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1500 questions
15
votes
2 answers
How to write down sound of laugh in speech
I'm listening to some dialogues in Japanese and I write them down.
I need to write down sound of laughter in sentence (speech) like in English for example
Ha ha
What I need should have notion of laughing at someone. Is it just simple
「ハハ」
viktor
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15
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3 answers
In actual Japanese society, how often are second-person pronouns used?
My Japanese professor (I'm in first-year Japanese) advised us to primarily avoid the use of second-person pronouns like あなた or 君 or おまえ throughout the year, and essentially treated their utterance as something of a faux pas. However, I've been…
voxanimus
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15
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Difference between volitional +と思う and volitional+ と思っている
I've looked around the site for anything related but i couldn't find any clues.
My take at it is that using the volitional form with と思う you're expressing your plans in the near future as in
今晩は薬を飲んで早く寝ようと思います。
you think you'll take your medicine…
Moune
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15
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Why does 「電話は切れた」 sound more adversarial than 「電話が切れた」?
I noticed that while 「…、電話が切れた」 sounds just like a neutral phrase ("... and the call got cut off."), 「…、電話は切れた」 sounds more like you were negatively affected / that the person on the other side intentionally cut off the call.
Are there any other…
Darius Jahandarie
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15
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1 answer
Names for strokes
What do we call the different types of strokes of kanji/kana in Japanese?
For example, in Chinese the left-downward stroke is called 撇[piě] and the right-downward stroke is called 捺[nà]. And if I wanted to describe what 八 looks like, I would say…
Flaw
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15
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1 answer
Comparing 気にする vs. 気になる
Consider this example sentence from SPACEALC:
あなたがどうしているか気になっていた。
"I was concerned about how you were."
What is the difference when 気にする is used instead? I.e.,
あなたがどうしているか気にしていた。
～なる seems to convey "spontaneity" or "arising from nowhere"…
Flaw
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15
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3 answers
Does the average native Japanese reader know how to pronounce a majority of Kanji found in books?
After studying Japanese for quite a while and having read many books (maybe over 50-60 over a bunch of different genres), despite the fact I generally have tried to learn the readings of most words I come across, I always find myself discovering new…
Locksleyu
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15
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The difference between 超{こ}える, 越{こ}える and 過{す}ぎる
超{こ}える, 越{こ}える and 過{す}ぎる are said to mean "to pass through" in the "edict" dictionary, but I don't fully understand the difference between the three.
How does their usage differ please? Can anyone provide any relevant examples?
One example that I'd…
user666
15
votes
1 answer
Why are the high-pitched voices of children 'yellow'?
I was reading a little book called 『ひらがな物語』 and came across this passage on page 119:
大臣といえば明治初期の文部大臣森有礼が
「めんどうだから、いっそのこと、小学校教育は英語にしようか」
と、おおまじめで、いい出したこともあった。もし森文部大臣の発言が通っておれば今頃、
パパ ママ マイホーム
…
user1478
15
votes
1 answer
Does a list using と end with が?
Asking this other question has reminded me of another confusion I often have, one of my long standing bad habits that you'd think I'd have sorted after all this time in Japan.
I'm never quite sure how to end a list of two or more things. So, I want…
Questioner
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15
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3 answers
Using 出る as opposed to 出かける
I have looked these two words up on WWWJDIC and there doesn't seem to be much difference. Are they interchangeable, or do they infer different things?
Antipode
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15
votes
1 answer
What is the difference between these four forms of "to do"?
There are at least four verbs that mean "to do" in Japanese: する, なさる, いたす, and やる. What is the purpose of each, and when is it appropriate to use them?
Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
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15
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3 answers
"Strike while the iron is hot" - Japanese equivalent
Is there an equivalent expression in Japanese for "strike while the iron is hot"?
I've seen a few questions on here with phrases and their equivalents. Does anybody know of a site where these are collated?
VictorySaber
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15
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2 answers
How has Japanese kanji and kana usage changed since 1945?
How has the percentage of writing using each script changed since 1945? With script reform, increasing influx of loanwords, and stylistic choices, several factors affect how much certain parts of the Japanese script are used in writing. Modern…
sqrtbottle
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15
votes
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Why is the た in 手伝う voiced?
English
In the compound verb 手伝う, we see the following sound change:
て＋つたう→てつだう
Unexpectedly, the た from つたう turns into だ. 連濁, at least with the 手+伝う analysis, can't account for this, because it's not the first consonant of 伝う.
What happened…
Darius Jahandarie
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