Short Grammar Questions (Part 1)

I can’t believe a textbook would use classical Japanese or weird abbreviated keigo in example sentences with no explanation, though, that’s really strange.

Who said it’s a textbook?

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I don’t think the sentence is from his textbook. Just the “how to conjugate らしい” is from his textbook, no?

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I guess I misread the post, but it sounded like the source of the らしい info was the same book, but I guess not.

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I was in the middle of typing the exact thing, but you took it out from under my nose :stuck_out_tongue:

It is keigo, but it’s spoken so people usually contract things to make them easier to pronounce. I’ve seen this version a lot in anime/manga so I got used to it, but it can be confusing when first encountering it.

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What’s the difference between 混じる and 混ざる? It’s already been answered here 混ざる・混じる confusion - #2 by Leebo but I can’t comprehend the Japanese explanation (despite being able to read it and understand the grammar. like a real doofus)

Thanks a lot! And no, the sentence is from a manga and the らしい from my textbook. I just still don’t understand one last part いらっしゃる is to come, so 来ていらっしゃった would to come to come?

いらっしゃる is actually used in place of 来る, 行く, and いる. So I think @SyncroPC already answered this (emphasis mine):

Pretend 来てらした (来ていらっしゃった) is 来ていた and see if you can make sense of the sentence with that.

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I asked my native friend if いらした is an abbreviated いらっしゃった and this is how he replied:

そうだね、省略の形で良いと思うよ。ただ、書くときじゃなくて話すときに使うイメージかな。あと男ではなく女。女性言葉の話し言葉って感じ。

So basically it’s the honorific いらっしゃる which takes the place of いる in keigo, but it’s only used in speaking, and seems to be mostly used by women, not men.

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君は玉ねぎをいくつ脇に挟めるかい?

Can anyone help me understand what the function of かい is at the end of this example sentence? Thank you in advance :slight_smile:

Unless I’m overlooking something (and if that’s the case, others will correct me, I’m sure) it’s this - the かい question marker.

From Tae Kim:

かい」 and 「だい」 are strongly masculine sentence endings for asking questions. 「かい」 is used for yes/no questions while 「だい」 is used for open-ended questions.

A source that goes a bit more in details of usage are in this Stack Exchange post:

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Thank you, this is helpful. I guess the improper use of yes-no かい for an open-ended question in this instance maybe says something about the nature of the speaker(?). I am still trying to suss out how natural (despite the absurdity) and grammatically correct the sentences are as I work with them and this says to me either there are mistakes, or the example sentences are “natural” aka, willing to present the language as it is used, even if technically incorrect. See: “ain’t”.

Edited to add: thank you for the additional information in the Stack Exchange post.

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Hello,

I have a brief question regarding one of the sentences I came across.

ピーマンはうれるとみどり色から赤色になります。

Bell peppers turn from green to red when they ripen.

if うれる had been 売れる instead of 熟れる, can the sentence mean,

“The Bell peppers that sell are the green ones and red ones.”

or is there more to the sentence that would need to be changed

maybe something like

ピーマン売れるのはみどり色と赤色になります。

I’m not confident in that analysis. と…から means from…to so I’m not sure that would be interchangeable, though what I wrote is based on my limited understanding of grammar.

As I think you suspect, more would need to change in the sentence. For example,

売れるピーマンはみどり色のと赤色のです。

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hmm that definitely makes more sense than what I wrote. I can read and understand ok, but I have much harder time trying to come up with the correct sentence.

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Just to clarify this a bit further: と does not belong to から here. Instead, the sentence should be destructured as:

ピーマンはうれると - When bellpeppers get ripe (と here means “if”, but usually with a sense of “it is a natural consequence”, “it cannot be controlled by the speaker” or “it happens every time”)

みどり色から - from green

赤色になります。- they become red (になる in this case indicates a change, so this is where から comes into play because it marks the previous state).

(Disclaimer: That’s my current understanding. Please everybody correct me if I made any mistakes!)

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I think I might have confused と…から with から…まで.

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Looking back, I dont think anyone answered this for you.

混ざる just more refers to something that is sorta created as a result whereas 混じる is when youre talking about whats there and theres not something becoming of it being mixed. Like their example is gray hair being mixed in with your normal hair, since its just there and doesn’t actually mix with the rest of your hair to create something. But if youre talking about like mixing two flavors together you use 混ざる since it creates something new and you cant really pick out the individual thing anymore.

Hope that makes sense.

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Ahh thanks!

Now this makes sense「仲間に混ざる。」とは言いますが、「仲間に混じる。」とはあまり言いません

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捜せば なくはないと思うが、捜すのが大変するぎる。
It’s not that I don’t think we should search, but that searching is too difficult.

What purpose does 捜す being in it’s ば form serve? I see no reason why it should be in its potential form or how it being coupled with the grammar point なくはない makes sense. Unless it’s short for 捜せばいい…

Would be grateful for any help