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14
votes
1 answer
Why can だって have so many meanings?
According to jisho.org, だって has these meanings:
after all; because
but
even
too; as well; also
they say; I hear; you mean
In my opinion, "because" and "but", and "as well" are completely different things. I understand that the actual meaning of…
Sweeper
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14
votes
1 answer
Spelling over the phone
In Japan I often have to call somewhere and explain my name such that the person on the other end can write it down. My name is "Sepponen Bemmu", which I want them to write down as "セッポネン・ベンム".
Is there a way to "spell" katakana verbally?
Bemmu
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14
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1 answer
Difference between 普段 and 通常
What are the differences in use between 普段{ふだん} and 通常{つうじょう}?
I'd written
カラオケもですね？通常どんな曲{きょく}を歌{うた}いますか？
which was then corrected to
カラオケもですね？普段どんな曲を歌いますか？
What is the general distinction?
Ontic
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14
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4 answers
Does a small tsu double all consonants?
In several sources it's mentioned that a SMALL TSU doubles consonants. My problem is, some websites give almost identical examples with:
っ/ッ + (S, T, C, K, G, B, P)
But what about the others?:
っ/ッ + (M, N, V, W ...)
When I use some online converter…
Pii83
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14
votes
1 answer
Difference between ~なきゃ and ~なくちゃ
I know that one of them is なくてはいけません and the other one なければなりません, I just don't know which is which, also a few example sentences would help a lot, thank you.
Raido
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14
votes
5 answers
How would "nihonium" be written in Japanese Kanji?
Would the character for it involve the radicals for "metal", "sun", and "source"? The few references to it I've seen all use only katakana.
Would such a character have an "archaic" reading of something like ひもとがね in the fashion that 鉄 has the…
鈾燚郎
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14
votes
2 answers
Why is the stroke order of も peculiar?
In most hiragana the horizonal stokes are drawn first, but も is an exception. Is there any reason for this?
user1009
14
votes
3 answers
How do you know when to use みな or みんな?
Are there any tips for deciding to write みな or みんな? If I'm not sure can I just go with 皆?
Also, in speech is there a distinction made? If not, which pronunciation is more common in standard Japanese?
Louis Waweru
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14
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1 answer
Why has を been spared but ゐ and ゑ been deemed obsolete?
According to When is the katakana form of wo (ヲ) used?, を is almost always used only for the particle, and is usually pronounced o (お).
There are some dialects where を is pronounced with a "w", but the same is true for the obsolete kana ゐ and…
Golden Cuy
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14
votes
4 answers
How to respond when someone praises about my Japanese?
While talking with some Japanese people in an online form, someone said 日本語上手ですね！ to me. I just replied そうですか, but what would be an appropriate way to reply keeping it as less informal as possible. Another important thing is that I believe the OP…
cs12b006
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14
votes
2 answers
Splitting Kanji and okurigana at the end of the line
A question was asked on the Linguistics Stack Exchange about the oriental languages. The title was the following: How are line breaks handled in ideographic scripts?
The answer made me think, and I thought I'd ask here to have a wider range of…
Alenanno
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14
votes
1 answer
Are kanji characters made up of radicals only or could they contain strokes that are not radicals?
Inspired by this question of rounded or circular strokes in kanji, I got an idea to prove that there is no circular strokes in kanji by examining all kanji radicals, which is a lot less that examining all kanji characters.
But that would work only…
Lukman
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14
votes
2 answers
What is the difference between 「はじめてのX」 {hajimete no X} and 「はじめのX」 {hajime no X}?
There is a song with title {hajimete no asa} and another song with title {hajime no hi}. There is also a manga title {hajimete no aku}, and not to forget the popular boxing manga {hajime no ippo}.
So what is the difference between 「はじめてのX」 {hajimete…
Lukman
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14
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1 answer
Is there a difference between に伴う and を伴う?
In a report I handed in earlier this week, my professor corrected my sentence to
日本において、金融政策の目的に関する考え方が時間を伴い、変わってきた。
from 「に伴い」. Is there a practical difference between the two? ALC shows a bunch of examples with essentially identical…
jefflovejapan
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14
votes
2 answers
does 「なう」have effeminate connotations?
I often get text messages from people who use the twitter-derived slang 「なう」 to mean "now." As in 「電車なう」meaning "(I am on the) train now."
However, these mainly come from women, and one gay dude. Is that just a coincidence, or does using this term…
Mason
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