Short Grammar Questions (Part 1)

Putting all language aside, except in terms of human<->human communication/connection; I don’t think this is possible. Psychologically speaking, I think the simple fact of that behavior will tend to be perceived as pretentious or potentially passive-aggressive. I don’t think it will be well received, unless you are simultaneously perceived as being literally weak or a victim. As if your default state is self-deprecation, but at the same time you’d be showing signs of high-functioning intelligence, which is not at all a mark of humility, but false humility. Humility, much like evil, will often be eager to hide its own light and instead make others appear stronger or feel more intelligent; either as a defensive or offensive maneuver (depending on the victim/predator dichotomy).

While this is only my personal opinion, human instinct is a strong thing. I’m only posing it for your own consideration and self reflection. I think if you think about how you would perceive someone acting that way, you might reach similar suspicions; or maybe not. At least you may realize there is no way to make everyone like you, and some percentage of people will always overthink or act on emotions, and everyone is different. I only meant for this post to be a sentence or two.

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Theory apart, saying「いたす」does sound like a maniac, maybe the reason is what @Jonapedia said, but saying いただく is definitely a thing.

I’ve seen Japanese people casually saying stuff like 「電気を消してていただける?ありがとう」among friends several times. (of course the もらえる version is perfectly fine, too)
Also heard「これ、ちょっとお借りするね」more than once.
おる、apart from the dialect usage, is also pretty common on written language.

I feel like the Keigo meaning is being lost in this case, but some people can be pretty casual saying stuff like「かしこまり~」among friends, too.
Using these nuances of Keigo can also be used as humor, but it takes correct non-verbal language, such as intonation and facial expressions to make it clear you are doing it on purpose.

That being said, using it wrong CAN be perceived as passive-aggressive depending on the situation. So I don’t really recommend going for it until you are very sure of what you are doing.

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Quick question,
I’m going through my grammar book, and i have this sentence:

たかしは朝ごはんを食べずに学校へ行くことがある。

and I know the book translates it as “There are times when Takashi goes to school without eating breakfast”. I get that much, but what kind of conjugation is 食べ? I’m assuming that it’s some form of negative given the translation, but I haven’t encountered it before.

Yeah, that’s pretty much all there is to it. You’ll see it around more and more now that you’ve seen it once, and it’s formed just like you see it here - ず after the same conjugation ない would attach to, meaning “without doing X”

Here’s a jisho entry and a Tae Kim page

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If you want to get technical, ず is the 連用形 of ぬ, which you could see as an old form of ない. The 連用形 for most verbs is the form you see in compound verbs, and is also the one that can sub for the て-form in most sentences. As such, you can see it as a connecting form for ぬ, similar to ないで in modern Japanese. It means the same thing regardless of whether or not you add に after ず, and is considered quite formal in modern usage, probably because it’s a Classical Japanese remnant.

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Like @Jonapedia already pointed out, this is the exact equivalent of ないで
Here is a Maggie Sensei article https://maggiesensei.com/2013/10/22/〜ずに-zuni-〜ないでnaide/

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What’s the difference between なくてもいい & {ずに/なくて(も)/ないで}済む when the latter means to not have to do something? For example, can なくてもいい replace ずに済んだ in the following sentence?

知人の紹介で入社できたので、テストは受けずに済んだ。(Example taking from Bunpro)

Also I don’t know exactly why, but replacing せずに済んだ with なくてもいい sounds weird in the following sentence doesn’t it?

君が予定を合わせてくれたら、みんなのスケジュールを変更せずに済むんだけど… (Example taking from Bunpro)

You need to take the past tense into account, so in that case it would become the following, which is totally acceptable:

知人の紹介で入社できたので、テストは受けなくてもよかった。
(or both in the present, of course)

They have different nuances, but I think the first thing you should keep in mind is that 済む is stating a fact. When you say 〇〇ずに済んだ, you are stating that it didn’t happen. Period.
なくてもいい, on the other hand, is stating a situation of no obligation, regardless of what really happened.

What I mean by that is that you can say stuff such as:

本当はテストを受けなくてもよかったのに、彼はどうしても受けたいと言って、受けさせてもらった。

わざわざテストを受けたのに、知人の紹介があったから実は受けなくてもよかった。

But it’s impossible to say the above with 済んだ, because if he didn’t take the test, he didn’t take the test. You can’t say “he didn’t, but he did”.

Also, since 済む has a meaning of finishing things, when you say it as 〇〇{ずに/なくて(も)/ないで}済む it gets this nuance of “things got done without of all the hassle of 〇〇”. It’s generally implied that you are glad you didn’t have to bother doing whatever was initially thought to be necessary.
Since なくてもいい is also used for permissions, it can be used regardless of the intentions of the original actor, without the above nuance.

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Thank you!

Is there a significant difference between using 〜たらいい or 〜といい when saying you are hoping for something or that something would be good to do?
I am reviewing them on bunpro and it gives the definitions:
it would be nice if, it would be good if, should・I hope…

but no distinction between the two is given.

Not in the present tense. In the past tense though, for something that didn’t actually happen (i.e. ‘it would have been good if ~, but it didn’t happen’), you have to use 〜たらよかった. 〜とよかった… seems to exist, but almost all the translations I’ve seen online for it from native speakers suggest that it’s still interpreted as the present tense. Perhaps よかった is some sort of ‘tone softening’ using the past tense. I mean, I’m not 100% sure as far as this structure is concerned, but I’m pretty sure that in general, 〜と+[past tense verb] cannot be used to express that something would have happened in the past if ~ had happened (if ~ didn’t actually happen).

Here’s an answer on HiNative that lines up with what I just said:

That aside, more generally, 〜と expresses a more obvious, natural cause-effect relationship than 〜たら does, so there is that slight nuance – the link between ~ and the result doesn’t need to be as self-evident with 〜たら. Another answer I saw on HiNative also suggests that 〜と is a conditional structure that’s appropriate if ~ is likely to happen.

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I have a quick question about V場合は,~ that I hope someone can answer

In these two examples, why is the past tense used ?
雨が降った場合はハイキングは中止です。
時間に遅れた場合は会場に入れません。

What’s the difference with this sentence where past tense is not used ?
先生がいらっしゃる場合は私がお供致します。

And how can I know if I should use the past tense or not with 場合 ? Since it’s a hypothetical situation, it has not happened yet so I’m a bit confused.

(These are exemple sentences from A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese and みんなの日本語 II)

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Firstly, it’s important to remember that た is not necessarily “past tense” but rather “perfect aspect” meaning that a verb has completed.

The first two are conditionally based on it having already rained and already being late for the conditions to be met. Using the non-た form would be akin to saying “In the event that rain will fall (in the future)” or “in the case that you will be late (in the future)”. Those aren’t very easy to determine as being true or false.

With verbs of existence like いる or いらっしゃる, you don’t need the perfect aspect to imply “completion” of anything.

If the verb in its non-た form implies a state that you are desiring as a condition, it doesn’t need to be in た form. If the condition requires an action to complete or a state to have changed, then た would be necessary.

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Thanks for your anwser, I think I understand it better now :slight_smile:

This article was very helpful. Thank you so much! :star_struck:

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Would this be a correct way to say that you received the Corona vaccine or what would be a better way?

コロナワクチンの注射をしました.

I’m only just starting out on my grammar and output journey so I may be totally confused here :slight_smile: .

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Close, but the problem with 注射をする is that it means that you’re the one who performed the injection. コロナワクチン(注射)を受けました is what you’re looking for: you ‘took’ (literally ’accepted’) the vaccine.

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Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

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I wonder whether one could get away with using a passive tense here as well and saying something like:
私は(看護師に)注射されました。
But that’s probably pushing it a bit and I agree 受ける makes more sense.

I think I would go with ワクチンを打ちました. For some expressions it’s valid to use active voice, even if you aren’t the one performing them, and this is one of them. Another example is saying 髪を切った when you got your hair cut (by a hairdresser).

The expression ワクチンを接種しました also seems to be used, as well as ワクチンを受けました which @Jonapedia suggested.

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