日本語 Japanese Ask Questions Thread 6

If you have a question about the language, ask it and fellow 4channers might see it and answer it for you.

Japanese - Ask questions thread
http://dis.4chan.org/read/lang/1174719097/1-40

日語 Japanese Ask Questions Thread2 質問
http://dis.4chan.org/read/lang/1206158123/1-40

日本語 Japanese Ask Questions Thread 3
http://dis.4chan.org/read/lang/1267485093/1-40

日本語 Japanese Ask Questions Thread 4
http://dis.4chan.org/read/lang/1302350850/1-40

日本語 Japanese Ask Questions Thread 5
http://dis.4chan.org/read/lang/1330050873/1-40

I'm having trouble with the following:
そつとしておこう。

context: girl sees scarcely clad rear of her neighbour hanging from window and says this.

よつばと chap 2, for those who know it.

thanks in advane

>>520
I can't recall the original sentence but basically a woman narrated that when she arrived at her workplace, she saw somebody she didn't expect, and the なら particle was used. Coming to her workplace is a daily thing so I figure she must be saying "when", plus she didn't anticipate the event so she couldn't be saying "if I come to the office...".

Might there be any chance this is just a particular writer's habit and not a rarely-documented grammar?

>>521
I remember that part but don't recall her saying anything.
http://manga.animea.net/yotsubato--chapter-2-page-15.html
Anyhow, that was what the translator came up with.

>>523
yes, but translators tend to give not-so-true to the source translations sometimes.
And my goal is to learn Japanese so I wanted to understand what was literally said and...
you get the gist of it.
I'm tired.

>>524
Can you post a pic of the raw page, somehow?

>>521
そっとしておく means "to leave as it", "let it be", etc.

それにしておく equates to the same thing but it has a slightly different nuance. It equips the same ておく form though to show that something should should be put off until the future.

A slightly more accurate translation would be "Well, let's just leave it at that", "I'm not gonna ask any questions", etc. etc.

>>512
No, that was roughly a 15 pages where you can search for なら read what comes up to see if it helps.

I wrote this a few months ago. Maybe it will help with conditionals.

---------------------

えば - what follows is always of natural consequence, a request, a thought, etc.

時間があれば、会議を参加するつもりだ
If there's time I plan on attending the meeting.
もっと詳しく説明してくれば、ありがたいと思います。
I'd appreciate it if you could explain in more detail.
勉強さえしすれば、いい点を取れることになる。
You'll get a good score if you just study

~たら purest conditional, may or may not happen, if or when

帰ったら、亡くした腕時計を探してみる
When I get back home, I'm going to try looking for the wristwatch I lost
学生全員が卒業式に早速行ってくれたら、問題なく始めるようになる。
If all the students could come to the graduation ceremony without delay, we'll be able to begin without a hitch.
ドアを開けたら、雨が降っていたと気づいた。
When I opened the door, I noticed it had been raining.

と literary or fictional use, when this-then this, when this-what?, etc.

公園に入ると、見知らぬ男に殴られた
When I entered the park, I was struck by a man I had never seen before
雪が降ると、外でよく遊んだものだ。
I used to play outside often when it snowed.

なら　probable the easiest: ONLY used for "if" "then" when you receive information, circumstances, opinions, etc. from OTHER people and create a thought BASED OFF of that information

そうと思うなら、はっきり言ってくれ
If you think so, just tell it to me straight
休暇を取れないなら、週末も働いてもらえないか？
If you're not able to take a vacation, can I get you to work this weekend to?

>>527
Okay, so なら is the general marking of the hypothetical "trigger" phrases then? If it does not include trigger phrases that actually happened, then I have to conclude this is a writer's habit playing loose with grammar.

>>528

Japanese conditionals in general don't really pay much concern to whether something has actually happened or not (i.e., if vs when).

家に帰ったら、知らない人がいた。
When I got home, a stranger was there.

時間があったら、いつでも来てね。
Come by if you get the time.

なら can be used for hypotheticals just fine. Hypotheticals are, by definition, things that haven't happened. I'm not sure what the line you're trying to draw here is, but there's nothing odd about someone coming to a speaker's house and then the speaker says "家に来るなら・・・" for "if you're coming to my house (then at least bring a gift, or whatever)".

>>529
Well, it's just that this writer was writing a woman narrating herself coming into her office with the なら　particle (the line goes something like, "when I arrived at the office, I met an unexpected man"). That seems to stretch the usage range of なら a little bit. Of course I took the line for granted that なら is also used that way, but since that was the first time I saw なら used that way, had to make sure.

>>528
>>529
The difference is: when you ask "If you're coming to my house...", there needs to have been some kind of information, some kind of thought or idea, something that allowed you to give the condition regarding that person coming. That's where nara comes into play. It's not like you're saying "if you come" as in you're just saying "just in case", its not really hypothetical. There's a level of expectancy. Though you're not always "excepting" per se. You can say "when" or whatever you want in English but understanding it in Japanese is more important. Some Japanese people don't even really know the difference.

家に来たら、
If you come (you might, you might not, but IF you do then...)

家に来るなら、
If you come (I have some reason to believe you might, so WHEN you do, IF YOU DO, then...)

They're similar but very different

>>530
How about you post the sentence you're talking about? We can get to matters much more quickly.

What is the word you use when you look through, say, an essay for typos and other faults. Like, "to correct" or "to make corrections".

>>532
I wish I can, it was from a novel that I read at a friend's house on the weekend, I can't remember the exact quote but I do remember the particularly unusual usage of なら. I'm now 50km(ish) away from his house, finally had an Internet connection to ask this nagging question.

>>534
All I'm saying is: there's likely some detail that's missing, some kind of context.

>>533
訂正

>>535
It's very straight up actually: 。。。へやって来たなら,。。。 Just that. I can't recall the whole sentence but preceding なら is just the verb. This is why I couldn't get this part out of my head.

>>537
AGAIN, what I'm saying is, the important part of this sentence isn't nara being after a verb. IT ALWAYS IS. The rest of the sentence, verbatim, is what will make this easier.

>>538
That's beyond what I can do right now.

>>539
I know.

http://eow.alc.co.jp/%E3%81%A3%E3%81%9F%E3%81%AA%E3%82%89/UTF-8/

Here's some たなら examples if that's what's bothering you.

祇園精舎の鐘の聲、
諸行無常の響き有り。

沙羅雙樹の花の色、
盛者必衰の理を顯す。

驕れる者も久しからず、
唯春の夜の夢の如し。

猛き者も遂には滅びぬ、
偏に風の前の塵に同じ。

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2641&;

For the Nanzan dude, you got any idea how lenient they are on those medial papers? My local health care centre is slow as fuck with the tests and I might have to retake the urinalysis since I got a very small amount of blood in there(probably a false positive).

>>544
They say they're strict on the deadlines but I'm sure if you send your overseas study advisor/representative or someone at Nanzan (whoever you're sending your forms to) an e-mail about your situation, they might give you a break. At the end of the day, they want your money. If they have to wait a few more days to get it, they will.

I turned everything on time before I got there, but whenever I had to turn something into the CJS office while in Japan, it was pretty much always late and they didn't throw a fit.

Hope you don't start pissing blood and everything works out.

>>545
Yeah, I'm gonna be so mad if my trip get's cancelled because of that urinalysis. Goddamn, I haven't even had a common cold in almost 2 years and there are definitely no symptoms that would indicate that I'm in any way sick.

Is そんな　ever contracted to んな, or is it a contraction of something else？(Taken from んなこと言ってねーよ, it's heavily slanged as you can see, so I speculated so)

Would it be rude to ask /lang/ to translate a song? It's almost 5 minutes long.

>>548

Post it.

>>549

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUH7_My6B3E

Crossposting from /jp/, they told me to ask here.

"could you explain a bit of Japanese conjugation grammar to a newbie?

我ら来たれり
It's being translated as "what becomes of us" and similar.
I understand that the verb is kitaru, right? How does it become "kitareri"?
"

Thanks, gentlemen.

我ら来たれり
we have just arrived


来たる  a ラ行四段活用/ラ行五段活用　type verb 
り　  an auxiliary verb     meaning just finished or continuing


verb{来た（word stem) ＋ れ（已然形 conjunction）} ＋ auxiliary Verb{り}

conjugation type <of ラ行四段活用 >

未然形　beforehand　 <ら>
連用形  connect to 用言(verb,adjective,adjectival noun)<り>
終止形　finish <る>
連体形  connect to 体言(noun,pronoun)<る>
已然形/仮定形　afterwards/if　<れ>
命令形  order　<れ>

>>552
Not the same guy that asked, but this post will confuse the hell out of newbies (including me) without cross-referencing with Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_verb_conjugation

What do twin siblings refer to each other as?

>>554
Just like normal siblings, one of them is still older than the other if only by minutes.

>>547

Generally only in a situation like that is it abbreviated, but yes.

>>553
For this newbie, conjugations made a fuckton more sense after properly learning about kei bases.
http://grammar.nihongoresources.com/doku.php?id=verb_grammar#idxenglishinflection_bases

How close am i with this? or does it at least convey my point or sound polite?

I would like to say [video game context]

’’please could you make it so you[the character] can use items while moving [walking, running] thank you''

お願いだから　アイテム　わ　利用　と　歩く　も　走る　本と　興味深い　有難う

If anyone can help, I'm looking for a translation of this. They're washing instructions. I don't need the bottom translated, just -what to do- with it.

http://i.imgur.com/vWC71.jpg

>>559

You made the same thread on /jp/ and it got deleted before I typed my reply, so here you go.
Preliminary info: the actual washing instruction for that dakimakura cover (I assume) are the signs, the text is just your standard  "don't be retarded" babble.

- If your product comes with beltanzipper close them before washing, what do you think they're fucking there for? Also don't just throw this shit wherever without drying it properly first, goddamn.

- We did our best to retard proof the material, but if you cut it with a fucking knife it'll still probably not stay in one piece, this shouldn't be rocket science.

- We keep telling those fucking Chinese kids to cut the goddamn material in equal sizes, but it's a bit stretchy and lately child protective services have been fucking annoying so the size of 2 materials, even from the same line of production, might not be exactly the same.

Name of product: パールロイカ, if you can't even read katakana, gtfo of /jp/

For the rest: read the goddamn signs