Basically if you have a question about the language, ask it and fellow 4channers might see it and answer it for you.
To start it off. When an animate object (iru) dies, is it considered inanimate(aru)?
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Anonymous2007-03-24 5:02 ID:H3t9C1y1
what the fuck do you want to say in english? give an example sent. or something.
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Anonymous2007-03-24 9:09 ID:+LB7ZAS6
Is it true that Japanese has over twenty words for pederasty?
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Anonymous2007-03-24 21:25 ID:bM4Bu6OQ
>>1
No. It is still iru. The iru/aru thing is not as cut and dry as you may think. For example, you can use iru when saying there's a taxi over there, because you associate strongly the concept of taxi and taxidriver.
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Anonymous2007-03-24 22:17 ID:8Tv3Ynmv
>>1
You probably wouldn't use that verb at all any more considering he's dead. If you want to talk about his body or his spirit, you would use "aru".
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Anonymous2007-03-25 1:43 ID:ZfQHt26y
when do you use ano/kono/sono over are/kore/sore? or are they the same?
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Anonymous2007-03-25 2:41 ID:9MlehwEo
ano kono sono is followed by the noun your are referring to, like kono neko, sono neko. are kore sore are used when you are not naming the noun. E.g. Sore wa ii ne >> That is nice. Sono kutsu wa ii ne >> Those shoes are nice.
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Anonymous2007-03-25 2:43 ID:l92QU7fH
>>6
In English, the functions of both those words have been fused into "this, that, etc..." except that one set is used as a pronoun and the other as determinant.
:Kore: wa akaku ni natte iru. = :This: is becoming red.
:Sono hon: wa omoshiroi desu. = :That book: is interesting.
If your question is about which of the ko-so-a-(do) series to use instead of the difference between kore/kono, I'll let anonymous answer for you.
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Anonymous2007-03-25 22:10 ID:SC409vVa
How do you say 'How do you say _____ in Japanese'?
>>8
I'll bite on this.
ko- is always "this," something close to both the speaker and the addressee.
so- is "that thing close to you but far from me"
a- is "that thing far from both of us"
do- is used for questions "what thing" type stuff
Also, when you're talking about a memory or something like "that house I went to yesterday," so- is used when it is something you are familiar with but the addressee is not, and a- is used when you are both familiar. For example, if I went to Sapporo and stayed at the Weeaboo hotel, I'd say "sono Weeaboo Hotel," but if we'd gone together, I'd say "ano Weeaboo Hotel."
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Anonymous2007-03-26 1:48 ID:OyJ3rUYo
>>8
Kore: wa akaku natte iru = :This: is becoming red.
Fixed.
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Anonymous2007-03-26 15:55 ID:jyD1PfS4
==8
Damn it, forgot about particles not being needed for adverbs.
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Anonymous2007-03-27 0:24 ID:8UnLchTh
Can anyone explain 行ってくる to me?
Example: トイレに行ってくる。
>Motion Verbs (行く、来る、etc.)
It is reasonable to assume the actions 「行っている」 and 「来ている」 would mean, "going" and "coming" respectively. But unfortunately, this is not the case. The 「～ている」 form of motion verbs is more like a sequence of actions we saw in the last section. You completed the motion, and now you exist in that state. (Remember, 「いる」 is the verb of existence of animate objects.) It might help to think of it as two separate and successive actions: 「行って」、and then 「いる」.
>>15
You didn't answer >>14 at all. You talked about ている when the other person wanted to know about てくる. Well, specifically he wanted to know about 行ってくる. Rather, in that case, it is 行って来る because the idea is "going and then coming back."
行って来る is functionally equivalent to the English phrase "I'm heading to XXXX. I'll be right back/be back later."
For example, when you leave the house in the morning to go to work/school, you'll say out loud 行ってきます. You're saying, in essence, "I'm leaving, but I'll be back later."
It's just a fixed expression, though. No one thinks of it as "i'm going and coming back." Instead, it is just thought of as the equivalent of "see you later". I mean, no one actually thinks about the actual meaning of each word in "see you later" when they say it, do they? No! They just say it as an idiom. 行って来る is an idiom as well.
I WAS thinking of it as going and coming back, which was confusing the hell out of me. Thanks.
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Anonymous2007-03-27 12:15 ID:YvTxZS9x
>>16
You missed out explaining why this is so. Because the Japanese have a stronger sense of belonging to a group, "returning" to the group is an important action. Hence 行って来る means "I'm going, but don't worry, I'll be back."
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Anonymous2007-03-28 1:10 ID:ick6u0o1
Please answer me this:
What's the difference between "う-", "う~", and "うぅ"?
I'm desperate.
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Anonymous2007-03-28 1:21 ID:rsTLoKVD
desperate for love
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Anonymous2007-03-28 1:27 ID:ick6u0o1
>>20
I've actually got 3 steady lovers - an adult, a teen and a loli. I'm sick of love. They ain't getting any loving out of me as long as I have japanese.
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Anonymous2007-03-28 2:39 ID:TNCQOVYg
>>19
no difference, you make these sounds when taking a dump.
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Anonymous2007-03-28 5:16 ID:tedbr9hL
>>6 >>7 >>8 >>11
these are all correct, but there is one time where "so" and "a" can be used in a different way. when speaking of something that cannot be seen at the current time, and is only known of by the person speaking of said something then so is used. if it is something that both people are aware of then a is used
for example:
two people are sitting at a italian restaurant
person 1 is speaking of a mexican restaurant
person 2 does not know of the mexican restaurant
therefore person one would use そのレストラン(sono resutoran)
if both person 1 and person 2 knew of the restaurant then あのレストラン(ano resutoran) would be used
it is actually more complicated than taught at first. i guess it is just something that you pick up in everyday speach. i have only seen it in one textbook before
oh and the same goes for are/sore and asoko/soko although soko seems to not be used that much in everyday speach
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Anonymous2007-03-28 9:03 ID:ick6u0o1
>>22
There has to be SOME difference, because I've seen all these styles mixed together. For instance, I'm thinking "~" adds a tremolo to the drag-out.
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Anonymous2007-03-28 10:24 ID:zH9/lYJL
>>24
just think about it. it is exactly the way it looks
うー is an elogated ugh sound
う〜 is a wavering ugh sound
うぅ is an ugh sound that goes to nothing, kind of like a sigh sound in english
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Anonymous2007-03-28 13:30 ID:NaVN8K8h
う〜ぅ
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Anonymous2007-03-28 20:01 ID:ick6u0o1
Why do some people shout "THAT-THAT-THAT!" (sore-sore-sore!) sometimes? I've heard it lacks translation, but TRY to explain it.
Is it the same as "asore", and what does "asore" mean?
(Searched the net for days and came up empty.)
sweet never knew that, and it makes many things much more clear now.
>>27
I'll try and explain this one
Sometimes it can be kind of used like a grunt, kind of imagine you throw a football, and you yell, "There!" as you release it from your hands. I guess another way to think of it is maybe.. "Take that!" but that might not be all that accurate and might not work in all cases. I think the 'a' in asore is just a grunt going in front of it, with no real meaning, "Ah! Take that!"
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Anonymous2007-03-28 21:21 ID:ick6u0o1
>>28
Would you say that shouting "Sore sore sore!" at a disco would be like shouting "Yeah yeah yeah!"?
>>30
In the furthest reaches of the net, I've found a blog where someone said that it was fun going to a disco/concert/rave, and shouting "sore-sore-sore". I figured they were shouting "Yeah yeah yeah!".
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Anonymous2007-03-31 15:33 ID:yk4gCczl
What's the difference between Nihon and Nippon? I don't think you can say nippongo but I think I've heard nipponjin, of course it all works for nihon.
If I were to guess, I'd say nippon is more of a older fashion way that is a bit more proud, where as nihon is more.. passive I guess.
Anyone care to elaborate?
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Anonymous2007-03-31 19:19 ID:xjECIDTM
I have encountered a song titled 「どんなときも」I was wondering what exactly that means. I've tried to conclude that the title's meaning has something to do with "What kind of time (also)"- but not only does that seem stupid, I can't imagine a context in which you would use a phrase like this either. Also, considering that the entire song title is specifically written out in hiragana, perhaps the "とき" isn't supposed to mean "time" at all... some clarification would be appreciated!
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Anonymous2007-04-01 7:35 ID:I5D6bPD5
>>34
It means 'at any time whatever'. As a rule, interrogative pronoun* + も means any* or every*. For example, どこでも is 'anywhere', いつも is 'always', etc.
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Anonymous2007-04-01 13:05 ID:I5D6bPD5
What does 乙です mean? As in この仕事、乙です. The dictionary has like a million definitions for the word.
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Anonymous2007-04-01 14:04 ID:1Yd7hxl6
>>36
乙 (read as おつ) means thanks
so この仕事、乙です means Thanks for your effort on this
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372007-04-01 14:29 ID:1Yd7hxl6
Oh and a few more things I'd like to point out, I think 乙 is derived from お疲れ様 (otsukaresama) which is like "many thanks" However the kanji isn't the same, it might possibly have just been a nice and short way to say that, so then they hit space bar and got something different and just settled with that heh.
An example where this has happened, is for the anime show Bleach. It's buri-chi, but since they love shortening things, they called it buri instead, then I guess someone hit space and turned it into a kanji 鰤 (buri, which is a type of fish) and I guess they thought it funny so it's like a meme to call bleach that.
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Anonymous2007-04-01 14:54 ID:I5D6bPD5
Eh, that makes perfect sense, thank you!
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Anonymous2007-04-01 14:56 ID:08lhWA92
I see 乙 on imgboards, does it mean 'seconded'?
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Anonymous2007-04-01 15:01 ID:1Yd7hxl6
no, I just told you...
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Anonymous2007-04-02 1:47 ID:MXJI8t3J
Could you translate the following into english, please?
"日本の声優すげぇ～の歌の歌詞の修正版 一部不明な点あり"
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Anonymous2007-04-02 2:41 ID:15zXobqH
>1
乙
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Anonymous2007-04-02 22:58 ID:SVUN9P4n
>>42
I think it's like
Japan's amazing voice actor's song lyrics revision half. One point is unclear.
but it might have some mistakes in it.
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Anonymous2007-04-03 12:54 ID:vcL1TTmD
can someone explain what direct object means? I know it's を and it comes after that, but I'm not even sure what direct object is. I always thought it was just an item, but then I hear it used after the word "you" and such so that doesn't make sense
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Anonymous2007-04-03 12:55 ID:vcL1TTmD
Oh and also I hear it used after stuff like 日本語 (japanese) and that's not even a tangible thing so that just throws me off base.
>>45
Seriously go back to 3rd grade...
I eat an apple
an apple=direct object
I hit a faggot
a faggot=direct object
It works the same in Japanese, but they put を to indicate that the particular word or group of words followed by を is a direct objet
私はりんごを食べる
りんご＝direct object.
It's that simple.
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Anonymous2007-04-03 20:30 ID:vcL1TTmD
>>48
congratulations at not explaining one thing but just giving examples of some I could come up with myself.
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Anonymous2007-04-03 22:34 ID:jWnezSYp
when it comes at the end of a sentence it usually means there's more sentence (implied) but deliberately unspoken.
よいお年を - A Happy New Year (the unspoken part is "have a" So the full meaning is "Have a Happy New Year".
As for being after the word, "you" I can only say, why the hell not?
あなたを好きです。 "I like you"
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Anonymous2007-04-03 23:39 ID:vcL1TTmD
>>50
Didn't know that about the first one, although my question wasn't answered. I did a wiki/dictionary check on object and now it makes sense when it's actually explained, and not just dumb example.
basically an object is something involved in the action so in the sentence 50 said, to put it in a different way, "You are the object that is of liking"
Now that makes sense to me.
You guys say this is really simple and preschool stuff but everyone of you failed to explain what it meant, and only used examples haha, but as long as you try I guess
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Anonymous2007-04-05 1:04 ID:2mfhiDRX
おす！たたかえ！おうえんだん！
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Anonymous2007-04-05 2:12 ID:0wEd8SeR
>>49
I think Anonymous answer is pretty clear. There is absolutely no need to go into details, a direct object is a direct object. It works exactly the same in Japanese and English. You can still read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_(grammar)
And if it's still not clear to you, maybe you should try learning something less than difficult than a foreign language.
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Anonymous2007-04-05 4:13 ID:Q4puxb3K
>>45
IT's like in C&C3, when you click your left mouse button on a unit or a building, then that object becomes the current object. The (w)o particle can be used like this:
*click* "Hey, Mammoth Tank Brigade 1?" (This is "w(o)".)
"Unrivalled..."
"I like you."
"Roll over them..."
"No, I mean, I really, really like you."
Also, see that you didn't have to click on them for each sentence? Once you've marked an object with (w)o, it stays marked until you left-click on something else.
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Anonymous2007-04-05 7:32 ID:Q4puxb3K
>>54
No wait, I just described the ha particle. Disregard.
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Anonymous2007-04-05 13:09 ID:GNUjwGL4
>>54
my nerdometer just went super nova (in a good way)
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Anonymous2007-04-05 16:26 ID:XpBZizJx
>>53
I know you're the same person, but regardless, don't ever try and teach a language if you think that was a good example, you would seriously be the worst teacher ever.
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Anonymous2007-04-05 17:10 ID:2ITPvL4i
With the verbs 'to be', iru and aru, do you use the particle wa or ga?
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Anonymous2007-04-05 20:55 ID:gM9Lalfi
>>58
both, depends on the direct object
this seems to be one of the most difficult things for a beginner japanese student to figure out. i can honestly say that i have no clue how to teach you though
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Anonymous2007-04-05 22:51 ID:gM9Lalfi
>>57
welcome
i can see you are new here
we are a great group of people
everyone here gets along with everyone
i just made a slope with this little letter thing
>>33
They are both correct readings of 日本. Nippon used to be the only way to pronounce it. It is still, since it is an older pronunciation, considered more "formal" or "classical." If you go to Kyoto, they prefer "nippon," while people in Tokyo prefer "nihon."
If you look at formal docs, govt papers, and money, they all say "nippon" as well.
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Anonymous2007-04-06 15:32 ID:Xbfo1coX
This maybe a bit weeaboo-ish, but is there a kanji compound for bankai (other than bankai suru *to recover*)?
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Anonymous2007-04-06 16:13 ID:6zihj2Ow
>>63
Other than 挽回 as you say, there's none listed in the Daijirin, so the answer is probably no.
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Anonymous2007-04-06 21:34 ID:wIcmHBGQ
Is there any way to know how a kanji is read? I know that they have the 音読み (chinese reading) and the 訓読み (Japanese reading, but sometimes multiple readings)
From what I've seen, it seems like the chinese reading is usually paired in kanji combinations where japanese readings are usually solo but it doesn't appear to always be the case. If this can never be clear, is there a website that talks about which are the more popular ones or something?
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Anonymous2007-04-07 14:40 ID:H3T3Lgp/
>>65
You are basically correct. As far as how to learn them, just learn Japanese.
Oh, and combinations of kanji for a Japanese name uses the 訓読み.
>>73
no solo se habla español en mexico, GB2/elementary school
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Anonymous2007-04-08 0:24 ID:ifNrczmi
Mexican girls have very beautiful assholes.
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Anonymous2007-04-08 1:27 ID:PZEE8Qrd
if by beautiful you mean dirty..
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Anonymous2007-04-08 3:10 ID:LYSFsSJd
>>77
i allways thought those two words were synonyms
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Anonymous2007-04-11 7:02 ID:ZUtuDKR2
I've searched the whole net for what "aanshite" and "ansuru" means. The closest I've come, is a manga translation where "aanshite" means "Open wide.". What do they mean, are there some kind of root words from which they originated?
Also, what does "churu-churu" mean?
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Anonymous2007-04-11 8:09 ID:18Xwg1JM
"ansuru" me is an aux-verb for to be
no clue about the others
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Anonymous2007-04-11 8:16 ID:OUq7hMGS
>>79
aan is the sound you make when you open your mouth wide expecting food to be placed in it or for a doctor to look in there, so yes, "aan shite" and "an suru" would be "open wide" and "to open wide," respectively.
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Anonymous2007-04-11 9:42 ID:ZUtuDKR2
"プリンプリン"? Does プリン (purin) only mean "pudding", or something else, like "soft", or "princess"? What does it mean if it's doubled like that?
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Anonymous2007-04-11 14:44 ID:7kbvJbLl
>>82
I can't guarantee what I'm going to say is right but I'll give it a shot
when they make the sound twice, it usually is like a sound effect, problem is we usually don't have those sound effects
I did a quick google search and the only thing I could find was this
>>Purin: "Purinpurin shiteiru", which, after doing some research, I can come to the assumption means "to be smooth" (though it's also worth mentioning that "purin" means "pudding").
The guy isn't even really sure himself. I checked jp wikipedia
I don't exactly comprehend it all but um, it can be 3 different things
1-comical combi (I think, which is like baby stories or some crap)
2-event of flushing a toilet in italia
3-NHK puppet show, purinpurin story, with like a princess
If there was some context of where you got purinpurin then that makes answering your question a million times easier, or maybe this already did, I dunno
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Anonymous2007-04-11 16:54 ID:KYhPm8v3
>>82
Watch the first episode of Jubei-chan and you will know.
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(^o^)/2007-04-11 17:14 ID:JNav+lxc
Pudding is soft and springy.
smooth skin of young girls look like pudding.
>>85
Do people actually call out "Oh, that girl is prinprin!"? Is it a sort of remark about how beautiful they are, or a condescending remark about them being TOO young?
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Anonymous2007-04-12 5:13 ID:aavtt3jW
...or is it perhaps a remark about how early developed (as in "big boobs") they are?
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Anonymous2007-04-12 8:38 ID:aavtt3jW
>>83
The context is the sispuri (Sister "purin-purin") lyrics, where a brother and a sister is having sex. The three wikipedia translations doesn't seem to come close. I've found some hits now: It seems to be refering to either "jiggly" or "bouncy", but I don't know if it's "sister large-ass" or "sister big-breasts", or in what tone it's meant.
INAI = An "thing" that does not exist in the current place (living or was living/is now dead)
NAI = A thing (non-living, but not dead) that is not in the current place.
When a person has died you say "INAKU NARIMASHITA" <-- "has become no longer living" when using IRU/INAI
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(^o^)/2007-04-12 15:59 ID:4u2+ZyvK
>>89
Sorry for my clumsy English and bad example.
hmm..
(^o^)/ How purin-purin they are!
purin-purin:
young and sexy (specially for appearance)
いる= IRU= [Living thing] is. (person, cat, dog, bee..)
いない=INAI= [Living thing] is not. (person, cat, dog, bee..)
ある=在る=ARU= [Non-living thing] is. (pen, table, house, car..)
ない=無い=NAI= [Non-living thing] is not. (pen, table, house, car..)
父がいる(CHICHI GA IRU):
My father is.
父がいない(CHICHI GA INAI):
My father is not.
(He is out at the moment)
(He dead two years ago)
ペンがある(PEN GA ARU):
There is a pen.
ペンがない(PEN GA NAI):
There is no pen.
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(^o^)/ I study English2007-04-13 7:43 ID:t+eK1pbw