Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (June 26, 2022)

29 comments

1. I was wondering how the particle と interacts with the verb 聞く

   I know that 聞く can be used with を and that is more like listening, and に and that is more like asking, but I’m not sure about と.

   For context, I saw something like this in Tobira:

   > ギネスブックに載っていると聞きました。

   It’s talking about some robot that is in the guinness book of world records.

   My guess is と is sort of like a quote, and in this way it means something like “I heard he is in the book”

2. Very dumb question but how many new vocabulary words should I be getting in each chapter of Tobira? I’ve been keeping track of words in the vocab lists that I didn’t know or did know but couldn’t read the kanji for before reading the chapter. For chapter 1, it was 37/109. For chapter 2, it was 30/72. For chapter 3, it was 29/83… Is that too many? Too few? Am I biting off more than I can chew or is it an ok level for me?

   Vocabulary is my weak point so I’m actually quite worried about this. Even t though I logically know the textbook includes word lists for a reason, my brain just sees 96 things I didn’t get right. D:

3. What is the meaning of 撮影おわたん and its grammar please? Your help will be grateful 🙏!

4. [removed]

5. I’m just getting used to attaching verbs to nouns and wondering if the following sentence makes grammatical sense:

   ゼルダを遊びます。

   I’m also wondering if the verb 遊ぶ can be used in the same broad way as English (i.e. to play sports, video games, board games, and children’s games)? Jisho is suggesting that’s the case.

   Thank you in advance for any help!

6. How should you read ~ out loud in example like this?

   女子は10〜11歳前後、男子は11〜12歳前後で思春期を迎える。

   I want to say it’s just silent (じゅうじゅういっさい）but I’m not positive.

7. Description about single mother who have a little boy as her son

   > 母親は一人息子に不憫な思いはさせまいとか細い体に鞭打ち昼も夜も働く働き者だった

   I am not sure about the か細い体に鞭打ち part. Maybe I misunderstand the meaning of 不憫な思い or something. She is hitting her son with stick to prevent him from doing 不憫な思いをする. Does 不憫な思いをする mean to cause trouble or mischief?

8. Will people understand what I’m saying even if I don’t pronounce certain words correctly? I am talking specifically about words like 旅行会社 or 仕事 where the k consonant is replaced with a g consonant. Would I still be understood if I said しこと instead of 仕事?

9. Beginner here.
   Still trying to get my head around Kanji and the on and kun meanings. Can you tell me if I’ve got the concept right?
   So for example, I have the word 入力, which I read aloud as にゅうりょく and means ‘Input’.
   Is the word 入力 written purely based on the onyomi sounds?
   The word existed as にゅうりょく verbally and so they attributed the symbols 入力 because they make the sounds ‘nyuu’ and ‘ryoku’. It has nothing to do with the fact that 入 means enter and 力 means power and together the concepts could represent ‘input’, because the sounds of the word [にゅう’ and りょく] came before the kanji symbols?

10. Is there a Japanese equivalent to typing that unintelligible freaking out text like: “KAUFINJDJDBKDMEH”?

    I do this every so often to express utter confusion or shock in a humourous way. I’m wondering if there’s an equivalent to this in Japanese

11. Hi! I was listening to a song and the translator wrote ‘conveniently, heaven allows such things to exist with no punishment’ for the line ‘都合良く天網なんか存在しないやって’, but doesn’t the sentence mean ‘conveniently, these things dont exist in heaven?’ was it creative license or did the original phrase imply something about punishment?

12. Very early in self study but an important pronunciation question I need assistance with. I came across れんしゅう which I believe means practice, but I’m unsure if the う in this instance is a continuation or drawing out of the *shu* sound, or a separate syllable, i.e. *shu-u*. Any tips?

13. In [this panel](https://imgur.com/a/ZiQpWT6), the game hostess is shown explaining the meaning of the word リストラ to participants.

    I am not sure about the meaning of といって in this sentence

    > あなたがたの中にも「リストラ」といって一方的にクピを通告された人もいるのではないですか

    Does「リストラ」といって mean “…it is called リストラ…”?

14. だったんだよ

    Is this sentence using “desu” twice? Can someone guide me through this sentence structure?

15. 私に彼氏ができたって言ったら、妹が羨ましがると思うの。

    The translation is “If I told my sister that I got a boyfriend, I think she would be jealous”

    Why is it “I” who said this while they wrote 私に?

16. Why is kikimasu sometimes means “listen” and sometimes means “say”?

17. Can anyone teach me a mnemonic for the compass directions in Japanese?

    Like, How do I easily remember that 東（ひがし）is east and 北（きた）is north etc.

18. I’d like a hand figuring out which reading of 紅 is most likely in this sentence (this is from Steins;Gate prologue but hopefully is pretty self-contained).

    > 死体というより、彼女の身体の下に広がっていた血溜まりの鮮烈な*紅*が、目に焼き付いて離れない。

    I guessed I should read this sentence as follows –

    したいというより、かのじょの しんたいの したに ひろがっていた ちだまりの せんれつな *くれない*が、めに やきついて はなれない。

    So far I actually only know 紅茶 (こうちゃ), 紅葉 (もみじ) and learned 紅い (あかい) a few lines earlier. I’m guessing this must be くれない because it actually seems to have a complete dictionary entry on its own. ( https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/srch/jn/%E7%B4%85/m1u/ ). Does that seem right? Any dictionary-usage or related tips that might be helpful here?

19. Is there a polite version of the negative imperative form? I get commands aren’t necessarily polite in general but I was just wondering. Referring to adding な to the end of a verb.

20. Is there a good app/program/website where people will check Japanese sentences that I write and correct them and tell me why they are wrong? Like if I wanted to write a blog or a diary and I wanted someone to check my sentences before I posted them.

    I found this:
    https://hinative.com/en-US

    But I don’t know if it’s actually good or not.

21. Is there any Japanese youtubers equivalent to Charlie (Moist Critical) or Felix(Pewdiepie) in terms of content? Mostly gaming, commentary, shtposting or reacting. Excluding Hikakin.

22. I have a question about kanji recognition. When i’m doing anki sentences, sometimes i first recall the reading of kanjis, then recall the meaning. Should i stick to recalling meaning by symbols(pictures) of kanji or is this ok to recall meaning by reading?

23. what does にぶんのいち mean? Google translate isn’t helping. Sorry, I know it must extremely elementary. I just started learning.

24. The below two sentences are causing me a lot of confusion on Bunpro because I do not really see a difference between them.

    1. For the first below sentence, why is いらっしゃいます not an acceptable answer?
    2. Why do you need になって in the second sentence and not the first?
    3. Why is いらっしゃる even acceptable for either of them when it is a replacement for いる　and these are actions?

    田中さんは今本をよんでいらっしゃる

    今田中様がお召し上がりになっていらっしゃいます

25. How can I say “can you word it in a different way?”

26. Anyone any recommendations for jp to jp dictionary apps for Android?, thanks

27. How dangerous is DeepL in the learning process? Sometimes I come across a sentence I don’t understand even though I understand its individual parts (vocab, grammar), then I feed it into DeepL and it makes sense when I reread with its translated meaning in mind. But DeepL is programmed to always create a comprehensible sentence, so I am worried I am misreading by shoving a square peg into a round hole.

28. Are there any anki decks for kanji which don’t have several pages of info for each kanji? Personally, I don’t care for mnemonics, history of a word, rare variants and similar stuff.

    Ideally, I am looking for decks with cards, where there wouldn’t be a lot of info. Stroke order, and few common readings using words with kanji in it and that’s it. I find learning readings without their usage pretty useless.

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