I also recent learned 下さい (ください).
What I want to know is why the 下 Kanji is in there? Like what kind of explanation is there? Just wondering. I’ll try to remember it. It’s just that I don’t usually think of that when I say that?
First thing to know is that there are verbs in Japanese that have social relationship dynamics baked into them. You can elevate the social position of another person by using honorific words for their actions and lower your own position by using humble words for your own actions.
下さい is a command form of the word 下さる, which means “to give”. But this word is an honorific word, meaning that using it elevates the status of the one doing it if you use it.
Since this person who is giving you something is metaphorically above you in this situation, they are lowering the thing to you metaphorically as well. Thus, the use of that kanji.
The humble word for “give” is 差し上げる (さしあげる). Notice the use of 上. You are raising the item up to the person socially above you in that situation.
Also, a quick note on orthography, ください is typically written in kanji only when it is used alone. Even then, using the kanji is optional. When it is an auxiliary, like after the て form of another verb, and the giving is abstract, it will almost always be written in hiragana, which is standard for auxiliaries in that situation. For example 見る in ～てみる will be in hiragana, or as in 来る in ～てくる.
Interesting. So when using the request you use the humbling and when giving the requested you use the honorific?
It’s best to think about it from the point of who is doing the thing. When you say ください you are saying “give x to me” (though since it’s an honorific word it doesn’t sound blunt or rude like the English).
As such, the person doing the giving is being honored.
If you are doing an action, you use the humble.
So, for a request, you are saying it, but verb is referring to another person’s action, so it’s honorific.
And I wouldn’t worry too much about this at this point in your learning. ください has entered kind of a status where it’s very common to hear it, even if someone doesn’t use any other honorific language. But going full blown honorific and humble with all words will sound very odd in most situations (unless you need to for work), so it’s not a big deal if it’s confusing now.
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No. Thank you! That is a much more interesting explanation than I imagined! I actually did some side research on Japanese honorifics for names and titles a little bit ago, so that makes sense. Thank you so much! I will try not to worry, but also keep it close in mind.
どもありがとうございます！
描き下ろす(かきおろす) - To draw for a specific purpose.
Seen when reading the amazon.co.jp product page for something I was thinking of buying.
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浪費する (ろうひする) to waste.
鼻（はな）= nose
This is quite amusing as “hana” is Finnish for a tap (as in a tap that you’d find in a sink). So that’s oddly appropriate.
Moreover, 鼻水 = snot and “hanavesi” = tap water.
So to my Finnish brain, it’s almost as if the Japanese were calling snot tap water.
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柳 (やなぎ) - Willow
How I remember the reading:
The musician Yanagi George has a song called Weeping In The Rain which makes me think of Weeping Willow.
経済制裁, because I listen to the news to punish myself.
Did you find this in the NHK News App?
アメリカがイランに厳しい経済制裁を始める
That was the context, but I was listening to the NHK hourly updates
経由 - going through; going via; going by way of
恐縮 - feeling obliged; being grateful; being thankful; being sorry; being ashamed (sometimes used to prefix a request); shrinking back in fear
味見 - tasting; sampling
通用 - popular use; circulation; to pass as; to pass for
度合 い - degree; extent
混同 - confusion; mixing; merger
保証金 - deposit (esp. on renting a house); security money; bond payment; guarantee
補償金 - compensation payment; reparation
敬体 - distal style (linguistics terminology)
～ 代 - charge; cost; price; generation; age; reign; era (Geology, etc. term); a representative of; on behalf of; for (someone)after someone’s name or title; used after a phone number to indicate that it is a switchboard number; counter for decades of ages, eras, etc.; counter for generations (of inheritors to a throne, etc.); proxy application company (Abbreviation)
儚い（はかない）– ephemeral
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子孫 ( しそん ) : descendant. Picked it up from an anime! ^^
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粗大ごみ（そだいごみ）useless man about the house; husband that is retired and considered a nuisance
oh and also it means oversized garbage.
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Not the most recent, but it’s probably best to list them anyway as that there are some practical words interspersed in the bunch.
仮免許 - temporary license;
試験場 - examination hall; examination room; laboratory; experimental station; testing ground
監査 - inspection; audit; judgement; judgment
クランク - crank (also a series of two 90 degree turns in the Japanese driver’s exam)
二次会 - afterparty; second party of the same night
景品 - gift; premium; freebie; giveaway; something additional; an extra; prize (lottery drawing, pachinko, etc.); party favor
手に余 る - to be beyond one’s capacities; to be beyond one’s powers; to be beyond one’s control; to be unmanageable
金額 - amount of money
回避 - evasion; avoidance
本末 - essence and fringe; beginning and ending; root and branch; means and end
癪に障る (しゃくにさわる) to irritate, to get on one’s nerves, to aggravate…
From a WK context sentence. I swear I learn so many new words from the sentences I’ve never seen anywhere else.
Does anyone know if there are any vocab lists made from WK sentences? Most of them are pretty advanced…
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I like 二次会. In a way a wonderful word/expression.
Lots of words every day since I do WK. But someone told me something in Japanese today with the word 単語 (たんご) which means single character word.
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I was extremly confused when I heared アルバイト in an anime today.
First it was like: Lol, this sounds like the German word “Arbeit”… WAIT A MINUTE!!!
Yes, I looked it up and it really comes from the German word for work/employment. But in Japanese it means part-time job.
It’s always so confusing, if I hear Japanese words, which comes from German. Strange things happen here.
~T 
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