How does the "どういうわけだか" in this sentence work? How does the particle か work in this situation? Also, does で mean "among" even without superlatives with 中? Can using the -te form mean since? And how do the に particles work in this sentence?
"That was, a novel written for the first time since I was born, when I applied to the literature journal as a newcomer with doubt of the mere mind, "What is the reasoning?", and shined as the first place winner among the youngest in history."
This is my attempt at translating this, I think I've done many, many things wrong here.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-15 6:57
か marks "どういうわけだ" as a discursive insertion (or just an interjection). If you take this part out, the main sentence is still grammatical.
で marks the instrumental case, "with/at/by ...". "史上最年少で" means "at the youngest age in history".
Yes, the -te form can mean "since". I think it's a type of the so-called ablative cases.
The first に in "新人に" marks the dative case, "to ...". "新人" (newcomer) is one of the categories of the journal to which you can send your novel. The second one in "大賞に" is similar. It means that the sent and evaluated novel rose up to (and won) the grand prix.
"それが" in this context is more like "but", "for all that", rather than the literal "that is/was".
The dative was common among early Indo-European languages and has survived to the present in the Balto-Slavic branch and the Germanic branch, among others. It also exists in similar forms in several non–Indo-European languages, such as the Finno-Ugric family of languages and Japanese.
らい, very informal and masculine, is used when the speaker contends against what has been said by another speaker, by affirming it. For example:
そんなことしちゃだめだよ。 You shouldn't have done that.
わかってらい。 I know that! (You don't have to tell me such an obvious fact!)
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-16 10:15
>>767
Oh really? There's no plain form of らい? I figured it was slang for something considering it doesn't come out in any of my dictionaries. Thanks for the help!
I wasn't being clear enough, so you misunderstood me. I meant that things like で, が, を, に are not cases (even if they carry the same meaning as a case would), but rather particles.
Particles surely aren't cases by themselves. Particles mark what case the adjoining word takes up. In 彼に, for instance, に marks 彼 as a dative case. That's why the likes of に are called 格助詞/かくじょし ("case particle").
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-16 22:55
Anyone have any tips/stories about how they've learned kanji successfully? I'm pretty good with my grammar skills but for some reason kanji is just a pain in the ass for me. I mean, I know a pretty good amount, don't know an exact number but probably somewhere around 500, and most of that is just being able to recognize and know it from seeing it so much reading manga and etc. I'm wanting to at least learn all of the jouyou first but my brain just seems to be retarded when I'm trying to study kanji.
Any tips? Getting tired of knowing grammar really well but being fucked over by kanji.
A case is the grammatical function of a noun/pronoun within a context such as a phrase or a clause. In Japanese, they are mostly marked with case particles like に, を etc. を itself is not a case, but the word to which it attaches has one.
私は魚を食べる。 watasi-wa sakana-o taberu
In thisi example, 私 is a subject and is so marked with は, and 魚 an object marked with を. In colloquial Japanese, however, some of these case particles can be elided and the cases don't fail nouns/pronouns:
私魚食べる。 watasi sakana taberu
This is because the cases are something that is primarily held not by the particles but by the nouns/pronouns themselves. The particles are just a collection of markers. And in this particle-less instance the cases are mostly marked with the word order.
It depends. は can mark the topic, the subject, or both. In 私は魚を食べる, 私 is both the topic and the subject. は exclusively marks the topic for a word only when が marks the subject (or the focus) for another word. Example:
Since the topic and subject are practically the same thing in English, and a Japanese sentence does not need a "subject" to be grammatical, saying that は can mark the subject as well is not wholly correct.
Also, the specification use is technically the same as the topic marking use.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-22 17:05
Sorry if this isnt totally relevant to the topic, but I dont want to start a new thread for it.
What are the better japanese learning software. Rosetta stone comes to mind but I wanted to know if there was any better software out there, or if Rosetta stone is any good in the first place
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-24 19:43
>>778
Rosetta Stone is shit. Learn through textbooks and dictionaries.
I'm currently studying japanese and I learned hirgana, katakana, a few kanji and I know some basic grammar and words. I now want to put it into some practical use and read something. Do you guys have any tip on what I could read? Even children books could be fine as long as there isn't just one word and a picture. And yes, I'm prepared to look up a lot of words and probably tons of kanji.
>>786
I know it's probably too early for me. But I want to read some just for fun. It's not like I'm going to stop studying because I could actually read something for once.
>>785
I bought some 1st grade books. "Nihon no mukashibanashi" and "Nihon no otogibanashi." They are quite old, but easy to read, it's pure hiragana. I bought them used in some garage sale.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-30 17:17
>>789
Thanks! I'm having some trouble finding the books, but I will give it another go when I wake up tomorrow. (But if you know a site I would be really grateful, even e-books work). Isn't hard to look up words when there's no kanji?
>>788
I'm telling him to start reading after he has mastered a lot more kanji, vocabulary and grammar.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-30 20:13
>>791
Which is stupid. As soon as you learn all the hiragana and katakana you should start reading, even if you understand nothing.
When I was first learning and just knew all the kana and the kanji for 1-10, I started reading simple manga like Sailor Moon and etc. While I could understand barely anything and just make out some words here and there, it's still good to do. It helped out my speed of reading/recognizing the kana tremendously.
>>792
Of course you should read stuff even if you have a limited grasp of grammar and vocabulary, but the OP said that
And yes, I'm prepared to look up a lot of words and probably tons of kanji.
which means that he's going to try to read more advanced text, which is not very advisable. He'll take too much in, and probably will just get discouraged if he does that.
>>791
If you know a better way to master these things than using them, I'd like to hear it.
Name:
Anonymous2009-09-04 0:04
Can someone tell me how to refer to the same noun for two or more different functions?
With sentences like
私は田中のために田中と旅行した。
"I went on a trip with Tanaka for Tanaka's sake."
or
私は田中と田中に旅行してあげた。
"I went on a trip with Tanaka as a favor for him."
Can I use pronouns or some different sort of particle to condense that repeating "Tanaka" somehow? It sounds extremely off as it is; the repeating sounds repetitive.
Name:
Anonymous2009-09-05 0:47
What's the difference between
パスワードとなります
and
パスワードになります
I know になります is normal, but となります comes up every now and then
Name:
Anonymous2009-09-05 9:23
I'm learning numbers but with 7 and 4 which version do most people say?