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When referring to in-laws using 義理, do you use the familial term relative to yourself or to your spouse?
When using terms such as 義理のお兄さん and 義理の弟, do you choose お兄さん vs 弟 relative to your own age, or relative to your spouses age?
If you are older than your spouse, but said spouse's older brother is younger than you, which term is appropriate?
I assume…
jkerian
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14
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Reading and usage of 「垂オます」
A while ago I was chatting with a Japanese man and when he introduced himself instead of using 「申す」 or 「言う」 he used 「垂オます」, as in (His name)と垂オます.
Can this be used in the same way as 「申す」 and 「言う」 or is reserved exclusively for introductions? How…
mattb
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2 answers
Is it bad practice to use "することができる" as opposed to just "できる"?
The potential form of "する" is "できる". However, "～ことができる" can be appended to verbs to create a potential form. Hence, "することができる" can be used as the potential form of "する". While I think there are times this sounds perfectly natural, I wonder if it is…
Amani Kilumanga
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How to tell よく (often) apart from よく (good)?
Whenever I see 「よく」, I have to ask someone whether it means "often" or "good".
For example, here is a sentence from my book:
クラスへ行って、先生の講義をよく聞いて、ノートをよく取り、それをよく覚えれば、試験でいい点がもらえる。
I thought all three 「よく」s meant "often" (eg. "often takes notes"), but…
BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft
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What does volitional form + っと mean?
「そうだ！家で音楽聞こうっと」
「もう寝ようっと」
「英語でブログを書いてみようっと。」
How does it differ from a volitional form without っと?
My best guess is that it's a monologue marker, like な is.
oals
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Difference between 向かう, 向く, 向ける
From my understanding 向ける is transitive and means to face/turn something towards something.
安藤は日本国内から世界に目を向けたのです。
-Andou turned his eyes from inside Japan to the world.
向く on the other hand is essentially just the intransitive form of 向ける, meaning…
mattb
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14
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Difference between 少し{すこし} and 少ない{すくない}
I know 少し{すこし} and 少ない{すくない} both as 'few', but what's the difference?
user2740
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How to use 対応 correctly
I see 対応（たいおう） quite often, but I can't seem to grasp exactly what this word means or how to use it properly.
Checking a dictionary I get about 5 different definitions, all quite different from one another.
My question is, what does this word…
phirru
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What is the difference between 得意 and 上手?
Both 上手 and 得意 seem to both mean something along the lines of "good at" or "skilled". However, I don't understand the difference (if there is one) between them. In fact, some of the sentences on jisho.org are constructed pretty much the same but…
Blavius
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What is the learning curve for learning Japanese writing?
What is the learning curve like for learning Japanese writing?
Are you able to use what you've learnt as you're progressing, or are you only realistically able to start reading real text once you've learnt about two or three thousand kanji?
Related…
Golden Cuy
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How does the present tense work in a relative clause?
そんなわけで、まだ日も暮れない夕方の通学路を、駅に向かってゆっくりと歩く俺と加藤。
I encountered this quote in a light novel and am stuck on how to interpret it. It feels like 歩く should be "walking" in this context, but it is not 歩いている. The sentence does not seem to express future or…
Joe
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Are foreign adjectives always な adjectives?
Sitting in a restaurant yesterday I saw a sign advertising a mango flavoured bagel. It was described as トロピカルな味.
That just got me wondering... whenever a 外来語【がいらいご】(word taken from a foreign language / "loan word") is used as an adjective, is it…
Questioner
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How to tell whether a building is マンション or アパート
Given a building, how to classify it as マンション or アパート?
Non-subjective set of criteria preferred.
In particular, if there is any legal definition of these terms that would be the best.
I used to think that the difference was subjective, but…
Nicolas Raoul
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Etymology of 土産 {みやげ}
The pronunciation "みやげ" does not correspond to on'yomi nor kun'yomi of 土産, so I thought it was a gikun (義訓), but the combination of kanji 土 and 産 does not seem to provide the meaning of "souvenir" either. Based on the pronunciation, I previously…
Lukman
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What are some well known exceptions for 居る (いる) and 有る (ある)?
Today I heard 人形がいる, so I googled around because I thought 居る was only for living things, but I found many examples of this usage. Many for 人形がある as well.
Are there other exceptions for いる／ある？
Louis Waweru
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