@TheTrueBlue
Take a look at this typical Japanese keyboard:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2006 … le1_28.jpg

If you follow the keys of く, い, り, り, ら, ...., い, and you get, "hello this is me."

The Japanese letters on those keys are used to type more efficiently than the usual romanized input. Technically you're typing a consonant+vowel set in one shot, so it's supposed to be faster.

Edit: hehe I'm the fastest!

Last edited by magamo (2009 September 14, 1:38 am)

On JP keyboards when you input kana you have two methods - romaji input where you type konnitiha for こんにちは or kana input.  The individual keys have kana written on them as well so you can put in kana with just one keystroke.

Through the typical jp keyboard layout, typing helloitisme produces くいりりらにかにともい.

EDIT: you jerks beat me to it in the 5 minutes it took me to write this.

Last edited by coverup (2009 September 14, 1:34 am)

@sennahoj
どうかしてる basically means "something is wrong" and is often said in situations where you're surprised by an unusual behavior and say, "What's wrong with you," "I don't get it," etc. You can also use it when something is broken and is behaving strangely.

If you want an utterly useless, non-practical explanation, here it is:

It is a spoken form of どうかしている. As you probably already know, どう is similar to an interrogative "how" in English. It is implying here that the speaker doesn't know how this could happen or what's going on, I think. Also, している is often said it's the equivalent of the progressive form "-ing" in English. As usual, the subject of the sentence is left out because it's obvious from context.

So, it means that (Omitted Subject) is in the state of making you think "How could this happen?, What's going on?!, I don't get it! etc."

Note that this explanation is as stupid as this explanation of "What's going on?":

"What's" is a contraction of "what is." "Is going" is the progressive tense so it means something is in the state of "go." Finally, "on" is a word that is often used when you mean "continuing." Oh, "what" is a word to ask a question when you don't understand something. The "something" referred to by "what" should be a noun. So it means "There exists a continuing thing that I do not understand."

As for 秋葉原通り魔事件, the word 通り魔 (とおりま) means a random attacker as in a person who attacks passengers indiscriminately in the street. I don't know how anyone can translate a word without context, but I might translate it as "the Akihabara rampage" or something similar.

Last edited by magamo (2009 September 14, 10:01 pm)

lanval wrote:

この瓶はもう空ね。 この びん は もう から ね 。
Anyone know why this is flagged? I cant find that word for empty in the dictionary.

It's not incorrect. Who said it was ungrammatical?

In Pokemon, there is an item called あなぬけのヒモ
In the English version, I believe it's called "escape rope" or something like that. I get that "ヒモ" is the rope part, but I can't parse the meaning of あなぬけ. What exactly is this saying?

IceCream wrote:

few questions:

きっと　脈あるって。  is this a saying?

あんたみたいなのがタイプだって　男でも現れないかぎり。 i'm a bit unsure of 男でも現れないかぎり. There's a limit to which men appear? There's a limit to which men don't appear? Something else? Oh, & ive forgotten what the なのが grammar does in the middle of the sentence?

男　連れ込んで　同棲してたでしょ。そうみたいですね。頭きたから　追い出してやった。　ざま見ろだ。
whats the 頭きたから? and the ざま見ろだ?

hope you can help!

脈 can mean a ray of hope. It is often used in context of romantic relationship, but you can use it in various situations. Usually you use it when there is a certain sign or evidence.

The most versatile translation of X (usually noun) でもY (usually verb) ないかぎり is probably "unless X does/is Y."

頭に来る is an idiomatic expression that means "get angry" or "make someone angry." If you 頭に来た, you are upset. If something 頭にくる, it makes you angry.

ざまー見ろ is a Japanese equivalent of "Good for you!," "Serves you right!," etc. ざま is 様, which means "situation," "state" or something along those lines. So its literal meaning is "Look at (this sorry) situation (that you deserve)."

Edit: Forgot to address なのが in your example sentence. Xみたいなのが means "thing(s)/person/people that is/are like X."

Last edited by magamo (2009 September 17, 6:48 pm)

仮名の英語かも知れない。

Last edited by wildweathel (2009 September 19, 12:56 pm)

秋になると、両リーグを通しての日本一を決める試合が行われる。

It looks like it means that when autumn comes, the best Japanese team is determined in a game. (The two leagues here are the pacific and the central league it says, I know nothing about baseball.)

1. What does 通す mean here? I thought it was just the intransitive version of 通る.
2. Why does の appear after 通して? Are verbs in て-form nouns?

Thanks in advance!

kazelee wrote:

IceCream wrote:

てゃんきょう！！　：）

これは何だ？

Is it これは or それは (or even あれは) that kazelee should be using?

Honestly have no idea how things on an internet forum should be referred to as they are kind of "here", "there" (and well, "out there") and really want to know.

Edit: no idea what your response to kazelee was either IceCream btw

Last edited by Rooboy (2009 September 21, 5:42 pm)

IceCream wrote:

kazelee wrote:

IceCream wrote:

てゃんきょう！！　：）

これは何だ？

うあｔ　あれ　よう　たｌきんｇ　あぼうｔ？日本語ですね

決してこのように続くと僕の頭を爆発させますよ。

This makes me sound like a complete beginner, but when pronouncing ４ヶ月, is it よんかげつ？ That sounds the most correct to me because it seems very familiar, like I've heard it many times, but I want to know for sure whether it's not something else like よかげつ or even　しかげつ (somehow this is sounding odd to me).  Also, what about ７ヶ月？ 9ヶ月？

albion wrote:

From a little Googling, よんかげつ seems to be right.

7 seems to be ななかげつ, and 9 is きゅうかげつ.

I forgot all about googling :B Thanks!

Nuriko wrote:

I just remembered another question I have.  I can't seem to find the pronunciation for the word "ざら” (as in "common")．
Definition: どこにでもあって珍しくないさま。ありふれているさま。
Example sentence: "このような例はざらです"

Is there an accent for this word?  If so, is the mora on 1 or 2?

ちょっとした完全主義者です。

You can find the pronunciation here: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi- … dic.cgi?1C