10 comments

1. I’m thinking about making a simplified guide to non-past conditionals for beginners (or, failing that, learn more about conditionals by trying!), so I want to confirm some basics.

   駅を越えて、そして3つ目の信号を越えると左側にあります。

   ボールを落すと落ちる。

   電気を消すと暗くなる。

   学校に行かないと友達と会えないよ。

   たくさん食べると太るよ。

   先生だと、きっと年上なんじゃないですか？

   In all of these examples, と can be changed out for たら right? The only difference being と specifies the ‘whenever/ for sure’ nuance, correct?

   Question: outside of set grammatical constructions and idioms like 〜ないといけない , are there any basic non-past conditional statements where changing と→たら would be ungrammatical or nonsensical?

2. When asking people which country they are from, why is どちら used (i.e お国はどちらですか) and not どれ? Isn’t どちら used only when there are two options?
   Thanks in advance

3. 「わかってるって～。 同じミスをしないことで定評のある俺ちゃんよ」

   So I know this means something like “I’ve got a rep for not making the same mistake twice.” But translated somewhat literally would this be “Because I don’t make the same mistakes twice I have the reputation.”? I understand the こと is nominalizing 同じミスをしない but it just read unnatural in my head.

4. Remembering stuff without knowing the kanji meaning is a pain in the ass.
   Decided to learn all kanji even if im still at n5-n4 in everything else.

5. How do I know if a verb in the -て form is acting as a modifier instead of ending a clause? I’m practicing audio comprehension and had trouble understanding this sentence when I first heard it:

   彼女は仮装パーティーに着て行くものを探しています。

   Translation: “She is looking for something to wear to the costume party.”

   着て sounds like 来て, so when I first heard the sentence, I thought it was a compound sentence structured like this:

   彼女は仮装パーティーに来て, 行くものを探しています。

   or “She is coming to the costume party, and searching for an ikumono” (whatever that is)

   Granted, 着て and 行く were spoken pretty close to each other so the lack of pause could have clued me into 着て modifying 行く rather than marking the end of a logical clause. But besides pauses or commas, is there any other way I can easily tell when a verb in the -て form is acting as a modifier instead of ending a clause?

6. Got questions about quartet 1 chapter 2 example sentences and one chapter 3 sentence

   1. 私の大学はドイツの大学と交流がある

   Is this saying: At our university there is a exchange with a german university?

   2. 日本には春、夏、秋、冬の４つの季節がある

   Confused with the way the sentence is written because of the 春, 夏, 秋 and 冬の in the middle . How do i read this? to me it sounds like: “In japan there are the four seasons of, spring, summer, fall and winter ”

   3. 日本で自然を楽しみたい人は、どこに行くといいでしょうか。日本には自然が美しい場所がたくさんありますが、もし海が好きなら、沖縄がいいでしょう。

   Confused with どこに行くといいでしょうか, especially the と particle. I know of the といい”I hope” grammar and the Aとb “when/if” grammar, but dont think its any of those. To me どこに行くといいでしょうか sounds like “if i go where, its good?” which sounds wrong to me

7. I’m about a month into learning. Is there a real point to immersion at this stage? Feels like I’m just wasting time. I only understand a few words that I’ve studied traditionally when watching anime without subtitles.

8. Hi just wondering what are the differences between 普通 and 一般/一般的？

9. Can anyone explain to me what the difference is between 触る(さわる) and 触れる (ふれる)？

10. Just wondering what the difference is between 残念 and 惜しい, are they essentially synonyms?