Japanese Language Weekly Newsletter - Monday, December 29, 2014

Japanese Language newsletter

Top new questions this week: Avoiding kanji for 分かる【わかる】 A few years ago, Derek Schaab left a comment about his choice to write わかる in kana: I intentionally left わかる as hiragana because I wanted to include the entire range of わかる rather than just one of ... kanji   asked by snailboat 6 votes answered by Nocturnal 1 vote What is the meaning of the phrase "男の顔になったな" The question in the title is just one of the various ones that I don't quite get. They all use the phrase such and such+ 顔になった + sentence ending particles Literally it sounds weird to me but ... meaning   asked by bobbinonzeocean 6 votes answered by l'électeur 2 votes Is there a "default" topic when speaking in Japanese? So I say, apropos of nothing, 「電車｛でんしゃ｝を降｛お｝ります。」 With no other context, and no topic established, who do you assume is the person that gets off the train? Is it me? Is it whomever I'm speaking to? ... subject topic   asked by Leo King 5 votes answered by naruto 2 votes what does the slang ぱしり mean? I've heard this being used around on Japanese tv shows a lot. Usually in high school settings. Where does this word originate from, and how do I use this in a sentence? slang   asked by Dante Greyson 5 votes answered by Nocturnal 5 votes What is the meaning of the phrase いい年こいて? いい年こいて I understand that toshi means age in this context, but what is a good example of using this in a sentence (informal). What is いい年 in this context? slang   asked by Dante Greyson 4 votes answered by Nocturnal 1 vote Meaning of どんだけお人好しなんですかって話ですよね context(all same guy talking to himself while someone else is listening): 「銀行が住宅ローンの営業に熱心な理由ってわかります？」 「憧れの持ち家を手に入れた大切なお客さんの喜ぶ笑顔が見たいから…？」 「そんなわけねーです！」 ... meaning particle-tte   asked by bobbinonzeocean 4 votes answered by l'électeur 3 votes Differences between the words for "decoration"? While making a list of Christmas vocabulary, I've noticed there's several words for "decoration". 飾り, デコレーション, 飾り付け, and 装飾 are the ones I've seen. Judging by google images(with "クリスマス" added), ... word-choice   asked by Dawntiger 4 votes answered by krnk 1 vote Greatest hits from previous weeks: What do you call young animals in Japanese? In English we have a lot of very specific words for many animals. Male foxes are known as reynards or tods, female foxes are known as vixens, and baby foxes are known as kits. It's not an isolated ... word-choice translation single-word-requests   asked by Wesley Obenshain 13 votes answered by snailboat 19 votes Proper answer to 「何名様ですか」 I have a question about how to properly answer a question. At restaurants, the hostess will often ask 「何名様ですか」 ("How many in your party?") For example, if you have four people in your party, is it ... word-choice   asked by Imaginary Parakeet 13 votes answered by Yuuichi Tam 9 votes Can you answer this? Can I get a grammatical breakdown of "通りゃんせ"? So, I recently learned that there's this song called 「通りゃんせ」, which I guess would be familiar to all of you who have lived in Japan. The grammatical form "通りゃんせ" (and later in the song, ... grammar verbs dialects archaic   asked by senshin 2 votes

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