The quick or short Language Questions Thread (not grammar)

What is the reading for 大扉 when it means a large door (vs a title page)? Still おおとびら, or?

(examples)
あの大扉の奥まで聞こえるのか
カマボコ形をした食品工場の大扉が見えるだけだった
正面玄関の大扉があけられた音が聞こえた

I found this website which gives examples of furigana usage in texts, and also statistics:

Don’t know if this provides a definite answer (some of the texts seem to be old-ish?) but I found it interesting anyways.

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I like that site! However I don’t trust it for stuff like this. Often the most common reading isn’t the top because it more frequently isn’t given furigana in stuff… because it’s the most common reading. But thank you! :blush:

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Oh hehe - true, didn’t consider that! :woman_facepalming:

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Thanks for all the help everyone! :bowing_woman:

That’s the only thing I still struggle with. I can’t wrap my head around the fact it is a ‘negative’, like “can’t see a lot of result”. Is that も doing all that heavy lifting?

I think the negative is more the fact that it’s „predictable“. Only doing the same stuff makes the results predictable, thus meaningless for her.

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I certainly don’t think so, at least not grammatically.

I guess that’s one way of looking at it, but I don’t think that’s the only interpretation.

My way of seeing it is that も indicates that there’s a link between the 結果 and whatever she was already thinking about as she spoke. ‘Continuing to sing the same old songs… the end result too/even the end result is [already – because of 〜てる] fairly clear to me.’ Using が instead would have sounded more… neutral, I guess? Or factual, with no real link implied between ‘continuing to sing…’ and ‘the outcome’. It’s her tone and the context that imply that she feels that the ‘end result’ will be negative, because she says that it’s meaningless. That aside… I guess it’s kinda like saying ‘Doing all that… I more or less know how it’ll turn out’ in English. The outcome being discussed isn’t necessarily bad, but you usually wouldn’t say that about something that excited you/that you wanted to present as good. I mean, it could still be something good, but using that tone would make it sound like… it’s something you’re used to, something trivial/that will almost definitely work out your way.

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Maybe I’m using the wrong words when googling this, but I cannot find an answer…

In Japanese, is there a standard way of indicating people’s nicknames, equivalent/similar to how we in English might write Firstname “Nickname” Lastname?

Second attempt :grin:
I asked my Japanese language partner and sent her your examples, and she replied
おおとびらかなと思うんですが、確認します。あんまり使わない言葉なので。

I personally think that it’s always a bit relieving that not even Japanese people know these things all the time :sweat_smile: I‘ll keep you posted in case she finds out more.

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I don’t know if this is the ‘standard’ way, but I think the most common word is あだ名(あだな). (Kanji do exist for あだ, but I’m not sure which is more commonly used. Plus, they’re probably not common kanji to begin with, so I’ll just leave them out.) If you’re talking about a nickname as in an ‘alias’ on an official form though (I mean, OK, aliases aren’t necessarily nicknames, nor nicknames necessarily aliases, but it’s possible), then I think the word is 通称.

Thats correct, but in the way that OP asked where you mention both their name and their nickname we use こと. It goes nickname こと real name

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So in typical Japanese order, that would be ‘[nickname] こと [last name] [first name]’? And so… where would this format be used? On a form?

Also, I’m guessing it’s こと as in 異? Like in 異なる? So it literally means ‘other name’ or ‘otherwise known as’, kinda like ‘aka’ in English? EDIT: Nope, turns out that’s wrong. See below.

Yeah like this

I mean, you might be able to use it on a form. Honestly I don’t read many (or any) official forms or documents so I have no idea. Its just how its done in books most of the time. In terms of a normal conversation there might be a more natural alternative, but I’ll letcha know if one comes to mind.

Actually I dunno, I think its just the normal 事. I have no idea when it comes to the nitty gritty stuff doe, I just know what sounds right lmao

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Ah, I see. I haven’t had the time to read Japanese books besides textbooks yet. I guess I’ll discover all this stuff when I start reading novels in earnest.

Well, turns out you’re right. It’s listed under 事 in my dictionary. Guess I was a little too hopeful that it would be similar to what we say in English.

It seems that the literal meaning of this usage is ‘with regard to [said person]’, and it currently has a nuance of humility. Its usage used to be a little broader in the past. Its usage to mean ‘aka’ is listed as a special usage under that definition, and it seems that the usual/correct order is always ‘[nickname/alias] こと [real name]’. Interesting!

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@valkow I have more news on the pronunciation:
「おおとびら」という人が多いですね、私の周りだと。
でも「おおど」でも間違いじゃないです。

So, bottom line, it’s a mystery I’m afraid :joy_cat:

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Yeahhh, I mean its not that common just because usually when someone has a nickname we just call them that nickname. Only time I can think of inserting the nickname in their real name in english is like with wrestling maybe. So yeah even if you read 10 books I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t see it honestly.

Also I’ve never seen it actually written in kanji. I imagine you were just curious, but yeah its like always been in hiragana from what I’ve seen.

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I mean, I think it would probably get mixed up with the actual name if it were in kanji, but yeah, I was just curious, and more importantly, I was asking how it would be written with kanji in order to see if I could find out what it means: I tend to use kanji as a proxy for interpreting word meanings, unless, of course, I’m looking at a word that isn’t written with kanji to begin with.

That’s more information that I thought to get considering my googling results, so thank you! I will put both on my flashcard, おおとびら first, and call it good. I appreciate your efforts! :blush:

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How come 雇用者 is translated as both employer and employee on WK and jisho? Sounds pretty troublesome. This is probably not used in hiring contracts describing responsiblities of each party.

I dunno if this really answers the “how come” question, but wikipedia has a rundown of words used to describe either or both parties:

雇用する側は雇い主(やといぬし)・使用者(しようしゃ)、雇用される側は被用者(ひようしゃ)・使用人(しようにん)・従業員(じゅうぎょういん)などと呼ばれる。また、両方の意味で使われる言葉として雇用者(こようしゃ)・雇い人(やといにん)というものもある。

So it does sound like it can mean either. I suppose the answer to “how come” is just because of how the word is made up - 雇用者 could be a 雇用する者 or a 雇用される者, so to speak. And yeah, if the distinction was critical or not obvious through context, one of those alternatives could be used, like 雇い主 or 被用者.

I also notice the article also says “その雇用者・雇用主のペア” a few times, so I guess that’s an example where the context makes it clear it means employee.

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