chochajin Wrote:彼女がそんなことをするとは、信じがたい。
I'm not sure why "to ha" is used here after "suru". Why? What's the function?
Would it be possible to say: するのを (I know you can't have 2 を in a sentences, though...)

You can use と with 信じる just like 思う or 言う.

Quote:無理をしないで体力に応じた運動をしてください。
Why is に応じて here used in past tense form?
Don't exaggerate and only exercise according to your body strength.
There's no past tense in here, so ... I'm consufed.

Examples like this are why some books call that a "perfective" instead of "past tense". There are many cases in Japanese where the た forms are used and it's not past tense. In these cases they tend to represent an actualized state, but this is the kind of thing you may just have to accept...

Quote:あんなやせた人が、相撲とりのわけがない。
What's the "no" doing here? Why is it there? Because there has to be something between noun and "wake"? If so, could I say 相撲とりであるわけ・・・

である and の are functionally equivalent here (の is a form of だ in this case), but である is more formal/written.

Quote:私は一年を通して五回ぐらい海外に行っている。
Why "itteiru"? That would mean that I went there and am still there now, no?!

ている can also denote a repeated or habitual action.

May someone help me? What does this mean exactly?? :
妖しくもきらびやかな世界観は多くの人々を酔わせ、熱狂
させてきた。
It's just to make sure I understand, thank you in advance

Asakk Wrote:May someone help me? What does this mean exactly?? :
妖しくもきらびやかな世界観は多くの人々を酔わせ、熱狂
させてきた。
It's just to make sure I understand, thank you in advance

You've posted this twice without response; providing context and your own attempt at translation would encourage responses, I think.

Context for following blurbs: I asked if a convention was mostly 女性向け.
Just want to check if my understanding is right

ComicCityである限り男性向けとは認識されない
サークル側も一般も同じ認識
そのためにこみっく★トレジャーが存在する
Basically: "There's a limited amount of male oriented stuff at CC, most of the circles are generally the same. That's why ComicTreasure exists (for guys)."
I don't really understand the use of 認識 here.
----
一応オールジャンルだし男性参加者も居るが
一般での参加はかなりの場違い感がある
Overall (一応?) its original (works?) and there are guys participating but, the general participants (ie: the public/guys) have an 'out of place feeling.' ((Something like that))
---
参加者全体では女 95:5 男くらいだからな
一般で並ぶと女 98:2 男くらい
Participating circles ratio is about 95:5 girls:guys.
General public lining up, about 98:2 (girls:guys).

Thanks

vix86 Wrote:Context for following blurbs: I asked if a convention was mostly 女性向け.
Just want to check if my understanding is right

ComicCityである限り男性向けとは認識されない
サークル側も一般も同じ認識
そのためにこみっく★トレジャーが存在する
Basically: "There's a limited amount of male oriented stuff at CC, most of the circles are generally the same. That's why ComicTreasure exists (for guys)."
I don't really understand the use of 認識 here.

It's sort of like "It can't be said that..." or more literally "It can't be recognized/acknowledged that..."

Quote:----
一応オールジャンルだし男性参加者も居るが
一般での参加はかなりの場違い感がある
Overall (一応?) its original (works?) and there are guys participating but, the general participants (ie: the public/guys) have an 'out of place feeling.' ((Something like that))
---

一応 is typically used to introduce a clause that is technically true, but has some qualification. オールジャンル is "All genres". So this is sort of like "Technically this is all genres so there are male participants..." I think the second part is telling you that even the guy artists will be different than what you would find elsewhere.

yudantaiteki Wrote:It's sort of like "It can't be said that..." or more literally "It can't be recognized/acknowledged that..."

Ah I see. So my understanding was still close? Cause that makes me doubt my understanding of 「サークル側も一般も同じ認識」 more (Seperate question:Why do you think the 側 was attached btw? Couldn't it have just as easily been left off?).

Quote:一応 is typically used to introduce a clause that is technically true, but has some qualification. オールジャンル is "All genres". So this is sort of like "Technically this is all genres so there are male participants..."

Ah I see, so the 一応...が gives it the same kind of connotation that "Technically yada yada yada" has in English? ie: "Technically anyone can go in there but...(You may not want to)." And when you pointed it out I realized I read the katakana too fast haha, assumed it was "original."

Quote:I think the second part is telling you that even the guy artists will be different than what you would find elsewhere.

Ah ok. I wasn't sure how to interpret that. I've yet to hear a construct like かなりの. To date I have almost exclusively heard it as an adverb (かなり大きい). In fact, what is the の doing here? It's not acting as a possessive is it? Or is it possibly just a typo?

Thanks

It's not possessive, it's the descriptive XのY (i.e. Y is described by X). It's used here because かなり is modifying the noun 場違い感; if the の were gone, it would have to modify ある, which would change the meaning somewhat.

サークル側 means "On the side of the doujinshi circles" (as opposed to the convention visitors). So in effect it's saying that both the people who go to the convention, and the doujin circles themselves, have the same understanding about the target audience.

And I think that understanding of 一応 is accurate in a lot of instances. You'll encounter usages like this:
A: じゃあ、英語ができるの？
B: 一応はね。
In other words, he can technically speak English but he probably doesn't have confidence in his ability.

Ok I think I get everything now. The の thing had me stumped for quite a bit because of how I think about it. I think of の in a more abstract "possesive" sense, maybe not always "Tanaka's book" 田中の本. But in the instance of like かぜの薬 (Cold medicine), I think of it as "the medicine for colds" which has a "possesive" feeling in my head (EDIT: Actually if this is still wrong/different from the かなり thing, could you give another example where that form of NのN fits? Thanks). Till now this has worked quite well, but not with かなり, mostly cause I never see it used like that like I said. I also realized while I was typing something else out here that the thing that was throwing me off is my grammar dictionaries say の is NのN and EDICT says かなり is adj-na, adv. Haha and then it dawned on me all of sudden; I remembered a post someone had made here saying that "adverbs" don't really exist as a separate part of speech in Japanese, they function as Nouns that modify, or something like that.

It all makes so much sense now. Thanks!

Hey guys, in the following sentence:

「花柄のナフキンに包まれた弁当箱らしき物を俺に見せる。」
"She shows me an object enveloped by a flower-patterned napkin; it seems like it's a lunch box."

What does the らしき mean? Rikaichan fails me

It's just らしい. It is just in a more literary or antiquated form.

Smackle Wrote:It's just らしい. It is just in a more literary or antiquated form.

Ah, gotcha, thanks.

I'm trying to express the idea of: "I'd like to make friends while chatting about interesting things." At the moment all I can come up with is,
面白い話についてをしゃべりながら友達になってくれたいん
which I'm sure expresses the same idea but flipped (while talking, make friends).
All I'm coming up with is: 友達になってくれたいながら面白い話についてをしゃべる。 which I'm not sure is correct.

I'd also like to check if I'm using くれる correctly here.

Thanks.

EDIT: Tacking something extra on to this sense it hasn't been replied to yet.
かも知りません: Can you drop the 知らない and just say かも in colloquial speech and still express the sense of "probably/maybe/it might"? I've used it in my Japanese classes a few times and I'm almost always corrected(ie: ＋知らない）, yet I'm pretty sure I've heard it used before.

友達になってくれたい doesn't work, since -tai is used with stuff you want to do, while kureru is used for people towards you, as in "you gave me a present". You need 友達になってくれて欲しい (I want you to become my friend), but that still sounds a bit odd to my ears, it makes you sound almost desperate for them to hand you a friendship or something

IMO, "面白い話をしながら、友達になりたいです。" sounds the most natural.

Yeah, using verbs of giving (or receiving) with 友達になる sounds a little odd in most cases because friendship should be a two way thing, not something that one person is doing as a favor for the other person.

(Incidentally, you can't end a sentence with ん like that, it either has to be の (feminine) or んだ (masculine).)

These sound quite natural to me:

友達になってほしい。(without くれる)
友達になってくれませんか。
友達になってくれると嬉しいです。

Quote:Can you drop the 知らない and just say かも in colloquial speech and still express the sense of "probably/maybe/it might"? I've used it in my Japanese classes a few times and I'm almost always corrected(ie: ＋知らない）, yet I'm pretty sure I've heard it used before.

Yes, it's a very common contraction. 「そうかもね」

Thanks for the input, I sort of decided on this from it.
友達になってくれると嬉しい、特に面白い話についてをしゃべりながら which I think works and expresses the nuance I wanted.

vix86 Wrote:Thanks for the input, I sort of decided on this from it.
友達になってくれると嬉しい、特に面白い話についてをしゃべりながら

I don't think this sentence makes much sense.

My own take: (may be impolite, unnatural, and even ungrammatical; so please, don't trust it)

Speaking to a group:
「こんにちは、vix86です。楽しく話し合ったり、友達を作りたいと思います。」

Speaking to someone:
「こんにちは、vix86です。良かったら、お友達になってくれると嬉しいです。楽しく話しましょう。」← probably too formal and too soapy.

Explaining someone your evil plans:
「実はですね、面白い話をしながら友達を作りたいのです。そして…」

vix86 Wrote:Thanks for the input, I sort of decided on this from it.
友達になってくれると嬉しい、特に面白い話についてをしゃべりながら which I think works and expresses the nuance I wanted.

That's a weird sentence.
If what you want to say is [I'd like to make friends while chatting about interesting things. ] then I suggest:

面白い話をしながら友達になったらいいなと思って。。。

Well, there are other ways to say what you want to say. However, there's no need to translate an English sentence directly into Japanese.

mr_hans_moleman Wrote:Well, there are other ways to say what you want to say. However, there's no need to translate an English sentence directly into Japanese.

That's true but how is one to know what constructions convey the same semantic concept? Put another way, I can't know what I don't know.

Thanks iSoron, hans.

Addendum: I should say what I was merely trying to convey in that horridly constructed sentence is I wanted to make friends while not talking about such mundane things as "Hi, where are you from? What music/movies/pets/food/drinks/beer/color do you like?" more like "Hi, where are you from? What do you think of the current politcal situation between China-Japan? What do you think of Plato's Theory of Ideas?"

I'm wondering how you expect to discuss Plato's Theory of Ideas given that you're currently struggling with how to ask people to discuss it? You'll no doubt get there in time....have some patience. :-)

Hey, guys, I need some help with this sentence:

「来る者拒まずなんて奴だったら、惚れちゃった子の方が可哀想だもんね」
From the translation I have it should be something like:
"If a guy rejects a girl who's fallen in love with him, I'd definitely feel sorry for her."

However, I just don't understand how that translation is reached. To me it seems more like:

"If the guy accepts the one one who comes to him, I'd feel sorry for the lovestruck girl."

Which doesn't really make sense (it makes sense gramatically, but why would you feel sorry for the girl...) Where does the negative come from that makes this statement about feeling sorry for the rejection?

@FooSoft
来る者拒まず I think means that the guy will accept anyone who comes to him. In other words, the girl may be lovestruck but the guy will just shag anything with a pulse. I think whoever translated that didn't know about negative ず.

Thanks, Jarvik, I can totally see that now. But yeah, I guess the original translation must have been wrong then

Another one I just ran into two that I'm not really sure about the translation of, a quick check please?

「別に遅刻したくて、してるわけじゃないしな…」
Literally: Not particularly wanting to be late, is not something I would do.
English: It's not that I don't want to be late.
Also, what's with the しな at the end there?

「授業が終わるなり呼ぶ声がしたが、担任のものだったので無視しておく。」
The class just ended, I heard a voice calling out; it's the teacher, so I'm going to ignore him. (The translation I use on this one says that the "class isn't over yet", but I think it might be wrong again? It seems like なり is being used here to indicate that the class just became over?)

FooSoft Wrote:別に遅刻したくて、してるわけじゃないしな…」
Literally: Not particularly wanting to be late, is not something I would do.
English: It's not that I don't want to be late.
Also, what's with the しな at the end there?

「授業が終わるなり呼ぶ声がしたが、担任のものだったので無視しておく。」
The class just ended, I heard a voice calling out; it's the teacher, so I'm going to ignore him. (The translation I use on this one says that the "class isn't over yet", but I think it might be wrong again? It seems like なり is being used here to indicate that the class just became over?)

「別に遅刻したくて、してるわけじゃないしな…」 It's not like I'm being late because I want to.

しな is し＋な. し makes the sentence like it's an afterthought or an add-on to what was previously said. な is either the exact same thing as ね (depending on dialect), or like a thought said out-loud.

「授業が終わるなり呼ぶ声がしたが、担任のものだったので無視しておく。」
Just as the class ended I heard a voice calling out. It was just the teacher so I'll go ahead and ignored it. (can't assume teacher's gender without more context, so use "it" to refer to the voice instead)