Ah! That makes a lot more sense.
When you say not used, do you mean that it’s left out (as in the previous example) or the particle isn’t used at all? I think you mean the former, but I just wanna clarify!
Thanks so much. 
I would say it’s basically not there at all. Plain form questions are usually done with a rising intonation. In fact, anything can be made a question just with rising intonation, including polite forms. か can make something a question without using rising intonation. Since it’s not necessary at all, I would say it’s just not there, as opposed to being “omitted.” It’s always optional for questions, but is often used with polite ones, and often not used with plain ones.
It’s different from something like, say, パン食べた, where を is necessary and understood to be there, but is just left out for the sake of casualness. Everyone understands it to actually be there, even if unspoken.
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I just started to read NHK Easy and from time to time I’ve noticed な in the middle of the sentence. I know when used at the end of a sentence it can be used to seek confirmation but I’m not sure what purpose it serves in the middle of the sentence.
Here’s an article title I saw it in:
西日本でひどい雨「できるだけ早く安全な場所に逃げて」
Any insight to what purpose it serves here is appreciated!
I am going to assume you are familiar with the terms i-Adjectives and na-Adjectives. If you are not, my suggestion is that you look that up first.
In your particular example, 安全 happens to be a na-Adjective. When a na-adjective precedes a noun (in your example, the noun would be 場所), you need to place "な " between the adjective and the noun. So 安全な場所 means “a safe place” (“safe” is modifying “place”).
On the other hand, when you are using a na-adjective to describe a noun as part of the predicate, you don’t need to use na. So, for example, the following sentence doesn’t use な:
この場所は安全です (this place is safe)
As you study more grammar you will see that in many structures な will follow na-adjectives (that’s why they are called na-adjectives, in the first place).
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Right! I forgot all about that rule for na adjectives but now that you mention it I kind of remember learning about that.
I guess for words like 安全 I forget that they are not only nouns but also adjectives which have different rules.
Thank you for the explanation, that clears up a lot of confusion I’ve had seeing なs in random places and not realizing what they meant, I really appreciate it!
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Another way to use な in a sentence (that I learned recently) is #2.
Depending on who you ask, you could also say that you need to use な in its だ /です form when it ends a sentence…
Or the other way around, to be more precise. The argument is that な is basically the adnominal form of だ, to be used when you’re using a phrase like 「安全だ」 to modify another noun.
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Yeah, it takes some time to get used to the fact that 行きな and 行くな are opposites. And in the ichidan verb case 食べな vs 食べるな. But once you realize it’s just short for なさい it’s easier to remember which is which.
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This is the second example sentence for 薬物:
ビエトは、ヤクザの世界からも、薬物からも、完全に足をあらった
I understand everything, except for the ending. How does 足 fit in here? Jisho isn’t helping as well, its just saying that the meaning is foot/leg.
How would this be read and what is the meaning of 足 here?
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The “Show collocations” button is your friend.
A translation would be, “Wash your hands/feet of ~”.
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Thanks a lot Kazzeon! First time I saw that button 
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「お金がない。」と言うと、
銀行の口座にも家にも財布にも、お金がないという印象を受けます。「お金を持っていない。」と言うと、
今、お金を所持していないという印象を受けます。
What does 受ける mean here?
Looks like it means “to get” as in “to get the impression.”
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Looked it up on weblio and this is what I found:
- 印象を受ける
to receive an impression―have anything impressed on one’s mind - 斎藤和英大辞典
I would still think in your sentence that “get the impression” would sound more natural to me at least since 受ける means both “to get” or “to receive”.
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誰でもいいから付き合いたい。
I want to date someone, anyone is fine.
From a song.
The reason is that they want to date someone, that’s why anyone is fine. Shouldn’t the above be 付き合いたいから、だれでもいい?
Well, it’s a song lyric. None of the usual grammar rules seem to apply in song lyrics.
Well I feel like いいから and any structures containing it sort of fall under the “set phrase”-umbrella.
The meaning of いいから is kind of like “whatever”. And structures containing it, like the one you asked about, carry a similar vibe.
So if I had had to translate it on my own, I also wouldn’t have focused on the から.
->“Anyone would be fine, I just want to date someone”
It carries a bit of desperation or being-over-it-ness that way.
I don’t know if that answers your question though
付き合いたいから、だれでもいい is grammatically correct but not as natural maybe 
It seems more like a statement that way around “Because I want to date someone, anyone is fine.”
While the other way around it seems like a plea. Maybe it’s that
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I was going to say basically the same thing.
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AFAIK, there is no such rule. が alternates with を in some forms (potential, desiderative たい, etc.) and for some “double-が” verbs such as わかる (though the を form is considered improper by some), and that’s it. As for が->の that conversion should be always available in relative clauses (EDIT: when there’s no object in said relative clause) and never available anywhere else, so it’s fairly easy.
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It is not really surprising, as that idea of が turning into を in embedded sentences was more of a random speculation on my part. Sadly it was a bit late after I wrote in the book club thread, so I didn’t really have time to look further into it.
I haven’t really encountered a specific explanation about this transformation in any of the grammar resources I’ve gone through so far, so I might as well as a question about it that I’ve been curious about, now that you mention that it is always available.
Suppose we have the following sentence.
俺が犬の餌を食べてしまった。
I (unintentionally) eat the dog’s food.
This sentence doesn’t specify who is the owner of the dog. Let’s assume that from context we know this is actually a friend’s dog, and not my dog.
Then, let’s say we want to embed that into another sentence,
彼が、俺が犬の餌を食べてしまったと思った。
He thought that I (unintentionally) ate the dog’s food.
Now applying the rule that we can change が for の in the embedded sentence, we would get:
彼が、俺の犬の餌を食べてしまったと思った。
Wouldn’t this sentence make it seem like the dog is mine, when it actually isn’t? Also, wouldn’t it make it seem that someone ate my dog’s food, not necessarily me?