Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (July 04, 2022)

32 comments

1. Hello,

   Working on some grammar today. Came across ~をはじめ and ~はもとより and am struggling to differentiate. Both definitions state that they can be used like ~だけでなくそのほかにも, so I don’t really get what sets them apart. Please help!

2. I’m going to buy Genki textbooks, but they’re pretty expensive. I’ve been studying for a year and from sample tests I’ve done on the JLPT website I’m pretty confident I could pass the N5 fairly easily. Can I start with Genki 2 or have I still a lot to learn from Genki 1 ?

3. I’ve just been taught the following phrase. Why does it use imasu rather than arimasu when the restaurant isn’t a person or animal / doesn’t move on its own?

   Is the restaurant open?

   resutoran wa aite imasu ka?
   レストランはあいていますか。

4. I really want to know how to say stuff “looks like” other stuff, or “sounds like” other stuff. I’ve seen “のように見える” for looks like, but it sounds really awkward to me for some reason. I feel like there should be a cooler way to say this. Maybe I’m wrong. If you can offer an alternative I would be greatful.

5. Can I still use archaic japanese? Like obviously the answer is yes but if I use 我が instead of 私の○ would there be a problem?

6. Where do ya’ll go to meet people / make conversation practice? (In Japan) I use Italki regularly but I’d like to get out and meet more people in real life. I often hike in very remote areas or shop around in my city but I feel it’ll be extremely wierd to approach people.

   Also, I married and have a kid so I’m not looking for relationships or anything like that.

7. How たり in this phrase is understood? 動きが悪かったり忠誠心に欠ける者

   > 動きが悪かったりする忠誠心に欠ける者

   or

   > 動きが悪かったり忠誠心に欠けたりする者

8. I am translating an article about  ヤウシュベツ川 into English. I’m struggling with this sentence: 通称「土場川」とも呼ばれ、幕末の航路、明治・大正・昭和の中期までは根室等への物資輸送路でした。How do you read  土場川 in this sentence? Dobagawa maybe? Thank you

9. Someone mentioned something about an event taking place at a certain time. I wanted to say that I want to partake, but that it would be late for me personally (in my time zone). I wanted to say “でも私のところには遅い”, but I’ve gotten really hung up on whether or not I should be using “には” or “では”. It’s been a while since I’ve been “actively” studying Japanese, so I feel like I’m forgetting some very simple rule here. Which particle is the correct/more natural usage and what exactly is the difference?

10. What’s the difference between 駆け上る and just 上る?

11. >プロの職人にして失敗をするのだ。君がうまくいかなくてもしょうがないだろう

    Is there a big difference in meaning if I switch にして with にしても in this same sentence?

12. What does

    >夜は夜で、

    mean? I understand it as “At night,” but why is there a duplication of 夜?

    I came across it in a short personal essay where a person is describing how they wake up at the same time every day, and sleep as well as Nobita Nori at night. The full sentence is:

    >夜は夜でのび太並みに寝付きが良く、スイッチを切ったように眠り、朝になるとスイッチが入ったように目覚めます。

13. Hi! I have a question about the translation of this clue for a crossword puzzle I’m doing in Japanese. The clue is

    頭の中で考えたことが正しいかどうかを実際に確かめてみる所。科学のクラスなどで使う。

    The topic for the crossword puzzle is “school.” I thought 電卓 was the right answer but the answer has to be 3 kanji characters long. Can someone help me out? I don’t know if I’m misunderstanding the clue.

14. Do I got this right?

    Less than / around thirty minutes (to get somewhere):

    30分弱で着きます。= 29-31 minutes

    30分未満で着きます。(?) = 29 minutes

    30分足らず(に?)着きます。= 25 – 29 minutes

    30分もかからずに着きます。= same as above?

    Any nuance differences?

15. 春の太陽が雪を溶しました。

    in this sentence, reading this hurts my brain, 溶かす is transitive right ? if we wanna say “the snow melted” it should be 雪が溶けた so the sentence should be something like 夏の大陽によって、雪が溶けた。 or if we wanna use 溶かす then the thing that melted the ice is the sun so it should be 夏の大陽を雪が溶かした。right ?

    Sorry I still cannot be flexible with が

16. When to use 間 in time interval phrases?

    I’m currently studying the “Frequency” module of the LingoDeer app, and I’m trying to figure out the pattern for “[frequency] per [time period]” phrases. In the example sentences, the app uses both “一か月に三回” and “一週間に四日”, and I don’t know why one has 間 and the other doesn’t. The app also uses “[#]か月間” elsewhere to describe duration, so the rule doesn’t appear to be a “月 doesn’t take 間 and 週 does” kind of thing. Can anyone help me out with an (N5-friendly) explanation? Thanks!

17. with the phrase 話し合い, I realized that 合う modifies many verbs in a similar way, but I’m not exactly sure how. When I see similar modifications, how should I first think of it?

18. Is 番 an abbreviation of 電話番号 after a sequence of numbers? How is it used generally after being placed after a sequence of numbers?

19. The target sentence is:

    “Please take a short break.”

    What’s the difference between the following or why is the first sentence correct and the 2nd sentence incorrect.

    しばらくおやすみください。

    And

    しばらくおやすみなさい。

20. Is there a difference between

    Even if I wear socks, my feet get cold.

    靴下をはいても、足が冷たいです。

    靴下をはけば、足が冷たいです。

21. Question about た+ところで

    Are these two definition different or the same? They feel abit similiar from the example sentence I’m given

    1. たとえ～でも
    2. いくら〜しても

    Example sentence: [https://nihongokyoshi-net.com/2020/01/20/jlptn1-grammar-tatokorode/](https://nihongokyoshi-net.com/2020/01/20/jlptn1-grammar-tatokorode/)

    ・テストまであと１０分だし、今さら本やノートを見たところで何も変わらないよ。

    ・僕なんかが告白したところで、どうせ断られるんだろうけど、このまま何も言わずに卒業するのは嫌だ。

22. 働いたら働いた分だけ給料がもらえるという理由で、フリーランスという働き方が注目**されつつある**。

    What is されつつある

23. “選挙について話したいが、車がうちの前に停まってると何を話したんだって言われるから”. From the context I understand that the sentence is about people who don’t want to talk when they see journalist’s car, but what’s is the meaning of “って言われるから” here? Don’t quite get it

24. How can I say “I love my son, my sister or my father”? I think it would be awkward with 好き but I don’t know.
    What is the verb “to love” when you are talking about your family?
    Is there any other expression more natural in Japanese to express love to your family or used when you are referring to your family?

25. what is the connotation of “ばかり” in phrases like ”ばかりではない”

26. I’m wondering what I should try to move onto after Tae Kim’s grammar guide? I’ve been following his grammar guide and not the complete one since some of the other sources I used, like Mango Languages, already taught me a good chunk of that. I have an understanding of grammar but not a grasp on it, but that will come in time. Kanji still kind of goes in one ear and out the other, but that’s another thing that’ll come with time.

    I’ve been watching purely Japanese twitch streamers but I can’t really hold a conversation with them.

27. Target sentence:

    “What are you studying now?”

    お～になる

    何を勉強おしになっていますか

    なさる

    何を勉強なさっていますか。

    いたす

    何を勉強いたしていますか

    Are these all valid?

28. Is there a resource I can use that tells which particles go with what verbs and their meanings. For example, 聞く can use を or に and they mean different things.

29. Is the difference between “しゃぶる” and “舐める” somewhat similar to “suck” and “lick”. I’m just trying to make sure I’m not understanding it wrong.

30. Was practising in a grammar textbook when I came across these sentences:
    1. 兄は日本のトヨタ**に**勤めています。
    2. 兄は日本**で**勤めています。　＊日本~~に~~働く　(the “に” was crossed out)

    Any reason why に cannot be used in the second sentence? Or could it be due to the verbs “勤めています” vs “勤めています”?

31. So, I finally finished Tobira, and tried to finally leap into the realm of native content, namely, visual novels.

    At first I was enthusiastic, but I quickly realized, that I am nowhere near capable of understanding properly without english translations. While yes, this is obvious as Tobira is only N3 and native content is usually N1+, my main frustration is that I am not only struggling with vocab and some grammar I haven’t learned yet, but sometimes I even have trouble decyphering sentences where supposedly I have learnt all of it’s building blocks already, but since it is expressed so peculiarly, I might misunderstand the meaning.

    Is this a normal part of the intermediate plateau? Should I try easier content? Or move on to another textbook?
    Also, even though I sometimes see people recommending against english translations, but I feel like if I don’t use any english translations then I won’t be able to confirm whether or not I actually understood the sentence.

32. Here is a sentence from the anime Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san:

    ミナ苦手じゃなかったっけ？ For context, the speaker is referring to a cup of coffee her friend ミナ is drinking.

    English subtitles translate this sentence to: Mina, I thought you didn’t like coffee.

    According to Jisho, the definition of 苦手 (for this context) would be: not one’s cup of team, not one’s favorite.

    If we have a na-adj that means “not one’s favorite”, and it’s conjugated into the negative, would that not make it “one’s favorite”? For this sentence to mean what it does, I was expecting the noun to read 苦手だった which, in my head, means “was not one’s cup of tea”.

    Another way I thought of it is if we take the na-adj 好き which means to like and tried to use it to express the same meaning, it (I think) would be ミナ好きじゃなかった (Minna was/did not like). 苦手 and 好き seemed like sort of antonyms when I read the definition on Jisho, so it makes no sense to me how they could express the same thing with the same state of being conjugation.

    Only a couple weeks in to learning Japanese, so sorry if this is obvious 🙂

    TL;DR: Please help me rationalize why this sentence: ミナ苦手じゃなかったっけ？ means “Mina, I thought you didn’t like (coffee)?”