r/LearnJapanese 22h ago

Daily Thread: for simple questions, minor posts & newcomers [contains useful links!] (September 01, 2026)

This thread is for all the simple questions (what does that mean?) and minor posts that don't need their own thread, as well as for first-time posters who can't create new threads yet. Feel free to share anything on your mind.

The daily thread updates every day at 9am JST, or 0am UTC.

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12 Upvotes

95 comments sorted by

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Jisho says あげる くれる やる 与える 渡す all seem to mean "give". My teacher gave us too much homework and I'm trying to say " The teacher gave us a lot of homework". Does 先生が宿題をたくさんくれた work? Or is one of the other words better? (the answer: 先生が宿題をたくさん出した )

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7

u/somever 18h ago

Shower thought.

'tis vaguely resembles です phonetically.

If you invert an English sentence with 'tis at the end, it vaguely resembles Japanese.

A curious thing 'tis.

いやはや不思議なこってす。

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u/lestuckingemcity 6h ago

You would have made a great 90s anime localizer.

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u/PringlesDuckFace 4h ago

I'm going to Japan in a couple of months on vacation. My Japanese is probably somewhere around intermediate level overall, I can manage simple conversations and read most things, so I'm not looking for survival phrases or anything like that. But rather that I'll feel more confident if I practice some likely tourist situations ahead of time.

So to that end, does anyone have helpful recommendations for podcasts, youtube channels, websites, etc... to help specifically practice listening and collocations and things like that specifically for traveling? It's fine/preferred if it's all in Japanese.

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u/rgrAi 1h ago edited 1h ago

Hi Mr. Duckface, hope you have fun on your trip. I do recall this specifically channel where he kind of goes around and it is learner focused but his way of speaking and interactions are just between natives. He subtitles his videos and I found channel again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NjSKPPFaEU This one is for konbini but he has like a bunch of other ones where he just walks around and talks and interacts with people.

There's also Japanese Ammo with Misa who is beginner focused, but she does cover a lot of travel specific stuff you can glean from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kMwkDOVK6E&pp=ygUdamFwYW5lc2UgYW1tbyB3aXRoIG1pc2Egb3JkZXLSBwkJGgwBhyohjO8%3D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHMAq9x2cEY&list=PLd5-Wp_4tLqaAbmpwGmq1GQR8FoFyLz_Z

あまね的日本語教室 channel is also good for what you want too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcxtN746mwM

I think いけちゃん has a lot of 国内旅行 videos that she talks a lot to camera, but lots of people interactions and convos happen spontaneously. These general vlog channels are a good source for it: https://www.youtube.com/@ikechan0920/videos

Random video that seems useful too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCvYUmkJrdQ

u/Lemmy_Cooke 15m ago

If you can order at restaurants, ask for directions (and understand the instructions), and talk about why you came to Japan and handle 日本語上手 every other interaction that's about all you need for tourism. Ah yeah and don't overpack your sched

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u/Lemmy_Cooke 22h ago

So obviously normally ~ようとする indicates active execution of an agent’s willpower to do something but...

「日本の人力車は昔、若い車夫が年長の車夫を追い抜こうとしたら、道順を変更して、新参の車夫の方が力も耐久力もまさっていることを人に見られないようにするならばかまわない、という不文律が、きびしく守られていた。この、露骨な競争を表面上できるだけ最低限に押えようという気持ちは、現在でも日本人の生活のなかに浸透している」

Here 〜を追い抜こう seems to be used more like 追い抜くだろう or 追い抜きそう or something like that.

Does this usage of 〜をしようとしたら have a more literary / written vibe? Or can I just drop it in casual conversation and if the next sentence makes the context clear that I actually had no intention of doing that action it'll be perfectly natural and everyone will understand just fine?

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u/somever 18h ago edited 18h ago

I interpreted it as

"Long ago, in Japanese rickshaw custom, it was a strictly followed unwritten law that, if a young rickshaw-man would soon outperform an older rickshaw-man, it would only be allowed so long as he changed his route such that no one ever saw that the newbie rickshaw-man was superior in strength and endurance to the older one."

I don't necessarily interpret 追い抜く as passing each other in the street. Rather surpassing in performance in general (and thus stealing clientele). And whether it means "tried to" or "was about to" depends on whether the action was intentional or not. It could perhaps have happened without intent.

道順を変更する sounds to me like a change you make on paper, not turning a corner physically.

1

u/Lemmy_Cooke 8h ago

I find it encouraging that I've received like three different interpretations of what this passage could mean but I think in the end perhaps it's just that use of かまわない here that's giving me trouble. It feels in conflict with the other elements.

Your given interpretation of two rival companies rather than a 先輩 後輩 relationship and a changing of the route on paper rather than literally turning a corner on the spot also does make sense, but it seems your treating of 追い抜こうとしたら as being "was about to" ( or alternatively, your other translation, "would soon") goes against /u/JapanCoach 's approach saying it's just the usual "tried to" function here and is closer to the original way I tried to wrap my head around it, which I don't see how you could naturally force that interpretation to make sense.... I would expect such meaning from grammatical structures like 〜を追い抜くようだとしたら or even 〜追い抜きようだとしたら (is that even grammatical without a negative??) or something else, because like I've said I don't think I've ever seen that grammar used 'without intent' as you've suggested is a possible interpretation.

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u/somever 8h ago

My interpretation doesn't involve two rival companies. I mean two people working within the same company that have their own reputations and compete for clientele.

ならばかまわない

This ならば is what gives the "only if" "so long as" sense. かまわない is just "it's all right" "it's not a problem".

Examples of うとする without intent that mean "about to":

  • 時計は正午を知らせようとしている (Bunkei Ziten)
  • 長かった夏休みもじきに終わろうとしている (BZ)
  • 私が到着した時、会議はまさに始まろうとしているところだった (BZ)
  • 日はもう暮れようとしている (Sanseido Kokugo)
  • 彼女には洋々たる前途が開かれようとしている "A great career is opening for her" (BZ)

Examples of うとする with intent that mean "about to":

  • これから手術を受けようとしている患者 "a patient about to be operated on" (BZ)
  • ちょうど出かけようとしているところへ彼がやって来た (BZ)
  • お風呂に入ろうとしていたところに、電話がかかってきた "Just as I was about to get in the bath..." (BZ)

It doesn't always express an attempt. It can simply express that something is fixing to happen, is about to happen, will soon happen, etc., or someone is fixing to do something, is about to do something, will soon do something, etc.

1

u/Lemmy_Cooke 1h ago edited 58m ago

My interpretation doesn't involve two rival companies.

Fair enough. I meant your interpretation that they're in competition was not something I would've considered and thought was a nice idea.

Examples of うとする with intent that mean "about to":

These are all either about past events or using ている or ところ or other somewhat different situations. Just looking at the first clause I have no idea how to recover to a non conditional statement of that clause with your intended meaning without those sorts of extra grammatical additions. The clause

日本の人力車は昔、若い車夫が年長の車夫を追い抜こうとしたら、道順を変更して、人に見られないようにするならばかまわない。

on its own I would read as 'attempt to' with no ambiguity so it's weird that making it a subclause by extending it would make it act so strangely. I mean I really really want to just believe your explanation and move on since it very much lines up with my first instinct to interpret it as some sort of statement about a likely/possible consequence rather than attempted action exactly because I am aware しよう sometimes behaves weirdly like that in the grammar cases you laid out and like in できよう, 言えましょう, ではなかろうか , なろう, 〜もあろう and others like that... but that would bring me back to my original question:

Does this usage of 〜をしようとする have a more literary / written vibe? Or can I just drop it in casual conversation and if the next sentence makes the context clear that I actually had no intention of doing that action it'll be perfectly natural and everyone will understand just fine?

And then if so I'd be interested in seeing some examples, like with 食べようとしたら〇〇。or something

On a side note, if I were to interpret it how you did with changing the route on paper later I'd expect the initial clause to be like:

日本の人力車は昔、若い車夫が年長の車夫を追い抜こうとしたら、人に見られないように道順を変更するならばかまわない

Or something more rearranged like that. I also feel like your interpretation of the young person being the one to do it as opposed to /u/OwariHeron and JapanCoach's s interpretations of the vet doing the changing is quite key since the idea of 'If you were about to do x, it would be fine if you later did y' only makes sense in this situation if the same actor is performing the actions in both clauses.

Edit: actually thinking about it really hard I think you're the only one here who is correct about the young person being the one to change course, but I'd still like to be convinced on the lack of intent/volition in the action and the interpretation of 道順 here

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u/JapanCoach 22h ago

It is doing its normal job here. "If a young one would try to pass a vet"

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u/Lemmy_Cooke 22h ago

Oh shit like 'If a young guy tried to pass a vet it would look like he doesn't care about how it looks to people who are watching' or something like that?

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u/OwariHeron 22h ago

You have to work backwards to get the full sense. "Long ago with Japanese rickshaws, an unwritten rule was strictly followed that if young rickshaw man tried to pass a veteran, then no one was bothered if the veteran changed course so that it didn't appear like the younger man had the greater strength and endurance."

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u/Lemmy_Cooke 21h ago

Ah I don't know why my dumbass thought the burden would be on the young guy to change course to not show up the older guy. This often happens where my expectations keep me from reading what's clearly written in front of me 🥲

thanks both of you 🙏

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u/tyrellLtd 21h ago edited 21h ago

then no one was bothered if the veteran changed course

Isn't the other way around? The younger rickshawman would overtake the older but simultaneously change course. From a common sense PoV, in doing so, the veteran would consume more stamina but more importantly, would give up the right of way (submission, i.e., reversal of the hierarchy).

Edit: Just to clarify, I'm trying to understand what's happening grammatically. The younger guy is the subject (が), his volitional action たら followed by a continuative て.

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u/OwariHeron 21h ago

I think that's a possible reading! I interpreted it as the veteran changing course for two reasons: the 追い抜こうとしたら clause, which indicates the initiation of an attempt, and 新参 as being from the perspective of the veteran, and so assumed the 道順を変更して was the veteran's action. So, the overall sense seemed to be "young man tries to overtake the veteran, and the veteran changes course so the newcomer doesn't appear to have greater strength and stamina."

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u/roun-town 14h ago

i think the newbie changing course is also the most sensible reading given the next sentence:

「この、露骨な競争を表面上できるだけ最低限に押えようという気持ちは、現在でも日本人の生活のなかに浸透している」

indicating that the former was given as an example of someone hiding/holding their competitive spirit back as much as possible, non?

and idk, it was my gut interpretation as well. i guess the ~にするならばかまわない phrasing is what makes it sound like we're talking about the newbie here to me, cuz if this is the veteran then what sense does that make? if it's up to them, why wouldn't they just always adjust to save face (strategically speaking)? why is this framed as a choice that one might not always be incentivized to take? it makes more sense to me that it would be framed as the newbie's responsibility to keep himself in check through his own initiative, which is also the point/sentiment that the excerpt as a whole seems to be discussing (people feeling that they should not unashamedly try to steal the spotlight -- but that being discrete with it is okay, and that they have a right to compete)

u/Lemmy_Cooke

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u/JapanCoach 20h ago

The vet changes course to avoid looking bad.

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u/tyrellLtd 21h ago

I think the nuance is they tried to do something but with some caveats, i.e., something prevented it (as explained here), or in your pagraph, what just happened would not become obvious to outsiders.

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u/Lemmy_Cooke 8h ago

If it's the 'aborted attempt' usage of をしようとしたら then the かまわない doesn't make sense to me as /u/roun-town helpfully pointed out in someone else's (differing) interpretation. I also am not sure I've ever seen the aborted attempt usage used talking about general habits / rules rather than a specific past instance.

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u/KahongBughaw 20h ago

I was just reading 声の形 and saw this passage and I can't understand the function of the 2nd より. From my understanding it basically said "as for nishimiya her feelings will be conveyed more than written communication and sign language"

I am kinda confused that the sentence basically said that 手話 is better than 筆談 but より is also connected to 手話の方がラクで

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u/OwariHeron 20h ago

The first より(も) is a direct comparison of 筆談 and 手話. "sign language is easier (ラク) than written communication."

The second より indirectly turns the following statement into a comparative: より気持ちも伝わる = "better communicates feelings". This is often used to state that something is better or more than is usual or might be expected. For example, よりいい環境を作るために - "in order to make a better environment."

You could conceivably write 筆談よりも手話の方がラクで気持ちも伝わる。However, the added より before 気持ちも伝わる adds emphasis the comparative nature of that clause. "Sign language is easier, and also communicates her feelings better."

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u/KahongBughaw 20h ago

ohhhh I didn't know you can use より to indirectly compare something. So basically its like ∅より気持ちも伝わるの方が but the 方が is omitted?

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u/somever 18h ago

Etymologically it originates from øより, but you should think of this より as an adverb meaning "more ..." "...er". It spread in Japanese due to the need to translate comparatives in English literature to Japanese.

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u/KahongBughaw 17h ago

I see, that makes より much easier to understand. Thanks!

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u/OwariHeron 19h ago

No, there's no omission involved.

You could say, 筆談より(も)、手話が楽だ。

You could also say, どちらかというと、手話の方が楽だ。

You could say, より楽だ, as a phrase by itself.

It is simply idiomatic to combine the distinct constructions より and の方が together to make comparisons clear. 筆談よりも、手話の方が楽だ。

With, より気持ちも伝わる, the の方が is not there in the first place. It's simply saying "feelings are better communicated."

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u/KahongBughaw 19h ago

ahhhh, that makes more sense. Thanks!

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u/Arcadia_Artrix 19h ago

To me that he is saying (in a mocking tone) something like "Then I will let you choose, Make your attacks more difficult to use or have your attacks become ineffective, which do you prefer?"

Can と mean "Or"? From what I understand it mainly means "and" (among other uses).

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u/morgawr_ https://morg.systems/Japanese 19h ago

XとY、どっちがいい means "which one is better/do you prefer between X and Y"

There is no "or".

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u/Arcadia_Artrix 18h ago

Thank you.

0

u/Professional-Hawk747 16h ago

”または”でも意味はあっているとは思うな。
ただ「と」に毎回「または」という意味があるわけではないよ。
ニュアンスが難しいね。

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u/antonm07 Goal: conversational fluency 💬 18h ago

Please help Renshuu users. When a new Kanji is taught the furigana is underlined when it is an irregular reading. How do i see that info again

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u/Poczatki 12h ago

sorry, I don't understand the question. See what info? When you encounter the word with that kanji in your Word Schedule review, you will see the underlined furigana (implying irregular reading) after answering
All irregular readings supposedly have this underline
If you want to see your recently learned words, where this one might be, click on Terms on your Dashboard, you can sort by date learned or the reading there

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u/great_fungi 17h ago

Hi, i know I ask a lot of questions recently but there are always new topics I have to consider.

What is better mining the vocab or look them up when they appear and learn them that way? I know there might be no correct answer bc everyone is different but maybe some of you have more experence with that. When I learned english I was mining but I already have a lot of foundation bc 12 years of lessons in school and than it was really easy and not so time consuming.

When I do passive listening (not background listening) and I am unable to understand most words is it even worth it? I saw some people say 90-95% but that seems a bit high especially for beginners and when I understand anything is it really helpful?

Where can I buy japanese e-books besides bookwalker? The thing is its csv files and for e readers Sites like Ttsu I cannot use them but I want to use yomitan to get the vocab I dont know (Current book is kuma kuma kuma bear LN).

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u/rgrAi 16h ago

Q1. Do both, it's not a mutually exclusive activity. You mine as many words as you would like, and you look up the rest. Both are a source of exposure and vocabulary acquisition.

Q2. I'm not sure what the distinction between background and passive listening is. To me anything that isn't active is background / passive listening. Either way what you can expect from doing that is training your ear and acclimate it to the language. A trained ear can hear the language much more clearly allowing your to comprehend it much better. People who haven't heard the language much and start learning basically it sounds like nothing (I know this from personal experience) and just hearing the language a butt load allowed me to actually process the sounds and then turn it into comprehension. It's training a different part of your hearing and way your brain handles the sounds and patterns of the language.

Q3. Besides bookwalker, Kobo Japan and Amazon Japan has DRM version of epubs.. which you can remove. It's a bit annoying from what I understand. (feel free to keep asking questions btw)

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u/viliml Interested in grammar details 📝 11h ago

When I do passive listening (not background listening) and I am unable to understand most words is it even worth it?

If you don't understand something, you should learn it so that you come to understand it. That's why this subreddit is called "learn Japanese", not "listen to Japanese".

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u/dynamicpenguin55 10h ago

Not sure there's need for the snarky reply, "you should learn japanese" isn't helpful. There are a lot of different opinions about how much ambiguity should be tolerated or how useful input like this is, so it's a reasonable question

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u/Due-Entrepreneur-498 13h ago

Does anyone know what's written here?

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u/PlanktonInitial7945 13h ago

視聴覚

Dictionaries like jisho.org have a radical search function that's very helpful in these situations.

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u/kusotare-san 13h ago

視聴覚

しちょうかく

Meaning audiovisual or to do with sight and listening

The words for the five senses in Japanese have かく in them

視覚しかくsight

聴覚ちょうかくhearing

味覚みかくtaste

触覚しょくかくtouch

嗅覚しゅうかくsmell

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u/_lemno 8h ago

触覚 しょくかくorしょっかく?

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u/PlanktonInitial7945 8h ago

しょっかく. They also wrote 嗅覚(きゅうかく) wrong.

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u/emptyzone73 7h ago

Someone please link me the anki android app everyone talking about. I tried searching on ggplay but there are a ton.

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u/morgawr_ https://morg.systems/Japanese 7h ago

It's called "ankidroid". If you go on the official anki website it should have a proper link to it.

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u/Ceoppicino 7h ago

I need some help, so I have been learning Japanese for 2-3 years maybe. But what I learn just hiragana, katakana and kanji. I don't really learn about something like vocab, particle or something similar. I read a bit genki and taekim grammar actually but that's about it. So I want to start again after a year break. I study mostly only with anki using All in one kanji and core 2k and kinda like it. So I need some suggestion what I need to do actually. Thanks, sorry Im not that good with English

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u/onestbeaux Interested in grammar details 📝 6h ago

i’m sending two screenshots from 光が死んだ夏 but i have to send the second as a reply because it won’t let me post two in one comment.

am i right to interpret the first んだけど as like “but/though” and the second んですけど as more of a… well i don’t know, kind of “tonal” feeling i guess? i’m not sure exactly how to interpret the second one, with 簡単. it kind of sounds almost snarky to me if that makes sense?

i also don’t totally get why it went from だ to です in this context. i know people switch for various reasons but it’s unclear to me why in this case. they’re talking about calling the bottom panel guy to investigate the town and i can’t tell if he’s talking to them or to himself.

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u/fushigitubo 🇯🇵 Native speaker 2h ago

In the first one, けど has a pretty clear “but/though” feeling. There’s an implied conflict, like “I don’t want to go, (but I guess I have to.)”

The second one also has a “but/though” feeling, but it’s more implicit. The contrast is between 村人は簡単だと思っている and 実は簡単じゃない. The villagers think it’s easy, but in reality, it isn’t. So the “though” is still there in the nuance, but English doesn’t always need to explicitly translate it. So it’s more like something along the lines of “Actually, it’s not as simple as the villagers think.”

Also, んです gives the statement an explanatory tone. The speaker is essentially explaining or clarifying the situation. けど itself doesn’t inherently make it snarky, but because the speaker is correcting the villagers’ assumption, it can give the statement a slightly snarky or dismissive feeling.

i also don’t totally get why it went from だ to です in this context.

I think it’s just part of the character’s speech style, and he’s talking to himself. In the first image, he says かったるいっすねー, so he seems to mix casual speech with some 丁寧語. That would explain why he uses です here even though the rest of the sentence is pretty casual.

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u/onestbeaux Interested in grammar details 📝 6h ago

and here is the second one

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u/Professional-Hawk747 16h ago

Question for those who study Japanese through manga:

How do you create your Anki cards? Do you read manga on a PC and turn it directly into flashcards?

I was wondering how everyone handles card creation when reading manga on Kindle via a smartphone or tablet.

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u/slasly Goal: media competence 📖🎧 15h ago

I put the manga through mokuro and then read the on a browser on my tablet. The mokuro reader got built in anki intergration and can even double tap on text to copy the page/panel into the last mined card

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u/viliml Interested in grammar details 📝 15h ago

I mostly read on PC, but when I encountered a word I wanted to mine while I was away from my PC, I'd just write it down to do it when I got back.

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u/morgawr_ https://morg.systems/Japanese 16h ago edited 15h ago

I don't create anki cards when I read manga.

EDIT: to be clear, this isn't a snarky response. I'm literally answering: I don't create cards when I am reading manga. I do it (sometimes) when I read something else that is easier to mine. Just not with manga.

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u/kyousei8 12h ago

I also don't create cards when I read manga (unless I find a really interesting word, then I make it manually). Reading manga is one of the only times I purposefully and consistently skip creating cards for unknown words. Otherwise, I make cards for nearly everything.

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u/viliml Interested in grammar details 📝 12h ago

I started off by mining manga since it had the simplest contents, then moved on to visual novels with text hookers and novels with Ttsu, and it didn't particularly feel any "easier to mine" just because I had direct access to Yomitan. It just saves, what, around 3 seconds per word? Maybe 10 if you have to use radical/handwriting input to find the kanji?

Feels like a weird distinction to make to me.

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u/morgawr_ https://morg.systems/Japanese 11h ago

It's a huge difference to me. I don't use any tools (OCR, etc) and so if I want to mine manga I'd have to re-type the sentence in its entirety somewhere I could use yomitan on and then mine it like that, which probably would take 15-30 seconds, plus the time I need to actually look up the spelling of each individual word (if it doesn't have furigana and if I don't know it). It's even worse when most of the manga I read is on paper.

When I reading an ebook or playing a VN with texthooking it's literally a click of a button. It's night and day difference and not even remotely comparable.

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u/Professional-Hawk747 10h ago

I'm developing a mobile app where you simply snap a photo of physical or digital manga, and it handles panel detection, OCR, translation, and creates flashcards with the panel image all seamlessly on your phone. ​I wanted to know what challenges you run into when learning Japanese with manga. What features would make this a must-have tool for you? ​Any feedback from Japanese learners would be super helpful!

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u/morgawr_ https://morg.systems/Japanese 9h ago

I think there are several tools that already exist that do something like this but I'm not really familiar with most of them. Honestly I'm at a level where I don't really need any of these tools anymore so I can't really say. I'm sure it can be useful to people who need it though. If you want more feedback I recommend joining themoeway discord server, they have a very active #resources-development channel with lots of other developers sharing resources and advice

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u/Jelly_Round Goal: media competence 📖🎧 11h ago

i am taking n3 in july 2027 and i will start studying mocks with error notebook - it goes like this, you try solving mock test and the wrong question write down to your notebook and correct answer it. you review it daily. we will see, how effective this will be, i am just brainstorming

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u/Grunglabble 9h ago

It sounds effective if when you review it you do not just look at the answer. You should also try to remember both question and answer without a prompt (at least the gist of what is important that you got wrong). After doing this one or two times, it may be best to move on, wait for a different question testing something similar to occur.

Check out nihongo no mori videos for some more explanations.

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u/Jelly_Round Goal: media competence 📖🎧 9h ago

i will probably use migii jlpt app with that. but nihongo no mori and tomo sensei mock exam videos are good (i did that for n4, but i want to learn better for n3)

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u/Tommy_SVK 6h ago

Hello! I'm trying to have my grammar notebook systematically sorted based on topic and I wanted to have some overarching category over expressions for "want", "must", "should", "might" etc. With Gemini I found out that these expressions are called "modal" (I now realize I did actually encounter that word way back when studying English) and it suggested that I subdivide the modal category into 10 subcategories. I wanted to ask if these are accurate and a good way to organize modal expressions in Japanese. Here's the list with examples:

  • 1. Desiderative (Want to / Desire)
    • Example: 日本へ行きたいです。 (Nihon e ikitai desu. — I want to go to Japan.)
    • Example: 新しいパソコンが欲しいです。 (Atarashii pasokon ga hoshii desu. — I want a new computer.)
  • 2. Obligation & Necessity (Must / Have to)
    • Example: 毎日勉強しなければなりません。 (Mainichi benkyou shinakereba narimasen. — I must study every day.)
    • Example: もう帰らないと。 (Mou kaaranaito. — I have to go home now.)
  • 3. Permission & Prohibition (May / Must not)
    • Example: ここで写真を撮ってもいいですか。 (Koko de shashin o totte mo ii desu ka. — May I take pictures here?)
    • Example: ここで煙草を吸ってはいけません。 (Koko de tabako o sutte wa ikemasen. — You must not smoke here.)
  • 4. Advice & Recommendation (Should / Had better)
    • Example: 薬を飲んだほうがいいです。 (Kusuri o nonda hou ga ii desu. — You had better take some medicine.)
    • Example: 約束は守るべきだ。 (Yakusoku wa mamoru beki da. — You should keep your promises.)
  • 5. Potential (Can / Able to)
    • Example: 漢字を読めます。 (Kanji o yomemasu. — I can read kanji.)
    • Example: 泳ぐことができます。 (Oyogu koto ga dekimasu. — I am able to swim.)
  • 6. Probability & Supposition (Might / Probably / Seems)
    • Example: 明日は雨が降るかもしれない。 (Ashita wa ame ga furu kamo shirenai. — It might rain tomorrow.)
    • Example: 彼はもうすぐ来るでしょう。 (Kare wa mousugu kuru deshou. — He will probably come soon.)
  • 7. Volition & Intention (Plan to / Going to)
    • Example: 来年日本へ行こうと思っています。 (Rainen Nihon e ikou to omotte imasu. — I am planning/thinking of going to Japan next year.)
    • Example: 明日映画を見るつもりです。 (Ashita eiga o miru tsumori desu. — I intend to watch a movie tomorrow.)
  • 8. Evidentiality (Heard that / According to)
    • Example: 天気予報によると、明日は晴れるそうだ。 (Tenki yohou ni yoruto, ashita wa hareru sou da. — According to the weather forecast, I heard it will be sunny tomorrow.)
    • Example: 田中さんは来ないらしい。 (Tanaka-san wa konai rashii. — Apparently / word is that Tanaka isn't coming.)
  • 9. Commands & Requests (Do this / Please)
    • Example: ここに名前を置いてください。 (Koko ni namae o kaite kudasai. — Please write your name here.)
    • Example: 早くし! (Hayaku shiro! — Hurry up! [Imperative])
  • 10. Explanatory Modality (The no da / n da clarifying nuance)
    • Example: バスが遅れたんです。 (Basu ga okureta n desu. — [It's because] the bus was late.)
    • Example: どうした? (Doushita no? — What happened? [Seeking context/explanation])

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u/morgawr_ https://morg.systems/Japanese 5h ago

I'm trying to have my grammar notebook systematically sorted based on topic

Doesn't your textbook or grammar guide already do that? Why do you need gemini? Why do you expect us to do your homework and read through a giant wall of slop text to correct the AI that is known to often hallucinate and come up with bullshit?

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u/Tommy_SVK 5h ago
  1. I am using multiple grammar books for cross-reference. I don't necessarily like the way they are organized, I like to organize things myself.
  2. It's literally just a list with example sentences.
  3. I know that AI often hallucinates and comes up with bullshit. That's exactly why I came here and kindly asked for people to verify that this is accurate. I thought that's what this place was for. But if you just want to be an asshole to a fellow learner, that's your choice.

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u/worthlessprole 5h ago

I like to organize things myself.

when are you going to start

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u/Tommy_SVK 5h ago

Wow this sub really is a bunch of assholes huh? I know that things like "should", "must", "want" etc. belong together, they are modals. I just wanted to make sure I get a complete list of them so that I can reserve pages for these topics when they come up. But I guess I came to the wrong place for advice in learning Japanese. I'll just go somewhere else then.

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u/worthlessprole 5h ago

Why should all of those grammar structures, many essentially completely distinct and unrelated, be grouped together just because they express modality? that's not a common pedagogical approach

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u/Tommy_SVK 5h ago

Why not? If I'm trying to find notes on how to express "I should", it's logical to me that it's going to be near the notes on how to express "I must" etc. I'm not saying I'm going to be studying these things in this order, I'll just have them written down like that. We don't need to go into specifics about how I organize things, I was just asking about modals in Japanese.

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u/worthlessprole 5h ago

If you had asked "what are some good resources on modality in Japanese" we would be having a different conversation. You posted a giant wall of AI generated text and asked us to fact check it.

But "modal" is just not a useful designation for organizing things, it's way too broad.

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u/Tommy_SVK 5h ago

Well sorry I didn't realize AI is such a taboo here. Yeah I get that my comment is long but I thought that having something as an example would be more helpful instead of just asking a pretty broad question. I wonder if your reaction would be the same if I just said "hey guys here's a list of modals I can think of, can you think of any others?"

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u/worthlessprole 5h ago

Your list could be as long as you like and there would still be more because virtually every sentence in Japanese expresses modality in some fashion. It's genuinely a defining feature of the language.

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u/brozzart 5h ago

I don't understand what you mean by modal category or what you're trying to do.

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u/Tommy_SVK 5h ago

Expressions like "must", "should", "want" etc. are modals right? I was looking for a list of modal expressions in Japanese and wanted to verify whether what Gemini gave me is accurate or is completely off.

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u/brozzart 5h ago

I looked up what a 'modal' is (turns out they're called Modal Verbs and they're aux verbs in English like can, may, might, could, should, would, will, and must)

Since these forms aren't formed by simple aux verbs in Japanese I don't really see any benefit of grouping them together. It would be better to learn them based on the grammar structures that they require preexisting knowledge of. (as in, you must know what て form is, what も particle means before you can learn てもいい. Learning the structure before the individual concepts is not going to be efficient)

I would just use a grammar guide for these structures... Your example sentences sometimes use typical omissions in conversational Japanese (e..g. もう帰らないと) but that's not really useful as a learner who doesn't know the full expression that is being omitted. It's better to have a curated and structured sentence bank and grammar learning path rather than learning things at random just because they're related in another language.

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u/Tommy_SVK 5h ago

This is not the order I'm learning these things in. This is just the order I organize my notes in. I already know The example sentences are there just to clarify what I'm talking about, I'm not てーform and も. The example sentences are there just to clarify what I'm talking about, I'm not saying they are necessarily the best examples. I want to group these things together because it makes sense to me in my native language (and in English).

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u/brozzart 4h ago

Organize them alphabetically for all I care lol that's up to you chief

If you already know all the grammar then why are you asking about the sentences

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u/Tommy_SVK 4h ago

I was looking for a list of modals.

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u/brozzart 3h ago

>I wanted to ask if these are accurate and a good way to organize modal expressions in Japanese

Maybe I misunderstood, but your post very much seemed like you were seeking advice about the content and whether it was a good way to organize the expressions.

If you just want a list of modal verbs then Wikipedia would be a good place to look...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_verb

I imagine this would cover all of the modal verbs and their senses.

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u/Tommy_SVK 3h ago

I was asking specifically for modal expressions in Japanese cause I'm not sure how they work. My question is basically "This is a list I got, is it accurate? If not, what would be an accurate list?". I probably should've phrased that better. Thanks anyway though, a general list of modal verbs is still helpful.

u/Lemmy_Cooke 6m ago

Japanese isn't Latin. There isn't even a Japanese Wikipedia page for modal verbs, the concept just isn't useful for organizing the language.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AMB_Japanese_Verbs.pdf

You could try something like this instead? But if you're insistent then perhaps make a list of English modal verbs and try to fill it in yourself as you go along.

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u/rgrAi 5h ago

What textbook are you using? Every single one of these is pedagogically taught in a textbook with explanations and cultural notes. In somewhat of a similar order. Instead of asking Gemini to provide you with this get a textbook and go through and read through the examples, explanations, and cultural notes provided by the textbook.

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u/Tommy_SVK 5h ago

I'm using Tae Kim's Guide and Bunpro but that's completely irrelevant. They cover stuff in a completely different order. I'm organizing notes for myself. I don't need explanations or cultural notes, I get those. I'm not asking for anyone to explain any of these concepts to me. I am simply asking for a list of Japanese modals and asking whether this one is accurate.

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u/rgrAi 5h ago

Answer is no.

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u/Tommy_SVK 5h ago

Care to elaborate?

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u/Player_One_1 2h ago

One of the more common words ゴミ. Literal thrash. It can be spelled with kanji 塵, that is not that common, but still exists.

Then just add one of the most common kanji 大 and we can get 大塵, which is huge pile of rubbish. No, 大塵 does not exist, huge pile of rubbish is this way of thinking, because Japanese does not work like this, and だいごみ is 醍醐味 which is exact the opposite. (Noun 1. the real pleasure (of something); the real thrill; the true charm).

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u/poshikott 1h ago

You can probably see from the kanji alone, but 醍醐味 has no relation to ゴミ. It comes from 醍醐 (Buddhism term meaning something said to taste very good) + 味 (taste).

Not sure what you're trying to say (or ask?) here

u/Lemmy_Cooke 17m ago

I dare believe he didn't actually think there was a relation and the lad might've just been havin' a little fun

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u/LabelEpic 5h ago

What is the best Android app for learning and practicing katakana? It really should be an app... Thank you for any advice ^

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u/Barbosiu 4h ago

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u/LabelEpic 2h ago

It's rrly good thank you!