Mukashi to zuibun chigau, English translation intro...

[andycarmenjapanese8100]

I27:

Nande konna ni ie ga boroboro ni natte iru no. Mukashi to zuibun chigau.
何でこんなに家がぼろぼろになっているの。昔と随分違う。
But, wait... why is the house so beat up like this? It's completely different from a long time ago.

I'm not sure if "to" means "and" in this sentence or if it's being used as a verbal quotation mark.

Mukashi to zuibun chigau - It's totally different from "a long time ago."
OR
Mukashi to zuibun chigau - A long time ago and [now] is totally different.

If it's the first then I have no idea when to put words in verbal quotation marks (unless they're actual quotations, of course) and if it's the second then I have no idea when to exclude random words in a sentence.

And...

A few days ago I finished the 6th season of lower intermediate lessons. What exactly does Naomi say as she introduces the conversation with English translation? This is what I can decipher:

"Kondo wa eigo no yaku to isshou ni kiite mimashou."
This time with English translation, let's listen together and see.

The "yaku" is the only thing I'm not sure about. I know the word "yakusu" means "to translate" but I can't find "yaku" in my dictionary. Would "translation" be accurate?

[mccreedyvirginia4357]

昔と随分違う。

I think it's probably #1: It's totally different from before (maybe like "compared to what it was previously"
Not sure if it needs quotes around 昔. I would think you can translate it as different from the past perhaps?

バージニア

[pdgallagher21803]

I27:

Nande konna ni ie ga boroboro ni natte iru no. Mukashi to zuibun chigau.
何でこんなに家がぼろぼろになっているの。昔と随分違う。
But, wait... why is the house so beat up like this? It's completely different from a long time ago.

I'm not sure if "to" means "and" in this sentence or if it's being used as a verbal quotation mark.

Mukashi to zuibun chigau - It's totally different from "a long time ago."
OR
Mukashi to zuibun chigau - A long time ago and [now] is totally different.

If it's the first then I have no idea when to put words in verbal quotation marks (unless they're actual quotations, of course) and if it's the second then I have no idea when to exclude random words in a sentence.

And...

A few days ago I finished the 6th season of lower intermediate lessons. What exactly does Naomi say as she introduces the conversation with English translation? This is what I can decipher:

"Kondo wa eigo no yaku to isshou ni kiite mimashou."
This time with English translation, let's listen together and see.

The "yaku" is the only thing I'm not sure about. I know the word "yakusu" means "to translate" but I can't find "yaku" in my dictionary. Would "translation" be accurate?

Haven't heard the lesson but probably she said: 今度は英語翻訳と一緒に聞いてみましょう。 honyaku not "no yaku"

[thegooseking]

I'm not sure if "to" means "and" in this sentence or if it's being used as a verbal quotation mark.

Mukashi to zuibun chigau - It's totally different from "a long time ago."
OR
Mukashi to zuibun chigau - A long time ago and [now] is totally different.

If it's the first then I have no idea when to put words in verbal quotation marks (unless they're actual quotations, of course) and if it's the second then I have no idea when to exclude random words in a sentence.

I think this is actually the other other meaning of 'to' - 'with'. In English we say that something is different from something else, but we can say that it contrasts with something else, so maybe that can help see why we have 'with' (or 'to') there. Remember that chigau is a verb, even if it's often translated as an adjective, so it may have some grammar that is different to what you expect.

In fact, any time you're making a comparison that is absolute rather than by degree (i.e. different from / the same as / similar to, but not "more X than"), you use 'to'.

Sofu no musuko wa musuko no sofu to onaji desu.
"My grandfather's son is the same as my son's grandfather."

Watashi no neko wa aru eigahaiyū to nite iru.
"My cat looks similar to a certain movie actor."

Sukottorando wa Igirisu to chigaimasu.
"Scotland is different from England."

The "yaku" is the only thing I'm not sure about. I know the word "yakusu" means "to translate" but I can't find "yaku" in my dictionary. Would "translation" be accurate?

Yes, 'yaku' means 'translation' or 'version'. I believe 'yakusu' was originally actually short for "yaku suru".

[pdgallagher21803]

Just listened to one of the lessons. Definitely said の訳. My mistake...

[community.japanese]

Andy-san, バージニアさん, pdgallagher21803-san, 子狼さん、
kon'nichiwa!
Thank you for helping each other, everyone!!

I think this is actually the other other meaning of 'to' - 'with'. In English we say that something is different from something else, but we can say that it contrasts with something else, so maybe that can help see why we have 'with' (or 'to') there. Remember that chigau is a verb, even if it's often translated as an adjective, so it may have some grammar that is different to what you expect.

That's a perfect explanation!
I often recommend learners to remember particles with verbs as a form of pattern, and this thing here
would probably the good example. "[something] to chigau" is translated as "being different from" where
English works very differently (i.e. adjective + "from").
This pattern is fixed and wouldn't be replaced by different particle unless there's a need of changing the meanings,
so I think it's safe to say "...to chigau" is the fixed pattern to tell difference.

Seems all the questions from Andy-san are nicely solved! ...meaning that my job is done here

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[andycarmenjapanese8100]

That's those questions answered. Thanks. I'm back on the intermediate lessons now and the intro to lesson 29 has had me stumped for over a week.

"Dai ni-juu-kyuu kai, chuukyuu ressun. Kono bangumi wa eiyaku reiren no teikyou de okuri shite imasu."

The dictionary helped a bit with these:

Dai = title
Kai = counter for occurances

"Dai ni-juu-kyuu kai, chuukyuu ressun." - "Title: twenty nine[th episode], intermediate lesson."

The second sentence is harder - "Kono bangumi wa eiyaku" - "This episode [as for] English translation"...then I lose it completely. I can translate some words (or at least what I THINK they mean) like "teikyou" ("offer") and okuri shite ("to send?") but I don't know "reiren" and can't put them all together in a coherent manner.

[mmmason8967]

Above my level and I don't really get it, but...

I think reiren is rei (zero) followed by a counter that I don't recognise. From that I'm guessing that eiyaku reiren no teikyou means "offer(ed) with no English translation". And from that I think the overall meaning is roughly "This lesson we will start (or maybe will be broadcasting) not giving/offering an English translation".

If you figure it out, would you mind explaining how it really works?

マイケル

[thegooseking]

Are you sure it's eiyaku reiren and not a katakanified rendering of Erklären?

That would make this just the Japanese translation of the English "This show is brought to you by Erklären".

小狼

[mmmason8967]

Are you sure it's eiyaku reiren and not a katakanified rendering of Erklären?

Well, I wouldn't like to claim I'm sure, but it does sound like eiyaku to me. Maybe you could see what you think? it's at the 30 second mark in the Audio tracke here:-

http://www.japanesepod101.com/2006/09/0 ... -ruffians/

マイケル

[thegooseking]

I don't hear any real pronounced palatal approximant ("y-sound") in there. I'd say it sounds more like eakureiren, which is a reasonable katakana rendering of Erklären. But it definitely can be difficult to distinguish between 'ea' and 'ya'.

The key is that Japanese doesn't have true diphthongs (although 'ya', 'yu' and 'yo' and even elongated vowels are sometimes inaccurately called diphthongs). 'ea' is two separate units, not a diphthong, but because it's two separate units, there is a boundary between them. That boundary can very easily be misheard as a 'y'.

Really, though, my supposition is more informed by watching anime and hearing this kind of thing when the sponsors of the show are displayed on the screen (though they say "teikyou de okuri shimasu" rather than "teikyou de okuri shite imasu" - I suppose the difference is "is brought to you by" vs. "is being brought to you by", though I'm a little unclear on why there is that difference).

小狼

[mmmason8967]

I don't hear any real pronounced palatal approximant ("y-sound") in there. I'd say it sounds more like eakureiren, which is a reasonable katakana rendering of Erklären. But it definitely can be difficult to distinguish between 'ea' and 'ya'.

Bother. Having read your explanation and listened to it again repeatedly, it now sounds like エアクレーレン (eakureeren). I'm beginning to suspect that I'm very suggestible...

But once you decide that エアクレーレン (eakureeren) is the name of a company, the rest of the sentence does start to make a lot more sense and doesn't involve nearly as much mystifying grammar as I previously thought.

As far as the difference between shimasu and shite imasu goes, maybe it's the difference between a habitual or repeated action and a one-off event? That is CSI:Miami wa XXXX no teikyou de okuri shimasu means that XXXX sponsors the entire CSI:Miami series (on an ongoing basis) whereas kono souwa wa XXXX no teikyou de okuri shite imasu means that XXXX sponsors this particular episode. But I'm guessing.

マイケル

[Tracel]

開けましておめでとうございます、みなさん、

お久しぶりですね。私はメキシコへ旅行しました。だから、インターネットはなかったですね。

I just listened to the lesson's introduction and I am almost positive that it is Erklaren that she says. I can hear it pretty clearly because the company name Erklaeren is actually German for "explain" or "enlighten" and this popped out at me from the beginning. Also, they frequently introduce the company name in the lessons this way.

Like 小狼さん said, I first thought of anime that tell you "This program is brought to you by...." by using "no teikyou de okuri shimasu". Why it would be "teikyou de okuri shimasu" rather than "teikyou de okuri shite imasu" as in the J-pod lesson, I don't know. But I don't think that it is crucial to the meaning. I think 'is being brought to you by' sounds a bit unnatural in English no matter the change in Japanese. Just my opinion though.

So, I am pretty sure the translation would be:

This is Intermediate Lesson 29. This program is brought to you by Erklaren.

トラ

[community.japanese]

Andy-san, マイケルさん、子狼さん、トラセルさん、
明けましておめでとうございます
今年もよろしくおねがいします

Very well spoted; it was indeed "This is Intermediate Lesson 29. This program is brought to you by Erklaren"

Whenever we watch TV shows (any kind), we hear ".... no teikyou de" and then
either "ookuri shimasu" or "ookuri shimashita".
The reason why we use "ookuri shimasu" (non-past tense, but not continuous" is because the programme is about to
start, not "on-going" really. Although, the J-Pod lesson's case, it's just "started", it's considered as an
introduction and the lesson hasn't really started yet we hosts have got to the main lesson part.
This doesn't mean "ookuri shiteimasu" is completely wrong to use. It's just rather natural if we use
"shimasu" as we're just starding the programme

By the way, "dai" works like "No." or "...th" and is often coupled with "kai" (= time).
So, "dai XX kai" means "(lesson) number XX".　Or, like you wrote, Andy-san, just "...th episode".

トラセルさんはメキシコに行っていたんですか。いいですね～。行ってみたいなあ～

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com