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1500 questions
15
votes
3 answers
Are 漢語 always more formal than 和語？
It seems that in response to questions regarding the differences between 漢語 and their 和語 equivalents, it is often explained that the 漢語 is "more formal" than the 和語. As a result, I get the feeling that this is a trend.
One example of this, which…
rintaun
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15
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2 answers
Usage of ～やら～やら vs ～や～や
What is the conceptual difference, or difference in nuance between these two constructions when used to mean 'and'? I realize there are some syntactic differences, such as や not appearing after the final item being enumerated, but as far as general…
Zach
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15
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Why does 目 have a counting sense to it?
Why does 目 get used in situations like 二個目? How did it come about getting the meaning of eye as well as some counting meaning?
user3457
15
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2 answers
(Ordering food) difference between なし and 抜き
What is the difference between endings なし and 抜【ぬ】き when you want to exclude a certain ingredient from food?
Aside from 氷【こおり】なし when ordering soft drinks, I thought that for most other things 抜【ぬ】き should be used. But my friend has been saying…
Dmitriy
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15
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1 answer
Some Japanese dictionaries (e.g. 大辞林, 大辞泉, and 明鏡国語辞典) use this inverted triangle outline symbol (▽) for some kanji compounds. What does it mean?
It doesn't apply to all the words, just some. Here are examples of words from that are marked with that symbol
悪い (with reading にくい): 大辞泉; 大辞林
面倒くさい (with reading めんどくさい): 大辞泉; 大辞林
皆 (with reading みんな): 大辞泉; 大辞林
判る・解る (with reading わかる):…
3 to 5 business days
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15
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1 answer
How to list numbers of things
Where do you place the counter in Japanese when you want to specify how many of something there are, especially if you're listing multiple things?
I believe the counter usually goes after the particle associated with the noun:
I bought 3 pencils =>…
purplecat
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15
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1 answer
What is the difference between 予想、期待、予期、思惑 for the meaning of "expectation"?
What is the difference between these 4 words for the definition of "expectation":
予想{よそう}
期待{きたい}
予期{よき}
思惑{おもわく}
Specifically, which would you use for "managing customer expectations (for project outcome)"?
Mark Hosang
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15
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2 answers
Is verb ending ない shortened to ん?
Off the top of my head I remember hearing these sentences, which I assume are just shortenings:
すみません, 分からん
絶対許さん!
Along with these two I've seen in sentence examples:
もう我慢できん
彼にはその文の意味が理解できんかった - this one is a little funky, since there is no…
Daniel Safari
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15
votes
1 answer
What does にと do?
I have a sentence that I'm having some trouble with. It's from a game called Tales of Graces -- basically, at one point you go to a garden and grab one of these rare flowers from there. The sentence is the description that is displayed when you view…
gramblestown
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15
votes
3 answers
Other meanings of でしょう besides "probably"
でしょう can usually be understood to mean "probably." But does it sometimes mean the same thing as ですね? What other meanings can it have? Can it mean "you know?"
language hacker
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15
votes
2 answers
どうしますか vs 何をしますか
I always interpreted 何 as "what" and "どう" as more of a "How or How about?" and thus was under the impression that if one wanted to ask "What will you do?" or "What did you do?" you would say 何をしますか and 何をしましたか respectively.
However, I've recently…
mattb
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15
votes
4 answers
To not have: 持っていません or ありません？
Whenever I go to the Life supermarket near my house, they ask me at the check out:
ライフカードを持っていますか？ (Do you have a Life
[members] card?)
I always respond with something like:
いいえ、持っていません。
持っていません (motteimasenn) means I don't have it, but I…
Questioner
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15
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2 answers
What's the difference between「～と言いました」and「～と言っていました」?
「～と言{い}いました」and「～と言{い}っていました」
basically the difference between します and しています.
Michael He
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1 answer
what exactly is "体言止{たいげんど}め"?
There is some discussion about "体言止め{たいげんどめ}" on the internet, but it is all in Japanese. My Japanese ability is too low to be able to read it, so I need some help.
At the least, "体言止め" refers to ending a sentence with a サ変名詞{へんめいし} and omitting…
davewp
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15
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2 answers
When is と added to onomatopoeia?
While at first I believed it was simply bound to each individual word, I've noticed that the same onomatopoeic word sometimes has と after it and sometimes it doesn't.
Here's a case I stumbled upon:
踊り手は つま先立ってぐるぐると回った
犬が自分のしっぽを追いかけてぐるぐる回っている
What…
Daniel Safari
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