All Questions

I am using Remembering The Kanji and I am now at about lesson 9. But the fact is, I remember most kanji without learning the stories. I just know that rule is shellfish + saber without having to think ...

Is there a good historical or logical explanation why we cannot generally use 言う in the 3rd person in the past tense? Why do we have to resort to 言っている for the 3rd person part tense (言っていた), unless it ...

「。。。私は、人間が生得的に備えた「笑いの能力」はまず、新生児の微笑から顕在化すると考える。そして、その微笑が、人間関係の最初に位置するところの笑いと考えておきたいのである。 この新生児微笑は、人によってはまったく問題にもされず、一種の生理的痙攣であると言う人がいる。」　 （井上宏の『笑い学のすすめ』を参照しています。） ここでは「によって」はどういう意味ですか？...

Someone who wants to be the only person who does certain things such as my wife insists only only she can buy food or groceries sometimes or wash clothes or hang up clothes. I want to look for self-...

The basic context is this is in response to someone explaining themselves after an accusation was thrown at them. The speaker was a listener in this conversation who trusts the accused. I just can't ...

I had a (little) hard time finding the word 宣材{せんざい}. It was neither in the Midori dictionary nor Chrome's rikaikun extension. I had to google it. I found an explanation here on kotobank but not ...

I want to express: 'He is good at basketball. In comparison, she is less skilled.' My sentence is: 彼はバスケットボールで上手です。彼女は、比べて、下手です。 Is this correct? Please correct me for any errors I've made ...

There are several words which have vowel variations. This seems like it could be a fossilization of morphological processes in an older version of Japanese. How much do we know about these processes? ...

I'm studding for the JLPT and found a phrase よくしゃれを言う人。After I looked up the definition of しゃれ I assumed the phrase meant "jokester". But what is the difference between しゃれ　and 冗談？ I kind of got the ...

I know that yonaka is considered to be during the middle of the night. Are specific time periods involved?

I know the symbol is placed in front of the postal code. How is it pronounced?

I read in a manga this bubble: てめぇ一回だって自分の力ーつで何とかできたことあったかよ？" One translation says : Have you ever handled something with your own power? The second translation says: You've managed to settle ...

My dear friend is going on a long and dangerous trip. I got a swiss army knife for her, and I wanted to add a personal touch with an engraving that has the general meaning of “protection” . She knows ...

What is the difference between 大変{たいへん} and 難しい{むずかしい} which can both mean difficult. In which context should i use one or the other? Thanks in advance.

Is there a good etymological reason why the potential form in Japanese requires the が particle? When dealing with the -たい suffix, which also requires the -が particle for what in other languages would ...