Thursday, October 31, 2019

fukugou-keiyoushi 複合形容詞

In Japanese, fukugou-keiyoushi 複合形容詞, "compound adjectives," are adjectives composed of two words: a stem, and an adjective head suffixed to that stem.

For example: yomi-yasui 読みやすい, "easy to read," ii-nikui 言いにくい, "hard to say," kata-kurushii 堅苦しい, "formal," na-dakai 名高い, "famous," ao-jiroi 青白い, "bluish white, "pale," and chikara-dzuyoi 力強い, "strong," "reassuring," are all compound adjectives.
Monday, October 28, 2019

fukugou-doushi 複合動詞

In Japanese, fukugou-doushi 複合動詞, "compound verbs," are verbs composed of two words: a stem, and a verb head suffixed to that stem.

For example: nomi-komu 飲み込む, "to gulp down," mochi-dasu 持ち出す, "to take out," bukkorosu ぶっ殺す, "to beat to death," hiki-komoru 引きこもる, "to shut in," and mezameru 目覚める, "to wake up," kawai-sugiru 可愛すぎる, "to be too cute," are all compound verbs.

hojo-keiyoushi 補助形容詞

In Japanese, hojo-keiyoushi 補助形容詞 are a type of auxiliary adjective that's attached to the te-form of verbs and the adverbial form of i-adjectives.

For example, in katte-hoshii 買ってほしい, "[I] want [you] to buy [this] for [me]," the word hoshii ほしい is a support adjective.
Sunday, October 27, 2019

hojo-doushi 補助動詞

WIP
In Japanese, hojo-doushi 補助動詞, literally "support verb," is a type of auxiliary verb that attaches to the te-form of verbs or the adverbial form of i-adjectives.

For example: tabete-iru 食べている, "to be eating," has the verb iru いる, "to exist," as a support verb for teberu 食べる, "to eat."
Saturday, October 26, 2019

nee ねー, ねえ, ねぇ

In Japanese, nee ねえ, also spelled nee, or nee, is the relaxed pronunciation of nai ない, or a longer variant of the ne ね particle, or an interjection used to call people's attention, or the word oneesan お姉さん, "older sister," without honorific affixes.

ねえ、西方。 な、何!?高木さん!? 何してんの? 別に・・・何も・・・ ふーん。
Manga: Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san からかい上手の高木さん (Chapter 1, 消しゴム)
Friday, October 25, 2019

ね Particle

In Japanese, the ne ね particle is a sentence-ending particle used to seek or demand agreement, or confirmation from the listener. It's also used as an interjection sometimes.

It's also lengthened to nee ねえnee, or nee, in which case it's homonymous with the relaxed pronunciation of the nai ない suffix.

俺はね、もう死んでるんですよ。 あんたがそう言った。
Manga: Black Lagoon (Chapter 1, Chase for ring-ding ships)
Tuesday, October 15, 2019

dano だの Particle

In Japanese, ~dano~dano ~だの~だの is normally used to list examples of things that the speaker is complaining about.

Not to be confused with the no-adjective tada no ただの, "just," "merely." Or with a verb in past form plus the no の particle: yonda no? 読んだの?, "did you read it?"

Friday, October 11, 2019

に Adverbial Copula

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In Japanese, the ni に particle is sometimes an adverbial copula.
Sunday, October 6, 2019

で Copula

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In Japanese, the de で particle is sometimes actually a copula. Specifically, it's the te て form of the da だ copula, and consequently the te て form of na-adjectives and no-adjectives.

の Attributive Copula

WIP
In Japanese, the no の particle is sometimes an attributive copula.
Friday, October 4, 2019

だ Copula

In Japanese, da is usually the predicative plain copula: kirei da 綺麗, "[it] is pretty."

Sometimes, da だ isn't the copula, but part of the ta-form of certain verbs: shinda 死ん, "died."

でだ
Manga: Kemono Michi けものみち (Chapter 3)
Wednesday, October 2, 2019

な Attributive Copula

WIP
In Japanese, the na な particle is actually an attributive copula sometimes.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019

korya, sorya, arya こりゃ, そりゃ, ありゃ

In Japanese, korya, sorya, arya こりゃ, そりゃ, ありゃ are contractions of kore, sore, are これ, それ, あれ marked as the topic by the wa は particle.

For example: nanda korya なんだこりゃ means the same thing as nanda kore wa なんだこれは, "what is this?!" See also: nani kore なにこれ and emotive right-dislocation.

Interrogative pronouns, like dore どれ, can't be marked as the topic, so there's no contraction for dore wa どれは. However, the word dorya どりゃ does exist, and it does come from dore どれ, but its usage is different.

The word dorya is used to say "how do you like that!" when someone just did something, or will do something. In anime, it's generally used after a character attacks another, and then it's translated as "take that!" or something similar.

nani kore

In Japanese, nani kore なにこれ means literally "what is this?" However, being an instance of emotive right-dislocation, the phrase isn't used when someone is actually asking "what" this is, it's used to express shock, surprise, or disgust about something, like "what the...?" in English.

More technically, nani, "what, kore, "this," is a dislocation of kore nani これなに, which is a null-marked kore wa nani これはなに, which is a casual variant of kore wa nandesu ka? これはなんですか? which does actually mean "what is this?" in Japanese.

It's also spelled nani kore 何これ. Variants include nanda kore なんだこれ, nanda yo kore なんだよこれ, nandesu ka kore wa なんですかこれは, nanda korya なんだこりゃ, and so on.

Emotive Right-Dislocation

In Japanese, emotive right-dislocation happens in sentences featuring dislocation without a pause, where the speaker is surprised, shocked, disgusted, insulted, and so on. Such sentences often resemble questions, but the speaker doesn't expect answers, they're just expressing their emotions.

Examples include: nani kore なにこれ, nani sore なにそれ, nani are なにあれ, "what's this/that," nanda koitsu なんだこいつ, "what's [up with] this guy," nani kono onna なにこの女, "what's [up with] this woman," and so on.

Similarly: dare da omae 誰だお前, "who are you?" baka ka omae 馬鹿かお前, "are you stupid?" korozu zo temee 殺すぞてめえ, "[I'm] going to kill you," and so on.

See the article on dislocation for details about the grammar.