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1500 questions
13
votes
5 answers
Is this character a そ?
I'm learning Japanese and decided to pick up some manga in Japanese to improve my reading.
I found a preview of a manga I'll be receiving and had a look inside. I found the following character, and everything tells me it's a そ, but I'm not sure. Is…
Nadav Ben Dov
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13
votes
1 answer
Usage of doubled non-past tense "た"
I've recently been noticing some patterns which look like two repeated past-tense verbs, but I think which indicate a command rather than the past tense. For example:
さあ、行った行った。
"Get along with you!"
I also noticed in the Baseball manga "Major"…
cypher
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13
votes
2 answers
On the replacing of kanji made obsolete in the 1946 reforms with similar-looking kanji.
This is my understanding but please correct me if some of my details are wrong:
In 1946 the Japanese language underwent a reform and standardization process
A set of 1850 kanji were made official and others more or less obsoleted
A smaller subset…
hippietrail
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13
votes
1 answer
Why is 犬 used to refer to "dog" in Japanese?
In Chinese there are two words that refer to "dog" - 狗 and 犬. In most use cases 狗 is more frequently used, as it refers to a specific dog.
In Japanese however, 犬 is used exclusively. Did 狗 exist in the past? If not why was 犬 picked over 狗?
user7048
13
votes
3 answers
Alignment of people's names
When people's names are listed with both sides aligned (either in horizontal or vertical writing), for example, in the ending scroll of a movie, there is a seemingly complicated rule (to me).
When the length of the name (family plus given) is not…
user458
13
votes
1 answer
What's the difference between these two transitive verb forms?
I've always been little fuzzy on transitive verbs, something which I was reminded of when looking at this answer.
The answer says that 終{お}わらせる, 終{お}える, 済{す}ませる, and 済{す}ます are all transitive. They all mean "to finish" something, as in something…
Questioner
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13
votes
3 answers
Do viruses あります or います?
Do viruses あります or います?
Currently, I'm under the impression that animals and humans use います (though see this question), while plants and inanimate objects use
あります. Do viruses fall under the latter category?
Golden Cuy
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13
votes
1 answer
"からだけ" vs "だけから", which is grammatical?
Good afternoon all,
I was wondering when we chain particles, should "から" come before "だけ", or should it be the other way round?
For example, I'm expecting a mail from 健一, a mail from 健二, and a mail from 健三 (total 3 mails). However only the mail from…
Pacerier
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13
votes
1 answer
What's the difference between 最後 and 最終?
While reviewing my 漢字, I noticed that for "last", I have (at least) two words, either 最後{さいご} or 最終{さいしゅう}. I was wondering, is there any difference in usage, or can I use them equivalently?
fukurai
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13
votes
2 answers
Doubled and tripled kanji
I like looking for kanji with a high 画数, and I have found that they largely coincide with kanji that consist of 2 or 3 copies of another kanji (often
Examples:
龍 -> 龖(x2), 龘(x3)
馬 -> 驫(x3)
車 -> 轟(x3)
鹿 -> 麤(x3)
田 -> 畾(x3)
Some of these are a bit…
archaephyrryx
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13
votes
1 answer
How to translate ‘To be or not to be, that is the question’
This is not a 100% serious question, but I find it interesting. How could we translate in Japanese the famous sentence from Hamlet? The absence of be as a verb makes it challenging.
I saw the following translation on a Japanese…
user14602
13
votes
3 answers
Omission of く in negative form of い-adjective
I learnt that the negative form of い-adjective is: remove the trailing い, then add くない. Example: 赤い→赤くない
However, I've been watching Japanese livestream and following her twitter. Sometimes, she omit the く in negative form of い-adjective. Example:…
Andrew T.
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13
votes
3 answers
13
votes
2 answers
What does the sentence structure ＡでもＢ mean in this song?
The song in question can be found here. For example:
いっぽんでもニンジン
While I do know that でも means 'but', I also know that most particles have multiple meanings.
Since 'but' wouldn't make much sense as a translation here, I am confident that でも is…
ClassicEndingMusic
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13
votes
1 answer
Difference between どこですか and どこにいますか/どこにありますか?
(1) 本はどこですか。
(2) 本はどこにありますか。
Unless I'm mistaken, both those sentences mean something like "where is the book", what's the difference between using です and あります to indicate position?
I wouldn't have said (2) for "where is the book" but in an…
Teleporting Goat
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