I know it's not ideal to translate from English in my head, but recently I've been talking to a lot of Japanese people who are travelling in the states. I end up speaking in generalities to explain the culture here.

How would I say "some people" like "some people prefer staying home"
I have been saying 「たくさん人々」which probably sounds horrible.

Finally being around someone who knows no English has been bringing to light all of my shortcomings in Japanese that were overcome in the past by relying on the listener's English knowledge when I didn't know the word in Japanese.

tashippy Wrote:"some people prefer staying home"

I would, depending on context of course, express this sentiment with, 「家を出たくない人もいます」
I don't think there is a good way to consistently translate 'some people'. This kind of pattern is common for it, but it won't work for every case of 'some people' in English.

Ah, that makes sense. That's a much more natural sentence structure. Thank you.

How do you say "genetically modified foods"? I can't find it in the dictionary. ;-)

Does anybody know when the kanji 被 would be used?
RTK defines it as "incur" and Rikaichan (the Chrome Add-on) defines it as a prefix that "indicates the target of an activity." Apparently it is read as ひ.
If any of you know what exactly it means, please tell me and leave some sort of example, I'm a bit confused

ありがとございます

Another word that just popped into my head, "だす".
I heard it in an anime where a guy is doing a sort of lie detector test and this "human lie detector" was explaining that what the guy was saying was true. The exact words were:
"本当だす"
I've barely studied any grammar yet so this isn't really my strong point at the moment. Is it some alternation of です or だ? Perhaps a dialect? Or is it something different? Thank you.

Forgive me for the double-post, I clicked "Quote" instead of "Edit" D:

It's dialect, possibly fake-for-anime dialect.

yudantaiteki Wrote:It's dialect, possibly fake-for-anime dialect.

Thank you

tashippy Wrote:How do you say "genetically modified foods"? I can't find it in the dictionary. ;-)

The best way to find things like that is to go to Wikipedia and use the 日本語 link to go to the equivalent JP page. In this case it seems to be 遺伝子組み換え作物, although it says ＧＭ作物 is used too.

Ah, thanks for the tip.

Socky Wrote:Another word that just popped into my head, "だす".
I heard it in an anime where a guy is doing a sort of lie detector test and this "human lie detector" was explaining that what the guy was saying was true. The exact words were:
"本当だす"
I've barely studied any grammar yet so this isn't really my strong point at the moment. Is it some alternation of です or だ? Perhaps a dialect? Or is it something different? Thank you.

Forgive me for the double-post, I clicked "Quote" instead of "Edit" D:

You'll hear this all the time in the anime "Oh! Super Milk Chan!" Like yudantaiteki said, it's probably made up for anime, but I remember reading something that said it's suppose to be more like a country hick おやじ-ish dialect. So it might not be totally fake.

Socky Wrote:Does anybody know when the kanji 被 would be used?
RTK defines it as "incur" and Rikaichan (the Chrome Add-on) defines it as a prefix that "indicates the target of an activity." Apparently it is read as ひ.
If any of you know what exactly it means, please tell me and leave some sort of example, I'm a bit confused

ありがとございます

Here are some examples of 被 used as a prefix :

被ダメージ : used a lot in video games, this designates the damage your character has been inflicted. [FF11用語辞典], [ネット王子]

被リンク : computer (web) terminology, it's a link to your own page/blog. It's usually important to be able to track those if you want to know how people found your blog. Looks like the pronunciation is more バックリンク than ひリンク. [e-Words.jp]

Then of course there are many (normal, not made-up) words on the same pattern :
治者と被治者の関係に関する文...
「政府というものは被治者の同意を得て初めて権力を得る」−−独立宣言 (lol)

Probably seems a silly question, but - I recently watched an action movie and one of the characters said a number of times　口ほどにもない奴め. The structure of the sentence confuses me, but when I first heard it, I thought it meant something similar to "all bark and no bite".

Yeah you got it. All bark and no bite. Just talking big. Can't live up to what they say.

口(くち)程にもな・い
実際は口で言っているほどではない。「大きなことを言うわりには―・いやつだ」

Warp2243 Wrote:

Socky Wrote:Does anybody know when the kanji 被 would be used?
RTK defines it as "incur" and Rikaichan (the Chrome Add-on) defines it as a prefix that "indicates the target of an activity." Apparently it is read as ひ.
If any of you know what exactly it means, please tell me and leave some sort of example, I'm a bit confused

ありがとございます

Here are some examples of 被 used as a prefix :

被ダメージ : used a lot in video games, this designates the damage your character has been inflicted. [FF11用語辞典], [ネット王子]

被リンク : computer (web) terminology, it's a link to your own page/blog. It's usually important to be able to track those if you want to know how people found your blog. Looks like the pronunciation is more バックリンク than ひリンク. [e-Words.jp]

Then of course there are many (normal, not made-up) words on the same pattern :
治者と被治者の関係に関する文...
「政府というものは被治者の同意を得て初めて権力を得る」−−独立宣言 (lol)

So just to clarify...
it's kind of a prefix with a similar function as the particle を?
Don't get me wrong, I know they're not interchangeable or something. What I'm saying is they both, in different ways, kind of mark the object of something.
"治者" is the "ruler" and
"被治者" is the "one being reigned upon", or the "ruled"?

That seems to make sense to me Thanks for the response.

Socky Wrote:So just to clarify...
it's kind of a prefix with a similar function as the particle を?
Don't get me wrong, I know they're not interchangeable or something. What I'm saying is they both, in different ways, kind of mark the object of something.

I had the same thought while writing my first answer, but I don't think it helps in any way to think of it like that. Grammatically 被 is a prefix and を is a particle, and being the subject or object of an action is a relative notion :

(1) 被治者が政治を行う者を選ぶ。
(2) 被治者を治めるのは政府である。

In both sentences, at the level of the isolated word, 被治者 is the object of the action prefixed by 被, well here it would be the sole kanji 治, or 治める if you want.
However at the level of the sentence, in (1) 被治者 is the subject (verb 選ぶ), and in (2) 被治者 is the object (verb 治める).

If you want an abstract explanation of how 被 works, I don't think we can get better than that : ひ【被】 [大辞泉]. So you would have a 漢語 expressing an action, and prefixing with 被 would be equivalent to saying {action}される. However the examples they give are not verbal kanji compounds (ones you can attach する to). But you get the idea. More examples here : ひ【被】 [大辞泉, 漢字字典].

Socky Wrote:"治者" is the "ruler" and
"被治者" is the "one being reigned upon", or the "ruled"?

Yes, the ruler and the ruled. There are certainly other pairs like this; apart from these, I don't think it'd be wise to make up words oneself with 被, at least until you're really, really comfortable with the language.

・・・何十人とごぼう抜きしたわ。

The early part of the sentence references a person. The part I don't understand is of course ごぼう抜き. Or whatever entails the entirety of that part.

i think it is this, but i m not sure http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%94%...C%E3%81%8D

Seems about right. I even looked up the context and the surrounding sentences don't seem to indicate too much of anything.

Warp2243 Wrote:(1) 被治者が政治を行う者を選ぶ。
(2) 被治者を治めるのは政府である。

In both sentences, at the level of the isolated word, 被治者 is the object of the action prefixed by 被, well here it would be the sole kanji 治, or 治める if you want.
However at the level of the sentence, in (1) 被治者 is the subject (verb 選ぶ), and in (2) 被治者 is the object (verb 治める).

I think I understand then. Whatever word it is put in front of indicates a subject (not of the sentence, but merely of the word itself) of that word.
The ruled is the subject, so to speak, of the ruler.

It has nothing to do with the sentence structure (the subject or object of a sentence), but simply turns one noun into another by adding 被? So the prefix 被 would turn the root word into the subject of the root word? So for example, could it be like:
(not that this is a real word, but)
虐待= abuse/oppression
被虐待= subject of abuse/ abused/ oppressed?

If that's the case, I understand. Thanks for the explanation as well

Socky Wrote:

Warp2243 Wrote:(1) 被治者が政治を行う者を選ぶ。
(2) 被治者を治めるのは政府である。

In both sentences, at the level of the isolated word, 被治者 is the object of the action prefixed by 被, well here it would be the sole kanji 治, or 治める if you want.
However at the level of the sentence, in (1) 被治者 is the subject (verb 選ぶ), and in (2) 被治者 is the object (verb 治める).

I think I understand then. Whatever word it is put in front of indicates a subject (not of the sentence, but merely of the word itself) of that word.
The ruled is the subject, so to speak, of the ruler.

It has nothing to do with the sentence structure (the subject or object of a sentence), but simply turns one noun into another by adding 被? So the prefix 被 would turn the root word into the subject of the root word? So for example, could it be like:
(not that this is a real word, but)
虐待= abuse/oppression
被虐待= subject of abuse/ abused/ oppressed?

If that's the case, I understand. Thanks for the explanation as well

Yes, it works exactly as you say. I don't think it's really worth it considering 被 as a grammar point in itself, just understanding the rule you said above is enough (transforming a noun into another by reversing the performer of an activity and its target), + learn the fixed words where it appears.

グラマンがそうはさせじと襲いかかる。
Can't figure out the じ here. I assume it's modifying させる based on the speaker's dialect? Other than that I understand the enemy plane was going to attack the speaker's plane.

祖父なら十文字に腹をかっさばいていただろう。
Probably explaining how if it was the grandfather he would've done something crisscross. Don't know かっさばいていた. The speaker was just talking about how he wanted to cut his stomach due to his shame. I am assuming it's cut.

Wikipedia on Seppuku: Some samurai chose to perform a considerably more taxing form of seppuku known as jūmonji giri (十文字切り, "cross-shaped cut"), in which there is no kaishakunin to put a quick end to the samurai's suffering. It involves a second and more painful vertical cut on the belly. A samurai performing jumonji giri was expected to bear his suffering quietly until perishing from loss of blood, passing away with his hands over his face.

[Citation needed], though.

Hey guys, trying to figure out the following sentences from a VN I'm currently working through.

他にも飼い主がいるんじゃないだろうな・・
スネに毛の生えた飼い主が

"it can't be that maybe there's another owner(?)" / "another owner showed up"(non-literal)
(don't have a clue about this last bit, something about the pet owner being not much better than before? the スネに bit really baffles me)

あんな調子じゃ
飼い主が現れるのなんて、当分先の話だな
I believe this goes something like:
"if that's how things are, I think it won't be for a while until an owner shows up"

The context is of a character thinking in her head where a female companion had gone, and she's soon found simply spacing out.

Thanks~

スネに毛の生えた飼い主
An owner with hairy legs
Or more literally: an owner(飼い主) with hair(毛) growing(生えた) on(に) their shins(スネ)

スネ = 脛 = shin/lower leg