Japanese Sentence a Day Challenge

ようこそ!:smiley:

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Thanks! Makes sense. I took the sentence structure from an example that used 話したところです, and because I was careless, I processed it as them using masu form. I try never to use masu form on here because I really need to get used to using / recognizing other stuff… obviously… !

何分か質問を答えることがもらいました。

TL Note

何 + counter + か for some/few of the counter. In this example, it means “a few minutes”.

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今日は、宿題を忘れちゃったことに気づいて、凹んでるわ

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去年の7月ごろから日本語を学んでいたところだが最近よくなっていると思います。

ところだ

“I have been learning Japanese since around last July, and I think it’s getting better recently.”
ところ means, by itself, “place” but in this usage it’s something like “the time/state when” and comes out in a number of different ways depending on the tense of the predicate used before it and what follows it. Here, following a past progressive verb, amounts to “have been”.

This is actually a sentence I’ve rewritten a lot since I started learning; I keep finding a new way to make it more precise or more natural the more I learn and I’m sure there’s still plenty to improve in this version.

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来週、中学校のかるた大会で百人一首の札を2枚読むことになった。

10番と17番

練習しないとね

17番を知っている人は多いかもしれない。「ちはやふる」で始まるやつ。

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昨日、いく人かトイレを直ってきました。

早く温めるし食べるように弁当をしておいました

TL Note

Same as my grammar point yesterday but can only use the counters 人 and つ for people and things respectively. Not commonly used in modern Japanese compared to 何+counter+か.

Since I have so many “assignments” for my sentence a day challenge, I’ve written a second sentence showing the grammar point for てform verb + おく which means “to do something in preparation for”.

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^^^ I did have to spend a second wondering “is that the kanji for ‘fix’ or ‘place on’?” :smile:

仕事に近々行かないならなくて疲れすぎていい文を書けません。

ジョジョの奇妙(きみょう)冒険(ぼうけん)()よう(おも)っています。WIFIがあろうとあるまいと、ジョジョを()ます。

二番(にばん)文章(ぶんしょう)(うそ)だよ。

Summary

I love how nerdy Japanese autocomplete is. I only had ジョジョ written and it suggested the whole name despite me having never typed it before in Japanese. Phones will autocorrect “one piece” to “ONE PIECE” as well.

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Rewrote this after I realized if I wasn’t sure whether I was getting that relative clause right or not, that’s probably a good sign that I should just rephrase it entirely to avoid that.
このレストランクーポンを有効期限(ゆうこうきげん)の前使うことができないはずだから、ブックマークとして使っています。

Old version

私が有効期限(ゆうこうきげん)の前使うことができないと思っているこのレストランクーポンをブックマークとして使っています。

として

“I shouldn’t be able to use this restaurant coupon before it expires, so I’m using it as a bookmark.”
として: “as,” “for the purpose,” “in the capacity of”

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僕は鬼龍院皐月のねんどろいどがあります。他にもねんどろいどを持っている。

外ではちょっと寒いため、ドアと窓を閉めました。

TL Note

Sentence 1: Means “other”.

Sentence 2: Closely means “because” when the proceeding word is either an i/na adjective or a past tense verb.

多くの人より私は言語を一つ知っています。でも、このまま続けることが日本語は私の三つ目の言語かもしれません

TL Note

In the first grammar point, I used より to say that I know one more language than most people. On the second point, it closely means “probably, might be, possibly”.

Edit: Corrected as suggested by Leebo and Syphus. Thank you very much!!

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去年から今年まで僕の町は水が足りないです
だから毎日交互にうちの家は水がない

What I’ve tried to say: since last year up until now, there isn’t enough water in our city, so every day, alternately, there isn’t water in our home.
Is the usage of 交互 correct?

This should probably be 多くの人達. I’m not sure I have a good explanation why off the top of my head. I realize that sounds weird given how い adjectives usually work, but for whatever reason, you don’t tend to see 多い used to modify words that way.

For 一つ to interact with 言語 properly, it either needs to be 一つ言語 or 言語を一つ, with the latter being more natural for this example.

知る is a verb that expresses an instantaneous gain of information, so the ている form is used to express that the change happened and is continuing into the present.

Lastly, this is actually one situation where putting 私は is probably critical to the clarity of the sentence.

多くの人より私は言語をひとつ知っています。

It could probably still be made clearer, but this addresses the main grammar issues.

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Basically 多い doesn’t mean “many” it really means something more like “a large amount of X exists”, so it basically needs to be Xが多い cause without the X it doesn’t exist and therefore 多くの takes over the “adjectival” usage, and 多い only words like that in a clause, like オーストラリア人が多い場所 (place where there are many Australians)

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今日日本語を勉強するかわりに主に先日始めたイタリアの神秘(しんぴ)を読みました。

かわりに

“Today I mainly read an Italian mystery I started the other day instead of studying Japanese.”
かわりに: “instead of”, “in place of”
Changed to 勉強するかわりに instead of した. I remembered seeing some explanations of tenses in subordinate clauses that stated the principle that in Japanese, past vs. present in the subordinate clause is relative to the time of the main verb in the sentence, not to the current moment like it is in English. Since the time when I would have hypothetically been studying is the same time as when I actually did read, I think that would indicate I should be using the present tense in that clause.

Also remember something about, in some constructions, hypothetical events that never actually occurred getting expressed in the present tense since they never got completed, so they’re not in the past, but I’m less sure of that one.

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この玉ねぎは私のたった一人の友人ですね。
(Note: to be said passive-aggressively while holding an onion in your hand and staring directly into the eyes of a friend or acquaintance.)
(Did I do that right?)

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明日とても早く起きられるように今日早く起きました。

ように

“I woke up early today so I can wake up very early tomorrow.”
ように: “so that,” “in order to”. There’s another usage of the same term, and also a couple of idiomatic expressions like ようになる employing this, according to DBJG.

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日本で、特に東京は、アパートの広さが狭いです。ふつうの家の部屋と同じぐらいです。

新しいのCPUは多くのコアがあります。でも、私の気に入りのゲームは一つのコアを使っています。だから、新しいのCPUを買う前に長い間で掛かります。

TL Note
  1. Means “the same as”.
  2. The kanji reads as (がた) which means “model, type”.
  3. Means “before” but it applies to the preceding verb/noun.
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どのゲームが一つのコアばかりを使いますか?

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