HOW DO I SAY "…." THREAD

[MisterM2402 [Michael]Member]

「[item] はどこで見つかりますか。」or maybe just 「[item] はどこですか。」

That’s just a rough guess; wait till someone corrects me haha. Pretty sure I’ve heard 見つかる being used to ask where something is before.
Can anyone tell me if that どこで is correct? Could you also say 「[item] が見つかるところは、どこですか。」

[thisiskyleMember]

I would say　～がどこですか or ～がどこにありますか.

You could use 見つかる like Mister said…seems a bit much for me. You could also say something like….
すみません。～を探（さが）していますが、見（み）つけられません。 Also a bit much.

[MisterM2402 [Michael]Member]

You could always leave off the 見つけられません – they’ll probably know what you mean if you say 「～を探していますが…」

[PencilMember]

Not sure if this is quite the right thread for this, but I’m playing Pokemon Black, and I was wondering which kanji you’d use when writing “さいしょからはじめる”。

I know that with some words (eg. みる), the Kanji you’d write it with depends on the context (again, I know that different Kanji can be used to differentiate between watching something on TV, seeing it from afar, scrutinizing it closely, doing a medical diagnosis, etc.), so I was wondering whether 始める or 創める would be more appropriate in terms of starting a videogame.

[マーク・ウェーバーMember]

最初から始める

創める and 始める have the same meaning though one might add something “special” to the sentence. Like 籠 and 篭 both bear the same meaning :)
創める is not very common so I would go with 始める, you should also note that 始める is common to see in kana はじめる.

[PencilMember]

本当にありがとう、マーク。

How would I say “favourite ____”? Like, if I wanted to say that カツどん is my favourite food, or that The Thing is my favourite movie. For some reason, I’d always thought that it was 一番好きな＿＿＿, but I can’t find the phrase anywhere, so I’m pretty sure it’s wrong.

[JoelMember]

Nothing wrong with 一番好きな.

[missingno15Member]

【補足】

（[あたし・私・僕・俺]の）一番好きな＿＿＿＿＿は＿＿＿＿＿＿です。

例文：

私の一番好きな動物はペンギンです。

僕の一番好きな人は自分です。（ナルシストの場合）

あたしの一番好きな国は韓国です。

[thisiskyleMember]

“She wants to try to help rehabilitate dancers and athletes and the like.”
What I wrote in Lang-8:
（彼女は）ダンサーとかアスリートとか回復に興味があります。
This carries the same meaning and was left unchanged by Lang-8 friends, but isn’t exactly what I wanted to say.

Questions:
1. How to I say “help somebody do something” – I helped my dad fix the car.
2. I know とか helps you give the sort of ‘etc etc’ feel, but how do you use particles with it? (I think you just leave them out, but I could be wrong…)

THNX in advance.

[マーク・ウェーバーMember]

2)
It is different from と and や by having you use it also after the last word you list.
Example:
日本語とか英語とかを話します
I speak Japanese, English, and other things

To be honest I haven’t seen it much, and I haven’t used it yet. I wasn’t certain if I learned this at TextFugu, but after looking around I found a lesson mentioning it. There is most likely more to this grammar point, but this is all I can help you with.
http://www.textfugu.com/season-6/particle-to/1-3/

[thisiskyleMember]

I asked about とか on lang-8.

これらの文の中で、どれがいいですか。
１．彼は狩りとか釣りとかに興味があります。
２．彼は狩りとか釣りに興味があります。
３．彼は狩りとか釣りとか興味があります。

Results:
Correct sentence is No.1, but I think many people use No.2.
And a few people use No.3.
All sentences can be understood.

２．彼は狩りとか釣りに興味があります。
これが一番いいと思います。

私は２．がいいと思いますよ。
３．は明らかに文法が間違っていますし（「に」がない）、会話でもおかしく聞こえると思います。
１．は「とか」をつけすぎて、くどいです。狩りと釣り、他にもあるの？って思います。
「とか」をたくさん使うのは最近のはやりの言葉ですね。年配の人は不快に思うかもしれません。

That’s one vote for とか after the last item in the list and two against it. Seems like it might just be a matter of preference. You do need the particle afterwards regardless.

As far as helping someone do something, I found these examples. Looks like するのを手伝う which makes sense.
私は母が夕食後皿を洗うのを手伝おう。
I’ll help my mother wash the dishes after supper.

私は彼が机を運ぶのを手伝った。
I helped him carry his desk.

私は彼が通りを横断するのを手伝った。
I helped him walk across the street.

その日から私たちは彼が日本語を学ぶのを手伝ってやった。
From that day on we helped him learn Japanese.

[MisterM2402 [Michael]Member]

Thanks for posting your answers, kyle. Helps all of us :)

[MisterM2402 [Michael]Member]

This is more a “Japanese I don’t understand post”, but I couldn’t find that thread.

A song lyric goes like this: 「同じ班の女の子 二重パチリ 可愛いぞ」
Not sure what 二重パチリ means or how it can be 可愛いぞ haha. The 2 separate English translations say that the girl in question has “double-eyelids”: where the hell did they get “eyelids” from, and how would that be “cute”? :P

Related: one of the sites (Jpopasia) that I went to for the lyrics to the song (Omajinai Perori – Perfume) has the “Japanese” part comically wrong. It’s obvious somebody took the romaji lyrics from elsewhere, and an English translation, then put that translation into Google translate, and whatever came out they’ve labelled as the “Kanji version”.
For example, one line has the romaji “Doushimashou?!” (which is correct), the English translation “What should I do?!” (which is correct) and then the kanji “私はどうすればよいですか！” (which has Google Translate written all over it :P).

http://www.jpopasia.com/lyrics/16380/perfume/omajinai-perori.html – the song’s a bit of an acquired taste, but I think it’s more funny than anything haha (just since it’s Perfume’s first single/video, showing what they were like aged 13).

[マーク・ウェーバーMember]

http://www.faceorama.com/bluelight/perfume/omajinaiperori.html

[JoelMember]

My dictionary is giving me “double, two-fold” for 二重 and “quickly, suddenly” for パチリ. So… “The girls in the same squad are double-quickly cute!”? … Yeah, that sounds terrible. Forget I said anything…

Edit: Gah, ninja-posted. I didn’t even need to say anything. =P

• This reply was modified 12 years, 11 months ago by  Joel.

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