How do you tell the difference in Japanese between the pronunciation of words that sound like "Eye" for "ai" and "Ah-E", and "Ei" sounding like "ay" in "hay"(IE, Sensei) or "Eh-E" like in Josei?
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Anonymous2011-06-22 8:43
>>246
Because they're pronounced different, you retard.
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Anonymous2011-06-22 19:27
避ける
Which is more common, よける or さける? >>39
Ｈａｖｅ ｙｏｕ ｒｅａｄ ｙｏｕｒ Ｄａｉｋａｎｗａ Ｊｉｔｅｎ ｔｏｄａｙ？
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Anonymous2011-06-22 19:45
さける is common.
recently よける is used in idioms,like 日避け (ひよけ）but it can't read ひさけ
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Anonymous2011-06-22 23:47
>>246
are you German? this is a very common problem among Germans.
What's the best way to say "put or place something in a room", as in furniture or fixtures? I want to say: "Could you tell her that if she puts the new TV in the living room, I'll give her my old computer?". This is what I got:
>>257
You've had a gross misunderstanding of what I wanted to say with the Vegas thing. I understand you're alterations but they've changed what I wanted to say considerably.
>>261
Like thank you for the food, or thank you for helping. I'm wondering what "for" is in most cases.
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Anonymous2011-06-29 22:44
>>261 >>262
It's best to vary your response to the situation and take advantage of set phrases. For example, "thank you for the food" can be expressed with ご馳走様でした and "thank you for helping" is better expressed as お疲れ様でした, depending on the situation.
Stating it simply though, te-form and kureru can be used for both:
食べ物を買ってくれてありがとう or 料理をしてくれてありがとう
Thank you for (buying me) the food or thank you for (cooking me) the food
手伝ってくれてありがとう
Thank you for helping me
Even less formal is simply using the wa particle:
ご飯はありがとう
Thanks for the meal
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Anonymous2011-06-30 9:34
It's been a very long time coming but I finally understand というのは/とは but I still have one lingering hang up about the pattern it's typically used with. From ALC 500 daily expressions:
I don't understand why the final nouns are nominalized with こと. I understand the 名詞のこと = "about" construction but I get the sense this is a completely different 名詞のこと. It seems redundant somehow. Thanks for your time : )
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Anonymous2011-06-30 9:46
>>264
Stop trying to understand Japanese on English terms and from an English perspective. Try to understand the language on its own terms and not from your biased perspective.
教育ママとは自分の子供の教育に熱心な母親のことです。
A educationally-focused mother is a mother who is enthusiastic about her children's education.
水蒸気というのは気体の状態に変わった水のことである。
Water vapor is water that has changed into a gaseous form.
＿＿とは＿＿＿のこと
___is _____(that thing it is).
The purpose of adding のこと instead of just ending the sentence is the item being described isn't limited to JUST that noun. のこと basically can be understood as "something like", "a thing settling close to the previous description". This is basic shit. Just go with it.
It would mean that a 教育ママ is a 母親, not a 自分の子供の教育に熱心な母親のこと. Learn the difference. It's fairly simple.
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Anonymous2011-06-30 17:31
Fairly basic question, but I'm having some troubles with the genitive case? For example, would さかなのボール be the fish's bowl or the bowl's fish? I've always assumed it was the first order, yet a few things I've seen recently seem to contradict that like Uta no Prince. Song's Prince wouldn't make much sense.
I need some help with this line. The context is a girl talking about two guys:
そのうちの一人が、今、この私の目の前に居てくれている人で、もう一人が、私が選ばなかった人よ。
I think this says: "Between them, one is -something something-, and the other one is the one I didn't choose."
Obviously, I'm not really sure what the "-something something-" is. I'm not good when verbs get compounded to that level (itekureteiru).
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Anonymous2011-07-05 10:02
「そのうちの一人が、今、この私の目の前に居てくれている人で、もう一人が、私が選ばなかった人よ。」
"Because one of them is there for me, directly before my eyes, I didn't choose the other person."
Verb＋くれる means the 1st person or his or her in-group receive the action of the verb. Meaning 居てくれている is "being (for someone [currently])". Your welcome.
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Anonymous2011-07-06 20:41
Extreme noob question: should you learn Japanese characters first then the spoken language afterwards?
I've spent the last two weeks following this guide that uses transliterated Japanese and I'm starting to wonder whether it's a good idea, since eventually I'll have to learn the written language too.
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Anonymous2011-07-06 21:30
>>271
Japanese has a phonetic alphabet. reading is speaking in your head.
I've been using Microsoft's text and input services in order to type in kata, but it's rather annoying to switch between the two, is there anyway I can make it do so automatically, or with a single key press? I'm sure there is something in the settings which lets me do so, but my Japanese is terrible currently.
If not, any other programs out there that are easier?
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Anonymous2011-07-11 12:00
>>275
pressing alt+shift is too tedious to switch?
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Anonymous2011-07-11 20:27
>>276
Think I may have phrased my question wrong as alt shift switches me to Latin characters and back. What I meant is "is there a way to switch between hirigana and katakana other than clicking it down in the corner, as that makes typing tedious. Or do so automatically(ie if a word is written in katakana, it automaticly switches for that word)"
Alt shift switches me to Latin characters and back.