The quick or short Language Questions Thread (not grammar)

That might work, thank you!

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Since your question was about something you encountered in written form, I’ll give your answer in the written form context. It’s not all that common to see it shortened, especially compared to others. And when you do see it every now and then it’s always in quotes ime rather than narration or anything.

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Thanks. That would make sense, since it definitely looks like a spoken thing - in the game where I encountered it, it was indeed dialogue line, not narration. So in that case writer decided to explicitly show character’s speech quirk in text, instead of leaving it up just to voice actor.

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What’s the ACTUAL logic behind 多分 meaning maybe? “X has many factors so the outcome is uncertain”?

多分 is a bit more like “probably” than “maybe,” so while searching “多分 語源” didn’t turn up any real slam dunks, it seems to me that it’s related to words for “majority” like 大部分 or 大多数 (and I did get that from here, which explains a related expression).

So it’d be like, “the part that has more,” and you can see how that might translate to probabilities as “it’s not a sure thing but X is at least a little bit more likely than not” which is pretty much 多分.

(that said generally I’d say expressions and grammar stuff is gonna have less direct logic behind the kanji than other words, so I could also certainly buy just the word having developed for some other reason first and then the kanji being applied to match the sound. But the possible explanation above seems to have some connection at least)

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That’s how I would look at it as well. It’s one of those words one can throw around, meaning “probably” or “I guess”, expressing slightly greater certainty than かもしれない (or the casual かも). Whenever I think of 多分, I think more of the phonetic たぶん, even though I like to spell it out with kanji :stuck_out_tongue: .

Interestingly, 多分に means “substantially” or “considerably”.

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what does it mean にすることを in this sentence?

[横綱よこづな]にすることをえる

is it ‘about’?

I think in this specific case it means “to be made”:
[横綱よこづな]にすることをえる
The ceremony where one will be informed about being made a grand champion.

I’m guessing the tailing で is because it’s a clause in a bigger sentence, right? Or is the “context” で? What’s the full context?

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My italki teacher messaged me with 7/25ですが、おばあちゃんのお葬式のため授業ができないので、日程変更のリクエストを送ってもらえますか?すみません!

What’s the most appropriate way to reply? How do I send my condolences in Japanese?

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There are set phrases for expressing condolences, such as ご愁傷様です, but I’ve heard some Japanese people say that recent sarcastic usage of it has made them feel weird about saying it.

I doubt your teacher would take it poorly, they’d just assume you looked it up, so I’m sure it would be fine.

Honestly, I would probably just say something like “そうなんですか…” in reaction to their grandmother and “もちろん、問題ありません” to just let them know I’m not bothered by having to change the lesson.

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Thank you.

When is カルタ used instead of 札? is 花札 a type of カルタ?

I feel like usually カルタ is used to refer to the game or category of games more often than the cards, even though I think it technically could. It’s normal to talk about 札 while playing カルタ. And yes, 花札 is considered a kind of カルタ.

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A quick heads-up since it doesn’t warrant a new thread. I requested an extra on’yomi reading for 景色 (けいしょく, more in line with the kanji). Found it recently in Jisho:
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Fingers crossed for a “yes” :slight_smile: .

Has anyone come across this reading in a book perhaps? I’ve only seen けしき for “scenery”.

I’ve never seen that reading used for 景色. I don’t really think it should be allowed by WaniKani.

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I’m not entirely sure what Torii gets its vocabulary from but that is the reading I was taught for the word… it’s also the one that comes up in Yomichan using the 明鏡国語辞典, ハイブリッド新辞林, 新明解国語辞典 第五版, JMDict (though this one has a second entry saying けいしょく), 研究社 新和英大辞典 第5版 and in all the other dictionaries I have installed as the second reading, after けいしょく.

Also my IME does not like けいしょく as a reading (as in, won’t even let me convert it to 景色) but will immediately suggest the correct kanji for 景色.

That at least suggests to me it’s not unheard of as a reading.

Good point! Mine doesn’t like it either, now that I checked. Suggests a couple of other words of which only 軽食 matches phonetically (the rest look like some false positives).

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Noon? I assume this is just in 午後零時? Is calling 12pm “0pm” really a thing in Japan? Is it just a really old thing that was used to save space by writing 零 instead of 十二? So many questions :thinking:

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Depends on what time style you’re using

24時制で一日の最初となる時間。通常真夜中に含まれる。12時制では正午を午後0時、午後12時となる時間を午前0時とも呼ぶ。 零 …

Basically midnight on a 24 hour system, and either midnight or noon on a 12 hour one. As for whether or not it’s a thing they use… honestly I can’t remember ever hearing it, but I mean it makes sense.

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Yeah, it definitely technically makes sense (12 is used for both after all), it just seems weird to me since I’ve never seen it used (in any language). I wonder if the usage of 0 could have anything to do with “12pm” being confusing to some, since 11:59pm comes right before 12:00am, not right before 12:00pm.

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