Relative clauses, or adjective clauses, are, literally, clauses that work as adjectives to modify nouns. Now, that might sound a bit complicated and grammatical if the only clause you know is Santa, but it basically means that you can use verbs to describe things. For example:
neko ga shaberu 猫が喋る
The cat talks.
shaberu 喋る
To talk. (a verb.)
shaberu neko喋る猫
The cat [that] talks
...that talks:
A relative clause.
In the example above, we aren't talking about any one cat. We're talking about the cat that talks, the talking cat, specifically.
In Japanese, relative clauses are called rentai-shuushoku-setsu 連体修飾節, "prenominal modifying clause," since they're clauses that come before nouns to modify them.
In Japanese, naide ないで is a phrase created from the auxiliary adjective nai ない plus the particle de で. It has a number of different functions, the most common one being to ask people not do something.
The term no-adjective refers to Japanese adjectives created by adding the no の particle after a noun. Generally speaking, "noun-no-noun" uses the first noun to describe the second noun somehow. This is also called the "genitive case."
Anime: Zombieland Saga
Densetsu no Yamada Tae
伝説の山田たえ
The Legendary Yamada Tae.
densetsu 伝説
Legend.
The term "no-adjective" is mostly used when teaching Japanese to non-native speakers, because a noun marked by the genitive case-marking particle no の acts like an adjective.
There doesn't seem to be a Japanese equivalent for this term. Some books don't use the term at all. Furthermore, no-adjectives can be used in a hundred different ways, so it'd be very difficult to explain what is a no-adjective exactly, and perhaps even a futile effort.
In Japanese, na-adjectives are words that are usually turned into attributive adjectives by adding a na な after them. Some na-adjectives are always classified as adjectives, but others can be classified as nouns or adverbs when they don't have the na.
The term for "na-adjective" in Japanese is na-keyoushi ナ形容詞, abbreviated na-kei ナ形. They're also confusingly called "adjectival nouns" in English and "adjectival verbs" in Japanese, keiyou-doushi 形容動詞, abbreviated keidou 形動.
A question people often have about hoshi 欲しい, or rather, hoshii ほしい, an auxiliary adjective that means "want" in Japanese, is: what's the difference between hoshii and tai たい, another auxiliary which also means "want" in Japanese?
The word hoshii 欲しい is a weird Japanese word. If you check a dictionary, you'll see in Japanese hoshii means "wanted." But that doesn't make much sense, does it? To want is a verb, hoshii is an i-adjective. So how does that work? What's the real meaning of hoshii?
In Japanese, the "tai-form" happens when you add the -tai ～たい auxiliary adjective to the ren'youkei 連用形 conjugation of a verb, causing it to change to the desiderative mood. In other words, -tai means "want to" in Japanese, and verb-tai means "want to verb."
(beware of homonyms: tai 体, morpheme for "body," and tai 対, "versus." Those are also tai but not what this article is about.)
An i-adjective is a type of Japanese adjective with a base form ending in -i ~い, like hayai 速い, "fast," kawaii 可愛い, "cute," tanoshii 楽しい, "fun," and so on.
In Japanese, such words are called keiyoushi 形容詞, "adjectives," or, more specifically, i-keiyoushi イ形容詞, abbreviated i-kei イ形.
The i-adjectives are different from other Japanese adjectives by the fact they're true adjectives: the word is an adjective as-is, it isn't a noun or adverb that needs a particle in order to be used as an adjective. (which is the case with na-adjectives and no-adjectives.)
In Japanese, kono yarou この野郎 means basically "this bastard." Most of the time it's used when a character is swearing and angry at what another character did, but it can also be used when a character is surprised and in disbelief or shock, too.
Grammatically, it's the pronoun kono この, "this," plus the word yarou 野郎, which just really means "guy," but since it's often used in swearing, it's often gets translated as "bastard" instead. See: swearing with kono for details.
Manga: Zatch Bell!, Konjiki no Gash!! 金色のガッシュ!! (Chapter 5, 道具か人間か！？)
In anime, sometimes you have a character swearing in Japanese saying something like kono...! something. Like kono yarou!, kono baka yarou!, kono baka!, kono aho! Well. Anyway, it starts with kono この, which means "this," but it often gets translated as "you." In this post I'll explain why.
Manga: Zatch Bell!, Konjiki no Gash!! 金色のガッシュ!! (Chapter 1, 清麿、正義のみかた)
In Japanese, yarou 野郎 (or yarō, also spelled やろう, ヤロー, ヤロウ), is a rather weird word. By itself, it can be a casual or rather rude way to say "guy." Originally, it referred to an adult man. But the way you see it used most often in anime is in insults and swearing.
So, in this post, I'll explain the why of all this.
(beware of homonyms: yarou やろう may also be "let's do it," the volitional form of the verb yaru やる, "to do;" and yarou ヤロウ may refer to the plant, "Yarrow," achillea millefolium.)
In Japanese, ore-sama 俺様 is the over-the-top combination of the first person pronoun, ore 俺, and the reverent honorific suffixsama 様. Basically, ore-sama means the same thing as ore, "I," "me," in English, except it's ridiculously pompous and people would only use it in real life as a joke.
Which means it's mostly a trope used in manga and anime. (just like kisama 貴様.)
Manga: School Rumble, スクールランブル (Chapter 66, The Razor's Edge)
ore-sama ni
fukujuu se yo. 俺様に服従せよ。
Submit to me.
I command thee to submit to THE GREAT ME.
e...
え…
Eh...
Characters use ore-sama to imply they're extremely important. It's used by the type of character that would say "I'm the strongest" or "the smartest" or "the bestest" or stuff like that.
In Japanese, the phrase konooreda! この俺だ！ translates literally to "it's this me!" But that sounds weird in English. So, in this post, I'll explain what kono ore means and how it works.
Manga: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Part 5: Golden Wind, JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Ougon no Kaze ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 黄金の風 (Chapter 441, 黄金体験その②)
Kono Dio da! このディオだ！ is a phrase used by Dio in the manga and anime JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken ジョジョの奇妙な冒険, and I'm making a post about it because the translation of kono Dio da eludes many Japanese learners.
In Japanese, zawa.. zawa.. ざわ･･ざわ･･ is an onomatopoeia for when a crowd gathers and starts whispering around, creating a commotion, however, it's best known for its usage in the gambling series Kaiji, in which case zawa-zawa shows up in tense, cold-sweat-breaking, anxiety-filled situations, even when there is no crowd around, so there's nothing to emit a zawa-zawa sound.
In the anime adaptation of Kaiji, someone voicing the syllables zawa-zawa is used as the sound effect
In the manga and animeJoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Dio says muda muda muda muda 無駄無駄無駄無駄 as his stand goes around punching people in the face. This translates literally to saying "it's futile" repeated many times, but in the series it's used like ora ora ora ora by Jotarō and his Star Platinum, just a thing to say while throwing punches..
Anime: JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 - Part 3: Stardust Crusaders (Chapter 143 (256), ＤＩＯの世界 その⑩ )
muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda 無駄無駄無駄無駄 無駄無駄無駄無駄 無駄無駄無駄無駄 [It] is futile. (times 12)
Note that although this muda muda muda muda doesn't really mean anything besides the word muda repeated over and over, a single muda 無駄 does mean something in Japanese.
If you've ever watched JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, specially Stardust Crusaders, you've probably already heard Kujō Jotarō 空条 承太郎 and his stand, Star Platinum, screaming ora ora ora オラオラオラ at everyone they punched.
And you might have asked yourself: what does this ora ora ora mean in Japanese?
Anime: JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 - Part 3: Stardust Crusaders (Chapter 123, 奇虫襲撃！の巻)
ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora!!! オラオラオラオラオラオラオラオラオラ！！！ (twelve ora's.)
In Japanese, dodododo ドドドド is normally an onomatopoeia for a thumping sound. This could mean a heart thumbing, or of motorbike cylinder engine, or anything like that.
In the manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, dodododo isn't an onomatopeia, it isn't the sound of anything, but is used instead as a mimetic word for when something sudden and unexpected happens, something mysterious, of "real form unknown," shoutai-fumei 正体不明, and so on.
Manga: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Part 5: Golden Wind, JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Ougon no Kaze ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 黄金の風 (Chapter 1, 黄金体験)
A number of comedy manga parody this usage from JoJo, so, most of the time, dododo means this even when the manga isn't JoJo. (they also often parody gogogogo ゴゴゴゴ, by the way, another sound effect JoJo uses.)
If you have read JoJo, or if you spent too much time on the internet browsing anime memes, you've probably come across this bizarre word formed by four repeated symbols: gogogogo ゴゴゴゴ, and then asked yourself: what does it mean???
Within the anime fandom, "monster girl," monster musume モンスター娘, is the name given to non-human fantasy game "monsters" turned into cute anime "girls." It's a sub-category of jingai musume 人外娘, which includes all "non-human girls," whether they're from games or not.
The word is also romanizedmonsutaa musume モンスター娘, and abbreviated monmosu もん娘. The musume 娘 part can mean "daughter," but in this case it means "girl." (see: suffix -kko っ娘)
In Japanese, gijinka 擬人化 means "anthropomorphization," the process of adding human traits to something that's not human. In anime, moe-gijinka 萌え擬人化, "moe anthropomorphization," refers to the practice of turning things into cute anime girls, or cute anime guys.
In anime, peachification, in Japanese Piichi-hime-ka ピーチ姫化, literally "Princess Peach-fication," is the term for turning characters into Princess Peach-like characters by putting a Super Crown on them. It's also spelled peachfication or peach-fication.
For reference, the Japanese name for Bowsette is Kuppa-hime クッパ姫, literally "Princess Koopa," and I'm writing this post, of course, because I think it's funny how the English name Bowsette and the Japanese name Kuppa-hime have almost nothing to do with each other.
If you don't know who Bowsette is, she's the gender-bent / rule 63 / nyotaika 女体化 version of Bowser that turned into a meme overnight this week. (it all began in 2018-09-19.)
In Japanese, doki doki ドキドキ is an onomatopoeia for the thumping sound of the heart. It's usually used in situations where someone falls in love, though it may also be used when they're excited, tense, anxious, and so on.
In Japanese, sometimes you have words that repeat themselves, they're the same thing said twice, like: hitobito 人々, iroiro 色々, betsubetsu 別々, marumaru 丸々, dandan 段々, hibi 日々, tsugitsugi 次々, itaitashii 痛々しい and so on.
When such thing happens, it's called reduplication, or choujou 重畳, the process of creating "reduplicative words," jougo 畳語, and it's not specific of the Japanese language. English has it too.
In this article I'll explain how it works in Japanese, and common effects it has on the meaning of words.
In Japanese, iteration marks are symbols which can be used to repeat parts of a word. The most common mark, 々, is written instead of a repeated kanji. The marks ゝゞヽヾ are written instead of a repeated kana. Besides those, there's also a long く mark, this thing 〻, and the ditto mark 〃.
In Japanese, the ditto mark (〃), called nono-ji-ten ノノ字点, because it resembles the katakana ノ twice, tenten てんてん, chonchon ちょんちょん, and officially onajiku kigou 同じく記号, works just like the English ditto mark: it's used when a part of one line is the same thing as the previous line.
The only difference being that English uses a ditto mark for each word repeated, while Japanese uses just one ditto mark for the entire repeated part.
This mark is unlikely to show up in manga, or in any dialogue text. It can show up in a school, an actual, real school, in class, when a teacher is writing on an actual blackboard, as well as in tables when you have multiple rows and cells of a row are the same thing as cells of the row above.
In Japanese, the symbols ゝゞヽヾ are iteration marks for kana (hiragana and katakana). They work just like 々 works for kanji, by repeating the character that precedes them, except that, while 々 is commonly used, ゝゞヽヾ are rarely used in modern Japanese.
The symbols ゝゞヽヾ are called ichi-no-ji-ten 一の字点, "character mark [that looks like] 一," but they're also known by the same names 々 has: kurikaeshi 繰り返し, odoriji 踊り字, etc.
Mimetic words, or ideophones, are words which mimic or evoke an idea. One kind of ideophone are onomatopoeia, which mimic sounds. But Japanese also features hundreds of non-onomatopoeic ideophones, like sappari さっぱり, yukkuri ゆっくり, kichinto きちんと, chanto ちゃんと, wakuwaku わくわく, pikapika ぴかぴか, nikoniko にこにこ, among others.
Onomatopoeia are words that imply the sound they sound like. That is, words like *bang*, the sound of a pistol firing. Or *meow* the sound a cat makes. In Japanese, such words are disturbingly common, so I'll dedicate this article to explaining them.
If you're looking for how to say "it" in Japanese, I've got some bad news for you: one of the things English has that Japanese doesn't have happens to be the pronoun "it." So there's no way for you say "it" in Japanese, as that word simply doesn't exist. The good news is: you don't need "it" in Japanese.
This happens because most of the time you need an explicit "it" in English, you can simply omit "it" and leave "it" implicit in Japanese.
Manga: Kobayashi-san Chi no Meidoragon 小林さんちのメイドラゴン (Chapter 2, トールと出会い)
Context: Kobayashi 小林 sees a dragon girl in maid clothes.
meido fuku...
メイド服･･･
Maid clothes...
yume? yahari yume ka?
夢？やはり夢か？
[Is it a] dream? As I thought, [is it a] dream?
But let me explain more about each use of "it" in English and what's done in Japanese instead.
In Japanese, the term Zettai Ryouiki 絶対領域, or ZR, literally "Absolute Territory" in English, refers to the space of bare thighs between the skirt and above knee-length socks.
Yes, seriously. That's what Zettai Ryouiki means. It's an anime trope.
In Japanese, the small katakanake ケ, ヶ, is a bit different from the other small kana, in that it's not usually read ke, but instead as ka か, ga が, or even ko こ. Similar to how the small tsu っ isn't read as tsu つ.
For example, ni-ka-getsu 二ヶ月 is how you say "two months," as in counting the months. It's not read ni-ke-getsu despite having a ke in the middle.
So I'm making an Android app for people who like anime and want to start learning Japanese. It helps memorize the hiragana and katakana. Utterly basic stuff and not really interesting for anyone who's already learned them, but should be useful for absolute beginners.
