The quick or short Language Questions Thread (not grammar)

Hmm, I see. I suppose maybe んび(ゃ) vs んひ(ゃ) could help distinguish if you have trouble hearing what someone is saying? Considering that 3 and 4 are the only numbers that end in ん :thinking:

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I’ll just write out some examples that my dictionaries have on 五分(ごぶ):

五分の利子で
at five percent interest

五分引きで
at a five percent discount

年利五分
(at) an annual interest of 5 percent.

五分の試合
an even game

It also seems like 五分五分 is used to mean fifty-fifty, or even, like in the above example:

彼の成功の見込みは五分五分だ
His chance of success is fifty-fifty.

I pulled these examples from the OLEX J-E dictionary and the Wisdom J-E dictionary. Not sure if these really help at all, though.

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Hmm, I wonder if 五分 only really means 50% in “五分五分”. If that’s the case it’s kinda misleading that dictionaries list one of 五分’s definitions as 50% :stuck_out_tongue:

My guess is literal number usage is always 5%, whereas figurative number usage is 50%. As in the use of 十分 to mean “enough” because it’s 100%.

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Well, also the 五分の試合 one.

Well, Jisho lists “tie; evenness; half” among 五分’s definitions, which seem more suitable than “50%” IMO. 五分五分 is defined as “as likely as not; 50-50; even match; tie” and can be written as 5分5分, so it still feels a bit misleading to me to list 五分 as “50%” - but maybe that’s just me :sweat_smile:

Edit: Now that I think about it, it’s probably only because of my western thinking that 五分五分 seems more ambigous to me than 5分5分 - after all 五 technically is always 5 in Japanese, never 50

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I’m not sure I see the issue with also saying 50% if “half” is one of the meanings, but eh.

I just feel like it could mislead someone to using it to try to say things like “I can give you a 50% discount” or “X increased/decreased by 50%”, when it actually only can mean 5% in those situations, that’s all :sweat_smile:

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Yes, perhaps. I don’t know if that’s the reason though.

going by the examples on weblio, they’re grammatically different. picking out the relevant definitions:

1割の半分割合100分の5。5パーセント。「五分の手数料」「市価の五分引き」→歩合

5%. Notice that it’s always used with の. also interesting that it’s defined as “half of 1割”, with 1割 meaning 10%

物事半ば半分。「五分通り出来上がる

Half of a thing. No の or other particle in the example. I think this probably comes from it being half of ten again

双方優劣の差がないこと。五分五分。「試合を五分に持ち込む」「五分に渡り合う

fifty-fifty. both examples use に for this.

(あとに打消しの語を伴って用いる)ほんのわずか。「五分のすきもない」

small amount. this meaning has to be followed by a negation.

there’s not really enough examples here to be definitive but I think this is probably how they’re distinguished…

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Why does google translate refuse to give me the kanji for 烏賊? Do animal names never get written in kanji?

Not never, but depending on the animal, it can certainly be much more common to write the name in kana, and いか would be one of those.
Google translate is just going to give you whatever it thinks is the clearest option, it’s not really meant for producing text.

If you want to type 烏賊, you can install an IME, type いか, then tap space a couple of times to show conversion options and pick 烏賊.
If you want to look up the kanji of a word, a dictionary will likely be more reliable than an automatic translation service.

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Given that many (if not all?) species of animal have at least one unique kanji in their name, I think it makes sense that they’re often written in kana instead. Some really common ones are written in kanji just 'cause everyone knows them (like you might see 猫 written in kanji instead of ネコ), but I’m pretty sure the convention is to write animal names in katakana unless there’s some reason or stylistic choice not to.

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Not quite all! I can think of the 河馬 and the 百舌 for example.
But lots, definitely!

(and kana is probably still more common for those examples too)

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We can’t forget 河豚(ふぐ) of course!

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Is that you cosplaying the op of the 河豚(ふぐ) that broke the camel’s back thread?

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Who’s to say we’re not the same person?

Have you ever seen us in the same room together?

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You’re right. I don’t think I’ve even seen you online at the same time!

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How do you say black swan in japanese?
…黒乃白鳥? :worried: I keep getting 黒い白鳥 but that can’t be true. Black white bird?