The quick or short Language Questions Thread (not grammar)

It’s helpful if we have the context too, but it kinda sounds like you’re reading out lines from a poem, in which case, the answer for “why this word choice” is often “because it’s more poetic”.

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This is the same thing I thought - in this context one is kinda worth the other - but I also wondered which difference is there between the one and the other - and here’s why I asked that question :slight_smile:

The context is the Tadoku graded reader lv 0 sublv 1,
So I’m not crazy thinking that the writing style is ‘particular’…?
Maybe it’s just oversimplified for absolute beginners to better comprehension

Seriously, great advice. You just get used to some stuff :smiley:

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In my opinion, this would imply that cherry blossoms are moving specifically from the south towards the north. Which implies a bit more agency (to me) than cherry blossoms have. (I don’t know that the language implies this though.)

桜は、北へ、北へ。 (as the line goes in the graded reader)

Instead is just saying that sakura/cherry blossoms are “moving” north. (With no verb actually included I’m using a stand in, perhaps more specifically, sakura are blooming in the direction of north. And/or (blooming and) falling (as the previous sentence talks about) in the direction of north.)

But whether any of this is intended in a deep way, or just the way the writers of the graded reader decided to word it… My guess would be the latter. And as noted, level 0 graded readers work with both limited vocabulary and limited grammar constructions. They are after all trying to be as easy as possible while still telling some kind of story/information.

Reading deeply into why something is written in a specific way, might be a more fruitful endeavor in actual native content. (Although even then, an author could just have decided to say it that particular way for no deeper reason.)

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What I think Belthazar meant and I could be absolutely wrong, is that the mentioned context is extremely limited and since there is not even a verb in that sentence, it’s hard to say much.

As a general recommendation though, I think it’s useful to first grind through the basics and much later worry about minor details :slight_smile: .

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Need more context, but could it be saying that the sakura blossom starting in the South (since it gets warmer earlier) and then later in the North?

It fits the “movement” aspect of へ…

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Thank you for sharing your thought, I appreciate a lot everyone’s suggestions :pray: I’ll tell you what I think of this matter, but consider that I’m not concerned anymore with this particular case because I realized that I have to accept a certain degree of uncertainty otherwise my studies will stall.
My confusion was born after foolishly misinterpreting a comment of someone that wanted to help giving an interpretation of the event in question and not of the sentence, now it just looks clear to me that whatever the nuance is, it roughly refers to the phenomenon of the life cycle of the sakura tree’s blossoms beginning in the southern regions and moving upward with temperature increasing.

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Trust me, I get all confused and turned around by this language too. I’m much earlier in my studies than many who’ve answered stuff for you. The struggle is real, and knowing when to struggle through and when to move on is one of the hardest things to figure out.

Another reason for my comment is that I’m an author/writer, and as such, I know how often I just write something and have no deeper thoughts of the wording than it came to mind. Yet I know if I at some point get famous, people will dissect my words, looking for deeper meanings than I ever consciously wrote in them. So that was just a heads up that sometimes/often something is just written the way it is because it is.

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I wish you best of luck with you writing career :pray: I see your point.

I just thought about a Bruce Lee’s quote, perhaps is applicable to this situation

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ah sorry, I missed your original question. yeah I think you had it right. AからBへ implies movement starting from A, direction and possibly a large distance (from the A towards B). AからBまで implies an extent/limit in time or space (between A and B).

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Couple quick questions:

一郎が言います。
「いってきます」
お母さんが言います。
「いってらっしゃい」

  1. Is 一郎 (いちろう) a proper name or just a way to call the first son of a family?

  2. Would there be any difference if those sentences were like this:

「行ってきます」と一郎が言います。
「いってらっしゃい」とお母さんが言います。

Edit:

  1. となりの○○○さん
    Is translated as “Mr/Mrs. ○○○ of the next door”
    Right?

  2. 猫のノンが、言います
    「ニャーオ」
    What is “猫のノン” here?

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  1. Yes, proper name
  2. No not really. You often find that in japanese writing they put the “blabla thought/said in such and such way” sentence before the actual thing they think/say like in the example you provided. And the next sentence is just the raw quote.
    Both ways are common.
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Both ways will always present what is said/thought/ anything/ between 「○○○」 quotation marks, right?

Also

Thanks for the help!

I believe this is giving the name of the cat. The cat’s name is Non in this case. Weird name.

As to your question #3 I don’t feel confident enough in my answer to give it. (But I think you are right… I’ll let someone else confirm though.)

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:pray: didn’t think about ノン being the name, could be? Are animal names always written in katakana?

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I don’t think there is a convention like that. It probably depends on the name and the author. But I don’t know the culture around pets in Japan, so can’t really tell.

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It’s probably better to put additional questions in a new post rather than an edit. Those of us watching the thread get notifications for the former but not the latter.

Usually, yeah. But you can never make blanket statements in Japanese. You always need context.

Haha, nope. That is, not in anything written for native speakers.

Just like in English, you will sometimes see a bare quote and then an action afterwards for the attribution. Or if there’s dialogue, you’ll have to read the context within to figure out who’s talking.

And, you can quote someone without any 「」at all.

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Noted! :ok_hand:

Sounds like some practice will be needed to recognize these situations.
Thanks for the insights :raised_hands:

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Looks like things are starting to sink in :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I know I‘m repeating myself, but you are asking questions and thinking about things that are waaaay beyond your experience level both in reading and in grammar studies.
I‘d like to challenge you to the following: Read through one of your graded readers without really stopping. That means, you can look up all the vocab and grammar you don’t know/are unsure about, and you are allowed to briefly reflect (by yourself) on some questions you may have, but then just continue. Once you‘re done, read a chapter or two of Takagi. Then read the graded reader again and go out and ask all the questions that still remain. Does this make a difference in understanding?

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