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The example sentence I have for the word「同じ」（おなじ）[same, indentical] is:「彼の日本語のレベルは私と同じ位だ。」- the translation is: “His Japanese level is about the same as mine.”. What is the function of「私と」here? Why do they use two different words for “level” (「レベル」and「位」)?
Danke.
And in the sentence「彼はかなり英語が上手です。」, why does かなり not come just before 上手? It doesn’t really make sense to me like that.
と marks a reciprocal relationship between the noun and subject, such as ‘with’ and ‘as’. So 私と同じ = “same as me”.
くらい is usually written in kana when it’s a suffix and means ‘about’. 同じくらい = “about the same”.
And your second sentence looks odd to me too, but I’m not qualified to say whether or not the order of it is acceptable :) From what I’ve seen word order can be very flexible in Japanese, so I’m not sure.
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This reply was modified 13 years, 4 months ago by
Elenkis.
There are examples of qualifiers moving around like that in other instances as well. It might feel weird but that’s just because you are used to speaking a language with a more rigid structure.
彼はとても背が高い。
超おなかが空いたよ！
These are two sentences (paraphrasing) that I’ve heard native speakers use. I thought they sounded strange at first too.My very stomach is empty!
> そんなに広くはないよ
> what does the「そんなに広く」part mean?The そんなに part is “so much,” or “so very”, but I don’t understand what は is doing in there. I would have expected そんなに広くない. Perhaps it is slang, or an idiom.
> 彼の日本語のレベルは私と同じ位だ。
> What is the function of「私と」here?That’s the “as mine” part.
> Why do they use two different words for “level” (「レベル」and「位」)?
The phrase 同じ位 means “about the same.”
> 彼はかなり英語が上手です。
> why does かなり not come just before 上手?I think this is a matter of style. That is a smart.fm sentence, and there is an audio recording of it being spoken by someone who sounds like a native speaker.
http://assets1.smart.fm/assets/legacy/JLL/audio/JS01729A.mp3
Aw man, thank you guys so much – those things have been bugging me for a while now haha! :D You wait for an answer then 3 come along at once, eh? ;)
*facepalm* If I had just used Rikaikun, I would have seen that “そんなに” was an actual expression (instead of just a word and a particle), and I would have seen that 同じ位 was one too. My bad >.<
As for「広くはない」, could it maybe be that 広く is used as a noun here? I've seen 近く being used in a similar way (rather than as an adverb). The thing is, 近く is actually listed in the dictionary as a noun; 広く isn't. Maybe it IS just a slang usage then…
> 広くは
I found this usage in Hiragana Times via eijiro:
広くはないが,…
It’s not very large but…
http://eow.alc.co.jp/%E5%BA%83%E3%81%8F%E3%81%AF/UTF-8/
Based on that, I would say it is an idiom rather than slang.
I was watching a show called Nikkei TV on one of the channels here in Canada, and have come across 2 kanji I’m unable to identify. A lot of the show is in Japanese, but there are some English segments as well. This however was not one of them. I don’t know pronunciation for either or them, or English meaning, so I’m not able to reproduce them to look them up, I took a picture off the TV with my phone.
What I do know is 外 is outside, and 水 is water (thanks textfugu!). However, I don’t recognize the first kanji for each tap. It’s on a fishing boat. My guess is one tap is “outside water”, maybe pumped in from the ocean for use in certain tasks, and the other tap is filtered water, or water kept on board for drinking. I’d really like to know what those 2 other kanji are though if anyone recognizes them or can point me in the right direction to find out.
船外水 (せんがい みず) and 貯水 （ちょすい)
Outboard water and stored water.
ahhhh ありがとうございました!
I started reading the children’s book やさしい おおかみ again, and this time I was able to read a few pages before getting totally stuck.
そんな あるひ、 いろいろな きのみや びょうきに よく きく
ほしくさを たくさん もって、 おおかみが かえってきたのです。Before this, the wolf had taken up eating strawberries and picking flowers. The forest fell into anarchy, because it was the wolf’s job to keep everyone in line.
The middle part between the commas is where I’m having trouble.
That middle part confused me for a while too: “had various berries/nuts and hay that works well against diseases”/”is effective against diseases”
きく = 効く
Lack of kanji usually makes me want to cry.
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This reply was modified 13 years, 3 months ago by
I forgot, my translation for the full sentence would be something like: “One day the wolf returned with a lot of berries and hay that works well against disease.”
> きのみや = きのみ + や
> きく = 効く
> ほしくさ = grass / hayIt looks like you got it. Cheers!
I’m having a liiiiiiittle bit of trouble with this. I pretty much know what’s being said, but there’s a few things that got me a little confuzzled. It’s a Facebook conversation I was having with my friend Erika. She has this weird perception in her head that I’m fluent in Japanese, so I don’t know what’s going on half the time we speak because we talk in Japanglish, so it’s a weird combination of piecing things together grammatically.
that’s great! 7月には日本にいるからいつでも連絡して :) this is super exciting :D 今年じゃなくても夏なら日本にいると思うから、if it’s summer, u r always welcome! (i mean i dont know which country i’m going for uni) gosh
So here’s what I think is going on:
that’s great! since I’m going to Japan in 7 months, get in touch with me anytime. :) this is super exciting :D [something something. idea of what's going on, but don't wanna embarrass myself if i'm completely off], if it’s summer, u r always welcome … blah blah blah
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This reply was modified 13 years, 4 months ago by
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