We can say that スタービジョン is our eyes which have advanced/extended into the milky way.

銀河系に進出した modifies わたしたちの目, hence "our eyes which have..."

～～～ということができましょう we can say that

Just read this sentence.

世界ラーメン協会のデータによると、２００８年に全世界で消費されたインスタントラーメンは、９３６．０億食だそうです。

I'm just wondering, why on earth would you write ９３６．０億 rather than ９３６億？Don't they mean the exact same thing (93.6 billion)? Everytime single time 億食 comes up in the rest of the paragraph, it's always number + point + a single digit + 億食. Is there a contextual reason to do this, like maybe it's commonplace when talking about statics or something? Is this ever used with other number expressions? Just curious.

(2016-03-10, 11:46 am)Ash_S Wrote: We can say that スタービジョン is our eyes which have advanced/extended into the milky way.

銀河系に進出した modifies わたしたちの目, hence "our eyes which have..."

～～～ということができましょう we can say that

Thanks!  I didn't realize ことができる was a grammar point, I'll have to add it to my SRS.
Edit: Wait, of course I know ことができる, I just didn't recognize it in the volitional form.  How does the volitional form change the meaning in this case?

FlameseeK Wrote:I'm just wondering, why on earth would you write ９３６．０億 rather than ９３６億？Don't they mean the exact same thing (93.6 billion)? Everytime single time 億食 comes up in the rest of the paragraph, it's always number + point + a single digit + 億食. Is there a contextual reason to do this, like maybe it's commonplace when talking about statics or something? Is this ever used with other number expressions? Just curious.

It's pretty common in math/statistics/quantitative sciences to use the number of trailing zeros to indicate level of precision, also known as the number of significant figures.  For example, 1.0 can mean anything from 0.95 to 1.05, whereas 1.00 can only mean from 0.995 to 1.005 - the number of significant figures is indicating the quality of the measurement used.

(2016-03-10, 12:23 pm)shaydwyrm Wrote: Thanks!  I didn't realize ことができる was a grammar point, I'll have to add it to my SRS.
Edit: Wait, of course I know ことができる, I just didn't recognize it in the volitional form.  How does the volitional form change the meaning in this case?

You mean the potential form, correct? Anyway, it's pretty much the same in terms of meaning. I remember reading this grammar point in the DOBJG and not noticing anything significantly different. I've just done a google search to make sure and apparently ことができる sounds a little more formal. But that's it really, otherwise the meaning is pretty much the same.

(2016-03-10, 12:23 pm)shaydwyrm Wrote: Thanks!  I didn't realize ことができる was a grammar point, I'll have to add it to my SRS.
Edit: Wait, of course I know ことができる, I just didn't recognize it in the volitional form.  How does the volitional form change the meaning in this case?

～と言うことができましょう ＝　～と言うことができるでしょう (and と言えましょう　＝　と言えるでしょう)

edit: and similarly と言えよう can be used for と言えるだろう／と言えるであろう

ie. the "volitional form" here is the 推量 usage of 助動詞「う・よう」 (as opposed to the 意志 or 勧誘 usage you're probably more used to). But you're basically just giving your opinion in this case.

・ここの「と言えよう」は自然だと思うでしょうか。 (see the best answer)
・意志・推量・勧誘の助動詞（う・よう）

(2016-03-10, 7:03 pm)Ash_S Wrote:

(2016-03-10, 12:23 pm)shaydwyrm Wrote: Thanks!  I didn't realize ことができる was a grammar point, I'll have to add it to my SRS.
Edit: Wait, of course I know ことができる, I just didn't recognize it in the volitional form.  How does the volitional form change the meaning in this case?

～と言うことができましょう  ＝　～と言うことができるでしょう (and と言えましょう　＝　と言えるでしょう)

edit: and similarly と言えよう can be used for と言えるだろう／と言えるであろう

ie. the "volitional form" here is the 推量 usage of 助動詞「う・よう」 (as opposed to the 意志 or 勧誘 usage you're probably more used to). But you're basically just giving your opinion in this case.

・ここの「と言えよう」は自然だと思うでしょうか。 (see the best answer)
・意志・推量・勧誘の助動詞（う・よう）

Thanks for the links.  Based on the grammar I've learned so far I would have expected 〜と言うことができるでしょう or 〜と言えるでしょう, so this variation is new to me.

Here's a long sentence. The ending is pretty confusing to me.

カップにお湯を入れて３分待てば食べられるカップラーメンは、値段の安さ、簡単さ、種類の多さなどで、特に若者に人気が高く、一人暮らしをしている日本の学生の中には、カップラーメンに毎日のようにお世話になっている人もいると聞きます。

So I get the beginning of the sentence explains how noddles are made as well as the reason why it's very popular among young people. But I really don't get the part in bold.

(2016-03-10, 11:46 am)Ash_S Wrote: [...]
銀河系に進出した modifies わたしたちの目, hence "our eyes which have..."
[...]

Is there any significant difference between the usage of 銀河 and 銀河系? Is it just preferential, or is one outdated, or what?

(2016-03-10, 9:04 pm)FlameseeK Wrote: カップにお湯を入れて３分待てば食べられるカップラーメンは、値段の安さ、簡単さ、種類の多さなどで、特に若者に人気が高く、一人暮らしをしている日本の学生の中には、カップラーメンに毎日のようにお世話になっている人もいると聞きます。

Best guess: Among Japanese college/university students living alone, I hear there are even those who give thanks to cup ramen on an almost daily basis. It could be totally wrong, or I'm just messing up 世話になる

一人暮らしをしている日本の学生 University students living alone
の中には among
カップラーメンに To cup ramen
毎日のように almost daily
お世話になっている人 people who give thanks / are grateful / owe a debt to (not sure about this part)
も even
いる exist
と聞きます I hear

(2016-03-10, 9:04 pm)FlameseeK Wrote: Here's a long sentence. The ending is pretty confusing to me.

カップにお湯を入れて３分待てば食べられるカップラーメンは、値段の安さ、簡単さ、種類の多さなどで、特に若者に人気が高く、一人暮らしをしている日本の学生の中には、カップラーメンに毎日のようにお世話になっている人もいると聞きます。

The basic structure of that part is Xの中には Y人もいると聞きます -- we hear that among group X there are even Y people.
X here is "Japanese students living alone", and Y is "relying on cup ramen practically every day".

(2016-03-10, 9:39 pm)sholum Wrote:

(2016-03-10, 11:46 am)Ash_S Wrote: [...]
銀河系に進出した modifies わたしたちの目, hence "our eyes which have..."
[...]

Is there any significant difference between the usage of 銀河 and 銀河系? Is it just preferential, or is one outdated, or what?

銀河 is a galaxy in general
銀河系 is the galaxy we live in = 天の川銀河

(2016-03-11, 2:49 am)Ash_S Wrote:

(2016-03-10, 9:39 pm)sholum Wrote:

(2016-03-10, 11:46 am)Ash_S Wrote: [...]
銀河系に進出した modifies わたしたちの目, hence "our eyes which have..."
[...]

Is there any significant difference between the usage of 銀河 and 銀河系? Is it just preferential, or is one outdated, or what?

銀河 is a galaxy in general
銀河系 is the galaxy we live in = 天の川銀河

I see... That's a pretty important difference that my dictionary doesn't distinguish...
Thanks for the answer!

See also: 系外銀河 an external galaxy.

Just finished reading a short manga story about the creation of cup noodles in Tobira and I'd appreciate some help with the following sentences.

麺をドライにしてみたらどうだろうでも、どんな方法があるかなあ。

I'll split this into two parts. It's not difficult to kinda get what this sentence means, but I'm not so sure about the nuance and it took a little bit of thinking to my ideas together. I see two possibilities for both parts of the sentence. I think part 2 might actually mean both things.

(1) "Perhaps I should try and make it dry" / "If I try and make it dry, I wonder if the result would be good"
(2) "But I wonder if there's a way to do so." / "But I wonder how to do so."

^ (2) sounds right to me
"what kind of method is there, I wonder"

I think that the wonderment of a possible method for drying noodles necessarily suggests 'will it work / will it be good?', but the sentence itself is wondering whether there's even a way to successfully preserve noodles by drying them.

I don't think the second part of the sentence suggests on its own that the speaker intends to find a way to dry noodles, but the context and tone of the whole sentence does suggest it. The sentence doesn't grammatically necessitate that intention either.

Lately I've been reading deadman wonderland and there's this guy who apparently injures his opponent and then takes control of his brain functions by injecting his own blood into the body of his rival, anyway during the fight between him and the main character he says:

人間は身体で痛みを感じるんじゃない 脳が感じた痛みを身体に伝えてるんだよ…そう…例えば脳に「巨大なトラックにふっ飛ばされる感覚」を与えれば身体はそれに準じようとするんだよ

I cannot understand the example he gives after 例えば can anybody help me out?

If you give the brain the sensation of "being sent flying by a giant truck" 脳に「巨大なトラックにふっ飛ばされる感覚」を与えれば

then the body will attempt to conform to that 身体はそれに準じようとするんだよ

Thank you!

The following simple dialog is taken from the NHK language course:

京都に行ったことがありますか。
いいえ。それが、行ったことないんです。

Why is the subject marker が attached to それ?
I would expect "私が…” to be used, for instance if the question was "誰が…".
Is それが the beginning of an implicit sentence which is interrupted at the comma?

JMDICT それが 2: well yes, actually, now that you mention it; well, in fact (idiomatic expression) (in response to a question)

Kenkyuusha: (there's no definition, just these examples)
「お母様の具合はどう」「それがあまりよくないんだ」　"How is your mother?"―"Well, I'm afraid she's not so well."
「あの話はどうなりました」「それがですね, 上からストップがかかりまして, あれから進んでないんですよ」　"How did that matter go?"―"Well, now you mention it, it got blocked from above and there's been no progress since."
「明日は忙しいって言ってなかった?」「あ, それがね, 急に予定が変わったんだ」　"Didn't you say you were busy tomorrow?"―"Well, yes, I did, but there's been a sudden change of plan."

Very often それが(です)ね.

(2016-03-24, 12:47 pm)Vempele Wrote: JMDICT それが 2: well yes, actually, now that you mention it; well, in fact (idiomatic expression) (in response to a question)
(…)
Very often それが(です)ね.

Stupid me. I did not think of just looking up my dictionary!
Apparently, there was no word in that sentence that I expected not to know. I was wrong…
Thanks for clarifying this point.

"これまでアメリカなどが核開発問題を理由に、およそ１０年間にわたって経済制裁を科し、貿易や外国企業の投資を厳しく制限してきました。"
My understanding of this is as a whole is "So far, America et al., on grounds of the nuclear development problem, have imposed economic sanctions and harsh restrictions on trade and foreign business investments over a period of about ten years."

For the "核開発問題を理由に" part, though, it looks like 核開発問題 is being used as the object of 理由に? What's going on with this?

My guess is you can either analyse it as there being an implicit suru in there, or just lump it in the "grammar" bucket with other ni-marked clauses like 'no tame ni' or 'Xを限りに'.

Xを理由に or Xを理由にして : 'on the grounds of/that X'.

Just saw this in a visual novel menu, but I haven't been able to figure out what it does. You can choose on or off.  

音声の再生終了待機

As I understand, 音声 refers to the voicing, 音声の再生 would mean voice playback (right?), 終了 would mean to interrupt the voice in this cases (usually it just means to "exit" the game). 待機 means "stand by / wait for orders" according to jisho, but I don't quit understand what it means here.

At first, I thought this option had something to do with cutting the voices, as in one would probably cut it no matter what once you clicked on the screen, while the other would allow characters to finish their sentences as long as another character doesn't interrupt them. But apparently, the latter seems to be happen no matter which option I select.

So my question is, what does this option actually do?

終了 is "an end; a finish; a completion" - even as a verb, it's very often intransitive. "Wait for the voice to finish playing " (before advancing text in Auto mode, most likely).