I have made progress in my understanding of Japanese but there’s still something I’m not sure on.
1. So if multiple words are written with the same kanji and, these words become it’s reading, shouldn’t all kanji have many more readings?
( due to compounds)
( or do each kanji have a “set” number of readings and all compounds that have that kanji have only does readings to work with?)🤔
2. A lot a words have multiple meaning and often times I will see a word with many different meanings attached to it like, つまり for example but how do I know which meaning it means when I come across it?
3. I’ve also noticed that many words in example sentences don’t make sense to be there when a better alternative exists. E.g
値段はほんの３千円、つまり約３０ドルだった。
The price was only three thousand yen, or about thirty dollars.
It would be better to use と (or) instead of つまり here. So why is it used?
4. And lastly for N5 you have to know 40 or so “grammar points” but what are grammar points? They seem like just normal words to me, shouldn’t they be part of the 800 vocabulary instead?
Think that’s all for right now.
Thank you I’m advance.
2 comments
1. So if multiple words are written with the same kanji and, these words become it’s reading, shouldn’t all kanji have many more readings?
Most kanji have at least two readings. Some have many more, some only have one.
2. A lot a words have multiple meaning and often times I will see a word with many different meanings attached to it like, つまり for example but how do I know which meaning it means when I come across it?
Context.
3. I’ve also noticed that many words in example sentences don’t make sense to be there when a better alternative exists. E.g
値段はほんの３千円、つまり約３０ドルだった。
The price was only three thousand yen, or about thirty dollars.
It would be better to use と (or) instead of つまり here. So why is it used?
No. つまり shows that you’re paraphrasing, like “in other words.”
4. And lastly for N5 you have to know 40 or so “grammar points” but what are grammar points? They seem like just normal words to me, shouldn’t they be part of the 800 vocabulary instead?
The grammar is how those words are linked together. So “母は私にチョコレートをくれた” is a bunch of words and how they connect and what they can do is the grammar.
u/pixelboy1459 already gave you an excellent and comprehensive response to all your questions, but I feel like I should make an overall point about the sort of questions you’re asking here.
>It would be better to use と (or) instead of つまり here. So why is it used?
First things first, と doesn’t mean “or”. It’s used for “and” in the sense of XとY, or “X and Y” where X and Y are both nouns. “X or Y” would be XかY.
For another thing, the only reason you’re thinking it would be “better” is because you’re trying to literally translate from English. This isn’t how languages work, especially not a language as different from work. The most natural expression in Japanese isn’t based upon what we would say in English.
The English sentence contains “or”, but the meaning of “or” there is “in other words”, i.e. rephrasing the price. Because of this, つまり is perfectly natural wording, and this has nothing to do with how it could be phrased in English.
I suspect your question about multiple meanings and “how to know which meaning” is also because you’re looking at Japanese-English dictionaries and seeing a lot of English definitions for a Japanese word. I would advise you not to think in these terms.
Sometimes a Japanese word can have a range of nuances that can be expressed using different English words (and vice versa), but in terms of how the word would be perceived in Japanese, it’s not really “different meanings”, it’s just related nuances of the same basic word.
For example, つまり always has a sense of rephrasing yourself/restating things, so even if you find multiple English “definitions” of it, as long as you think of it in those terms it shouldn’t be so confusing.
TL;DR: I know it’s challenging at first, **but try to understand Japanese vocabulary and grammar on its own terms rather than as a translation of English, and you’ll find yourself experiencing less confusion and gaining a deeper understanding of the language.**