The "I found some Japanese I don't understand" thread.

[GeraMember]

Thanks!
What about the symbols on the bottom? Any info is appreciated.

[マーク・ウェーバーMember]

As I said、 starting with the picture in the bottom left corner:
1st picture(left) 手洗　= wash by hand (at 30 degrees)
2nd picture(middle left) can’t make any sense of the the katakana,　エンソサスン？　No matter how I switch it up I can’t make any sense of it, at first I thought it meant no enzymes, but definitely something with chemicals not allowed.
3rd picture (middle right) Iron (中 = middle etc. so most likely medium temperature?I must admit I don’t know much about irons :P)
4th picture (right) ドライ　= dry

Cross over means it is not allowed. No cross means it is fine.

[GeraMember]

OK!
I’ll have to give the thing a good wash this weekend.
Thanks again!

[JoelMember]

エンソ = chlorine – so yeah, don’t bleach.

[GeraMember]

そっか
Thank you.

[Hatt0riMember]

I need some help with sentences again.

彼にビデオを借りました。 Translation is “I borrowed a video from him”. Shouldn’t it be “I borrowed him a video”?

車に注意してください。 Translation is “Please watch out for traffic”. What does 車に part really mean? To be careful while driving the car, or to watch out for other cars?

出かける時は鍵を掛けてください。 (Please lock the door when you go out.) Is 鍵を掛ける　usual phrase for locking a door?

Thanks!

[KiaiFighterMember]

彼にビデオを借りました。 With 借りる both に or　から can be used to make the person from which the item (marked by を) is borrowed.

車に注意してください。 With 注意、に marks the object to be wary of. On the train you always hear ドアにご注意ください。 “Watch out for the door (as it closes).”

鍵を掛ける　from my understanding is usually used to reference locking the door from the outside, where as 鍵を閉める　would tend to refer to locking from the inside. However they can both be used in both situations.

[JoelMember]

If by “I borrowed him a video” you mean “I borrowed a video (from someone else) for him”, the sentence would probably be 彼のためにビデオを借りました。

[thisiskyleMember]

I know in some places people use “borrow” in place of where I would normally use “lend”. So “I lent him a book,” and “I borrowed him a book,” have the same meaning. This use of the word is recommended against by Wiktionary but I have heard it.

In any case, whether giving something permanently (giving) or temporarily (lending）、に marks the person to whom the thing is given (or lent). When receiving something permanently (receiving) or temporarily (borrowing), に　marks the person from whom the thing was received (or borrowed). In the second case, KiaiFighter is right; から can also be used in place of に.

I borrowed a book from him. 私は彼に本を借りました。
I borrowed his book.　私は彼の本を借りました。
He lent me a book.　彼は私に本を貸しました。

Although, in cases where you are on the receiving end, you may well hear things like:
借りてもらいます　and　　貸してくれます

And when you are the lender:
He borrowed a book from me. 彼は私に本を借りました。
He borrowed my book.　彼は私の本を借りました。
I lent him a book.　私は彼に本を貸しました。

Again, you may hear polite niceties added on:
貸してあげます

[Hatt0riMember]

Wow, thank you guys! I totally confused borrow with lend, yes. All these years I’ve treated them as synonyms! :S

@Fighter Thanks a lot for explanation on other two sentences.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  Hatt0ri.

[JoelMember]

Aye, slang has a lot to answer for. “Learn” and “teach” have suffered similarly – as in, “that’ll learn him real good”.

[Hatt0riMember]

Actually, in my native language borrow and lend are the same word. I can’t believe no one bothered to teach us the difference properly! :D

[リンディMember]

This feels like a long shot, but…

Is anybody able to tell me what the kanji in this word is? I’ve been looking forever and I can’t make it out for the life of me. http://oi41.tinypic.com/15wb613.jpg

[JoelMember]

Looks like 暑 to me. 暑かった – it was hot.

[リンディMember]

That makes a lot of sense in the context, thank you! sometimes I hate magazine prints. My eyes are horrible

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