By the way, all I did was search through words on jisho that used the kanji. It’s a good way to get a feel for what kanji meanings are more commonly used.
It’s worth keeping in mind of course that just because it only appears in “one word” that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s uncommon. Any time you need to count things from cars, to TVs, to computers, etc… you use 台.
I’m not saying that other uses don’t eclipse that, but it’s harder to quantify that just “how many different words use it each way”.
Good to know! Next time I will take a look on that site then. I assume by default most core 10k words are common but I believe I heard in the past that it is not always so
A little bit confused about the difference between 発表 and お知らせ. I know they mean “announcement” and “notice” respectively but I’m still confused💀.
To me it’s a matter of the scale and the context of the usage. お知らせ tends to be used for matter-of-fact announcements that are related to business, rule-changes, etc. 発表 can be used much more broadly, and with much more fanfare.
When a video game studio announces a new project, that’s a 発表. When they announce a change to their terms of service, that’s an お知らせ.
発表 can also be used for things like presentations at school. A bunch of students giving speeches on things they’ve researched might be called a 発表会.
Thank you!
It’s good to remember the core 10k frequency list is from newspapers, so they are common in that context. I don’t really have interest in reading news or politics in Japanese so there would be tons of specific vocab not that useful. Not to mention written and spoken words used can vary widely.
I had forgotten that. I figure it will still help and then the rest will come as I advance. 10k is my primary source for new vocab aside from Wanikani. I stopped looking at the Genki vocab so hopefully that wasn’t a bad decision:|
What is “counters” called in Japanese?
助数詞 じょすうし
But keep in mind that that’s a linguistics term that the average Japanese person might not know.
That’s a good point. Thank you!
It’s easy to forget these things!
For instance one Japanese person I’ve spoken to didn’t know what a 助詞 (particle) was until I explained.
You tend to use a lot of linguistics terminology when discussing your second language that you never needed when learning your first! (Or even English in my case)
True! Then again, I guess it depends on your education system. In primary school, I had a grammar handbook with exercises, so learning at least some linguistics terminology was normal.
I might be wrong, but I think Japanese people actually refer to the particles as てにをは. In Oregairu Episode 2 (I think), when Yukinoshita Yukino is criticising Zaimokuza Yoshiteru’s poor writing, she asks, 「てにをはの使い方知ってる？」It’s like how many English speakers might not know what ‘interrogative pronouns’ are, but we all know the so-called 5W1H – who, what, where, why, when & how. Sometimes the issue is just that there’s a more common term that native speakers use, whereas specialists and foreign learners use the technical term.
I think it is used more too! There are phrases like this where it is used.
I have a question that migh be possibly a little weird, please forgive me.
A little background - recently a girl I know posted some photos on FB. (she’s Japanese) You know, just some nice photos showing a girl wearing some pretty outfits standing among the beautiful scenery. I wanted to compliment her, so I commented:
" 可愛い
陽子さんの服は赤いのも白いのもとても似合ってます。綺麗な景色も似合ってますね
"
The lady in question seemed to appreciate this comment (Well, she gave it a like and replied ありがとうございます but you never know 
). But then, one of her female friends reacted to my comment with “Angry” button (which, interestingly, is labeled “ひどいね” in JP version of Facebook UI). Of course it made me wonder if I wrote something weird and 陽子さん was just too polite to point it out, or if that another friend is just messing with me, but I’m too afraid to ask directly, so I’m asking you
Uh… I’m not so familiar with the ‘social convention’ aspect of Japanese language use, so I hope someone who is responds. However…
Grammatically speaking, I think this sentence means that the scenery and the ‘red and white’ things match the dress, or that (implicitly) they match 陽子さん. (How is her name pronounced, actually? Haruko? Youko?) I think that might make the sentence a little strange, because I think you meant that her outfit matched the scenery. Normally, if ‘A suits B’, then you’d said ‘AがBに似合う’, so I’m a little unsure what suits what, in a sense. However, I don’t see any reason for a missing particle to cause anger or annoyance since the meaning is fairly clear from context, and I don’t see anything inherently rude about the sentence.
How well do you know 陽子さん? What about her female friend: do you know her too? And do you normally address 陽子さん by saying ‘陽子さん’? My understanding (though it could be wrong) is that you normally address someone you’re not that close to with ‘family name + さん’. I’m not sure how you go from there, or whether ‘family name’ alone is more or less formal than ‘given name + さん’, but I get the sense that given names are quite personal? It really depends on what you usually call her and whether or not she’s fine with it, but so it could be that your form of address was too intimate?
Another possibility is that her friend thinks you’re overstepping your boundaries or that you have an ulterior motive? I guess it depends on how well she knows you, what she thinks of you, and what her impression of your relationship with 陽子さん is. In any case, my impression is that in East Asian cultures, compliments about appearance aren’t exchanged as freely as in the West.
Of course, if anyone else has a better explanation that involves less speculation, I’d be happy to hear that I’m wrong, because I’d much rather be wrong and have this be a simple linguistic issue. For now, however, that’s all I can think of.
Thanks for the insight. What I wanted to convey is that both her dress and beautiful scenery match/suit her.
It’s Youko. Our relationship is just “internet friends/acquaintances” (and fellow musicians), nothing too deep. I always adress her as 陽子さん and she didn’t seem to have any issue with it. She calls me アダムさん (my first name) as well. As for that other person - I don’t know her at all, neither she knows me. I don’t even know if she’s really Youko’s friend or just “FB friend” like me She just randomly reacted to my comment - it’s the first time such a thing happened And since I tend to be rather clueless when it comes to human interactions, I got a little worried.
Hahaha. Well, ok then. I don’t think you were rude anyhow, and it seems 陽子さん was OK with it, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. For all the famed diplomacy of Japanese people, things can get pretty heated on social media (just look at Twitter discussions), so I wouldn’t count on someone necessarily being too polite to say something on social media, especially if there’s no real reason to worry about offending the other party.
You should probably only look into it if her friend keeps reacting negatively to your comments, or to only a certain type of comment from you (e.g. compliments). No offence intended, but it could be that she’s thinking something like ‘oh look, another random foreigner giving a Japanese girl compliments and trying to score points. Ugh.’ You know, like people commenting on Instagram influencers’ pages – most of them don’t know the influencers personally, and some people don’t like that sort of behaviour. However, well, I don’t think that’s what’s going on here since you clearly know at least a little about 陽子さん’s background and you’ve spoken (via the internet, that is) to her before, and I don’t think this will keep happening, so yeah… nothing to be too worried about, I guess?
Thanks 
Since my comment’s grammar was a bit wonky, I was wondering if maybe I involuntarily said something rude, and different from my intended meaning. I intended to use 似合ってる in the “looks good on you” meaning, and then, after saying that about dress, extend that to the scenery, but it definitely wasn’t the best grammar
Intended EN translation would be something like - “Both red and white dress look great on you. And the beautiful scenery suits you too.” Actually, out of curiosity, what would be best way to convey that, grammar-wise?
Ah, OK… now that I have the context, this bit comes across perfectly: as far as the dresses are concerned, both suit her. I think your first sentence is fine. What confused me was the second sentence, because I think it’s a little strange to say the scenery ‘suits’ someone. I mean, you probably can, but what I inferred from the sentences (because of the initial 陽子さんの服は) was that the scenery matched the dresses.
I think the clearest way to phrase it would have been to change the first sentence to
陽子さん に は赤いのも白いのもとても似合ってます。
Then by inference, the second sentence could only mean that the scenery suited her. No need for 服 because the context of the photos would indicate that you were referring to the dresses. However, now that I think about it, since context (not the words in the sentence) indicated quite clearly that the dresses in the first sentence suited her… I think I just failed to interpret your sentence correctly, because in that case, the second sentence would necessarily refer to her. There’s an implied 「陽子さんに」. In context, both sentences are grammatically correct and sufficiently clear, I think.