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67
votes
1 answer
Why are the particles "は" (ha⇒wa), "へ" (he⇒e), and "を" (wo⇒o) not spelled phonetically?
As far as I know only three words (or particles) have irregular, non-phonetic spelling in Japanese:
"は" - The topic particle is pronounced "wa" but the kana is otherwise pronounced "ha"
"へ" - The movement towards particle is pronounced "e" but the…
hippietrail
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67
votes
2 answers
Why does Japanese have two kinds of adjectives? (-i adjectives and -na adjectives)
Japanese has two kinds of adjectives known by several terms but the ones I know are i-adjectives and na-adjectives - why?
I recall that Japanese adjectives are much more like verbs than in English and most European languages (where they are more…
hippietrail
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65
votes
8 answers
When going somewhere, is there any difference between e (へ) and ni (に)?
Can you use へ and に interchangeably, as in:
北海道へ行く
and
北海道に行く ?
Are there any subtle differences in the use of these two?
nevan king
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64
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1 answer
Why were ゐ and ゑ eliminated?
Sometime in the early 20th century, usage of the now-historical kana ゐ and ゑ (and their katakana equivalents) dropped off, being replaced with い and え in modern Japanese. What exactly happened here and why?
bdonlan
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62
votes
3 answers
The difference between が and を with the potential form of a verb
When using the potential form of a verb, I was taught that the particle を becomes が. However, in real life this seems to not always be the case. I've even heard Japanese people use を instead of が quite often.
What's the difference between the…
phirru
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62
votes
4 answers
ことができる versus V~える form
Way back in the day when I was first learning Japanese, I learned that you could add ことができる to a verb to indicate potential. Like so:
食{た}べることができる
(I) can eat (something)
It became my habitual way of expressing possibilities.
Then later, I learned…
Questioner
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61
votes
8 answers
Particles: に vs. で
I have progressed pretty far in Japanese, but when I construct Japanese sentences, I still get these two particles mixed up. For example, when talking about being inside something, I don't know when to use "の中に" and when to use "の中で." Likewise, when…
language hacker
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58
votes
6 answers
i-adjectives used as na-adjectives: is there a difference? (e.g. 大きい versus 大きな)
There are at the very least several i-adjectives can be used as na-adjectives by dropping the final い and adding な in its place. The most common examples of this, as far as I am aware, are 大きい and 小さい, which become 大きな and 小さな, respectively. For…
rintaun
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58
votes
7 answers
What is the difference between 〜となる and 〜になる?
Is it a nuance difference? Is it formality?
EDIT
For example:
請求書のお支払いは現金のみとなりますので、ご了承くださいませ。
請求書のお支払いは現金のみになりますので、ご了承くださいませ。
I just made that example up, but for some reason, my gut tells me it's the first one, even though I don't see anything…
makdad
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57
votes
7 answers
Why are katakana preferred over hiragana or kanji sometimes?
I noticed that "dame", which means "not good" or "don't do that", is sometimes written in manga as katakana. I was wondering, is it because katakana is used to express a strong feeling?
Sometimes, there are also other words written in katakana. In…
Sarawut Positwinyu
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54
votes
5 answers
What exactly is "なの" (nano)?
I asked a female Japanese friend to translate a sentence for me and it ends in "nano" which I took to be either an alternative question particle to -ne or -ka; or possibly two particles I don't know which could come together.
But just now I looked…
hippietrail
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54
votes
1 answer
What are the rules regarding "mute vowels" ("u" after "s" and "i" after "sh")?
When you first begin to learn Japanese you are taught that Japanese has no stress and each syllable should be pronounced equally.
You also learn that certain vowels are not pronounced, or only pronounced very slightly, such as the "u" in "desu" and…
hippietrail
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53
votes
5 answers
What is the meaning of ～んです/～のだ/etc?
This sentence ending has started to creep up more and more in my current Japanese classes, and I'm still a bit unsure what all it can mean, how to use it, or even when I should think to use it. My Japanese teacher in a previous class mentioned that…
user1316
52
votes
10 answers
When is the katakana form of wo (ヲ) used?
I'm pretty new to Japanese, and I've been trying to learn hiragana and katakana. I know that in hiragana, wo (を) is used only for as an object particle, and it is always pronounced like o (お).
This made me wonder what the katakana form (ヲ) would be…
Alan C
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52
votes
5 answers
Usage of すみません (sumimasen) versus ごめんなさい (gomen'nasai)
There are several situations in which one of these words (phrases?) should be used but there's not usually a 1:1 mapping between any two languages.
Get somebody's permission. English: "excuse me", "I beg your pardon"; Spanish: "disculpe"
Getting…
hippietrail
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