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16
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Do Japanese parents address their son as musuko?
In America, parents can address their son as son. For example, "Son, could you open the window for me?" Do Japanese parents address their son as 息子?
Stack0verflow
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16
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2 answers
Why is 一日 'tsuitachi'?
Why is it 'tsuitachi' if the pronunciation can only be ichi, hito, or hitotsu?
Starsalign
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How to say 'X, let alone Y' in Japanese?
How to say X, let alone Y in Japanese?
For example, how would one translate:
I don't know hiragana, let alone kanji.
He couldn't boil water, let alone prepare a dinner for eight.
I haven't enough time to look in the mirror, let alone go to see…
Philip Seyfi
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16
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Linguistics and Japanese study
Firstly, I apologise if this has been asked before or if I have asked this in the wrong place (should I have asked on the meta site?).
I've studied Japanese for (going on) 5 years, now. It's been mostly classroom based, but I gained a lot of…
Jamie Taylor
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Use of ～のか (～んですか) in questions not seeking a yes/no answer
I would like to know if there is a shift in nuance in questions such as these:
誰が参加したんですか。 vs. 誰が参加しましたか。
いつ着いたんですか。 vs. いつ着きましたか。
I wish to limit discussion to only non-yes/no questions (so questions asking Who? When? Where? Why? and so on). I…
Derek Schaab
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16
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4 answers
Are 終{お}わる and 済{す}ませる synonyms?
I know that they both mean "finish". But I wonder if there are situations or contexts where you can use one but not the other.
dotnetN00b
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16
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Why is this written in katakana instead of hiragana?
Why in this image ノ is written in katakana and not in hiragana?
Luis Fernando Badel Méndez
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16
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2 answers
What are the differences between 帰る and 戻る?
Can you give an example of when 帰る should be used instead of 戻る, and vice versa?
The reason I ask is that I sometimes get corrected when using the two, such as in:
× そのとき私は日本から戻ってきて、大学に戻って入りました。 (ignore the other problems with this ☺)
…
Louis Waweru
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16
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7 answers
When should one add さん at the end of a name?
I've heard some names pronounced with 〜さん added to them (such as 佐々木さん) and some without it. I believe it is related to respect or the age of the person named. What would be the guidelines or general principles to follow regarding 〜さん?
anthonyvd
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Are Japanese modifiers "greedy", "anti-greedy", or do they mean whatever people choose them to mean?
(I'm a beginner. I just started learning Japanese about a month before I wrote this.)
The Japanese Wikipedia article 飛べない鳥, which corresponds to the English Wikipedia article Flightless bird,
has the…
edom
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5 answers
Can I say なるほど when talking with customers?
I was told in class by a Japanese teacher that なるほど can not be used when talking with people above, but in the same lesson we listened to a CD (training material) where a student was saying なるほど to his teacher.
Here at work I often hear my Japanese…
Nicolas Raoul
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16
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3 answers
When should 男の人/女の人 be used instead of 男/女?
My teacher always corrects me when I use 男 or 女 by themselves, without adding の人 to the end of it. But in various Japanese media (music, drama, anime, etc.), I know for sure that I have heard them without の人.
So I'm assuming that adding の人 is a…
atlantiza
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16
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1 answer
What does the pattern [xはxで] mean?
It appears like this, in a sentence about surfing:
前のめりにすると、前は前で浮力が無くなります。
I know the general meaning is "If you lean over forward, ...the flotation goes away."
I think that the meaning of "前は前で" is something like, "the front (of the board) being…
DR Win
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What is the difference between 「ほど」 (hodo) and 「ぐらい」 (gurai)?
As in the question title, what is the difference between the two sentences below?
一{いち}時{じ}間{かん}ほどかかります。
ichijikan hodo kakarimasu.
一時間ぐらいかかります。
ichijikan gurai kakarimasu.
How do we choose to use one over the other?
Lukman
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16
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2 answers
What are the rules for reading numbers before a foreign counter-word?
Is there a rule of thumb for knowing the reading of a number when it is written in western numerals, and is followed by a loaned counter-word?
For example, how would you pronounce the "1" in １セット? My first thought it to say 「いっセット」, but as far as I…
silvermaple
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