Learning Japanese

[iLney]

Thank both Yay for humans!

Next:

毎晩寝る前にはいる.

[Butternuts]

Originally Posted by iLney

Thank both Yay for humans!

Next:

毎晩寝る前にはいる.

Every night before sleep there is (someone/something alive)

[bungmonkey]

Or it could be "Every night before going to sleep (someone) enters (something)." Lack of context makes it ambiguous. It could be 前には いる, or 前に はいる.

[Nagato]

Originally Posted by iLney

Thank both Yay for humans!

Next:

毎晩寝る前にはいる.

Like bungmonkey said there's some possible case here

#1 (highly possibly this is the case)
毎晩寝る前に(お風呂に)入る
(I) take a bath every night before going to sleep

#2
毎晩寝る前には要る
I need it every night before going to sleep

#3
毎晩寝る前には居る
It's here every night before (I) go to bed

[Ryuou]

#1 (highly possibly this is the case)
毎晩寝る前に(お風呂に)入る
(I) take a bath every night before going to sleep

It's probably 99% this one here.

[iLney]

Aye, thank you very much.

BTW, how can you figure that out? ("taking a bath", "it's here" etc...

Next:
田中さんは元気だとうるさいです。
=> when Mr. Tanaka is healthy, he's a real brother?

I don't see where the second phrase comes from...

[Doughnuts]

Bother, not brother.
See it now?

田中さんは元気だと、うるさいです。

[iLney]

............................

Ty ty

[christine_cute]

I recently read a manga and got a bit confused....
Can anyone tell me the difference between:

-Onii-sama, Onii-chan, nii-chan

-senpai and sempai??

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by christine_cute

I recently read a manga and got a bit confused....
Can anyone tell me the difference between:

-Onii-sama, Onii-chan, nii-chan

-senpai and sempai??

1, It's about politeness/proximiteness, Onii-sama is the most polite way of the 3 nii-chan is the less polite .
2 The ''senpai'' should be read as ''sempai'' because the ''n'' alone before the ''p'' is pronounced ''m'' even in japanese.

[Mystique]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

1, It's about politeness/proximiteness, Onii-sama is the most polite way of the 3 nii-chan is the less polite.

Yep.
From Bleach: Rukia to her 'legal' brother Byakuya = Onii-sama
From FMA: Alphonse to Edward = Nii-san
Can't think of a 'chan' example off the top of my head though.
There is no set rule or time of when to use these suffixes btw and they can be interchangable.
It's just one of those "Japanese things" that you have to "sense" given the state of the relationship between two people and then the usual age, status, social position, yada yada...
I'm just wondering if Kon from bleach calls Rukia 'nee-san' or 'nee-chan', but typically it's 'san' before they're older than you.

2 The ''senpai'' should be read as ''sempai'' because the ''n'' alone before the ''p'' is pronounced ''m'' even in japanese.

That would only be a romaji issue though, as it's still written as
先輩 【せんぱい】 (n) senior (at work or school), superior, elder, older graduate, progenitor, old-timer, (P)
And even then, i wonder if that's down to local dialect, cause sometimes i catch the 'n' even though it naturally flows as 'm'.

[Doughnuts]

Originally Posted by Mystique

That would only be a romaji issue though, as it's still written as
先輩 【せんぱい】 (n) senior (at work or school), superior, elder, older graduate, progenitor, old-timer, (P)
And even then, i wonder if that's down to local dialect, cause sometimes i catch the 'n' even though it naturally flows as 'm'.

The apparent m sound isn't forced, it's just a result of the phonetics. An m sound is categorised as a bilabial nasal sound (meaning it uses the lips pressed together, and air coming through the nose). An n is a nasal sound, and a p (or b) is a labial sound (this time, the lips are seperated). When you combine them normally, there's little room to prounounce the n before pressing your lips together ready for the p, so a bilabial nasal-like sound is produced. You'll probably notice it more apparent the quicker the word is spoken.

I think there's only traditional hepburn that encourages the use of m in romanisations, but most other romaji systems use n always. It's more true to the original sound.

[Raiga]

Sort of a formatting question... with Japanese, it is okay to word wrap wherever, right? As in, it doesn't matter if you go to the next line in the middle of a kanji compound or coherent hiragana string or katakana word? I'm fairly certain I've seen that done...

[Mystique]

Originally Posted by Raiga

Sort of a formatting question... with Japanese, it is okay to word wrap wherever, right? As in, it doesn't matter if you go to the next line in the middle of a kanji compound or coherent hiragana string or katakana word? I'm fairly certain I've seen that done...

I'm sure the Japanese have their own posters and ads with that technique, the trick would be knowing where to wrap, since you're juggling 3 alphabets, which also serve to be indications of where one word ends and one begins.
Don't think there's any set rules, the only advice I could give if i were to go about with it would be to break between kanji of one word.
Don't break before a particle and don't break just before the hiragana of a word.

今日はハートの色が面白いと思います。
cab become
今日はハートの色が面
白いと思います。
or
今
日はハートの
色が面白い
と思います。
(Hmm, breaking between kanji even is tricky as it could be mistakenly read into two, lol)
Native's eyes would be able to tell better methinks...

[Doughnuts]

Originally Posted by Raiga

Sort of a formatting question... with Japanese, it is okay to word wrap wherever, right? As in, it doesn't matter if you go to the next line in the middle of a kanji compound or coherent hiragana string or katakana word? I'm fairly certain I've seen that done...

If you mean like that in your avatar, it's perfectly acceptable.

Well, it pretty much needs to be acceptable due to the difficulty in making software automatically wrap at the correct point. In English, we either need to look for a space and soft return, or insert a hyphen where a word carries onto the next line, either is fairly simple to program. Telling a piece of software where a word starts or ends to wrap for Japanese text is completely unfeasible though. You'd be basically required to write something that can parse natural language.

That being said, if you're wrapping text manually, I would advise trying to keep words on the same lines where you can, and not just force soft returns anywhere for the sake of it. Basically, a bit of common sense, only break where you would normally insert a space in the romanisation of whatever you're writing, and as Mystique suggested.

[iLney]

How do I read two particles sitting next to each other?

Like "hazu" or "wazu," "niha" or "niwa," "deha" or "hewa"

Sorry I can't type Japanese here.

[Nerroth]

If one had a question or comment regarding any of the other languages found in Japan - such as Ainu or Ryukyuan - could they go here, or should a separate topic be used instead?

[BOFH_of_OZ]

Originally Posted by iLney

How do I read two particles sitting next to each other?

Like "hazu" or "wazu," "niha" or "niwa," "deha" or "hewa"

Sorry I can't type Japanese here.

In all three cases, you are talking about the "wa" particle. Just remember that when は used as a particle, it's "wa".

[Doughnuts]

I should imagine it's fine to ask here, though you might wanna try the "advanced" thread.

Originally Posted by iLney

How do I read two particles sitting next to each other?

Like "hazu" or "wazu," "niha" or "niwa," "deha" or "hewa"

Sorry I can't type Japanese here.

Chained particles are read the same as normal, so your examples, 「には」 is read as "ni wa" and 「では」 as "de wa".

「はず」 is a particle of it's own that appears after a plain verb to indicate something that should be done. It's read as "hazu".

[Nerroth]

Originally Posted by Doughnuts

I should imagine it's fine to ask here, though you might wanna try the "advanced" thread.

Sorry, I couldn't seem to find it - which one do you refer to?


(As an aside, I found an Ainu sub-board at UniLang - not bad!)