HOW DO I SAY "…." THREAD

[AstralfoxMember]

What is the best way to write; “Donated by a certain sly fox”?

In this case I’m donating a piano to a pub, and decided to leave this message in Japanese as a joke to one of the musically orientated regulars.

My searching would indicate とあるずるい狐から提供された、but several more ways to say ‘donated’ also come up and I would like a second opinion.

[JoelMember]

施す?

[AstralfoxMember]

Based on these phrases and it’s conjugated forms, it doesn’t seem to hold the relevance that 提供された has.
Unless you have a real world example of it in use?

[マーク・ウェーバーMember]

提供　tends to be used about sponsoring. If you want to make sure it’s understood as an actual contribution/gift I would probably use 寄付.

[AstralfoxMember]

Thanks a lot.
Once again I find myself asking; how or why did I overlook that option?

[Jessica JacksonMember]

Hi, I’m going to Japan next week and I’ve studied a bit here, but I’m not very far. I’m going to be with someone who speaks Japanese for much of my trip, but not the whole time.
One thing I’m going to do is go to the market event in Kyoto and look for used kimono. I’m wanting some bargains, but I want to know how to ask politely about that. Like if I’m looking at something and the price is higher than I want to pay, what can I say that means “This is lovely, but I’m looking for something cheaper.” すてきです、でも。。。? I don’t know. I want to be able to say it a way that isn’t insulting of their prices or goods. Like that I’m only bargain hunting or something.
Any ideas?

[KisukeOboroMember]

I might be wrong, but I think I’d go with: すてきですが、しかし安いきものを持っていますか。

Again, I might be wrong. You actually might want to ask the person you’re going to be with in Japan what is the best thing to say.

[JoelMember]

すみませんが、何かもっと安いのはありませんか

[lenzjoMember]

Okay, I’ve finished Lesson 5 in Season 2 and have a question. In English we could have a “conversation” like:
Me: “Is it a ball?”
You “Yes it is.”
In Japanese:
Me: “たまですか”
You: “はいです”

Yeah, I realize the reply is wrong because です is a noun ending and there isn’t a noun in the reply. As Japanese likes to leave out seemingly whatever it can and it’s context driven, how or even can you say such a thing?

[JoelMember]

You’d say そうです.

はい、そうです also works, as does just はい on its own.

[lenzjoMember]

Does that mean I could replace the noun with そう in the other three noun endings like:

はいそうでした for “Yes, it was”,
いいえそうじゃありません　for “No, it isn’t” and
いいえそうじゃありませんでした for “No, it wasn’t”

[JoelMember]

はい、そうですよ。

“そうです” basically means “that is so”, though a but less clunky than it sounds in English. =)

[lenzjoMember]

hey.. that’s good. Thx Joel. I noticed you put a よ on the end, is that like an American yo, and if so is it a way of making the phrase a little more casual?

[JoelMember]

No, it’s a way of adding emphasis. Basically, it means I’m conveying information to you that I know to be true, but don’t believe you know yet.

Similarly, I could add ね, which (in this context) would mean I believe we both already understand the information that I’m conveying.

Pretty sure this gets explained in an early chapter of TextFugu somewhere. Not sure exactly where, though.

[lenzjoMember]

Good to know, thanks Joel. I hear そうですね quite a lot in films and dramas and not knowing Japanese, but from the context of the situation I thought it meant something like “Yeah, that’s right”. This is my first attempt at actually learning Japanese after many years of procrastination. Currently, I just started Lesson 6 of season 2 ( the は particle ) and I don’t read ahead, so I haven’t met ね yet ;)

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