Haha no you’re okay! I like discussing these kinds of things 
And yeah, that’s exactly what ても is, but what does that have to do with what we were talking about?
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I don’t know. I’m lost and tired 
Sorry if I didn’t make sense in whatever I said XD
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大丈夫ですよ！寝てください 笑笑
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On japanesetest4you.com, are the example sentences that are provided with the grammar explanations reliable and natural sounding? I ask because I remember that resource that would display sentences like a screensaver was blasted for using the Tanaka corpus, which doesn’t have natural sounding sentences (I think).
I wanted to check before putting them into flashcards and studying something potentially harmful. Thanks!
I’ve noticed some of their sentences being identical to sentences in grammar books that I own, so I get the feeling they are stealing them from reliable sources. They don’t seem to say anywhere on the site where the sentences are coming from, and they probably don’t want to say “I stole them from 3 different books and didn’t write any of them myself”. It would make the sentences reliable, but the site kind of shady.
Thanks for the info. At least the sentences are (probably) reliable 
What have you used to study grammar? I’m just finishing Genki and I’m debating between getting Tobira or learning point by point from a site like japanesetest4you + looking up more use cases and nuances.
I realize you’re asking Leebo about grammar studies, but I can attest to Tobira being a solid book, both for grammar points and interesting readings. Its accompanying site provides additional resources as well, though I haven’t really used it.
The book in question was 新完全マスターＮ１文法 I believe. The problem with japanesetest4you is stark when you compare it to those kinds of books, especially at the N2/N1 level, because japanesetest4you explains next to nothing. Whereas 新完全マスター and similar series lay out all the rules and nuances of particular grammar points. Like “the second half of the sentence has to be performed by the actor of the first half of the sentence” or “this can only be used to describe unexpected results” etc. And then there will usually be like a paragraph or more expanding on the usage. You get the bare minimum from japanesetest4you, and sometimes it’s incomplete, I’ve seen. Like, sometimes they won’t list all the possible ways to connect it with various parts of speech, or some of them are slightly wrong.
Gotcha. And no problem @SleepyOne, thanks for the input! Sounds like I’ll be getting Tobira and probably Kanzen after that. Thanks again!
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This isn’t really a grammar question, but it’s close enough.
While studying, I came across this sentence :
それはどういう意味ですか。
The given translation is :
“What does it mean?”
My question is, if どういう was absent from the sentence, would the meaning/translation still be the same? Is the どういう necessary here?
それは意味ですか would just be something like “Is that a (the) meaning?” It’s kind of hard for me to imagine would it would be said in response to, in a natural setting, though there are some possibilities I guess.
But どういう意味ですか is very common, and you’re just asking the person to explain what they meant.
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Why do some grammar points apply to verbs, i-adjectives, nouns, but not na-adjectives?
Do you have something specific in mind? It’s not like everything has to apply to everything. It’s common for grammar points to apply to a subset of possible parts of speech.
The other day I was studying ～にしては and it only can be used with nouns and verbs, but not adjectives.
So you can say こどもにしては or 走ったにしては but you can’t say 若いにしては.
Why? That’s just how the grammar works… if you try to do that, it will sound wrong to a native, so there’s no real reason to challenge it.
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“何当てんだよ”
What type of conjugation is going on here with 当?
Or is there no conjugation and it’s just using the noun “当て” + a NO-DESU, to literally mean /What is your aim (+ no desu for further inquiry)?
Could you share where you got that quotation from?
I’m pretty sure it’s a mistake. Without hearing the example from the anime, I’m pretty sure it’s 何やってんの. I’ve haven’t come across a question that ends with an emphatic だよ, but maybe someone else has come across a colloquial use of this and is privy to it. Which is why I think it’s a misheard quotation.
The only advice I have for you is to take what learners hear from a source and ask about on an online forum with a grain of salt because they might have misheard what they are asking about. If you had directly read about it on an all-Japanese source, you probably could trust its validity more than from the site you linked me to.
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I agree that it’s probably a misquote. It’s probably 何やってんだよ. Rough, slangy, questions ending in だよ are all over TV, comedy, conversations between two guys, etc. One possible translation is “What the hell are you doing?”
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These other posters already pointed out that the guy misheard なにや as なにあ, but they didn’t explain your actual question as to what’s going on with the conjugation. It’s an extremely contracted form of 何をやっているのだ
Here’s everything that’s been dropped one at a time (the order is mostly arbitary)
何をやっているのだ
何やっているのだ
何やってるのだ
何やってるんだ
何やってんだ
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click on “show this thread” and you can read all the messages, they do come to the conclusion that it is 何やってんだよ