The "I found some Japanese I don't understand" thread.

[thisiskyleMember]

What is the context of this? When was it written?

The first sentence says – I’ll be in Japan in July. (this year? next year?)
The second sentence is half English, half Japanese. The whole thing is – I think I will be in Japan every summer with the exception of this year, so you are always welcome.

[SwoosherzMember]

It was a couple of days ago, haha. That’d sound about right. I was talking about how I wanted to travel abroad this summer and she was just saying that I should come stay at her house. Yeah.

Annnnnnd all of that makes sense now. That’s what happens when you don’t study Japanese for almost 6 months, folks. You forget easy stuff. :D

[YippyMember]

I need some help with a ‘mysterious’ kanji and a sentence.

First off, can anybody tell me how to pronounce ‘禾＋真’ (sorry, I have no idea how to type it) and its meaning? I came up with nothing searching for this kanji in both Chinese and Japanese IME.

Next, could somebody help me make sense of this sentence?
“…、完全リセット状態からホントに曲が書けるのか不安に・・・・・・思う間もなく…”
I’m confused about ‘不安に’. Is it describing the previous sentence or the verb ’思う’？

Thanks for any help! =)

[MisterM2402 [Michael]Member]

http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E7%A6%BE&eng=&dict=edict
http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E7%9C%9F&eng=&dict=edict

That’s as much as I can do :P Never seen that branched-tree radical before… Seems to be used in pretty much no words at all.

[jklMember]

I am reading a children’s book called こぞっこまだだが. This kid gives everyone a hard time, so they send him away to go learn a thing or two. He walks a long way, and then says this:

どっかに　泊まるところ　ねえべかな。

The only thing I can get out of that sentence is “place to stay.” The next sentence says something about being able to see a light up ahead.

The book uses a lot of colloquial language, so it is difficult to look things up. My guess is that どっか is like どこ, but I can’t do anything at all with the last part. Does anyone know what it could be?

[ElenkisMember]

どっか = どこか = somewhere, someplace, anywhere etc

The ending I’m not sure, but probably just be the sentence endings ね、べ and かな together. From what you say of the following sentence it sounds to me like he has seen a light up ahead and is speculating that it might be a place to stay at.

ない also gets changed to ねえ a lot colloquially, but I’m not sure if that’s what’s happening here or if it’s just a lengthened ね :-\’,

• This reply was modified 12 years, 6 months ago by  Elenkis.

[MisterM2402 [Michael]Member]

@jkl: Riaikun tells me どっか means “somewhere; anywhere; in some respects”. Then “a place to stay”, like you said. The last part, my brain is wildly thinking it’s a combination of 寝る、べき and かな – I don’t even know how to use べき or かな properly, but I’ve heard them in passing before. That’s probably a load of rubbish, but if you take it to be true, it sounds something like “I wonder if I should probably find somewhere to stay for the night…”. I’m doubting ねえ relates to 寝る, but べかな looks like it could be べき＋かな.

Just a thought :) You’re much better at Japanese than me, so I’m most likely talking nonsense XD

[jklMember]

Thanks for looking at this, guys.

> どっか = どこか

I see that now. I’m not sure why I missed it before.

> べ could be a gobi usage

Well the sentence after the next one is this:

あそこさいって　泊めてもらうべ

That appears to be a gobi usage of べ. That doesn’t prove anything, but it does support the idea. Also note the use of さ here. There is a furigana へ above it in the text, so I suppose that is slang as well. This is the first text I have seen that has furigana written over words already in kana, used to indicate the meaning of slang words rather than the reading of kanji.

> ねえ could be from 寝る

That is an interesting idea.. But I’m still not sure how it would fit together in that case.

> ねえ could be ね

Now that you mention it, that is a documented variant of ね. But when I have seen ね used, it has always been at the very end, after よ for example.

> ねえ could be ない

Well I can find usages like this on the Web, and usages of ねえべ in particular. That seems like a strong possibility.

[missingno15Member]

I could easily tell you straight out what it is

But that would be mad boring for both for us
http://tinyurl.com/3ekosp5

[jklMember]

A few pages later there is a usage of ねえ as a negative.

A witch lives in the house where the kid is staying, and he saw her sharpening a knife, and tried to escape out the window. She asked where he was going, and he said the bathroom. She says:

便所なら　そっちでねえ。　こっちだ。

[ElenkisMember]

Yup, it’s very common in anime and manga too.

The most recent example from my anki deck:

でも 何もねえのに ブッ倒れるか

[jklMember]

> でも 何もねえのに ブッ倒れるか

Does that mean:

So even though there is nothing there [to trip on], [will someone / did someone] fall down?

I noticed that you used katakana in part of the word ブッ倒れる. Was it written that way when you found the sentence? I have noticed some words that use a mix of kana types in the book I’m reading, and I am wondering if that is just a stylistic choice, or if it means something in particular. For example, the word なンもかンも is used in a few places, which according to the furigana, means とても.

[ElenkisMember]

It’s from the 時をかける少女 movie. If you’ve seen it you will know that something happens which causes Makoto to have a fall near the beginning. Afterwards she is talking to her friends and Kousuke recommends going to the hospital to get a CT scan, she replies that it isn’t a big deal and then Chiaki responds with that line while still laughing at her. He is making fun of her.

I would read that as: “But despite being nothing, you fell over?” However the complete line is actually:

でも 何もねえのに ブッ倒れるか 普通

I left the 普通 off the end as I figured it might cause unnecessary confusion to anyone reading and I’m not really sure how to explain it myself. The official subtitles give the translation as: “But people don’t fall over for no reason.” and a fansub translates it as: “But you wouldn’t normally fall over if there was nothing.”

So…yeah… It’s one of those sentences where I grasp the meaning from reading it, but perhaps struggle to explain why or convert to good English :-\

ブッ倒れる was written that way. Sometimes katakana is used as a stylistic choice to provide emphasis or make something stand out more. Not sure what the motive was here.

[ArmandoMember]

質問のある方はどうぞ。Please feel free to ask any questions.
I don’t understand the grammar at all :/　この文法が全然分からない。
Could anyone explain?

[missingno15Member]

興味のある方は是非試してみてください

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