yudantaiteki Wrote:

dizmox Wrote:When I'm talking to women older than me I call them 姉ちゃん.

That sounds very anime-ish to me; I wouldn't really recommend that either.

This is really an area where you want to be conservative and play it safe, because most Japanese people will not correct you if you're offending them in this way -- sometimes they won't even be honest if you ask them point-blank if you're using it wrong.

I meant jokingly calling friends that, not walking up to strangers going「オイオイオイ、ネェちゃん,　飲みに行こうか」like a maniac, lol...

Asriel Wrote:

Manske Wrote:Is 色々なジャンルを読まれようとしているのでしょうか？ implying that I need to read something other than shoujo/romances?

She hasn't read GE, so she doesn't know how 'lovey-dovey' it is...But since it's a shounen and 君に届け is shoujo, she seems to be considering them in 2 different genres (even if they are both love stories).

So, she thinks it's interesting or intriguing that you're switching between manga that are "so different," I guess...although from what you say, it sounds like they're kind of similar.

The question isn't implying anything, but she's inquiring whether the reason you're reading such different things is because you're trying to read a lot of different types of manga.

色々なジャンルを(bunches of genres)読まれようとしている([polite] you currently giving an effort to read)のでしょうか？
The のでしょうか? is what gives us the signal that she's inquiring that perhaps this a reason for the aforementioned strange behavior (of switching manga types/having differed tastes)

ah, thanks a lot!

What's the difference between 彼には and 彼は ?
This has already been discussed, but I cannot find where it is.

usis35 Wrote:What's the difference between 彼には and 彼は ?
This has already been discussed, but I cannot find where it is.

にはis　something like "for him"

彼には良くない It's not good for him (to do something)


彼は良くない
He is not good.(not a good guy)

usis35 Wrote:What's the difference between 彼には and 彼は ?
This has already been discussed, but I cannot find where it is.

They mean different things (but there may be situations where they're interchangeable).

彼には means 彼に, with a nuance of comparison. (him, as opposed to her, or me, for example).

Today I thought about using a construction that I have completely no idea on how to construct in Japanese, and I can't find good answer anywhere either.

I would like to say "I hope (that)", refering to a past event.

For example when someone tells you that he had paid an enourmous amount of money on some food and you say "That much money?! I hope it was good!" or that he met your drunk friend and you say something like "I hope he wasn't rude to you".

To tell you the truth I'm not completely sure how to say "I hope" even when refering to future events... (e.g. "I hope he will succeed").

Typically using といい is the best way to represent that in Japanese -- 成功するといいね (I hope you succeed, literally "it would be good if you succeed"). This doesn't work for past things, though.

For past the only thing I can think of is just saying something like おいしければいいけど・・・ but that perhaps isn't as close to the English as it might be.

Hi, I'm currently going through Minna no Nihongo I and am having trouble with something. What's the difference between these two sentences?
1.これはだれのノートですか。
２。このノートはだれのですか。

They both mean, "Whose notebook is this?", right? However, they're said in different ways but I don't understand the significance of why they're written twice. Is it just to show that it can be said both ways? I'm sentence mining and don't want to screw up the meaning for these. Thanks.

aargh57 Wrote:Hi, I'm currently going through Minna no Nihongo I and am having trouble with something. What's the difference between these two sentences?
1.これはだれのノートですか。
２。このノートはだれのですか。

They both mean, "Whose notebook is this?", right? However, they're said in different ways but I don't understand the significance of why they're written twice. Is it just to show that it can be said both ways? I'm sentence mining and don't want to screw up the meaning for these. Thanks.

Yeah it pretty much shows how you can switch that grammar around. Although の particle describes the noun, it can be used without it. That's why you can drop the noun after the の if the noun appeared earlier in the sentence or listener can guess it by context. Because of that の becomes a generic noun further down the road.

yudantaiteki Wrote:Typically using といい is the best way to represent that in Japanese -- 成功するといいね (I hope you succeed, literally "it would be good if you succeed"). This doesn't work for past things, though.

For past the only thing I can think of is just saying something like おいしければいいけど・・・ but that perhaps isn't as close to the English as it might be.

Thanks for your answer yudantaiteki! Yeah it makes sense with hoping about future event, also the past event with meal is pretty to the point, just the example with "I hope he wasn't rude to you" doesn't translate with it very well and that's more of the meaning that I'm after here. Maybe there's some better way to say it...

I'm thinking one way would be 成功したならいいね (I hope he succeeded)

Google seems to back this up

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=...31db&hl=en

What is the function of でも in this sentence?

お茶でも飲みましょう。

The translation that was given read, "Let's drink some tea," but I'm not sure if that's completely right. I know that in other contexts, でも can mean "even" or "too." Help is appreciated.

tylerdevlin Wrote:What is the function of でも in this sentence?

お茶でも飲みましょう。

The translation that was given read, "Let's drink some tea," but I'm not sure if that's completely right. I know that in other contexts, でも can mean "even" or "too." Help is appreciated.

Ha! Finally sentence mining the "All about particles" book turns out to be useful! This is one usage of でも I can explain (I guess. If I'm wrong, please correct me):

映画でも見ましょう。 - Let's see or movie or something.
レコードでも聞きませんか。- Let's listen to a record or something.

でも = "...or something". In this usage you may not replace でも with だって!

Ｗｈａｔ　ｄｏｅｓ　ホントカス　ｍｅａｎ？

Please give context when you ask these questions; it reduces the work that we have to do to help you. I have no idea what the term means, though.　　(カス is sometimes used in netslang as an insult, so it might mean 本当にカス or something like that. But without context it's impossible to say.)

2yudantaiteki

"いつの間にか英語版になってた　ホントカス"

It's a status in skype.

It might just mean 本当か。

Yeah, as far as I can tell, it seems to be just some sort of exclamation of badness.
研究社リーダーズ＋プラス has カス in as "*****-shit"
So it'd assume that ホントカス would equate to "truly *****-shit"

Must be frustrated that it's in English now...

かすcould be 滓•粕•糟, sediment, dregs, basically left over impurities (ie from sake production etc), basically scum. As in the expression チン滓野郎. I think either kanji can be used. So I imagine ホントカス means the worst of the worst or useless or worthless crap or something or simply an exaggeration of not good. If you type ホントカス in kanji into google you don't get a huge number of hits but the usage seems the same as in katakana.

Thanks for the replies, I thought the same, some kind of "exclamation of badness".

From Core6000:

あなたにまで迷惑が及んでごめんなさい

"I'm sorry that even you've been inconvenienced."

Is this a sort of set-phrase/idiomatic expression?

To me it seems like it would mean, "I'm sorry that the inconvenience has reached you"...

Where does the "even you" bit come from?...

SammyB Wrote:From Core6000:

あなたにまで迷惑が及んでごめんなさい

"I'm sorry that even you've been inconvenienced."
Is this a sort of set-phrase/idiomatic expression?
To me it seems like it would mean, "I'm sorry that the inconvenience has reached you"...

Google does suggest that 迷惑が及ぶ is a common combination, yes (迷惑をかける is I think more common though). I wouldn't call it an idiom, though, since the meaning is pretty clear from the meaning of all the individual components.

Quote:Where does the "even you" bit come from?...

From まで, which implies that あなた is at the edge of where the 迷惑 has spread to.

My teacher wrote this correction and I'm not really sure what it says between だけで and なくてもいいです。 Can anyone read that? Thanks!

It's だけじゃなくてもいいです。

I am having a difficult time getting my head around this:

。。。ほとんど他に車のいない１本道を遠く飛ばしている時。

She has been riding in a taxi traveling on １本道 for many hours. It is the first part - ほとんど他に車のいない that I can't quite grasp.

Thanks!

gibosi Wrote:I am having a difficult time getting my head around this:

。。。ほとんど他に車のいない１本道を遠く飛ばしている時。

She has been riding in a taxi traveling on １本道 for many hours. It is the first part - ほとんど他に車のいない that I can't quite grasp.

Thanks!

ほとんど他に車のいない１本道

A road on which there are not many other cars

So she's travelling on a very quiet road.