The translation is a little funny for this one, because I just read Harry Potter a couple months ago and there this word is used for the invisibility cloak. Invisibility and transparency aren’t quite the same thing, but I see enough overlap that them being one word kind of makes sense.
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I guess “transparent” is the best but it’s also listed as “clear” on jisho. I definitely read it more as “invisible” in fantasy things, but when used in non-fiction things clear/see-through is more understandable to me personally. Like a cup isn’t invisible, and neither is a thin curtain or cloth, so 透明 couldn’t be read as invisible when used in that context. Like with windows or glass :3
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drink katakana ビール in your katakana cup made from katana glass. As long as you don’t have to katakana ドライブ
It’s funny how glass, cup, bottle, and other liquid containers become counters in English. It’s easy to imagine that counters in Japanese are strange but we have words like that in English too, we just don’t think about it as much.
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What if a magician turns your glass window invisible? Was it 透明 
and then became 透明 
？
It makes sense that it’s a context thing but it’s just funny to me.
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If you were a magician, what kind of 透明 would you cast on my glass window?
- clear
- invisible
- This is not the POLL thread!!!
0
voters
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Ding a Ling a Ling!
Today’s prompt is brought to you by a game I bought and started recently. Over the past year or so I’ve been playing games less than usual but with occasional periods of focus on a particular title. The one I just got into is called 魔法少女ノ魔女裁判, and the title reminds me of the twist wordplay from madoka magica. Spoilers if you’ve somehow not seen that. 魔法少女が魔女になる, magical girls become witches. Like grapes turning into raisins or something.
I’m also reading a book from the library which has witches in it maybe.
Witch
魔女
Ready, Set, Associate!
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Reminded me of 魔王 Demon King
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That has me thinking about the confusion between 王女 and 女王, would the witch king from lotr be a 魔女王? Surely with all the isekai that have been made by now there are some where the demon king has extended family including a 魔王女 daughter to take over once he’s killed by the hero.
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錬金術師 alchemist
It counts as magic yeah??? Edward Elric is a witch!!!
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You’re so quick at these edits its so fun to see
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This one was super easy to do, took longer getting the right face for Edward than making the edit. Most of the results were either stern and serious faces or deformed chibi faces where he’s mad about maybe being called short. Hard to find one where he’s smiling but it fit the picture better.
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needs a 杖
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魔法使い - also witch, mage, magic-user I guess?
I started reading Witch Hat Atelier lately (very slowly, and there’s no furigana so it takes longer to draw kanji to look them up) and I see this a lot! And it’s used in some other series I like too (Frieren!)
Also I’m pretty new here, hello!
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It’s not a 1-1 translation for most English terms for it because it is pretty literally magic user, but we don’t normally say that in English myths and stuff. Probably the most out there translation of it I’ve seen was for 魔法使いの嫁 where the English name is ancient magus bride. Nothing in the Japanese name translates to ancient but that conveyed how old he is because of being a skull and all.
Hello, welcome to the forums. Everyone here is somewhat interested in learning Japanese and are usually helpful if you have questions or anything.
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Howdy,
This week’s prompt is something a lot of us are dealing with right now. Some of it’s freshly fallen, some of it got all melty and has refrozen.
snow
雪
Ready, Set, Associate!
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荒涼 bleak, desolate
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かき氷 shaved ice
Pro tip:
Best to avoid eating the yellow snow.
However eating yellow shaved ice is generally considered to be OK.
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I did see some yellow snow on the way to work today, it was in the median on the road and I think where it had been scraped up by a snow plow some of the yellow paint from the median line came off with the snow and ice.
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Halloweenukkah has “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” by the legendary Tracy Jordan.
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