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A: “I ate a hamburger.” B: “How was it?” A: “Overcooked.”A: “I ate at that new restaurant.” B: “How was it?” A: “Classy joint.”
A: “I ate a hamburger at that new restaurant.” B: “How was it?” A: “The restaurant or the burger?”“It” in English is just a shorthand way of saying “the thing being talked about” (just as “he” and “she” are shorthand ways of saying “the person being talked about”). This makes it a pretty useless word since you either a) already know what’s being talked about (so why bother with the extra words?) or b) don’t already know (and all the its in the world won’t help you). The only reason we really use “it” in English is to fulfill the requirement that (most) sentences need to have an explicitly stated subject.
There is no such requirement in Japanese. The topic “the thing being talked about) is marked with the particle は and unless it (the topic, not the particle) changes there is no reason mention it again.
日本語は、毎日勉強しています。好きですが、難しいです。
This might sound strange if you learned that 「AはBです。」 means “A is B” since that would imply that the sentence above translates to “Japanese is studying everyday.” However, if you think of 「Aは…」 as “I’m talking about A right now.” then it works out fine. If you still find the sentence above confusing since it doesn’t say “I” anywhere (again, why bother if it’s obvious), you could also write
私は、日本語は、毎日勉強しています。好きですが、難しいです。 …or…
私は日本語を毎日勉強しています。好きですが、難しいです。
This last one might not seem right, given what I just said. Since I started with 私は and never changed the topic, shouldn’t the second sentence also be talking about me? “I like myself but I’m difficult.” Maybe, but common sense and context makes it obvious that that is not the case. (We do this in English too.)I ate a hamburger at that new restaurant.
Was it tasty?
Hard to say. I only got a few bites of the floorboards before they threw me out.If I may, allow me to rephrase MisterM’s comment.
Kanji is difficult for you because you just started, and when you first start learning anything, trying to fit new knowledge into a rigid framework is natural and often useful.
My advice, and the advice of may others (including Mr.M, unless his past posts have deceived me), is to learn words as entities in and of themselves. This way, you will pick up the reading of the kanji from the words as opposed to learning the readings first and trying to glue them together.
TLDR: Don’t bother learning kanji readings explicitly.
TSRTF: http://www.textfugu.com/bb/topic/onyomi-vs-kunyomi-the-question-as-old-as-time/I would guess that they can all be used interchangeably.
However, I think that 少女 is used to refer to young girls collectively as a demographic (ie young girls’ magazine, young girls’ television program).
I’ve never heard 乙女 used. (That’s not to say that it’s not common, I’ve just not heard it.)
I would say that, for referring to a specific girl, or group of girls, 女の子（おんなのこ） or 女子（じょし） are your best bets.@Rucifer & Ellen
hope this helps
I really need to get back on the lang-8 treadmill. I never study after coming back to the States. Although currently, I have been writing a fair bit of Japanese to my old JET supervisor since I was supposed to get a bunch of money that I paid into the pension system back and never did. His assistance in this matter has bee less than exemplary.
@missing – yes, but it’s considered an upgrade and therefore free on iOS…I think it was always free on android
You seem to be talking about two different things.
Timeboxing is still available in Anki 2.0. If you selelct tools>preferences, you will see near the bottom of the window, on the Basic tab the settings for timebox time limit. If it is anything other than zero, timeboxing is turned on a message will pop up after you’ve studied for the specified time.
However, what you seem to want is not timeboxing, but selective study. You can do this by clicking Browse and highlighting the cards you want to study, then hitting Edit>Invert Selection, and then suspending those cards. You can un-suspend them as you like later. Another way (recommended) would be just to have the program set to show reviews first (before new cards) and simply stop studying whenever a new card comes up. You can also set your new cards per day limit to zero if you want.
The の in that sentence nominalizes (turns it into a noun) the phrase before it, then the で acts as it does in the other examples on that page.
今日 は 雨 だった (It rained today.)
今日 は 雨 だった の (The fact that it rained today)
今日 は 雨 だった の で (Due to the fact that it rained today)The で in this type of sentence is actually the ～て form of the common です verb and often times the “second half” of the sentence is not needed because it has already been stated or is obvious. In these cases です is not converted to the ～て form since the sentence is not continuing. Also, in these situations, の is often contracted to ん.
A: どうして 車 で 行きました か。
B: 雨 だった の/ん です。On a side note, I had a friend who heard me say, in response to her telling me she was going to be late picking me up, “gotcha.” She thought it was just about the coolest thing ever. I actually got tired of her saying ガッチャー！ all the time…
If somebody makes a statement and you are just acknowledging that you heard them, just say はい or はい、わかりました.
It’s similar to saying “Okay, got it.” in English.
Joel is right about と being used mainly for results of actions. When I was learning it, I found it better not to think of と as “if” in these contexts, but to still think of it as “and”.
Drop and egg and it will break.
Cut me and I’ll bleed a billion barrels of blueish-blackish blood.Keep in mind that the second clause does not have to be a direct physical consequence of the first, but only to be perceived as one one. For example,
If I’m late for work, I’ll lose my job.
could use と even though it’s not a strict A=>B scenario.
Job secured.
Also, I refuse to let this tread die.
Coffee House, Coffee House, Coffee Coffee Coffee House.
I can now afford coffee!I was going to go for N3 this year, but life got in the way. I think I’ll double-bubble down and go for N2 next December. I probably won’t pass it, but I’d like to see how good I could do.
I’ve secured a phone interview with Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions tomorrow. The position is development of courses/instructional material to teach customers and sales people how to use the products. Hopefully I get it and can weasel my way into translation at some point, or into some sort of position where I’ll be able to travel back and forth from here to Japan from time to time.
On another note, I though my Japanese might have been slipping. I (finally) bought the 上級へのとびら textbook. I thought it would be really tough but I’m blowing through it without difficulty. The only problem seems to be (as it always has been with me) vocabulary. I’m getting there though.
