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Onigiri and nigiri

I was reading this two articles: Onigiri wikipedia's article Nigiri explanation inside wikipedia's sushi article I first thought that onigiri was a type of sushi but it's not. It calls my attention how something with similar names mean something…
Macarse
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How would you translate "more" for use as an interface button?

I'm working on an interface that includes several tabs to organize information about a topic. In the English version, the last tab is labeled "More", and it shows additional details about the topic. What would be the most appropriate Japanese…
Dan Leveille
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Saying お疲れ様でした to teacher at the end of a lesson?

I'm taking beginner Japanese lessons. Would お疲れ様でした be an appropriate thing one might say to the teacher at the end of a lesson? We're "colleagues" in a sense since I'm an academic at the same university; but in the context of the lesson of course…
James Martin
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思っている/言っている with a third person subject?

So I was reading A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, and in the part where it explains the uses of いる as an auxiliary verb after て it says something like that: "(...) Also, verbs like 言う and 思う with a third person subject require the ~ている…
Rodrigo Pará
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Can I use English in place of katakana?

A habit that I have is replacing certain words with how I'd say them in English. For instance I'd write something like this: 私はイングランド人。 私はイーストアングリアに住んでいます, but say something like this: 私はEngland人。 私はEast Angliaに住んでいます。 Is this a necessarily bad…
degetl
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How do I say "He already went to do X for me", implying he is still in the process of X, not finished?

The other day at some festival a few japanese friends asked me something to the effect of アイスを買ってくるけど、行く？ But I had already asked a friend, who had not yet returned, to get some for me. So I said ジェームズがもう買って来てくれたので大丈夫。 What I intended to say in…
illnever
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What is the difference between 恰好 and 格好?

Is there any difference between the words 格好 and 恰好? Can I actually call them different words, or is it that they are just the same word written differently? I've been told that they have exactly the same meaning by a native, but possibly someone…
Chris
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aru vs iru : Why is aru in "Watakushi-wa untenshu-ga aru" (私は運転手がある) unacceptable?

There is a generally expressed rule in Japanese that, when declaring existence, いる is used for animate subjects, and ある is used for inanimate subjects. There are some interesting variations in what is considered to be animate, but there's one very…
jkerian
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Imperative used instead of conditional form

This quesion: と言っても vs とは言え . reminded me of a similar case: どっちにしても vs どっちにしろ which are also synonymous as far as I can tell. That got me thinking: Is this coincidental? Are there other cases where the imperative is used instead of the…
dainichi
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Which word to use for "butterfly"?

I am aware of these words that mean "butterfly": [蝶]{ちょう} 蝶々 (Is the alternate form of チョウチョ more common than 蝶々? Because 蝶々 would be チョウチョウ instead and it seems ウ is removed because of shortening) [胡]{こ}蝶 バタフライ (I think this is mainly used in the…
Flaw
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Do native speakers pronounce long vowels えい or おう as one long vowel, or two different vowels?

In Japanese, long vowels ā, ī, ū are written as ああ (aa), いい (ii), うう (uu). However, ē and ō, in most cases, written as えい (ei) and おう (ou), but in other cases as ええ (ee) and おお (oo). For example: 先生{せんせい} -> sensei 姉さん{ねえさん} -> neesan I used to…
Zhuoyun Wei
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Did any writing systems exist before kanji was imported?

Did any writing systems, or even failed attempts at them, exist for Japanese before kanji was imported from China?
Golden Cuy
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Why does the word for "surgery" 外科 have the 外 kanji?

I can't seem to figure out what "outside" has to do with "surgery". Surely, one type of surgery is amputation (切断【せつだん】) which is about removing (外【はず】す) a body part, but there are many other (much more common) type of surgeries.
Lazar Ljubenović
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Distinguishing between 'on' and 'above'

世界のルールで、島は水より上に出ていなければならないと決まっています。 World rules determine that an island must stick out above the water. In this sentence 水より上 clearly means 'above the water', but when I look in bilingual dictionaries they just translate 'above' as 上. I wonder…
user3856370
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What is the difference between 傾向がある and 傾向にある?

彼はストレスに弱い傾向にある。 He tends to be weak against stress. 彼は他人をばかにする傾向がある。He is apt to ridicule others.
Jirei
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