Need a word or phrase translated?

[Bradsan]

It means just what it says. "Like a dragon." It doesn't say *how* as there are no verbs or adjectives to describe the dragon -- so whatever a dragon is like in your mind is what that is.

ありがとうございます but what do you mean by
So whatever a dragon is like in your mind is what that is because I'm not sure what that means sorry

 

[kotoristrife]

I was wondering if this word was a borrow foreign word (maybe...?)

ガールフレンド

Can this word be use for romantic and non-romantic relationships?

Examples:
romantic: Like someone's girlfriend
non-romantic: A female (girl) friend of someone

 

[AJBryant]

ありがとうございます but what do you mean by
So whatever a dragon is like in your mind is what that is because I'm not sure what that means sorry

I can't really explain it. I don't know the context of the sentence.

It's the same thing as 女の如く、犬の如く、etc.

What *is* "like a girl"? I don't know. What is the context? A guy who's prissy? Too concerned about his clothing? Scared of horror movies? The context provides the answer.

Likewise, what is "like a dog"? The guy is sniffing the air all over the place? Maybe he's humping every female in sight. Maybe he's really loyal. Again, the context surrounding the sentence gives the answer.

 

[undrentide]

I was wondering if this word was a borrow foreign word (maybe...?)

ガールフレンド

Can this word be use for romantic and non-romantic relationships?

examples:
romantic: Like someone's girlfriend
non-romantic: A female (girl) friend of someone

No, ガールフレンド means only for romantic relationships.
For a female/girl friend, 女友だち（おんなともだち） can be used.
Most imported words tend to have narrower/specific meaning compared with the originals.

 

[Glenn]

RE: 龍が如く, if memory serves me right that shouldn't be a が. が is reserved for verbs coming before 如く, as in 飛ぶが如く. I remember doing a search for 龍が如く before, and I got the impression it was a game or a ドラマ or something like that, but I didn't do too much searching. It has been a while since that discussion, though...

 

[Toritoribe]

RE: 龍が如く, if memory serves me right that shouldn't be a が. が is reserved for verbs coming before 如く, as in 飛ぶが如く. I remember doing a search for 龍が如く before, and I got the impression it was a game or a ドラマ or something like that, but I didn't do too much searching. It has been a while since that discussion, though...

Yes, your memory is correct. Grammatically, it should be "noun の如く," "verb/adjective が如く."

龍の如く
龍の天翔るが如く
龍の気高きが如く

However, "noun が如き" might be acceptable.

大丈夫たるもの何で汝が如き凡爺の子となって朽ちん 三国志 第1巻 吉川英治著
用立、用立ざるを論ぜば、汝が如きは捨て可なり 二宮翁夜話 巻之一 二宮尊徳著

 

[Glenn]

Ha @ 龍の天翔るが如く. Very similar to 天翔龍閃（あま かける りゅうの ひらめき）

Is 天 supposed to be read あま in that case too?

I guess the 窶堋ｪ窶堋ｲ窶堙??堋ｫ is a pretty old usage. Thanks for reminding me about the adjectives, too. I had forgotten about that.

 

[Toritoribe]

Ha @ 龍の天翔るが如く. Very similar to 天翔龍閃（あま かける りゅうの ひらめき）
Is 天 supposed to be read あま in that case too?

I, too, watched the anime るろうに剣心.
Yes, あまかける. It seems to be able to be read as あまがける, too.

「天翔る」の検索結果 - Yahoo!辞書

 

[Glenn]

Haha, I'm glad we were on the same page there! 剣心最高！飛天御剣流無敵！

 

[Bradsan]

RE: 龍が如く, if memory serves me right that shouldn't be a が. が is reserved for verbs coming before 如く, as in 飛ぶが如く. I remember doing a search for 龍が如く before, and I got the impression it was a game or a ドラマ or something like that, but I didn't do too much searching. It has been a while since that discussion, though...

yes it is a game its yakuza here's the link so wouldn't 龍が如く be correct if its for a game by Japanese that know Japanese ?

龍が如く.com | セガ公式ポータルサイト

 

[Glenn]

Toritoribe's a Japanese who knows Japanese. Sometimes native speakers break the rules. They may have done it for effect. There are some people on Twitter who say おそようございます to each other at night, as a play on おはようございます, but strictly speaking it should be おそうございます. They're doing if for comedic effect, and I assume to preserve the rhythm. The authors of 問題な日本語 also employed this sort of breaking of the rules for effect with the title of their book (should be 問題の日本語), just to be ironical.

Of course, sometimes native speakers just aren't familiar with the rules, because (in this case, at least) they've fallen a bit out of use. As I understand it, while ごとし is used in modern language still, it's on the upper end of the formality (and erudition?) scale, being a remnant of older Japanese. You can see people making mistakes with き at the end of adjectives, as well, just putting them after any adjective because they mistakenly think that all adjectives ended in き, when in fact a good chunk of them ended in ひ. But no one uses that grammar in everyday speech anymore, so if you haven't studied historical spellings (at the least) you wouldn't know which ones ended in き and which ones ended in ひ. Plus き may just sound more classical nowadays, so even if someone did know that an adjective ended in ひ, they may use き anyway knowing it isn't accurate, just to generate that effect (but that's speculation).

 

[Toritoribe]

yes, it is a game it's yakuza here's the link so wouldn't 龍が如く be correct if its for a game by Japanese that know Japanese?
龍が如く.com | セガ公式ポータルサイト

As I wrote above, it is GRAMMATICALLY incorrect. Probably Nagoshi Toshihiro; the producer of the game or Hase Seishu; novelist/the story supervisor would know that. (I do want to believe so...) One of the reasons, as Glenn-san suggested, would be that 龍が如く sounds more "hard" than 龍の如く, which can fit the hardboiled theme of the game.

 

[Elizabeth]

Yes, your memory is correct. Grammatically, it should be "noun の如く," "verb/adjective が如く."
龍の如く

然して, 如くと言う字がお気に召さないのなら、ひらがなで書きます。

 

[Bradsan]

One of the reasons, as Glenn-san suggested, would be that 龍が如く sounds more "hard" than 龍の如く, which can fit the hardboiled theme of the game.

so 龍の如く can mean the same thing Like A Dragon true 龍が如く does sound harder than 龍の如く but does it mean the same meaning ?

 

[Glenn]

I'm sure it doesn't affect the meaning at all. Your average Japanese person would more than likely interpret both the same way, although they may wonder why が. If you're going to use the construct outside of talking about this game, though, I'd say it would be better to use の between the noun and ごとし, because that's the more "correct" version (as in it's the one with the history behind it).

 

[AJBryant]

I'm sure it doesn't affect the meaning at all. Your average Japanese person would more than likely interpret both the same way, although they may wonder why が. If you're going to use the construct outside of talking about this game, though, I'd say it would be better to use の between the noun and ごとし, because that's the more "correct" version (as in it's the one with the history behind it).

But would they, really? After all, in older Japanese, が is just as often a genitive marker as の. Seeing 龍が如く makes it seem more... well, old fashioned, to me.

 

[Elizabeth]

There's also that anime theme song "Tsuki No Gotoku." Why not "Tsuki no you" ?? Because that would be rather too colloquial (haha) and more commonly used in conversation, narration, etc. ?

 

[Glenn]

But would they, really? After all, in older Japanese, が is just as often a genitive marker as の. Seeing 龍が如く makes it seem more... well, old fashioned, to me.

I don't know. They may. It may seem more old fashioned, but that may be because it's a false generalization as well; i.e., 我が命令無しに動くなかれ is old fashioned, so they think that throwing が in the place of の anywhere is old fashioned. Whether this actually happens is pure speculation on my part, as was whether they would wonder why が is in there was speculation. As far as I'm aware, the traditional construction with nouns is Nの如し, and with verbs it's Vが如し, so if they were familiar with this they would probably wonder why が.

I guess what it boils down to is confirming that in Classical Japanese the construct was in fact mostly Nの如し and not Nが如し (from what I was taught it is), and then finding out how many Japanese people are really familiar with Classical Japanese grammar. Or you could just ask a bunch of Japanese people if they think it's surprising or strange.

But, Toritoribe did say this:

Grammatically, it should be "noun の如く," "verb/adjective が如く."

龍の如く
龍の天翔るが如く
龍の気高きが如く

However, "noun が如き" might be acceptable.

大丈夫たるもの何で汝が如き凡爺の子となって朽ちん 三国志 第1巻 吉川英治著
用立、用立ざるを論ぜば、汝が如きは捨て可なり 二宮 翁夜話 巻之一 二宮尊徳著

 

[epigene]

However, "noun が如き" might be acceptable.

大丈夫たるもの何で汝が如き凡爺の子となって朽ちん 三国志 第1巻 吉川英治著
用立、用立ざるを論ぜば、汝が如きは捨て可なり 二宮 翁夜話 巻之一 二宮尊徳著

I've seen a lot of this, too, but it is used to refer to the other party (汝) derogatively or to oneself with humility (己が如き）
... coming from someone who watched too much jidaigeki at one time.

 

[Toritoribe]

But would they, really? After all, in older Japanese, が is just as often a genitive marker as の. Seeing 龍が如く makes it seem more... well, old fashioned, to me.

The possessive particle が is used only for nouns.

３ （下の名詞を修飾し）所有・所属・分量・同格・類似などの関係を示す。

所有。…の持つ。「われら―母校」

・ 「君―名もわ―名もたてじ難波なるみつとも言ふなあひきとも言はず」〈古今・恋三〉

「が」の検索結果 - Yahoo!辞書

"Noun の如く" and "verb/adjective が如く" have been used in the Heian period .

 

[AJBryant]

Hm. Good points, guys.

 

[TurkeySloth]

I'm working on a character for a Sailor Moon role play who was born in Germany but has since relocated to Japan and became a citizen, Her name in English would have been Sabine Red. I know Sabine translates into Sabiin. However, Red can translate as Aka, Gosai, Niiro, Reddo, Akai, or Ni. Which of these translations would be correct for the proper noun?

 

[Toritoribe]

I'm working on a character for a Sailor Moon role play who was born in Germany but has since relocated to Japan and became a citizen, Her name in English would have been Sabine Red. I know Sabine translates into Sabiin. However, Red can translate as Aka, Gosai, Niiro, Reddo, Akai, or Ni. Which of these translations would be correct for the proper noun?

サバイン・レッド[Sabain Reddo]

You don't need to translate people's names, just transcribe it. The former president Bush is NEVER called Shigemi.

 

[undrentide]

I'm working on a character for a Sailor Moon role play who was born in Germany but has since relocated to Japan and became a citizen, Her name in English would have been Sabine Red. I know Sabine translates into Sabiin. However, Red can translate as Aka, Gosai, Niiro, Reddo, Akai, or Ni. Which of these translations would be correct for the proper noun?

If you want to emphasize that she was born in Germany, you should put it with German pronunciation: ザビーネ・レッド
If you really need to "translate" the family name Red into Japanese, then I would use the existing family name which includes 赤 (aka - meaning red), such as 赤井 Akai, 赤坂 Akasaka, for instance.

 

[Elizabeth]

サバイン・レッド[Sabain Reddo]
You don't need to translate people's names, just transcribe it. The former president Bush is NEVER called Shigemi.

LOL! Isn't a bush also a type of ex-president? ;-). I've never called the son "Kanboku, Yabu..." - that sounds like a term of endearment. Shrub in English -- but when a book came out with that same name liberals everywhere started using it immediately afterward.