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1500 questions
11
votes
3 answers
Is 亡くなる a polite form of しぬ?
Is 亡くなる is a polite form of しぬ?
What is the difference in nuance between these two sentences:
ディックは１０歳のとき亡くなった。
ディックは１０歳のとき死んだ。
Pacerier
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11
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2 answers
Why use the kanji compound 惑星 for ほし?
The title of a manga I'm slowly working through is 惑星のさみだれ, but there is furigana above the two kanji that says ほし (star) instead. Why did it use both kanji, which seems to be normally read as わくせい (planet) when it could have used just 星 on it's…
AlbeyAmakiir
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11
votes
2 answers
What does 「など」 mean in this context?
I have been translating articles from NHK News Easy for practice, and I've noticed they sometimes use 「など」in a way I'm not familiar with. For example, in an article about a train that's about to be decommissioned because of its age, this sentence…
waldrumpus
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11
votes
1 answer
What is シ●ブ, and why is it censored？
The other day on the train I saw this advertisement for some tabloid, with headlines all over it, as they do:
I'm trying to figure out what シ●ブ愛人{あいじん} is. 忍{しのぶ}愛人{あいじん}? "Sneaky lover"? Assuming 忍{しのぶ} to be something like the "clandestine"…
Questioner
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11
votes
3 answers
Mora count for 思ふ in Classical Japanese?
During an analysis I was performing of the poems contained in the 古今集 I noticed a curious pattern. Otherwise perfectly-formed poems included in the collection seemed to ignore the morae-count on a consistent basis with respect to the verb 思ふ【おもふ】,…
Kaji
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11
votes
4 answers
ブラウザ or ブラウザー? Words borrowed from English which end with -er
I noticed that some (most? all?) words that were borrowed from English and end with -er in English can have either short or long vowel at the end:
browser - can be ブラウザ or ブラウザー
driver - can be ドライバ or ドライバー
computer - can be コンピュータ or コンピューター
Is…
Szymon
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11
votes
5 answers
Using Japanese honorifics with non-kana names
Some Japanese websites have no problem addressing me as Amandaさん, but how common is this in human-produced Japanese? Under what circumstances would someone refer to someone else as Amandaさん, בועזくん, or Екатери́наちゃん instead of アマンダさん, ボアズくん, or…
Amanda S
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11
votes
3 answers
How would one emulate capitalized letters in Japanese?
Capitalized letters look like I'M SHOUTING AT YOU.
How would you reproduce this effect in Japanese?
I don't think any of the obvious choices,
using カタカナ instead of 漢字 or ひらがな,
using punctuation, e.g. brackets 「」『』etc.
using bold face
quite make…
Earthliŋ
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11
votes
1 answer
Difference Between 僕たち and 僕ら?
Both 僕たち and 僕ら mean we. But is there any difference between them? I.e. one of them is more formal than the other, or any grammatical nuances?
Edit: How is this a duplicate? The question linked by Szymon discusses the necessity of using the…
chlenix
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11
votes
3 answers
芸能人・スポーツ選手・公人に「さん」などの敬称を付けなくてもよい理由は?
Reasons for omitting titles like 'さん' after names of entertainers, performers and public figures
「記者ハンドブック 新聞用字用語集」によると、
運動、芸能欄などのスポーツ選手、芸能人には敬称をつけない
[出典]
そうです。新聞以外のメディアや、日常会話でも上のような公人に敬称を付けないことは普通です。
石川遼のような生命保険…
ento
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11
votes
1 answer
What to say at the cash register in the convenience store
I just came back from Japan, it is my first time, so I found myself in the situations, that I wasn't prepared for.
At the convenience store I noticed natives tend not to say much to the staff at all, but I just want to confirm that I understand it…
dimadesu
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11
votes
1 answer
What is the difference between 経験 and 体験?
I was wondering what the difference is between 経験 and 体験? I've come across both terms a couple of times, and I know they both mean 'experience', but what is the difference between the two?
Based on the kanji, I would guess that 体験 relates more to a…
Hanne
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11
votes
1 answer
How can [数]{す}[寄]{き}[者]{しゃ} both mean a tea ceremony master and a "lewd man, a lecher"?
I would like to understand better the etymology or the cultural context surrounding
数寄者
If I believe wwwjdic, this
compound is used to denote
a tea ceremony master (with a reference to a style of tea ceremony house architecture (数奇屋造り))
a man…
ogerard
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11
votes
1 answer
What special kana are used to write foreign words?
How does Japanese handle sounds outside the 五十音図【ごじゅうおんず】? Are there ways of distinguishing sounds such as V or L in katakana renderings of foreign words? How are the missing sounds in the ワ column represented?
Kaji
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11
votes
2 answers
way to use さっぱり (sappari) and すっかり (sukkari)
Maybe it's just me, but I keep mixing up
As in
すっかり忘れてた
I've completely forgot
and
さっぱりわからない
I haven't the faintest idea / I really don't know
are there other expressions to use them?
Uberto
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