Japanese Language Help

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Bashiek

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Hi everyone. I've been studying romaji by myself since I started watching anime. Anyone who has knowledge of the Japanese language is free to answer.
1) (de) used a lot with hitori and jibun. Is there anything specific about this usage?
2) What is the difference between (you) used alone and (youni)?
3) Sometimes a noun is added to (ni naru) and it becomes a verb-ex. Sonna kota ga riyuu ni naru ka?/That's a reason (Steins;Gate ep. 16).
How does this construction work?
4) I went to Japanese Grammar page on wikipedia. In the stems section, they talked about the irrealis form. Setsumei shite kudasai.
5) A list of the various ways the (te-form) can be used
6) Verbal adverbs were also described in this article (Japanese grammar)Ex. miru= mi ni. Any way to quickly explain how they can be constructed?
7) What do the suffixes beki and goto mean? ex. mamoru beki and nani goto
Thanks for the help.
 
I would suggest learning kana. They're not hard to memorise and it will really help you in learning things
Bashiek said:
1) (de) used a lot with hitori and jibun. Is there anything specific about this usage?
Click to expand...
de with hitori and jibun usually indicate something done by yourself/myself
e.g. in Kalafina's destination unknown
jibun no kizu naraba
jibun de namete naosesou de

If it’s one’s wounds,
they seem to cure by licking them yourself
Click to expand...
or mirai
yume wo kanaete
hitori de sagashiteta hoshi no
onaji hikari wo
kimi ga mitsumete iru dake de

grant my dream
by just gazing at the same light
of the stars that
i was searching for by myself
Click to expand...
Bashiek said:
3) Sometimes a noun is added to (ni naru) and it becomes a verb-ex. Sonna kota ga riyuu ni naru ka?/That's a reason (Steins;Gate ep. 16).
Click to expand...
from what I understand, ___ni naru means to become ___ e.g. hikari ni naru = to become/turn into light
so, I read sonna koto ga riyuu ni naru ka as "does such a thing become a reason?"
according to my dictionary, -beki means ought to/must do something
the only time I remember hearing goto is in storm but I wonder if it's the same meaning as koto
idk about the rest, sorry :P
 
I also recommend the free software Tagaini Jisho http://www.tagaini.net

Try as much as possible to get familiar with kana (Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji or should I say ひらがな、カタカナ、漢字。) and get comfortable typing it with an input method (I use mozc on Debian GNU/Linux, make sure that you have included the operating system's Japanese input method installation if using Windows or OSX).
 
aki said:
I would suggest learning kana. They're not hard to memorise and it will really help you in learning things

de with hitori and jibun usually indicate something done by yourself/myself
e.g. in Kalafina's destination unknown

or mirai


from what I understand, ___ni naru means to become ___ e.g. hikari ni naru = to become/turn into light
so, I read sonna koto ga riyuu ni naru ka as "does such a thing become a reason?"
according to my dictionary, -beki means ought to/must do something
the only time I remember hearing goto is in storm but I wonder if it's the same meaning as koto
idk about the rest, sorry :P
Click to expand...
Thanks for the help Aki-san.
 
Kugayama said:
I also recommend the free software Tagaini Jisho http://www.tagaini.net

Try as much as possible to get familiar with kana (Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji or should I say ひらがな、カタカナ、漢字。) and get comfortable typing it with an input method (I use mozc on Debian GNU/Linux, make sure that you have included the operating system's Japanese input method installation if using Windows or OSX).
Click to expand...
Kugayama-san, I want to learn how to write, but I'm afraid that I'll make mistakes and they'll be permanent before someone can correct me. That's why I only learned the basic romaji. I can't form complex sentences yet
 
don't keep the fear of making mistakes from expanding your learning! whenever I practice speaking and even writing stuff in Japanese I know I mess up a lot, but that's how I learn more :P

at the very least, it will be beneficial for you in the long run to be able to read/recognise hiragana and katakana
Hiragana_stroke_order_chart.JPG

2000px-Table_katakana.svg.png
 
I sought help from Google-sensei and found this:

http://www.italki.com/question/90844
Hiragana/katakana for wi and we do exist.
Wi= ゐ(hiragana)、ヰ(katakana)
We=ゑ(hiragana)、 ヱ(katakana)

To answer your question, it's because of the dramatic standardization of Japanese writing system made by the government 1946, just after WWII. Since then, ゐ、ゑ、ヰ、ヱ gradually disappeared.
The pronunciations were originally different from i or e. But long before they decided to modify the writing system, the wi and we sounds had disappeared.

Still, those hiragana/katakana are used when the writer want to create some classical atmosphere, to follow the tradition, or for whatever the reason. You may have a chance to see them in Japan.

ヱビスビール　(bland name of premium beer)
ニッカウヰスキー(bland name of whiskey )
のぶゑ(name of historical Japanese restaurant)
ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版　(anime title)
よゐこ(comedian name)
Click to expand...

No wonder they weren't taught in my Japanese class :XD:
 
ah, yeah, they aren't used anymore and are just seen in historic documents
but eh I didn't know about the standardisation of writing that happened after wwii. I wonder what prompted them to do that
 
Aki-san: Thanks so much for encouraging me. I've started, and the charts that you provided have been invaluable.
Right now, I'm copying out songs written in romaji and converting them into hiragana. Do you have any comment on this technique that I'm using? Do you have any suggestions for some other method?
Once again, I'm really grateful!! Thanks so much!!
 
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Kugayama-san: I've started writing. Thanks for recommending the software.
 
Glad to hear it, Bashiek!
Bashiek said:
Right now, I'm copying out songs written in romaji and converting them into hiragana. Do you have any comment on this technique that I'm using? Do you have any suggestions for some other method?
Click to expand...
when I practiced writing last year I wrote YK song titles in kana too haha
Really, whichever way you remember it best is all that matters.
 
Remembered something regarding writing: certain hiragana can look different in handwriting than they do in typed form (this goes for some kanji as well)
The ones I write differently are そ、り、ゆ、さ、and き

E2pn98t.jpg
 
Aki-san: Thanks so much for the reply. Sorry I'm late with mine, but I don't always have a connection to the Internet. As I was studying, I noticed a few things. If you could help, I'd really appreciate it.
1. How can you tell the difference between (n) and (so) in katakana? What about (shi) and (tsu) in Katakana?
2. What about Katakana (he) and Hiragana (he)?
3. I also found a page that shows two ways to write (ji) and (zu). How will I know which one to use for each word? ex. shinjiru, hajimaru, zutto, jishin, jitto shite, etc.
Thanks once again.
 
1) ン(n) vs ソ(so) if you look carefully you can see that in so the smaller line faces downward while that in n is facing more to the right. Stroke order and direction are different tho. For n, the longer line is drawn from the bottom upwards while so is from top to bottom.

Shi (シ) and tsu (ツ) are the same way - shi looks to the right. Writing-wise for shi you start left-right left-right then bottom-top. For tsu it's top-down top-down top-down

Idk why they have to be so similar, it's such a headache. Over time it's easier to tell them apart

2) it is the same

3) uhh I'm not sure about ji - I'd have to see the kana, but yes there are two ways to write zu. Most common is ず. The other, づ, sounds more like dzu (at least to me) and is really only used in a few words. To type it you have to type du instead of zu tho. The only example I can think of atm is tsuzuku つづく (to be continued)
 
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