Short Grammar Questions (Part 1)

faster than sonic, thanks you

The reason “fastly” doesn’t exist is because “fast” is an adverb already. It is a Flat adverb.

So with that said, the same thing exists in Japanese, “adverbializing” words that are already adverbs generally is unnatural.

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Wow, I’ve never heard of that before. Thanks!

It means what it says. It means that the result is proportional to the amount of the thing that you do.

The above means: If you know him, to the extent that you know him, he is not understandable.

The nuance is: the more you know him, the more non-understandable he is.

Another example:

このラーメンは食べれば食べるほど辛くなる。

this ramen, if you eat it, to the extent you eat it, it becomes spicy.

or more localized: This ramen, the more you eat it, the spicier it gets.

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Does anyone know the difference between 性(せい) vs 性 (しょう). Having some hard time distinguishing when to read it as one or the other in non-set context.

せい is Kan-On (漢音), しょう is Go-On (呉音). I think it just means that the words were imported at different times (or changed to Kan-On), there should be no real rule why one is used or the other. I think it implies that せい should be more common (?).

See in wikipedia here. There is a numbered point 3. in that paragraph that explains how -ei and -ou can come from the same root.

[I’m just interested in that, but no guarantees :slight_smile:]

Edit: There is a list here: 性とは (セイとは) [単語記事] - ニコニコ大百科, しょう seems to favor religious terms (as you would expect from Go-On).

Kanjipedia does not note a distinction with the meanings and the readings the way they will when they legitimately never overlap.

Hey guys :slight_smile: got a question about the conditional ~たら

So I came across this sentence

もし食べに行きたかったら、行こう。

and thought that it looks kind of wrong, because 行く+たら=行ったら. But then I realized that it translates to

If you want to go out to eat, let’s go!.

So my question is, if that actually is the ~たら Form of 行きたい and if there are other mixed forms e.g.
男らしかったら or 始まりそうだったら. (I don’t know if thats accurate?)

Yes, it’s the たら form of 行きたい > 行きたかった > 行きたかったら

And yeah, pretty much anything that can be put into the た form, can also go to たら form.

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失敗の原因は何かと言うとそれは勉強不足だったからです = The reason of the failure is because of lack of study.

Is this grammar awkward?

Is there a reason you ask?

“何かと言うと” is one chunk on its own.

Oof it’s its own thing? I just read it as 何か space と言うと. Rikai-kun picked it up as a single item, but the definitions made no sense so I assumed it was an error.

PS: What does 何かと言うと mean? My Japanese isn’t good enough to read your link…

It basically means “every time”.

何かきっかけがあるたびに,いつも同じ言動をとるさま。
At every chance, always doing or saying the same thing.

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Muchas gracias, Senior Leebo

Uhh… what is the better option between:

寝ている間
寝ている時 or 寝ているの時 ??

What’s the difference? Are both correct?

寝ている間 = while (he) is asleep
寝ている時 = when (he) is alseep

寝ているの時 is wrong. You don’t need a particle between a modifying verb and a noun.

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But it’s essentially the same thing in a conversation, at least that’s what I’m getting. Are there nuances to it? Or they’re simply interchangeable.

The nuances are similar to the English translations I gave, and I feel a little like you’re not spotting them there.

間/while = in the space between when he falls asleep and when he wakes up, the action will take place
時/when = when the condition “he is alseep” has been met, the action can take place

Ordinarily the grammar dictionary will specifically give a contrast when there’s two similar terms like this, but for some reason it hasn’t in this case.

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So they’re the same thing.

while = I’ll rob his house while he’s asleep.
when = I’ll rob his house when he’s sleeping.

disclaimer: I’m not going to rob anyone’s house.

No, I wouldn’t say they’re the same. 間 always expresses a period of time with a beginning and end. 時 falls within such a time, but could be any point in time during that. It doesn’t necessarily express a beginning and end.

At least that’s the way it seems to me.

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