モダリティ. The linguistic expression of the speaker’s psychological attitude towards the verbalized state of affairs or towards the utterance and the communication itself at the time of speech.
Questions tagged [modality]
58 questions
22
votes
2 answers
Usage of plain i-adjectives or た form (悪かったｖ悪い、良かったｖいい etc）
Example:
美人じゃなくて悪かったですね！ (sarcastic)
compared to someone who is using a room and is told あんまり広い部屋じゃなくて悪いな
Or for example the difference between 無事でよかった and I can't think of the corresponding for just いい, but I'm sure you understand my question.
ollinator
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Conjugated word + んだ vs nonconjugated word + conjugated んだ
Suppose I have a verb/adjective/noun, let's say 無理, and I add (な)んだ to it as an explanatory sentence-ending particle. What would be the difference in nuance between the following two conjugated constructions?
それは無理だったんだ。
それは無理なんだった。
More…
SystematicDisintegration
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13
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Usage of doubled non-past tense "た"
I've recently been noticing some patterns which look like two repeated past-tense verbs, but I think which indicate a command rather than the past tense. For example:
さあ、行った行った。
"Get along with you!"
I also noticed in the Baseball manga "Major"…
cypher
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12
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1 answer
What dialect is ！〜べ?
What dialect is それはねぇべ （それはないだろう）?
It seems I hear it a lot from people from Chiba. Is it from a specific part of Chiba or even a wider area?
paullb
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12
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Should: ほうがいい、べき、ことだ
So far, I have learned about three different ways to say "should" in Japanese. I'm interested in knowing the differences among ほうがいい、べき and ことだ. What are some situations that each form would be better suited in? Isn't べき more formal and…
Noodle
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12
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よかろう - What does it mean? Where does it come from?
This is another question that's come from a 昔話。
We have the following section:
大きい箱と小さい箱がありますが、どちらがいいですか。
どちらも結構じゃが、どうしてもと言うのなら、小さいほうでよかろう。
I'm having trouble with the second sentence. My translation is:
どちらも結構じゃが - Either one is fine. - Here,…
Nathan Ellenfield
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11
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2 answers
Non conventional usage of the past tense
Why is the past tense used in this verbs (which doesn't make sense to me at least)
生きていた…？違うな…死ねなかったのだよ…！
再生機能を持ったこのアーマーに押し込みおった
and the translation uses present tense
Survive? That's easy... Because I can't die!
And switched my body for this…
Jon
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10
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intuitively, why do かねる and かねない roughly mean "cannot" and "can"?
I understand the grammatical usage of these words, but I don't understand why they (roughly) mean "cannot" and "can".
For example, if we write them with kanji, we get 兼ねる and 兼ねない. According to jisho.org, that kanji has the following meanings:…
Nicolas Louis Guillemot
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10
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Expressing a regretful wish
What is a good way to express a wish about something that won't or is unlikely to happen?
For example:
I wish I were tall enough to be allowed on that roller coaster.
I wish I could eat that much and not gain weight.
I wish I had been born 100…
debrucey
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9
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2 answers
What does からか mean?
I'm translating the following sentence from a book (exact sentence is directly after dialogue in the picture).
興奮からか銀髪の外国人の口調は、いつになく流暢だった。
I have absolutely zero clue what "からか" means in general and in the context of the above sentence, as I've…
Toyu_Frey
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8
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Does 多分 carry a degree of certainty equal to or greater than 50%?
Purely speculating from the kanji, one could quite naturally think that 多分, being "many parts", could lean towards a likelihood greater than 50% that something will happen.
I always thought as 多分 being a quite neutral 50% "maybe", but I just…
Tommy
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ほしがっている versus ほしそうだ
I don't really understand the differences between the following sentences.
彼は新しい車をほしがっている。
彼は新しい車をほしそうだ。
In both sentences, the speakers made conjectures based on the sign that the third person (彼) is showing.
Question
What is the difference…
Second Person Shooter
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When to use which one ? かもしれない、たぶん、もしかしたら
As I know All 3 words mean possibly/perhaps. They differ in % of possibility (My Japanese friend said so). But I am confused when to use which one properly?
MD TAREQ HASSAN
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5
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Can desire be expressed for entities that do not hold volition?
We can personify things. By using "want" with an inanimate object, it is personified:
An object with inertia wants to maintain its state of motion.
(Question) First, is it possible in Japanese for this kind of desiderative sentence to be…
Flaw
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What is the difference between んじゃない and んだ?
…あの犯行予告、俺がやったんじゃないんだけどな。
I wasn't the one who issued that threat, but no matter. (English subs)
What's the difference between んじゃない and んだ as they're used here?
One would ordinarily expect んじゃない to be the negative of んだ. If that were true, then…
Val
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