A few weird words that i just don't get!

[empress_of_asyl]

First week back at uni and my head nearly exploded from sitting through two hours of non stop japanese! We got our first tango list for the semester and there are a few words that i just don't understand that don't translate directly; some i get the meaning of slightly but have no idea how to use in a sentence. If you could help me that would be amazing! The words are as follows:

印象づける - i know inshou but the verb doesn't come up at all in my jishou
有無- there is someway to do something?
気のきく・気がきく - knowing how to act in certain situations?
話ならない - not worth considering?

If anyone has any better translation of these words please help me!!

Steph.[/list]

[tanitayou]

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empress_of_asyl
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印象づける -to impress someone
有無- existence or nonexistence /consent or refuse(有無をを言わさず do something by foce)
気のきく・気がきく 気が利く-to be smart, sensible
話ならない - 話にならないit's awful to think about....

hoping this can be useful

[amost]

The reason why づける　doesn't show up in your dictionary, is because it's usually つける. It changes pronunciation to make it easier for japanese people to say. Much like yuki (snow) becomes buki in fubuki (blizzard), and kaeru (interchange) becomes gaeru in kigaeru (to change clothes).

This is incredibly common in japanese, but we actually do this in english too! Government becomes "Gubernatorial" when you turn it into an adjective that means "having to do with the government". See how the v changed to a b sound? That's the only example I can think of off the top of my head.

So! Whenever you can't find a word in the dictionary, try to change the first character to it's normal form and look it up that way

I hope this helps explain things!

[Javizy]

印象付ける is one word. Depending on the dictionary you use, the word might not be found if you don't use all kanji. For example, 印象づける displays nothing on goo. Sometimes it's safer to look up all in hiragana, and then select the correct word from the results that follow on the next page (works with goo). Other times, however, you're going to have to use the proper written form of the word. Only 印象付ける is indexed on alc. Your IME should display the correct one at the top of the list. If you're having problems with the MS sack of s**t, try Google's free alternative.

JLPT learning materials before N1 like to teach you words using bits of hiragana that are actually always written with kanji, so it does you no favours in helping to guess which kanji to select, especially in the case of homonyms. It does you no favours in actually recognising the word when you see it either...