Need a word or phrase translated?

[Mikawa Ossan]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought it sounded strange!

 

[undrentide]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought it sounded strange!

Haha... The first line puzzled me, but the 2nd line helped what it meant to be.
Now come to think of it, the first line should be "Site under maintenance" or something like it. I've been wondering where the word 場所 comes from...
:emoji_blush:

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

It's funny...I can reconstruct the original Japanese from such babelfish translations into English, but I have a really hard time doing the reverse!

 

[Fuumei]

それまでは主に学校の役割を寺院などがしていた。

I hope I can get someone's help with this sentence.

The structure seems a bit strange to me. "を寺院などがしていた。
" So it's the 'temple' that's doing the action, correct? Normally I would see the "寺院などが" beforehand, but here it's placed at the end. There really isn't any special meaning to that, is there? Also, I'm still not quite sure what action the 'temple is doing in this sentence. I suppose I'm a bit used to "ni naru" when things 'become' something.

Thanks in advance

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

それまでは主に学校の役割を寺院などがしていた。
I hope I can get someone's help with this sentence.
The structure seems a bit strange to me. "を寺院などがしていた。
" So it's the 'temple' that's doing the action, correct? Normally I would see the "寺院などが" beforehand, but here it's placed at the end. There really isn't any special meaning to that, is there? Also, I'm still not quite sure what action the 'temple is doing in this sentence. I suppose I'm a bit used to "ni naru" when things 'become' something.
Thanks in advance

It's not your "standard" order, but it's perfectly legit! I assume that this sentence is from a larger text, and this order makes the flow work better. In other words, I assume that the immediate topic at hand was the function of school, and who was doing it.

"Until then the function of schooling was mostly carried out by temples and the like."

 

[Glenn]

"yumeijin no jinsei noii toka waruitokorowa nandesuka"

As far as I'm aware you'd read it as though the slash weren't there: 有名人の人生のいい悪いところは何ですか。

 

[epigene]

As far as I'm aware you'd read it as though the slash weren't there: 有名人の人生のいい悪いところは何ですか。

Based on what Glenn wrote, the correct way would be
有名人の人生のいいところ、悪いところは何ですか。

But the original sentence was already correct because of the slash placed between "ii" and "warui":
有名人の人生のいい／悪いところは何ですか。

 

[Elizabeth]

Based on what Glenn wrote, the correct way would be
有名人の人生のいいところ、悪いところは何ですか。
But the original sentence was already correct because of the slash placed between "ii" and "warui":
有名人の人生のいい／悪いところは何ですか。

なんだと思いますか」の方がいいです。

 

[bakaKanadajin]

one further question, 所... can it always be loosely translated as meaning 'situation', 'thing' or 'circumstance' in most contexts? And how would it 'exist', can I use あります？

e.g.
バスが来なかったので、むずかしい所があります。
Because the bus didn't come, I have a difficult situation.

 

[Elizabeth]

Ah, yes your translation of the 2nd question makes sense, I just drop the 'to omoimasuka' and there we are, 'do you want to become a famous person'. If it had been 'what'.. there would be 'nandesuka' and not 'to omoimasuka', de sho?

You mean 有名人 になりたいのはなんですか？
これだとまったく意味が違ってきます。
What wants to be a 有名人？という意味になりますね。

You may be able to figure it out on your own first. I always like it when that happens. Look into the structure a little more before we give out the answer.

 

[bakaKanadajin]

If I understood, you're saying for a person we wouldn't use nandesuka..actually now that i look at it again that would be like.. Do you want to be a famous person what is it?
lets try..
有名人はだれになりたいですか。
or
有名人になりたいは、だれですか。

 

[undrentide]

If I understood, you're saying for a person we wouldn't use nandesuka..actually now that i look at it again that would be like.. Do you want to be a famous person what is it?
lets try..
有名人はだれになりたいですか。
or
有名人になりたいは、だれですか。

They are different in meaning:

有名人はだれになりたいですか。
Who does a famous person want to be?
有名人になりたいのはだれですか。
Who wants to be a famous person?

 

[bakaKanadajin]

:emoji_nerd:
I have failed..
hehe

ok one last kick at the can, my friend helped me with this a little however

有名人の中で、どちらになりたいですか。

 

[undrentide]

:emoji_nerd:
I have failed..
hehe

ok one last kick at the can, my friend helped me with this a little however

有名人の中で、どちらになりたいですか。

Which famous person (out of two) do you want to become?
どちら is used when there're only two options to choose from.

 

[Elizabeth]

:emoji_nerd:
I have failed..
hehe
ok one last kick at the can, my friend helped me with this a little however
有名人の中で、どちらになりたいですか。

Just change こちら to 誰 and the third time really does become the charm. (Nicer than kicking the bucket desune).

Another way you could have put it is like this : なりたいと思う有名人 は誰ですか？

 

[bakaKanadajin]

Thanks for your help guys, I've got it now. I'd always thought dochira was just a general 'which' (of many) type interrogative, good to know :

 

[TuRbOxChAz]

Help!

What does this mean?

これからもなかよしでいようね

 

[Glenn]

Something along the lines of "let's be friendly with each other from now on, too." I leave it up to you to put it into English.

 

[Fuumei]

It's not your "standard" order, but it's perfectly legit! I assume that this sentence is from a larger text, and this order makes the flow work better. In other words, I assume that the immediate topic at hand was the function of school, and who was doing it.
"Until then the function of schooling was mostly carried out by temples and the like."

I think I see. However, "carried out" is basically how you see "学校の役割をしていた。" correct? I think perhaps it is confusing to me due to the use of two nouns and "をしていた。" because apparently I don't come across that often in my studies.

 

[TuRbOxChAz]

Well, the context that this was used was (from my girlfriend in a letter after our anniversary):

これからもなかよしでいようね.
だいすきだよ!!

I asked my friend and he was a tad confused by it so I don't know for sure now.

 

[Elizabeth]

I think I see. However, "carried out" is basically how you see "学校の役割をしていた。" correct? I think perhaps it is confusing to me due to the use of two nouns and "をしていた。" because apparently I don't come across that often in my studies.

Two nouns separated by の are what is confusing ? Certainly をする（していた） indicates what is is the temple did it or carried out.

 

[undrentide]

Well, the context that this was used was (from my girlfriend in a letter after our anniversary):
これからもなかよしでいようね.
だいすきだよ!!
I asked my friend and he was a tad confused by it so I don't know for sure now..

"Let's stay なかよし from now on as well (i.e. as we were and we are)" is the literal translation.
なかよし can be translated in many way, from simply being friendly or being close friends to lovey-dovey relationship, depending on the context and situation. ;-)

 

[undrentide]

それまでは主に学校の役割を寺院などがしていた。
I hope I can get someone's help with this sentence.
The structure seems a bit strange to me. "を寺院などがしていた。
" So it's the 'temple' that's doing the action, correct? Normally I would see the "寺院などが" beforehand, but here it's placed at the end. There really isn't any special meaning to that, is there? Also, I'm still not quite sure what action the 'temple is doing in this sentence. I suppose I'm a bit used to "ni naru" when things 'become' something.

Though it may sometimes change nuance, word order is comperatively free within a sentence as far as the predicate (desu or verb) comes at the very end.
So you can say either
それまでは主に学校の役割を寺院などがしていた。 (This sounds a bit awkward to me.)
それまでは寺院などが主に学校の役割をしていた。 (This would be better than the above.)
それまでは主に寺院などが学校の役割をしていた。 (This is clearer especially as to which word 主に modifies.)
主に寺院などがそれまでは学校の役割をしていた。(Possible but a bit awkward.)
～の役割をする to play a role of ～

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

I think I see. Howerver, "carried out" is basically how you see "学校の役割をしていた。" correct? I think perhaps it is confusing to me due to the use of two nouns and "をしていた。" because apparently I don't come across that often in my studies.

Ok, to add to Undrentide's post:

first off, do you have a problem understanding the phrase 役割をする? For the time being, I will assume that it's not a problem. (Correct me if this assumption is wrong. )

So then, I also assume you understand していた by its own. (Again, correct me if I'm wrong!)

So put the two together and you have 役割をしていた。 Just a note here on tenses in Japanese versus English: in English there are several ways to render this translation depending where you want to place the emphasis, but for argument's sake, let's look at Undrentide's translation (because it is more literal to the Japanese than mine).

With this translation, we would probably say "played the role" rather than "was playing the role" because in English, the idea that the part was played continuously for a long period of time can be conveyed in the simple past with this particular phrase, but for Japanese the rules are different. To convey this idea of something happening continuously for a period of time in Japanese, we need the past progressive tense. Otherwise it becomes a one-time occurance.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand, at this point we have 役割をしていた。 The English would be "played the part". Next, we add WHAT part was being played, namely that of school

学校の役割をしていた。 （[It] played the part of school.)

Next we add the subject. Who or what played the role?

寺院などが学校の役割をしていた。 （Temples and the like played the role of school.)

Let's add spaces to show where the main sentence components begin and end.

寺院などが 学校の役割を していた。

Remember that in Japanese, the order Subject-Object-Verb is not as strict as the SVO order is in English. It is possible to turn SOV order into OSV order without any loss of grammaticality. (I think I just invented a new word! )

So let's do that and reverse the subject and object in our sentence.

学校の役割を 寺院などが していた。

Take out the spaces, and we have the main part of your sentence.

学校の役割を寺院などがしていた。

 

[Jezza Thorne]

Can words for "prince", such as "kou", be used as suffixes, like "hime"?