Is 歩 in 歩を運ぶ read as ほ or あゆみ?

Thanks! I asked my wife and she nonchalantly told me it's あゆみ without even looking at text. I then said, "Then what about 歩を進める? Don't you read it as ほ?" And she replied that she's never heard the term. I think she just said that so she could evade the question >_<

Maybe I should ask all my Japanese questions here from now on. Ironically, I get correct answers more often here than from her. In fact, she sometimes deliberately tells me incorrect information for her amusement later on.

Other friends of mine with Japanese girlfriends and wives have reported similar experiences, i.e. they learn more Japanese from people other than their significant others. It makes me wonder if it's just a coincidence, a general trend, or whether I'm trapped in some absurdist conspiracy that lures Japanese learners into relationships with Japanese women only so they may torment the learners by dodging their questions and giving incorrect information.

There are various explanations for this situation.  My preferred explanation is that を can be used with intransitive verbs involving movement, to show that the movement is being done in or through that location.

Similar examples are 家を出る, 公園を歩く, 道を行く.  (家を出る and 階段を下りる seem to be movement from a place and I believe that both can be replaced with から.)

Now I'm going to defend this explanation but this part isn't necessary to understand the above.  A linguistic category or term has to say something about the structure or pattern for it to be useful.  If all your definitions are circular (i.e. を marks a direct object, anything marked by を is a direct object) then you're not saying anything useful about the language.  The label "direct object" tells us nothing about how a structure is used.  What we want to do is describe a category in such a way that it helps us understand how words in that category can be used (i.e. what other patterns they can occur in).

A transitive verb + object phrase like 弁当を注文する can occur in at least two other important constructions - passive, and -te aru.  You can say 弁当が注文された and 弁当が（or を)注文してある.

You cannot say 道が行かれた or 道が（を）行ってある.  Therefore it does not seem that we should include these phrases in the same category as ドアを開ける.

Last edited by yudantaiteki (April 19, 11:33 am)

Can someone please translate this? It's from an anime.

それ本当に高校の学生しょうじゃないですか。
The anime translation is 'That really is a high school student ID'

But I think that the translation lost something and somehow I think it isn't completly correct.
I think that one would say this when he is really surprised and asks the other person to confirm if it is really true.

Am I correct? And how would you translate it? (I couldn't come with an translation..it's harder then I thought)

Thanks yudantaiteki.
I think "Isn't this a high school student ID?" would be correct in this situation because the respond was something like "That's what I'm saying all the time you.."

Thanks.

あなた方 is a plural version of あなた, so あなた方人間 means "you humans". The sentence as a whole means something vaguely like:

"This is a story passed down by you humans"

I come from the 16 year old prostitute book thread.

What's the difference between these four prostitution-related terms?

援交交際
援助交際
関西援交
関西援助
売春 (from Core 10000)

Feel free to add more.

Google images, while interesting, doesn't seem to show a clear difference, unlike どあ and とびら.

Last edited by qwertyytrewq (May 01, 9:59 am)

Hey guys, I understand most of this, just need help with the second line (返事をしなくなってしまったうえに) the verb is throwing me off because of all the conjugations. Thanks


次第に返事をするのが面倒になり、
返事をしなくなってしまったうえに
電話にも出なくなった。

The following phrase confuses me a bit (taken from the translation of Stephen King's "The Gunslinger", first book of the Dark Tower series):

だからといって、取り立てて水を飲まずにはいられないというわけでもない。

I do have the English version of the book as well, so I know what he's trying to say, but I can't quite figure out the details of it. If "飲まずにはいられない" is supposed to mean something like "to feel compelled to drink" or "can't help but to drink", how does "というわけでもない" fit in?

In one of the Genki books, "わけではない" is translated to "it does not mean that…", and I assume "というわけではない" would be more or less the same? the でも instead of では confuses me though.

Can a rough translation to that last segment be "nor does it mean that..."? And the full sentence be translated into something like "Even so, nor does it mean that he particularly feels compelled to drink water"?

Though if "also" ("nor") doesn't actually make sense, the も may just be an intensifier.

One thing you have to deal with in Japanese translations of Western works is that they're usually written in a "translation-ese" style of Japanese that is influenced by the structure of the Western language.

I just started reading a bit of Yotsubato to see how I do and I have a few questions.

Yotsuba asks where they arrived and her dad says: どこってそりゃおまえ and I don't know what そりゃ means.

Janbo says: あいつ用が入ったからこねぇって and I don't know what こねぇって means.

Later he also says: そこおいといていいぞ and I don't know what おいといて means.

yudantaiteki wrote:

そりゃ = それは (This doesn't look like one sentence, is it really all in one line?)
こねぇって = 来ないって (来ないと言った)
おいといて = 置いておいて (put it over there and leave it there)

Dad: ほーら着いたぞー
Yotsuba: ついた？どこについた？
Dad: どこってそりゃおまえ

For こねぇって, how are you supposed to know that means come? I thought Yotsuba was supposed to be relatively easy. Same with おいといて.

Even when I search these terms on google or something, it's hard to find their meaning if at all.