October/Halloween Vocabulary 十月とハロウィーン

十月: じゅうがつ (juugatsu) - October/ month 10

十月十日: とつきとおか (totsukitooka) - babies born on October 10, supposedly conceived on New Year’s Day/ normal gestation time (i.e. 9 months)

秋: あき (aki) - autumn/ fall

草枯れ: くさがれ (kusagare) - autumn/ withering of the grass

秋日: しゅうじつ (shuujitsu) - autumn day/ autumn

紅葉: こうよう (kouyou) - autumn colors/ leaves changing color/ leaves turning red/ red leaves/ leaves turning yellow/ yellow leaves

紅葉: もみじ (momiji) - (Japanese) maple (Acer japonicum)/ venison

秋季: しゅうき (shuuki) -  autumn season

秋風: あきかぜ (akikaze) - autumn breeze

秋色: しゅうしょく (shuushoku) - autumn scenery

紅葉狩り: もみじがり (momijigari) - autumn-leaf viewing

オカルティック (okarutikku) - occult/ spooky/ eerie

気味悪い: きみわるい (kimiwaru) - unpleasant/ uncomfortable/ creepy/ spooky

お化けの話: おばけのはなし (obakenohanashi) - spooky tale/ ghost story

物の怪: もののけ (mononoke) - (vengeful) ghost/ specter/ spectre

鬼: おに (oni) - oni, ogre, demon/ spirit of a deceased person/ ogre-like person (i.e. fierce, relentless, merciless, etc.)

魔: ま (ma) - demon/ devil/ evil spirit/ evil influence/ someone who habitually performs some negative act

魔女: まじょ (majo) - witch

南瓜: かぼちゃ (kabocha) - pumpkin (Cucurbita species)/ squash

お菓子: おかし (okashi) - confections/ sweets/ candy

キャンディ (kyandi) - candy

コスプレショー ( kosupuresho) - costume party

コスチュームプレー (kosuchu-mupure-) - cosplay/ period drama, costume drama, costume play

Japanese Pronunciation Series #3 - 33 Combination Sounds

Japanese Pronunciation Series #3 - 33 Combination Sounds

Combination Sounds

In this lesson, we will introduce you to thirty-three combination sounds made using small ya, yu, and yo.

Combination sounds are the syllables you get when you combine a full-sized character with a small ya, yu, or yo. The full-sized character is from the second row of the hiragana chart (characters with “i”).

Example words: きゃく kyaku ( “customer”) きゅう  kyū  (“nine”) きょか  kyoka ( “permission”)

Example words: しゃかい  shakai  (“society”) しゅみ  shumi  (“hobby”) しょくじ  shokuji  (“meal”)

Example words: ちゃいろ  chairo  (“brown”) ちゅんちゅん  chunchun  (“chirp chirp”) ちょくせつ  chokusetsu  (“direct”)

Example words: ぐにゃぐにゃ  gunyagunya  (“crooked”) ニューヨーク  Nyūyōku ( “New York”) ニョロニョロ  nyoronyoro  (“slither”)

Example words: ひゃく  hyaku  (“one hundred”) ヒューストン Hyūsuton  (“Houston (Texas))” ひょう hyō  (“hail”)

Example words: みゃく  myaku  (“pulse”) ミュージック  myūjikku  (“music”) みょうじ  myōji  (“family name”)

Example words: りゃく  ryaku  (“abbreviation”) りゅう  ryū  (“dragon”) みりょく  miryoku  (“charm”)

Example words: ギャグ  gyagu  (“gag” (joke)) わぎゅう  wagyū  (“Japanese beef”) きんぎょ  kingyo  (“goldfish”)

We write these sounds as ja, ju, and jo using the Hepburn romanization system, instead of jya, jyu, and jyo. Example words: ジャズ  jazu  (“jazz”) じゅんすい　junsui  (“pure”) じょうだん  jōdan  (“joke”)

Example words: さんびゃく  san-byaku  (“three hundred”) デビュー  debyū  (“debut”) びょうき  byōki  (“illness”)

Example words: はっぴゃく  ha-ppyaku ( “eight hundred”) ピュア  pyua  (“pure”) ぴょんぴょん  pyonpyon  (“hop hop”)

Opposite Verbs in Japanese! 🔁 PS: Learn Japanese with the best FREE online resources, just click here https://www.japanesepod101.com/?src=tumbr_infographic_oppositve_verbs_062223

Putting Things On in Japanese

JLPT N3

はめる　to put on (something that envelops, e.g. gloves, ring), to button

はく　to put on (lower body clothing, e.g. pants, skirt, footwear), to wear

しめる　to wear (necktie, belt), to put on

着る　きる　to wear (in modern Japanese, from the shoulders down), to put on

～ん坊 (a person who...)

attached to verbs or nouns to indicate a person who does an action/possesses a certain quality

※Also commonly written as ～んぼ.  

The words may be written fully in hiragana, including the preceding kanji.

やみよにからす

Literally: (a) crow (or bird) in the dark night

Meaning: something indistinct

Kickass additions, thank you!

Days of the week + time expressions

→ Time expressions:

Japanese Most Common Adjectives 👠🥾 PS: Get the best FREE Japanese online resources, just click here https://www.japanesepod101.com/?src=tumblr_infographic_common_adjectives_11_081723

Can any other Japanese learners explain the purpose of the ん in this sentence? There's no explanation and google isn't helping. Any help would be appreciated.

The んです is a JLPT N5 grammar point, used to explain something or for emphasis.

In this case, you are emphasizing that you want to make a reservation. This is a polite way to ask for a reservation, and a commonly used structure when making polite requests.

From jlptsensei.com: んです (ndesu) has the same meaning as です (desu), but is different in that it feels a bit more personal since it is used to explain something, give reasoning, or to emphasize something.

The が at the end of the sentence also serves to make the request less demanding, and although the translation says "but" there is usually nothing that follows the が. Again, this is a common structure for making polite requests.

Hope this helps!

a brief-ish breakdown of くれる and もらう!

hi all! it’s been a minute since i last wrote a grammar post, but this particular topic has been popping up a lot for me lately so i thought i’d write my own explanation. the difference between these two used to confuse me a lot (and, let’s be real, sometimes もらう is still so confusing lol), but i think it can actually be explained fairly simply. so let’s get to it!!

types of differences between words: grammar vs. semantics

“wait, wait, what??” i hear you say. yes, it’s true—as a linguist i am incapable of explaining a grammar item without also explaining a little bit about human grammar itself. whoops 😉

so, as i’ve implied in the title, words can differ in multiple ways; for くれる and もらう, we’re interested in their grammatical (or “syntactic”) difference as well as their semantic difference. grammar, as i’m sure you know, refers to the structure of language, including word order, word movement, and stuff like that. in this case (くれる/もらう), we’re going to be mainly concerned with particles, an integral part of japanese syntax. so keep that in mind.

semantics, on the other hand, is something you might not be as familiar with (or at least not outside the phrase “just semantics”). semantics basically refers to the meaning of a word or phrase, notably without social context. to give an american english example, the words “you guys” and “y’all” are semantically identical because they both denote the exact same thing: a group of multiple people whom the speaker is addressing. however, any native english speaker can tell you that people do not really use “you guys” and “y’all” interchangeably, largely for social reasons (e.g., where you’re from, your gender identity, etc.).

so, to summarize: grammatical differences are differences in structure, while semantic differences are differences in meaning (without social context). now let’s move on to くれる and もらう!

くれる grammar basics

you might know already that くれる is the japanese “giving” verb. more specifically, it’s the giving verb whose subject isn’t the speaker:

from these examples, we can deduce two facts about the grammar of くれる:

these rules apply to くれる used as a solo verb and as an auxiliary (as in 〜てくれる). this grammatical construction is pretty familiar to english speakers, who can say things like “my brother gave a present to me,” mirroring the 兄が私に structure in japanese. english-speakers also might feel like the giver has a more “active” role in the scene, which lends itself well to the giver being the subject.

*in this case, if you were going to use a giving/receiving verb, you would use あげる.

もらう grammar basics

in japanese, もらう is the “receiving” verb, and in fact the only* receiving verb: there is no out-group/in-group distinction here like there is with くれる. let’s look at some examples:

the first example, marked with ❓, is not technically grammatically incorrect (as far as i know), but it is sort of awkward, just like in english. the second example, on the other hand, shows us exactly what we need to know about the grammar of もらう:

are you seeing an important difference between もらう and くれる? you probably noticed: while the subject of a くれる phrase is the giver, the subject of a もらう phrase is the recipient. this makes it really obvious that くれる is about someone giving something to someone else, while もらう is about someone receiving something from someone else.

as with くれる, the above rules apply to もらう as a solo verb and the 〜てもらう auxiliary construction.

*in this post, i’m ignoring 敬語, so technically there are indeed other receiving verbs (like いただく), but only as far as formalities go.

**the giver in a もらう sentence can technically also be marked with から, but i don’t feel like that’s very common to see.

the semantics of くれる and もらう

let’s compare the two correct examples from the above sections:

now, imagine a scene on a stage where no words are spoken: someone labeled 兄 mutely hands a wrapped gift box to another person labeled 私, and then the curtain falls. how would you describe that scene you just saw—using the first sentence, with くれる? or using the second sentence, with もらう?

if your answer was “i don’t know,” or maybe “what’s the difference,” then you’ve actually hit upon something really important about くれる and もらう! while certain social implications might be different between the two verbs (e.g., was 私 expecting to get a present?), the semantics of くれる and もらう in this construction are functionally identical. remember, semantics ignores social context, so whatever the particular circumstances of this gift-giving scene, the fact remains that a present changes hands from 兄 to 私, which can be accurately described by either the first example sentence or the second. to put it simply, the constructions XがYにZをくれる and XにYがZをもらう mean the same thing! it’s easy to remember that way, right?

summary!

so, we’ve looked at the grammatical differences and the semantics differences (or lack thereof) between くれる and もらう. here they are:

and that’s that! obviously there are always exceptions and complications to rules, but i hope that my explanation of these two words has been helpful for you. i spent a long time not understanding how to use もらう since it didn’t really feel like anything we had in english, but once i learned exactly how it was related to くれる, i think started to get the hang of it—and i bet you can too!

as a final note: if people are interested in more posts about もらう (which i have personally found is the trickiest for english speakers), i might have a post about semantic-passive もらう coming down the pipeline, so keep your eyes peeled! またね！！

💬 Onomatopoeic/Mimetic Vocab List 💬

A few of my favourite onomatopoeic words! I might make a part 2 at some point? Please feel free to correct any errors! ♡

うらうら…gently and clearly shining

オロオロ…flustered bewilderment

くんくん…sniffing, especially a dog

ケロケロ…ribbit sound

ごろごろ…purring sound, or idleness

さやさや…soft rustling sound

さばさば…relieved, refreshed or easy going

しとしと…light rain or drizzle

すやすや…sleeping peacefully or soundly

そっと…softly, gently

ちびちび…little by little

ちんまり…snugly, cosily

ほんわか…warm, cosy, pleasant

テコテコ…the sound of walking

なんたらかんたら…something or other, “what do you call it?”

ふわふわ…soft, fluffy

ムギュウ…squeezing, hugging

メロメロ…madly in love or falling down drunk

もぐもぐ…chewing food, similar to “nom nom”

もじもじ…bashfully

りんりん…bell ringing or chiming

わくわく…trembling, nervousness or excitement

にゃん…meow

わんわん…woof

N5 Grammar list

怪談

かいだん

ghost story

怪談はめちゃくちゃ怖くて苦手ですね。 かいだん は めちゃくちゃ こわくて にがて ですね。 I don't like ghost stories because they are so scary.

ことわざ 14/?

ことわざ are Japanese proverbs, and I have listed some basic proverbs, their equivalents in English, and a rough translation of the meanings of the Japanese phrase.

There is a test for ことわざ called the ことわざ能力検定 (ことわざのうりょくけんてい) and these are the phrases that appear in level 9 or 9級 (10 being the lowest level). For the time being, try one or two of these out the next time you speak with a native Japanese speaker!

ことわざ (こと検9級): 11 | 12 | 13 More ことわざ (こと検10級): 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

爪に火を点す

つめにひをともす

to skin a flint

so stingy you light your nails on fire to use as candles

爪の垢ほど

つめのあかほど

of negligible amount or value

as small/worthless as the dirt under your nails

爪の垢を煎じて飲む

つめのあかをせんじてのむ

to follow in someone's footsteps

brew and drink the dirt from someone's nails

手が空く

てがあく

① free ② available

empty hands

手が掛かる

てがかかる

to be labor-intensive or time-consuming

require your hands

手が込む

てがこむ

to be produced with great attention to detail

including many hands

手が付けられない

てがつけられない

out of one's hands

unable to affix your hands and take control

手が出ない

てがでない

beyond one's abilities

unable to offer a hand (or means of solving the problem)

手が届く

てがとどく

to be doable, within one's authority

hand can reach

手がない

てがない

① shorthanded ② out of options

have no hands (people or means to handle situation)

手が塞がる

てがふさがる

to have your hands full

hands occupied

手薬煉を引く

てぐすねをひく

ready for action

pull resin across the bowstring and ready for firing

手塩に掛ける

てしおにかける

to raise with tender love and care

手塩 used to be personal salt on-hand so one could apply to food and season a meal to one's liking. as a metaphor, it refers to a child, pet, plant, etc., that you care for personally.

手玉に取る

てだまにとる

① to play someone like a violin ② to make someone dance like a puppet

take and play with like a hand ball

手取り足取り

てとりあしとり

guiding step by step

take by the hand, take by the foot

手に汗を握る

てにあせをにぎる

to be on the edge of your seat

squeeze sweat in your hand

手に余る

てにあまる

① too much to carry ② beyond your ability

too much for your hands

手に付かない

てにつかない

to be distracted and unable to focus on something

a task won't stay attached to your hands

手に取るように

てにとるように

so clear you can picture it

understanding so clearly you could take it in your hands

手に乗る

てにのる

to fall for a trick

ride in someone's hand (ploy/scheme)

手の内を明かす

てのうちをあかす

① to reveal your secret ② to show your cards

reveal the content of your hand

手の平を返す

てのひらをかえす

to make a complete change in attitude

reverse the palm of your hand

手も足も出ない

てもあしもでない

completely powerless in the face of a challenge

hand also refers to means/method for handling a situation. unable to offer a hand or even a leg emphasizes hopelessness

手を上げる

てをあげる

① to raise your hand against another ② to surrender

raise your hands (for violence or surrender)

手を打つ

てをうつ

① to clap your hands in a 'eureka' moment ② to bring a disucssion to a close ③ to respond to a situation

①&② strike your hands together to express 'Aha!' or 'All finished!' ③ in Go, when you place your piece, you tap your hand against the board so the stone makes a nice rap against the wood

手を替え品を替え

てをかえしなをかえ

trying every conceivable method

change the method, change the offering trying to appease someone

手を貸す

てをかす

to lend a hand

lend a hand

手を切る

てをきる

to cut ties with

cut all methods of contact

手を拱く

てをこまねく

to stand idly by

fold your arms

手を染める

てをそめる

to get your feet wet

get your hands stained

手を出す

てをだす

① to involve yourself ② to strike in violence

offer your hand

手を尽くす

てをつくす

① to give it your all ② to do your best

deplete all available hands (methods)

手を握る

てをにぎる

① to cooperate ② to make an alliance

squeeze hands together in agreement

手を抜く

てをぬく

① to cut corners ② to half-ass it

remove your hand (active effort)

手を引く

てをひく

to end your involvement in

pull out your hand (active effort)

手を広げる

てをひろげる

to expand your business

expand your hand (range of activity)

手を回す

てをまわす

to work behind the scenes

move your hands around in a whirl of unseen activity

手を焼く

てをやく

to have difficulty managing

burn your hands from the constant effort of trying to manage a difficult person

頭角を現す

とうかくをあらわす

to be distinguished, exceptional

showing your forehead prominently, since you stand above the rest