Thank you. I recall now being told that that was one of the grammar points that had been revised in the new edition (but I haven't seen the newer Genki 1 - and clearly didn't learn the old Genki 1 very well!).
Thanks very much for clearing it up.

Hey everyone, I'm having trouble with a definition. The word is 誘う

行動をともにするようにすすめる

My very literal translation is "to advise in order to do based on action/behavior." However, this doesn't make much sense. How exactly are ともに and ように functioning here?

Thanks

sparky14 Wrote:Hey everyone, I'm having trouble with a definition. The word is 誘う

行動をともにするようにすすめる

My very literal translation is "to advise in order to do based on action/behavior." However, this doesn't make much sense. How exactly are ともに and ように functioning here?

Thanks

Not sure what this sentence has to do with 誘う?

ともにする is a verb that means "to do together". Based on a Google search, 行動をともにする appears to be something of a set phrase meaning "to perform some activity together". So I'd guesstimate that this means "to recommend as though you'd like to do it together"/"to recommend as a joint activity".

https://www.google.co.jp/#q=%E8%A1%8C%E5...9%E3%82%8B

It was one of the definitions on sanseido :/. That makes sense though, thanks.

I have a question, It's been kinda annoying me lately.

I always seem to run into contradictory vocab or grammar points, one book will say one thing and another will say something different...

So... my class textbook says the verb "to work" should be written 仕事をします。But my one Anki deck is giving me 働きます as the verb "to work." Is one correct and the other incorrect, or are they both correct but have different meanings/usages?

I have a similar problem with "to study." My textbook says to use 勉強をします whereas my Anki deck just has 勉強します。(without the particle)

Can someone help me out here? (I really don't understand Japanese grammar very well at all, since my textbook doesn't really cover it, and the teacher, for the most part, just follows the book. I think that may be the cause of a lot of my problems. I just ordered two books that are specifically on grammar, but I don't have them yet ha.)

frosty_rain Wrote:So... my class textbook says the verb "to work" should be written 仕事をします。But my one Anki deck is giving me 働きます as the verb "to work." Is one correct and the other incorrect, or are they both correct but have different meanings/usages?

働く (polite 働きます) is the verb 'to perform labor'. It doesn't have to refer to one's job, but can. It is often used where we would say 'to work' or 'to do (one's) work'.
仕事 is the noun for 'job' or 'work' (in the narrow meaning of one's occupation, not in any other way that 'job' or 'work' can be used in English.) 仕事をする (polite - 仕事をします) is quite literally 'do (one's) job', or 'do (one's) work'.
(Notice that just in explaining this I've already come up with three overlapping English terms job, work and occupation... and there are many more. Japanese does the same thing.)

Quote:I have a similar problem with "to study." My textbook says to use 勉強をします whereas my Anki deck just has 勉強します。(without the particle)

Just about any noun can have '___をする' (___をします) added to it to mean 'to do ___'. There are also certain nouns that are designated as 'する verbs'　that can have する directly added to them without を, and 勉強 is one of them. So both are correct. Using the を sounds a little stiffer and more formal, but the difference is small.

Thanks very much for clearing that up for me!

Haha, but now I have another question... I just started the Anki deck Optimized Kore 2k/6k and in one of the sentences it has a kanji I don't recognize. The furigana for it was 「かいあ」った。 So I looked it up on Denshi Jisho but it says that word doesn't exist. I tried searching both かいあった and just かいあ but got nothing...

frosty_rain Wrote:Thanks very much for clearing that up for me!

Haha, but now I have another question... I just started the Anki deck Optimized Kore 2k/6k and in one of the sentences it has a kanji I don't recognize. The furigana for it was 「かいあ」った。 So I looked it up on Denshi Jisho but it says that word doesn't exist. I tried searching both かいあった and just かいあ but got nothing...

It looks like a phrase, かい　あった (plain past of ある, polite あります/ありました)
Try searching under かい ; there are several kanji and kanji compounds with that pronunciation.

(or you could just cut-and-paste the kanji into the dictionary or into your post; just edit the card so you can get access to an editable field version of the card.)

南方諸都市は旅びとの扱いが手荒く、町によっては旅びとというのは北方から奪われるための金を持ってやってきて、自分たちに殺されるだけの存在だと思っている連中ばかりがいたりするのだ。

I'm afraid I don't have the surrounding sentences because I don't have the book in front of me, but this is from 旅のラゴス, about a guy who travels across a fantasy/sci-fi world and I am struggling to understand it...

南方諸都市は旅びとの扱いが手荒く = The southern cities treated travellers badly

No idea what to make of the rest of it.

Depending on the town, there were groups who thought that travellers had come with stolen money and their sole existence was to kill them.

Or something?

Any ideas?

SomeCallMeChris Wrote:Haha, but now I have another question... I just started the Anki deck Optimized Kore 2k/6k and in one of the sentences it has a kanji I don't recognize. The furigana for it was 「かいあ」った。

Is it anything to do with 甲斐がある ?

奪われるための金 is "money for the purpose of being stolen", i.e. they believe travelers exist to be robbed and killed.

Hello, can anyone help me translate this sentence?

腹が減っては戦は出来ぬ、って言うじゃねーか.

I'm having problem with the last part, especially because of that か

The flow of the conversation is like this:

A:オマエも何か食うか？
B:そんな場合じゃない。
C:腹が減っては戦は出来ぬ、って言うじゃねーか.

Thanks.

'Don't they say "you can't fight a war on an empty stomach"?'

じゃねーか must be a rhetorical question, as 言う can't be negated with じゃない.
出来ぬ -> 出来ない, it's an archaic negation. ぬ attaches to the same stem as ない, except for する->せぬ. You'll also see it conjugated to -ねば (=-なければ).

Thanks, you're life saver!

This is from きみにしか聞こえない　-CALLING YOU-

わたしだって、本当はみんなのように携帯電話を持ちたい。でも、話をしてくれる人がいない。持たないようにしているのはそのためだ。わたしに電話をかけてくれる人なんて、どこにもいないから。ついでに言えば、いっしょにカラオケへ行ってくれる人も、いっしょにプリクラを撮ってくれる人もいないのだ。

I'm confused on how 'くれる' is used in these sentences.

Also, would someone translate this: "持たないようにしているのはそのためだ。"

Going through this book showed me I really need to work on my grammar >_<

～てくれる, someone else does an action for your benefit. Here it's more like someone else doing something you would like them to do.

持たない　よう　に　している　の　は　その　ため　だ。
もたない - not carrying
ようにする - to behave in a certain manner, intend to do a certain thing (I feel like here it expresses the idea that her not carrying her phone is something she does intentionally and habitually)
そのため - for that reason

I would probably just translate it as "That's why I never carry it around with me."

sparky14 Wrote:It was one of the definitions on sanseido :/. That makes sense though, thanks.

Oooohhhh, it's the DEFINITION of 誘う. I gets it now. My apologies for being a moron.

yudantaiteki Wrote:～てくれる, someone else does an action for your benefit. Here it's more like someone else doing something you would like them to do.

持たない　よう　に　している　の　は　その　ため　だ。
もたない - not carrying
ようにする - to behave in a certain manner, intend to do a certain thing (I feel like here it expresses the idea that her not carrying her phone is something she does intentionally and habitually)
そのため - for that reason

I would probably just translate it as "That's why I never carry it around with me."

Thank you for clearing that up for me!

個人的な意見ですが、日本のクリスマスには宗教的なバックボーンはありませんよね。もちろん休日にもなりませんしね。それに対してユーロッパのクリスマスは、まさに確立した「文化」です。家族全員が集まり、一緒にターキーを食べる。それは、文化以外の何ものでもありません。

I don't understand the bolded sentence. "It is nothing but culture?"

Basically. "This isn't anything but culture."

What is adjective-くも mean? I see it all the time, but I'm not really sure. I think I've seen it like 惜しくも and 早くも a lot. The recent example that made me post is:
天から偶然に降ってきた大きすぎる贈り物を、当然の権利と受け取れるほど、ぼくは強くもずうずうしくもない。凡庸な人間なんだ。

ずうずうしくない is the negative of ずうずうしい and it often gets supplemented with a も. I'm not quite sure of the nuance here but All About Particles says も+negative "indicates total negation concerning a question of quality or quantity", so I'm guessing it just emphasises the point a bit. It might be better to think of it as ずうずうしく (the adverbial form) + もない rather than も　stuck in the middle of the word but it's definitely not ずうずうし + くも + ない.

It's not always the case that it's a negative sentence though.

も can definitely be used to emphasise a positive and since in both 惜しく　and 早く the く is just part of the preceding word I don't think there's reason to think it's anything other than that. I assume this usage applies to positive and negative statements but all about particles isn't exactly clear on that.

Isn't this just XもYも (both X and Y, or neither X nor Y with a negative)?

も can work with adjectives to mean a lot of the same things it can mean with nouns; I think 早くも and 惜しくも are idiomatic, though.