some questions, please help me out

TheAce · 29 May 2010

1.
I am learning the negative forms now through guidetojapanese.org, but I have a question

In the lesson stood that "is not" can be translated as じゃない, but I always thought that the negative form of です is だない

So which of the two is right?

2.
A couple of days ago I found "dreamworld" in kanji: 夢の世界
I think 世界 means world, because夢 means "dreams"

can someone tell me what the hiragana of世界 is?

3.
I also found "blue" in Japanese, I found it as あお
but I also have seen someone use あおい

so which one is right?
or what's the difference if both are right?

4.
what does きみ mean?

5.
What's the difference between 子供 and 子?
They both are translated as "child", as far as I know

Glenn · 29 May 2010

1) Definitely じゃない. だない, as far as I know, doesn't exist. But there is also でない, which is a negation of the copula in special circumstances.

2) せかい

3) Both are right. あお is the noun; あおい is the adjective.

4) "You"

5) Eh, I'm not too sure, but there are some usage issues. It seems that officially (like for government purposes) 子供 is always used (like 子供手当て or 子供手当法) and means "children" or "child" more generally, but 子 is used more for specific people (この子は・・・) and for sexes (男の子・女の子) and maybe a few other things. But that's just a guess based on my experience. I've never really thought about it.

epigene · 29 May 2010

TheAce said:
1.
1.
I am learning the negative forms now through guidetojapanese.org, but I have a question
In the lesson stood that "is not" can be translated as じゃない, but I always thought that the negative form of です is だない
So which of the two is right?

じゃない is the more casual form of ではない , which in turn is the negative of です。

だない , as Glenn says, does not exist.

Glenn answered the rest of the Qs.

TheAce · 29 May 2010

okay, thanks

now I can study some further

Elizabeth · 30 May 2010

Hmmmm.....just as an afterthought, この子は also sounds vaguely more like women's language, more casual and informal than +"この子供." ??

子 is also used for a lot of stuff beyond you -- various kanji compounds, proverbs, fablistic sayings, etc.

epigene · 30 May 2010

Elizabeth said:
Hmmmm.....just as an afterthought, この子は also sounds vaguely more like women's language, more casual and informal than +"この子供." ??

Maybe you feel that way because you hear lots of women (i.e., mothers) refer to their kids or other kids as 子 as in この子、あの子、その子 and so on? Given the same situations, men can refer to kids in the same way.
Additionally, older men/women can refer to younger people as 子 .

この子 , etc., is not necessarily restricted to the casual and the informal. It can be used in polite speech, depending on the situation (such as in business), I think.

Aside from the more general and abstract use of the word 子供 , as in 子供は純真だ , use of the word in reference to specific kids is usually emphatic, IMHO.

Glenn · 30 May 2010

Elizabeth said:
子 is also used for a lot of stuff beyond you -- various kanji compounds, proverbs, fablistic sayings, etc.

For a fairly extensive look at the uses of 子 (the character, not necessarily with the reading こ), see its Wikipedia entry.

Elizabeth · 30 May 2010

Thanks for the replies !

It may not have anything to do with the proportion of occurrence, but regardless they are associated for me as opposites to "parent" and "adult" :

親と子 and 大人と子供.

TheAce · 31 May 2010

I have another question

in the tutorials on guidetojapanese.com I couldn't find the hiragana of "fish"
can anyone tell me what it is?

Glenn · 31 May 2010

さかな

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

Elizabeth · 31 May 2010

TheAce said:
I have another question

in the tutorials on guidetojapanese.com I couldn't find the hiragana of "fish"
can anyone tell me what it is?

Online tutorials are great, but you really do need dictionaries to deal with reading and writing Japanese. Not to mention help in reading books, practicing on your own, and talking to people if you can.

TheAce · 31 May 2010

Elizabeth said:
Online tutorials are great, but you really do need dictionaries to deal with reading and writing Japanese. Not to mention help in reading books, practicing on your own, and talking to people if you can.

does anyone know a good online dictionary?

right now I use one in my own language, jiten.nl
but I noticed that a few words are missing

( I don't mind if it is an japanese-english dictionary )

and what is the translation of "sou" and "kou" ( both are written in hiragana normally, but I can't type japanese on tthis computer )

avicus · 31 May 2010

Jim Breen's JDIC is one of the best out there. It's Japanese-English. I cannot remember the exact URL, but a quick Google search will get you there.

To acquire a basic working knowledge of the language, it is very important that you have face to face interaction with fellow speakers. Once you do that and have a sound foundation, you can start to self-study.

Hope this helps!

Glenn · 2 Jun 2010

Both Goo and Weblio have J-J, J-E, and E-J dictionaries. Weblio also has a 類語辞典 (thesaurus) and pulls from lots of Japanese specialty dictionaries and even 図鑑 in some cases, as well as Wikipedia.

Half-n-Half · 2 Jun 2010

Tangorin is another great resource. You can search for sentences that use the word so you can really see it used in context.

TheAce · 2 Jun 2010

okay, thanks

and what is the translation of "sou" and "kou" ( both are written in hiragana normally, but I can't type japanese on this computer )

some questions, please help me out

TheAce

先輩

Glenn

一切皆苦

epigene

相変わらず不束者です

TheAce

先輩

Elizabeth

先輩

epigene

相変わらず不束者です

Glenn

一切皆苦

Elizabeth

先輩

TheAce

先輩

Glenn

一切皆苦

Elizabeth

先輩

TheAce

先輩

avicus

後輩

Glenn

一切皆苦

Half-n-Half

先輩

TheAce

先輩

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