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1500 questions
13
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「です」, what is it really? Is my analysis correct?
At an elementary level, often, Japanese learners are taught that です is equivalent to the verb "to be" in English. Typical example:
私は学生です, I am a student.
That's fine, after all, it works. And to be honest, most people probably wouldn't really…
Tommy
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Does ガス also mean gasoline in Japanese?
What are the meanings of ガス in Japanese?
I'm asking because in English it can be used for either "a substance in a form like air that is neither solid nor liquid" or, for gasoline, the liquid fuel. In Spanish we dont use "gas" for gasoline, we call…
Pablo
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13
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な directly after a noun (not a な-adjective)
While reading a grammar book, I read the following explanation of な
な na, a masculine ne
Both sexes use ne, but male speakers often use na instead. There are other uses of na common to both genders, but it's mostly masculine to use it as the…
jdkrensel
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13
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What kind of a thing is a "やつ"?
I've been seeing やつ used for "thing" reasonably frequently in Manga/online etc, for example:
ほとんどは本とか食玩とか細かいやつかな。
"It's virtually all stuff like books, those small toys sold with food and small things I suppose."
富士を目指しましょう。地方富士というやつよ。
"Let's set…
cypher
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13
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1 answer
How would I say that the food I ate "didn't agree with me"?
Is there a term that I can use to say that the food was not agreeable when I ate it. It didn't make me feel good.
Jack Bosma
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13
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Counter for chopsticks
Just curious about this one. I'm never sure what to say when I ask for chopsticks in Japanese. I know that "by-the-book", you can count them with ～そろい （揃い) or ～ぜん （膳）. So I always say 「お箸を 一揃い（ひとそろい）／一膳（いちぜん） お願いします。」 to ask for a pair. But as…
istrasci
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13
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How do you express time duration when mixing time units?
When you want to express a passage of time mixing time units like days, hours, and minutes is it best to use for example 間 once at the end to show duration, or should words showing duration be used for every step, or maybe a mix of both? Should you…
Malt Yebisu
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13
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What is the meaning of putting あれ at the end of these statements?
I saw an ad for Indeed today that had a couple tag lines with an あれ at the end, and I don't understand their use:
求人募集【きゅうじんぼしゅう】にサーチあれ。
仕事【しごと】、バイトさがしにサーチあれ。
Normally I'd assume that あれ would be something like して, since サーチ is a n-する verb, but…
bcloutier
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What is the meaning of 〜たりして?
I've just come across "〜していたりして" at the end of a sentence in a post on Facebook, so it's probably very casual. Does anyone know the correct meaning and typical usage?
Nick Westgate
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Is it rude to refer to a person as 古い?
Objects, you can refer to as 古い with impunity. But I have never once heard a person referred to as 古い, so for a long time I thought the word just didn't apply to people. Still, searching 古い男 on Google gets pictures of old men. I imagine it's…
Angelos
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13
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How to know if ～たら is hypothetical or temporal
I encountered the following sentence in the chapter introducing conditionals from the online grammar guide Imabi.
休んだら、元気になったWhen I rested, I got better.
Earlier, the article explained that たら can have either a hypothetical or a temporal meaning.…
G-Cam
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13
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Is it acceptable to use kanji and hiragana in the same word if a kanji character is unknown?
I have come across this issue a number of times. I am studying Japanese at High School, so I only know about 200 kanji. When I write words that consist of more than two kanji characters, I am unsure whether it is acceptable to write a word with the…
Luke Cooper
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What's the difference between どうしたらいい and どうしていい?
Particularly in the following phrases, what's the difference between どうしたらいい and どうしていい? The following both seem to mean something like "I don't know what to do":
どうしたらいいか分かりません
どうしていいか分かりません
Is there some difference between どうして and どうしたら which…
cypher
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13
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What exactly is ありき?
I think from looking up ありき that it means "based on", but it's usage is unclear to me.
I've come across it in these two examples:
まずは結論{けつろん}ありき
Which I think means "the conclusion is based on the premise." Or, in other words, that the question is…
Questioner
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How did the verb 掛ける come to have many meanings?
I think that this verb is the only one I've seen in Japanese that has so many definitions. とる and つく have multiple definitions as well (quite a bit IIRC). But not as many as 掛ける. In any case, I am just wondering if anyone knew the reason.
Secondary…
dotnetN00b
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