what's the difference between 「眠く成った」 and 「眠く成って来た」 ?
I've seem them both used as "I'm sleepy", but can't figure out how they differ.

A quick question:
医者にタバコをやめるように言われた。
the ように part is a bit confusing for me. Does it mean that the doctor said that someone should start the manner of stopping to smoke, or something along those lines?

Zorlee wrote:

A quick question:
医者にタバコをやめるように言われた。
the ように part is a bit confusing for me. Does it mean that the doctor said that someone should start the manner of stopping to smoke, or something along those lines?

From what I hear in daily life, it seems that ように is often used to soften the tone of a statement.  Literally I think of it as something like "My doctor told me to act as if to quit smoking."  Probably the doctor said something like 「タバコをやめるようにしてください。」  Since it would be very forceful to say やめてください, he or she instead is suggesting that the the patient should 'try to quit smoking.'  I imagine that a doctor might say it in this way even if it is relatively urgent that the patient quit smoking, just because it's a polite way to say it.

Thank you!
If I were alone with my dictionary (ok, that sounds weird), how could I have looked up this "kind" of ように? Is it just pure grammar-stuff, or does it represent a word?
I´m asking since I´m soon going to start mining native material, and stuff like this is hard for me to look up! Again, thank you!

mezbup wrote:

放送中は話す言葉を聞き逃（のが）さないように、とにかく集中しています。「入力に夢中になって、明日（あした）の天気がなんだったのか分からなかった」こともあるそうです。バラエティーでは何人もが一度に話すので、じっと耳をすませます。

Can't understand 明日（あした）の天気がなんだったのか分からなかった
Is it saying you can't ponder what tomorrows weather will be like because you're so engrossed in typing??

The speaker is typing out teletext or something and spaced out whilst typing. Although they typed out tomorrows weather they can't recall what tomorrows weather is going to be... so they're like "what was it again?" ...

I've done that before whilst typing out law lectures lol... I can space out and do an entire page word for word and not recall most of it :-P

How does one refer to something as a 'comfort food' in Japanese?

Zorlee wrote:

Thank you!
If I were alone with my dictionary (ok, that sounds weird), how could I have looked up this "kind" of ように? Is it just pure grammar-stuff, or does it represent a word?

It is basically just grammar, yes (at least that's the simplest way to think about it). My first place to look up grammar these days is 日本語文型辞典 which I think is a pretty reasonable grammar dictionary (written in Japanese for second-language learners, so most useful if you're at a sort of intermediate level and can understand the explanations...) If you want an English-language reference, you could try _A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar_ (although it is less comprehensive unless you buy the Intermediate and perhaps Advanced volumes too).

In other words, you'll find being alone with *two* dictionaries even more satisfying :-)

pm215 wrote:

Zorlee wrote:

Thank you!
If I were alone with my dictionary (ok, that sounds weird), how could I have looked up this "kind" of ように? Is it just pure grammar-stuff, or does it represent a word?

It is basically just grammar, yes (at least that's the simplest way to think about it). My first place to look up grammar these days is 日本語文型辞典 which I think is a pretty reasonable grammar dictionary (written in Japanese for second-language learners, so most useful if you're at a sort of intermediate level and can understand the explanations...) If you want an English-language reference, you could try _A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar_ (although it is less comprehensive unless you buy the Intermediate and perhaps Advanced volumes too).

In other words, you'll find being alone with *two* dictionaries even more satisfying :-)

Thank you, man!
I´ll definitely check out that book! I´ve got some grammar-work to do, that´s for sure, hehe!

Hi guys!

航空券は安ければ安いほどいいとは限らない。
It's not necessarily the case that the cheaper the plane ticket, the better it is.

This sentence is from Tae Kim´s guide. My problem is the いいとは限らない part.
Does this mean that cheaper plane tickets aren´t limited to be better? Or?
I just got really confused about the 限る verb!

Thank you very much for your help!
Zorlee...

Zorlee wrote:

航空券は安ければ安いほどいいとは限らない。
It's not necessarily the case that the cheaper the plane ticket, the better it is.

This sentence is from Tae Kim´s guide. My problem is the いいとは限らない part.
Does this mean that cheaper plane tickets aren´t limited to be better? Or?
I just got really confused about the 限る verb!

You're breaking the sentence in the wrong place:

安ければ安いほどいい

the cheaper the better ...

とは限らない

... isn't necessarily the case.

限る has a lot of set-form uses which are often taught as grammar patterns, like this one (Xとは限らない : it's not always/necessarily true that X), so my guess is that a lot of the times when you see it it will be in some sort of standard pattern, rather than just being a verb.

Zorlee wrote:

たまには仲間に入れよ - the 入れよ part is a bit confusing. Is it just 入れ (imperative - command) and the gobi よ, or? Rikaichan suggests that it is both imperative and potential. This is what freaked me out. I guess the meaning is along the lines of: "join your mates once in a while".

This kind of よ makes a sentence sound friendly. It's usually put at the end of an otherwise strong sentence such as an assertion, command, question, persuasion, reminder, etc. The sentence is imperative + よ.

Zorlee wrote:

Another one: 30前後と見られ男性が、血まみれで死亡しているところとが見つかれ
30前後 - does this mean around xx:30 (as in f.ex 11:30 PM)? And I struggle with the 見られ男性 part. Does it mean "the man that saw" found the crime-scene or?

I can't watch it right now, but probably the transcript is 30前後と見られる男性が、血まみれで死亡しているところが見つかり... (見られ男性 -> 見られる男性, ところとが -> ところが, and 見つかれ -> 見つかり), though I'm not very sure of the 見つかり part because I can't remember what kind of thing followed the sentence.

Anyway, 30前後 means "around 30 years old" and is read さんじゅうぜんご. You can swap the number with another n*10 (n>=2) number such as 20, 40, 50, and 60. If you want to use other arbitrary numbers like 3, 10, 12, 25, etc., you usually put 歳 between the number and 前後. You can use 歳 for 20, 30, etc. too. 20歳前後 can also be read はたちぜんご, and maybe this reading is more common.

The 見られる in the sentece means "look like," "appear," "seem like" or something along those lines. This kind of 見られる is usually used in TV news, news articles, and the like, and often carries the sense of "according to the police/officials/witnesses."

So the sentences is literally "A scene where a guy who appears around 30 is dead (he was covered with blood) was found."

By the way, you can find J-E bilingual transcripts of the first two eps here:

http://www1.atwiki.com/animetranscripts/pages/769.html

kitsunekko.net might have more Japanese transcripts. If you don't have an accurate Japanese transcript of the series and are transcribing it by yourself, you can upload your own transcript on the wiki. If you start a new thread about your transcript on this forum:

http://llt-anime.net63.net/index.php

some native speakers will probably correct errors and, if you have questions about grammar etc., you can probably get answers from native speakers who watched the show (probably in Japanese though).

Last edited by magamo (2009 November 10, 1:21 pm)

Magamo's grammar link uses 終助詞 for sentence end particles and 間投助詞 when they occur in between phrases (the warnings about using those are kind of funny).  I think Jarvik7 said the gobi term is a mistake from Tae Kim's grammar site.

Late reply, but THANK you guys!!

From the bottom of my wanna-be-Japanese heart - thank you!