Japanese - Ask questions thread

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)?

>>480
Huh? I just use rikai chan to look stuff up the problem comes when it has multiple readings.

You mean like google it in hiragana? I tried it and moroude got way more results, but when I do both in katakana, only ryouude gets results so I'm guessing it's that, but still, either there's something I'm missing or it's not very efficient.

>>479
>>481
Just look it up in some dictionary. E.g.

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1MUJ%E4%B8%A1%E8%85%95

Here (P) means common (for priority, check the dictionary codes)

>>482
a lot of the time, there will be (P) for both, just not in this case

here's a better example. 両手 both have (P) for ryoute and morote, although I'm sure it's ryoute, but with other kanjis I'm not familiar with, I'd have no idea which is right.

>>484
Really? Perhaps Jim reads /lang/ and just changed?

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1MUJ%E4%B8%A1%E6%89%8B right?

両手(P); 諸手; 双手 【りょうて(両手)(P); もろて(諸手; 双手); そうしゅ(双手)】 (n) (1) (with) both hands; (2) approvingly; (P) [Ex][G][GI][S][A][W] [G][GI][S][A] [G][GI][S][A]

Although a quite confusing entry, I see only (P) at 両手 and りょうて. Actually, it looks like りょうて => 両手, もろて => 諸手/双手 and そうしゅ => 双手...

Perhaps you've another example? There should be as (P) is really just means frequent usage (at least in newspapers around the clinton era).

>>485
Yeah I know P means frequent usage, the problem is sometimes I don't know which is right, now with the link you showed, it only showed one P, although not for mine, but if you want another example that works with your site, there's 開く, Hiraku and aku are both P, as for Suku, it's P too but in a different kanji or something, that site is all bunched up and slightly confusing

>>485 Jim doesn't read /lang/ afaik, but he does read sci.lang.japan

What's the point of half-width kana in Japanese? like ｷﾀ, does it add any kind of emotion to it? Or is it just for shits and giggles?

>>478

きれいじゃないか? = "Ain't she pretty?" (as in, check out that bitch, ain't she pretty)
きれいじゃない? = "She isn't pretty?" (as in, the guy he's talking to says "she's not pretty" and the response is "What, she's not?"

きれいじゃん is like the first example.

>>445

DO BOTH, FAGGOT

>>437 秘密 is more formal. You'll find, like, company names and project names and so forth use 秘密, while 内緒 sounds more like something school kids talk about, or moms tell their kids when they say not to tell daddy something, or college kids sharing a rumor. Shh, 内緒だよ

>>488

Nothing. It just saves space and stands out.

What are all the really popular words that the crazy Japanese use besides English/Japanese?

Like one really popular one is Tres bien, which I think means Very  Good in French, then I think there's la'coup or some shit (which is probably wrong) which I think is along the lines of overthrowing a government

>>493
That would be "très bien" トレビアン and "coup d'état" クーデター
You can also hear "salut" サリュー, "concours" コンクール, "petit" プチ, "merci" メルシー, "pierrot" ピエロ, "garçon" ギャルソン, etc.

what do they mean?>>494

Très bien : very good
Coup d'état : coup d'état
Salut : hello
Concours : contest
Petit : little
Merci : thank you
Pierrot : candid
Garçon : boy
Etc.

When do you know to use を and が
in example
お金がほしい
お金をほしい

>>497
You always use が with ほしい.

を is a direct object marker, so typically I only use it when some thing is doing some action to the noun.
Verb(ing) the Noun.
Eating food. （食べ物を食べる）
Punching your brother. (兄をなぐる）
etc.

>>499
ooh that makes it clear, I knew it was a direct object but I didn't really know what that meant lol

>You always use が with ほしい.
Then how come when I do a google search with quotes and を comes up with like 23x more results?

does anyone else have a problem with Japanese font randomly being spaced out too much or too little? Sometimes I'll see the font overlapping each other, if I highlight it, it usually fixes it.

>>500
Because you can't operate google...

With quotes:
お金が欲しい：289,000 results, お金がほしい：101,000 results
お金を欲しい：39,000 results, お金がほしい：12,700 results

Without quotes:
お金が欲しい：289,000 results, お金がほしい：289,000 results
お金を欲しい：2120 results, お金をほしい：3870 results

I found the fact that お金をほしい and お金を欲しい returned more results with quotes... but even then it's still fairly conclusive.

を is either a common grammatical `mistake' on the part of
native speakers or maybe a way of adding emphasis to the お金.
Although I would've thought さえ would be used for that :).

>>502
If you search google with it set as default to English, を has way more prevalence. Weird. Maybe it's from a bunch of English users attempting to do Japanese and all failing, heh

>>503
I tried it out if you search "お金がほしい" with the language set to English it find around 500 results. If you search "お金をほしい" with the language set to English it finds 0 results and so shows the results for an international search instead. Hence "お金をほしい" gives more results than "お金がほしい" if the language is set to　English.

You can do the search this way, too:

Search term - results
"がほしい - 2,580,000
"をほしい - 282,000

>>505
Either way I think it's well established now that が is used a lot more than を :) Just like everyone said :) We can rest in peace adjectives, intransitive verbs, potential form verbs and so on do indeed take が and not を :)

maybe

×お金を欲しい（ほしい）
○お金が欲しい

 "を　欲しがる　is ok
 "が　欲しい　is ok

i don't know why, but these sounds "natural".
sorry for poor english(´･ω･`)

後これだけは書かせてくれ

おまえらエロゲとエロアニメの見すぎwwなんだ「も〜お兄ちゃんたらぁv」ってwww

I have a question.
Is there any real functional difference between the ～れば and ～と  potential conjugations?
For instance, if I said そうすると and そうすれば, would there be any situations where they aren't interchangable?

　　　　　　　　　　∧＿∧　　　／￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
　　　　　　　　　 （　´∀｀）　＜　VIVA MEOOWXICO putos!
　　　　　　　　／　　　　|　　　 ＼＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿
　　　　　　　/ 　　　 　 .|　　　　　
　　　　　　 / "⌒ヽ |.ｲ |
　　　＿＿ |　　　.ノ | || |＿＿
　 .　　　 ノく＿＿つ∪∪　　 ＼
　　　＿（（＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿_＼
　　 ￣￣ヽつ￣￣￣￣￣￣ | |￣
　　　＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿__| |
　　 ￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣| |

>>509
'と' generally means 'when' i.e. it's an action that may repeat many times like in 'when I get up...'. 'ば' and 'たら' combined with the non-past tense both mean if. I.e. 'if ....' as opposed to 'when ...' When you combine it with the past tense though 'たら' becomes 'when' although it still indicates a one of situation like in "着いたら...." or something. ば still means 'if' even in the past tense, in that way it's used for speculation like in "勉強すればよかった" I dunno what 'と' means when it's combined with the past tense... I suppose it  still means 'when'. I dunno if that's what you were asking but I hope it helps :).

How do you say "Shit in my cunt" in Japanese? Please help I need it for an assignment.

what does the japanese part say

　　　　　　　 ／￣￣￣￣〃
　　　　　　 /　 /￣￣￣￣│
　　　　　　/ 　ゝ　　　　　　│
　　　　　　|　　│　 ─ 　 ─
　　　　　　|　 /　　　 -　　 - 　　　　　　　どうすれば　…
　　　　　　 (6　　　　　　 　＼ 　　　　　　　自分がいちばん楽しいか
　　　　　　　│　　　　,,,,,　─′　　　　　　　いちばん気持ちいいか
　　　　　　　　＼　　　￣￣l　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　|　　ヽ　 ;;;;;;;;l　　　　　　　　　　　それを自分で考えて　　　　
　　　　＿＿／＼　　　. /＼＿　　　　　　　　　　自分で　選ぶこと ｡
　　／:::::::::::::＼　 ＼___/　 /::::::::＼　　　
　//::::::::::::::::::::::＼／:::::＼/::::::::::::::::＼　
//::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::＼
|||:::::::::::::|＼:::::::::::::::::::::△::::::::::::::::::::::::|:::::|
|||:::::::::::::|＼ |::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::://::::::|
|||:::::::::::::|::::| |::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::||::::::::|
|||::::::::::::|:::::| |::::::::::::::::::┌─┐::::::::::||:::::::|
|||:::::::::::|:::::::| |::::::::::::::::::::￣//::::::::::::||::::::::|
|||::::::::::|::::::::| |::::::::::::::::::::::://:::::::::::::||::::::::::|
|||::::::::::::|::::::::||::::::::::::::::::::::|_|:::::::::::::||:::::::::::::|
|||::::::::::::|:::::::::||::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::|::::::::::::::|

>>512
This has been asked and answered before.

>>509
You use と for things that you know are going to happen no matter what.  れば is just a non-assuming 'if'.
hxxp://www.guidetojapanese.org/conditional.html

fuck you Jap yellow asshole
Well you can go fuck yourself dick face

>>513
what is the way I can enjoy myself most and feel so good.
You think by yourself and chose the way.


Sorry for my poor English

Is なの near the end of sentences sound girly? It expresses the state of being, right?

I'm having some trouble with "Do you know which X is Y?" type of questions.

This one I'm supposed to translate to Japanese,

: Do you know which mountain is the most beautiful one in Japan?

I came up with three answers I'm not sure of, maybe neither of them are right. Help please.
①日本には、一番美しい山がどれか、知っていますか。
②日本には、一番美しい山がどの山か、知っていますか。
③日本には、一番美しい山がどの山あるか、知っていますか。

Also, the "when" and "why" variant...

: Do you know when Mr. Brown came to Japan?
: ブラウンさんは、日本に来ることがいついるか、知っていますか。

: Do you know why Mr. Brown likes summer best among the four seasons?
: ブラウンさんは、なぜ四つのきせつの中で夏が一番好きだか、知っていますか。

:Do you know which mountain is the most beautiful one in Japan?

①日本の一番美しい山がどれか、知っていますか。
②日本の一番美しい山がどの山か、知っていますか。
③日本の一番美しい山がどの山であるか、知っていますか。
or
④日本で一番きれいな山はどれか知っていますか？

: Do you know when Mr. Brown came to Japan?
ブラウンさんが、日本に来ることがいつになるか、知っていますか。
or
ブラウンさんがいつ日本に来るか知っていますか？

: Do you know why Mr. Brown likes summer best among the four seasons?
ブラウンさんが、なぜ四つの季節の中で夏が一番好きだか、知っていますか。
or
ブラウンさんがどうして（四季の中で）夏が一番好きか知ってますか？