HOW DO I SAY "…." THREAD

[AngelaMember]

How would you ask someone to “spell out” a word in Hiragana? I know how to ask them to repeat or speak slowly but sometimes I need the spelling of the word to figure it out. Thanks!

Angela

[JoelMember]

You could give them a piece of paper and say すみませんが、書いてくださいませんか. Don’t know if there’s a set phrase to ask them to say it one kana at a time, but maybe 一つのかなで言ってください, though someone’s bound to come and say “wait, I do not think that means what you think it means”…

[AstralfoxMember]

My attempt would be; 「Insert word here」とは次々にかなを教えてください. But I really have no idea, just had a go for fun. 次々 is probably more understandable than 一つ though right?

[JoelMember]

Probably. I was just trying to think “one at a time” in the sense of how 一歩 implies “one step at a time”.

[MisterM2402 [Michael]Member]

Maybe using something like ずつ or 次第に? Or you could ask them to say the word slowly, I’m not sure.

[AngelaMember]

Could I say “hiragana kudasai?”

Angela

[JoelMember]

Well, if you’re speaking, that’s a bit of a silly thing to say. It sounds like you’re asking them to speak in hiragana rather than kanji.

Edit: Thought maybe I should perhaps clarify something here – unlike English (or Greek, or Hebrew) letters, hiragana characters don’t have names that are distinct from their pronunciation. That is, if you ask someone to spell out (say) おはよう “in hiragana”, all you’re going to get is “o… ha… yo… u”.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 4 months ago by  Joel.

[thisiskyleMember]

This is probably obvious, but how do I say ‘the # most adjective nouns’, as in ‘the three funniest causes of hemorrhoids’ or ‘the five most idiotic penguins’?

[MisterM2402 [Michael]Member]

I don’t actually know but I’m thinking that if you can find a Japanese equivalent to cracked.com, you’ll surely find your answer ;)

[thisiskyleMember]

世界でもっとも入りたい5つの会社 – the five best countries to work for in the world
– or –
今まで実行された10つの最も危険なスタント妙技 – the 10 most dangerous stunts ever performed

I was right, it is obvious.

[AstralfoxMember]

Just to be sure, with the pluralising suffix たち、it’s added after the normal suffix for a persons name right?
Like; マサミさん達。

[JoelMember]

Yes.

[vanandrewMember]

I’m looking to translate this sentence from a book into Japanese:

“Ｔｈｅｎ　ｈｅ　ａｎｄ　Ｆｒｏｇ　ｒａｎ　ｏｕｔｓｉｄｅ　ｔｏ　ｓｅｅ　ｈｏｗ　ｔｈｅ　ｗｏｒｌｄ　ｗａｓ　ｌｏｏｋｉｎｇ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｓｐｒｉｎｇ．”

In particular I’m not sure who to treat this part – “how the world was looking”

Any suggestions?

[JoelMember]

Might be a little less poetic, but maybe 世界がどのように見える?

[vanandrewMember]

Thanks!

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