If it didn't get remade, you guys realize it would just result in a million different people making their own topic for questions, right? It being condensed in one thread is a good thing.
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Anonymous2008-03-23 7:35
毎日、何時間勉強しますか。
Is this "What time do you study everyday?" or "how many hours do you study every day?" because:
毎日、何時に起きますか。
This is asking me what time, obviously.
たいてい何時間ぐらい寝ますか。
And I'd assume this is a way of saying "Around what time do you usually go to bed?" rather than "How many hours do you usually sleep (about)?"
But the first question makes more sense if it's asking me how long I study for :/. I don't know. (I'll probably come to the answer by myself and realise how stupid I look)
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Anonymous2008-03-23 9:00
毎日、何時間勉強しますか。 Is this "What time do you study everyday?" or "how many hours do you study every day?" because:
何時間 = how many hours?
毎日、何時に起きますか。 This is asking me what time, obviously.
何時 = what time?
This 何時(nanji) compound can been read "nanji" or "itsu" or even "nandoki" according to rikai-chan but in my limited experience itsu is usually hiragana and means "when" while nanji is kanji and means "what time".
たいてい何時間ぐらい寝ますか。
何時間ぐらい = (about) how many hours?
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Anonymous2008-03-23 14:09
>>11
Ah, I get it now. It's my fault for not looking at my damn book for a week.
For the reply, could I write something like 「三時間勉強します。」or am I just making shit up now? Thank you very much anon, by the way.
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Anonymous2008-03-23 15:51
Seeking definitions for oni, onisan, onesan, oneesan, oniisan. If oni means demon (as I had thought to believe), how does onisan mean older brother? Or am I reading something wrong? Keep in mind I'm talking about romanizations. Thank you.
>>If oni means demon (as I had thought to believe), how does onisan mean older brother?
Ever heard of "words that are pronounced the same but mean different things"? Also, big brother is oniisan. NOT onisan.
>>Keep in mind I'm talking about romanizations.
Um, how does that relate to anything?
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Anonymous2008-03-23 17:01
>>13
it makes sense if you start looking at the kanji (is this what you meant by 'talking about romanization'?)
oni (deamon) is 鬼
ani (brother) is 兄
then you add the honorifics to make
oniisan お兄さん
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Anonymous2008-03-23 17:05
>Ever heard of "words that are pronounced the same but mean different things"? Also, big brother is oniisan. NOT onisan.
The word you are looking for is homonym
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Anonymous2008-03-23 17:17
when deciding to use kanji or hiragana, i thought it was chosen baised on target audience (eg write out the more obscure/ higher level words/kanji)
but more and more I seem to be comming across what seems to me like random use of hiragana.
eg: I got the game 燃えろ！熱血リズム魂 押忍！闘え！応援団２ and right off the bat I see
ひとりで応援
why would a extremely simple word be in hiragana and a more complex one be in kanji??
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Anonymous2008-03-23 17:20
Where can I learn the weird kanji radicals used in calligraphy that no one can read well? For instance, in 月 we might see something like a rectangle with the bottom gone, and a Z inside. This is an easier example, but some I just can't decipher. I don't have an example on me right now though..
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Anonymous2008-03-23 19:26
>>17
>when deciding to use kanji or hiragana, i thought it was chosen baised on target audience
This is one of general rules so has exceptions. Using kanji can also add intelligence, manliness or other characteristics, depending on words.
As for the example, the game title conveys an aggressive spirit and manliness in a funny or exaggerated way. But ひとり can be in hiragana without losing much aggressiveness. I may be totally wrong, but maybe that's because ひとり is a common 訓読み word (this usually means not-Chinese-imported), and has the neutral meaning.
燃えろ and 闘え also are 訓読み words but they have aggressive meanings so they fit better in kanji, especially in the game title. Conversely, 応援 (ou-en) is an 音読み word and has a kanji-sh meaning, so only games for kids or loli-featured hentai would write it in hiragana.
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Anonymous2008-03-23 21:30
>>19
thanks, are you talking about the kun (japanese) and on (chinese) readings? (I'm still fairly new to kanji)
eg: it is unacceptable to write a word that uses on reading in hiragana? aka 日本人 uses on readings so you would never write it out?
I just thought it was strange since 一人 was one of the first things i learned.
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Anonymous2008-03-23 21:41
>>3otsu 乙 — Thanks. Contraction of and kanji misconversion of お疲れさま.
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Anonymous2008-03-24 1:00
>>20
Yes. I'm talking about the kun- and on-readings. It's not always unacceptable to write on-reading words in hiragana, but I think on-reading words tend to be in kanji. Probably this is because in general on-reading words sound more elegant or educated. Of course, there are lots of exceptions. This might be a bit similar to the relation of Germanic English words to Latinate vocabulary in a sense.
I can't give rigorous rules on this matter because I'm not a qualified teacher or linguist. But I (a native Japanese speaker) feel most of on-reading words fit with kanji in many situations, and kun-reading vocabulary is often acceptable in hiragana. For example, お疲れさま and おつかれさま are both acceptable. But ひとりでおうえん is quite childish.
On a side note, ひとり can be either 一人 (one person) or 独り (alone), so sometimes it should be in kanji to make the meaning clear.
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Anonymous2008-03-24 15:21
some fag spammed a million threads and knocked this off front page, so bump
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Anonymous2008-03-25 3:49
How do I say "per" in Japanese
The sentence I'm trying to write is along the lines of, "It's just two days, but it's 1.5 hours per day[of those two]"
I have
ただ二日だけど、１時３０分ぐらい＿＿＿＿
I'm not sure how I would attempt this or where 'per' would go, also if my sentence sucks and is incorrect, it wouldn't surprise me.
thanks.
By the way, what does ITT mean here? Like attention?
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Anonymous2008-03-25 11:39
>>25
>"It's just two days, but it's 1.5 hours per day[of those two]"
If I were to say this in Japanese, I would say,
"まあ二日間なんだけど、一日あたり１時間半です。" or, if in a formal situation, "二日間ではありますが、一日につき一時間半です。"
Basically, "A per B" is either "BあたりA," "BにつきA" or "BにA." In many cases, I think these are interchangeable and chosen depending on the rhythm of the sentence. But sometimes "BにA" could be ambiguous so I recommend you always use either "BあたりA" or "BにつきA" unless you're pretty sure "に" doesn't cause any ambiguity.
When A and B are numerical quantity, "A per B" can be, in most case, the said three types of translation. But this is an exception:
50 miles per hour (50mph) -> 時速５０マイル
Also, if B refers to an action as in "per drive" and "per move", it is often translated as 度に (tabi-ni). For exapmle,
It costs 5 dollars per use. -> 使う度に５ドルかかる
Also, >>26 said "it's just ~" is たったの〜. But I feel the exact meaning of the English phrase falls into somewhere between "たったの〜," "ほんの〜," and "まあ〜," and I think "まあ〜" is the closest. For instance, if you want to say, "It's just a matter of preference," then it should be まあ好みの問題です。It sounds funny if you say たったの好みの問題です。or ほんの好みの問題です。
Quick question... If I were to go into a shop in Japan, how polite would the clerk be to me?
Would he be saying things like あなたを助けられますか。
or would it be more along the lines of あなたを助けられるございますか。
or am I completely fucking this up and it would be something entirely different?
Please don't be too harsh on my grammar. I've never learned about ございます.
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Anonymous2008-03-28 9:22
>>32
Forget that question. Can somebody just tell me how a clerk would say "Can I help you?" in Japanese?
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Anonymous2008-03-28 13:06
>>33
hmm... well, generally the clerics are harassed by retards spamming ``heal plzzzzzzzzz'' so they don't usually ask to help
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Anonymous2008-03-28 15:19
How are you supposed to pronounce sounds like this? クァ? Isn't it just like カ？ Or is it more like クア? if so, seems pointless.
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Anonymous2008-03-28 21:30
>>33
"May I help you?" is "いらっしゃいませ。 なにかお探しでしょうか。" The first half is a kind of formal greeting, so you don't need to care about grammar. It's "pleased to see you (again)" typically used by a clerk, shop keeper and whatnot. A literal translation of the latter part is "Are you looking for something?" so it means "May I help you?"
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Anonymous2008-03-28 22:06
>>35
I'm not sure if there are official rules about pronunciations of imported words. But as far as I know, it seems to depend on ages, communities the speakers belong to and such. Generally, if he is
young: similar to or same as クワ
old or not good at English: クア
very old and not familiar with imported words: カ
For example, older Japanese may become puzzled when they are to pronounce クァッドコア (quad-core), and maybe they say either "クアッドコア" or "カッドコア". But a younger tech-savvy may pronounce it like "クワッド-コア" or "quado-コア".
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Anonymous2008-03-29 0:23
>>37
I see, no idea where the W comes in when it's a 'Ku' and small 'A' seems like it should be クヮ
What I mentioned though I didn't think was actually a sound, I thought it was just a weird way to type to make it seem strange or something. Maybe like if someone was yelling and wrote アアアァァァ, what would the ァ do when it already has the big ア preceding it
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Anonymous2008-03-29 2:18
>>38
Maybe you're talking about onomatopoeia? If so, pronounce it in whatever way you feel is right.
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Anonymous2008-03-30 0:10
How would I ask if somebody knows where I am?
I pulled this out of my ass with the help of Babel Fish:
「どこにいると知っていることが確信しているか。」