Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (April 14, 2023)

24 comments

1. タリバンとの関係を聞くと口をつぐんだ

   difference between を聞く and と聞く　 as in タリバンとの関係と聞くと口をつぐんだ

2. Y’all got any tips for improving hiragana and katakana handwriting and how to make it less font-like?

3. Is it a good idea to learn the radicals before learning kanji? I already know some like 時 私 僕 鳥 魚 but i’m kind of afraid of learn more advanced stuff.

4. 短気: na-adj so why is there a の here? (is it necessary?)

   父が短気なのに対して、母の方は気が長い

5. Is there a significant difference in tone between 訳す and 翻訳する？ Is 翻訳 just the more formal or proper word for translation?

6. I was reviewing my notes and got a bit confused with Causative conjugations.

   I have one conjugation for Causatives:
   -Godan: あ column + せる
   -Ichidan(eru/iru): Drop る + せる

   But in my example sentence for Causatives
   I have the verb conjugation as -させる
   (But I thought this was only for suru and kuru?)

   Does each conjugation mean something different?

7. 早くコーヒーを**持って来てくれ**。(Hurry up and bring me coffee.)

   My question is about the complex verb conjugation, as I’m trying to break it down.

   I do know that it’s an imperative sentence though, due to the くれ ending.

   Does the sentence mean something like this: go get the coffee, hold it in one’s hand (持つ), come back (来る), and give it as a favor (くれる⮕くれ)?

   Also, it’s くれる and not あげる because the gift is going to the speaker from the listener and not the other way around, right?

   Thanks!

8. Question about this sentence

   海のほうにも山のほうにも温泉があります

   Is のほうにも doing something special here? I know the “の方が” for comparing but that doesn’t seem to be it. Is it really ほう as in “direction”? So “In the sea’s direction also the mountain’s direction there are onsen”?

   Just starting into N4 readers and couldn’t find this phrase in my usual grammar sources.

9. When you’re at a store and the clerk says ありがとうございます after handing you your stuff, what’s the correct response? This keeps happening to me at stores and I keep saying the same thing back since that’s what’s usually done in my home country, but I feel like it doesn’t make sense to respond to “thank you” with “thank you”. いいえ いいえ doesn’t seem like it would make much sense either since I’m not actually doing anything. I don’t want to just not say anything because I feel like that would come off as rude, but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say here.

10. I’ve been translating a song for a while but have been drawing blanks on one particular line for days. I’m not sure if this is a contraction, slang… maybe I’m just brain-farting? Any help is sincerely appreciated.

    Here’s the part I’m working on:

    かくなる上は覚悟決めろ
    何とでもなるはずさいざ執刀
    信仰集めなるぜアイドルよりもっと過激に攻めるライオット

    My specific question is: **what is さいざ**？

    This song is the story of a comical tsukumogami supervillain-esque having his plan to take over the world foiled. Important to much of the song is the wordplay revolving around his head being a medical scalpel, although I’m not really sure that’s relevant here.

    I’d probably write the other two lines like this (non-literally, of course…)

    Now that it’s come to this, you’d better be ready
    I’ll gain their adoration like an idol and strike back with an even more violent riot!

    But I feel like I’m seriously overthinking something here?! What could the second line mean?

11. I have a few questions about the following: “マジあり得なくない!?!?”

    What’s the purpose of “あり” here?

    Since 得ない is “unable to” or “impossible”, is “得なくない” just the negative of that meaning “possible”?

    Would the literal meaning of the sentence be “is this seriously possible?”

12. Could I ask please, おり in the sentence below, is it 織り?

    木星の衛星ガニメデの地下にも海が存在するとされていますが、その海水量や地下海の環境などはほとんどわかっていません。また、ガニメデには、地球と同じような磁場が存在しており、その中心に溶けた鉄のコアがあるのではないかといわれています。

13. I’ve been learning Japanese for quite some time now and am still having some issues with reading comprehension. One could probably say this is due to me not reading enough, although I’m trying to read as much as I can. I just wanted to know if this might be linked to something else. I have a Japanese friend with who I’m talking to through text. It’s so difficult for me to remember what he said in previous conversations, although I understand practically everything, and look up words when I don’t understand them. In other languages I don’t have these issues at all. Is it just because I lack practice reading?

14. What is the verb(s) for bounce / jiggle? Like perhaps a sample sentence “the jello was bouncing and jiggling”. Thanks

15. 「Let’s see if I can get him down…」を「落ちさせれるかな」で翻訳してもいい？文脈はゲームで敵を岩棚から落ちさせてみてることだ

16. Have you ever seen anyone write ryakuji for 幣? If so, was it 币?

17. What verb would you use to say: to call on the phone

18. この地域の平和に貢献できるじゃないかな~というふうに僕は考えています

    difference between じゃないかな~というふうに僕は考えています vs じゃないかな~と僕は考えています

    Particularly how does the nuance/ meaning of the sentence change with ふうに　included vs excluded?

19. I just came across a Duolingo sentence that used the words ookina ie. What is the difference between using ookii and ookina? If ookii is always correct, why would you ever use ookina?

    Sorry for the wrong alphabet, I don’t know how to use the Japanese keyboard on my phone.

20. Through some gnarly mining I have acquired around ~700 kanij and ~4k words (conservative estimate) in 5 months. Currently reading the LN 回復術しのやり直し. It has been kicking my ass from the very first page. Seems like a couple more years before I can just pick up a book and start reading fluidly.

21. I’m having trouble deciphering the purpose of さ in this context:

    ．．．ところでさ
    よつばどこだ？

    I understand that ところで means “by the way”, but the さ doesn’t seem to be adding anything to the phrase.

22. The furigana of 今日 is like this…

    今[きょ]日[う]

    or like this…

    今[きょう]日

    ?

    Because it looks rather unclear in[jisho.org](https://jisho.org/search/今日). Thank you.

23. How important in your opinion is writing the letters physically?
    I find myself reading hiragana almost fluently now yet when I try to write it looks worse than my very worse English

24. I am going through Tae Kim’s guide to Japanese. In the [compound sentences lessons](https://guidetojapanese.org/learn/complete/conjunctions) it’s said that you can omit one of the clauses.

    When you omit the first sentence, do you always need to include です/な/だ before the conjunction, or only when the omitted sentence would have ended in a na-adjective/ noun?

    In the example:

    リー：　図書館なのに、ここはいつもうるさいよね。
    スミス：　だから、あまり好きじゃない。

    Is だ used by Smith because the implied omission is a noun? In other words, if the omitted sentence would have ended in a negative/i-adjective, does Lee need to start with だ or can they just start with the conjunction から?