Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (June 10, 2022)

27 comments

1. 二人の視線は、テーブルの上で泣き続けるアクアに注がれている

   (From konosuba volume 1; アクア is a character’s name)

   I was always under the impression that “Aに(passive)” means “done by A”, for example 彼に食べられる means “eaten by him”. In other words , A is the subject of the verb.

   However, in this sentence, from context it’s obvious that they (二人) are looking at Aqua, so Aqua is the object. But it seems like Aqua is marked by に and therefore should be the subject. What’s going on here?

2. Why does 行ってない mean didn’t go but planning/want to? I always thought of it as just “not going”

3. My friend asked me for a translation request which I’m usually fine with but this is for a tattoo so I want some input from a native speaker before I accidentally ruin his life or something. He said he wanted something like memento Mori in Latin but with his dog’s name which is Landy. He suggested メメントランディー after I guided him a little bit but does that make sense. I also suggested ランディーの記念 which makes more sense to me. My question is would the first suggestion work, I assumed memento is Latin so it would make sense in katakana but would it come off as weird to a native speaker?

4. I saw this and I was wondering about it:

   > しないでほしないよね！

   I get kind of what it means but I wonder if someone can to help me understand why で is used there.

   For context, there is a table that looks like an apple pie. But of course it is not a real pie. And they are discussing that they might kinda want to take a bite out of it if it was a real pie.

   I think しないでほしないよね just means “you don’t want me to do that!” or something like “that wouldn’t be so great” but I wonder how で is used…between する and ほしい

5. Are there any texts or subtitles with 1:1 translation of words?

   example

   ​

   panstu nani iro

   panties what color

6. 一箱

   is it normally said as ひとはこ or いっぱこ ?

7. In relative clauses which have verbs in them, how do we understand the verb direction?

   止められた警察

   The policeman who stopped me
   or
   The policeman who was stopped?

   For example, if I want to say, “I saw the policeman who stopped me the other day again today”

   止められた警察を今日また見かけた。

   (僕を止めた警察を今日また見かけた）would also work I guess…?

8. お袋さんの部屋ってのは一体どこだよ？

   訊きそびれた俺も俺だが、教えてくれなかった凛音も凛音だ。

   Could someone explain this grammar pattern 俺も俺だが

   Thanks!

9. Hello, how can I split sentences into it’s individual words. I wanna be able to break down song lyrics into words & look them up individually. Please tell me what basic knowledge will be helpful. Thanks

10. ぺたんと地べたにお尻をついて、女の子が涙目で俺を睨みあげていた。

    ひときわ目を引くのは、鮮やかな紅白の巫女装束――に気を取られるとでも思ったか！？

    What is とでも思った, like why is とでも used

11. それはあくまで、この時代での時間の解釈に過ぎないんです

    What is での? I never seen before

12. How do you properly use なら? Could someone give a rundown on this concept

13. Not quite sure how to phrase this, but I see に being used to turn words, I suppose more specific? Like more directed? I’m wondering what roughly it is doing. I could only think of two examples at the time, but there are probably many more.

    For example: (jisho definitions)

    本当 – truth; reality; actuality; fact / proper; right; correct; official / genuine; authentic; real; natural; veritable

    本当に – really; truly

    or

    一緒 – together / at the same time / same; identical

    一緒に – together (with); at the same time; in a lump

14. Sometimes struggle to read kana that isn’t in the same style as the guides or chart I follow. Is this normal? I know the hiragana and katakana on my chart well enough that it doesn’t take me much more than a second for each of them when using the Tofugu quiz, but sometimes when I watch a quiz on Youtube or checkout a different guide I will have to stop on certain ones because of the differences compared to what I am used to. Does it just come down to needing more experience?

15. Is 佇まい and かたち interchangeable in usage?

16. My Pimsleur Japanese language course just taught me the phrase, “お店はしまっています” (The store is closed).

    Could someone explain to me why the phrase ends with masu and not desu? It seems like a declarative statement and I don’t think “closed” is a verb.

    EDIT: Never mind, I think I found my answer. It’s a conjugation of the verb 閉まる (http://www.japaneseverbconjugator.com/VerbDetails.asp?txtVerb=%E9%96%89%E3%81%BE%E3%82%8B)

17. お相手のペニスが勃起していて自ら責めてあげようかな？

    What does 責める mean here? Because the meaning to “ blame” obviously doesn’t make sense。 I’ve checked the dictionary and there are 6 meanings attached to the word but I am not sure which one it is supposed to be.

18. As a beginner, the messages I consistently see are how important reading is (and I want to read!) but if I’m reading how do I know I’m pronouncing things correctly, whether out loud or subvocalizing? I see some AJATT people calling subvocalizing a form of early output (bad).

    Even though I know *basically* the sound that each kana makes (I used an anki deck with audio that I mimicked while learning the kana), I don’t know how I avoid reinforcing an accent or bad pronunciation when using text-based input. Do I need to have audio for everything I read? I would like to have very little accent in the future but also don’t want to get overly frustrated trying to always have matching audio for every word that I read. (But if its really important, then I’ll make the effort.)

    Should I just not worry about it, pronounce it to myself in a way that is *roughly* correct, and fix my pronunciation once I’m past the beginner level so I’m not having to think of so many things at once? I’m wondering how others do this because it seems (based on reading lots of posts on this subreddit) that a lot of learners simply read without always listening to audio of what they are currently reading.

    I just wonder how much of a negative impact that has on accent and proper pronunciation. I am and will be getting lots of audio input throughout the day, it just wont be of what I’m reading.

19. What do you guys think about anki decks with images?
    My experience was that as soon as i saw the image i thought ‘its going to be xx’ without even reading the japanese word.
    Leading to not being able to recognize the word in another context.
    What was your experience with that kind of decks?

20. Is 酸素 ateji? It starting with “acid” seems odd

    Edit: Answered my own question, it’s a calque from Dutch

21. If I wanted to ask someone to please sign their name/signature, wouldここに 署名してください be the correct way to phrase that? I don’t know if it matters or not but the context is a signature on an electronic pad, not a piece of paper.

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23. Reading an email from a student to a professor. There’s this passage:

    “そちらは、そろそろ暑くなってきた頃だ思いますが、いかがお過ごしですか。もうすぐ夏休みですね。今年の夏もサマーコースを教えられるのでしょうか.”

    In the last part, why is 教える in the passive? How would this sentence work/translate if it was “今年の夏もサマーコースを教えるのでしょうか”?

    Thanks for the help guys! Have a great weekend 🙂

24. Does anyone know where I can find an edition of the Hepburn dictionary with the kana retained? I searched all over and could not find one.
    This might go against rule 4, but this dictionary is in public domain, so it should be fine.

25. By any chance, does someone know the difference between 経費 and 支出 ? I am not able to fully grasp the difference even by watching the on sentences

26. Where can one read Japanese manga? Like not scanlated? I’ve taken an introductory course into Japanese that covered the basics of grammar and it only resumes in autumn so I want to practice and improve until then.

27. Hello, I hope someone can explain 2 question I have about following dictionary entries about [しみったれ](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E3%81%97%E3%81%BF%E3%81%A3%E3%81%9F%E3%82%8C/)

    1) The second entry is こせこせして卑しいこと。また、そのさま。「―な考え」but I don’t understand the example or the meanings (or maybe both).
    From the other points I think that 卑しい=貧しい。みすぼらしい。and こせこせして=細かなことにこだわって、ゆとりや落ち着きがないさま。because of the example しみったれな考え (thoughts that make a fuss about trivial things). But I don’t know how the 卑しい fits in here? So it would be nice if someone could tell me what my misunderstanding here is.

    2) It’s not really about しみったれ but about the example in the second entry しみったれななり. Is なり 形 here?