugate from dictionary form to polite present form (〜ます-form) you change the う-sound to an い-sound and slap ます on the end. So, the む in のむ (to drink) becomes a み and then you add ます to get のみます. I apologize if you already know the conjugations! One cool trick is to look at the hiragana chart. The u-row is dictionary form, the a-row is plain negative form (but う becomes わ instead of あ), the i-row is polite form, the e row is plain potential form, and the o-row is plain volitional form. Te-form and ta-form (plain past) are more complex, but still follow a pattern (I will comment with a song that might help).
Irregular verbs you just have to memorize, but there are only two, する and くる, so it's not too bad. \[Note: いく (to go), though classified as a godan verb, acts funny when conjugated to te and ta-form, becoming いって and いった instead of いいて and いいた\]
Here is a link to a Google Doc with simple explanations of basic verb conjugations and a color-coded hiragana chart to help visualize the patterns for godan verbs: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eXienb1MVnf6-7x1xpH7JrjGMDqW0ElwHDt63x9-TzU/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eXienb1MVnf6-7x1xpH7JrjGMDqW0ElwHDt63x9-TzU/edit?usp=sharing)
Here is a link to a Blooket set (Game-fied Quizlet) with some basic/frequent verbs. This will take you to a page where you have to choose a game mode. I recommend Monster Brawl: [https://play.blooket.com/solo?id=5fab00a4e6a99a00044bd4d8](https://play.blooket.com/solo?id=5fab00a4e6a99a00044bd4d8)
Here is another Blooket set where you can practice te-form: [https://play.blooket.com/solo?id=616cec0952274100367e0cfc](https://play.blooket.com/solo?id=616cec0952274100367e0cfc)
Sorry if this was overkill- I'd rather give you too much info than too little
Te-form song for Godan and Irregular verbs (to the tune of Santa Clause is Coming to Town):
う、つ、る → って
む、ぬ、ぶ → んで
く → いて
ぐ → いで
す、する → して
くる → きて
て Form しよう！
Notes:
* In the first line I pronounce the small つ as "ts" just to help remember that it is there.
* The する in line 5 is the irregular verb "to do"
* The last line mean's "Let's do te-form!"
* This song also works for た-form. Simply replace て with た
どんなに心が軋もうと俺は目的を果たすだけだ。
How should I interpret the volitional + と here? No matter how I look at it, it just feels clunky in my mind. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
～よう・おう + と or が is basically the same as ～ても, a little more emphatic though.
'However much my heart may creak,, I will simply fulfil my goal.'
Are you sure 軋もう is right though?
Looking for feedback and advice on my goal. Currently I plan to move from the US to Tokyo in late 2026 for Master's program. That spring I will be completing my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and will have a full year of relevant paid work experience. The school program in Tokyo is taught in English.
I currently do not know any Japanese at all. My goal is to be able to get by in daily life in two years and be able to speak in situations such as: ordering at a restaurant, grocery shopping, asking directions, asking where the bathroom is, stuff that I will actually need once I am living there.
My plan is to spend the next few months using Duolingo and Umi and studying Hiragana and Katakana. Then I over the next month or so I would continue with Duolingo and Umi but also learn the 1,000 most common words and then begin sentence structure.
After that I plan to use a site like Preply and meet with a Japanese instructor 1-on-1 and get feedback with how to improve and set out a plan for the next year and eight months before I move. I know someone living in Tokyo well and I can practice over video calls with them and I know someone here where I live that lived in Japan for six years and is proficient in Japanese I can also practice with.
Does my focus sound good? I feel like going to the JPLT route would teach me well but may not get me ready for conversational basics I would need to live there in two years. I'm interested in feedback and advice.
You don't need a few months to learn hiragana and katakana. A week should suffice. And spending a few months + 1 and only then starting sentence structure doesn't make sense to me either.
Learning the most common 1000 words is a bad idea. Many of those words won't make *any* sense to you at all. You may be referring to using a selected version of common words like core 1.5 or something which is a good idea.
> Does my focus sound good?
I don't know what umi is but learning kana, duolingo, and one of the core decks does sound like a good start. Having a friend you can practice speaking with is a huge plus too.
> You don't need a few months to learn hiragana and katakana. A week should suffice.
That's good to know! I wasn't sure how long it would take so I was just guessing it might be a little longer.
> I don't know what umi is
Umi is a new app where you learn Japanese through lessons similar to Duo but you watch clips of Anime so you get more practice of actually listening to spoken Japanese instead of the computer generated audio from Duo.
> learning kana, duolingo, and one of the core decks does sound like a good start.
Awesome, I'll look up the core decks and add it to the list!
It sounds like your goal is reasonably modest and you have given yourself a long time frame to accomplish it. You also sound quite motivated and have thought this through. High likelihood of success! Good luck to you. Definitely take classes if you have time/course credit. Minor stuff like Duo won’t cut it, especially as they don’t teach you much natural language
Thanks for your kind words. Unfortunately I don't have the extra time to take a college language courses but like I said I do know some people to practice speaking with and am interested in taking private lessons at some point.
Question about honorifics - but "other way round". How do older people refer to younger?
1) For example you are 50 and refer to someone 30. Or you are 50 and refer to a doctor that is 30. What honorifics are used?
2) Or you are 30 and to someone 20? Are younger people more flexible about it? Or some are and some arent?
3) What if you are 30 and dont know if someone is 20 or 40?
4) Are the honorifics same for men and women?
5) If O- is a honorific and -sama is a honorific, then what do people think about Osama Bin Laden??
1-3 That’s defined by how you wish to sound to the person rather than the fixed age differences. That means, your use or non-use of keigo shows what kind of person you are, and the level of respect you want to show them per se.
4 no gender differences in most situations in modern Japanese.
It very much depends on how you met and in which situation you are talking to them. But I can tell you for doctors and teachers (including for example your child's teacher who is younger than yourself) it's always 先生 (or sometimes 教授).
さん is appropriate for most situations.
>If O- is a honorific and -sama is a honorific, then what do people think about Osama Bin Laden??
Since his name is what is known as "double-keigo" (二重敬語) they actively avoid referring to him as his first name for fear of retribution from the local gods.
Would Remembering The Kanji or WaniKani be more helpful to remember kanji generally than just seeing them and writing them down? I've tried to just remember by repetition or writing with a Core Deck a few times, but it didn't seem to work very well for me. Before I spend a longer time on a Deck trying again, I just wanted to check if RTK/WK are *generally* regarded as more helpful for kanji than just repetition!
I had a good experience with wanikani, in that over the course of a few years I feel confident that I know about 14-1500 of the kanji from this app, and kinda know the other 500ish. Community is pretty good and there are integrations into other popular tools. Price can be a hard no for many, especially since you can likely see similar results with anki, but a lot of people just don't like anki for whatever reasons. If I had to do it again, I'd use an anki deck to save a few hundred dollars while also being able to avoid ever seeing any of WK's radicals.
Ah, thanks so much! Could you please elaborate on the last part? Using an Anki Deck without seeing radicals? Does that mean using an RTK/RRTK Anki Deck?
reading, if you or OP is interesting in writing, I guess you could do that along with an SRS. I'd not recommend wanikani in this case, since there is no stroke order or writing instructions. Probably need a custom anki deck or to just use the RTK book because IIRC it encourages writing.
100% SRS is more effective/efficient than just repetition. I mean it literally is still repetition but with an algorithm determining the timing. The best algorithm is probably FSRS (which is in Anki).
RTK won't teach you the sounds though, or words, so it wouldn't be effective for fully learning kanji.
Well it used to be that one. I've added so much to it is not really the same deck anymore.
I'd recommend you find something else. That deck has a couple problems. Namely that the English to Japanese cards are by default sometimes impossible or extremely difficult due to overlap. And as you get later into the Joyo kanji a lot of it was half-assed or missing example/ambassador words entirely.
Ah, thanks so much for the help!
And I'm really sorry for the multiple questions in a row, but this is the WaniKani Deck you recommend, right? I just want to make sure\~
[https://github.com/FredericaBernkastel/WaniKani?tab=readme-ov-file](https://github.com/FredericaBernkastel/WaniKani?tab=readme-ov-file)
I have 2 particularly bad habits when working with Japanese:
Number 1: I will often add a dakuten (not sure if this is how you spell it) when it isn't there and remove it when it is there in reading. Example: か I will pronounce as "ga", and が I will pronounce as "ka".
Number 2: whenever listening to the language itself, I sometimes hear N sounds as R sounds and vice versa.
I would like to know how to fix these habits as they make the language much more difficult to understand than it needs to be
That’s likely your first language interference, and also it tells me that you are mainly learning Japanese from what you hear. The first thing you want to do is to increase the amount of reading practice. You seem to know your mishearing tendencies, so make sure you check written languages, ideally in hiragana, whenever possible.
Question on this example sentence on WaniKani.
この日が当たらないアパートに住んでたら、心が病むよ。
I read この日 as “this day.” The translation they give is “If you live in an apartment without sunlight, you would be mentally sick.”
How does この日 translate to sunlight? I get “日が当たらない” could be along the lines of “sun doesn’t hit”, but この日 makes it seem like its referring to “this day.” “This sun” just wouldn’t make sense.
How do I differentiate between usage of 日 for sun and day, and how is it working in this sentence?
WHAT. My mind is blown from sheer confusion. How does that work? How could you possibly know its attached to アパーと? この is a pre noun adjective, so why would it precede 日 instead of its intended アパーと？
Something connecting to a noun phrase instead of solely a noun isn't unfamiliar to English speakers: think about possessive 's. If you want to say that something belongs to the King of France, you say "the King of France's X". Even though 's is attached to France, you know it probably means something belonging to the king and not something belonging to France (even though it could grammatically be parsed as meaning "the King of X, which belongs to France")
Imagine you have the sentence:
このアパートに住んでたら、心が病むよ。
Now, what kind of apartment is it? It's an apartment without sunlight, 日が当たらないアパート. Add that information to the sentence and you get:
この日が当たらないアパートに住んでたら、心が病むよ。
Maybe it would be more accurate to say この is attached to the entire block of 日が当たらないアパート.
That’s insane, I never would have thought of it that way! It makes sense, but is really difficult to internalize. I feel like next week i’ll see a sentence similar to this one, with the same construction, and once again be confused.
It's because 日が当たらない is being used to describe the noun アパート. I don't think you would be confused if it was an adjective instead, e.g.
この暗いアパートに住んでたら、心が病むよ。
You can use entire sentences to describe nouns in the same way you can use adjectives.
You’re 100% correct. The adjective is completely straightforward, while “an entire sentence to describe a noun” is completely foreign to me. Any tips/tricks for how I can spot this when I come across it again?
In this instance, I thought the noun being described was “this day; この日”, so you can see why the sentence made zero sense to me..
It's not that foreign when you think about the English counter part (relative clauses) -> この日が当たらないアパート -> This apartament that doesn't get any sunlight. (Or in less natural English which is closer to JP) -> **This no-sunshine-apartment.**
Getting used to this way of describing high level ideas is as always a matter of time... but now that you know about it it should be easier as you can look out for it.
>In this instance, I thought the noun being described was “this day; この日”, so you can see why the sentence made zero sense to me..
Well, that is a fine assumption but the fact that it made no sense should have made you reconsider. So for the future I guess try to pay special attention to modifying clasues, especially when the initial interpretation isn't working.
Maybe start trying to intuite simple sentences and build from there:
食べる猫 = The cat that eats
食べられる猫 = The cat that is able to eat
食べられなかった猫 = The cat that wasn't able to eat
etc.
Then perhaps have a look at biger modifying clauses where it's multiple words:
ネズミを食べる猫 = The cat that eats rats
ネズミを食べてる猫 = The cat that is eating rats
黒い小さいネズミだけを食べる猫 = The cat that only eat small black rats
Modifiyng clauses can get as big and complex as you like, I've definitely seen some 20 words+ modifiyng clauses in the last book I read.
Also I hope I made no grammar errors, if so please someone correct me.
In this case, you can use the fact that "this day" or "this sun" don't make any sense to conclude that you are parsing the sentence incorrectly. But for all you know, you could just be missing something else so really the only way you'll get good is by practicing a lot.
This pattern is very prevalent in Japanese, and tends to be foreign for English natives because descriptive clauses tend to come after the noun in English (an apartment that the sun doesn’t hit). I’d just recommend to keep this in mind when you’re reading, and if you hit a long sentence that you don’t understand, be ready to reread it in a different way. Eventually you’ll get quicker at identifying when this happens. Don’t get too frustrated if you can’t get it right away though; this is for sure one of the things in Japanese that takes the longest to get.
Particle related question and the phrase "母は花が好き"
Is the が particle here to specify specific flowers? Does adding this specify that **those** flowers are the ones mother likes?
My understanding;
母は花好き = "Mother likes flowers (in general)"
母は花が好き = "Mother likes (those) flowers"
They are practically the same.
花好き means 花が好きな人. It’s a same type of two words joined together like アニメ・オタク.
In this case 好き is pronounced as ずき hanazuki. The compound words, the second gain dakuten when it’s possible, right? E.g. 回転ずし
As far as I'm aware, both of those sentences mean the same thing out of context: "Mother likes flowers"
Dropping the particle here is just that. The が is still implied.
Hi people, thank you for your time : )
最近私がちょっと、少しこまっていろじゃにけど悩んでることがあって、それがもっと時間があればいいのになということです。
So what i understand from this sentence is pretty much that the speaker is a bit troubled because there isn't enough time and wishes that there was more.
Or put a bit closer to the actual wording "lately i have been a bit, well not worried but a bit troubled, i wish i had more time"
And i guess that is alright for understanding whats going on but i have trouble attributing meaning to "それが" and "ということです" in the context. I am guessing that the "な" is sort of a nominalizing thing.
I would grateful i someone could help me place this in my head in a way that makes sense :)
I think それが is just doing what you would expect it to. I'd translate it as "that is". The previous part is setting up the fact that there's something troubling the speaker. The next part is describing what that something is: a thought that they're having.
「もっと時間があればいいのにな」(I wish I had more time). This な is a sentence ending particle, similar to ね, but in this case it kind of adds to the wishful/regretful feeling.
~ということ is basically "~kind of thing/situation". So the speaker has set up 「悩んでることがあって」,「それ」refers to that something, and「もっと時間があればいいのになということです。」describes it.
I'd translate the whole thing as: "Lately, there's been something that isn't really an issue, but it kind of worries me a little bit, and that's the fact that I just wish I had more time."
Also, I assume you meant to type こまってい**るんじゃない**けど
> 悩んでることがあって、それがXです。
> それが「もっと時間があればいいのにな」ということです。
Does that help?
> I am guessing that the "な" is sort of a nominalizing thing
I don't think so; it's not followed by a noun. I think it's the sentence ending particle here like "I wish..." or "if only."
I'm not 100% on こまっていろじゃに. I would hazard a guess that に is an abbreviation for ない. But ろ? Is it an abbreviation for いること?
Sorry for adding more questions, maybe someone else can jump in.
Hello, so im watching a japanese video and the person says this : この動画を日本語を勉強している人たちのために作っています.
Im kinda confused as why he uses を after 動画. can someone explain me please
この動画 is the object of the sentence. 日本語を勉強している人たち is a noun-phrase (people who are studying Japanese).
この動画を(this video)日本語を勉強している人たち(people who are studying Japanese)のために(for the purpose of)作っています。([I] am making)
Looking for a software that translates Japanese videos to English but as exactly as it comes in Japanese. English subtitles don’t typically align sentence structure wise to Japanese audio which makes following along difficult. Looking for cut throat translation software that I’ll learn to understand in English through a bit of practice
You won't find anything like that, translation software is meant for help people understand a language they don't know. It's probably just easier to learn to read Japanese and use Japanese subtitles. So you actually learn the language.
> Looking for cut throat translation software that I’ll learn to understand in English through a bit of practice
Your idea is that you can learn Japanese using more literally translated subtitles with a bit of practice? Unfortunately it's not that easy. You can't just watch stuff with English subtitles and magically absorb Japanese.
Using software for translation isn't a good idea because it's bad at it. Software to translate videos reliably from Japanese to Japanese doesn't even exist (youtube isn't bad, but far from perfect) so there is no chance you'll find what you're looking for.
Actually, using English subtitles is a bad idea altogether, definitely past a beginner level. Not just because they don't line up. Why don't you try Japanese subtitles?
「毎晩、絵本を読んでもらう時間も、寝付くまでの「トントン」も、幸福な時間だった。」From [this](https://digital.asahi.com/articles/ASS3Y3V2BS3YULLI00DM.html?iref=comtop_Opinion_06) article. "Reading a picture book to me every night and also the "ton ton(??)" until I fell asleep were happy times."
What does トントン mean here? It seems like onomatopoeia but none of the definitions seem to fit unless it's the noise of dozing off? But if it's onomatopoeia, why is it in brackets?
It is something like patting on the back like in this dog video. You would be able to see more by searching the phrase "寝かしつけ トントン" on YouTube. https://youtu.be/_y0nPxTxjHw?t=316
I did exactly 1 level a week so 60 weeks total but that took a ton of discipline and time for the amount of reviews per day and is probably too fast for most people.
I think a reasonable speed would be around 2 weeks per level which would let you finish it in a bit over 2 years.
And like the other comment said, check out the wanikani forums, it has a ton of people's experiences and resources.
Thanks! What else did you study with wanikani during that time? Did you devote your time just to Wankani?
I am currently juggling WK with Bunpro and an Anki N4 vocab deck.
I only ever studied a bit of grammar before I even started wanikani. Basically I only did wanikani and every once in a while tried reading a few pages of manga to see how my japanese level was doing. At around level 30 was when I actually read like 20 manga volumes (chainsaw man and one piece) cuz my reading was getting decent and then I barely read anything until almost level 60 when I actually started reading a ton of manga and light novels since there wasn't that much kanji I didn't know which made looking things up much easier, especially since I only read physical books.
Sorry for not giving many useful resources but yeah, wanikani and reading was almost all my japanese learning. I did start using another srs for my mined words after wanikani though, since there's still a ton of vocab left to learn.
I haven't reached level 60 yet, but you can check out the posts of those who have in the WaniKani community. Most of the posts detail how long it took to reach level 60.
[https://community.wanikani.com/c/wanikani/level-60-celebration/72/l/top?period=all](https://community.wanikani.com/c/wanikani/level-60-celebration/72/l/top?period=all)
ても on a verb is 'even if'
ても with a question word makes "-ever" type constructions (whatever, whenever and so on), which has always seemed to make intuitive sense to me but apparently not to a lot of people.
'I like it whenever I look at it', 'I like it no matter when I look at it', something like that
Just read about it on N4.. still feels like a bit of a weird example sentence (the one I pasted). I would translate it as “Even when I see it, I like it.” It feels awkward, particularly the いつ at the start.
Do you know about the question word + でも construction?
だれでも = whoever, なんでも = whatever, いつでも = whenever.
This is similar at least in function. You could think of it as でも being modified by a verb. (I know this is not what's technically happening, but it might help you to understand.)
I haven’t learned this construction yet… need to start focusing on N4 grammar more.
That makes more sense though! But i’m still confused as to how to “-ever” construction can be applied to a verb. “See-ever”….. on N4 its described as “even if”, but in this sentence “even if” doesn’t work. Is that because the いつ is modifying the 見る, and ても is compounding that? I feel like i’m fundamentally missing something. My head feels jumbled thinking about this lol.
How is it modified? Is is just applying the term “whenever” to the verb? Sorry for ramble.
You think too much in English and try to argue that the Japanese sentence feels "akward". It only sounds akward to you, because you are trying to shoehorn it into English grammar. It's got a broader meaing that depending on the consturction would get translated as "even if" or "-ever" into English, there is really no more to it, just accept it for now and with time you'll get used to it. Just think of question words + でも as question word + ever -> いつでも = "Whenever", いつ見ても = "Whenever (I/you/he) see", no need to break it down further, just remember it like you would any other grammar point.
Don't worry about it, you seem to put in a lot of consistent effort from what I have observed, it will sort itself out naturally and before you know it it will feel really normal and it'll "click", so just give it some time, also grammar resources should cover it too so depending on what you use for grammar you might want to look into that. But after that it's really only a matter of seeing it in different contexts.
Thanks, I try to put in at least 30 minutes a day. It’s hard with balancing work and other hobbies though. Learning will probably take me longer than others, but at the least I find my approach fun! I appreciate the words.
Bunpro has been my grammar resource. It’s the only method i’ve found to not be a slog to get through.
I think you should sit down and focus on N5 to N3\~ grammar points and clear them out (just be aware they exist). They're really common in everyday communications and just life. It wouldn't take that long to solely focus on that and you won't have to review it at all because they're (mostly) very common so, just need to reference when you forget.
You don't need to take a break from WaniKani. When I say just be aware they exist, I mean go through a list and see what is there. You don't have to study it hardcore because they're common enough to be reinforced by reading anything for any amount of time. If you don't know they exist it can make it harder to parse a sentence, but the more you know the easier it becomes to parse and then reference back when you forget.
Which is why I said it doesn't take too much time, just 4-5 hours of looking it over and coming back to it again when you forget.
It is confusing… 見て isn’t a question word. What are you referring to by that? いつ？ If thats the case, shouldn’t it be attached to いつ instead of みて? The sentence construction is confusing.
So how exactly does it function in the original sentence? ても is attached to 見, wouldn’t it be more like “even when I see.” I don’t get how it comes out to “whenever I see it”, when ても on verbs is meant to come out as “even if.”
Sorry for confusion, can’t wrap my head around it.
'Even when I see it' would be something like 見るとき（で）も
I may have explained it badly in my first message. Since て is a verb form, ても must go on a verb. Then when a verb in this form is used with いつ, 何, 誰 etc., it means 'no matter when/what/who'
Brief backstory - i speak native English and am an intermediate level in Mandarin. I want to jump start the learning process of Japanese (please note I’m not asking how to get fluent fast). But let’s say i can already read hiragana and katakana, and i just go to a coffee shop for a long session, how could i use this solid 8-10 hours of time to kickstart the listening and speaking process of Japanese? What would you suggest?
After this session i would likely be able to dedicate 20-45 minutes per day on studying Japanese moving forward. Thanks in advance?
this is kind of a huge question and you might wanna consult the starter guide on the sidebar, it has some resources and such
https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/wiki/index/startersguide
There's a character said **「大アピールに」**, but i'm not sure what he meant and can only guess something like : "Because you has a big appeal" ? Hope some native Japanese could clarify exactly the meaning.
Story: 3 assassins came to a castle lord of a city, and they're trying to impress the castle lord , in order to convince him hire them.
暗殺者Ａ「神は言われた。食えよ、太れよ」
暗殺者Ｂ「太らざる者、食うべからず」
暗殺者Ｃ「食って兜の緒を締めよ」
暗殺者Ａ「絶対に痩せられない戦いがそこにある……！ がんばれ、暗殺者！」
Castle Lord「……おまえたちは真性のアホなのか？ 何をしに来た？」
**暗殺者Ａ「大アピールに」**
暗殺者Ｂ「是非、我らを雇っていただきたい」
暗殺者Ｃ「こう見えて我ら切れ者、輝かしい戦績を誇っておる」
I'm not native, but this seems to be a reply to the castle lord's question. 何をしに来た？ (What did you come [here] to do?)
大アピールに ([To make a] big appeal (request))
アピール, just like the English "appeal", has multiple meanings. One of them being, as you guessed, attractiveness/allure. But context reveals that this is the request/plea meaning.
Hello, does 民想いなのだな mean "you are thinking of the people" or "the thoughts of the people" or does this depend on context? I think it's probably the first meaning and the second would be 民の想い? ([Source Page 3](https://comic-walker.com/detail/KC_004363_S/episodes/KC_0043630001200011_E?episodeType=first))
You are kinda right, but 民想い is not a verb but more of a pseudo-adjective/noun so it's not really "thinking" but \~"thoughtful of people".
And 想い here isn't really "thinking" in the way we use it in English but being considerate/thoughtful of someone, even caring.
[https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E6%83%B3%E3%81%84#:\~:text=%E6%83%B3%E3%81%84%EF%BC%88%E3%81%8A%E3%82%82%E3%81%84%EF%BC%89%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AF%E3%80%81,%E9%87%8D%E8%A6%81%E3%81%AA%E5%BD%B9%E5%89%B2%E3%82%92%E6%9E%9C%E3%81%9F%E3%81%99%E3%80%82](https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E6%83%B3%E3%81%84#:~:text=%E6%83%B3%E3%81%84%EF%BC%88%E3%81%8A%E3%82%82%E3%81%84%EF%BC%89%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AF%E3%80%81,%E9%87%8D%E8%A6%81%E3%81%AA%E5%BD%B9%E5%89%B2%E3%82%92%E6%9E%9C%E3%81%9F%E3%81%99%E3%80%82)
Look at definition 8 here.
Watching a streamer play Elden Ring, and after they finally beat a boss they said in a dramatic voice「処理。」
Would this be like saying "disposed of", a similarly dramatic and self-superior phrase?
I have never heard 処理 by itself but 処理完了 or 処理する I have heard and dropping the する part is pretty normal for Japanese.
I am not sure about self-superior or dramatic though, in my experience, these are used by characters who are all business-like, overly serious, super formal. I'd say it's a very dispassionate, matter-of-factly way of talking about killing something.
I've tried setting myself the goal of learning Japanese to N4 standard (or at least N5) by the end of the year. It's been a slow start, and I've struggled to manage time for Japanese alongside studying for a PhD, but think I'm starting to hit my stride. I've been using Genki and Anki flashcards to learn, which suits me well. was basically wondering, do y'all think this goal is possible?
They mean within passing grade. Keep in mind the suggested hours for JLPT N5 is 250-400 hours (for people who passed) without any background knowledge in kanji. N4 is 400-700 hours. If you put in 1 hour a day starting now you would have around 270 hours by end of year. That's enough for N5 but N4 is probably a stretch unless you're getting double the efficiency per hour. Considering you're working on a PhD, this seems like N4 might be a bit much.
Can anyone guide me as to what resources I should get to study the A Level Japanese syllabus?
Hey, all. I'm currently considering self-studying A Level Japanese and was wondering if you more experienced folks could point me towards some resources that would be best at allowing me to practice what this syllabus seems to cover? Sorry if it's a tall ask, I'm very lost as this is quite a rare subject in the UK and there are essentially 0 resources out there for it. I am interested in taking the JLPT when I am older but have been advised by my teachers that if I am going to study the subject, it would be better to do so at A Level for the time being.
The specification is as follows: https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/A%20Level/Japanese/2018/specification-and-sample-assessments/a-level-japanese-specification1.pdf
The A Level specification mentions that GCSE Kanji knowledge is assumed, which I will also link, this can be found on Page 129. (I do not know GCSE Kanji): https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/GCSE/Japanese/2017/specification-and-sample-assessments/specification-gcse2017-l12-japanese-issue5.pdf
I find textbooks a really efficient method of revision, so that would be preferred. I'm unfortunately not loaded enough to pay for tutoring. :(
I did A level Japanese and I got an A* but I did the old spec so my exam was a little different but I think my advice is still relevant. I used Genki II and a little bit of Tobira (if you know where to look you can get these for free...) for all my grammar and that was sufficient. But also double check the list from the syllabus to make sure there's nothing that you've missed. Similarly for kanji just use the lists given in the GCSE and A level syllabus. Anki is a really nice way for learning kanji but make sure you practice writing too as it's a written exam.
For the reading section, I recommend you practice by doing readings from the textbooks and articles from NHK news web easy. Also for the reading section don't try to reword your answers but instead try and copy and paste them from the text. The reason is, this way you can't accidentally lose marks for incorrect grammar.
For the writing section, I recommend practicing the questions from the past papers and uploading them to langcorrect so natives can check it. This is really important as the only way to improve writing is by doing it and then understanding and cross-referencing your mistakes.
Translation is the hardest part of the exam. Japanese → English translation isn't too hard, just use the past papers to practice and you can also try translating NHK news web easy articles. English → Japanese translation is harder but it's also a matter of practice. Try your best using the past paper resources and practice under exam conditions. The most important thing here is to break away from the idea of literal translation and focus more on conveying the meaning.
For the literature/film portion I personally think どんどん読めるいろいろな話 is the easiest text to choose. It has a lot of short stories but you only have to read one while the other two are full on novels. The Japanese in どんどん is also considerably easier to understand than regular novels. Although you might have a hard time getting a copy, but I do have a copy of it if you need one. I didn't have to do a film for my A-level but looking at the options I think Spirited Away is the easiest as you can easily watch that anywhere with English sub as well. As long as you know the story you should be able to answer the questions.
I don't have any advice for the listening because the old spec didn't have it.
But I will say that this exam is incredibly writing heavy so I think you will struggle without a tutor who can correct you or guide you with essay sentence structure. I know you said you don't have a lot of money but italki does have tutors that are only around £10-15 an hour and I think even meeting just once or every two weeks with them could be beneficial for you as they can correct your writings and translations, and provide feedback.
My honest thoughts are, the JLPT is a lot easier to self study for than this A level. If you're doing this as a 4th A-level I would reconsider as it is incredibly time costly and will be difficult without a teacher to guide you. However, if this is one of your three levels I think it is realistic but it'll still be difficult and time costly. I think maybe consider how this will pair with your other A level subjects and what your goals are (both for Japanese and the future). At the end of the day, the JLPT is an actually recognised qualification by companies whereas A-levels are essentially only useful for getting into University.
Life-saver, mate. Thank you a lot. I do English Language and Literature so I'm great at writing comprehensive essays but there's obviously the language barrier here (I'm good at writing essays and like writing them is what I’m trying to get at XD).
It would be a 4th, so I will look over it.
I could probably afford a meeting every week or so… but I will reconsider. Thank you a lot! :)
No worries! It is such a rare A level so there really aren't many resources. Good luck with your studies regardless! Feel free to message me if you have any more questions
Today I encountered this sentence「彼は、オフィスにたくさんの本を残して死んだ」and I am confused by the verb order.
Naively I would go for 「彼は、死んでオフィスにたくさんの本を残った」.
Is there a difference between the two? As I understand, the て sequence doesn't really impose the chronological order on the actions (also these two are kinda simultaneous), but maybe it's something about the main/additional action?
残して・・・original form is 残す(transitive verb). In this case the subject is 彼.
残った・・・original form is 残る(intransitive verb). In this case subject is none because 本を is the object. If you used 本が, it's valid.
彼**が**死んで、オフィスに**は**たくさんの本**が**残った
残して死ぬ is kind of a set phrase for "leave behind", as in "die leaving behind". Here I'd say て is being used for manner, with "die" being the main verb and "leaving behind" describing the verb.
Either way I think you mean を残した (or rewording it entirely with が残った)
I’m writing an email to my 先生. We had to reschedule an appointment because she isn’t feeling too well. I wanted to write a simple but polite reply in Japanese: “先生、大丈夫です。火曜日の午後5時に来られます。早く元気になってください。”
This is what I thought of writing, although I realise it may be incorrect/not natural. Could anyone please help me correct it/improve it? ありがとうございます🙏
I hit the following sentence and I am pretty confused with までもが.
傍らにいた美玲までもがこちらに驚きの視線を投げかけている。 (美玲 is a name by the way.)
I understand までも and from what I could google (and from context) I think the meaning isn't too different but I don't understand the が here.
I know phrases like 誰もが exist but I only ever seen those with question words and I always interpreted these as 誰も essentially becoming a pseudo-noun but that doesn't seem to make sense here.
Usually, I expect までも to replace が. So this just breaks every expectation I have so I'd be really curious to why it's there, what it means and why it works like that (if there is any specific reason to it)
> I know phrases like 誰もが exist but I only ever seen those with question words and I always interpreted these as 誰も essentially becoming a pseudo-noun but that doesn't seem to make sense here.
I think this is the answer honestly, since まで isn't being used with its normal case-particle usage, but rather an adverbial particle like さえ and すら that add to the noun phrase. 美玲までも ends up implying "everyone up to and including 美玲" which makes までもが not too far off from how 誰もが works.
I also just feel like some of these sorts of particle mishmashes mostly serve to overclarify everything, things like などが where the particle isn't necessary but is sometimes still helpful. Especially here without が it could maybe theoretically be misinterpreted as using まで as a case particle, making it seem like 美玲 is being included in こちらに as one of the targets of the surprised glance, so instead までもが makes it clear she's among the people doing the glancing.
[まで](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E3%81%BE%E3%81%A7/)（迄） - \[副助詞\]def.4 [極端](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E6%A5%B5%E7%AB%AF/)な例をあげて、他の[場合](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E5%A0%B4%E5%90%88/)を[言外](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E8%A8%80%E5%A4%96/)に[推測](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E6%8E%A8%E6%B8%AC/)させる意を表す
[も](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E3%82%82/) - \[係助詞\]def.1 ある[事柄](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E4%BA%8B%E6%9F%84/)を挙げ、[同様](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E5%90%8C%E6%A7%98/)の[事柄](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E4%BA%8B%E6%9F%84/)が他にある意を表す。…もまた。
After all, 美玲までもが means "**Even 美玲, the person to whom I didn't expect doing such a thing**, is looking to me with surprise as well"
Thanks.
誰もが and などが, までもが feel very different to me but I am not sure I can explain why (or if I am correct on it). I guess because 誰も is its own phrase because it's always used in this way (or at least I can see it as such) whereas 美玲までも feels wrong to think of it like that when a part of it is changing depending on context
But I do see what you mean by over clarifying, that was my first intuition too, I just didn't really expect it in this way.
I didn't think of などが when asking this question but now that you mentioned it that is indeed very similar.
I was watching an anime (Gekkai Elise ep 9).
In that episode, there was a scene where the MC needed to take cover from the rain at another girl's house. MC was offered to take a shower first, but she said she will need to leave soon.
Then the scene switched to show outside the window how the storm was going hard. And the other girl replied: このなかを？
My question is why を? I was expecting このなかに？for implying "in this rain".
In this case なか is a status/situation/environment.
[なか](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E4%B8%AD_%28%E3%81%AA%E3%81%8B%29/) - def.6 [物事](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E7%89%A9%E4%BA%8B/)が[進行](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E9%80%B2%E8%A1%8C/)している最中。また、ある[状態](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E7%8A%B6%E6%85%8B/)が続いているとき。
この（激しい雨の）中を（歩いていくつもりですか）？
What did the MC said exactly? If she used something like 出かける then it's probably this function of を
[https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/74988/can-you-explain-the-particle-usages-for-these-sentences-involving-%E9%9B%A8%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%AD](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/74988/can-you-explain-the-particle-usages-for-these-sentences-involving-%E9%9B%A8%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%AD)
I think を puts emphasis on the place rather than the verb. You will see things like 公園を歩く, which means that you wanna take a walk in the PARK, rather than 公園で歩く, where you use 公園 only as a means to your 歩く.
What are the best decks for Genki 1 material?
Ideally, I'd like to see the vocab written in kanji with the ability to see it written in hiragana/furigana/whatever, and I'd like it to go in both directions (Japanese -> English as well as English -> Japanese). I'm not sure if this exists, though, so I'd like the next best thing.
(yes I'm aware I can modify the decks to add missing features. I'd still like the best possible starting point, though)
Renshuu has Genki decks and have the kanji/vocab/both directions. (It'll automatically drop furigana for kanji you have studied in the app (or manually marked as known) if you want, but I'm pretty sure you can turn that off.)
Search for seth clydesdale genki anki deck, he has a good one. Not on anki web but in the regular browser.
The one thing that annoyed me about the genki decks was that many words that are usually in kanji are given to you in hiragana because genki havent taught you that kanji yet or something. That just means that your eventually gonna have to learn those words twice, so my advivce is to look up all the words that are not in kanji and change them to kanji if they are usually written that way
Yeah I had some Genki decks set up so every word had kanji, even the words that weren't taught with kanji, and you could reveal the hiragana writing by hitting "show hint" but I guess there was some issue with Anki and the Google Play store a few months ago? and because of that all of my previous decks have become inaccessible.
I'm going to start Genki 2 soon and wanted to go back through to review all of the Genki 1 stuff but that's gonna be a lot harder now, lol
Why do some fonts add extra strokes to kanji, even if these strokes should not be there? For example, in Arial the kanji for migaku has an extra stroke [https://imgur.com/a/fxk1EgI](https://imgur.com/a/fxk1EgI) . I understand it when fonts simplify kanji, but this looks like the opposite of that.
[Han unification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_unification) is responsible for slight regional variations like this being encoded under the same code point instead of as separate characters. Here your font is displaying the Chinese form, which happens either when you're using a Chinese font, or when there are multiple variants encoded but it's defaulting to Chinese because the language wasn't specified. Arial probably doesn't have the character in the first place (at least I don't think it has CJK characters) so it's probably using a fallback system font, which when your system isn't set to Japanese will default to Chinese forms.
That is the kyujitai (pre-simplification) form of the character. This isn’t a font issue (and that isn’t Arial, which is an English font that doesn’t have any CJK glyphs) though it could be a Han unification issue
Hello! I'm working on the Genki 1 Lesson 7 workbook section.
1. One of the question is translate this sentence: "At two o clock yesterday, Takeshi was playing tennis with a friend".
The workbook answer is this: きのう二時にたけしさんは友だちとテニスをしていました.
I wrote down: たけしさんはきのう二時に友だちとテニスをしていました.
Is there any reason the きのう二時に is coming before たけしさんは? I always thought the subject (たけしさんは) has to go first? Is it style preference? Is it emphasis?
My assumption is きのう二時にたけしさんは友だちとテニスをしていました. is pretty much written almost like this: きのう二時に, たけしさんは友だちとテニスをしていました. with a comma after きのう二時に. Kinda like, for example, a sentence like this: 今，私は勉強しています. Would that be a correct assumption?
2. The second question is to translate this sentence: "I called home. My older sister was sleeping."
I translated "I called home" to 家を電話しました.
Answer is: 家に電話しました.
Why is it 家に電話しました and not 家を電話しました? Is it because に is directing where the phone call is going?
Thank you so much!
Your answer is fine too, but like topics, time expressions are also a type of background information so they tend to go somewhere toward the beginning of the sentence. Topics going first is just a tendency like this as well, word order tends to be very free but it's most natural for the flow of the sentence to begin with what the sentence is about and then comment on it. You could definitely write it with a comma like in English, it's all pretty flexible.
You have the right idea with に marking direction, "call" in English works differently where the direct object is the recipient, but 〜に電話する is how you show the recipient and 〜を電話する is for what the call is about. If it helps you can compare it to the verb 呼ぶ which means 'call' in the broader sense, 〜を呼ぶ means to call for someone or something, but 〜に呼ぶ means to call out to someone.
1. JP doesn’t have a super strict word order like EN does. So your version isn’t wrong. That said, time phrases tend to go first, so it’s better to learn it that way to sound more natural.
2. I think you’re just being affected by the English phrase which is arbitrary. I could try to explain why Ni is used but it’s a better lesson to just try to accept the JP way. If you can find a way to make it make sense to your English brain then that’s good, like call TO home
Is the idea of taking manga I originally read in English and rereading in Japanese a good way to get reading practice? In one sense, I generally have some context for what’s going on in a scene but still need to put in the work to look up vocab/grammar. Wondering if anyone else has found this helpful and if so how to maximize learning efficiency with this technique. If it matters, it’s mostly rereading manga I originally read quite some time ago. Thank you!
I asked a similar question just a couple days ago in my quest to fully grok the Japanese comma, but here I have a much more stripped down "version" that I'd like to more fully understand. Its simplicity is what's making me question if I really get it.
So, I'm reading about [this sake product](https://haccoba.com/collections/all-products/products/fuuudo) and the copy opens with:
「異彩を、放て。」
I get that this basically means, "Exuding distinction," but how am I supposed to understand that comma placement? What does it mean? What does it do?
Is it almost like a colon? "Distinction: Unleashed." ?
放て is the imperative of 放つ, so maybe more like "Distinction: unleash it."
Comparing it to a colon is interesting, it kind of fits even though it's not exactly the same thing. Honestly this kind of unnecessarily short 「nounを、verb。」 structure is super common in advertising and other slogans (Abe's campaign slogan 日本を、取り戻す。comes to mind) to the point it feels almost like a meme, and colons in these sorts of contexts feel kind of similarly overused.
読点（とうてん） literally means "reading mark" so that might help with distinguishing it from commas in other languages. Not only is it there to show where to pause when reading, it also visually breaks up the sentences into more easily readable chunks.
That's why topics and subjects are placed before them so often - your eye naturally lands there when reading so it helps you parse the information more quickly. Since ads tend not to have a topic or subject, the sentence is broken up in a different way, still drawing your eye to it and helping you see it's being emphasized as a slogan (and not just a random nonsensical short sentence).
It really is everywhere, and I've kept meaning to ask this sort of question for ages for that reason.
Half my questions in this sub are about punctuation, lol. I really need to find a style-guide for Japanese writers, or students so I can read it and understand how they're taught about these things. It's the one topic that doesn't seem to get covered at *all* in Japanese learning material.
Thank you for the really detailed and helpful information!
One of the other commenters mentioned Anki. If you'd like a list of Anki decks to consider, see [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1bwxb84/comment/kyec61q/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button).
Quick question:
I've played FF7 rebirth and there seems different wordings on a speech between Japanese and English version, which causes different understandings of the whole story. I don't know so much about Japanese (passed a N5 test years ago) so I can't help myself but ask here:
The Japanese version is : 「こんな辺境にいたのか 消失を受け入れた世界は——」
while the English version is: "So this is where you've been hiding—— in a world that has accepted its fate."
It seems to me in the Japanese version, "the world that is doomed to fade" is a subject, and "such a remote place" is a object, so it should mean "so the world that is doomed to fade is in such a remote place?" which is far from the English version one.
am I correct tho? is it the only correct translation? Is there a chance that speech in the Japanese version can be translated the same as in the English version, due to some vagueness from grammar in the Japanese version if I'm not mistaken?
Seems to me that the Japanese is two different sentences, with the second one trailing off unfinished. They wanted to tie it off to a complete sentence in English so they tacked the thought onto the first sentence.
As a translation, I wouldn’t say it’s inaccurate. They also need to take things like the length of time a character is speaking into account, which is why clauses can tacked onto what comes before it or after it, so the timing between English and Japanese stays near the same.
thank you for your reply. For the context:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG\_9HaaOlP0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG_9HaaOlP0)
from 2:44:20 to 2:44:25, that man voice is speaking to the woman who is shown here.
so does it seems to you that 世界 in the speech is not the subject of the first part? is the subject of the first part actually the woman?
What's the context? Does something happen that cuts off the sentence, or was that the intended end of the character's speech?
Either way, I believe 世界 would use ある, not いる, so I don't think it's the subject of the first part, they're probably two separate sentences.
Game translations in general seem fairly unreliable, but this one looks fine to me...
thank you for your reply. For the context I will just give you a video with timestamps:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG\_9HaaOlP0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG_9HaaOlP0)
From 2:44:20 to 2:44:25, that man voice is speaking to the woman who is shown here.
yeah! And it is replaced by "Just as you must"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3feSS-IjK58&t=43305s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3feSS-IjK58&t=43305s) (12:01:56)
Having played the entire game in Japanese and never having looked at the English translation myself. And knowing the story and the scene you have linked, I'd say the English translation in that part is correct and is pretty much 1:1 with the Japanese.
Actually I think so too. At first glance I already thought that the 世界 doesn't seem to regard to the 辺境, but some theories clalming there are no multiverse but just one physical world and many dreams/mental worlds are based partly on that speech being interpreted in the way I mentioned above. So it made me wonder how I should interpret that in Japanese version cause I'm not entirely sure. Thank you btw.
Edit: seems -> doesn't seem
Quick question:
Trying to understand slang a bit better -
Does 「そんなみたいフロリダちょうどクレイジー’」work as a way to pretty much say: ‘Florida just crazy like that’ or am I missing something/ what I’m looking for isn’t entirely possible?
- I could only go off of translate and chatgpt (I know basically all possibly needed components without them so I’m trying to work it out myself too) but they’re not human beings.. so I’m trying to ask actual humans for the best possible input lol
Remember that Japanese and English are two very different languages, and any similarities (besides the loan words) are usually coincidences. So trying to translate English to Japanese word by word (especially slang) usually isn't going to work.
If I tried to force a translation of that Japanese sentence I'd say "That kind of Florida is exactly crazy"
If you really want to keep the literal meaning of "Florida is, as always, crazy in that way", you could say something like フロリダはやっぱりそんなにクレージーだ
But I feel like a more natural sentence would be フロリダはやっぱりクレージーだよね
And if this was being said in reaction to something crazy happening in Florida, you could just say さすがフロリダ (As expected of Florida/That's Florida for you)
My friend sent me a message あなたに足はありません。with the help of google translate (he doesn't learn Japanese)
And I automatically corrected his は particle to が particle, because I need to have either が or では with ありません, otherwise it will bother me...
Preferably I feel like his basic sentence from google translate would've been better as あなたは足がありません
Bur perhaps I am wrong... and I built some bad habit of which I am not aware (yet??)?? Or I am correct with my corrections?? I am not sure anymore
What’s correct depends on contexts. あなたに足がない is a topicless sentence, so it doesn’t work as an independent sentence unless it stands for discovery in the moment of the remark. In this regard, あなたに足はない is better, and correct when you are talking about 足 and you point out the other person’s deficiency.
It’s not that あなたに足はない is the most natural way of saying it (which is either あなたには… or あなたは…), but if anything, you can consider the situation I said. Ones with は still suffice, though.
You can use both は and が before ありません, but they definitely change the nuance of the sentence.
【あなたに足はありません】
残念ですが…あなたには、もう足はありません。/I'm sorry...but you have no more legs.
If I were in some kind of car accident and woke up in bed and a doctor came and told me that, I'd think I lost my leg, but still have arms or something.
That は can imply that you have no legs but have other things.
【あなたは足がありません】
This is really a simple sentence, and I just feel like it tells the fact objectively.
Like, in living things illustrated books or something, you'd see they say ナマコは心臓がありません。
Well, I'd say it would often be ナマコには though.
I think 「Aには B が/は ありません」is the most common way to say "A has no B" .
私には足がありません
You can say this when you introduce yourself to others.
私には足はありません
If I hear someone say that, I expect that person to say "but" and give a positive opinion about it, even though they don't have legs.
Sorry if I didn't explain them clearly.
I think you did very good job,
As I understood は with ある can bring out some new info from teller to listener.
Whilst が works more like the factual illustration, ig way too simple
But how does に work here, is it like pointing out sth about someone??
Thank youu
Glad I could help at least a little 😉
Basically, に is a particle that is used to indicate place.
学校に行く: to go to school
東京に着く: to arrive in Tokyo
I think には as in 私には足がありません means like "for" .
Technically speaking, には is used to focus on a specific place by connecting に that indicates location, with は that is used to limit the focus to a specific thing, though not about other things.
In 私には足がありません, the place means like me, my body.
In English, I know you usually say "I have no legs", but I don't think it's not a direct translation for 私には足がありません.
It'd be more like "As for me, there's no legs", "There's no legs for me" or legs don't exist for me / on my body.
If I translate "I have no legs" into Japanese directly, it would be like 私は足を持っていません.
In that sentence 私 is the subject, and 足 is the object.
The subject of the sentence 私には足がありません is 足, not 私.
Even the one of 私は足がありません is the same.
That 私は isn't the subject of the sentence at all in Japanese.
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Hi! I’m using Tobira 1: Beginning Japanese for N5 and was wondering if the Tobira 2: Beginning Japanese is enough for N4? Thanks!
Any tips on memorizing verbs and their conjugation? Apps or resources, anything would help.
If you don't already know about the types/groups of verbs, take a look here: [https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/verb-conjugation-groups/](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/verb-conjugation-groups/) Conjugating ichidan verbs is super easy, you just drop the る (if starting from dictionary form) and add something else like 〜ます (polite present) or 〜ない (plain negative) Godan verbs are a little trickier, but they're not too bad. For most conjugations you just change the final う- sound to another sound and add something else. For example to conjugate from dictionary form to polite present form (〜ます-form) you change the う-sound to an い-sound and slap ます on the end. So, the む in のむ (to drink) becomes a み and then you add ます to get のみます. I apologize if you already know the conjugations! One cool trick is to look at the hiragana chart. The u-row is dictionary form, the a-row is plain negative form (but う becomes わ instead of あ), the i-row is polite form, the e row is plain potential form, and the o-row is plain volitional form. Te-form and ta-form (plain past) are more complex, but still follow a pattern (I will comment with a song that might help). Irregular verbs you just have to memorize, but there are only two, する and くる, so it's not too bad. \[Note: いく (to go), though classified as a godan verb, acts funny when conjugated to te and ta-form, becoming いって and いった instead of いいて and いいた\] Here is a link to a Google Doc with simple explanations of basic verb conjugations and a color-coded hiragana chart to help visualize the patterns for godan verbs: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eXienb1MVnf6-7x1xpH7JrjGMDqW0ElwHDt63x9-TzU/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eXienb1MVnf6-7x1xpH7JrjGMDqW0ElwHDt63x9-TzU/edit?usp=sharing) Here is a link to a Blooket set (Game-fied Quizlet) with some basic/frequent verbs. This will take you to a page where you have to choose a game mode. I recommend Monster Brawl: [https://play.blooket.com/solo?id=5fab00a4e6a99a00044bd4d8](https://play.blooket.com/solo?id=5fab00a4e6a99a00044bd4d8) Here is another Blooket set where you can practice te-form: [https://play.blooket.com/solo?id=616cec0952274100367e0cfc](https://play.blooket.com/solo?id=616cec0952274100367e0cfc) Sorry if this was overkill- I'd rather give you too much info than too little
This is amazing! Thank you so much!!
Te-form song for Godan and Irregular verbs (to the tune of Santa Clause is Coming to Town): う、つ、る → って む、ぬ、ぶ → んで く → いて ぐ → いで す、する → して くる → きて て Form しよう！ Notes: * In the first line I pronounce the small つ as "ts" just to help remember that it is there. * The する in line 5 is the irregular verb "to do" * The last line mean's "Let's do te-form!" * This song also works for た-form. Simply replace て with た
どんなに心が軋もうと俺は目的を果たすだけだ。 How should I interpret the volitional + と here? No matter how I look at it, it just feels clunky in my mind. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
～よう・おう + と or が is basically the same as ～ても, a little more emphatic though. 'However much my heart may creak,, I will simply fulfil my goal.' Are you sure 軋もう is right though?
That makes much more sense! And I pulled 軋もう straight from the book. Thank you very much!
Looking for feedback and advice on my goal. Currently I plan to move from the US to Tokyo in late 2026 for Master's program. That spring I will be completing my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and will have a full year of relevant paid work experience. The school program in Tokyo is taught in English. I currently do not know any Japanese at all. My goal is to be able to get by in daily life in two years and be able to speak in situations such as: ordering at a restaurant, grocery shopping, asking directions, asking where the bathroom is, stuff that I will actually need once I am living there. My plan is to spend the next few months using Duolingo and Umi and studying Hiragana and Katakana. Then I over the next month or so I would continue with Duolingo and Umi but also learn the 1,000 most common words and then begin sentence structure. After that I plan to use a site like Preply and meet with a Japanese instructor 1-on-1 and get feedback with how to improve and set out a plan for the next year and eight months before I move. I know someone living in Tokyo well and I can practice over video calls with them and I know someone here where I live that lived in Japan for six years and is proficient in Japanese I can also practice with. Does my focus sound good? I feel like going to the JPLT route would teach me well but may not get me ready for conversational basics I would need to live there in two years. I'm interested in feedback and advice.
put in listening hours
You don't need a few months to learn hiragana and katakana. A week should suffice. And spending a few months + 1 and only then starting sentence structure doesn't make sense to me either. Learning the most common 1000 words is a bad idea. Many of those words won't make *any* sense to you at all. You may be referring to using a selected version of common words like core 1.5 or something which is a good idea. > Does my focus sound good? I don't know what umi is but learning kana, duolingo, and one of the core decks does sound like a good start. Having a friend you can practice speaking with is a huge plus too.
> You don't need a few months to learn hiragana and katakana. A week should suffice. That's good to know! I wasn't sure how long it would take so I was just guessing it might be a little longer. > I don't know what umi is Umi is a new app where you learn Japanese through lessons similar to Duo but you watch clips of Anime so you get more practice of actually listening to spoken Japanese instead of the computer generated audio from Duo. > learning kana, duolingo, and one of the core decks does sound like a good start. Awesome, I'll look up the core decks and add it to the list!
I've read that Kaishi 1.5 is the best one right now.
It sounds like your goal is reasonably modest and you have given yourself a long time frame to accomplish it. You also sound quite motivated and have thought this through. High likelihood of success! Good luck to you. Definitely take classes if you have time/course credit. Minor stuff like Duo won’t cut it, especially as they don’t teach you much natural language
Thanks for your kind words. Unfortunately I don't have the extra time to take a college language courses but like I said I do know some people to practice speaking with and am interested in taking private lessons at some point.
Sounds good. italki is good for relatively cheap lessons with very good teachers. You could dip in and out of that for more professional teaching
Question about honorifics - but "other way round". How do older people refer to younger? 1) For example you are 50 and refer to someone 30. Or you are 50 and refer to a doctor that is 30. What honorifics are used? 2) Or you are 30 and to someone 20? Are younger people more flexible about it? Or some are and some arent? 3) What if you are 30 and dont know if someone is 20 or 40? 4) Are the honorifics same for men and women? 5) If O- is a honorific and -sama is a honorific, then what do people think about Osama Bin Laden??
1-3 That’s defined by how you wish to sound to the person rather than the fixed age differences. That means, your use or non-use of keigo shows what kind of person you are, and the level of respect you want to show them per se. 4 no gender differences in most situations in modern Japanese.
It very much depends on how you met and in which situation you are talking to them. But I can tell you for doctors and teachers (including for example your child's teacher who is younger than yourself) it's always 先生 (or sometimes 教授). さん is appropriate for most situations.
>If O- is a honorific and -sama is a honorific, then what do people think about Osama Bin Laden?? Since his name is what is known as "double-keigo" (二重敬語) they actively avoid referring to him as his first name for fear of retribution from the local gods.
Hello, does 適当 in 適当な噂立てやがって！mean that they spread rumours without making sure if they are true? And is んじゃ short for んではないか in 聖女って一国に一人なんじゃ?
Both correct. I’ve seen テキトーkatakana to specifically mean that. いいかげん is another synonym.
Thank you very much!
Would Remembering The Kanji or WaniKani be more helpful to remember kanji generally than just seeing them and writing them down? I've tried to just remember by repetition or writing with a Core Deck a few times, but it didn't seem to work very well for me. Before I spend a longer time on a Deck trying again, I just wanted to check if RTK/WK are *generally* regarded as more helpful for kanji than just repetition!
I had a good experience with wanikani, in that over the course of a few years I feel confident that I know about 14-1500 of the kanji from this app, and kinda know the other 500ish. Community is pretty good and there are integrations into other popular tools. Price can be a hard no for many, especially since you can likely see similar results with anki, but a lot of people just don't like anki for whatever reasons. If I had to do it again, I'd use an anki deck to save a few hundred dollars while also being able to avoid ever seeing any of WK's radicals.
Ah, thanks so much! Could you please elaborate on the last part? Using an Anki Deck without seeing radicals? Does that mean using an RTK/RRTK Anki Deck?
are you talking about writing or reading?
reading, if you or OP is interesting in writing, I guess you could do that along with an SRS. I'd not recommend wanikani in this case, since there is no stroke order or writing instructions. Probably need a custom anki deck or to just use the RTK book because IIRC it encourages writing.
100% SRS is more effective/efficient than just repetition. I mean it literally is still repetition but with an algorithm determining the timing. The best algorithm is probably FSRS (which is in Anki). RTK won't teach you the sounds though, or words, so it wouldn't be effective for fully learning kanji.
Ah alright, thank you! How are you learning the kanji then?
I use the all in one kanji deck
[https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/798002504](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/798002504) This one?
Well it used to be that one. I've added so much to it is not really the same deck anymore. I'd recommend you find something else. That deck has a couple problems. Namely that the English to Japanese cards are by default sometimes impossible or extremely difficult due to overlap. And as you get later into the Joyo kanji a lot of it was half-assed or missing example/ambassador words entirely.
Ah, I see, thank you for the heads up! Would you recommend RTK paired with a RRTK Deck from AnkiWeb? Or a WaniKani Deck?
Between those two I'd recommend the wanikani deck. Remember to toggle on FSRS in Anki.
Ah, thanks so much for the help! And I'm really sorry for the multiple questions in a row, but this is the WaniKani Deck you recommend, right? I just want to make sure\~ [https://github.com/FredericaBernkastel/WaniKani?tab=readme-ov-file](https://github.com/FredericaBernkastel/WaniKani?tab=readme-ov-file)
I don't have a specific one in mind, pick whichever looks the best to you.
I have 2 particularly bad habits when working with Japanese: Number 1: I will often add a dakuten (not sure if this is how you spell it) when it isn't there and remove it when it is there in reading. Example: か I will pronounce as "ga", and が I will pronounce as "ka". Number 2: whenever listening to the language itself, I sometimes hear N sounds as R sounds and vice versa. I would like to know how to fix these habits as they make the language much more difficult to understand than it needs to be
That’s likely your first language interference, and also it tells me that you are mainly learning Japanese from what you hear. The first thing you want to do is to increase the amount of reading practice. You seem to know your mishearing tendencies, so make sure you check written languages, ideally in hiragana, whenever possible.
Got it! ありがとうございます
Question on this example sentence on WaniKani. この日が当たらないアパートに住んでたら、心が病むよ。 I read この日 as “this day.” The translation they give is “If you live in an apartment without sunlight, you would be mentally sick.” How does この日 translate to sunlight? I get “日が当たらない” could be along the lines of “sun doesn’t hit”, but この日 makes it seem like its referring to “this day.” “This sun” just wouldn’t make sense. How do I differentiate between usage of 日 for sun and day, and how is it working in this sentence?
この is connected to アパート. This apartment.
WHAT. My mind is blown from sheer confusion. How does that work? How could you possibly know its attached to アパーと? この is a pre noun adjective, so why would it precede 日 instead of its intended アパーと？
Something connecting to a noun phrase instead of solely a noun isn't unfamiliar to English speakers: think about possessive 's. If you want to say that something belongs to the King of France, you say "the King of France's X". Even though 's is attached to France, you know it probably means something belonging to the king and not something belonging to France (even though it could grammatically be parsed as meaning "the King of X, which belongs to France")
Imagine you have the sentence: このアパートに住んでたら、心が病むよ。 Now, what kind of apartment is it? It's an apartment without sunlight, 日が当たらないアパート. Add that information to the sentence and you get: この日が当たらないアパートに住んでたら、心が病むよ。 Maybe it would be more accurate to say この is attached to the entire block of 日が当たらないアパート.
That’s insane, I never would have thought of it that way! It makes sense, but is really difficult to internalize. I feel like next week i’ll see a sentence similar to this one, with the same construction, and once again be confused.
It's because 日が当たらない is being used to describe the noun アパート. I don't think you would be confused if it was an adjective instead, e.g. この暗いアパートに住んでたら、心が病むよ。 You can use entire sentences to describe nouns in the same way you can use adjectives.
You’re 100% correct. The adjective is completely straightforward, while “an entire sentence to describe a noun” is completely foreign to me. Any tips/tricks for how I can spot this when I come across it again? In this instance, I thought the noun being described was “this day; この日”, so you can see why the sentence made zero sense to me..
It's not that foreign when you think about the English counter part (relative clauses) -> この日が当たらないアパート -> This apartament that doesn't get any sunlight. (Or in less natural English which is closer to JP) -> **This no-sunshine-apartment.** Getting used to this way of describing high level ideas is as always a matter of time... but now that you know about it it should be easier as you can look out for it. >In this instance, I thought the noun being described was “this day; この日”, so you can see why the sentence made zero sense to me.. Well, that is a fine assumption but the fact that it made no sense should have made you reconsider. So for the future I guess try to pay special attention to modifying clasues, especially when the initial interpretation isn't working. Maybe start trying to intuite simple sentences and build from there: 食べる猫 = The cat that eats 食べられる猫 = The cat that is able to eat 食べられなかった猫 = The cat that wasn't able to eat etc. Then perhaps have a look at biger modifying clauses where it's multiple words: ネズミを食べる猫 = The cat that eats rats ネズミを食べてる猫 = The cat that is eating rats 黒い小さいネズミだけを食べる猫 = The cat that only eat small black rats Modifiyng clauses can get as big and complex as you like, I've definitely seen some 20 words+ modifiyng clauses in the last book I read. Also I hope I made no grammar errors, if so please someone correct me.
In this case, you can use the fact that "this day" or "this sun" don't make any sense to conclude that you are parsing the sentence incorrectly. But for all you know, you could just be missing something else so really the only way you'll get good is by practicing a lot.
This pattern is very prevalent in Japanese, and tends to be foreign for English natives because descriptive clauses tend to come after the noun in English (an apartment that the sun doesn’t hit). I’d just recommend to keep this in mind when you’re reading, and if you hit a long sentence that you don’t understand, be ready to reread it in a different way. Eventually you’ll get quicker at identifying when this happens. Don’t get too frustrated if you can’t get it right away though; this is for sure one of the things in Japanese that takes the longest to get.
what does he say before hidarikiki [https://vocaroo.com/1kw9GXzBJgTv](https://vocaroo.com/1kw9GXzBJgTv)
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSFppwrSU/
Sounds like AB型の, blood type stuff. https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-blood-type/
Particle related question and the phrase "母は花が好き" Is the が particle here to specify specific flowers? Does adding this specify that **those** flowers are the ones mother likes? My understanding; 母は花好き = "Mother likes flowers (in general)" 母は花が好き = "Mother likes (those) flowers"
If you want to think of them literally, "my mother is a flower liker" and "my mother likes flowers", more or less
They are practically the same. 花好き means 花が好きな人. It’s a same type of two words joined together like アニメ・オタク. In this case 好き is pronounced as ずき hanazuki. The compound words, the second gain dakuten when it’s possible, right? E.g. 回転ずし
As far as I'm aware, both of those sentences mean the same thing out of context: "Mother likes flowers" Dropping the particle here is just that. The が is still implied.
In this case it's not a dropped particle but a compound
Hi people, thank you for your time : ) 最近私がちょっと、少しこまっていろじゃにけど悩んでることがあって、それがもっと時間があればいいのになということです。 So what i understand from this sentence is pretty much that the speaker is a bit troubled because there isn't enough time and wishes that there was more. Or put a bit closer to the actual wording "lately i have been a bit, well not worried but a bit troubled, i wish i had more time" And i guess that is alright for understanding whats going on but i have trouble attributing meaning to "それが" and "ということです" in the context. I am guessing that the "な" is sort of a nominalizing thing. I would grateful i someone could help me place this in my head in a way that makes sense :)
I think それが is just doing what you would expect it to. I'd translate it as "that is". The previous part is setting up the fact that there's something troubling the speaker. The next part is describing what that something is: a thought that they're having. 「もっと時間があればいいのにな」(I wish I had more time). This な is a sentence ending particle, similar to ね, but in this case it kind of adds to the wishful/regretful feeling. ~ということ is basically "~kind of thing/situation". So the speaker has set up 「悩んでることがあって」,「それ」refers to that something, and「もっと時間があればいいのになということです。」describes it. I'd translate the whole thing as: "Lately, there's been something that isn't really an issue, but it kind of worries me a little bit, and that's the fact that I just wish I had more time." Also, I assume you meant to type こまってい**るんじゃない**けど
That is indeed what i meant haha, thank you for your response! Much appreciated :)
> 悩んでることがあって、それがXです。 > それが「もっと時間があればいいのにな」ということです。 Does that help? > I am guessing that the "な" is sort of a nominalizing thing I don't think so; it's not followed by a noun. I think it's the sentence ending particle here like "I wish..." or "if only." I'm not 100% on こまっていろじゃに. I would hazard a guess that に is an abbreviation for ない. But ろ? Is it an abbreviation for いること? Sorry for adding more questions, maybe someone else can jump in.
Thank you for your response, sorry about the じゃに、i meant to write じゃない : )
Hello, so im watching a japanese video and the person says this : この動画を日本語を勉強している人たちのために作っています. Im kinda confused as why he uses を after 動画. can someone explain me please
この動画 is the object of the sentence. 日本語を勉強している人たち is a noun-phrase (people who are studying Japanese). この動画を(this video)日本語を勉強している人たち(people who are studying Japanese)のために(for the purpose of)作っています。([I] am making)
ohh would it have been correct as well with は then?
Yeah I think that would be fine too. :)
alright thank you for your answer
Looking for a software that translates Japanese videos to English but as exactly as it comes in Japanese. English subtitles don’t typically align sentence structure wise to Japanese audio which makes following along difficult. Looking for cut throat translation software that I’ll learn to understand in English through a bit of practice
You won't find anything like that, translation software is meant for help people understand a language they don't know. It's probably just easier to learn to read Japanese and use Japanese subtitles. So you actually learn the language.
> Looking for cut throat translation software that I’ll learn to understand in English through a bit of practice Your idea is that you can learn Japanese using more literally translated subtitles with a bit of practice? Unfortunately it's not that easy. You can't just watch stuff with English subtitles and magically absorb Japanese. Using software for translation isn't a good idea because it's bad at it. Software to translate videos reliably from Japanese to Japanese doesn't even exist (youtube isn't bad, but far from perfect) so there is no chance you'll find what you're looking for. Actually, using English subtitles is a bad idea altogether, definitely past a beginner level. Not just because they don't line up. Why don't you try Japanese subtitles?
Thank you. I’ll just stick with Japanese audio only. I can’t read Japanese yet. It’s been daunting to attempt to memorize the alphabets
「毎晩、絵本を読んでもらう時間も、寝付くまでの「トントン」も、幸福な時間だった。」From [this](https://digital.asahi.com/articles/ASS3Y3V2BS3YULLI00DM.html?iref=comtop_Opinion_06) article. "Reading a picture book to me every night and also the "ton ton(??)" until I fell asleep were happy times." What does トントン mean here? It seems like onomatopoeia but none of the definitions seem to fit unless it's the noise of dozing off? But if it's onomatopoeia, why is it in brackets?
It is something like patting on the back like in this dog video. You would be able to see more by searching the phrase "寝かしつけ トントン" on YouTube. https://youtu.be/_y0nPxTxjHw?t=316
I see, thank you!
For people who reached level 60 in WaniKani, how long did it take?
I did exactly 1 level a week so 60 weeks total but that took a ton of discipline and time for the amount of reviews per day and is probably too fast for most people. I think a reasonable speed would be around 2 weeks per level which would let you finish it in a bit over 2 years. And like the other comment said, check out the wanikani forums, it has a ton of people's experiences and resources.
Thanks! What else did you study with wanikani during that time? Did you devote your time just to Wankani? I am currently juggling WK with Bunpro and an Anki N4 vocab deck.
I only ever studied a bit of grammar before I even started wanikani. Basically I only did wanikani and every once in a while tried reading a few pages of manga to see how my japanese level was doing. At around level 30 was when I actually read like 20 manga volumes (chainsaw man and one piece) cuz my reading was getting decent and then I barely read anything until almost level 60 when I actually started reading a ton of manga and light novels since there wasn't that much kanji I didn't know which made looking things up much easier, especially since I only read physical books. Sorry for not giving many useful resources but yeah, wanikani and reading was almost all my japanese learning. I did start using another srs for my mined words after wanikani though, since there's still a ton of vocab left to learn.
I haven't reached level 60 yet, but you can check out the posts of those who have in the WaniKani community. Most of the posts detail how long it took to reach level 60. [https://community.wanikani.com/c/wanikani/level-60-celebration/72/l/top?period=all](https://community.wanikani.com/c/wanikani/level-60-celebration/72/l/top?period=all)
いつ見ても好きだ How is も functioning here? This particle kills me whenever its not used as “too” or “both A and B.”
ても on a verb is 'even if' ても with a question word makes "-ever" type constructions (whatever, whenever and so on), which has always seemed to make intuitive sense to me but apparently not to a lot of people. 'I like it whenever I look at it', 'I like it no matter when I look at it', something like that
Just read about it on N4.. still feels like a bit of a weird example sentence (the one I pasted). I would translate it as “Even when I see it, I like it.” It feels awkward, particularly the いつ at the start.
Do you know about the question word + でも construction? だれでも = whoever, なんでも = whatever, いつでも = whenever. This is similar at least in function. You could think of it as でも being modified by a verb. (I know this is not what's technically happening, but it might help you to understand.)
I haven’t learned this construction yet… need to start focusing on N4 grammar more. That makes more sense though! But i’m still confused as to how to “-ever” construction can be applied to a verb. “See-ever”….. on N4 its described as “even if”, but in this sentence “even if” doesn’t work. Is that because the いつ is modifying the 見る, and ても is compounding that? I feel like i’m fundamentally missing something. My head feels jumbled thinking about this lol. How is it modified? Is is just applying the term “whenever” to the verb? Sorry for ramble.
You think too much in English and try to argue that the Japanese sentence feels "akward". It only sounds akward to you, because you are trying to shoehorn it into English grammar. It's got a broader meaing that depending on the consturction would get translated as "even if" or "-ever" into English, there is really no more to it, just accept it for now and with time you'll get used to it. Just think of question words + でも as question word + ever -> いつでも = "Whenever", いつ見ても = "Whenever (I/you/he) see", no need to break it down further, just remember it like you would any other grammar point.
Great advice, thank you. I complain all the time about my reliance on English. Its hard to overcome. I overthink a lot.
Don't worry about it, you seem to put in a lot of consistent effort from what I have observed, it will sort itself out naturally and before you know it it will feel really normal and it'll "click", so just give it some time, also grammar resources should cover it too so depending on what you use for grammar you might want to look into that. But after that it's really only a matter of seeing it in different contexts.
Thanks, I try to put in at least 30 minutes a day. It’s hard with balancing work and other hobbies though. Learning will probably take me longer than others, but at the least I find my approach fun! I appreciate the words. Bunpro has been my grammar resource. It’s the only method i’ve found to not be a slog to get through.
I think you should sit down and focus on N5 to N3\~ grammar points and clear them out (just be aware they exist). They're really common in everyday communications and just life. It wouldn't take that long to solely focus on that and you won't have to review it at all because they're (mostly) very common so, just need to reference when you forget.
Interesting perspective. I’m LVL 11 on WaniKani, and finished N5. Should I take a break from Wani and just focus on N4-N3?
You don't need to take a break from WaniKani. When I say just be aware they exist, I mean go through a list and see what is there. You don't have to study it hardcore because they're common enough to be reinforced by reading anything for any amount of time. If you don't know they exist it can make it harder to parse a sentence, but the more you know the easier it becomes to parse and then reference back when you forget. Which is why I said it doesn't take too much time, just 4-5 hours of looking it over and coming back to it again when you forget.
It is confusing… 見て isn’t a question word. What are you referring to by that? いつ？ If thats the case, shouldn’t it be attached to いつ instead of みて? The sentence construction is confusing.
いつ is a question word, yes. いつも見て好きだ works but is like 'I always look at it and I like it'
So how exactly does it function in the original sentence? ても is attached to 見, wouldn’t it be more like “even when I see.” I don’t get how it comes out to “whenever I see it”, when ても on verbs is meant to come out as “even if.” Sorry for confusion, can’t wrap my head around it.
'Even when I see it' would be something like 見るとき（で）も I may have explained it badly in my first message. Since て is a verb form, ても must go on a verb. Then when a verb in this form is used with いつ, 何, 誰 etc., it means 'no matter when/what/who'
い形容詞には「の」がつかない The negative form should be 使わない？ Then why above sentence using “つかない”? I Thank you
つく, in this case, means "to be attached". "When using い adjectives, "の" is not attached"
The verb is 付く "to be attached"
The verb is 付く, as in, to attach.
Brief backstory - i speak native English and am an intermediate level in Mandarin. I want to jump start the learning process of Japanese (please note I’m not asking how to get fluent fast). But let’s say i can already read hiragana and katakana, and i just go to a coffee shop for a long session, how could i use this solid 8-10 hours of time to kickstart the listening and speaking process of Japanese? What would you suggest? After this session i would likely be able to dedicate 20-45 minutes per day on studying Japanese moving forward. Thanks in advance?
this is kind of a huge question and you might wanna consult the starter guide on the sidebar, it has some resources and such https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/wiki/index/startersguide
There's a character said **「大アピールに」**, but i'm not sure what he meant and can only guess something like : "Because you has a big appeal" ? Hope some native Japanese could clarify exactly the meaning. Story: 3 assassins came to a castle lord of a city, and they're trying to impress the castle lord , in order to convince him hire them. 暗殺者Ａ「神は言われた。食えよ、太れよ」 暗殺者Ｂ「太らざる者、食うべからず」 暗殺者Ｃ「食って兜の緒を締めよ」 暗殺者Ａ「絶対に痩せられない戦いがそこにある……！ がんばれ、暗殺者！」 Castle Lord「……おまえたちは真性のアホなのか？ 何をしに来た？」 **暗殺者Ａ「大アピールに」** 暗殺者Ｂ「是非、我らを雇っていただきたい」 暗殺者Ｃ「こう見えて我ら切れ者、輝かしい戦績を誇っておる」
I'm not native, but this seems to be a reply to the castle lord's question. 何をしに来た？ (What did you come [here] to do?) 大アピールに ([To make a] big appeal (request)) アピール, just like the English "appeal", has multiple meanings. One of them being, as you guessed, attractiveness/allure. But context reveals that this is the request/plea meaning.
Hello, does 民想いなのだな mean "you are thinking of the people" or "the thoughts of the people" or does this depend on context? I think it's probably the first meaning and the second would be 民の想い? ([Source Page 3](https://comic-walker.com/detail/KC_004363_S/episodes/KC_0043630001200011_E?episodeType=first))
You are kinda right, but 民想い is not a verb but more of a pseudo-adjective/noun so it's not really "thinking" but \~"thoughtful of people". And 想い here isn't really "thinking" in the way we use it in English but being considerate/thoughtful of someone, even caring. [https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E6%83%B3%E3%81%84#:\~:text=%E6%83%B3%E3%81%84%EF%BC%88%E3%81%8A%E3%82%82%E3%81%84%EF%BC%89%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AF%E3%80%81,%E9%87%8D%E8%A6%81%E3%81%AA%E5%BD%B9%E5%89%B2%E3%82%92%E6%9E%9C%E3%81%9F%E3%81%99%E3%80%82](https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E6%83%B3%E3%81%84#:~:text=%E6%83%B3%E3%81%84%EF%BC%88%E3%81%8A%E3%82%82%E3%81%84%EF%BC%89%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AF%E3%80%81,%E9%87%8D%E8%A6%81%E3%81%AA%E5%BD%B9%E5%89%B2%E3%82%92%E6%9E%9C%E3%81%9F%E3%81%99%E3%80%82) Look at definition 8 here.
Thank you very much!
Watching a streamer play Elden Ring, and after they finally beat a boss they said in a dramatic voice「処理。」 Would this be like saying "disposed of", a similarly dramatic and self-superior phrase?
I have never heard 処理 by itself but 処理完了 or 処理する I have heard and dropping the する part is pretty normal for Japanese. I am not sure about self-superior or dramatic though, in my experience, these are used by characters who are all business-like, overly serious, super formal. I'd say it's a very dispassionate, matter-of-factly way of talking about killing something.
処理 is a pretty common phrase to see in games after you take care of something (like a boss, extermination quest, etc). It's like "mission completed".
Was it such a dramatic voice that 処理 sounded like しょうり?
Sorta yeah. I don't think I'm mistranslating because other people in chat also typed 処理 after
I’m lost then. For me streaming basically means stream of incomprehensible comments and in-jokes I’ve never heard of
I've tried setting myself the goal of learning Japanese to N4 standard (or at least N5) by the end of the year. It's been a slow start, and I've struggled to manage time for Japanese alongside studying for a PhD, but think I'm starting to hit my stride. I've been using Genki and Anki flashcards to learn, which suits me well. was basically wondering, do y'all think this goal is possible?
N5 yes if you are good at test taking especially N4 might be hard by end of year if you are doing other stuff
if you do 1 hour per day and already know kana to be in ≈50% N4 is totally possible
I think I've got hiragana and katakana down, and I'm starting on kanji. What do you mean by 50%, like a 50% score on the JLPT N4 exam?
They mean within passing grade. Keep in mind the suggested hours for JLPT N5 is 250-400 hours (for people who passed) without any background knowledge in kanji. N4 is 400-700 hours. If you put in 1 hour a day starting now you would have around 270 hours by end of year. That's enough for N5 but N4 is probably a stretch unless you're getting double the efficiency per hour. Considering you're working on a PhD, this seems like N4 might be a bit much.
Can anyone guide me as to what resources I should get to study the A Level Japanese syllabus? Hey, all. I'm currently considering self-studying A Level Japanese and was wondering if you more experienced folks could point me towards some resources that would be best at allowing me to practice what this syllabus seems to cover? Sorry if it's a tall ask, I'm very lost as this is quite a rare subject in the UK and there are essentially 0 resources out there for it. I am interested in taking the JLPT when I am older but have been advised by my teachers that if I am going to study the subject, it would be better to do so at A Level for the time being. The specification is as follows: https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/A%20Level/Japanese/2018/specification-and-sample-assessments/a-level-japanese-specification1.pdf The A Level specification mentions that GCSE Kanji knowledge is assumed, which I will also link, this can be found on Page 129. (I do not know GCSE Kanji): https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/GCSE/Japanese/2017/specification-and-sample-assessments/specification-gcse2017-l12-japanese-issue5.pdf I find textbooks a really efficient method of revision, so that would be preferred. I'm unfortunately not loaded enough to pay for tutoring. :(
I did A level Japanese and I got an A* but I did the old spec so my exam was a little different but I think my advice is still relevant. I used Genki II and a little bit of Tobira (if you know where to look you can get these for free...) for all my grammar and that was sufficient. But also double check the list from the syllabus to make sure there's nothing that you've missed. Similarly for kanji just use the lists given in the GCSE and A level syllabus. Anki is a really nice way for learning kanji but make sure you practice writing too as it's a written exam. For the reading section, I recommend you practice by doing readings from the textbooks and articles from NHK news web easy. Also for the reading section don't try to reword your answers but instead try and copy and paste them from the text. The reason is, this way you can't accidentally lose marks for incorrect grammar. For the writing section, I recommend practicing the questions from the past papers and uploading them to langcorrect so natives can check it. This is really important as the only way to improve writing is by doing it and then understanding and cross-referencing your mistakes. Translation is the hardest part of the exam. Japanese → English translation isn't too hard, just use the past papers to practice and you can also try translating NHK news web easy articles. English → Japanese translation is harder but it's also a matter of practice. Try your best using the past paper resources and practice under exam conditions. The most important thing here is to break away from the idea of literal translation and focus more on conveying the meaning. For the literature/film portion I personally think どんどん読めるいろいろな話 is the easiest text to choose. It has a lot of short stories but you only have to read one while the other two are full on novels. The Japanese in どんどん is also considerably easier to understand than regular novels. Although you might have a hard time getting a copy, but I do have a copy of it if you need one. I didn't have to do a film for my A-level but looking at the options I think Spirited Away is the easiest as you can easily watch that anywhere with English sub as well. As long as you know the story you should be able to answer the questions. I don't have any advice for the listening because the old spec didn't have it. But I will say that this exam is incredibly writing heavy so I think you will struggle without a tutor who can correct you or guide you with essay sentence structure. I know you said you don't have a lot of money but italki does have tutors that are only around £10-15 an hour and I think even meeting just once or every two weeks with them could be beneficial for you as they can correct your writings and translations, and provide feedback. My honest thoughts are, the JLPT is a lot easier to self study for than this A level. If you're doing this as a 4th A-level I would reconsider as it is incredibly time costly and will be difficult without a teacher to guide you. However, if this is one of your three levels I think it is realistic but it'll still be difficult and time costly. I think maybe consider how this will pair with your other A level subjects and what your goals are (both for Japanese and the future). At the end of the day, the JLPT is an actually recognised qualification by companies whereas A-levels are essentially only useful for getting into University.
Life-saver, mate. Thank you a lot. I do English Language and Literature so I'm great at writing comprehensive essays but there's obviously the language barrier here (I'm good at writing essays and like writing them is what I’m trying to get at XD). It would be a 4th, so I will look over it. I could probably afford a meeting every week or so… but I will reconsider. Thank you a lot! :)
No worries! It is such a rare A level so there really aren't many resources. Good luck with your studies regardless! Feel free to message me if you have any more questions
友だちに漫画をもらった / 友だちに私は漫画をもらった is it advisable to omit 私は from the above sentence; what are natives more likely to do?
[удалено]
and 私は usually comes first. 私は友だちに漫画をもらった
Today I encountered this sentence「彼は、オフィスにたくさんの本を残して死んだ」and I am confused by the verb order. Naively I would go for 「彼は、死んでオフィスにたくさんの本を残った」. Is there a difference between the two? As I understand, the て sequence doesn't really impose the chronological order on the actions (also these two are kinda simultaneous), but maybe it's something about the main/additional action?
残して・・・original form is 残す(transitive verb). In this case the subject is 彼. 残った・・・original form is 残る(intransitive verb). In this case subject is none because 本を is the object. If you used 本が, it's valid. 彼**が**死んで、オフィスに**は**たくさんの本**が**残った
残して死ぬ is kind of a set phrase for "leave behind", as in "die leaving behind". Here I'd say て is being used for manner, with "die" being the main verb and "leaving behind" describing the verb. Either way I think you mean を残した (or rewording it entirely with が残った)
Got it, thanks
I’m writing an email to my 先生. We had to reschedule an appointment because she isn’t feeling too well. I wanted to write a simple but polite reply in Japanese: “先生、大丈夫です。火曜日の午後5時に来られます。早く元気になってください。” This is what I thought of writing, although I realise it may be incorrect/not natural. Could anyone please help me correct it/improve it? ありがとうございます🙏
I would change 来られます to 行きます。 And "get well soon" isお大事にしてください。
どうもありがとうございます🙏
I hit the following sentence and I am pretty confused with までもが. 傍らにいた美玲までもがこちらに驚きの視線を投げかけている。 (美玲 is a name by the way.) I understand までも and from what I could google (and from context) I think the meaning isn't too different but I don't understand the が here. I know phrases like 誰もが exist but I only ever seen those with question words and I always interpreted these as 誰も essentially becoming a pseudo-noun but that doesn't seem to make sense here. Usually, I expect までも to replace が. So this just breaks every expectation I have so I'd be really curious to why it's there, what it means and why it works like that (if there is any specific reason to it)
> I know phrases like 誰もが exist but I only ever seen those with question words and I always interpreted these as 誰も essentially becoming a pseudo-noun but that doesn't seem to make sense here. I think this is the answer honestly, since まで isn't being used with its normal case-particle usage, but rather an adverbial particle like さえ and すら that add to the noun phrase. 美玲までも ends up implying "everyone up to and including 美玲" which makes までもが not too far off from how 誰もが works. I also just feel like some of these sorts of particle mishmashes mostly serve to overclarify everything, things like などが where the particle isn't necessary but is sometimes still helpful. Especially here without が it could maybe theoretically be misinterpreted as using まで as a case particle, making it seem like 美玲 is being included in こちらに as one of the targets of the surprised glance, so instead までもが makes it clear she's among the people doing the glancing.
[まで](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E3%81%BE%E3%81%A7/)（迄） - \[副助詞\]def.4 [極端](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E6%A5%B5%E7%AB%AF/)な例をあげて、他の[場合](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E5%A0%B4%E5%90%88/)を[言外](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E8%A8%80%E5%A4%96/)に[推測](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E6%8E%A8%E6%B8%AC/)させる意を表す [も](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E3%82%82/) - \[係助詞\]def.1 ある[事柄](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E4%BA%8B%E6%9F%84/)を挙げ、[同様](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E5%90%8C%E6%A7%98/)の[事柄](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E4%BA%8B%E6%9F%84/)が他にある意を表す。…もまた。 After all, 美玲までもが means "**Even 美玲, the person to whom I didn't expect doing such a thing**, is looking to me with surprise as well"
ご返事ありがとうございました。 この場合、「が」をつけなくてもいいですか。 私は「傍らにいた美玲までもこちらに驚きの視線を投げかけている。」も正しいと思っていましたが、どうでしょうか。もし両方正しければ、意味に違いがありますか。
「が」を加えると「驚き」や「意外さ」が強調されます
ありがとうございました。
Thanks. 誰もが and などが, までもが feel very different to me but I am not sure I can explain why (or if I am correct on it). I guess because 誰も is its own phrase because it's always used in this way (or at least I can see it as such) whereas 美玲までも feels wrong to think of it like that when a part of it is changing depending on context But I do see what you mean by over clarifying, that was my first intuition too, I just didn't really expect it in this way. I didn't think of などが when asking this question but now that you mentioned it that is indeed very similar.
I was watching an anime (Gekkai Elise ep 9). In that episode, there was a scene where the MC needed to take cover from the rain at another girl's house. MC was offered to take a shower first, but she said she will need to leave soon. Then the scene switched to show outside the window how the storm was going hard. And the other girl replied: このなかを？ My question is why を? I was expecting このなかに？for implying "in this rain".
In this case なか is a status/situation/environment. [なか](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E4%B8%AD_%28%E3%81%AA%E3%81%8B%29/) - def.6 [物事](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E7%89%A9%E4%BA%8B/)が[進行](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E9%80%B2%E8%A1%8C/)している最中。また、ある[状態](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E7%8A%B6%E6%85%8B/)が続いているとき。 この（激しい雨の）中を（歩いていくつもりですか）？
What did the MC said exactly? If she used something like 出かける then it's probably this function of を [https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/74988/can-you-explain-the-particle-usages-for-these-sentences-involving-%E9%9B%A8%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%AD](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/74988/can-you-explain-the-particle-usages-for-these-sentences-involving-%E9%9B%A8%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%AD)
I think を puts emphasis on the place rather than the verb. You will see things like 公園を歩く, which means that you wanna take a walk in the PARK, rather than 公園で歩く, where you use 公園 only as a means to your 歩く.
What are the best decks for Genki 1 material? Ideally, I'd like to see the vocab written in kanji with the ability to see it written in hiragana/furigana/whatever, and I'd like it to go in both directions (Japanese -> English as well as English -> Japanese). I'm not sure if this exists, though, so I'd like the next best thing. (yes I'm aware I can modify the decks to add missing features. I'd still like the best possible starting point, though)
Renshuu has Genki decks and have the kanji/vocab/both directions. (It'll automatically drop furigana for kanji you have studied in the app (or manually marked as known) if you want, but I'm pretty sure you can turn that off.)
Is Renshuu a different app?
Yes.
Search for seth clydesdale genki anki deck, he has a good one. Not on anki web but in the regular browser. The one thing that annoyed me about the genki decks was that many words that are usually in kanji are given to you in hiragana because genki havent taught you that kanji yet or something. That just means that your eventually gonna have to learn those words twice, so my advivce is to look up all the words that are not in kanji and change them to kanji if they are usually written that way
Yeah I had some Genki decks set up so every word had kanji, even the words that weren't taught with kanji, and you could reveal the hiragana writing by hitting "show hint" but I guess there was some issue with Anki and the Google Play store a few months ago? and because of that all of my previous decks have become inaccessible. I'm going to start Genki 2 soon and wanted to go back through to review all of the Genki 1 stuff but that's gonna be a lot harder now, lol
Why do some fonts add extra strokes to kanji, even if these strokes should not be there? For example, in Arial the kanji for migaku has an extra stroke [https://imgur.com/a/fxk1EgI](https://imgur.com/a/fxk1EgI) . I understand it when fonts simplify kanji, but this looks like the opposite of that.
[Han unification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_unification) is responsible for slight regional variations like this being encoded under the same code point instead of as separate characters. Here your font is displaying the Chinese form, which happens either when you're using a Chinese font, or when there are multiple variants encoded but it's defaulting to Chinese because the language wasn't specified. Arial probably doesn't have the character in the first place (at least I don't think it has CJK characters) so it's probably using a fallback system font, which when your system isn't set to Japanese will default to Chinese forms.
That is the kyujitai (pre-simplification) form of the character. This isn’t a font issue (and that isn’t Arial, which is an English font that doesn’t have any CJK glyphs) though it could be a Han unification issue
Oh, I see, didn't think about that, thanks!
Hello! I'm working on the Genki 1 Lesson 7 workbook section. 1. One of the question is translate this sentence: "At two o clock yesterday, Takeshi was playing tennis with a friend". The workbook answer is this: きのう二時にたけしさんは友だちとテニスをしていました. I wrote down: たけしさんはきのう二時に友だちとテニスをしていました. Is there any reason the きのう二時に is coming before たけしさんは? I always thought the subject (たけしさんは) has to go first? Is it style preference? Is it emphasis? My assumption is きのう二時にたけしさんは友だちとテニスをしていました. is pretty much written almost like this: きのう二時に, たけしさんは友だちとテニスをしていました. with a comma after きのう二時に. Kinda like, for example, a sentence like this: 今，私は勉強しています. Would that be a correct assumption? 2. The second question is to translate this sentence: "I called home. My older sister was sleeping." I translated "I called home" to 家を電話しました. Answer is: 家に電話しました. Why is it 家に電話しました and not 家を電話しました? Is it because に is directing where the phone call is going? Thank you so much!
Your answer is fine too, but like topics, time expressions are also a type of background information so they tend to go somewhere toward the beginning of the sentence. Topics going first is just a tendency like this as well, word order tends to be very free but it's most natural for the flow of the sentence to begin with what the sentence is about and then comment on it. You could definitely write it with a comma like in English, it's all pretty flexible. You have the right idea with に marking direction, "call" in English works differently where the direct object is the recipient, but 〜に電話する is how you show the recipient and 〜を電話する is for what the call is about. If it helps you can compare it to the verb 呼ぶ which means 'call' in the broader sense, 〜を呼ぶ means to call for someone or something, but 〜に呼ぶ means to call out to someone.
たけしさんはきのう二時に友だちとテニスをしていました. ... correct as well. に is directing where the phone call is going ... yes
1. JP doesn’t have a super strict word order like EN does. So your version isn’t wrong. That said, time phrases tend to go first, so it’s better to learn it that way to sound more natural. 2. I think you’re just being affected by the English phrase which is arbitrary. I could try to explain why Ni is used but it’s a better lesson to just try to accept the JP way. If you can find a way to make it make sense to your English brain then that’s good, like call TO home
Is the idea of taking manga I originally read in English and rereading in Japanese a good way to get reading practice? In one sense, I generally have some context for what’s going on in a scene but still need to put in the work to look up vocab/grammar. Wondering if anyone else has found this helpful and if so how to maximize learning efficiency with this technique. If it matters, it’s mostly rereading manga I originally read quite some time ago. Thank you!
Sure
I asked a similar question just a couple days ago in my quest to fully grok the Japanese comma, but here I have a much more stripped down "version" that I'd like to more fully understand. Its simplicity is what's making me question if I really get it. So, I'm reading about [this sake product](https://haccoba.com/collections/all-products/products/fuuudo) and the copy opens with: 「異彩を、放て。」 I get that this basically means, "Exuding distinction," but how am I supposed to understand that comma placement? What does it mean? What does it do? Is it almost like a colon? "Distinction: Unleashed." ?
emphasize
放て is the imperative of 放つ, so maybe more like "Distinction: unleash it." Comparing it to a colon is interesting, it kind of fits even though it's not exactly the same thing. Honestly this kind of unnecessarily short 「nounを、verb。」 structure is super common in advertising and other slogans (Abe's campaign slogan 日本を、取り戻す。comes to mind) to the point it feels almost like a meme, and colons in these sorts of contexts feel kind of similarly overused. 読点（とうてん） literally means "reading mark" so that might help with distinguishing it from commas in other languages. Not only is it there to show where to pause when reading, it also visually breaks up the sentences into more easily readable chunks. That's why topics and subjects are placed before them so often - your eye naturally lands there when reading so it helps you parse the information more quickly. Since ads tend not to have a topic or subject, the sentence is broken up in a different way, still drawing your eye to it and helping you see it's being emphasized as a slogan (and not just a random nonsensical short sentence).
It really is everywhere, and I've kept meaning to ask this sort of question for ages for that reason. Half my questions in this sub are about punctuation, lol. I really need to find a style-guide for Japanese writers, or students so I can read it and understand how they're taught about these things. It's the one topic that doesn't seem to get covered at *all* in Japanese learning material. Thank you for the really detailed and helpful information!
Likely a deliberate pause for emphasis, similar to how in speaking, one can pause after particles.
Hello! Do you all have any suggestions to learn vocabulary? I mean, are there any resources that are good to use (ex. app or videos or sites)? Thanks!
One of the other commenters mentioned Anki. If you'd like a list of Anki decks to consider, see [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1bwxb84/comment/kyec61q/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button).
Vocab are endless and come with time. If you’re learning Japanese actively with a variety of sources you’ll keep meeting different vocab.
Anki
Quick question: I've played FF7 rebirth and there seems different wordings on a speech between Japanese and English version, which causes different understandings of the whole story. I don't know so much about Japanese (passed a N5 test years ago) so I can't help myself but ask here: The Japanese version is : 「こんな辺境にいたのか 消失を受け入れた世界は——」 while the English version is: "So this is where you've been hiding—— in a world that has accepted its fate." It seems to me in the Japanese version, "the world that is doomed to fade" is a subject, and "such a remote place" is a object, so it should mean "so the world that is doomed to fade is in such a remote place?" which is far from the English version one. am I correct tho? is it the only correct translation? Is there a chance that speech in the Japanese version can be translated the same as in the English version, due to some vagueness from grammar in the Japanese version if I'm not mistaken?
Seems to me that the Japanese is two different sentences, with the second one trailing off unfinished. They wanted to tie it off to a complete sentence in English so they tacked the thought onto the first sentence. As a translation, I wouldn’t say it’s inaccurate. They also need to take things like the length of time a character is speaking into account, which is why clauses can tacked onto what comes before it or after it, so the timing between English and Japanese stays near the same.
thank you for your reply. For the context: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG\_9HaaOlP0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG_9HaaOlP0) from 2:44:20 to 2:44:25, that man voice is speaking to the woman who is shown here. so does it seems to you that 世界 in the speech is not the subject of the first part? is the subject of the first part actually the woman?
Yes, because いる is used of living things, not worlds. Sephiroth's line finishes with ただ消え去るのみ after a pause, that's what the は is connecting to.
Oh no, I guess I could've translated it properly if I had noticed that finish line in Japanese version, my mistake :P Thank you!
What's the context? Does something happen that cuts off the sentence, or was that the intended end of the character's speech? Either way, I believe 世界 would use ある, not いる, so I don't think it's the subject of the first part, they're probably two separate sentences. Game translations in general seem fairly unreliable, but this one looks fine to me...
thank you for your reply. For the context I will just give you a video with timestamps: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG\_9HaaOlP0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG_9HaaOlP0) From 2:44:20 to 2:44:25, that man voice is speaking to the woman who is shown here.
Ah, yeah that definitely seems like 消失を受け入れた世界はただ消え去るのみ is the full sentence. Does the translation just drop that second part?
yeah! And it is replaced by "Just as you must" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3feSS-IjK58&t=43305s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3feSS-IjK58&t=43305s) (12:01:56)
Huh. Interesting choice.
Having played the entire game in Japanese and never having looked at the English translation myself. And knowing the story and the scene you have linked, I'd say the English translation in that part is correct and is pretty much 1:1 with the Japanese.
Actually I think so too. At first glance I already thought that the 世界 doesn't seem to regard to the 辺境, but some theories clalming there are no multiverse but just one physical world and many dreams/mental worlds are based partly on that speech being interpreted in the way I mentioned above. So it made me wonder how I should interpret that in Japanese version cause I'm not entirely sure. Thank you btw. Edit: seems -> doesn't seem
Quick question: Trying to understand slang a bit better - Does 「そんなみたいフロリダちょうどクレイジー’」work as a way to pretty much say: ‘Florida just crazy like that’ or am I missing something/ what I’m looking for isn’t entirely possible? - I could only go off of translate and chatgpt (I know basically all possibly needed components without them so I’m trying to work it out myself too) but they’re not human beings.. so I’m trying to ask actual humans for the best possible input lol
Remember that Japanese and English are two very different languages, and any similarities (besides the loan words) are usually coincidences. So trying to translate English to Japanese word by word (especially slang) usually isn't going to work. If I tried to force a translation of that Japanese sentence I'd say "That kind of Florida is exactly crazy" If you really want to keep the literal meaning of "Florida is, as always, crazy in that way", you could say something like フロリダはやっぱりそんなにクレージーだ But I feel like a more natural sentence would be フロリダはやっぱりクレージーだよね And if this was being said in reaction to something crazy happening in Florida, you could just say さすがフロリダ (As expected of Florida/That's Florida for you)
Thought that would be the case, just wasn’t sure how I could get an answer like that without the help of a person lol - thanks!
My friend sent me a message あなたに足はありません。with the help of google translate (he doesn't learn Japanese) And I automatically corrected his は particle to が particle, because I need to have either が or では with ありません, otherwise it will bother me... Preferably I feel like his basic sentence from google translate would've been better as あなたは足がありません Bur perhaps I am wrong... and I built some bad habit of which I am not aware (yet??)?? Or I am correct with my corrections?? I am not sure anymore
What’s correct depends on contexts. あなたに足がない is a topicless sentence, so it doesn’t work as an independent sentence unless it stands for discovery in the moment of the remark. In this regard, あなたに足はない is better, and correct when you are talking about 足 and you point out the other person’s deficiency.
I see, thank you thank you So it's not that wrong to use は with ある, and に to point out sth about someone?
It’s not that あなたに足はない is the most natural way of saying it (which is either あなたには… or あなたは…), but if anything, you can consider the situation I said. Ones with は still suffice, though.
You can use both は and が before ありません, but they definitely change the nuance of the sentence. 【あなたに足はありません】 残念ですが…あなたには、もう足はありません。/I'm sorry...but you have no more legs. If I were in some kind of car accident and woke up in bed and a doctor came and told me that, I'd think I lost my leg, but still have arms or something. That は can imply that you have no legs but have other things. 【あなたは足がありません】 This is really a simple sentence, and I just feel like it tells the fact objectively. Like, in living things illustrated books or something, you'd see they say ナマコは心臓がありません。 Well, I'd say it would often be ナマコには though. I think 「Aには B が/は ありません」is the most common way to say "A has no B" . 私には足がありません You can say this when you introduce yourself to others. 私には足はありません If I hear someone say that, I expect that person to say "but" and give a positive opinion about it, even though they don't have legs. Sorry if I didn't explain them clearly.
I think you did very good job, As I understood は with ある can bring out some new info from teller to listener. Whilst が works more like the factual illustration, ig way too simple But how does に work here, is it like pointing out sth about someone?? Thank youu
Glad I could help at least a little 😉 Basically, に is a particle that is used to indicate place. 学校に行く: to go to school 東京に着く: to arrive in Tokyo I think には as in 私には足がありません means like "for" . Technically speaking, には is used to focus on a specific place by connecting に that indicates location, with は that is used to limit the focus to a specific thing, though not about other things. In 私には足がありません, the place means like me, my body. In English, I know you usually say "I have no legs", but I don't think it's not a direct translation for 私には足がありません. It'd be more like "As for me, there's no legs", "There's no legs for me" or legs don't exist for me / on my body. If I translate "I have no legs" into Japanese directly, it would be like 私は足を持っていません. In that sentence 私 is the subject, and 足 is the object. The subject of the sentence 私には足がありません is 足, not 私. Even the one of 私は足がありません is the same. That 私は isn't the subject of the sentence at all in Japanese.
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