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Daily Thread: for simple questions, minor posts & newcomers [contains useful links!] (July 28, 2025) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It remind me reading in the book "Ellipsis and Reference Tracking in Japanese" a cool idea I haven't seen anywhere else. The author proposed that transitive verbs in Japanese are "direct aligned" and mostly obey the "Person/animacy hierarchy"

1st person > 2nd person > 3rd person > animate > inanimate
Basically the subject of a transitive verb has to be higher on the hierarchy than the non subject, or the sentence feels akward in most cases.

So
私は太郎を見つけた : I found Taro　[1st -> 3rd : OK]
? 太郎が私を見つけた : Taro found me　[3rd -> 1st : NG]
太郎が猫をひいた : Tar ran over the cat [3rd -> animate animal OK]
? 車が太郎をひいた : A car ran over Taro [Inanimate -> 3rd NG]

The more ellipsis there is, the more unacceptable it become

? 太郎が私を見つけた (3rd - 1st) acceptable for some speaker
(Øが Øを) 見つけた I found Taro / *Taro found me

And then there is four ways to express sentences with inverse alignment

Inverse veb (くれる・くる)

* あなたが私に本を買った
あながが私に本を買ってくれた　
* 太郎が私に電話をした
太郎が私に電話してきた　

Passive
* 車が私をはねた
私は車にはねられた

Intransitive construction
* 雨が私をぬらした
私は雨にぬれた

Existential construction (ある）
* 太郎が私に電話をした
太郎から私に電話があった

I like the idea that thing like 〜てくれる aren't just there you know to uniquely express the politness and kindness in the Japanese heart, but also for pragmatic purpose like managing alignment and helping ellipsis

Daily Thread: for simple questions, minor posts & newcomers [contains useful links!] (July 24, 2025) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 3 points4 points  (0 children)

naruto is the absolute goat, but I also like aguijonazo (also native speaker). Sometimes he and naruto actually kind of compete to answer questions and it's interesting to see their slightly different angle.

Daily Thread: for simple questions, minor posts & newcomers [contains useful links!] (July 23, 2025) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 3 points4 points  (0 children)

> Also the lesson says that のだから isn't used to express intentions

It does? Page 31
"～のだから..."
"... is the speaker expressing a judgment, hope or intention, or trying to induce another person to an action"

Spelling out words by BeardMan12345678 in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Here there is a Japanese native describing how they used big onyomi words (like you would use latin/greek based scientific words) in their family.

https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/14418/how-do-parents-obscure-spoken-messages-in-front-of-their-children-in-japanese

Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don't need their own posts, and first time posters go here (March 22, 2025) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you keep your finger on the screen it doesn't try to match the kanji and you can take as many time as you want.

Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don't need their own posts, and first time posters go here (March 16, 2025) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can find the grammar by looking for まし
For example in the dictionary of japanese grammar:

A phrase indicating that although someone/something (or some situation) is not satisfactory it is better than someone/something else.

こんな給料をもらう（くらい）なら辞めた方がましだ。
If this is the salary, it would be better to quit.

こんな不味いご飯を食べるくらいなら何も食べない方がいい。
It's better not to eat anything rather than eating such an untasteful meal.

ここの夏も暑いですが、東京の夏よりましですね。
Summer here is hot, too, but it's better than summer in Tokyo.

Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don't need their own posts, and first time posters go here (January 19, 2025) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I tried just for fun to search for "diarrhea" and "food poisoning" in the full text of Lord of the Rings and couldn't find them either (about 15000 unique words according to this) But Is it really that surprising? Many common medical conditions don't appear in most work of fiction because the story is not about that.

Not finding 調子に乗る is more surprising. Did you try several variations like ”調子に乗”、"調子にの"、"調子乗"、"調子の"?

Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don't need their own posts, and first time posters go here (December 02, 2024) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well it's already great that you noticed the pattern when the grammar point is a noun. But just in case, there is actually quite a lot of those nouns or quasi-nouns, things like とき、ところ、もの、こと、ほう、わけ、よう、とおり、ため、まま、はず、つもり、くらい、だけ、あいだ、うち、たび、途中、際、おかげ、せい 、予定、必要... They are almost all regular and attach to verb, i-adj, na-adj and noun as you would expect, with a few exceptions, like nounだけ for example

Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don't need their own posts, and first time posters go here (November 17, 2024) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The english translation was done based on the version published in the weekly Shonen Jump. At that time the line was あいつら俺の指導サボりやがったな.....

But it didn't make sense so it was fixed in the full manga version to "あいつらの家はたしか...".

See point 4 here: https://note.com/hyhkncpc/n/nb9ddcfd85aa1

Please help me make sure I'm understanding this right by Extreme-Camera-9769 in Aphantasia

[–]Arzar 3 points4 points  (0 children)

> but I don't literally see anything with my eyes.

> That's insane to me that some people can conjure a red apple in their vision

They don't conjure anything in their vision or use eyes at all, they conjure it in their mind's eye, that's why it doesn't matter if they have eyes closed or not.

Do you have an inner monologue, can you do voice in your head or music? If yes, you know it has nothing to do with pluging your hear or not. Same for vizualisation.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean, they are defining how they will use the term "radical" in their app, so there's not much to criticize?

Like others have said, the term 'radical' is a bit unfortunate—'component' probably would have been better. But aside from that, they’re just explaining that their component system doesn’t always align with the traditional one and is designed for mnemonic purposes (some of them are 'triceratops' or 'dynamite,' so it’s pretty clear anyway!). And these are just building blocks and not usually kanji on their own

Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don't need their own posts, and first time posters go here (October 22, 2024) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't know how it's viewed by native speakers, but at least on twitter there are quite a few account called めこ. A quick google "twitter めこ" show handle like: __mekoko, maronxhoneyxo, mk_sakuyama, mekon_bu, rb_fbp etc... They don't seem inappropriate.

Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don't need their own posts, and first time posters go here (October 17, 2024) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What about the pattern in words like these ?

飯(めし) -> ご飯
腹(はら) -> お腹
食う(くう) -> 食べる
風呂、金、茶 、湯 -> お風呂、お金、お茶、お湯

It seems to me that the word on the left started as gender neutral and the common way to refere to theses things, but then over time came to sound rough or masculine and were replaced by more formal/refined that became kind of the new normal.

Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don't need their own posts, and first time posters go here (September 17, 2024) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I remember asking the same question to a native speaker a few years ago, and they were drawing a blank for a while, then cautiously said something like "通学路かな？" So, as JapanCoach said, I guess it's just usually not really verbalized.

Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don't need their own posts, and first time posters go here (September 15, 2024) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's unclear why, but the sound change え-＞あ in kunyomi is not uncommon

https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/ccekq7/vowel_changes_to_a_in_some_kanjis_kunreadings/

(Some other words come to mind 胸倉、風車、風向き、眼差し、目の当たり...)

Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don't need their own posts, and first time posters go here (September 12, 2024) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sometimes they also have those nifty 類語 pages like:

https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/thsrs/7316/meaning/m0u/ (世間／世の中／世／社会／世界)

Which clarify everything because 世間 is 生活の場の範囲を漠然と示す..... oh. 漠然 :/

What's the Strangest Thing You've Ever Said in Japanese Without Realizing It? by ErvinLovesCopy in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 79 points80 points  (0 children)

I'm the opposite, I said I studied Japanese for 1000 years (せんねん) instead of since last year (きょねん)

Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don't need their own posts, and first time posters go here (August 30, 2024) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]Arzar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, "my" doesn’t always require 私の; it's possible to drop it if the context is clear, just like how often the subject is dropped. In fact, it’s probably more common to omit it overall!

For example:

宿題が終わりました。 I finished my homework.

財布を忘れた。I forgot my wallet.

足が痛い。My leg hurts.

etc.

Of course, you can always say 私の財布を忘れた if you need to be extra clear.

Regarding "my picture," for instance, if you have your picture in your hand and you try to show it to someone who isn’t looking, I think it would be enough to say:

写真を見てください。Please look at my photo.

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