Y’all, I can’t oversell how absurdly good ChatGPT is at endlessly explaining my questions about Japanese. It’s way better at translating than google translate, and it explains everything. Even if it is likely getting 5% of it wrong, it’s pretty amazing to have something I can pester about every nuance. Here’s an example question (10 why’s down)
ME: what are some other examples of gozaimasu adding formality without indicating existence?
MAGIC CHAT BOX: In addition to its use as a more formal and polite version of “ある” (aru), “ございます” (gozaimasu) can function as an auxiliary verb to add formality and politeness to certain expressions without necessarily indicating existence. Here are some examples:
1. おはようございます (Ohayō gozaimasu) – “Good morning.” In this case, “ございます” (gozaimasu) adds politeness to the basic greeting “おはよう” (ohayō).
2. おめでとうございます (Omedetō gozaimasu) – “Congratulations.” “ございます” (gozaimasu) adds politeness and formality to the congratulatory expression “おめでとう” (omedetō).
3. いらっしゃいませ (Irasshaimase) – “Welcome.” In a formal setting or when addressing customers, you may hear “いらっしゃいませんか” (Irasshaimasen ka) or “いらっしゃいませんか？” (Irasshaimasen ka?) instead, both meaning “Won’t you come in?” or “Would you like to come in?”. In this case, “ませんか” (masen ka) and “ませんか？” (masen ka?) are the negative and interrogative forms of “ございます” (gozaimasu), adding politeness and formality to the invitation.
4. どうぞよろしくお願いいたします (Dōzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu) – “Please treat me kindly” or “Nice to meet you.” When used in self-introductions or requests, “いたします” (itashimasu) is the humble form of “します” (shimasu, “to do”), and “ございます” (gozaimasu) adds an extra layer of politeness and formality.
In each of these examples, “ございます” (gozaimasu) serves as an auxiliary verb to convey politeness and formality, rather than indicating existence.
5 comments
As much as I love chat GPT and value the information it can give me, I think it is worth noting that the issue with using chat GPT with Japanese is that sometimes it gives you the wrong answer..or it gives you the kind of right answer. 😅 Now, I actually don’t know if the amount of time that it’s offset with right answers and the accessibility of essentially having a free language tutor outweighs the occasional answer that is wrong or less complete. I also don’t know if it’s going to get questions wrong at the beginning lessons in Japanese you know?
But #3 and #4 have nothing to do with ございます…
ChatGPT is a so-called “generative” model. That means it will generate output even with insufficient or incorrect information.
In other words, it bullshits.
I have seen ChatGPT produce completely wrong statements about Japanese that it confidently produces as fact.
ChatGPT and similar generative AIs are banned at the Japanese Stack Exchange for this reason.
**_DO NOT use ChatGPT or similar AIs to learn another language._**
It might be fun, it might be interesting, it might even be right a certain percentage of the time. But **you cannot trust it.**
Example: ChatGPT seems to state that “eyelid” and “tea” are essentially the same word in Japanese:
* https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/98039/is-it-true-that-the-japanese-characters-for-tea-and-eyelid-are-the-same
Example: thread at the Meta section of the Japanese Stack Exchange, where I listed a few problem posts. Unfortunately the posts themselves have been deleted (due to being misleading bullshit), and aren’t visible unless you have enough reputation points there.
Of particular note, ChatGPT invented the non-existent “Japanese” word _ota_ and confidently explained that it means “fun”.
* https://japanese.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2359/are-ai-generated-answers-banned
I’ll say it again, _**DO NOT use AI to learn another language.**_
ChatGPT is, at its heart, just a very very advanced form of auto-complete. It goes word by word and fills in the next blank with what sounds best from what it’s read online. Except it does it for whole phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and posts. The result is extremely convincing in terms of grammar, tone, and what have you, because it is copying actual versions of all those things it’s seen in the past. But the problem is, a lot of those things are uninformed bullshit, and so a lot of what ChatGPT spits out is, similarly, uninformed bullshit.
For example in #3 above, it has seen the term “negative” and “interrogative” forms somewhere online before. Those sound super smart and correct. It has seen “ませんか” explained somewhere as “negative” so it tacks that term on there. The problem is, the explanation it saw ignored the か which turned it into a question — probably because the post it copied from wasn’t asking about that. Whereas for the second, it saw an explanation with the question mark that called it the “interrogative,” so it slapped that term on that one.
So it then says that ませんか and ませんか？ are different verb forms when the only difference is the question mark. They are not different forms at all. A human would understand that punctuation does not change a verb’s conjugation and what it’s saying is inherently bullshit. But ChatGPT doesn’t know. It just slapped together two unrelated things it read online into the same sentence and called them different things when they are not.
One problem is that you’re comparing it to Google translate, which is not very good at English to Japanese. For translation, DeepL is the standard most people in Japan prefer, as most native speakers regard it as more natural than Google translate.
As for ChatGPT3.5 and 4, they’re both bad at Japanese translations. However, it is OK as a check, if nothing else is available for comparing two different words that are similar. For example:
“Prompt “What is the difference between [word 1] and [word 2] in [language].
My specific question was “What is the difference between 判断 (はんだん) and 判定 (はんてい) in Japanese. Provide 2 examples. ”
GPT-3 Davinci in Playground result:
What is the difference between 判断 and 判定 in Japanese. Provide 2 examples.
The difference between 判断 and 判定 in Japanese is that 判断 (handan) is more subjective and often involves making decisions based on opinion or judgment, while 判定 (hantei) is more objective and involves making decisions based on facts or evidence.
Examples:
1. 判断 (handan): 私はこのレストランの食べ物が美味しいと判断しました。 (I judged that the food at this restaurant was delicious.)
2. 判定 (hantei): 先生はその生徒のテストの結果を判定しました。 (The teacher judged the result of the student’s test.)
ChatGPT Result:
What is the difference between 判断 and 判定 in Japanese. Provide 2 examples.” (I was a bout to go into a meeting and needed a quick reference on this; and it confirmed and explained better than what my dictionary said).
In Japanese, both 判断 (handan) and 判定 (hantei) refer to the act of judgment or determination. However, there are some subtle differences between the two.
判断 (handan) is often used to refer to the act of making a subjective judgment based on one’s own thoughts or opinions, whereas 判定 (hantei) tends to be used when making a more objective judgment based on facts or rules.
Here are two examples to illustrate the difference:
彼の行動を判断するのは難しい。 (Kare no kōdō o handan suru no wa muzukashii.)
It is difficult to judge his actions. (This suggests that it is difficult to form a personal opinion or conclusion about the actions.)
裁判官は被告の有罪を判定した。 (Saibankan wa hikoku no yūgai o hantei shita.)
The judge rendered a guilty verdict for the defendant. (This example uses 判定 to describe the judge’s determination of the verdict based on the evidence and rules of law.)