Japanese to English Questions

and chotto means "little" or "moment"
like chotto matte means "wait a moment" right?

haziiie wrote:
and chotto means "little" or "moment"
like chotto matte means "wait a moment" right?

yee

ganmo wrote:Can someone tell me what exactly is a "birigen-san". It's a word in Kanjani8's Osaka Obachan Rock.

Thanks!

Birigen-san(=Biriken-san)

It is a wooden statue in the observatory in Tsutenkaku in Osaka-city.
It is familiar as the god of happiness.
(It doesn't have a religious meaning nowadays, but like the symbol of
the town. )

What's the difference between

- arigatou gozaimasu AND
- arigatou gozaimashita?

Both seem to get subbed the same - as "thank you".

Keps wrote:What's the difference between

- arigatou gozaimasu AND
- arigatou gozaimashita?

Both seem to get subbed the same - as "thank you".

the "shita" means the past. Like in the verb "suru" (to do) present is "shimasu" and past is "shimashita".
When you say "Arigatou gozaimasu", you thank you sb who is doing something for you. When you say "Arigatou gozaimashita" you thank you sb for something he has done for you. ^^

Ikuko wrote:

the "shita" means the past. Like in the verb "suru" (to do) present is "shimasu" and past is "shimashita".
When you say "Arigatou gozaimasu", you thank you sb who is doing something for you. When you say "Arigatou gozaimashita" you thank you sb for something he has done for you. ^^

Ah, I'd wondered if it was something like that.
Thanks for helping me, Ikuko. :dancing:

OK here's a question. I've just started learning to read/write hiragana (lots of fun), and i'm participating in the shiritori game on this forum.

a-nesuto posted ‚µ‚Á‚¯ ] (shikke), which is fine, but when I try reading the hiragana to sound out the word, I get:

‚µ = shi
‚Á = tsu
‚¯ = ke

Shouldn't it translate to shitsuke as romaji? Or am I missing something? Is romaji a phonetic translation?

someone else can explain it better than me :sweat: but basically the small tsu makes the character after it have a extra letter.

so nattou (nat-tou) would be written like this ‚È‚Á‚Æ‚¤

Aaaaah! Gotcha. So, it's not actually ‚@it's ‚Á for a duplicate "k".

Hmm, none of the sites I looked up mentioned that.

Thanks, a-nesuto!

Oyaji-san, I used to be confused with that too! But when I saw in Tenjou Tenge (ending song "Aishetene Motto") how "motto" was written.. I said "Doesn't that read as mo-tsu-to?" :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Anime Dad wrote:Aaaaah! Gotcha. So, it's not actually ‚@it's ‚Á for a duplicate "k".

Hmm, none of the sites I looked up mentioned that.

Thanks, a-nesuto!

A little linguistics knowledge:

The small tsu (‚Á) is used for what is called "gemination" in Japanese.
Gemination is a word used in linguistics to describe when a sound is doubled (either a vowel or a consonant), lengthening that sound to twice it's original length. Because consonant sounds like "k" and "t" are simply the tongue stopping at a particular location in the mouth (hence why we call these types of sounds "stops"), the length of time in which this contact between the tongue and the roof of the mouth is lengthened.

We have a gemination in English, although it's not as prominent as in Japanese:

unnecessary
(the 'n' is twice as long as when it appears in other locations--if you shorten the 'n', or degeminate it, it sounds like you are saying "a necessary").

Just a little linguistic knowledge for y'all, cuz god knows when I'll actually get to explain it to someone who cares. ;)

š‘‰¤

Kokuou - that's a really good explanation! I hadn't even realized gemination happened in English too.
Or even that there was such a word as "gemination" :bow:

@ Anime Dad - when you come to learn katakana, there's a small tsu used similarly there too.

Keps wrote:@ Anime Dad - when you come to learn katakana, there's a small tsu used similarly there too.

ƒVƒbƒP <- Shi_small tsu_Ke in Katakana. aka Shikke

kokuou wrote:

A little linguistics knowledge:

The small tsu (‚Á) is used for what is called "gemination" in Japanese.
Gemination is a word used in linguistics to describe when a sound is doubled (either a vowel or a consonant), lengthening that sound to twice it's original length. Because consonant sounds like "k" and "t" are simply the tongue stopping at a particular location in the mouth (hence why we call these types of sounds "stops"), the length of time in which this contact between the tongue and the roof of the mouth is lengthened.

We have a gemination in English, although it's not as prominent as in Japanese:

unnecessary
(the 'n' is twice as long as when it appears in other locations--if you shorten the 'n', or degeminate it, it sounds like you are saying "a necessary").

Just a little linguistic knowledge for y'all, cuz god knows when I'll actually get to explain it to someone who cares. ;)

š‘‰¤

Thanks kokuou-sensei :) I'm slowly learning these things - and that definitely helped :)

@keps-chan
Yeah, i'm looking forward to katakana, but it's gonna be a while yet at the rate i'm going ;)

Anime Dad wrote:

@keps-chan
Yeah, i'm looking forward to katakana, but it's gonna be a while yet at the rate i'm going ;)

Nah, you'll be fine, I'm sure. You'll be surprised just how much you can read when you learn Katakana. It's on all types of notices in Jdramas - it's fun working out what it means.

:woot:

Keps wrote:

Nah, you'll be fine, I'm sure. You'll be surprised just how much you can read when you learn Katakana. It's on all types of notices in Jdramas - it's fun working out what it means.

Keps & AnimeDad, just remember the Japanese alphabet has no "L" or "V", they substitute "R" for "L" and "B" for "V" I was reading something once, and the guy was saying"allergy" in katakana. Took me about 20 minutes to figure out what the hell he was talking about! :banghead:

Yeah, I knew that :)

Anime Dad wrote:

Thanks kokuou-sensei :) I'm slowly learning these things - and that definitely helped :)

@keps-chan
Yeah, i'm looking forward to katakana, but it's gonna be a while yet at the rate i'm going ;)

i plan on studying that next, after i get thru the Hiragana book, i bought months back....
there are 46 characters of each kind, i think Kanji will take years and years to learn it with thousands of characters to learn.

qilver wrote:

i plan on studying that next, after i get thru the Hiragana book, i bought months back....
there are 46 characters of each kind, i think Kanji will take years and years to learn it with thousands of characters to learn.

There's actually a lot more Hiragana, if you count all the combination ones like kya (‚«‚á). Just adds to the fun ;)

Anime Dad wrote:

There's actually a lot more Hiragana, if you count all the combination ones like kya (‚«‚á). Just adds to the fun ;)

and confusion...lol :nut:

i bet get started in my Japanese studies, on my own, before my trip in July. :bonk: