Japanese Discussion 日本語の討論会

[Guest fantasiimaker]

mm >_____<

what's the difference between...

name-san

name-kun

name-chan

and just the name??

mm..i know that ...-san is for respect and older epople and such..but yeeaa..waah! lerning japanese on your own is hard... -__-''

-san is basically "Mr." or "Mrs." I believe, and generally used for people above or on the same level as you.

-kun is usually for males who are younger, but could also be around the same age as you. Most usually for high school level and below? Though there are exceptions. And in certain cases (such as a manager to his employees), kun can be used for females.

-chan is for young children, girls, and possibly friends if you feel like attaching the title.

-Just the name...is when you're extremely close and comfortable with that person; for example, your boyfriend/girlfriend when you've been together a while, or your best friend, etc. At this point, most people still use only the last name I believe the first name only with nothing attached is..like the ultimate level of closeness?

I may not be 100% correct on those, but they're my current take on how to address people. And each of them have deviations from the general rule...you really have to get a feel for them from listening to how they're used, and then it gets pretty easy =)

Hope that helped a bit.

[Tamago86]

Girls also like calling their close guy friends first name+chan, they do it to their boyfriends alot too..It's a cutesy thing

[Guest coolieever]

haha, im just curious... how do you say 'flying pig' in japanese? romanized and in japanese... thanks

[Tamago86]

haha, im just curious... how do you say 'flying pig' in japanese? romanized and in japanese... thanks

飛んでいる豚 (tondeiru buta)

or 空を飛んでいる豚 (sora o tondeiru buta) if you need it to be clear, because 飛んでいる (tondeiru) means both flying and jumping

[Guest stellabella]

^ he asked that in the korean thread too

anyway, i was just wondering...is japanese the same as korean when it comes to fitting different speaking styles to a person's profile? Like is there formal speech and not so formal speech...that you use towards certain people....and, is it a must use?

[Guest SophiaSan]

^

haha yeah it is

like using verbs:

SHIMASU-TO DO

informal SURU

formal SHIMASU

its the same! you have to be very formal to elders!

[Tamago86]

Yea I think Japanese and Korean are most alike in that they share the same honorific system..

Take the verb to to go

Informal: 行く iku

Regular: 行きます ikimasu

Passive Polite: 行かれます ikaremasu

Honorific: いらっしゃいます irasshaimasu

Humble: 参ります mairimasu

Quite a few verbs like this one even have different types of verbs you must do to express honorific or humble. There are also more ways to express honorific and politeness too, like since 書く kaku doesn't have a special verb like how 行く has いらっしゃいます you have to say お書きになります o kaki ni narimasu. When talking about 'doing X' you would also say 書いていらっしゃいます kaite irasshaimasu instead of 書いています kaiteimasu. There's also something which is both honorific and humble which is お書きします o kaki shimasu which means like "I'll humbly write it for you". And then there's お書きください o kaki kudasai, which is a common polite way to say please write it.

So it would be

To write

お書きします o kaki shimasu

書く kaku

書きます kakimasu

書かれます kakaremasu

お書きください okaki kudasai

お書きになります okaki ni narimasu

So yes it's complicated and there's quite alot of forms and politeness levels but you need to know them if you're ever thinking of working in Japan, but even native Japanese struggle with it everyday so if you're a foreigner and try your best but can't pull it off perfectly no one is going to get mad at you

[Guest RiA]

i was trying to analyze あなたがいらなくてさびしいです。 (i miss you)

i know that さびしい means sad / lonely, but i'm a bit confused w/ いらなくて.

what is the dictionary form of the verb, いる　for います (meaning to exist)？ how about くて? help me out with the conjugations... o_o;;

[Guest Mugen]

what does 俄然強め means? i dont really get it when my friend says it and that points to herself and just laughed it off

[Tamago86]

i was trying to analyze あなたがいらなくてさびしいです。 (i miss you)

i know that さびしい means sad / lonely, but i'm a bit confused w/ いらなくて.

what is the dictionary form of the verb, いる　for います (meaning to exist)? how about くて? help me out with the conjugations... o_o;;

o_o iranakute sabishii means I'm lonely and don't need you

iru can mean both to exist and to need (居る vs 要る) however the negative tense of iru (to exist) is inai and iru (to need) is iranai. Similarly the -masu form of iru (to exist) is imasu and to need is irimasu.

くて is not a verb, it is the ending of part of a conjugation on adjectives that's used to connect sentences

soo

あなたがいなくてさびしい

or

会いたい (aitai) Another way to say I miss you

what does 俄然強め means? i dont really get it when my friend says it and that points to herself and just laughed it off

It's a phrase coined by morning musume, chances are your friend is a jpop junkie. I know the literal meaning of the words is suddenly strong but there's probably more to it

[Guest RiA]

o_o iranakute sabishii means I'm lonely and don't need you

iru can mean both to exist and to need (居る vs 要る) however the negative tense of iru (to exist) is inai and iru (to need) is iranai. Similarly the -masu form of iru (to exist) is imasu and to need is irimasu.

くて is not a verb, it is the ending of part of a conjugation on adjectives that's used to connect sentences

soo

あなたがいなくてさびしい

or

会いたい (aitai) Another way to say I miss you

oops i accidentally typed a RA, and yea it's supposed to be inakute sabishii.

so... imasu / iru is used as an adjective...? i know of the KUTE rule and you use it on adjectives right?

but when you're making an adj a negative, don't you change it to KU + NAI?

[Tamago86]

imasu and iru are verbs. An adjective is something that modifies something else. In Japanese there are two types of adjectives, one's that end in -i and ones that end in -na.

-na adjectives delcine just like regular nouns (ie by adding ja nai)

-i adjectives decline by taking off the -i and adding kunai

However, all verbs in present negative form also end in -i. This doesn't make them adjectives, but in Japanese to connect sentences anything that ends in -i becomes -kute, whether they're verbs, adjectives, etc...

Verbs:

知らない　・　知らなくて shiranai / shiranakute

しない　・　しなくて shinai / shinakute

食べない　・　食べなくて tabenai / tabenakute

Adjectives:

楽しくない　・　楽しくなくて tanoshikunai / tanoshikunakute

高くない　・　高くなくて takakunai / takakunakute

安くない　・　安くなくて yaskunai / yasukunakute

Since this is a way to connect sentences it's most similar to 'and' in English, and in alot of cases where you say くて used with negatives it does translate to 'and. However this くて form, or rather the ~て form in general has another meaning which can't really be translated into english, it's expressing that Y is happening mostly because of X, it expresses that they are connected somehow

So you can see with いなくてさびしい

That いる becomes いない becomes いなくて then いなくてさびしい, which literally may mean "You're not here and I'm sad" but in actual meaning is closer to I miss you because it's expressing to us that X not being here and you being lonely are two connected feelings

Complicated enough explanation?

[Guest Mugen]

It's a phrase coined by morning musume, chances are your friend is a jpop junkie. I know the literal meaning of the words is suddenly strong but there's probably more to it

indeed

thxs lol

[Guest RiA]

However, all verbs in present negative form also end in -i. This doesn't make them adjectives, but in Japanese to connect sentences anything that ends in -i becomes -kute, whether they're verbs, adjectives, etc...

aha. i don't think i've learned about this rule yet, so this def. cleared things up.

basically verbs, adj, etc that end in -i becomes -kute when combining them..? (we've only combined verbs in their masu form [changing it to -te] so i didn't know about this)

thanks!!

oh one last thing, when combining a -na adj with another adj, you use DE right? like...

kirei de se ga takai desu.

[Guest lingaz]

can someone please tell me in japanese:

what school do you go to ..

in hiragana please ^^

tahnks in advance !

[Jaeho]

^ I think someone will probably make a post with tons of ways to say it (or not)... but formally, it's

どこの学校に通っていますか? (どこのがっこうにかよっていますか?)

(thank you, orangecake)

[Guest weirdo]

in expressions using the た form,

わたしはにほんをいったことがあります。

でも、しずおかにいきませんでした。

i have been to Japan but i didn't go to Shizuoka.

およぐがすくですか？

毎夜、およいだことがあります。

そして、たのしいとおもいます。

do you like to swim?i have been swiming every night and i think it's fun.

_________________________________________________________

ああ！かんごふですよ。

くすりをのんだほうがいいです。

ah!the nurse is coming. you better drink your medicine.

あなたのてんがひくいです。

べんきょうしたほうがいいです。

your grades are low. you better study.

＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿

たいてい、へやをすわったり、みらいをおもったりします。

i usually sit in a room and think of the future.

山田さんとまきのさんをあいました。

かれらはらめんたべたり、ぱちんこをあそんだりしました。

yamada-san and makino-san met.

they ate ramen and played pachinko.

___________________________________________________________

is it correct?

[Guest weirdo]

expressions in masu form.

please check it. im really confused.huhuhh

とってもだいすき、つくしちゃん。

しなないでください。

i love you very much.please don't die.

ねることがすくません。

にぎやかのうたをうたわないでください。

i can't sleep. please don't sing lively songs.

かれのいえにいくことができません。

あと、レポトをおわらなければなりません。

i can't go to his house.i have to finish a report later.

あなたとあうことができません。

テストをべんきょうしなければなりません。

i can't meet with you.i have to study for a test.

はずかしいですか？なかなくてもいいです。ほほえみです。

are you embarassed?you don't have to cry. smile.

あなたのこころをこわあひましたか？

しななくてもいいです。

your heart is broken?you don't have to die.

[Tamago86]

in expressions using the た form,

わたしはにほんをいったことがあります。

でも、しずおかにいきませんでした。

i have been to Japan but i didn't go to Shizuoka.

When using directions, you must use に which is a particle expressing to or towards. Also in this sentence you are emphasizing that you went to one place, but not the other, therefore you must use には

わたしはにほんにはいきましたがしずおかにはいきませんでした

Your sentence although ok in English may sound alittle funny in Japanese, especially when using emphasis you want to use the same kind of sentence structure in both sentences. So you'd either say XにはいきましたがYにはいきませんでした or XにはいったことがありますがYにはいったことがありません but not a combination of the two

およぐがすくですか?

毎夜、およいだことがあります。

そして、たのしいとおもいます。

do you like to swim?i have been swiming every night and i think it's fun.

For the first sentence you need to say およぐことがすきですか? Adding こと after the plain form of a verb makes it into a noun.

およぐ swim およぐこと swimming

たべる eat たべること eating

する do すること doing

You also misspelled すき

For I've been swimming every night it should be 毎夜およいでいます (habitual action using -te form plus -imasu)

あなたのてんがひくいです。

べんきょうしたほうがいいです。

your grades are low. you better study.

For your grades are low you should say せいせきがさがっている

せいせき = grades

さがる = low / lowering

たいてい、へやをすわったり、みらいをおもったりします。

i usually sit in a room and think of the future.

へやをすわる means to sit on the room, you're talking about a place where you do something, therefore you must use で

へやですわったり、みらいをかんがえたりします

山田さんとまきのさんをあいました。

かれらはらめんたべたり、ぱちんこをあそんだりしました。

yamada-san and makino-san met.

they ate ramen and played pachinko

Never use を for saying あいます, it's always either に or と。

The Japanese あそぶ does not literally mean 'play' in the sense we use it in English, so if you use it in any other context then people hanging out or playing around with each other it's going to be incorrect.

Also, ramen in Japanese is ラーメン, raamen, two "A"s.

山田さんはまきのさんにあいました。

かれらはラーメンをたべたり、ぱちんこをしたりしました

ねることがすくません。

にぎやかのうたをうたわないでください。

i can't sleep. please don't sing lively songs.

Can't do X = blablaことができません

にぎやか is a verb therefore must use な

ねることができません

にぎやかなうたをうたわないでください

かれのいえにいくことができません。

あと、レポトをおわらなければなりません。

i can't go to his house.i have to finish a report later.

owaru means to end, it's intransitive therefore you can't use it like this. Instead you must use the transitive verb おえる. Report is spelled レポート

レポートをおえなければなりません

In case you don't know intransitive is like saying the door opened instead of the transitive I opened the door.

あなたとあうことができません。

テストをべんきょうしなければなりません。

i can't meet with you.i have to study for a test.

テストをべんきょうする means to study a test. To study for a test is テストのためにべんきょうしなければなりません

はずかしいですか?なかなくてもいいです。ほほえみです。

are you embarassed?you don't have to cry. smile.

Saying smile like that is a command, therefore it should be ほほえんでください

あなたのこころをこわあひましたか?

しななくてもいいです。

your heart is broken?you don't have to die.

There's the transitive / intrasitive problem here again. If you ask "Is your heart broken?" it has to be こころがこわれましたか? If you want to say "Did I break your heart?" that would be こころをこわしましたか?

こわれる - to be broken

こわす - to break

Are you taking classes right now or are you self studying?

[Guest weirdo]

Are you taking classes right now or are you self studying?

i'm taking japanese classes now.we're still on the level 4 i guess.we only meet once a week and my thoughts tend to wander around so i end up now listening to my teacher.so it seems like im also self studying. i have my hospital duties,my majors and stuff so whenever we meet for a class, i usually feel tired.im really sorry for taking too much of your time. ive got a lot of mistakes.hehe but thank you so much for correcting them.