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Help with this sentence

You seem to be confusing 2) and 2'). I named your question

2) Yeah thats a problem. If it was a mere "ha" I would just translate:
"Concerning the material used in the floor of the house, it is a rare thing."
But for the particle "de" except for the instrumental semantics and the local semantics and some special semantics like in relation to disasters, numerals etc., I don't know any other. And with these semantics, I cant really work here, or at least I have no idea how to without making things worse, at least if its explicitely translated.
"Concerning in the material used in the houses floor it is a very rare thing."

2') since you used "2)" twice for different questions in this post. There is no マット or "mat" in 2').

your initial translation of 2')
住まいの床に使われる材料では非常に珍しいものです。
The material used in the houses floors is very rare.

で（は） indicates area/scope/range, as in クラスで一番背が高い, thus, 畳は、材料では非常に珍しいものです means "Tatami is a very rare one in materials" (もの is a pronun of 材料 here). I rephrased it to make the function of では more understandable; の中では "among" and としては "as".

としての英語・英訳 - goo辞書 英和和英
 
Thanks!
Although I must admit I don't really understand how "toshite" works, as I can see it function as "as" in many syntactical situations where it functions with "ha" or "no" or even without any particle at all
But let's not overdo it, I haven't learnt this one yet anyway and I'm already struggling enough with what I currently have

But I'm back on track now with my former question you've just explained to me
Yes, I do remember now that I've learnt the function for "de" you've just explained in book 1, although there it was usually used with the phrase "の中で". But there was indeed also an annotation that this phrase can be replaced by a simple "de", so "noun [の中]で".
I think I got it now!

okay, so hopefully my final try on the whole sentence in question
住まいの床に使われる材料では非常に珍しいものです。

Out of the materials used in the houses floors, it is a very rare one.

Thanks once more for helping!

--------------------------------
STOP I THINK I FIGURED OUT THE FOLLOWING QUESTION BY MYSELF! It's in the most recent grammarpart, I was just blind because "kaku" wasn't listed in the verbs used in this construction. The translation should be this:
"It's written to let them know a fitting day and hour."

And another question
For context: The following sentence is taken out of a conversation where person A asks person B about a message that was put into their letterbox by a package-delivery service:
Person B tells person A now whats standing on the message:
"都合がいいと時間を連絡するようにかいてあります。"

I have trouble with the use of "-youni" here. I only know "verb+youni" in the function that "V1 + youni + V2" expresses that V２ is there to make V１ possible, for example:
"いつか富士山を上るように毎日運動しています。"
=> I'm training every day so that one day I can climb mt. Fuji.

That's how I've learnt to interprete these -youni phrases.
However, the sentence in this conversation won't make sense that way.
I'd expect a conditional phrase followed by an imperative "...write us".
I just can't make sense of it as its standing there^^
 
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So, your interpretation is that ように means "in order to/so that" there, as same as いつか富士山に登れるように運動している or みんなに聞こえるように大声で話した?
 
No, this is actually a new use of "-youni" I had just learned in this chapter, but there were several other things in this chapter as well and this one didnt appear for quite some time so it seems I had forgotten it already and also didnt immediately notice it because a verb was used that wasnt listed in the grammar chapter. I'll give you a screenshot of the formal description of this pattern in my grammar section:
picload.org | unbenannt.jpg

Unfortunately theres german text in it, but I hope the pattern showcased in japanese here is enough to indicate what kind of construction is meant here.
I really wouldn't know how else to describe it.
 
Yes, ように is for indirect quotation of order/request in 都合がいい日と時間を連絡するように書いてあります。.
As for your another example 富士山を上るように運動しています, ように means "like/as if", not "in order to/so that" (いつか doesn't make sense, though). See the following thread about the difference.
ように / 精一杯 questions | Japan Forum
 
Thanks

Again a minor problem with the use of te-form (For context: This exercise was related to an exercise before where I should explain the meaning of several words written in katakana):
かたかなで書かれていることばのいみがわからなくて、困ったありますか。
1. I know te-form as a mere connector
2.with the semantics of describing accompanying circumstances (example: しょうゆをつけないでたべます)
3. to describe a cause (example: 家族に会えなくて, 寂しいです).

I could imagine no.2 here: "Not knowing the meaning of the words written in katakana, do you run into trouble?"
No.3 could work as well, but it sounds even more oddly to me: "Because you don't know the meaning of the words written in katakana, do you run into trouble?"
 
I'm pretty sure that it's a typo of 困ったことがありますか. You've already learned the structure ことがある, no?
 
Toritoribe said:
I'm pretty sure that it's a typo of 困ったことがありますか. You've already learned the structure ことがある, no?
Click to expand...
Yes, thanks! Then I think it should translate like this:
"Not knowing the meaning of a word written in katakana, have you ever run into problems yet?"
 
Yes, the -te form means "because" there.
Have you ever run into trouble because you didn't know the meaning of a word written in katakana?
 
Thanks
Next problem ^^
It's embedded into a bigger context, so I'll post an upload of the whole thing as well:
japanese text.pdf - DocDroid

日本人は英語と同じだと思っているかましらないが、まったく別のことばとしか思えない。

First, its that red "to". I don't know what to make of it. The second "to" is part of the "omou", thats clear, but the red, I have no idea what it does here.
I feel a bit wary about the whole sentence, so I'll just translate it for now as I think it should be translated.
"Japanese people might think that its the same as english, (while) I think that they are (nothing but) completely different words."

I put the words in brackets because I think they emphasize...
...the function of "ga" (while)
... the function of "shika" (nothing but)
If I'm wrong with this assumption please tell me
I feel very unconfident about the change in subject I made, since there was not pronoun like "watashi" that would indicate it. But otherwise I couldnt make any sense of it at all.
-----------------------

Oh and since we're at it:
僕はアメリカから日本へ来て、 もう５ねんになる。
It's the te-form again
"It will soon become 5 years since I came to japan from america."
However, I can't remember having learnt this temporal function. I know a temporal function for te-form, but only in combination with "kara":
うちへ帰ってから、靴を脱ぎた。
"After I had returned home, I took off my shoes."
 
1)
日本人は英語と同じだと思っているかもしれないが、

ＡとＢは同じだ。
A and B are the same.
ＡはＢと同じだ。
A is the same as B.
These are common structures to express identity.

The subject of 思えない is indeed the speaker/writer, i.e. "I", but your translation is for まったく別のことばとしか思えないが、日本人は英語と同じだと思っているかもしれない because of the position of "while".

What do you think the subject of 同じ is in that sentence? In other words, what does "it" refer to in your translation?

2)
うちへ帰ってから、靴を脱いだ。

もう means "already" there (It has already been 5 years). もうすぐ/もうじき is used for "soon".
The -te form has the same function even without から.
 
1)

"It" refers to "hatsuon" in the previous sentence.

In respect to your comments I'd translate it like this:
"While japanese people think that it is the same as english, I think that they are nothing but completely different words."

2) "Since I came from america to japan, it has already been 5 years."

- Is since a valid translation of this use of -te form? Pretty much all the sentences I've encountered in my textbook so far demanded a translation with "after", like "After I had come home, I took off my shoes" or "after I come home, I take off my shoes" etc.. It was also always connected to anteriority of the -te form sentence in relation to the following sentence. Here this isn't the case anymore as well, at least here in my translation.
 
Next question:

僕自身もそうだけど、ほかの国の友人の中にはcoffeeとcopyのち外いがわからないひともいる。

First, how do i type the "-" in katakana? to mark a length i mean?
Second, my translation:
"I personally think so, but in addition some of my friends from my homecountry also don't understand the difference of/can't distinguish coffee and copy."

- Is "ちがい" simply used as a noun here? I think I only learnt that adjectives are turned into nouns via attaching -さ.
If it isn't used as a noun here I have trouble with the "ga" particle, because I've no idea what other function it could have than connecting the predicate and its object.
I also wouldn't know what to do with the "の" if "ちがい" isn't used as a noun here.
 
Next Question:

また, 使い分けも複雑でよくわからない。
"Furthermore, since the correct use is complicated, I don't understand it well."
Am I correct with my interpretation of the use of -de here?

--------------------------------------------
"「アドレスは？」と聞かれて、住所を教えたら、相手がびっくりしたこともある。"
"'Address?' I was asked and when I told my address, my companion was surprised."
I think it means pretty much what I translated, but I have little to no understanding why it was expressed with these means in japanese.
"-ta form + koto aru" I know as an expression for things like:
"歌舞伎を見たことがある?" -> "Have you ever seen kabuki yet?"
I know several constructions with -koto already which aren't exclusively bound to work with -ta form, but I don't think any of these would work here.
I must admit though that I haven't really an idea how I would express that I was surprised. Maybe like this:
"友達のお宅へかえったら、猫がいなかったから、びっくりした。"
-> "When we came back to my friends house, we were surprised because the cat wasn't there."
But as I said I don't really understand how the construction in question works and why it is used like that here.
 
Next question:
"「アドレス」は日本語では 「mailadress」の意味なんだそうだ."

First, I know two "major" functions for "そうです":
1) 曇りですね。振りそうです。
-> it's cloudy, isn't it. It will probaly rain/It seems like it will rain.
2) 天気予報によると、あしたはさむくなるそうです。
-> According to the weather forecast, it shall become cold tomorrow.

So, my translation would work with 1)
-> " 'Address' seems to have the meaning 'mailaddress' in japanese."
Is this interpretation correct?

----
"それに「アポ」とか「プレゼン」のようなことばになると、何が何だかわからない。"
I might be blindfolded again, but this somehow exceeds my understanding of the use of "to".
I would translate it like that:
"Furthermore, when words like 'apo' and 'presen' appear ("become"? To be honest I don't really know what "naru" is doing here, so I'm just guessing by the context), I don't understand what is what."

In a nutshell, I have no idea what to do with the parts in red.
 
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"日本語でうまく言えないから、使われるのかもしれない。"
I know constructions with "かもしれない" only in this way:
"約束の時間に間に合わないかもしれません"
-> "It could happen that I don't make it in time/I might not make it in time."
I don't know what the "の" is doing there.

My translation would be this:
"Because you can't say (articulate) it well in japanese, one might use/it could happen that someone uses it/it isn't likely that someone uses it."

The part in red is, in my opinion, the essence of what the "かもしれない" constructions tend to express.
However in this translation I just acted as if the の isn't there because I don't know what to do with it. Furthermore, I somehow feel like it doesn't fit into the context of the text, because so far, he was constantly complaining that people make use of foreign words and he didn't sound like it was a rarity.
 
Have you learn transitive/intransitive verb? わかる is an intransitive verb, that's why before it is が.
Lots of particle depend on the verb follow after it. You'd pay close attention to the verb.
 
This one was also pretty hard for me:

例えば、よく 「ポリシ」という人がいるが、「考え方」とか「やりかた」と言ったほうがずっと正確でわかりやすい場合が多い。


This time, first the translation I'd settle for if I had no one to ask:

-> "For example, while there are people who frequently say "policy", because it is by far more precise to say [way of thinking] and [way of doing], there are many cases where it is easy to understand."

As you can see, its a mess.

First, yoku:
a) "While there are often people who say "policy",..."
b) "While there are people who often say "policy",..."
I don't really know which one is right here, since I'm not able to determine the reference point of "yoku".

Second, "the blue ones":
I can't even say what function these shall fulfill. Are they mere examples of words of japanese origin? Or do they carry any meaning beyond that in context of the sentence?

Third, the mess that is the part from と言った to 場合が多い:
-The "de" I've marked, is it in a causal function here as I translated it?
- as I translated "houga" and "wakariyasui", they seem to compete with each other. They both basically say that words of japanese origin are more comprehensible. But the whole translation is just messed up and so its probably just the consequence of the overall chaos...
- 場合 I've learned as a signal word for conferring the meaning of "in the situation of...". Until now, it only appeared as 場合は。I don't know wether the use of が instead of は is of importance to this function, but even if it isn't, I wouldn't know how to use 場合 in its "traditional" function as I've learned it:

"会議に間に合わない場合は、連絡してください。"
"If you don't make it to the meeting in time, please inform us."

I wouldn't know how that function should apply here. Instead, as you can see, I just translated it in the meaning it has as a noun.
 
Andromedashun said:
Have you learn transitive/intransitive verb? わかる is an intransitive verb, that's why before it is が.
Lots of particle depend on the verb follow after it. You'd pay close attention to the verb.
Click to expand...
Yes, I know that wakarimasu demands the particle ga
 
Narktor said:
1)

"It" refers to "hatsuon" in the previous sentence.

In respect to your comments I'd translate it like this:
"While japanese people think that it is the same as english, I think that they are nothing but completely different words."
Click to expand...
You got it right. The subject of 同じだ is the pronunciation of katakana words.

Yes, "since" is more appropriate in that case.
日本に来た is before than 5年になった（今） right? (I came to Japan from America, and then 5 years passed from that time now.)

Narktor said:
First, how do i type the "-" in katakana? to mark a length i mean?
Click to expand...
The hyphen key (e.g. ko-hi-) doesn't work?

ほかの modifies 国, not 友人.

違い is a noun, as same as the -masu stem of many other verbs, e.g., 思い "thought", 使い "errand/messenger/hander", 教え "teachings", etc..
Actually, わかる is a transitive verb, but the object is indicated by が. It belongs to the same group as 要る, ある, できる, potential verbs or the -tai form of verbs.
e.g.
お金が要る
英語が話せる
すしが食べたい

Yes, で indicates the reason/cause. (It's also possible to interpret it as the -te form of copula だ, meaning simply "and".)

All the clauses preceding こと are what he was experienced, thus, he also had an experience that when he was asked "What is your address?" and told his address, then the one he was talking to was surprised.

Not really. Your answer shows that you don't get the difference of the two functions of そう yet. The obvious and critical difference is that 振りそう for #1 "to seem like" and さむくなるそう for #2 hearsay.

と is indeed from the conditional one, but になると almost works as an idiom "as for~".

It's the explanatory の, thus, 日本語でうまく言えないから、使われる is the reason/cause he thinks. If の isn't there, it expresses the uncertainty that the words might be used.

A is correct. The word order 「ポリシー」とよくいう人 is used for b.

Narktor said:
Second, "the blue ones":
I can't even say what function these shall fulfill. Are they mere examples of words of japanese origin? Or do they carry any meaning beyond that in context of the sentence?
Click to expand...
I can't see "the blue ones".

What do you think 「考え方」とか「やりかた」と言ったほう is compared with?
場合は works as a contrastive marker. This is a は/が issue.


Well, how about to number your questions, not just in a post but the whole your questions?
 
I'll respond to the rest of your comments later, but for now I'll repost my post with "the blue ones" here.
When I first wanted to post this, I somehow lost connection to the forums and couldnt reconnect for quite a while. I saved the post to a word file then and just copypasted it back. While the coloring I did remained in the wordfile, it seems it didnt make it back into the post ^^ So I'll paste it in again and manually recolor it:

----------------------------

This one was also pretty hard for me:

例えば、よく 「ポリシ」という人がいるが、「考え方」とか「やりかた」と言ったほうがずっと正確でわかりやすい場合が多い。


This time, first the translation I'd settle for if I had no one to ask:

-> "For example, while there are people who frequently say "policy", because it is by far more precise to say [way of thinking] and [way of doing], there are many cases where it is easy to understand."

As you can see, its a mess.

First, yoku:
a) "While there are often people who say "policy",..."
b) "While there are people who often say "policy",..."
I don't really know which one is right here, since I'm not able to determine the reference point of "yoku".

Second, "the blue ones":
I can't even say what function these shall fulfill. Are they mere examples of words of japanese origin? Or do they carry any meaning beyond that in context of the sentence?

Third, the mess that is the part from と言った to 場合が多い:
-The "de" I've marked, is it in a causal function here as I translated it?
- as I translated "houga" and "wakariyasui", they seem to compete with each other. They both basically say that words of japanese origin are more comprehensible. But the whole translation is just messed up and so its probably just the consequence of the overall chaos...
- 場合 I've learned as a signal word for conferring the meaning of "in the situation of...". Until now, it only appeared as 場合は。I don't know wether the use of が instead of は is of importance to this function, but even if it isn't, I wouldn't know how to use 場合 in its "traditional" function as I've learned it:

"会議に間に合わない場合は、連絡してください。"
"If you don't make it to the meeting in time, please inform us."

I wouldn't know how that function should apply here. Instead, as you can see, I just translated it in the meaning it has as a noun.

---------
Sorry for the inconvenience ^^
 
Narktor said:
Second, "the blue ones":
I can't even say what function these shall fulfill. Are they mere examples of words of japanese origin? Or do they carry any meaning beyond that in context of the sentence?
Click to expand...
「考え方」 and 「やりかた」 are examples of Japanese words that mean "policy".
 
Thanks, the hyphen key works, I just didn't know which key does the job for ー
1) "All the clauses preceding こと are what he was experienced, thus, he also had an experience that when he was asked "What is your address?" and told his address, then the one he was talking to was surprised."

Thanks, I think I got it! I only wonder why "mo" was used here instead of ga: "「アドレスは？」と聞かれて、住所を教えたら、相手がびっくりしたこともある。"

2)
"What do you think 「考え方」とか「やりかた」と言ったほう is compared with?
場合は works as a contrastive marker. This is a は/が issue."

Thanks! I didn't know that "ほうが" was actuall "ほう + が", because when my book introduced comparisons, it didn't further explain or visualize the inner structure of "ほうが".

I think the two ways of expressing the meaning of engl. "policy" in japanese are compared here. Btw. I also got so confused here because I misunderstood the meaning of policy xD I associated it with germ. "police" which means insurances ^^ English ⇔ German Dictionary - leo.org: Start page . I didn't look it up at first because I had so many other problems with this sentence and this one was just drowned.^^

This is how I would translate it now:
"For example, while there are often people who say 「ポリシー」, [way of thinking] and [way of doing] etc. is by far more precise and easier to understand (more comprehensible?)..."
EDIT:ずっと性格でわかりやすい.
This "で" is to link the two adjectives, right?

I don't really know what a contrastive marker is, neither would I know what to do with it ^^ That's why I left out the 場合が多い here.
I know "は" as a means to express a contrast:
ワインは飲みますが、ビールは飲みません
=> I'm drinking wine, but not beer.
 
1)
It's "too/also", as in "he also had an experience" in my explanation.

2)
Yes, your translation is correct.
As for で, your initial interpretation "indicating reason/cause" is not wrong, as I already pointed out.
Toritoribe said:
Yes, で indicates the reason/cause. (It's also possible to interpret it as the -te form of copula だ, meaning simply "and".)
Click to expand...

It is exactly the contrastive marker.
The focus of the sentence is put before が and after は, as you might know, and ～と言ったほうがずっと正確でわかりやすい is the focus there. If it's 場合は多い, it implies that something continues it, just like 場合は多いが、、、.
 
to 2)
First, About the "で":
The reason/cause semantics was in this sentence:
また, 使い分けも複雑でよくわからない。

But I wouldn't know how to translate this new sentence with "で" in a causative semantics.
In my translation: "For example, while there are often people who say 「ポリシー」, [way of thinking] and [way of doing] etc. is by far more precise and easier to understand (more comprehensible?)"
To my understanding, I've just linked the two adjectives without adding any further semantics to this part of the sentence.

Second:
"The focus of the sentence is put before が and after は, as you might know,..."
Just to make sure I get this right: When you're talking about "focus", do you do so in context of "topic and comment" (ling.) Topic and comment - Wikipedia ?
I ask this because I've learnt for "ha" that it can act as a marker for the topic of a sentence, representing stuff that's assumed to be "known" by the recipient. "Ga" on the other hand marks new stuff that's assumed to be "unknown" to the recipient.

From the little textual linguistics that I've had at university, I think we've learnt that the "comment" is usually also the focus of the sentence (I'm saying this so vaguely now because we really just scratched the surface of it and I didn't really dig into the matter). In japanese, when I want to explain a particular thing, I can for example do so with the pattern: <Noun> というのは <Noun> のことだ。
This would follow the syntax you've just lined out and also follow my understanding of the comment being the focus of the sentence.

I can't think of a corresponding example with "が" right now, but I think that in most cases, there's quite a "frontload" in constructions where "が" marks the subject.

Third:
"It is exactly the contrastive marker. [...] ～と言ったほうがずっと正確でわかりやすい is the focus there. If it's 場合は多い, it implies that something continues it, just like 場合は多いが."

I'm sorry but I have no idea how to apply anything of this here.^^ The only translation I can come up with without deriving clues from the celestial constellations is this:
"For example, while there are often people who say 「ポリシー」, there are many cases where [way of thinking] and [way of doing] etc. is by far more precise and easier to understand (more comprehensible?)."

I marked "where" in red because I feel like I'm pulling it out of thin air. There is neither a single word nor any other syntactical element which would explicitely correspond to this pronoun. I basically assumed that 場合が多い is the matrix clause and 「考え方」とか「やりかた」と言ったほうがずっと正確でわかりやすい the accompanying subclause, without any syndetical element/conjunction connecting the two. Since the english sentence doesn't function without the syndetical element, I extrapolated it, but since my interpretation of this is probably wrong anyway, it doesn't matter I guess ^^ just wanted to explain it
 
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