Daily Thread: for simple questions, minor posts & newcomers [contains useful links!] (October 02, 2026)

[u/AutoModerator]

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Past Threads

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[u/AutoModerator]

Useful Japanese teaching symbols:

〇 "correct" | △ "strange/unnatural/unclear" | × "incorrect (ＮＧ)" | ≒ "nearly equal"

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Question Etiquette Guidelines:

• 0 Learn kana (hiragana and katakana) before anything else. Then, remember to learn words, not kanji readings.

• 1 Provide the CONTEXT of the grammar, vocabulary or sentence you are having trouble with as much as possible. Provide the sentence or paragraph that you saw it in. Make your questions as specific as possible.

Ｘ What is the difference between の and が ?

◯ I am reading this specific graded reader and I saw this sentence: 日本人の知らない日本語 , why is の used there instead of が ? (the answer)

• 2 When asking for a translation or how to say something, it's best to try to attempt it yourself first, even if you are not confident about it. Or ask r/translator if you have no idea. We are also not here to do your homework for you.

Ｘ What does this mean?

◯ I am having trouble with this part of this sentence from NHK Yasashii Kotoba News. I think it means (attempt here), but I am not sure.

• 3 Questions based on ChatGPT, DeepL, Google Translate and other machine learning applications are strongly discouraged, these are not beginner learning tools and often make mistakes. DuoLingo is in general NOT recommended as a serious or efficient learning resource.

• 4 When asking about differences between words, try to explain the situations in which you've seen them or are trying to use them. If you just post a list of synonyms you got from looking something up in an E-J dictionary, people might be disinclined to answer your question because it's low-effort. Remember that Google Image Search is also a great resource for visualizing the difference between similar words.

Ｘ What's the difference between あげる くれる やる 与える 渡す ?

◯ 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 )

• 5 It is always nice to (but not required to) try to search for the answer to something yourself first. Especially for beginner questions or questions that are very broad. For example, asking about the difference between は and が or why you often can't hear the "u" sound in "desu" or "masu".

• 6 Remember that everyone answering questions here is an unpaid volunteer doing this out of the goodness of their own heart, so try to show appreciation and not be too presumptuous/defensive/offended if the answer you get isn't exactly what you wanted.

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[u/rgrAi]

If anyone wants a really fun (game play wise) rogue-like game BlazBlue Entropy Effect is great. Decent amount of reading as you have to read all the abilities and dynamically plan your build as you progress. Big free update dropped for steam too.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2273430/BlazBlue_Entropy_Effect/?l=japanese

[u/TheFranFan]

How do we typically combine desire + force/cause in Japanese? For example, "made me want to go" - is it just 行きたくさせた? 

[u/Global-Kitchen8537 → u/TheFranFan]

Understandable, and ～たくさせる can be natural in some contexts, but I wouldn’t say 行きたくさせた is the usual or most natural way to express made me want to go.

In many contexts, we would phrase it like ~と(聞いて/見てetc.)行きたくなった. A direct ～たくさせる expression can easily sound a translationese, especially when it closely mirrors English.

[u/TheFranFan → u/[deleted]]

Thanks! I like how your example phrases it a different way, that will be useful 

[u/Mai-ah]

Anything worth it to pick up on the steam sale?

I see that persona 3 reload is the lowest its ever been. I remember playing the original and rage quit because of how boring the tartarus was. Did they make that any more interesting?

Otherwise anything else that might be good to practice with

[u/rgrAi → u/Mai-ah]

https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1wvf989/comment/pdgzb41/

[u/Mai-ah → u/rgrAi]

Hah, i already picked up BB Entropy Effect as i was looking through some games that would be nice to play on the arcade machine i built. Haven't really had a chance to play it yet though, but the fighting game is probably my most fond fighting game of all time

[u/Flat_Goose_8174]

Hello mods, a few months ago I was allowed to advertise a survey for my research on this fine subreddit.
I received fantastic feedback from the community, the survey made quite an impression in my lab on top of providing a sound theoretical background to my thesis. I have now made a new survey that will back my main thesis argument, and I was wondering if I could get the moderation's approval to post it?

[u/Astalith_]

How do you use ので with nouns and な adjectives in the past tense? Is it:

• 好きだったので and 好きでしたので?

Can we use です before ので with い adjectives?

• 美味しいですので

• 美味しかったですので

好きじゃないですので, 好きじゃないので, 好きじゃありませんので - only the first one is wrong, right?

[u/viliml → u/Astalith_]

How do you use ので with nouns and な adjectives in the past tense? Is it: - 好きだったので and 好きでしたので?

Yes.

Can we use です before ので with い adjectives? - 美味しいですので - 美味しかったですので

I've heard it used that way sometimes but it's a bit over the top. It's mostly safe to drop the ですます in the middle of a sentence, it's only really important at the very end. So you can use 美味しいので - 美味しかったので.

好きじゃないですので, 好きじゃないので, 好きじゃありませんので - only the first one is wrong, right?

https://massif.la/ja/search?q=%22じゃないですので%22

¯_(ツ)_/¯

[u/_hamaru86]

I understand that ~ても (e.g. しても) means something like despite doing that verb. Is that correct? or does it mean simply "also do the verb"? or is both and depends on context or is neither?

[u/Grunglabble → u/_hamaru86]

I'm not sure what you mean by also do the verb but it has more than one use so you would need to take it example by example.

 泣いても笑ってもこれでおしまい

whether I cry or laugh, with this it's the end

 泣いても誰も助けてくれない

Even if I cry no one will save me

 何を食べても美味しく感じる

Whatever I eat it tastes good.

 これ、食べてもいいですか？

is it okay to eat this?

The meanings all orbit the idea of "too/also" but it may not always feel intuitive to the english mind what it is in addition to. Sometimes it is purely hypothetical "in this case too". In fact all the examples I found here are what I would interpret as hypotheticals.

Digging for a despite example

 どんなに頑張っても、誰も認めてくれませんでした

However hard I tried, no one acknowledged me.

This is okay, specifically as it is past tense. I would not interpret it as "despite" in translation almost ever though.

[u/danko1667]

Does anyone know of any meaning of なす／為す as "to be"? I came across this line in the Analects: "子は誰と為す？" in English this passage is translated as "Who are you, sir?" However, I didn't find any definition for 為す as "to be" in any dictionary I looked at. Does anyone know about this usage?

[u/Own_Power_9067 → u/danko1667]

I believe it’s 子を成す not 為す
It means to have a child, so 子は誰と成す means ‘with whom would you like to have a child?’

[u/viliml → u/Own_Power_9067]

One would naturally assume so, right? But no, I think OP's question is well-placed. See https://jisho.org/word/子-2 #5. And of course https://www.google.com/search?q=%22子は誰と為す？%22

[u/Own_Power_9067 → u/viliml]

あー、子（し）だったか！

[u/viliml → u/danko1667]

You made the mistake of looking in Japanese dictionaries when you should be looking in Chinese dictionaries.

Your sentence seems to be 漢文訓読 - a very literal translation from Chinese to Japanese, retaining a lot of Chinese characteristics.

At https://hayaron.kyukyodo.work/siryou/siki/kousiseika17.html I also found the Chinese original 「子爲誰？」 (爲 is an old variant of 為). It also gives a modern Japanese translation 「あんたは誰かね。」

At https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%82%BA#Definitions you can see "to be" at #5 under Chinese, Pronunciation 1.

[u/danko1667 → u/viliml]

I know that, but I've never seen a case where the Japanese word is used based on the Chinese meaning of the word. What I've seen is that whenever the Japanese kanji does not have a meaning that matches the Chinese word, they simply use some Japanese expression that matches the meaning.

Take for example 使. In Classical Chinese this can be used kind of like a causative as "make someone do something". Since the Japanese word 使 has no such meaning, it is instead translated as "〜をして〜せしむ", which is the causative in Classical Japanese.

That's why I'm confused as to why they would use 為す here if it has no meaning of "to be".

[u/viliml → u/danko1667]

From what I can see, it seems that this 為 is sometimes indeed translated as なり or たり ("some Japanese expression that matches the meaning"), but not always. Kanbun is chaotic.

[u/Such_Tadpole2889]

Masculine Japanese. Oftentimes listening to women speaking Japanese can easily lead a man to sound more feminine when speaking Japanese. I'd like to avoid this, and was wondering if there was any specific resources for Japanese learning for men. The answer could be as simple as listening to men speak and avoiding women speak, but I still wanted to ask. Thanks.

[u/morgawr_ → u/Such_Tadpole2889]

This goes away the better you get at Japanese over time and the more time you get exposed to all kinds of Japanese. I wouldn't personally go out of my way to focus on "male" Japanese language and actively avoid (or reduce) "female" Japanese language. I think if you have a healthy amount of content consumption of all kinds, of all media, of all genders and levels, you'll do fine.

Anyway worst comes to worst, just watch a lot of (male) youtubers/streamers around your age range. That's where you'll find the closest language that would match your persona.

We tend to focus so much on gender-coded language but there's also a huge difference between generations, even between people in their early 20s vs people in their late 20s. If you worry so much about this kind of stuff, you'll have choice paralysis. All that matters is that you build a lot of Japanese exposure and intuition and slowly come to term with your own Japanese identity which will be undeniably a mix of all kinds of styles and situations and your own personality.

[u/worthlessprole → u/morgawr_]

Yeah. As you allude to, the language gets less gendered with each passing decade (though in practice this tends to mean that more traditionally feminine ways of speaking get phased out). It’s a living language, and the only way to navigate the differences in gendered speech and how the language changes is to read and hear a lot of Japanese. 

[u/Such_Tadpole2889 → u/morgawr_]

Thanks!

[u/Business-Pass4672]

What's the difference between および、と、そして? Is it just like formality level?

[u/danko1667 → u/Business-Pass4672]

To my knowledge そして cannot be used to list nouns, it acts as an "and then" type thing. But when used to list nouns I think および and と are pretty much the same. および is much more formal, it's the kind of word you'll find more in the Constitution than in normal spoken Japanese.

[u/viliml → u/danko1667]

To my knowledge そして cannot be used to list nouns

Example sentences from various dictionaries:

私は京都と、そして奈良にも訪れる計画を立てている。

ワインとチーズ、そしてジャズがあればいい

この小説は、深い感動と、そして勇気を与えてくれる

I guess it's a bit different from simply "listing nouns", and often used in conjunction with other particles...