yudantaiteki wrote:

Unfortunately a Japanese カップ is different from an American "cup" (200 ml to ~238 ml).

WHOA. Is that why my roll cake failed? (It may not be. But anyway.)

Thank you for the useful information!

yudantaiteki wrote:

But as a counter it only means "(measuring) cup" for recipes.  Unfortunately a Japanese カップ is different from an American "cup" (200 ml to ~238 ml).

Ironically, no J-E dictionary seems to have this information. As if the Japanese are the only ones who might get confused about the size of Japanese cups!

Last edited by Vempele (February 01, 11:11 am)

Thanks for the info!

trumpet wrote:

what is the grammar in the bolded part of this sentence:

最後まで笑っちゃいけないんだぜ　勝負ってもんは！

does the って have anything to do with という or is ってもん　some kind of casual version of ても　＋ explanatory　の?

I'm pretty sure it's short for というもの

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=toiumono

This is about using the "te" form to say "consequently/therefore".

Of course, by the time I finished typing this I ended up answering my original question...so now I'm looking for some tips about recognizing this grammar and I figured my mistake could be helpful to beginners.

This comes from my Japanese for Everyone textbook (Chapter 8 reading comprehension exercise). This is someone talking about traveling around the world. I've since moved on from this chapter, but this sentence was still driving me crazy so I went back to it.

Here's the sentence:

私も、来年の春休みに、３週間ぐらい、ヨーロッパへ行きたいと思って、アルバイトをはじめました。

It took me a while to remember that the te form can also be used to explain, and I was confused about why they used the past tense here since we are talking about the future. But, I finally realized, (duh!!!) that she's saying "Next year I think I would also like to go to Europe for 3 weeks during spring break, so I began a part-time job (to earn money for the trip)". I originally thought she was saying she was going to go to Europe AND do a part-time job there.

My question is: does anyone have any tips on figuring out when we are using the "te" form for meaning "and" and when we are using it to explain? Obviously it involves context, but is this something that I will just get better at over time? Right now I immediately  think "and" when I see the "te" form and it screws me up.

I know the "te" form is used for many things, and it can be confusing.

jishera wrote:

(...)
I know the "te" form is used for many things, and it can be confusing.

I'm not sure I've ever thought of て as being particularly explanatory.  I usually think of it as 'completion' (ご飯を食べて映画館に行く), just continuing a sentence (similar to 'and'--as in the sentence you posted here), or as part of an expression that links two verbs together (持っていく).  But, in all of those, I think of the primary meaning as 'completion'. 

When you use it to explain things, it's more like you're talking about something that happened (i.e., 'was completed') as a context for what you're about to say.  It's just incidental that it often gets used in clauses that explain things.

Last edited by Tzadeck (February 04, 3:05 am)

Hey guys, need help with some words in this sentence

そう思ったカシムは、マスのすみっこに、こっそりとのりをぬっておきました

Vocab I don't know and can't figure out：
マス
すみっこに
とのり

Thanks!

ignore this comment

Last edited by Babyrat (February 07, 7:46 am)

A young person accompanying someone.

I can't figure out nuance without seeing the context.

What does the 「うっとーしぃん」 mean in the sentence 「ちょっと　うっとーしぃん　だけどな…　アンタ!!」?

I encountered it in Volume 3 of 『美鳥の日々』 (Midori no Hibi). For context, Sawamura says it when he's being bothered by this overbearing new teacher.

あ、なるほど！　ありがとうございました～！