japanese japanese!

[WalterWills]

This thread is about Japanese words, phrases, and ways of talking that you only noticed after coming to Japan.

i.e. things that you don't learn in grammar books etc.


Here are a few of my observations, 5 months living in Chiba, just outside Tokyo:

本当だ！
ほんとうだ！
Ｈｏｎｔｏｕ　ｄａ！

I would translate this as "Oh yeah!!", as in:
"Hey, there's a fly on your sleeve."
"Oh yeah"

I don't know if people say "oh yeah" the same way I do however...
But "hontou da!" basically seems to be used when you realise something you didn't know before after being told by someone else...


食べていいよ
たべていいよ
Ｔａｂｅｔｅ ｉｉ　ｙｏ

it seems that in all the text books, "-te + mo ii" is used for permission.
for example,
"hon ni kaite mo ii desu ka?" - Can I write in the book?
"tabete mo ii yo" - You can eat it/Go ahead, eat it

However, actually it seems that the "mo" is always left out in real Japanese speech.


折れちゃった！
おれちゃった！
Ｏｒｅｃｈａｔｔａ！

The informal for "-shimaimashita" is "-shimatta", but in informal speech, this never seems to be used and "-chatta" is preferred.


That's all I can think of for now.
Please post more examples if you know any.

[Drabant]

Heh, stuff like this is about what I do know of Japanese. You don't watch anime much, right?

[QuackingShoe]

Yeah, I mostly learn Japanese from anime, manga, and video games, so stuff like this I'm very aware of. There a plenty of things that pop up in actual conversations that don't make it to even colloquial writing, though, that I have no clue about. Never been to Japan.

Generally there are just a few things I try to make people be aware of so they're a little prepared to jump into 'real' Japanese. Things like contractions, like ちゃった mentioned before. Also important are ては = ちゃ, なければ = なきゃ, ていく = てく, ている = てる, ておる = とる, ておく = とく. Then there's the whatever it's called, where ai turns into an 'ee'.　しねえ！ and etc. And that often ら (and more rarely れ) becomes ん, such as わかんない (or わかんねえ), and then also the ん negative ending, like わからん.　And there's てるの, which turns into てんの, giving you してんの and the like. る will also become ん before the negative imperative な, giving you すんな for するな. Then, there's ら抜き, where the ら in potential ichidan and in passive verbs gets dropped. Combining a few of these together, you can see してらんねえ, which is していられない After that, there's just *so much* of varying importance that it's hard to just make a list.

[Psy]

If my trip to Japan taught me anything, it's about how often people say しょうがない (shou ga nai) in everyday conversation...