Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (July 18, 2022)

29 comments

1. I was wondering about this:

   あいにく満席

   Here is more context, if needed:

   https://imgur.com/a/GJ6IPqG

   What I was wondering about specifically, is that あいにく is a な adjective. So shouldn’t it be あいにくな満席? Has the な been dropped because it is casual, or is the な dropped for some other reason?

2. I have the sentence そこで気付けよ俺

   I’m specifically confused by the verb conjugation for 気付く. The JMDict labels this as “potential << imperative”” conjugation.

   The potential form of this verb is 気付ける. I’ve never seen anything referred to as “imperative” before and nothing I google seems to make sense. Can someone explain the verb conjugation going on here? The english subtitle translation is: “I should’ve realized then!” if it helps.

3. 夏のギラギラとした太陽が照らしている。暑くてアツイ夏休みが始まった。

   It seems like this is just saying the “atsui and atsui” summer vacation, which makes no sense. Am I missing something?

   [context](https://ncode.syosetu.com/n5215gi/3/)

4. Is it weird to turn a noun into a verb and then back into a noun using すること? I can’t think of a better example off the top of my head but I mean something like: 禁煙することができませんでした

5. What is the difference between mou and ato in the context of “more”?

   Why does people say もう15分持ってください incorrect but あと15分持ってください is? (sentence for “Please wait 15 more minutes”)

6. When I’m learning words that have unknown kanji, should I learn those kanjis always completely, or just skip them and learn The word (and how to pronounce it)? I have just started learning Japanese.

7. I’m doing some exercises about ことにする and ことになる, and stumbled upon this sentence

   日本の大学で勉強することになった。（This is the written translation from the book: I have decided to study at university in Japan.） Based on the translation shouldn’t it be　ことにした instead of ことになった？

8. I found this sentence in a shoes website ad.
   足元, キマってえますか

   Not sure what that katakana part means. I understand that the kanji 足元 means “step”. Also that last few kana might be slightly wrong as I cant recall the exact word properly.

9. I don’t really get how なんて is used. I just re-read the definition “give examples; show modesty; make light of” and that sort of makes sense, but I just pulled a few examples from my mined sentences and I can’t see how it changes the meaning or adds anything in any of these examples.

   Is it a sort of filler word, or if not, how would leaving it away change the meaning of the following sentences?

   1) 町なかをとびまわるなんて非常識きわまりない

   2) 女性に声をかけるなんて失礼よ

   3) 補導されたなんて驚いて心臓が止まるかと思った

10. How is 曇る a verb? Can someone please give an example on how this is used as a verb? Can you say something like “cloudy up the soup by adding miso” or something?

11. 配慮に欠けたことをお詫びしよう

    Since 欠ける is an intransitive verb why is 配慮 marked with に instead of with が？

12. Is there a negative form of the ～ば～ほど grammar point?

    I could say “The more I eat, the more I want to eat” like this:

    「食べれば食べるほど食べたい」

    How would I say “The less I eat, the less I want to eat”?
    My first thought was something like this:

    「食べなければ食べないほど食べたくない」

    or some other permutation of positive and negative form, but this feels wrong and I haven’t found this written anywhere.

13. https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1492609734
    > 最近ワインが大好きでワインが好きといっても何が好きなの？と言われると赤ワイン、とし言えなくもっと学びたいと思ってます。

    What does とし in とし言えなく mean?
    It seems to me the correct way is しか言えなく. Does he omit か and the し here actually means しか?

14. From tango N5

    > 犬と公園を散歩します。

    Is the particle を used correctly here? Shouldn’t it be に or で? Or maybe を has another meaning I haven’t learned?

15. When would you recommend getting into native material? I started about a month ago and have no hopes of actually understanding stuff, but maybe it’s supposed to be like that and I’m supposed to look stuff up?

16. I have been busy with Genki and with one question I checked my answer with papago and the answer sheet, and I am confused.

    Why is

    メアリーさんはよく**料理をする**と思います。= Mary cooks a lot.

    and

    メアリーさんはよく**料理する**と思います。= Mary cooks well.

    Why does the を make a difference between cooking **well** or **a lot**?

17. I’m currently doing genki with anki for vocab and it’s been going well so far, however I did not learn the corresponding kanji for those words, now at lesson 7 I’m trying to start with kanji though I’m not sure how to approach it, would I be better off doing something like the core2K (more vocab + would learn them in kanji form) or continue with what I’m currently doing (re-learning the vocab I already know but in kanji form on a memrise deck)

18. 攻撃を受けても俺のすることは変わらない。俺は再びボスに斬りかかる。

    　ボスもやられっぱなしということは無く、隙をみては反撃をしてくる。

    So my questions are in the 2nd paragraph.

    1) How do you translate やられっぱなし in English, is it “getting defeated”?

    2) 隙をみては, why is there a は here?

    Any help would be appreciated!

19. When reading , i met with this part of a sentence **神様も神様で** >> Which I don’t understand.Much thanks if anyone can explain to me what does this mean /or correct me if I was wrong
    世は２１世紀も半ば。
    気付けばハンドルのない自動走行車が街を走り回り、飲食店の店員はほぼＡＩに置き換わった。
    それなのに日本人は、あいも変わらず正月には神社に行き、わずかなお賽銭で神様に好き勝手な願いごとをする。
    **神様も神様で**、我々の声を聞き届けてくれたのかは知らないが、ごくたまに願いを叶えてくれたりもする。(my understanding : “The gods are gods, too (?), and I don’t know if they hear our prayers or not, but they do grant our wishes on rare occasions. )

20. I was reading a Japanese explanation of the English word “doubt” and encountered the following translation:

    I doubt this plan is gonna work -> この計画うまく行くかなあ

    I was wondering if that is in fact a good translation. In my mind, the word “doubt” indicates that the speaker is quite certain and I don’t see any of that certainty conveyed in the Japanese. The Japanese sounds more like the speaker is unsure though maybe suspicious.

    Does the Japanese sentence convey the level of certainty implied by “doubt” in English?

    Another way to ask think might be, if the plan does in fact work, the speaker of the English sentence is wrong. Is that true of the Japanese sentence?

    Thanks

21. I’m currently learning japanese however, due to contraints based on money, i’m unable to buy textbooks for learning japanese. i’m currently learning from Tofugu’s guides, Renshuu and am about to try Duolingo. Is there any way I can (preferrably for free) replace textbooks with other resources? I’m willing to try new sources so long as i don’t need to purchase anything. Thank you for reading!

22. Hello, I got two question and hope someone can help me.

    1. とはいえ難しいことをする気はない。じゃあ近所のコンビニで、ということで連絡し、履歴書を持っていったところ──。Is the ということで the same as when it is used at the start of a sentence, when it means something like “so”/”therefore”?

    2.「あ、やっば。ドリンク補充してなくない？」Does してなくない mean してないだろう (“we haven’t refilled the drinks, right?”) here?

23. If anyone is interested in our line-by-line discussions, we are reading [the magic tree house](https://youtu.be/EGhxdFwlvk0?list=PLNvL1DnM9hiyjcqo1SXEK5ht7Uo_ExaBT)!

24. When referring to US states in conversation, how common is it to append 州 at the end? Does it depend on how well-known the state is? If you say it the first time with 州, can you omit it during subsequent mentions because you’ve established the context? Or is it used 100% of the time?

25. I’m currently using Japanese in mangaland, but I feel like learning random stuff like good afternoon doesn’t help, does it really matter that I study these random phrases that I don’t even use in the first place.

26. Are names used in greetings?

    I’m stuck on the second prompt of Genki’s greeting practice that says
    “It is one O`clock in the afternoon. You see your neighbour Mr. Yamada.”

    Would it be ok to say こんにちは やまださん or would just こんにちは be more appropriate?

27. Hello everyone, first post here!

    I am using the WaniKani app as well as Anki for learning Japanese. I find that 卜 radical is given to mean divination, on my Anki deck, and this is the same meaning I find on Jisho. However, on WaniKani, I find this radical represents “toe” as shown below: https://www.wanikani.com/radicals/toe

    I was confused, as these two aren’t even listed as alternates or anything on Jisho. Would appreciate it if anyone could help me with this! Are both valid meanings or is any one of them right?

28. I might need a hint with this one:

    > いえいえ、こちらこそご迷惑をおかけしてしまって

    For context I saw it here:

    https://imgur.com/a/8X5Xvyn

    I’m having trouble with this part specifically: おかけしてしまって

    I am familiar with the keigo pattern お + stem + する and てしまう grammar but I can’t really figure out what is going on here

    Like, what is かけ

29. &#x200B;

    僕は「というもの」がこうやって使われるのを見ることがないので翻訳が分からない。ご説明いただける？

    質問の日本語間違いを気軽に正してください （○ω○）b

    edit: I had the link to the screenshot but for some reason it didn’t go through? And this editor is completely broken and won’t let me copy paste anything so I’ll just write it here manually: 小説家というものは人間に興味をもっている。 Translated to “The novelist is interested in human beings.”