#ask:translation

[jvocab-of-the-day]

Hi I was just curious if '一番ともだちは, 料理がすきです' would be the right way to write 'my best friend likes cooking'? you must get lots of q's so thank you very much!

Hello^^ No problem!

Best friend would actually be 大親友 (daishinyuu), literally 大 big/great + 親 close + 友 friend. So it would be:

「私の大親友は、料理が好きです。」(watashi no daishinyuu wa, ryouri ga suki desu)

[jvocab-of-the-day]

mantenders said: 

(past)のことを考えてください。?? I don’t know the word for past off the top of my head. The person asking sounds like someone in the states who wants to identify with their kid in Japan. So what they probably want to say is “think of the past” or “remember your good times”. You could even say something like 「内のことが考えなさい」

Yeah it could be something like that depending on the context. Without context I guess it can be expressed in various ways.

[jvocab-of-the-day]

 combiiichristt12 said：

If you wanted to say I sleep 8 hours　every night It’d be 毎日、8時間寝てる

mantenders said： 

毎日、夜に八時間寝るといいです！

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(this is in response to an ask)

Yeah I was also thinking along the lines of something like that, but I wasn't 100% sure and didn't want to give a wrong answer. I guess I should have attempted it though ><. Depending on context I think it might be one of the following:

「毎日8時間寝たほうがいい」(suggestion)

「毎日8時間寝なさい」(command)

「8時間寝ればよかった」(regret)

「8時間寝ればいいのに」(you should have done it but you didn't)

「8時間寝ればいい」(it would be good)

As for the last one I'm not sure how to say "relive". 

[jvocab-of-the-day]

how would one say "Get 8 hours of sleep at night" and how would one say, "Make an effort to relive happy memories." and would "think of happy things" have the same meaning? I know the vocabulary but I'm not sure about the grammar of the sentences, thank you very much for the help.

Hello, to be honest I’m not too sure either.. I’m not even positive of the vocabulary for it.. Maybe if you give me the vocabulary I could attempt at the grammar, but I wouldn’t want to give you a wrong translation since I am not a native speaker. Sorry about that :\

edit: responded again here.

[jvocab-of-the-day]

can you explain the difference between 'nandesuka?' and 'nandeshouka?' also can you tell me how to translate" 私と一緒に帰らない？" I'd translate it into "Why don't you come home with me?" or "How about if we go home together?" I don't really understand how -nai is used in question so I'd be thankful if you could explain it too ^^

Hello ^^

For なんでしょうか and なんですか do you think you could give me an example or some context? The meaning can be different depending on the situation you are talking about.

For 私と一緒に帰らない I would translate it to something like “won’t you return with me?" In this sense it’s similar to ない since you are using a negative in “won’t" to ask a question politely or to give a suggestion. ない is kind of like “won’t you?" or “wouldn’t you?" to be more indirect than something like 私と一緒に帰る or just “return home with me" period. Saying it like this is less forceful and gives the listener more of a choice.

For example:

私と一緒に朝ごはんを食べない。(watashi to isshyo ni asa go han wo tabenai) - Won’t you eat breakfast with me? 

vs. the blunt and direct “eat breakfast with me."

.

私と一緒に映画を見に行きませんか。(watashi to isshyo ni eiga wo mini ikimasenka) - Won’t you go watch a movie with me?

vs. the forceful “go watch a movie with me." 

.

This is common when you are offering people things out of politeness:

お茶でも飲まない。(ochya de mo nomanai) - Won’t you have some tea or something?

Things like this would be said with a rising intonation at the end to indicate that you are asking someone something.

[jvocab-of-the-day]

Hi, I adore your blog and it has helped me out countless times haha, but I was wondering if you could help me out with the structure used to say 'I want to become good at various languages'? Not sure what order 'language' and 'various' would go in :) sorry, I know you must get a ton of really silly (like this) questions, haha!

Thanks and no it’s not a problem at all! ^^ 

hm.. I think it would be something like:

私はいろいろな言語が上手になりたいです。(watashi wa iroirona gengo ga jyouzu ni naritai desu) - I want to become good at various languages.

or

私はいろいろな言語がペラペラになりたいです。(watashi wa iroirona gengo ga perapera ni naritai desu) - I want to become fluent in various languages.

Literally this would be:

I (私) + various (いろいろ) + language (言語) + good/skillful (上手) + want to become (なりたい).

I (私) + various (いろいろ) + language (言語) + fluent (ペラペラ) + want to become (なりたい).

‘various’ modifies ‘language’ as an adjective and therefore comes first in the order. Hope this helped!