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1500 questions
17
votes
1 answer
When to use: "say", "speak", "tell" or "express"
When browsing through journal entries by various people, I've recently been noticing the words 述{の}べる and 語{かた}る used fairly frequently but I'm not sure when they should be used over 話{はな}す and 言{い}う etc as I think there's a lot of overlap.
Would…
cypher
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17
votes
2 answers
In which dialects have the sounds "ゐ" (wi) and "ゑ" (we) been preserved, and are their kana still occasionally seen?
In Nate Glenn's answer to bdonlan's qestion "Why were ゐ and ゑ eliminated?" he states:
"Wi" and "we" are still in some dialects, but standard Japanese does not have those sounds.
My question is which dialects are they which preserve these sounds?…
hippietrail
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17
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1 answer
When the agent takes を in the causative form
I've seen a few sets of terminology when referring to the causative form, so for the basic case, I will use the following:
instigator が agent に 〇〇 を ｖ－させる。
In its most basic, text-book form, we have sentences such as:
子供にお弁当を買わせます。
…
Nathan Ellenfield
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17
votes
2 answers
にしても and としても, is there a difference?
にしても and としても...Don't they both have a meaning of "even if"? Is there any subtle difference between these two forms?
Noodle
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17
votes
1 answer
What is the proper term for a bug fix with respect to Software Development
In English, when dealing with Software Development we sometimes refer to the word "fix" in order to describe some code change which makes an attempt to fix a bug, or problem in the code. For example:
I'll try to send you a bug fix which addresses…
Locksleyu
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17
votes
3 answers
を vs が with use against 好き?
The difference between が and を with the potential form of a verb. and Is it true that all nouns must be able to accept a が particle and a を particle? are noted as possible duplicates; however, I haven't seen an analogous structure. The examples I…
Wolfpack'08
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17
votes
4 answers
What's the difference between ね and な as tag questions?
What's the difference between ね and な as tag questions?
For example:
そうですね
vs
そうだな
Is there any difference in level of politeness? Does one sound more masculine than the other?
Edit:
The examples above are pretty vague (or even just plain wrong in…
Shane
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17
votes
2 answers
Ups and downs: かみ・しも vs うえ・した
So, we have the kanji 上・下 which can be read as either かみ・しも or うえ・した, and as I understand it, those two are antonym pairs. But what are the differences between the two?
The thesaurus isn't very helpful. For instance, it says, for…
Zhen Lin
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17
votes
1 answer
Is こら a lot more rude than ほら?
From early on, I've used こら and ほら somewhat interchangeably. They both mean "hey!"
I picked them up from friends early on without really having a sense of the difference.
Now, after some time, I've come to understand that ほら is simply "hey!", as in…
Questioner
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17
votes
3 answers
Blue blistering barnacles, what is Captain Haddock saying?
For those who might not be familiar with the series Tintin (soon to be in a major motion picture, by the way), there is a character named Captain Haddock who is famous for shouting out colourful exclamations when he gets upset.
His signature…
Questioner
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17
votes
3 answers
What's the difference between 成人 and 大人?
What's the difference between 成人 and 大人 ?
Pacerier
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17
votes
1 answer
Correct form of address for a bartender, or itamae
What is the right way to address the bartender? Or the person preparing sushi?
On a recent visit I heard マスター used to address a bartender, and I already know that 大将 is one way to address the sushi chef.
I have two questions about both the form of…
jogloran
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17
votes
2 answers
What is the difference between そうか and そっか?
Is そっか just more slangy? Is そうか the same as saying ああそう? Or, is this more a spoken thing? If so, what is used when writing?
Michael
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17
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3 answers
In what situation can I use ~かい (for interrogative question)?
One day, I asked my japanese friend how I could invite some friends to eat.
He said
"一緒に食べに行くかい？"
I know that we could also say:
行きましょうか（行こうか）？
行きませんか（行かない）？
行きますか（行くの）？
but I got interested in why he used "kai".
I'd like to know others…
daniel tomio
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17
votes
2 answers
What's the difference between 去年 and 昨年?
I learned 去年 well before 昨年, so I just always use 去年 out of habit. But now I'm wondering if they really are interchangeable or if there's even a subtle difference that would make one more appropriate in some situations over the other.
So are they…
Blavius
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