Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (August 06, 2022)

19 comments

1. Is it normal to find adverbs difficult? I’ve been doing about 30 new words per day and I was doing fine until the adverbs hit. For some reason, I cant memorize these things as quickly as I do “normal” words. They’re in hiragana too (mostly) so I have no clue why I’m finding them more difficult.

2. Hi all,

   I am studying Japanese particles (助詞) and there is the word 連用修飾語. Jisho calls it a “modifier of an inflectable word.” I’m assuming “an inflectable word” refers to 用言. What exactly does this mean (what is doing the modifying?) and could you provide some examples of a 連用修飾語?

   If you all think this deserves its own post, feel free to let me know and I can create a full post to create more discussion. However, I believe the “what does this mean” questions probably belong here.

   Thanks!

3. Can 僕ら be used by a woman if it includes a man ?

   There’s a song sung by a woman, and she uses 僕ら to refer to her lover and herself

4. When looking up words on Google images, what can I add to my query so that it doesn’t just give me static images of the word on educational sites? Take the word 差す, for instance.

5. I couldnt make a post because my account is too new. but i wanted to ask advice on how to get better in online lessons

   Any general advice welcome :).

   Ive been studying for 3/4 years. I can read japanese okayish (someone between N4/N3), listening around mid N4 and speaking much, much lower. I’ve started having online italki lessons because my personal goal is to be able to conduct conversations more than being able to read (although i do enjoy that too), however, im just a mess and i cant think of what to say, i feel so awkward and can barely string together a sentence.

   are there ways to practice in between classes to increase my speaking ability, atm i can only afford an hour a week of conversation practice lessons and i dont feel like thats enough to progress.

   Ive done pimsleur too which i think has helped a bit although its very formal and practices mainly business situations.

   Many thanks in advance x

6. Any book recommendations for N3/N2?
   I’ve been trying to read more books in Japanese.

   The few ones I read a long time ago were mostly books from 青い鳥文庫 but I think those are too easy to read for me now. I’m looking for books that would help me learn new things but aren’t incredibly hard that I’d get stumped within the first few pages.

   Also, I just found out about other publishers (角川つばさ、集英社みらい、小学館ジュニア、双葉社、ポプラ社) that are similar to Aoitori looking through past posts in this sub. Any opinions on them compared to Aoitori in terms of difficulty?

7. I’m doing some practice in the Genki I workbook and I’m trying to write ‘I get up early every morning.’ I haven’t really used adjectives in sentences yet, so I was reading about adjective conjugation and thought I understood the basics. Anyway, I came up with ‘私は毎朝早い起きます’, but then I found someone on hinative saying it as ‘私は毎朝早**く**起きます’. Can anyone give me some guidance on the use of 早く instead of 早い?

8. Hello all,

   Can someone sign up for more than one level of the JLPT? I understand that you would have to pay for each level you signed up for and that you can only sit the test for a single level but other than that is there any rule against signing up for multiple levels?

   For some background I’m somewhere around upper N5 and lower N4 level (WaniKani lvl8, finished Refold JP1K deck). I have a goal of moving to Japan in the next couple of years and due to the test only being offered once a year in the US I would like to take the highest level I can pass. JLPT sign ups are coming up in a week or so and I’m not confident I would pass the N4 right now but the actual JLPT test is 4 months away so I think I could get there.

   I only ask if I can sign up for multiple tests because I would like to aim for JLPT N4 but have the option to take the N5 if something unanticipated happens and I can’t get to the N4 level. I’d be willing to eat the extra $100 cost to ensure I don’t come away with nothing this year.

   I appreciate the time and help from anyone who replies.

9. Do these simple sentences make sense grammatical wise? You may also judge my not-existing handwriting skills.
   https://imgur.com/a/lU3wbds

10. In the sentence 中身たっぷりの酒樽とみたね, what is the function of とみた, and what is it derived from. I understand the nuance of the sentence is “There must be booze inside”, but is the とみた the speculative portion of the sentence ?

11. why do you write 何かおいしいものが食べたい ? doesn’t that mention “thing” / “object” 2 times in the sentence and sounds weird? why don’t you just write 何かおいしいが食べたい here? memrise says you write it like 何かおいしいものが食べたい , but i don’t understand why it is like this.

12. Is 握り締める only used for human hands gripping something or could it be used for something like a vine or a snake that is tightly wrapped around something?

13. When you are saying “we” by applying 達 to the end of a pronoun, are you conveying information about yourself only, or also those included in the group?

    For example, if I (as a man) was with three female friends and I used 俺達, would people think I was implying I was with male company, or does it simply convey my chosen pronoun with no further meaning?

    In that vein, if you are in mixed company, will people attempt to use more neutral pronouns like 私たち instead of something like おれたち or あたしたち, for example? Is there any etiquette?

14. I’m making Anki flashcards based on the Tae Kim grammar guide and have a question about Ex. 3 for the は particle:
    Ex 3.
    アリス：今日は試験だ。

    ボブ：ジョンは？

    アリス：ジョンは明日。

    I’ve heard many people say that you can just ditch the particle after the topic has been set, so assuming Bob and Alice are friends and having an informal conversation, couldn’t she just respond with 「ジョン明日」or even just「明日」?

15. Do these both mean the same thing?

    The first sentence is supposedly correct and the 2nd sentence is supposedly wrong.

    Please do not speak loudly in the train. [within]

    電車のなかで大きい声で喋らないでください。

    電車のなかに大きい声で喋らないでください。

16. Where’s a good place to shadow japanese speakers? Trying to learn pitch.

17. Hey. My name is Pavel and Paul. I use both, more commonly the first one. Many people call me “Pav”.
    According to wiki pages, my name in Japanese would be パーヴェル or ポール
    I also looked up in dictionary that ポール also has a meaning “Pole”

    I’m going to Japan soon. Which would be better to use? Both versions sound very unfamiliar because of changing sounds and pronunciation. “V” becomes “Be”, “L” becomes “Ru”. So name starts to sound very differently, which is a bit weird.

    So I feel a bit uncomfortable, thinking that my name sounds silly

18. I was wondering about this:

    > 普通よりかなり力持ちなのはいいとして、普通よりかなりのんびり屋さん。

    Does 屋さん literally mean something like shopkeeper or does it sometimes have other meanings? I can’t think of a reason in context the person this is describing would be a shopkeeper but he’s just being introduced so, maybe.

    Otherwise I think it might mean something like, “Although it’s good that he is considerably stronger than normal, he is also considerably more easygoing than normal.”

19. Can anyone ELI5 what the difference between kunyomi and onyomi is, and how it affects things?