Not sure, but I think ほのぼのと暮らす would be ほのぼの in its other sense, namely the edict/rikaichan entry "heartwarming", or perhaps more accurately defined by Daijirin as such:
②心がほのかにあたたまるようなさま。ほんのり。「━（と）した友情」
Now, I'm not sure I even want to try translating that, but maybe something to the effect of "I'm living peacefully."

Second sentence, 自分が思ってる 以上に by itself would be "more than I think". The whole thing would be something like "It seems I'm less busy than I think".

I can't figure out this one sentence from a Nikkei article about the questionable launch of the PS Vita:

Quote:　しかし、課題は立ち上がりだ。任天堂は３月に「ニンテンドー３ＤＳ」を発売した時、本体価格を２万5000円に設定して苦戦した。発売当初にガジェット（携帯型電子機器）好きなユーザーが一通り購入してしまうと販売が失速してしまう可能性が高い。

この事件いくら私でも警察の手を借りないわけにはいくまい。

From Death Note after a short scene where a meeting of police are discussing all the deaths that happened to criminals. The main character is contemplating their action, I suppose. I really just need a breakdown of this sentence as I don't entirely understand it (especially the end).

On a side-note, this manga is kind of boring. I'll finish it anyway I guess.

いくら～でも　means something like 'no matter how much of a ～ one is...'

example:
いくらネイティブでも文法の間違いはしょっちゅうありますので

警察の手を借りる -- to borrow a hand from the police. Figuratively, to get help from the police.


わけにはいくまい is just わけにはいかない　with the negative まい　to mean ないだろう. "There's no way that X." But in this case, you've got the double negative with 借りないわけにはいくまい, so probably something like "there's no way that I wouldn't accept help from the police."

cloudstrife,
i think it means:



、友達に誰か紹介してもらったことがありますか。
=
Have you (during your time being single) been introduced by a freind to a partner/boyfreind/girlfreind. (whew that was hard). brake the sentence into little pars:

彼や彼女 = boyfreind or girlfreind
がいない時= during the time without
友達に=from/by a freind
誰か紹介してもらったこと=introduced to someone
ことがありますか=has happened



Ok my turn;


What is the difference between 首府・しゅふ　and... 首都・しゅと

can you give me an example? thanks

animehunter123 Wrote:What is the difference between 首府・しゅふ　and... 首都・しゅと

can you give me an example? thanks

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A6%96%E5%BA%9C

The Japanese Wikipedia for 首府 redirects to 首都, which mentions that 首府,　国都 and 都 can all also be used to refer to the capital city of a country. Looking in two J-J dictionaries the definition for 首府 and 首都 are pretty much the same (both dictionaries listed 首都 as one of the definitions for 首府).

So, seems like they're the same but 首都 is more common.

(Note that the Japanese Wikipedia has a section on quasi-synonyms for 首都, and 首府 is not listed despite being mentioned, so it seems like a full-blown synonym)

I love giving my students bits where they need to translate English to Japanese because I learn how little I actually understand possible nuances in Japanese.

We were doing "can/can't" today and I made a worksheet and they translated some sentences. While checking them I ran into these patterns a lot.

テニスができません
ａｎｄ
私は、日本語を話すことができる

I had seen/read a lot of　何々をできません prior to this but seeing my students a lot of ができません had me scratching my head. Part of the problem might be that my JTE introduced it as a ができる・ができません pattern so that might be why many were stuck on it.

Outside of any context. Is there really any nuance between the above 2 patterns and something like 日本語を話せません?

I don't have access to my Grammar dict. to really look into it at the moment.

vix86 Wrote:Outside of any context. Is there really and nuance between the above 2 patterns and something like 日本語を話せません?

I don't have access to my Grammar dict. to really look into it at the moment.

The (verb+potential form) is more common and less formal than the longer more distal style of koto ga dekiru.

Quote:日本語を話せません

I remember seeing somewhere explanation that you should use が particle with potential form of a verb. So, shouldn't:
日本語を話せません。

be rather:
日本語が話せません。

I also seem to recall that を/が+V-pot are both acceptable but is there more into it?

vix86 Wrote:I

テニスができません
ａｎｄ
私は、日本語を話すことができる

I had seen/read a lot of　何々をできません prior to this but seeing my students a lot of ができません had me scratching my head. Part of the problem might be that my JTE introduced it as a ができる・ができません pattern so that might be why many were stuck on it.

I'm confused about what you're asking, and I don't know what you mean by 「何々をできません」. The two sentences you posted are both (noun)ができる. Neither one is (noun)をできる, which is not correct Japanese. Both テニス and こと are nouns.

ことis being modified by 日本語を話す, whereas テニス is not being modified by anything. But grammatically they're both nouns.

Tzadeck Wrote:Neither one is (noun)をできる, which is not correct Japanese. Both テニス and こと are nouns.

That basically clears it up then. I was wrong.

I realize こと nominalizes, I had just been wondering if there was any sort of nuanced different between saying　日本語が話せない and　日本語は話すことができない. But kitakitsune said it was said ことができる is just a more formal elongated style of ができる.

vix86 Wrote:I realize こと nominalizes, I had just been wondering if there was any sort of nuanced different between saying　日本語が話せない and　日本語は話すことができない. But kitakitsune said it was said ことができる is just a more formal elongated style of ができる.

It's not necessarily more formal, just less common. And you completely changed what kitakitsune said -- the issue was not ことができる vs. ができる, it's the potential conjugation vs. ことができる. ことができる and ができる are the same thing except that the こと is required when you put it after a verb.

yudantaiteki Wrote:

vix86 Wrote:I realize こと nominalizes, I had just been wondering if there was any sort of nuanced different between saying　日本語が話せない and　日本語は話すことができない. But kitakitsune said it was said ことができる is just a more formal elongated style of ができる.

It's not necessarily more formal, just less common. And you completely changed what kitakitsune said -- the issue was not ことができる vs. ができる, it's the potential conjugation vs. ことができる. ことができる and ができる are the same thing except that the こと is required when you put it after a verb.

Ok now I'm a little lost.

So ことができる・ができる are the basically the same, but something like 食べられる is different from 食べることができる？

GoodSirJava Wrote:I can't figure out this one sentence from a Nikkei article about the questionable launch of the PS Vita:

Quote:　しかし、課題は立ち上がりだ。任天堂は３月に「ニンテンドー３ＤＳ」を発売した時、本体価格を２万5000円に設定して苦戦した。発売当初にガジェット（携帯型電子機器）好きなユーザーが一通り購入してしまうと販売が失速してしまう可能性が高い。

Something like this?
There is a high possibility of units being snapped up by gadget (portable electronics) lovers at launch.

vix86 Wrote:Ok now I'm a little lost.

So ことができる・ができる are the basically the same, but something like 食べられる is different from 食べることができる？

Oh lets settle this.

From A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar - page 201 (kota ga dekiru)

'A shorter potential form of verb, i.e., rareru can replace the longer potential form koto ga dekiru without a change in basic meaning. Basically, the difference between the shorter and the longer potential form is one of style; namely, the shorter version is more colloquial and less formal than the longer one'

On koto ga dekiru versus ga dekiru...

'If a verb is closely associated with its direct object、 X wo V koto can be deleted.'
ナンシーはピアノを弾くことが出来る　－＞　ピアノが出来る
岡本さんはロシア語を話すことが出来る　－＞　ロシア語が出来る。

vix86 Wrote:

yudantaiteki Wrote:

vix86 Wrote:I realize こと nominalizes, I had just been wondering if there was any sort of nuanced different between saying　日本語が話せない and　日本語は話すことができない. But kitakitsune said it was said ことができる is just a more formal elongated style of ができる.

It's not necessarily more formal, just less common. And you completely changed what kitakitsune said -- the issue was not ことができる vs. ができる, it's the potential conjugation vs. ことができる. ことができる and ができる are the same thing except that the こと is required when you put it after a verb.

Ok now I'm a little lost.

So ことができる・ができる are the basically the same, but something like 食べられる is different from 食べることができる？

Umm what is ができる supposed to be? 話すができる? Pretty sure that's not grammatical.　Your choices are pretty much 話すことができる and 話せる.

Now if you were talking about, say, 勉強する, your choices are: 勉強ができる and 勉強できる (from 勉強をする and 勉強する respectively, well that's one way to think of it anyway). It might also be grammatically ok to say 勉強することができる, but at least to my ear that sounds pretty weird.

The difference between the first and the second is that 話す is a verb and 勉強 is a noun. が in this context requires a noun before it, so 勉強ができる is fine but 話すができる isn't. If you want to use that pattern on a verb, you have to nominalise it with こと, giving 話すことができる.

Inny Jan Wrote:

Quote:日本語を話せません

I remember seeing somewhere explanation that you should use が particle with potential form of a verb. So, shouldn't:
日本語を話せません。

be rather:
日本語が話せません。

I also seem to recall that を/が+V-pot are both acceptable but is there more into it?

You can interchange を and が with potential forms of verbs. Basically the more volition the subject has, the more likely you should be using を.

できる always uses が.

Thanks kitakitsune. That clears it up. I just never consciously realized できる only goes with が.

zigmonty Wrote:Umm what is ができる supposed to be? 話すができる? Pretty sure that's not grammatical.　Your choices are pretty much 話すことができる and 話せる.

I never specifically said　話すができる. I assumed it was pretty obvious that when I was talking about ができる that I didn't mean 話すができる because like you said, its completely ungrammatical. So when I said "So ことができる・ができる are the basically the same" I referring to the pattern within each respective sentence construction.

vix86 Wrote:Thanks kitakitsune. That clears it up. I just never consciously realized できる only goes with が.

zigmonty Wrote:Umm what is ができる supposed to be? 話すができる? Pretty sure that's not grammatical.　Your choices are pretty much 話すことができる and 話せる.

I never specifically said　話すができる. I assumed it was pretty obvious that when I was talking about ができる that I didn't mean 話すができる because like you said, its completely ungrammatical. So when I said "So ことができる・ができる are the basically the same" I referring to the pattern within each respective sentence construction.

Right, sorry, my mistake. Carry on.

Well, "できる always uses が" is another prescription that doesn't necessarily match how native speakers use the language. It's common in textbooks and probably a good rule for learners, but it's not 100%.

pudding cat Wrote:

GoodSirJava Wrote:I can't figure out this one sentence from a Nikkei article about the questionable launch of the PS Vita:

Quote:　しかし、課題は立ち上がりだ。任天堂は３月に「ニンテンドー３ＤＳ」を発売した時、本体価格を２万5000円に設定して苦戦した。発売当初にガジェット（携帯型電子機器）好きなユーザーが一通り購入してしまうと販売が失速してしまう可能性が高い。

Something like this?
There is a high possibility of units being snapped up by gadget (portable electronics) lovers at launch.

I'm not sure what the right answer here is, but your attempt has dropped the 販売が失速してしまう part I think. My guess was along the lines of "Once all the gadget lovers have bought it when it first goes on sale, there's a high risk that sales will stall." However I couldn't figure out exactly what 一通り購入する meant here so I haven't got a great deal of confidence in that translation.

What does this sentence mean?

sore wa tonda kigeki deshita ne
それはとんだ喜劇でしたね

wahht is tonda? thanks

Rikaisama says

unthinkable, unimaginable, inconceivable, unexpected, terrible, awful, serious, very

pm215 Wrote:I'm not sure what the right answer here is, but your attempt has dropped the 販売が失速してしまう part I think. My guess was along the lines of "Once all the gadget lovers have bought it when it first goes on sale, there's a high risk that sales will stall." However I couldn't figure out exactly what 一通り購入する meant here so I haven't got a great deal of confidence in that translation.

My interpretation of it would be that
発売当初にガジェット（携帯型電子機器）好きなユーザーが一通り購入してしまうと
as opposed to just simply
発売当初にガジェット（携帯型電子機器）好きなユーザーが購入してしまうと
implies that once the initial rush is tentitively over (i.e. once most gadget fans have bought it, maybe not all but most at least) sales may falter.


There are also some other times when ことができる　seems to be used instead of the potential form. A couple of examples from my notes:
試験中はとなりの人と話したり、教科書を見たりすることはできません。
(In this case the use of it allows the －たり form of the two verbs to be used)

私は漢字を読むことだけはできますが、書くことはまだできません。
(In this case it allows a more clear contrast of what can and what can't be done- notice that は is also used to show contrast as opposed to the usual が)

animehunter123 Wrote:What does this sentence mean?

sore wa tonda kigeki deshita ne
それはとんだ喜劇でしたね

wahht is tonda? thanks

"It was a great laugh, wasn't it?" would be my translation.