8 comments

1. Heard in isolation or without sufficient context, would a native speaker hear ベット（賭けること）or 別途 as ベッド？

2. How do I query search print ads in Japanese? As in I want results that would show x thing but specifically the ad spreadsheet from a magazine? For context, I want to look up printed ads for Naruto games from shounen jump but typing in ナルトCM gives you video ads

3. As I try to speak out loud more often and try to speak just in general when I get the chance. I find myself struggling with small つ, I keep accidentally doing a glottal stop and it really kills the flow, especially if I encounter say 「なになに」って言っていった and I have a mini aneurysm everytime I try to say it. But natives go super fast and I can clearly hear the difference between small つ and not having one. Like 「なになに」ていていた would be obvious to me I think. Does anyone have advice on how I should be actually doing it, I’m guessing I don’t actually understand gemination. I understand IPA so if you have a non-japanese source to hand me I’ll take that too! Thank you so much in advance!

4. The following is said by a traveling merchant in Metaphor Refantazio (a game). In context, he was explaining his connection to some illegal miners. (ie. He sells what they mine.) This dialogue is directly before it opens the shop menu.

   > ま、そんな話はいいや。 これも何かの縁だ、欲しいものがあったら融通するぜ?

   I’m having trouble with the last sentence. The word 縁 has _so many_ different meanings and readings. Is it えん here, with the meaning “opportunity”? My attempted translation: “This, too, is something of an opportunity. If there’s something you want, I could lend it.”

5. Girl is asking someone else to watch her stuff:

   > みかりちゃん、荷物見といてもらえますか？

   I would expect to see くれますか here. Is there a reason to use もらう?

   FYI, I already know the difference between もらう and くれる.

6. I’ve noticed that てもらいたい is used very often but just （何かが）もらいたい on its own without a て seems to be used very sparingly. Is there some grammatical / cultural reason ほしい or other expressions are preferred? Or is this just a case of ‘no particular reason, that’s just the norm’?

   I have a theory, but my theory kinda conflicts with the fact that てもらいたい is so heavily used.

7. I have noticed a few times in a manga I’m reading (TWGOK) where the character will say the potential te-form of a verb and add こと after. What does this mean? For example, 探せってことだ. The context for this is the characters realising that they have to find this ball.

8. What are some useful phrases/lines to know for conversation? Not stuff like “my name is X,” but more along the lines of 「なんか」and 「そう」, maybe some combinations they’re a part of too if ever? Basically any colloquial expressions that are mainly used to fill certain points of a conversation.