Japanese Experts pls. help?

[urbanegloss2037]

I have a few questions that I hope people who are experts in Japanese can help me out with.

1. 自然 and 天然 both mean "nature" but I'm not sure about the usage because there are maybe slight differences in usage for both. Can someone explain to me the meaning, usage, and examples?

2. When I'm reading articles and such, I often encounter the words 。。。について which is almost always written in hiragana. Probably it is the -te form of つく but there are so many つく out there. So can someone elaborate more on 。。。について and why it is used often?

3. I often heard in dramas and movies people saying　ったっけ　like なんだったっけ . I'm not sure if I use that correctly. Can someone explain to me what does it mean and how to use it?

[nobap]

Hi, I'm not an expert, but I'll try to answer your questions:

1.　I'm not totally sure about this. For the definitions of the words, check these out:
http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E5%A4%A9%E7%84%B6
http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E8%87%AA%E7%84%B6

2. "ni tsuite" in English translates to "about, concerning" etc.
"これは星についての本です。" (Kore wa hoshi ni tsuite no hon desu.)
="this is a book about stars (hoshi)".

私はあなたの国について知りたい。 (Watashi wa anata no kuni ni tsuite shiritai.)
= I want to know (more) about your country.

彼は何について話しましたか。 (Kare wa nani ni tsuite hanashimashita ka.)
= What did he talk about?

3. the particle "kke" is used when confirming speaker's memory (mostly used when talking to yourself)

何でしたっけ。Nan deshita kke.
=Hmm, I wonder what it was.

[urbanegloss2037]

nobap san,

thank you for the info. the links you gave were useful too.

ありがとうございます!