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I know that no one may care to answer this question, but it's really been bugging me. I'm in Japanese I at my high school and right now we're studying verb forms. I don't understand how people decide this is going to be an "u" verb, this is going to be a "ru" verb and this is "irregular" what makes the word so that the "dictionary form" is a certain way? Anyone? ...sorry it's just really been bugging me. Posts: 76 | Registered: Jan 2004
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That is one of the many mysteries of Japanese... Wait until you get to verb conjugation and saying I gave my plant water, my son gave me a cookie and I gave my boss a flower. *ShuddeR* Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Wait until you get to verb conjugation and saying I gave my plant water, my son gave me a cookie and I gave my boss a flower.
You must mean the use of honorifics. You use a different verb, depending on the social status of the recipient of the action. You give the flower UP to the boss, the cookie goes DOWN to your son, and water goes WAY DOWN to the lowly plant. At least the son knows that he ranks higher than a plant.
How do you say "cookie" in Japanese?
Posts: 2655 | Registered: Feb 2004
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I envy you people. I have to wait a while to start learning Japanese. I only know a little bit right now...
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Taal, can you please explain to me how to type the Japanese characters? I think I've downloaded everything I need but I'm finding almost nothing explaining how to actually DO it and it's driving me INSANE.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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To type, you'll need a Microsoft IME. That pages gives you information on what it is, and lets you download it. Then, once you have the Katakana or Hiragana selected, you just type phonetically. You can also set it to automatically convert to Kanji (which takes a small amount of doing to get the character you want).
Posts: 2689 | Registered: Apr 2000
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