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1500 questions
12
votes
3 answers
Is it always necessary to ask how someone's name is pronounced if you encounter it first in writing?
This question is similar to "how many kanji do Japanese natives know?" but a bit more specific, because I'm particularly interested in the jinmeiyō kanji.
My understanding is that they are the kanji commonly used for people's names. I am not clear…
temporary_user_name
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12
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3 answers
Long O — when is it OU and when OO?
I am learning hiragana and I've encountered a minor problem. The thing is that my book did mention how to deal with a long "O": just by adding another "O" or "U". However it doesn't explain in which cases I should use which.
As you can see I've made…
RPAnimation
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What does アタマ mean in reference to food/portion sizes?
I came across this at a Yoshinoya and I've never seen this before on a menu. I can't figure out what this is supposed to mean; all I can infer from the pricing is that maybe it's a size in between 並 and 大.
Reveiller
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Differences of 規範 vs 基準 vs 標準
The title is pretty much the question. All three of these mean something like, "standard, norm, etc". I found the following example sentences that helped me get an initial sense of the words:
規範｛きはん｝：
倫理学｛りんりがく｝というのは、行動の規範の意味する。
Ethics means the…
Redbluefire
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What does 美味しい mean when referring to a person?
What does 美味しい mean when referring to a person? In particular, in this sentence I found, it is used together with ところ:
あの人おいしーとこもってくなあ...
Context: a guy is talking about another guy's bad behaviour. I think the meaning in this case is that the…
Marco
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12
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2 answers
The various ways of saying "all"
While trying to write a plugin to (unofficially fan-)translate this website to Japanese, I've been noticing that "all" has multiple different translations.
What exactly is the difference between 全部（の）, すべて（の）, あらゆる and 全体（の）?
These are the…
cypher
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What is the difference between 馴染む and 慣れる?
What is the difference between 馴染む and 慣れる? Dictionaries say that both represent "to grow accustomed to". In what case 馴染む cannot be replaced by 慣れる or 慣れる cannot be replaced by 馴染む?
Display Name
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What's the difference between [電光石火]{でんこうせっか} and [疾風迅雷]{しっぷうじんらい}
They both seem to mean "quick as lightning". What are the nuances between them? In what sort of context would they be used? Are they interchangeable? etc.
istrasci
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12
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Is the use of 先生 and similar titles context sensitive?
While it is generally safe to use -さん when taking to someone and the use of -先生 is appropriate for use in a school environment when talking to a teacher, would the use of -先生 carry over outside of the school environment if encounter the person under…
user51
12
votes
1 answer
What does 「／＼」 mean in this sentence?
皆さん、こんにちは！
Now, I've been reading 竹取物語 and have come across (another) set of symbols that I've yet to understand. Given the following sentence.
かくて翁やう／＼豐になり行く。
What does the sudden 「／＼」 mean?
Tirous
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12
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How does this ように work?
今年も良い年でありますように！ I hope you have another good year!
What is going on exactly where the ように means hope? Does the よう derive from a verb?
I would also like to know how to describe this word in the relevant grammatical terms, both in english and…
yadokari
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12
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Why is gaikokujin more politically correct than gaijin?
While in English, the word "gaijin" is far more common than "gaikokujin", I've heard that in Japanese [外人]{がいじん} has been replaced by [外国人]{がいこくじん} for reasons of political correctness.
What differences are there between the two words?
Is it…
Golden Cuy
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12
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Reading fractions
In Japanese (and other East Asian languages), the denominator of a fraction is read as a part of the modifier to the numerator:
3分の5
'five that was divided by three'
'five thirds'
This indicates that East Asian languages interpret fractions as…
user458
12
votes
1 answer
What's the difference between まで and までに?
I'm studying for N3 Japanese test. I'm stuck in a sentence of an exercise in which is written
帰国{きこく}するまでになんとか日本語{にほんご}を習得{しゅうとく}したい。
Why is it wrong to say
帰国するまでなんとか日本語を習得したい。?
I really don't get it, if someone could teach me the difference I…
silvia
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About the kanji 鱈 where 魚's bottom is written as 大
I was looking at the picture of a newspaper during the times of the Hibiya riot (1905) and it took me a while to find the headline word 出鱈目{でたらめ}. In fact, in every dictionary I have checked so far the kanji 鱈 is written as I am typing it, with the…
Tommy
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