Random Japanese

This page is about the Japanese language.

[grapefruitcake]

生活費のアテがない、この一年を繋ぐため。。。就職先を紹介してもらいたいがために。。。 May I ask what does アテ in the first sentence mean and why there is が between i-adj and ために in the second sentence. Thank you very much in advance:)

I’m sorry this reply is so late! I started writing a reply and then forgot about it :(

The アテ here is the second meaning of 当て here. 生活費のアテがない means there is no expectation/hope (アテがない) of getting daily living expenses.

For the ために, it looks like the が here has the same meaning as の (see an explanation of this here) with ため meaning 'reason'. もらいたいがために means 'because I want to get/receive'

[nippon-com]

The Words of 2016

The publisher Jiyū Kokumin Sha has once again selected the nominees for its “Words of the Year.”  Candidates include 歩きスマホ (Aruki-sumaho),  神ってる (Kamitteru),  ゲス不倫 (Gesu furin),  and SMAP解散 (SMAP kaisan). Check out our article for the full list with explanations.

[grapefruitcake]

Use your own stomach

自腹で じばらで

This is nothing to with eating and all to do with paying out of your own pocket. To say that you will pay with your own money you can use the phrases:

自腹で払う じばら　で　はらう

自腹で買う じばら　で　かう

or the slightly more colourful

自腹を切る じばら　を　きる

仕事でミスをしてしまい、上司から自腹を切れと言われてしまいました。  I made a mistake at work and my superior told me to pay for it myself.

[grapefruitcake]

Can you explain when to use 持つ instead of ある? Is it just when you have something physically on your person?

They’re pretty much the same - they can both show that you possess something. 

The main difference is 持つ can also mean you are literally holding something.

[grapefruitcake]

Just to clarify, they are pretty much both the same when talking about possession, which is what I assumed (rightly or wrongly I don’t know) this question is referring to.

[grapefruitcake]

Hello Can i ask something in japanese, How can we say "I'm just going to say that" or "i'm just going to eat that" or something like that. Thank you

I’m not sure if you mean just going to in the sense of ‘only’ or ‘just about to’ so I’ll talk about both.

I’m only going to say that.それだけ言う。

I’m only going to eat that.それだけ食べる。

I was just about to say that.それ言うところだった！

I was just about to eat that.それ食べるところだった！

There’s more detail about this usage here.

[grapefruitcake]

Can you explain when to use 持つ instead of ある? Is it just when you have something physically on your person?

They’re pretty much the same - they can both show that you possess something. 

The main difference is 持つ can also mean you are literally holding something.

[grapefruitcake]

I see the phrase というほど a lot, and I get its basic meaning but it seems to be more nuanced than that. Could you please explain it?

From the ほど, you know it means "to the extent", but was it good or bad? What was the speaker's opinion? You find out this extra information from the ...という.A common phrase is いやというほど, used when you've had enough of something or something is too much.Example from goo辞書その話は嫌というほど聞かされた。その はなし は いやというほど きかされた。I've been made to listen to that story to a disagreeable extent.I've heard enough of that story.嫌というほど痛かった。いやというほど いたかった。It was incredibly painful.

[grapefruitcake]

There was a great ditch between us

溝 みぞ

This word can refer to a a ditch/drain to get rid of or divert water away from somewhere. A common example is the drain at the side of a road.

溝 also applies to ‘grooves’, for example in the treads of tyres or a vinyl record.

However, what I want to talk about is the figurative use of 溝 which is more akin to the words gulf or rift in English. In this case, 溝 applies to a gap in the feelings or opinions between people/groups.

A common usage pattern is:

XXの間に溝ができた。 XX の　あいだ　に　みぞ　が　できた。 A gulf has opened up between XX.

XXの間に溝がある。 XX の　あいだ　に　みぞ　が　ある。 There’s a rift between XX.   

彼氏との間に大きな溝ができてしまいました。  かれしとの　あいだに　おおきな　みぞが　できてしまいました。 My boyfriend and I have grown distant.

完全に日銀と市場との間に溝が出来てしまい  かんぜんに　にちぎんと　しじょうの　あいだに　みぞが　できてしまい a definite rift has developed between the Bank of Japan and the market

[grapefruitcake]

hello! how would you say 'come out' as in a new movie, book, or song has come out? I've only come up with できた or 新しい。。ある but they sound off. thank you!

出る is a very general verb you can use.For things that go on sale (like albums and books) you can say 発売する.アルバムは去年発売された。アルバム は きょねん はつばい された。The album came out last year.For films, you can say 公開する.映画は先週公開された。えいが は せんしゅう こうかい された。The film came out last week.

[grapefruitcake]

どうやって「ちゃんと」を使うかわかりません :/ 電子辞書によれば副詞ですけど、別の使い方を聞いたことがあると思います。説明してくれませんか？

Let's start by looking at what 副詞 is. From wikipedia:自立語で活用がなく、An independent word that doesn't conjugate,自立語：an independent word活用：conjugation主語にならない語のうち、おもに用言（動詞、形容詞、形容動詞）を修飾することば（連用修飾語）。modifies words which are not the subject of the sentence, mainly yougen (verbs, i-adjectives, na-adjective).主語：subject (of a sentence)用言：a group of words consisting of 動詞 (verb), 形容詞 (i-adjective) and 形容動詞 (na-adjective)修飾：modify連用修飾語：a modifier which can be applied to 用言名詞や他の副詞を修飾することもある。Also can modify nouns and other fukushi.名詞：noun副詞：fukushiIn summary, you can expect to see ちゃんと modifying verbs, adjectives, nouns and other fukushi.I wrote a post on the common usage ちゃんとした: http://grapefruitcake.tumblr.com/post/126328609803/and goo辞書 has examples of usage here: http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/je/48201/meaning/m0u/ちゃんと/Beyond this though, I'm not sure what a non-fukushi usage would be. If you can give me a specific example I can help more.

[grapefruitcake]

Angry Japanese!

If you want to hear real life examples of angry, belligerent Japanese with Japanese subtitles, try looking up a programme called 逮捕の瞬間 警察24時 which follows police officers on the job around the country.

[grapefruitcake]

In yotsuba there is some difficult things I want to understand. In yotsuba 1 pg 122 おー！しゅるるるっていった！ What is しゅるるるって？ In yotsuba 2 in the flower shop pg 63 おりょり？ ブーおしいなー ブーおしい? What that? Thank you.

I’ve not read Yotsuba so these are my best guesses.

しゅるるる: Describes the sound of something. 

おりょり？ ブーおしいなー ブーおしい?: I’m assuming this is someone mispronouncing something/repeating something they’ve misheard. Without actually reading the manga, I couldn’t say for certain what the actual phrase should be.

[grapefruitcake]

Hello, I have one small question about this sentence. 誰にも言えない言葉を持ってるなら。。。 The translation says "Even if I hold all the words nobody can say". But when I first heard it I thought it means something like "Even if I hold the words I can't tell to anyone". I probably have poor understanding of the 誰にも　in general. Especially the に confuses me. Is the sentence ambiguous or am I just missing something? Thank you very much;)

誰にも言えない言葉 means ‘words (I/someone) cannot tell anyone’, so your translation is correct. For ‘words that nobody can say’, I would use 誰もが言えない言葉.

From weblio:

「誰にも言わない」といった形で、特定の人に限定せずどんな人にも、あるいは全ての人に対して、という意味の表現。 

so from that you can see that 誰にも言えない would therefore mean 'cannot tell anyone’. This ‘to anyone’ usage comes up with these kinds of verbs where something (speech/information/an object) moves from someone to another person (伝える、渡す、あげる etc.)

With other verbs 誰にも would translate to English as 'by anybody/anyone’. For example:

誰にも分からないnot understood by anyone

それは辛すぎて、誰にも食べられないよThat’s too spicy, no one can eat it. (It can’t be eaten by anyone.)

I would recommend looking up the usage of 誰にも on ALC which will give you lots of sentence fragments (if you sign up for free you can get whole example sentences). Maggie-sensei also has a post on 誰にも・誰でも which may be helpful. 

I hope this has cleared up your confusion! If not, please let me know :)

[grapefruitcake]

All the Linguistic terms

I was passing the time when I came across this J-E list of linguistic terms from Dokkyo University. 7247 terms to be exact. Well done to whoever typed it up. It must have been a nightmare.

[grapefruitcake]

I started work as a server for a newly opened Japanese restaurant in my city and they use some alternate words for water and green tea ( おひる and あがり ) as opposed to the commonly known お水 and お茶, and I want to know where these terms came from and where I can find a list of these words so I know what's going on when the staff is yelling out Japanese restaurant lingo?

お冷 - おひや - cold waterAccording to here, it’s shortened from お冷やし which was 女房言葉 for 水.

あがり - hot green teaAccording to here, it’s shortened from 上がり花 which was 遊郭の言葉 for お茶.

These words are used by staff and you shouldn’t generally hear customers using them.

You can find quite a lot of lists of vocabulary if you google 飲食業界用語. Here are a couple (one, two).

[grapefruitcake]

Without any water getting in

水入らず みず　はいらず

This phrase is used to talk about a gathering of a close group of people without any outsiders involved. The saying stems from the phenomenon of oil and water not mixing. The water (outsiders) cannot mix with the oil (the close group).

You use this phrase directly after a noun that indicates a group of people.

家族水入らずの結婚式 かぞく　みずはいらず　の　けっこんしき a family only wedding

親子水入らずで時間を過ごした。 おやこ　みずはいらず　で　じかん　を　すごした。 We spent time as just a family.

[grapefruitcake]

I was wondering how to say that something becomes less and less like something else. I figure that it would be phrased as "X becomes more and more unlike Y", but the only way I know to say "like" is のような. How would you make のような negative to describe something as being not like something else?

For this, you need to phrase it as "the (noun) becomes less and less". For the 'becomes less and less', you use words like だんだん、ますます、徐々に etc, with verbs like なくなる、消える etc.

For the noun you can first use the suffix らしい  (grammar, examples) to get an adjective.

XXらしい  - seems like XX (adjective)

To make this adjective into a noun, you can add another suffix さ: 

らしい→らしさ

Using らしい and/or さ you can make sentences like these:

だんだん自分らしさがなくなった。 I felt less and less like myself.

色の鮮やかさがだんだんなくなった。 The colour became less and less vibrant.

In English when you have a sentence that uses the phrase "became less and less like X", it's often followed by "and became more and more like Y". In these situations you could use a phrasing like

Xというより、Yのようになってきたrather than X, it became like Y

Xというより、（だんだんetc.）Yのようになってきたrather than X, it gradually became like Y

You can also use the verb 離れる to put across a similar idea.

理想からだんだん離れていくgrowing further from the ideal(literally, becoming more and more distant from the ideal) 

I hope this has helped! Please let me know if you have any more questions on this :)