Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (July 09, 2022)

26 comments

1. やっぱり朝はこのくらいゆっくり出発したいものです

   What do やっぱりand くらい here mean?

2. [deleted]

3. I was wondering about this:

   > 日曜日だったこともあって、ホームにはたくさんの人がいる。

   For context, they are at a train station and the book is just describing the train station and all the people in it.

   I think the basic translation is “It was Sunday, and there were a lot of people on the platform.”

   My question is about the part with もあって . I don’t really know what that adds to the sentence. My guess is, is it somehow emphasizing that, even though it was Sunday, a day with less commuters, there were still a lot of people on the platform?

4. I’ve been seeing this construction lately and I’m sure it must be a casual form of some other piece of grammar, but I can’t figure out what. Example sentence:

   > いや あいつはダメやめといたほうがいいよ

   Context: A guy comes into the bar who the speaker doesn’t want to be around.

   What’s the “といた”?

5. [deleted]

6. そうだね、大学生は朝食食へるのに使ってる人がけっこういるんじやない
   Since they don’t contrast, what is のに doing?

7. > 自分自身

   > 自分

   can these be used in third person

   like the omnipresent “you” in english?

8. **Context: MC can’t believe that his favorite character in the mobile game , which he has been playing**

   **,is real . He is going to buy a new smartphone in a smartphone shop , to replace his broken one and participate in a gacha event .Then he saw a cosplayer inside the shop ,which is really looked like her ,and thought ” まさか本物とか……それはナイナイ、ナイアガラだろ。​ “**

   Much thanks if anyone can help me understand his thought o/

   どれくらい好きかって言うと、クエストで稼いだゴールドはほとんどリリアのエロ衣装アイテムにつぎ込んでるくらい大好きだった。​

   まさか、そのリリアに激似のレイヤーさんが働いている携帯ショップだったとはっ！　超優良店だったかっ！​

   しかし、ゲーム中のキャラのイメージどおり再現度高すぎだろっ！​

   **まさか本物とか……それはナイナイ、ナイアガラだろ。​(I guess he says “like 99,9% impossible that’s true” ? but i’m not sure)**

9. What てくる means in 楽しんできてください? https://imgur.com/a/YlOgOX7

10. What does らしきもの mean in this sentence?

    それ以外にはクローゼットらしきものと、机、鏡台。

    All explinations of this that i could find say that it means “-like” but that doesn’t fit in this sentence.

11. Could someone please help me understand the below sentence?

    私がコウちゃんのコトが好きでちょっかい出してないか心配で予備校まで見に来たんだよね?

    The context is: The listener intentionally ran into the speaker and Kou-chan on the way back from their 予備校 because she wanted to make sure the speaker wasn’t infringing on her territory with Kou-chan.

    Here is my best guess at understanding.

    1. 心配で is the reason for 予備校まで見に来たんだ
    2. か is an abbreviated かどうか（を）
    3. 私がコウちゃんのコトが好きでちょっかい出してないか is one large clause representing the object of 心配

    Thus, the sentence should be as far as I can tell: “You came all the way to our yobikou to see us because you were worried that I liked Kou-chan and wasn’t making a pass at him.”

    My specific questions are:

    1. The use of 出してない rather than 出してる confuses me and makes me confident that I am misunderstanding. The listener should be worried about the speaker making a pass, not “not making a pass”.
    2. The context of the story implies that the speaker doesn’t like Kou-chan. It is possible for this sentence to be interpreted as the speaker contradicting that? Meaning, could this be understood as “I like Kou-chan and you came to the yobikou because you were worried that I was making a pass at him (though this of course doesn’t have a negative meaning for ちょっかい出してない). Is it completely certain that the speaker is implying she doesn’t like Kou-chan?

    Thanks

12. In the sentence 「どれが良いのか分からないので、このペンに決める」, why is に used instead of を？

13. I’m learning about quoting speeches and thoughts and I found conflicting information

    Genki said that when quoting a speech in the past that you directly heard, you’ll use the past te-form (言っていました). And for speech that you didn’t directly heard, you’ll use the past plain form (言いました).

    But many sites said it’s fine to use 言いました to quote any speech made in the past.

    Is this just some formality nuances or is there actually differences?

14. ＞「刑務所暮らしはどうだったかね？ほかの囚人にいじめられたりしなかったか？」「はいった頃はそんなヤツもいたけど、みんななぜ謎の死をとげていなくなったよ」

    Can someone help me understand what 謎の死をとげていなくなったよ means?

    Specifically, 死をとげていなくなった. Can you help me break this down? As for context, this character is assumed to have killed the other inmates that were giving him trouble.

    Based on the context alone and not really know what the last part means. I assume the speaker is saying “When I entered the prison, there were people that bullied me, but mysteriously they all died”

15. Hi everyone, hope your studies are going well!
    I have a question about GENKI KANJI 3RD EDITION application from The Japan Times Publishing, is this app good for learning kanjis that are provided in Genki 1 & 2 ?

16. Found this sentence on jisho.org:

    >二つの道どちらか一方が駅に通じている。

    >Translated as “Either of the two roads leads to the station.”

    どちらか already means “one of the two choices”. What does the 一方 add to the sentence then? is it even necessary to have it there? Cause that one also means “one of the two choices”. Thanks in advance!!

17. こんにちは

    I’m currently going through N5 grammar and was wondering if

    食べないで使わないでください

    Would translate to

    >Please don’t use without eating

    Or

    > don’t eat, don’t use, please

    And if both translations work is there a way to distinguish which one you mean?

18. I was studying sonkeigo when I learned the word おっしゃる (to say/speak/tell/talk). Is this the sonkeigo alternative of 話す? Or is it the alternative of 言う? I was thinking it was the former, but I’m not too sure. For example, would this sentence be correct?
    少々日本語をおっしゃれます。

19. How do you specify the general topic when asking a どれ question? (I’m a beginner)
    “どれ が すき です か?” is just “Which do you like?”
    But how do you say “Which (thing) do you like?”

20. As of the past few days, I’ve reached over 700 words in the Core2k deck, until now, I have had a pretty solid retention of around 80% or so, but reaching these newer cards and having to review old ones, my retention has plummeted and it’s taking me hours sometimes to get through the daily cards which only used to take around 30mins to an hour. (10 new a day) Along with that, a lot of new cards have started to become leeches. Is it normal to hit a wall like this in learning vocab? Is there something I can be doing better? I haven’t minded doing Anki until now, but with this it is turning into a chore and I’m losing faith in myself. Is this a common occurrence?

21. What’s the deal with situations where grammatical constructs used for lists like し, とか, and たり are used just once? For example, here’s a sentence from a show I’m watching.

    > どうせ親の金だよ全然 仕事してないし

    What’s with the し? Is it basically like the speaker just ended the sentence early, like a speaking flub? Is it implying that there are other things in the list but he’s just not getting into it? Is it some other grammar entirely of which I’m not aware? Thanks!

22. What is the Japanese term for when the starting sound of a syllable slightly changes when in a combination. I am seeing these often enough to think that it is a well known thing. If I knew a good way to word it I would look it up on google. For example in two kanji compounds the second kanji’s reading might become sa -> za ku -> gu. Of course you could say it is just another reading for that kanji but this specific pattern of changed reading feels like some underlying vocal phenomenon is occurring. I could be totally wrong though.

23. I have a few grammatical questions about embedded clauses that use と and か that I would appreciate someone’s input on.

    1. When you create a clause with か or with と (like 何をしたかわかりません or 来ないと言った), is the clause as a whole considered a noun from a grammatical perspective?
    2. When you have an embedded question clause that ends in か, can you always add と after it as well. For example, given that 何をしたかわかりません is valid, it 何をしたかとわかりません? Are there clear circumstances where it is valid to use かと and circumstances where it is definitely not permitted?
    3. In 来ないと言った, is こないと functioning as the direct object of 言った? If it is, is it acceptable to add を to the entire clause making it 来ないとを言った?
    4. I have read in an answer to a related question on stack exchange that whenever you have a clause that ends in か or と and it is not redundant, it is valid to mentally insert a と思って or として depending on the context. Is that reasonable? Something like 彼が来ないか（と思って）心配する.

    Thank you for reading and considering this rather long question.

24. From my childhood, I’ve got a “not perfect” handwriting script. All of my friends have been writing much more beautifully than I do. Then I started to learn Japanese, I thought that a completely new language would help me to write more clearly.

    I was wrong. Even now, my new Japanese classmates(especially if they tried to learn Chinese) write better, than I do. So, I want to advise from you.

    This is a part of my homework (I hope I haven’t made mistakes in the answers, lol, but, perhaps, I’ve made some). https://imgur.com/a/uKtPyJZ. Is this readable? What should I change? To be honest, this is not the worst example, but on average, I write like this(when I am not in rush).

25. For people who have used renshuu, how is it?
    Has it helped your Japanese skills a lot?

    Thank you.

26. Am I correct in interpreting that in this sentence, 間 is read as ま? I always have a hard time with 間 — it can be so many words as a standalone kanji. あいだ ~~and とき~~ also makes sense to me here. Any advice in general there?

    > 新聞を読む間、ハリーは黙って今聞いたことを考えていた。