Learning Japanese

[onehp]

これをどう日本語で言いますか

"I want a plane that has snakes"
"I want a plane that has snakes in it"

"I saw a plane that has snakes"
"I saw a plane that has snakes in it"

"what is the difference between "This" and "That" "
"what is the difference between this and that"

-----------------------

What is the difference between using "motto" and "mou" in the meaning of more? General usage?

[darksider]

Originally Posted by onehp

"I want a plane that has snakes"
"I want a plane that has snakes in it"

"I saw a plane that has snakes"
"I saw a plane that has snakes in it"

What "plane" is that? Problem by too many homonyms isn't unique to Japanese, I guess.

"what is the difference between "This" and "That" "
"what is the difference between this and that"

These shoud be "「これ」と「それ」の違いは何ですか"
(And I don't see the notable difference between the two )

What is the difference between using "motto" and "mou" in the meaning of more? General usage?

I thought "もう(mou)" translates not really as "more" but "already", but maybe in a case like this?
「もっと食べますか？」
「いや、もう要らない」

[LiberLibri]

Originally Posted by onehp

"what is the difference between "This" and "That" "
"what is the difference between this and that"

1. 「これ」と「それ」の違いは何ですか。
2. これとそれの違いは何ですか。

Sentence 1 refers to the meaning of the words themselves. You expect an answer like that:
「これ」は話し手に近いものを指し，「それ」は聞き手に近いもの，もしくは話題にのぼっているものを指しま す。
("kore" signifies something near the speaker, while "sore" does either something near the listener or something talked about.)
Just like in English, you can use quotation marks to shift the semantics level in Japanese.

Sentence 2 refers to something two. An expected answer shall be, e.g.:
これは純金ですが，それはめっきです。
(This one is made of pure gold, while that one is gold-plated.)

Originally Posted by onehp

What is the difference between using "motto" and "mou" in the meaning of more? General usage?

Etymologically, "mou" has its origin in "ma [ま]", which meant "now" in ancient Japanese. ma -> mau -> mou. It was the adverbial form of ima [いま / now]. As darksider said, mou can be translated "already".

And "motto" comes from "motte [もって]", which means "having (something)". You have something already, and additionally you need extra, then you use the word "motto". If you have some food, and you need more, then you say "motto tabemono ga hoshii [もっと食べ物が欲しい]". If you have learned Japanese to some extent, but you think you need more training, then you say "motto nihongo wo benkyo suru [もっと日本語を勉強する]". "motto" can be translated "more".

[onehp]

Plane as in airplane

There was a japanese article I was reading that used "tteiu" (to quote) for a title and every titles was quoted but did not use "tteiu" afterwards. So "title" tteiu for former. Does the sentence structure change if using titles?

I am confused with "mou ichido itte kudasai". In this context, I thought "mou" is used as more, as in "say it one more time please"

[RandomGuy]

Originally Posted by onehp

I am confused with "mou ichido itte kudasai". In this context, I thought "mou" is used as more, as in "say it one more time please"

There are two meanings for "mou". One is identical to the meaning of "mohaya" meaning "already"/"[not] yet" or "now"/"[not] anymore" (e.g. "mou shichi-ji sugi da", "mou jikan ga nai".). The other one is used as a qualifier in front of a quantity with the meaning of "more" (e.g. "mou ichido itte kudasai" et al.). As far as I'm aware, there's a difference in intonation in actual use, but I forget which is which (plus I'm in Kansai, so I might give a "wrong" answer with respect to the standard language).

[raikage]

Originally Posted by mandarb916

勉強になる。without the もう would make equally as much sense, since 勉強 can also be translated as "lesson" or what not. Having the もう there while awkward, wouldn't change the core meaning of the sentence.

Ah.

That sentence makes a lot more sense now.

Originally Posted by askia47

With "もう、勉強になる。私は大学生です" I was trying to say, "i need to study more", but i wasn't to sure if i got it correct or not, which seems to be what everyone is talking about now.

"Ben'kyou wo shita hou ga ii to omotte imasu" (well, not word-for-word, but close enough).

[x-miyuki]

but, how do you introduce yourself ? Like, Hello my name is ... Im .. years old. My favourtie colour is ... And so on, can someone help me?

[LiberLibri]

Originally Posted by x-miyuki

but, how do you introduce yourself ? Like, Hello my name is ... Im .. years old. My favourtie colour is ... And so on, can someone help me?

Kul att träffas ; hajime mashite [はじめまして].
Jag heter x-miyuki ; watashi no namae wa x-miyuki desu [私の名前は x-miyuki です].
Förmiddag I 16 gammala år ; 16 sai desu [十六歳です].
Min favorit färgar är blått ; suki na iro wa ao desu [好きな色は青です].

Maybe Japanska will help you.
http://www.japanska.se/
And you can find a lot of japanese sentence examples in the Internet. Google is your frined

[LiberLibri]

Originally Posted by onehp

There was a japanese article I was reading that used "tteiu" (to quote) for a title and every titles was quoted but did not use "tteiu" afterwards. So "title" tteiu for former. Does the sentence structure change if using titles?

Can you quote the titles exactly?

Originally Posted by onehp

"I want a plane that has snakes"
"I want a plane that has snakes in it"
"I saw a plane that has snakes"
"I saw a plane that has snakes in it"

Do the snakes mean serpents? If so,

hebi wo noseta hikouki ga hoshii. [蛇を載せた飛行機が欲しい]
naka ni hebi wo noseta hikouki ga hoshii. [中に蛇を載せた飛行機が欲しい]
hebi wo noseta hikouki wo mita. [蛇を載せた飛行機を見た]
naka ni hebi wo noseta hikouki wo mita. [中に蛇を載せた飛行機を見た]

# noru [乗る / get into a carrier] <-> noseru [載せる / load a carrier with something]

However, apparently they hardly make sense without the context. Are you makig reference to Le petit prince or something?

[onehp]

I am curious how to make sentences that has "has"(or its derivatives), using "ga" for subjective feelings, and verbs all in one sentence

[richvh]

Can you give an example of the kind of sentence you're referring to?

[onehp]

Like these kinds of sentences:

"I want a plane that has snakes"
"I want a plane that has snakes in it"

"I saw a plane that has snakes"
"I saw a plane that has snakes in it"

It is a sentence that has something(plane in this instance) and that something has something(snakes) which is wanted or seen. What are the sentence structure rules to say it in Japanese? LiberLibre seems to answer it with:

hebi wo noseta hikouki ga hoshii. [蛇を載せた飛行機が欲しい]
naka ni hebi wo noseta hikouki ga hoshii. [中に蛇を載せた飛行機が欲しい]
hebi wo noseta hikouki wo mita. [蛇を載せた飛行機を見た]
naka ni hebi wo noseta hikouki wo mita. [中に蛇を載せた飛行機を見た]

With this info, a noun can be described by a verb before it so if I change things a bit:

(sorry, no Japanese writing on this comp)
I walked to the person that had snakes =?> hebi wo arimashita hito ni arukimashita

Or am I wrong?

[richvh]

Originally Posted by onehp

Like these kinds of sentences:

"I want a plane that has snakes"
"I want a plane that has snakes in it"

"I saw a plane that has snakes"
"I saw a plane that has snakes in it"

It is a sentence that has something(plane in this instance) and that something has something(snakes) which is wanted or seen. What are the sentence structure rules to say it in Japanese? LiberLibre seems to answer it with:

hebi wo noseta hikouki ga hoshii. [蛇を載せた飛行機が欲しい]
naka ni hebi wo noseta hikouki ga hoshii. [中に蛇を載せた飛行機が欲しい]
hebi wo noseta hikouki wo mita. [蛇を載せた飛行機を見た]
naka ni hebi wo noseta hikouki wo mita. [中に蛇を載せた飛行機を見た]

With this info, a noun can be described by a verb before it so if I change things a bit:

(sorry, no Japanese writing on this comp)
I walked to the person that had snakes =?> hebi wo arimashita hito ni arukimashita

Or am I wrong?

Yes, a clause preceding a noun functions the same as a relative clause in English. There are some problems with your sentence, though:
1) Only the final verb in a sentence can normally be put in masu/desu form.
2) ある isn't usually used with animate objects (such as snakes.)
3) Neither ある nor いる can take the particle を.
A couple of potential corrections:
蛇を持っている人に歩きました。 (I walked to the person carrying snakes.)
蛇を飼っている人に歩きました。 (I walked to the person who raises snakes.)

[mandarb916]

Originally Posted by richvh

蛇を飼っている人に歩きました。 (I walked to the person who raises snakes.)

飼うis for ownership of pets. If you wanted to use "raises" instead, it would be 育てている

[Archontic]

Can't you people use romanji next to it? I never learned how to read Japanese. ;.;

[Nagato]

If you really want to learn Japanese, you should start it with learning Japanese character (hiragana, katakana, kanji). hiragana and katakana are just like alphabet, you can master it in no time. As for kanji, even you don't know the reading, you can still get it instantly for example by using rikan-chan.

Learning Japanese by using alphabet (for the reading) often produces weird pronunciation, just like learning English using katakana, for instance.

[darksider]

Originally Posted by richvh

蛇を持っている人に歩きました。 (I walked to the person carrying snakes.)
蛇を飼っている人に歩きました。 (I walked to the person who raises snakes.)

Hey, wait a second there.
That "～に歩きました" part of the sentence, while it is easily understandable and I can't precisely describe how it is wrong, feels very unnatural to me.
I may be wrong but I think you normally can't have movable, animate things directly as the locative object for the verb "aruku".
I would rewrite this like "蛇を飼っている人の方に歩きました。" or "蛇を飼っている人に近寄りました。 (not really "walk" though)"

EDIT: No, this is not right, I can say "北に歩く" but don't say "机に歩く" or some other inanimate objects either.
And, is "駅に歩く" right? I guess not, I usually say "駅まで歩く" or "駅に歩いて行く" or something.

[Archontic]

Originally Posted by Nagato

If you really want to learn Japanese, you should start it with learning Japanese character (hiragana, katakana, kanji). hiragana and katakana are just like alphabet, you can master it in no time. As for kanji, even you don't know the reading, you can still get it instantly for example by using rikan-chan.

Learning Japanese by using alphabet (for the reading) often produces weird pronunciation, just like learning English using katakana, for instance.

I actually learned it by living in Okinawa for years.. Romanji is pretty widely used.

[Spectacular_Insanity]

Originally Posted by LiberLibri

And "motto" comes from "motte [もって]", which means "having (something)". You have something already, and additionally you need extra, then you use the word "motto". If you have some food, and you need more, then you say "motto tabemono ga hoshii [もっと食べ物が欲しい]". If you have learned Japanese to some extent, but you think you need more training, then you say "motto nihongo wo benkyo suru [もっと日本語を勉強する]". "motto" can be translated "more".

For something like that, I always used「まだまだです」(approx trans: "I still have a lot to learn") and hoped they understood through context, lol.

[Miko Miko]

I am awful with Japanese..

So for my starter

Is this how to write 'Konnichi Wa'

こにちわ in Hiragana (ひらがな?).. Seems a little basic but I don't know Japanese at all.