I hope no one will mind me bugging you all with such a beginner request, but I've just started learning recently and have begun writing short entries on Lang-8. I got a couple of corrections today that I was hoping I could get some help with.

The sentence I wrote was:

私の犬はイーサネットケーブルを食べて私は新しいイーサネットケーブルを買いました!

Which was my beginner's attempt at saying something like "my dog ate the ethernet cable and I bought a new one" (this really did happen by the way!).

The first correction I received was:

私の犬がインターネットケーブルを食べてたので、私は新しいインターネットケーブルを買いました！

I understand everything here aside from the -てたので, it's just the た I'm unsure of (I understand ので). Did she perhaps mean to remove the て and change it to 食べたので?

Then I also got the following correction:

私の犬はがイーサネットケーブルを食べてしまったので、私は新しいイーサネットケーブルを買いました！

I think I understand this one, the しまった is probably being used in the way of expressing a sense of regret or unhappiness? I know that it can also mean "to finish something", which is something I'm still struggling with as I'm a bit unsure why I'd use it instead of just conjugating a verb to past tense (what is the difference between tabeta vs tabeteshimatta for example).

Finally, one of them added the following comment which is still a bit too advanced for me to read right now and a translation would be great if no one minds:

そのままでも伝わる文章ですが、「○○したので××した」とすることで、前後の因果関係がより伝わりやすくなると思います！

Sorry for the big post, help would be much appreciated!

Elenkis Wrote:私の犬がインターネットケーブルを食べてたので、私は新しいインターネットケーブルを買いました！

I understand everything here aside from the -てたので, it's just the た I'm unsure of (I understand ので). Did she perhaps mean to remove the て and change it to 食べたので?

～てた is the contracted past ～ている form, but it does sound strange in that sentence. It may be a misprint on the corrector's side.

Why did he fix イーサネット by the way? Don't the Japanese say "Ethernet cable"?

Elenkis Wrote:私の犬はがイーサネットケーブルを食べてしまったので、私は新しいイーサネットケーブルを買いました！

I think I understand this one, the しまった is probably being used in the way of expressing a sense of regret or unhappiness? I know that it can also mean "to finish something", which is something I'm still struggling with as I'm a bit unsure why I'd use it instead of just conjugating a verb to past tense (what is the difference between tabeta vs tabeteshimatta for example).

Basicaｌｌy speaking, it is grammar for unintentional actions:
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/unintended

Elenkis Wrote:そのままでも伝わる文章ですが、「○○したので××した」とすることで、前後の因果関係がより伝わりやすくなると思います！

It means, that your sentence is OK as is, but you could have used 「○○したので××した」 construction to express the causal relationship better. As a matter of fact, both of the former corrections use this form.

Elenkis Wrote:The first correction I received was:

私の犬がインターネットケーブルを食べてたので、私は新しいインターネットケーブルを買いました！

I understand everything here aside from the -てたので, it's just the た I'm unsure of (I understand ので). Did she perhaps mean to remove the て and change it to 食べたので?

Then I also got the following correction:

私の犬はがイーサネットケーブルを食べてしまったので、私は新しいイーサネットケーブルを買いました！

I think I understand this one, the しまった is probably being used in the way of expressing a sense of regret or unhappiness? I know that it can also mean "to finish something", which is something I'm still struggling with as I'm a bit unsure why I'd use it instead of just conjugating a verb to past tense (what is the difference between tabeta vs tabeteshimatta for example).

In these sentences, I would read 食べてたので　as being roughly equivalent to "had eaten." Because Japanese uses aspect rather than tense, confusingly (at times) ～ている form can mean a state of completion, rather than progress. For example, I've never seen 死んでいる mean "is dying," only "is dead."

So --> 食べてたので --> 食べていたので --> Since my dog had eaten the ethernet cable, [...]

In the other case, しまう specifically stresses *completion*. Usually it's bad, but occasionally it's not: i.e. a nauseatingly beaming mom might say of her kid's plate that he had きれいに食べてしまった - you ate it all up~! / you ate the plate clean!

So here しまった tells you that it's not just that the dog ate the ethernet cable, but that cable got EATEN, yo, and there was no going back. Hence you had to take the resulting action of buying a new one.

Make sense?

Some girl said I was 熱い男. It seems simple, but I think there's more to it, because she won't explain it. Can anyone just clarify?

Elenkis Wrote:The first correction I received was:
私の犬がインターネットケーブルを食べてたので、私は新しいインターネットケーブルを買いました！

Then I also got the following correction:
私の犬はがイーサネットケーブルを食べてしまったので、私は新しいイーサネットケーブルを買いました！

In the first place, these corrections still don't sound natural to me. I would say "うちの犬が LANケーブルをかじっちゃったので、新しいのを買ってきました！" instead.

Lionel Wrote:Why did he fix イーサネット by the way? Don't the Japanese say "Ethernet cable"?

We call it "LANケーブル" in Japanese, rather than "イーサネットケーブル." Regarding "インターネットケーブル," I guess it's just that the corrector hasn't heard of "イーサネットケーブル" because it's not popular to call. It's safe to say you should call "Ethernet cable" "LANケーブル" in Japanese.

TheVinster Wrote:Some girl said I was 熱い男. It seems simple, but I think there's more to it, because she won't explain it. Can anyone just clarify?

Just to translate that,
Some girl said I was 熱い男.
→ Some girl said I was a passionate man.

I don't know how you're "passionate," though.

Thank you all for the help! It all seems to make sense.

-kiki- Wrote:In the first place, these corrections still don't sound natural to me. I would say "うちの犬が LANケーブルをかじっちゃったので、新しいのを買ってきました！" instead.

This is very useful, thank you. I knew there would be a more natural way to say it that I'd not learned yet.

Just one thing though, can you maybe explain the past tense くる at the end? What would be the difference in meaning between 買ってきました and 買いました?

Would it be something like "I came to buy"?

Thanks again!

You're welcome, Elenkis

Elenkis Wrote:Just one thing though, can you maybe explain the past tense くる at the end? What would be the difference in meaning between 買ってきました and 買いました?

Would it be something like "I came to buy"?

買いました just indicates the fact that you bought it.

買ってきました indicates: You went out to buy it and came home, maybe with some kind of pleasure of having bought a new one, then probably you're going to take the cable out of the package and connect your computers with it. In other words, ～てきました is used to express a past event that is sort of active.

> difference in meaning between 買ってきました and 買いました?

As kiki wrote, 買いました is just the fact that you bought it.

I was taught 買ってきました in the context of an "errand." An errand has 3 parts.. the going... the doing... and the coming back. So, you went to the store, you bought the cable and you came back. In English we say, "I went to the store and bought a cable." We omit the coming back. In Japanese, it seems that they say "I bought a cable and came back." 買ってきました The "going" is omitted.

Thumbs up! So, in English the "coming back" is omitted, and in Japanese the "going" is omitted. Interesting. I was impressed by gibosi's explanation.

Thank you both!

Oops, I can't remember the last time I actually went to a store to buy anything computer related, so that meaning hadn't occurred to me! :o

(I still had wireless access through a laptop computer so for various reasons bought the new cable from an online store)

Anyway, thanks again. It feels good to be learning so much.

-kiki- Wrote:

TheVinster Wrote:Some girl said I was 熱い男. It seems simple, but I think there's more to it, because she won't explain it. Can anyone just clarify?

Just to translate that,
Some girl said I was 熱い男.
→ Some girl said I was a passionate man.

I don't know how you're "passionate," though.

Pfft, yeah... me neither. Does it really mean passionate? Lol... so strange.

Elenkis Wrote:Thank you both!

Oops, I can't remember the last time I actually went to a store to buy anything computer related, so that meaning hadn't occurred to me! :o

(I still had wireless access through a laptop computer so for various reasons bought the new cable from an online store)

Anyway, thanks again. It feels good to be learning so much.

Oh if that's the case, if you bought it from an online store, then 買ってきました doesn't work. Instead, that sentence should be:
"うちの犬がLANケーブルをかじっちゃったので、新しいのを（ネットで）買いました！"
"My dog ate the ethernet cable and I bought a new one (from the net)."

買ってきました doesn't work when you bought it from an online store. You can use 買いました in any case.

TheVinster Wrote:

-kiki- Wrote:Some girl said I was 熱い男.
→ Some girl said I was a passionate man.

I don't know how you're "passionate," though.

Pfft, yeah... me neither. Does it really mean passionate? Lol... so strange.

I can't be sure unless the girl explains it, but I guess maybe she meant: "Wow, that's the boy!" , "You're quite a guy." , "You're trying so hard." or something like that, by the phrase "熱い男."

What does it mean to say someone is a じゃきが電波女 jaki ga denpa onna? And is jaki written as "邪気" or "邪鬼" ?

Google gives 邪気眼電波女 and this explanation. Maybe someone else can let you know if that's a good explanation or not.

Thora Wrote:Google gives 邪気眼電波女 and this explanation. Maybe someone else can let you know if that's a good explanation or not.

Wow! What a strange explanation! Signals from outer space? That sounds like a horribly rude insult!

And 邪気眼 seems similar to 中二病.

Thanks for the link, Thora!

TheTrueBlue Wrote:What does it mean to say someone is a じゃきが電波女 jaki ga denpa onna? And is jaki written as "邪気" or "邪鬼" ?

If it's from ep 2 of what I think it is, it's じゃきがんでんぱおんな (You missed ん between が and 電波). Google 邪気眼, and you can read the original copypasta. The meme is as old as the internet. 電波 in this sentence is synonymous with デムパ. This Japanese wikipedia article explains the word in detail.

Edit: Ah, Thora beat me to it while I was watching the rest of the ep...

magamo Wrote:

TheTrueBlue Wrote:What does it mean to say someone is a じゃきが電波女 jaki ga denpa onna? And is jaki written as "邪気" or "邪鬼" ?

If it's from ep 2 of what I think it is, it's じゃきがんでんぱおんな (You missed ん between が and 電波). Google 邪気眼, and you can read the original copypasta. The meme is as old as the internet. 電波 in this sentence is synonymous with デムパ. This Japanese wikipedia article explains the word in detail.

Edit: Ah, Thora beat me to it while I was watching the rest of the ep...

Thank you magamo, for the explanation and the link to the Wikipedia article (Although it seems there would be many nuances of meaning in the terms used to describe 電波系 that require a certain depth of experience) . So it's similar in connotation to "being possessed by spirits" as an explanation for unorthodox behavior?

TheTrueBlue Wrote:(Although it seems there would be many nuances of meaning in the terms used to describe 電波系 that require a certain depth of experience) . So it's similar in connotation to "being possessed by spirits" as an explanation for unorthodox behavior?

The word can be used to mean "crazy," "schizophrenic," or something along those lines. But you'd rarely hear it in a normal everyday conversation. It's typically used on the internet when referring to a person with abnormal behavior. So it's more like internet slang than a real word. This kind of internet slangy usage of 電波 often implies that the person is sort of paranoid and a kind of person who lives in his/her own world (in a very bad sense). I feel like its core sense is more like being crazy in a way that he's under some kind of wacky illusion and delusion and unable to understand the reality at all.

magamo Wrote:

TheTrueBlue Wrote:(Although it seems there would be many nuances of meaning in the terms used to describe 電波系 that require a certain depth of experience) . So it's similar in connotation to "being possessed by spirits" as an explanation for unorthodox behavior?

The word can be used to mean "crazy," "schizophrenic," or something along those lines. But you'd rarely hear it in a normal everyday conversation. It's typically used on the internet when referring to a person with abnormal behavior. So it's more like internet slang than a real word. This kind of internet slangy usage of 電波 often implies that the person is sort of paranoid and a kind of person who lives in his/her own world (in a very bad sense). I feel like its core sense is more like being crazy in a way that he's under some kind of wacky illusion and delusion and unable to understand the reality at all.

Thank you for the further explanation.

Sorry for the off-topic post, but magamo, you are a girl right? The impression I got of magamo seemed like that of an accomplished, smart, and dependable girl.

But now it's been revealed that she also watches those kinds of shows!

How apropos of the unnamed series in discussion! Perhaps there really are/(is a) those kinds of girls out there? (just kidding just kidding) :3

Thora Wrote:psst: watch out Magamo-chan. TrueBlue is on the hunt for a sweet Japanese wife. ;-)

Holy crap. I had thought (and hoped) forumers here would have forgotten about all that by now... *sweatdrop.

Although the username Thora does seem familiar...

TheTrueBlue Wrote:Holy crap. I had thought (and hoped) forumers here would have forgotten about all that by now... *sweatdrop.

You thought you could ever live it down? But no worries. I'm sure everyone likes you. Your thread won the best thread of the year a while ago.

forgotten about what? ;-) oh, it's Mr Magamo, btw

magamo Wrote:You thought you could ever live it down?

magamo Wrote:But no worries. I'm sure everyone likes you.

My cognition is hurting with dissonance.

Unless the latter half was well-seasoned with disparaging sarcasm. In which case *apologetic sweatdrop*.

But as is said: 出る杭は打たれる and 羹に懲りて膾を吹く, thankfully 人の噂も七十五日.

えっと... sorry for the mix-up Mr. Magamo. \跪

In one of my N2 mock tests this showed up: 審判 in my Anki deck (and according to rikaichan) it can be read as both しんぱん　しんばん
In the test both of these versions were an anwer option, so of course I had no idea which one to pick.
The correct answer seems to be しんぱん.
Can anyone tell me more about this? :/

It could be situational -- As a noun it could be one and as a するverb it could be the other. I really don't know I'm right beside you taking these darn mock tests.

You should post the question. Maybe that might shine some light on the answer.



That reminded me today of a question on the difference between 論議 and 議論.
論議 = discussion with logical debates
議論 = more of a fight
Needless to day, I missed the question.