Yeah, it definitely seems likely. This is one of those things I wish I still talked to some natives for so I could ask just to be sure lol.
Well either way, thank you for your patience and input! I understand it wasn’t a particularly normal question to ask, but for some reason it just didn’t feel as clear cut as the rest of the stuff I had read.
I know you weren’t asking about keigo, but the proper way to modify a verb into an honorific form as a request would be お + ます form + ください.
Like 待つ > お待ちください
No て comes into it.
However, お助けください isn’t used very often, for whatever reason. There are other keigo words for help, like お力添え (おちからぞえ) or ご尽力 (ごじんりょく) depending on how formal it is.
In a business setting, you are likely to hear お力添え from a kouhai to a senpai.
But simply 助けてください (て form + ください) is fine for the forums.
好きな人と会話をするのなら、禁句にしたい言葉がある
Could someone confirm my translation?
“When speaking to a person you like, there are some words you want to avoid”. I’m assuming 禁句にする is a thing and it means “to forbid a word”. Thanks in advance
Chiming into confirm! Looks completely accurate. (“Some words you’ll want to avoid” strikes me as being a bit more natural in English, but that’s nitpicky voice stuff.)
And of course the implication of 好きな人 would be (without having further context), someone you like like–as in have a crush on–rather than just someone you want to be friends with.
thanks ian!
I don’t understand this example from my textbook.
There is a bank over there.
あそこに銀行があります
Where is the toilet?
トイレはどこですか
に is always used with ある. いる as well. And 住む. It’s the location-of-existence marker for the state-of-being verbs.
I’m having one of those “why didn’t you be a good boy and learn a nice simple language like Spanish?” days.
Can someone please tell me in poo poo baby terms what であろう means? And what であろうが means? From this sentence:
ヤギで通学するのは校則違反ではないであろうが！
Arriving by goat… doesn’t violate school policy!
But from my research, it seems that であろう is to express likelihood (I think likeでしょう, だろう), not sure how that applies in that sentence since he’s making an emphatic declaration. And that が in there may as well be in latin, no idea what it’s doing, i’m guessing it doesn’t really mean anything and it’s just for emphasis.
Massive thanks in advance.
であろう is in the dictionary, which makes things simpler. (Dunno for sure, but I’d be willing to say that’s the である version of the でしょう form.)
The が is が-as-but. It’s implying a follow-on sentence without going so far as to actually say it. Without knowing much of the context, I couldn’t really say what it is - perhaps “so I did it”. This is Nichijou, right?
My girlfriend says she feels the が implies an unsaid continuation. Such as やめてほしい “I wish you’d stop” or something.
I feel the same. Kinda like ‘okay, it might not be against the rules, but … [it should be/don’t do it/STAHP]’.
I’ve checked in “A Handbook of Japanese Grammar Patterns for Teachers and Learners” and the closest I found is 「であろうと」which means “either way.” 
“Probably” seems to fit the context, though.
彼はパソコンを 買いたがって、週末も働いた。
Translation : Wanting to buy a PC, he even worked weekends
I’ve just seen this example on Bunpro and what I don’t understand is why it’s using the て form in 買いたがって.
Could someone please explain?
Thanks in advance
In this context て means “and” or “-ing” (applied to a verb or an i-adjective; otherwise it’s で). So it is basically used to combine two sentences.
To further explain what @NicoleIsEnough said, the verb here is 買いたがる. When speaking of people not there (aka third person, aka he/she/they), the ～たい becomes ～たがる and means something like “showing signs of wanting X”.
彼は = he (topic+subject)
パソコンを = pc (direct object)
買いたがって = wants to buy; 買いたがる in て form (meaning here ‘but’)
週末 = (on the) weekend (temporal noun)
も = also, even
働いた = worked; 働く in plain past.
IE: he wanted to buy a pc, but he even worked on the weekend (implied: so he couldn’t buy the pc)
ETA: it could also mean ‘so’ here like the translation you provided. "He wanted to buy a pc, so he’s even worked weekends (implied: he doesn’t usually work weekends).
Which meaning it is depends on context. ¯\(ツ)/¯
I think the て implies a reason, not a “but”,
so the meaning is something like “He wanted to buy a PC, and therefore worked even weekends (so that he could afford it)”
Thank you three, I get it now!
So I take it from your kind responses that であろう behaves like でしょう and だろう (maybe it’s the most formal of the 3?). And the が is similar to when people say ですけど and end the sentence.
@Belthazar Thank you for your response. Yes, it is from nichijou.
@Leebo As always thank you
@konekush Thank you very much
@Nenad Thank you!
であろう／でしょう／だろう do express likelihood, but also presumptions. When you see them paired with something like ない, it carries the connotation that the speaker is pointing something out and looking for (anticipated) agreement–like, “Hey, it’s this way, right?”. I think it might just the way it’s translated that’s throwing you off. You could just as easily go with “But going to school by goat isn’t in violation, right?”, but the tone from the combination of both であろう and が make it feel a bit stronger (contextually I’m imagining someone arguing against receiving a demerit for arriving by goat by pointing out that it’s technically not banned). So, I think the way they have it worded is probably the better contextual translation even if it might be more confusing for someone using it to parse the original grammar.
(This is kind of the danger in using translations for learning grammar, also. Unless they actually come from a grammar-learning resource, you never know what they’re actually privileging. If they’re privileging being good contextual translations, they’ll often be nearly useless for people looking to understand the original grammar because Japanese and English are so dissimilar. (And conversely if they’re trying to be good instructional grammar translations, they often won’t be very good contextual ones.) Wanikani’s own example sentence translations are a mix, but a lot of them have fairly loose approaches, which is fair in that they’re trying to show off contextual usage more than teach you any grammar.)
EDIT – Oh, also: Sometimes a が or けど that would be more natural to put at the beginning of a sentence in English will still come at the end of a phrase in Japanese. Maybe that’s already totally locked in for you, but just in case it seems strange, you can think of it like this: “Going to school by goat isn’t a violation, but (implicit: you’re scolding me for it anyway!)” Which is basically the same thing as saying, “But going to school by goat isn’t a violation!” (Or–I have no idea what the context here is–if they’re talking about it with someone else later, I guess it could be like “Even though going to school by goat isn’t a violation,” etc.)
So basically:
And the が is similar to when people say ですけど and end the sentence.
Yes, but also bear in mind that it doesn’t always mean there’s an implied new thought afterward. The thing it’s “but”-ing may just be what’s already been said or established.
