Oh by the way, if this clears it up at all, this seems to basically refer to a certain extent. Like a Japanese dictionary I have on Yomichan right now says “非常にというほどではないが，普通の程度を大分超えているさま” which is roughly “not to an extreme extent, but significantly more than ordinary/usual/etc.” Which particularly… can mean, depending on which way you are using it.
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That does clear it up.
This does basically support “particularly” if the deviation from the ordinary is being emphasized, which is I feel it is with “particularly” but not quite as much with “considerably.” “Enough to be considered” vs. “enough to be considered particular.” If that makes sense. But my takeaway from your dictionary quote is that I should be satisfied with “particularly” if I’m still stuck on that word after this conversation, and let any loss of nuance sort itself out through immersion 
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Yeah I totally agree with that. On those sorts of meanings I like to play fairly loose and assume it’ll get more and more intuitive over time. If I got the general concept, pass (I’m fairly strict on readings but that’s not relevant to this word).
…I’ll get back to you in several years to let you know if I was right!
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I don’t worry too much about readings in Anki at the moment as I have Wanikani for that. If I get the meaning but can’t remember the correct reading then I pass the item since for most of them I’ll both get a lot of exposure through media and Wanikani will introduce and reinforce the readings of the kanji eventually.
My experience with English says that in the contexts of the genres you consume you’ll develop better and better intuition for a lot of words, but going from only input to interacting in a language will force you to refine your understanding of a lot of words you thought you already had a good understanding of 
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Mmhmm, that’s valid. We’re coming from different angles on that whole process since I’m mining my own words now and only grabbing words I’ve already learned the kanji for or with kanji WK never teaches at all, so in my cause it’s either a form of further review of those readings applied to new words, honing in on a bunch of different readings than I was taught, or learning new stuff altogether. I agree it’s not worth you focusing on until a later time.
Yeah that makes sense. This is my first time learning a foreign language and while I think I’m making a pretty good go at it, a lot of it is still rather overwhelming and hazy. And output is hard enough work and not something I care as much about as the understanding side so I’m kicking that to the far future. Hoping by that point I can do what some others have talked about and be largely at a stage where I can self correct, but we’ll see. Despite what I have learned, there are so many areas where I can still understand next to nothing so… one step at a time.
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よつばと！vol1, cha4, pp140-142 🍀
——— 140 ———
あ、えなだ！えなー
Ah, it’s Ena! Eeena
こんにちは…
Hi…
でか‼︎
Huge!!
——— 141 ———
あ、す、すみませんおおきいですね…
A e excuse me, you’re big
がおーっ
GAOO!!!
だいじょーぶだ！ジャンボはこわくないぞ！
It’s alright! Jumbo isn’t scary!
ごめんよー
I’m sorry
ばかやろう
You idiot
——— 142 ———
お母さん！お母さーん！
Mom! Moom!
い、今ね！玄関にすっごくおっきな…!!
R right now! At the entrance a really big…
あ、恵那も見た？
Ah, you saw (him) too Ena?
ジャンボさん|武田さん|きりんさん
Jumbo|Takeda|Giraffe
なによきりんって
Hey why did you say giraffe
先祖がきりんなんだって
Because he said his ancestors were giraffes
でも、がおーって言ってた
But, he said gaoo
がおー？
Gaoo?
——— end ———
\huge{がおー！}
\huge{がおー！}
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I really thought spring had come early this year as we had as much as 14°C a few weeks ago and it stayed warm for a while, but… I went for a long walk today suspecting no mischief when the weather suddenly turned and
well, I got rather cold and tired 
so one page was all I had the energy for. I’m going to bed early today, with a good conscience, having done the bare minimum of studying Japanese. I just want to avoid getting a cold from this
よつばと！vol1, cha5, pp144 🍀
——— 144 ———
よつばー、はやくしろーおいてくぞー
Yotsuba! Hurry up (or) I’ll leave you behind
こんにちはー
Hello
あ、美少女の風香ちゃん
Ah, the beautiful young woman Fuuka
それやめて下さい
Please stop that
これ昨日渡すの忘れてました
I forgot to give you this yesterday
ん、ああ、テレビのリモコン
Huh? Ah, the tv’s remote
ありがとう美…
Thank you beau…
おまたせた
I’ve kept you waiting
——— End ———
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The snowbeard picture is gold 
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Stay safe out there!
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Another one pager, I guess doing literally nothing besides studying (uni + Japanese) every day is a tad exhausting 
But I’m not really willing to make compromises in either direction so here I am 
よつばと！vol1, cha5, pp145 🍀
——— 145 ———
ちょっと置いてくる
One moment, (I have to) put (this inside)
よつばちゃんおでかけ？
Are you going somewhere Yotsuba?
おかいもの‼︎
Shopping!!
そこにおっきーおみせがあるってとーちゃんがいった、あぱーと！
Over there there’s a huge store, dad said, an apartment store!
でぱーとね
It’s “department store” you know?
とーちゃんはやくしろー、おいてくぞー
Dad hurry up or I’ll leave you behind
しゅっぱーつ！
Let’s go!
よつば、そっちじゃないこっちだ
Yotsuba, it’s not over there, it’s this way
——— end ———
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So, I’m not going at a great pace in terms of mass immersion. The thing is, reading (よつばと) doesn’t take much energy (comparatively), it’s transcribing and translating that does. If I don’t care about the nuances of meaning I can read and get the gist at a decent enough clip. However, the translation process forces me to pay attention to grammar and nuance which I think is helpful for learning the language. Conclusion: I should read something else in parallel without putting undue effort into grammar and vocab lookups. I’m considering Satori Reader but I’ll take any suggestions:)
よつばと！vol1, cha5, pp146-148 🍀
——— 146 ———
とーちゃんちゃんとみちしってるか？
Dad, are you sure you know the way (do you have sufficient knowledge of the route - Yotsuba😛)
んーたぶんこっちだ
Yeah, it’s probably this way
とーちゃんまいごになるぞ、なくなよ
Dad, I’ll become a lost child, I’ll cry
ならねーよ泣かねーし
You won’t become (lost), and you won’t cry either
とーちゃん超強いからな
Because dad is super strong!
わん
Woof
うひゃあ
Uhyaa!
——— 147 ———
びびったぜー
I was startled
わるいいぬだ‼︎
It’s a bad dog!!
戦わなくていい
It’s best not to fight (the dog)
かいだん
Stairs
ん
Yes
——— 148 ———
上は神社だな
There’s a shrine up top.
じんじゃ⁉︎
A shrine!?
まつりか⁉︎
Festival!?
そーそーお店の出る所だ
That’s right, shops appear there (when there’s a festival )
ああ‼︎今日はない‼︎祭りない‼︎
Ah!! Not today!! There’s no festival!!
祭りの時は行こうな
Let’s go when there is a festival
うん！
Yes!
たべものやさん
A restaurant
ハラへってのか？
Are you hungry?
んーもうちょっとへってないかな
Hmm, I wonder if I’m not a little hungry? (へってない, not decreased? What’s going on here, I’m very doubtful of my translation:p)
——— End ———
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Although it may sound otherwise when putting まいご into a Japanese to English dictionary, she’s actually telling her father that he’ll get lost. なく＋な is Yotsuba telling him not to cry (when he gets lost).
From this, you might be able to re-figure on his response =)
There are generally two ways of saying you’re hungry in Japanese. お腹が空いた (the more polite version) and 腹が減った. (And both are so commonly used that you’ll hear them with the が dropped.)
In my experience, they’ll both typically stated past-tense (ending in た) to state that one’s stomach has completed the action of becoming empty (空く, to get empty) or decreasing (減る, to decrease). But they can be used non-past depending on the situation, of course.
Yotsuba’s father asks if her stomach is 減っている (decreasing, meaning she’s getting hungry).
Yotsuba replies that she wonders her stomach 減ってない (can’t decrease) ちょっと (a bit). That is to say, upon checking it, she thinks her stomach has a bit more room to decrease, meaning she doesn’t need to eat just yet. “I wonder if it can’t decrease a bit.” (Not a perfect translation, but kind of the gist of it.)
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I was pretty uncertain about that part, thanks for explaining it
Aha, it’s a verb not an adjective so it’s are you getting hungry rather than are you hungry (in which case he’d have used past tense🙃). I knew about 腹減った for expressing hunger, but my mind created a false equivalence between the two languages and I forgot it was a verb and thus to even consider verb-conjunction when reading this part:p And then I got confused about it when I reached this part:
Massive thanks for your explanation 
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TBH, I think Satori Reader is super-efficient* (since they did the Vocabulary and grammar look ups already). So it’s “the easy button to push” to add additional reading (and listening comprehension!) practice into a busy study schedule and very busy life. It’s my “go to”.
Another option: I’ve found, in reading online with friends, that watanoc.com is substantially similar, but with translation into more other non-English languages from the Japanese.
By the way…I agree with you 100% that writing out the sentence interpretations takes a LOT of extra time (instead of merely reading), but that it helps a person learn better. AND… I benefit from reading your blog because of this (and why I love reading clubs, even though I’ve been super inactive this past year).
OMG it’s horrible trying to put all-hiragana into a machine translator and have it make sense! I’m only finally getting more to where I can understand sentences without kanji (seeing kanji ina sentence makes it easier to distinguish verbs and nouns)…
I just learned the addition of 超 (ちょう super- (prefix)), and boop! There it was in your example Yotsuba sentence! 
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Thank you so much for the input:) Satori has a sale going now to benefit Ukrainians affected by the war so I’ll probably go with that (the sale ends on the 20th, I’ll probably buy the subscription on the 13th).
I had a bit of a day yesterday so I didn’t update but I did read and translate, so here’s 11 pages:p
よつばと！vol1, cha5, pp149-159 🍀
——— 149 ———
あかはとまれ
Red means stop
うん
Yes
あれだ
That’s it
おおー⁉︎でけーなおい!!
Ooh-!? It’s huge look!!
よつばこんな大きいお店初めてだろ
It’s the first time I’ve (seen) a store this big
くにがつくったのか⁉︎
Did the country make it!?
え…？民間だけど
Eh…? It’s private but
え？
Eh?
——— 150 ———
なんだー⁉︎どーしたー⁉︎えーと！あれ！あれだー‼︎
Whaaat!? How!! Um! That! That’s!!
エスカレーターだ、それで上だー
It’s an escalator, that one goes up (up上 by means of で that one それ, I guess?)
ういーん
(Probably just a sound?)
——— 151 ———
あ、あっちはしただ！
Ah, that’s below (??, What a weird thing to say, I’m guessing she just noticed that where she was is now below her)
コラーよつばー
Oooi Yotsubaa
え？
Eh?
バカか！危ねえなぁ‼︎
Are you stupid!? That’s dangerous you know!!
いたぁー
Ouch
ホントに頭打つヤツなんて初めて見たよ
It’s (truly??) the first time I’ve seen someone hit their head like that(??) (This one really threw me, I had to use DeepL to get the gist of it: “I’ve never seen anyone really hit their head,” I’m not sure if what I’ve come up with is close to correct tho)
——— 152 ———
おおー！いっぱいあるぞー‼︎もー‼︎もー‼︎
Ooh! It’s filled (with stuff)!! More more(??)!!
あ、これも買おうかなぁ
Ah, I might (have to) buy this as well
でてきなさい
Get out
——— 153 ———
カーテンだ
Curtains
200センチの
200 cm
こっちかなぁー
Maybe this
あっちみてくる
(Can I) go look over there
んー
Yes
とーちゃーん
Daad
——— 154 ———
ひぎっ‼︎
(Exclamation)
あぶなかったー
That was dangerous
これは乗っちゃだめ
It’s bad if you ride these
あー
Aa
——— 155 ———
おとなしく見てなさい
Look calmly
うん！
Yes
はしるなー
Don’t run
なんだこれ、なんだこら、なんだこれ
What’s this, What’s this, What’s this
あははは、なんだこれ、なんだこれ、なんだこれー
Ahahaha, What’s this, What’s this, What’s thiiis
——— 156 ———
ギャーッ
Gyaaっ
よつば大声だすな
Don’t shout Yotsuba
あ、あっちにこわいのが
O overt there there’s something scary (I’m fronting “over there” to stay closer to the original text)
こわいの？どれ？
Something scary? Which thing?
——— 157 ———
鳥よけの風船？
A bird repelling balloon?
なんだ？こらが怖いのか？おまえ鳥か？
What? This is what’s scary? Are you a bird?
ほーら
Look
ギャー
Gyaa
ほらほらー
Look look
ギャーッ‼︎
Gyaaっ
他のお客様の御迷惑になりますので
You’re being a nuisance to other customers
どうもすみません
I’m so sorry
——— 158 ———
1,800円か2,500円…んー…
1,800 yen or 2,500 yen… hmm…
ふむ
Hm
うーん
Hmmmm
——— 159 ———
ありがとうございました
Thank you
よつばー、あれ？どこ行った？
Yotsuba- what? Where did she go?
あはは、かわいーみてみて
Ahaha, cute, come see
あははは
Ahahaha
——— end ———
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Wow you’re breezing through the story at a nice pace now!
Yeah Yotsuba being an adorable child like always. Man I just love her.
You got it already but I think a breakdown might help. We go from the back
初めて 見たよ → The first time seen!
What was the first time seen; it was
頭(を)打つ ヤツ なんて → (Such a thing as) guy/gal who hits the head. なんて is hard to translate but you can think of it as negative exclamation thing here. I substituted the (such a thing as) for it.
ほんとに → Really/Truly.
All in all something along the lines of:
Really/Truly, it’s the first time I’ve seen (such a thing as) a gal who hits her head.
Which is basically 1to1 what you wrote in your translation. The deepl translation is making a more liberal translation and taking “the first time seen” to “never seen” but gets the point across too.
What I find funny the 頭を打つやつ is not specifying which head is hit. It’s just context that it is her own head she hit XD
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It did help, thanks 
It didn’t seem that logical before the breakdown even tho I had all the elements. I think my expectations for what one says to a child after they hurt themselves contributed to my confusion (I expected to break it down into something like “You really hit your head huh, let me look at that first” or something) .
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To be fair seeing how yotsuba behaves normally and how unphased she seems by hitting her head I can’t fault him much. I still distinctly remember her climbing up a street light pole to imitate being a セミ in the first chapter o_O. And don’t get me started on her first time on the ブランコ ^^.
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Yeah, thinking about it I was the same when I was her age some 20+ years ago and my parents had roughly Koiwai’s (Kowai’s?) attitude:p So no judgment from me
I think she’s seeing the down elevator (but I could be wrong). Sounds to me like she’s contrasting that one to this one that she’s on.
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