Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (August 07, 2022)

18 comments

1. Where else do I start. Full beginner here. Bought a beginner workbook of Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. What else do I do to really delve in and start. I speak Spanish, French And Italian already but this all seems overwhelming. I’m so excited but just don’t know exactly what to do first. Other than the starter workbook.

2. Any tips on learning from native language content?

   I’m finally to a point where I can understand some stuff that’s just in Japanese, but I don’t know the best way to actually learn from it. I’ve always learned from textbooks, flashcards, classes, and other “formal instruction,” so I feel like I don’t know how to actually learn from actually watching a vlog in Japanese or whatever the case may be. Especially because I won’t even have confirmation that I’m understanding correctly…

3. Can です be dropped from ですか？ For example: ここから近いか？ Is it far from here?

4. > 美しいばかりの、僕にとってなんの意味もないはずの女性が言った。
   >
   >「貴方とお付き合いしてもいいけど、条件が三つあります。
   > 一つ目、放課後になるまではお互い話しかけないこと。
   > 二つ目、連絡のやり取りは出来るだけ簡潔にすること。
   > 最後に三つ目、私のことを本気で好きにならないこと。これが守れますか？」
   > 当時の僕には、いくつも分からないことがあった。
   >
   > 身近なところでは正しい噓の告白の仕方だったり、哲学的なところであれば死であったり、詩的なところでは恋であったりした。

   I am not sure about the meaning of「身近なところでは正しい噓の告白の仕方」. What does 身近なところ mean here? 正しい噓 means “correct lie”?

5. Hello everyone, I’m just wondering why this sentence : あの人気な居酒屋に10人しか入れなくてびっくりしました。

   It says “…CAN enter” BUT in Japanese, it’s in negative, what’s up with that?

6. Hi everyone. I am sort of at an imbalanced level right now and I’m trying to start reading. For kanji and vocab, I’m probably N4 but I’m very behind on grammar. It’s just one of the things I really struggle with. With that being said, is there a good resource for looking up specific grammar points when they come up in text? I am reading printed material, which is harder in the sense that I can’t just highlight and look up things, but I’m determined to read it. Thanks in advance for any help!

7. Is 「説明してみると」a natural phrase? I have seen many instances of 説明すると being used but not any of 説明してみると.

8. Hey! So I was trying to read a very simple comic but I’m stumped by the first panel. [pixiv link. comic is sfw.](https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/88299303)

   >「行きますよう。美味しいものを食べに連れていきます～」

   “I’m gonna take you to eat delicious food!”

   >「お！本当か？でも最近は超貧乏**じゃなか**お前」

   “Really? But haven’t you been super poor lately?”

   >「大丈夫、大丈夫、存分に**食べまよう**」

   “it’s ok, eat to your heart’s content!”

   ​

   In the 2nd line, is「じゃなか」just a shortening of「じゃないか」?

   And in the 3rd line what is 「食べまよう」?　Is it a form of「食べますよう」?

   Thank you!

9. I’m currently doing some Kanji practice. In particular I’m looking at 雨.

   When looking at the readings.

   訓読み: あめ、あま、さめ

   音読み: ウ

   One thing that is confusing me about this is most places I’ve checked don’t have ゆ listed which is used in 梅雨 (つゆ). I’m I just being silly and missed this or is this some special rule?

10. I’m watching 男子高校生の日常 and there’s a line written in kana that I can’t tell which word it’s supposed to be. My best guess is 会う, but I can’t see how even that word applies here. I would have thought it would have been 見付かった.

    なおい妹のスカートを拝借できんか

    何言ってる。無理に決まってるだろうが

    **あった**ぜ

    Also, I can’t seem to find an explanation for だろうが anywhere online. I see it used a lot in this anime, but I guess I only know one of it’s uses as a way to say “probably”. I’d really appreciate if someone could explain that as well, or point me to an explanation.

11. メッセージで済ませられることをわざわざ直接　話しに来たあたり、実は気の良いやつなのかもしれない。　

    I’m curious about this use of あたり. What purpose does it fulfill here? I think I kind of get it but not really, so I’d like some confirmation. Maybe it means something like “Judging from this point of view…”? Also, how would the meaning change if you changed あたり to 分? Would the sentence still make sense, and if yes, would the meaning be significantly different?

12. Inflection vs Agglutination in Japanese – What is the difference?

    I take a very grammatical approach to Japanese learning, and do my best to understand how a concept would be described in the Japanese grammar, what form it is etc. Something I have trouble with, and it is likely purely semantic, is understanding these two phenomena.

    I owuld say it is more accurate to describe Japanese grammar as being mostly agglutinative, especially when it comes to verbs and “i-adjectives”, as most of what is considered as conjugation is agglutination of verbal suffixes to base forms of words.

    This process seems to be described frequently as “inflection” as well, which according to wikipedia, may be correct, as it is the addition of a morpheme to a root word that gives grammatical property.

    What is your take on this?

13. If an adjective is modifying another adjective, do you need to write it in て-form?

    For example:

    1. すごい楽しい
    2. すごく楽しい
    3. すごくて楽しい

    How would all these translate to?

    1. Incredibly fun (?)
    2. Incredibly fun??? (Is this grammatical?)
    3. Incredible and fun (?)

    Thanks

14. Just a question but does anyone know any good reading practice app? I have satori but it isn’t fully free. Easy Japanese as well but I really want stories similar to the ones in satori since they’re easier for me to understand ;; aside from that, does anyone also have tips to help with memorization? Aside from srs/flashcards/repetition since even with those I still struggle 😭 sorry if there’s a lot of questions?

15. Why does the sentence “何をあげたらいいんだ…” has たら? (The context is that the person saying this wants to pick a gift)

    Is it in essence something like “If I gift something, what would be good?” and the たら is that “If I gift” part.

16. So i just learned the form V-ます ように, mostly used for praying.

    All the examples ive seen are either affirmative or potential ます forms.

    How about negative ones though? If i wanted to say “I hope my friend doesn’t move out” for example, can i use ません or do i have to word the sentences in a way that theyre always positive?

    I know there are several other constructions to hope and wish for X, id like to know exclusively about ~ますように for now though. Thanks in advance!!

17. この地域の土地の値段は今度もあまり高くならないだろう

    In the sentence above, what is happening to 高い? 高い+negative+what? 0o

    Thanks!

18. Can anyone comment on the particle に being used to express sort of possessive type sentences? I’ve seen it used with ある/いる/でした a number of times, for example in sentences like:

    >ダーズリー夫妻にはダドリーという男の子がいた。(from Harry Potter)
    >
    >昔から、魔女には黒猫が付き物のでした。(from 魔女の宅急便)

    I want to translate these very roughly as “The Dursleys had a son named Dudley” and “Witches have had black cats as familiars since the olden times”, but whenever I try to find stuff on the possessive I only ever find の. I’m curious if it’s just that the target of the copula/existential verbs can express a sort of possessive relationship with regards to the subject, or if there’s anything more to it. Would native’s conceptualize に in this case as even expressing a possessive relationship like *to have* in similar way to の being like *’s* in English, or would it be seen as completely unrelated?

    Googling hasn’t found me anything, which makes me wonder if the way I’m interpretting it might be missing something.