Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (June 30, 2023)

8 comments

1. What grammar point did you struggle with until someone put it into simple terms that made you go “ohhh” and it instantly became easier?

2. What’s the difference between 寝かせる and 寝かす?

   As far as I can tell, their definitions on Jisho are basically the same.

   寝かせる looks like it could be the potential form of 寝かす, like with 知らせる being the causative of 知る, but I don’t see why the potential form and the dictionary form would have the exact same meaning.

3. I’m looking for some clarification on the function of ”あの” from the topic of a sentence I came across in a cure dolly video:
   あのさくらをなぐったみにくい外国人は…..

   This is explained as being “That ugly foreigner who hit Sakura” but why is the ”あの” considered to be attaching to the entire 外国人 pseudo noun thing (not sure what the correct terminology is here) rather than it being “that Sakura”

   I always thought the の in あの、この etc behaved in the same way as the particle の but if this sentence was something like 私のさくら it wouldn’t be “my foreigner”

   Is there some specific rule that explains this or is it just based on context? I can see how it could work either way but would like to be more certain about it when I encounter this in the future.

4. 久しぶりに other meanings for “it has been a while”

   2nd second is my own. does 頼む work here as well (or 教えられるかな？does this sound unnatural in convo? omit ら？）

   1. もし暇なら　久ブルに絵のモデルー 頼める?

   2. もし暇なら　久ブルに 顔の描き方 頼めるかな

5. [Long Context: Guy is sick](https://files.catbox.moe/38ogiw.mp4)

   How would you literally translate the 3rd line?

   「私が帰ってくるまでに
   着替えておいてください
   いいですね？」

   「帰ってくるのかよ」

   「放っておいて寝込まれても
   寝覚めが悪いので」

   The combination of 寝込まれて and 寝覚めが悪い threw me off a bit regarding who does what. I’m already bad with forms/tenses to begin with.

   I just took it as something like:

   “If I leave you to just sleep [on your own/like this] then my conscience can’t take it” edit: 寝込む→guy, 寝覚めが悪い→girl

   and NOT like:

   “If I leave you to just sleep like this then your 寝覚め will be 悪い” (sorry)

   edit: as in literal 寝覚めが悪い because he’s sick

6. Question mainly revolves around immersion how did you guys first do it when you started out and would you change anything now to make it more effective if you had to do it all over again.

   Im at about a thousand words in the core deck and just starting to get a feel for it. Generally i watch 1 anime episode a day with subtitles using Migaku while trying to look up every word i don’t know. After watching that 1 episode i then turn the subtitles off and rewatch trying to get a feel for how the language sounds/see how much i can pick up.

   Primarily because listening is a major end goal and i noticed i don’t really do it while they speak otherwise its more reading than anything.

   Other than just spending more time on it would you say i am doing it right, particularly when it comes to looking up words some guides say you should and some say you should limit it.

7. So “hypothetically”.Someone was preparing for N4 exam but later finds out that they made a mistake while making a reservation for exam that it is for n3 instead of n4.

   Now they had only a month left and had to scramble n3 note.

   How fucked are they?

8. I’m confused between “[代える](https://jisho.org/search/%E4%BB%A3%E3%81%88%E3%82%8B)” (transitive) and “[代わる](https://jisho.org/search/%E4%BB%A3%E3%82%8B)” (intransitive).

   From this [forum post](https://community.wanikani.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-%E4%BB%A3%E3%81%88%E3%82%8B-and-%E4%BB%A3%E3%82%8F%E3%82%8B/40799/3) we can see these two examples:

   * かんとくがピッチャーを代える (The coach replaces the pitcher.)
   * わたしがピッチャーに代わる (I replace the pitcher.)

   I understand the sentences and can make out the difference between the two words (代わる carries the nuance of swapping or X replaced by Y, and を and に helps in identifying both verbs), but now I’m confused as to what transitive and intransitive really is.

   In both sentences, aren’t they both transitive when translated to English? The “pitcher” is the direct object in both examples that directly receives the verb “replace”.

   I’ve thought about it for quite some time and I thought of the following:

   * English’s concept of Transitive/Intransitive Verbs =/= Japanese’s concept of Transitive/Intransitive Verbs
   * The example sentences carry their nuances better in Japanese thanks to the particles を and に, while in English there’s a possibility that you are the coach in the second sentence so it basically means the same as the first sentence
   * I should stop looking at both of these verbs with regards to their transitivity and just take them at face value (with 代える being more on replacing X, while 代わる more on using Y to replace X); or better yet, this is one of those times wherein I’m infinitely better off just thinking in Japanese instead of English

   I’m not entirely sure of my thoughts, but this is what I came up with after reading up tons on this. Please do correct me if I’m wrong. Thanks in advance for the help!