You need to find what parts of the passage modify the subjects 都市 and 原爆ドーム. Noun modifiers basically build on a subject to give more information. So `Pickles` can be modified to `the dog that my dad got for me then backed over in the drive way the following day named Pickles.` Everything up to `named Pickles` is the modifier.

@julianajalapeno:
Thanks so much!

「松屋デパート」の前です。「三越」の横の、「三和銀行」と間違えないでね。

This is from my textbook. Two things confuse me:

1. Is the "の" after 横 modifying the noun afterwards, or performing some other function? I'm assuming it is modifying the following noun, but the only thing that confused me is why they inserted a comma in between.

2. What is the function of the "と" after 「三和銀行」? I thought it was the conditional と ("when, if... etc."), because that is the と that has been used repeatedly in the chapter from which this sentence came. But I don't really understand. Does it mean: "When [at] Sanwa Bank (which is next to Mitsukoshi depaato), please don't make a mistake" But I think that is definately not correct, because you cannot use conditional と if the following sentence is a request, suggestion etc. So if someone can tell me how to interpret this sentence, and the function of と particle, thank you.

vinniram Wrote:「松屋デパート」の前です。「三越」の横の、「三和銀行」と間違えないでね。

This is from my textbook. Two things confuse me:

1. Is the "の" after 横 modifying the noun afterwards, or performing some other function? I'm assuming it is modifying the following noun, but the only thing that confused me is why they inserted a comma in between.

It is modifying the following noun. I'm not sure why the comma is there; I think Japanese punctuation has less formalised rules than English punctuation, so it's not always consistently used between writers.

Quote:2. What is the function of the "と" after 「三和銀行」? I thought it was the conditional と ("when, if... etc."), because that is the と that has been used repeatedly in the chapter from which this sentence came. But I don't really understand.

Nope. The verb 間違える can take a noun-phrase marked with と indicating the thing the direct object is mistaken for/with. XをYと間違えないで -- don't mistake Y for X. (This is the same kind of と you can use with verbs like 比べる. If you have the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar it's "to 2".) You can tell it's not conditional と because that kind of と comes after something that has the form of a plain-form sentence (ie Ai, V, Ana+"da" or N+"da"), so a plain noun followed by と must be something else.

thanks for directing me to the correct entry in DOBJG. I realize I've been seeing "to 2" everywhere without realizing it.

Could I get some tips on these two questions?

年末から年始にかけて、わたしは＿＿＿＿。
A: 新しい服を買った
B: ふるさとの母のところに行っていた

にかけて is supposed to mean stuff happening sporadically over an interval. So why is B the correct answer here? Isn't buying clothes more scattered and non-continuous than being at your mother's place?

今年度をもって＿＿＿＿。
A: この研究会は終わります
B: 新しい研究会が発足します

My book describes をもって as で. Why is A the correct answer here and B wrong? To me they both look as something that can reasonably happen "this year".

Quick one:
What is Kuroneko saying?

FooSoft Wrote:年末から年始にかけて、わたしは＿＿＿＿。
A: 新しい服を買った
B: ふるさとの母のところに行っていた

にかけて is supposed to mean stuff happening sporadically over an interval. So why is B the correct answer here? Isn't buying clothes more scattered and non-continuous than being at your mother's place?

When I learned にかけて, it wasn't about sporadically over an interval
It was　から〜まで, except with hazy boundaries. Something like "From ~ and on into ..."

So "From the end of the year, on into the beginning of the new year, I was at (was going to) my mom's place in my hometown"

as opposed to "From the end of the year, on into the beginning of the year, I bought clothes."
...How do you buy clothes from the end of the year to the new year? Are you shopping Dec. 31 late at night and on into Jan 1?

@jcdietz03 -- 兄さん - にいさん - older brother

I see that font here and there, and I'm not a big fan

Asriel Wrote:When I learned にかけて, it wasn't about sporadically over an interval
It was　から〜まで, except with hazy boundaries. Something like "From ~ and on into ..."

So "From the end of the year, on into the beginning of the new year, I was at (was going to) my mom's place in my hometown"

as opposed to "From the end of the year, on into the beginning of the year, I bought clothes."
...How do you buy clothes from the end of the year to the new year? Are you shopping Dec. 31 late at night and on into Jan 1?

Thanks for the reply!

A little while ago I read magamo's lengthy post about this matter, and he mentioned that the "boundaries" are how it's often described in books but it's not the only difference and that continuouity/lack thereof is a key difference as well. In my どんな時どう使う日本語 book this difference is also specifically highlighted.

What I got out of it was that one of the differences between にわたって and にかけて was that the former is continuous and the latter is intermittent. Also as you said that にわたって is more fuzzy around the borders. So yeah, I guess that's why it's confusing. If it were using まで instead of にかけて I would have chosen the other answer...

FooSoft Wrote:年末から年始にかけて、わたしは＿＿＿＿。
A: 新しい服を買った
B: ふるさとの母のところに行っていた

にかけて is supposed to mean stuff happening sporadically over an interval. So why is B the correct answer here? Isn't buying clothes more scattered and non-continuous than being at your mother's place?

A is totally ok if you mean something along the line of 年末から年始にかけて、わたしは毎日のように新しい服を買った, i.e., you bought clothes like everyday during the new year's holiday season. It's not grammatically wrong or anything. It's just it's unusual to do such a thing.

In any case, I think it's better not to be a smartass if you want to pass a standardized test. There are plenty of questions where one answer is "wrong" because the test maker thought so. 新しい服を買った might mean (毎日のように)新しい服を買った. But pointing out this possibility isn't going to get you a high score on the test.

Also, trip etc. collocates with period+かけて, e.g., 年末から年始にかけて帰国します. It's something more than the simple fact that you'll be in place A where you don't live. For example, the speaker might be picturing it in his mind as something like "I'll do this, do that, and do everything over there." In this case, your trip is a bunch of small activities rather than a period during which you travel.

If you're focusing more on the fact that you're away in a particular period rather than what you're planing on doing, then you might use まで. So, for instance, if the speaker is implying that he's not available because of the travel, period+まで may make perfect sense.

So ふるさとの母のところに行っていた means you visited your mother you left in your hometown. Naturally you're picturing the things you did with her unless, for example, you're talking about why you were not here or you're heartless. Of course, it doesn't mean かけて can't be used when you're explaining why you're absent etc. But I think the difference is how you see the same action (at least in this example).

As for using まで with 年末から年始, I wouldn't say it's wrong. But it's not the most idiomatic phrasing.

FooSoft Wrote:今年度をもって＿＿＿＿。
A: この研究会は終わります
B: 新しい研究会が発足します

My book describes をもって as で. Why is A the correct answer here and B wrong? To me they both look as something that can reasonably happen "this year".

Probably this question is testing one particular usage of まで. It is often used when you specify the limit, final day, end, etc. Again, the sentence B might mean something like 今年度をもって (この研究会は解散し、そのかわりに) 新しい研究会が発足します. But if a question is clearly testing your knowledge of one specific usage, you might want to numb your mind and please the test maker.

I think this question is to see if you know the sense of をもって that roughly means "something changed/happened" with emphasis on the fact that something (which may or may not be the same as the "something" which changed/happened) ended. A straightforward usage of this sense would be XをもってYが終わる. Another typical structure is XをもってYになる, i.e., something turns into Y at time frame X (and this means it's the end of being Z, which is not Y).

So A uses もって with the limit/end sense in a straightforward way. B sounds like the speaker is saying something along the line of "This is the end of the old era." This might be ok in some situations, e.g., everyone hated the older association and wanted a change (In a sense, 既存の研究会は解散する is implied). But this interpretation isn't as straightforward, and probably that's why it's considered the "wrong" answer.

I think a good strategy is considering how frequent each expression would be in real life rather than whether they are possible/grammatical/logical. This way, you don't need to consider which grammar point each question is testing.

今、世界でもっとも広く使われている言語は英語だと言っていいでしょう。その英語を使えば、だいたいどこの国に行ってもコミュニケーションがとれます。しかし、○○○、単純に「英語は世界のことば」と言えるでしょうか。

a)　だからこそ
b)　だからといって
c)　そればかりか
d)　そればかりに

Basically I couldn't decide whether to take b) or d).
In the end I decided to take b) which was wrong.
There's also an explanantion in my N2 book, but I still don't get why I can't use d) and what exactly b) means in this case.

Here's the explanation in my book:
X。だからといって、Yではないは、Xのとき必ずYになるのではなく、Yでないこともあることを表す。Yは否定的内容であれば、否定の形でなくてもよい。
例　仕事は好きだ。だからといって、一日に10時間以上働くのはいやだ。

Anybody can enlighten me?
Thanks a lot.

chochajin Wrote:b)　だからといって
...
d)　そればかりに

If you use だからといって, the sentence in question roughly means "Just because you can communicate with local people in English in pretty much every country doesn't mean it's THE international language," "But does it really qualify English as the language of our world?" or something along those lines.

X (reason/cause) ばかりに Y (result/consequence/effect) means that X is THE reason/cause (or the biggest/major reason) why it's Y. Here's an example:

だいたいどこの国に行ってもコミュニケーションがとれるばかりに、多くの人が「英語は世界のことば」だと勘違いしている。
English speakers can get by in pretty much every country. That's why a lot of ignorant people think everyone should speak or learn it.

The result/consequence/effect part tends to be a negative thing which you don't like and often takes the form of Yしまう.

Also, this use of ばかりに tends to follow a full-fledged clause. それ in そればかりに can refer to a clause, but it's not very common. It'd be even rarer if the reason part is separated by another word; in your example, there is しかし before the blank. But the use of pronoun is pretty common when the phrase means "only" as in そればかりに集中する (focus only on it) regardless of whether there is another word between the pronoun and the clause it refers to.

If you use そればかりに in the example in your post, it's quite hard to make sense of it because there are so many parts that don't just fit right. But だからといって works well.

chochajin Wrote:Basically I couldn't decide whether to take b) or d).
In the end I decided to take b) which was wrong.
There's also an explanantion in my N2 book, but I still don't get why I can't use d)

...don't you mean "d) which was wrong" there?

Thanks magamo, I think I get it now!

On the first question, I just had no idea that being somewhere was compatible with にかけて. The action of going somewhere seemed very uniform to me, since it's kind of vague (and I associate details with making something be non-uniform).

And on the second issue, I had no idea that をもって had the nuance of something ending. My book just described it as "で" which as far as I know has no such meaning, so that's why I couldn't decide which one was more appropriate.

春江は泣いてばかりいて何も話そうとしない。

What's the と between 話そう and しない?

It's not quoting anything, it's not marking a reciprocal relationship, I don't think it's a conditional marker, and it's definately not the exhaustive listing usage.

So what is it actually doing, then? I have a feeling I am overlooking something obvious, because last time I looked at this sentence I don't remember having an issue with it... thanks for any help.

See if you can find a grammar point ～ようとする or Volitional + とする or something like that. It means "try do to X [and not succeed]" In the negative here it's sort of like "didn't even try to speak".

I'm not 100% sure what other と's this would relate to; I don't think it's any of the 3 you listed. There are other expressions that have とする in them.

Speaking of grammar, I have another question. In the below sentence, I'm supposed to fill it in with some form of ~ように, but I don't understand how to use it. I'm not sure it's just ように by itself in the blank because "ようにので" together like that sounds wrong.　I'm awful at fill-in-the-blank grammar because I run into not having the right vocabulary word a lot of the time.

先生がおしゃった______ので、先学期の成績はよかったです。
Is this something like "Because it is as the teacher said, last semester's grades were good"? Like there's an emphasis on the fact it was spoken by the teacher as opposed to being from another student, giving it more validity?

Thanks for any help.

Okay, so this is more of a "what is this kanji" question. So I've been playing through my friend's Pokemon a little in kanji and have been able to identify all the kanji so far (I'm not far at all) except one. And I've spent two hours trying to figure out what in the heck it is.

The full sentence (with the kanji included) is 旅（たび）の　パートナーとなる　ポケモンを　選んだ（えらんだ）　その とき から。 And "toki" is the word that's in a strange set of kanji.

Here is what the kanji looks like in the game: http://tinyurl.com/2g48vvf

Any help would be appreciated. D: I just can't figure out what in the heck it is, and nothing under "toki" in the IME comes up to look like that.

nohika Wrote:Okay, so this is more of a "what is this kanji" question. So I've been playing through my friend's Pokemon a little in kanji and have been able to identify all the kanji so far (I'm not far at all) except one. And I've spent two hours trying to figure out what in the heck it is.

The full sentence (with the kanji included) is 旅（たび）の　パートナーとなる　ポケモンを　選んだ（えらんだ）　その とき から。 And "toki" is the word that's in a strange set of kanji.

Here is what the kanji looks like in the game: http://tinyurl.com/2g48vvf

Any help would be appreciated. D: I just can't figure out what in the heck it is, and nothing under "toki" in the IME comes up to look like that.

It's 瞬間. You can get it by typing しゅんかん on MS-IME, which is the standard reading for the combination of kanji. とき is an extremely frequent word, so you can't fail to learn when to use which version through reading.

@nohika

If you don't know what a particular character is, a radical-based lookup can be pretty helpful

nohika Wrote:The full sentence (with the kanji included) is 旅（たび）の　パートナーとなる　ポケモンを　選んだ（えらんだ）　その とき から。 And "toki" is the word that's in a strange set of kanji.

The only reading I know for 瞬間 is しゅんかん. The general meaning is a short period of time, e.g. moment/minute. There is a similarity with とき and I would assume this reading was given to assist younger viewers who are unfamiliar with the work 瞬間.

THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU. =)

@Foosoft - I tried a radical lookup, but I couldn't tell exactly what the freakin' strokes were next to the threebox-y radical, and it was driving me crazy.

Yeah, I know "toki", but I've never seen it written like that, and that's what was confusing me so much. I had figured it was "moment", but wasn't sure.

Thanks, all of you. =)

atylmo Wrote:Speaking of grammar, I have another question. In the below sentence, I'm supposed to fill it in with some form of ~ように, but I don't understand how to use it. I'm not sure it's just ように by itself in the blank because "ようにので" together like that sounds wrong.　I'm awful at fill-in-the-blank grammar because I run into not having the right vocabulary word a lot of the time.

先生がおしゃった______ので、先学期の成績はよかったです。
Is this something like "Because it is as the teacher said, last semester's grades were good"? Like there's an emphasis on the fact it was spoken by the teacher as opposed to being from another student, giving it more validity?

Thanks for any help.

Something comes after ように, maybe 勉強した because it would then be something like `Because I studied like my teacher told me to, I got good grades last semester.`

I am really REALLY confused about the grammar なの.

I see this used all the time, and I believe it can have several different meanings, depending on usage.
I found a couple of examples on tae kim's guide, but they aren't 100% clear to me, and I really don't think they cover all the primary uses of it.
Examples I found there were:
静かなのが、アリスの部屋だ。
And:
ジムなのだ。

Though like I said, I see this all the time, and it doesn't always seem to be one of those cases.
For instance in some comics that someone linked on this forum, I saw this sentence:
これホントに朝顔なのかなー？
It's different, right?

And also, in the edict dictionary, it says なの is the feminine copula. I don't really even know what a copula is, except I have read that です is the copula... so that's really confusing as well @_@