Most Popular
1500 questions
11
votes
3 answers
What is the sense of 気配がする (けはいがする) versus 気がする?
I'm (trying) to read a Japanese spy novel at the moment. It could just be the author's style, but I see lots of sentences end in 〜気配がする。
The more I read, the more I wonder - is there any difference between this and…
makdad
- 4,025
- 1
- 24
- 38
11
votes
1 answer
Is かわいい wago or kango?
かわいい is sometimes spelled in kanji as 可愛い. This seems to be an 音読み reading which points to a Chinese loan, and Chinese does have this word.
However, the meaning of 可愛 as "cute" in Chinese seems to have been a borrowing from Japanese. Originally it…
ithisa
- 3,045
- 21
- 42
11
votes
4 answers
Difference between chiisai (小さい) and komakai (細かい)？
Both are い-adjectives meaning "small".
From what I gather (though I'm not sure), chiisai is used mainly for specifying objects as 'small'; while komakai can have uses like: "minute differences", "trivial matters", "finer details".
kammy
- 343
- 1
- 10
11
votes
2 answers
Why are movies/video-clips counted with 本?
I just noticed in my Facebook uploads that for my videos, it says I have 25本. What's the reasoning behind using 〜本 to count videos or movie clips? The only line of reasoning I can come up with would be thinking of the the movies as as old reel of…
istrasci
- 44,120
- 5
- 112
- 259
11
votes
1 answer
Was there a single word/concept もの which was later split into two (now distinct) kanji 者 and 物?
Given that もの has a rather similar usage as a generic modifier for turning a property into a thing with that property (as 物) or turning a property into a person with that property (as 者) -- it seems plausible that before the introduction of Kanji…
mmdanziger
- 737
- 1
- 4
- 11
11
votes
1 answer
What's the difference between もともと and そもそも?
What's the difference between the usage and meaning of そもそも and もともと?
They both seem to mean something like "from the start/to begin with/originally" in dictionaries, but I believe their usage differs. I've seen numerous explanations by…
cypher
- 13,669
- 6
- 58
- 127
11
votes
2 answers
What is the nuance between 手数 and 手間?
I've found the dictionary definitions of 手数 and 手間, both that are translated to "time, labor":
手数
１ それをするのに要する動作・作業などの数。てかず。「―のかかる料理」
２ 他人のためにことさらにかける手間。てかず。「お―でもよろしく」「お―をかけて恐縮です」
VS
手間
１ そのことをするのに費やされる時間や労力。「―を省く」「―がかかる」
...
３…
silvermaple
- 7,305
- 3
- 27
- 74
11
votes
3 answers
Are there more irregular verbs like 行く?
I thought when you have a consonant-stem verb ending with -ku you replace it with -ita. For example kaku ("to write") becomes kaita.
But this doesn't happen with iku, which becomes itta, so I guess that makes it irregular – are there any other such…
Enigmatic Wang
- 413
- 5
- 12
11
votes
2 answers
Why does 八 have an extra thing on top?
The similarity between "to enter (入)" and "number 8 (八)" confuses me. What's the extra part on top of 八?
user51624
- 127
- 1
- 3
11
votes
3 answers
Can のほうが be omitted when answering a question?
So when people are doing comparisons, do you use のほうが colloquially or even in text? I've seen AとBとどちらのほうが速いですか？ and also AとBとどちらが速いですか？
And the answers be:
AのほうがBより速いです。
AはBより速いです。
Aのほうが速いです。
But I wonder if normal colloquial Japanese…
dotnetN00b
- 6,776
- 9
- 57
- 94
11
votes
4 answers
How to translate: "Keep/leave something". So, how to express intention to leave something unchanged
Consider questions like:
Please leave the door open, thanks!
Could you please keep the lift's doors open? Thankyou
Please, leave it as it is.
They all imply something common: not changing the state of something. I know that まま is involved in this…
Andry
- 1,209
- 13
- 20
11
votes
2 answers
Could 家族 be used for really close friends?
My family has a very good relationship with a Japanese family since many decades ago. When I was a kid, I used to play when their sons, and I visited them once and stayed at their home for a month. Now that we are adults, we use to talk on social…
Miguel Mars
- 275
- 1
- 8
11
votes
3 answers
だれでも楽しむ corrected to だれもが楽しむ. Why?
A Japanese learner I know had written a sentence that contained the phrase 「日本の文化はだれでも楽しむものじゃないか？」, however this was corrected to 「日本の文化はだれもが楽しむものじゃないか？」 by a native speaker. Based on the explanations about 疑問詞 elsewhere on this site (such as here,…
Hikonyan
- 2,182
- 1
- 13
- 23
11
votes
1 answer
What is the Japanese equivalent of English editorial brackets?
So in English, if an editor needed to add a comment or some clarification to a quote (in an article or something), they would use square brackets, so that the comment doesn't get mistaken as an actual part of the quote.
"Yesterday, she was seen…
David Christy
- 111
- 2
11
votes
4 answers
what does させてもらう really mean?
Before asking this question, I've done a good amount of research. I learned that させてもらう conveys the nuance of "allow me to do" or "I'll have you let me do X" or "I'll take the liberty of doing X" or even "May I?" However, in my native language, we…
Bonnie Parker
- 399
- 2
- 7