My question grab bag (わたしのもんだいグラブバッグ)

[nekoneszlajobratar4247407]

Hello everyone. I have questions. Lots of questions. Unfortunately they are not all on conscious or immediate recall. Many are only triggered by the circumstances from which they arise. After a few minutes of thought they subside to wait in the darkness.

So for now I have only one question but I plan to return when more occur to me! Please help!

I have noticed about Japanese that word or sentence endings play a huge part in determining meaning. So my question is about the word or suffix -そう. By itself そう seems to indicate actual or apparent truth. However each Jpod101 audio lesson has an intro. There are various intros. Unless my ears are mistaken, in one of them, a male voice actor says the word "おいしそう" which according to google translate means "looks tasty." This is fine since I figured it must have something to do with being tasty, due to the most likely root word おいしい.

I know there are probably various comments relating to google translate, and I realize there are severe issues with it in some cases. But in general I've found it to be an invaluable aid for learning and expanding my vocabulary, in combination with the Jpod101 website.

In a Jpod101 lesson I recently listened to, I heard that "かわいそう" means "poor thing." So if おいしそう means tasty-appears-to-be, does かわいそう mean cute-appears-to-be? Does the word cute have some negative connotations in Japan, as sweet (あまい) occasionally does? Does that mean appearing cute is bad sometimes? Or is this a different -そう altogether, and I am way off base? Any advice would be much appreciated!

[Tracel]

Hi there,

In a Jpod101 lesson I recently listened to, I heard that "かわいそう" means "poor thing." So if おいしそう means tasty-appears-to-be, does かわいそう mean cute-appears-to-be? Does the word cute have some negative connotations in Japan, as sweet (あまい) occasionally does? Does that mean appearing cute is bad sometimes? Or is this a different -そう altogether, and I am way off base? Any advice would be much appreciated!

They are very different words. First, the word かわいそう　is written with a short 'i' sound and かわいいis written with a long 'ii' sound, which matters a lot in Japanese as you probably know.　Second, this is where you need to look at the kanji . So かわいい　means cute, cute, cute, and you hear it all the time, for everything that could possibly be thought of as, well, cute.

可哀相　Poor, pitiable, pathetic....
可愛そう　Looks, seems cute....

You are correct about そう　meaning 'looks like, appear, seem..".　It can also mean 'I hear that..., I heard that' by using a different sentence structure.　

Also, I use Google translate too, but I have found the best way to use it is to type in only very short phrases or individual words. Longer phrases and sentences usually end up in a big fail for me. God forbid you start to get colloquial on the poor interface.

Hope this helps,


トラ

[nekoneszlajobratar4247407]

トラセルさん。 はい、ありがとう, that is very helpful.

Alas, sounds similar but different 漢字! Will be 大問題 for me, probably.

Like what if I want to write a story on 紙 about my 髪 but then I decide that's too shallow so I write about 神.

Or I'm outside on a 蒸し summer day and see many 虫.

Things like, "Today I was 釣り. On the way home I overpaid for a drink and received おつり..." I'm still absolute beginner but I begin to notice more of these.

ありがとうございます for clarifying the issue for me. I'm sure I will be back!

[Tracel]

You are welcome. I am always happy to help.
Ha ha, those are great examples of where kanji can be helpful.

Like what if I want to write a story on 紙 about my 髪 but then I decide that's too shallow so I write about 神.

I always try to look at it the other way around. Someone learning English as a second language has a lot of work to do as well. One of my favorite jokes is: "What do you tell a grammar fanatic to calm her down?" --> "There, They're, Their."

Good luck, and keep the questions coming!
トラ

[community.japanese]

nekoneszlajobratar4247407-san, トラさん、
kon'nichiwa
Thank you very much for a kind and brilliant help, Tora-san!

We acutally tend to avoid the word "kawaii sou" (可愛いそう) as it sounds too similar to "kawaisou" (可哀そう)

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[Tracel]

奈津子先生、
　

We acutally tend to avoid the word "kawaii sou" (可愛いそう) as it sounds too similar to "kawaisou" (可哀そう)

I thought I remembered someone telling me something like this a while ago 。 At least I have not heard anyone say kawaiisou (可愛いそう)　ever before, and I guess that explains why .

トラ

[community.japanese]

トラさん、
In converstaions, we have to avoid misunderstanding or using very confusing words, right?
But, actually, when it's in a proper sentence and pronounciate words properly, it can be used.
For example, if someone told you that s/he saw a baby animal and it was really cute. You actually heard of
this animal's name and heard that babies of this animal are really cute, but you've never seen one.
You can say:
私も聞いたことがあります。(animal)の赤ちゃんは、とても可愛いそうですね。
(I've heard of it: seems [animal]'s babies are very cute.)

In polite speech, it'd maybe sit better.

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com