A Few Questions on the Beginner Lessons

[Jason]

紹介する is a verb that just means "to introduce." 申す is a humble verb that means "to say/to be called." [name]と申します is a very polite *way* of introducing yourself. The words aren't related. You use と申す in order to 自己紹介する.

[Joey]

ありがとうございます Jasonさん.

[Joey]

i have a quick question on lesson 51: the dating game.
for the first contestant it says "kochira no kata no goshumi wa..." How come there is a "no" after kochira? is that just the polite form of "kono"? Thanks in advance.

[Bueller_007]

i have a quick question on lesson 51: the dating game.
for the first contestant it says "kochira no kata no goshumi wa..." How come there is a "no" after kochira? is that just the polite form of "kono"? Thanks in advance.

Yes, in this case, they have the same meaning, but I'm not sure if it's necessarily more polite. Usually, longer words are more polite though, so it could be.

[Jason]

i have a quick question on lesson 51: the dating game.
for the first contestant it says "kochira no kata no goshumi wa..." How come there is a "no" after kochira? is that just the polite form of "kono"? Thanks in advance.

Yes, in this case, they have the same meaning, but I'm not sure if it's necessarily more polite. Usually, longer words are more polite though, so it could be.

Yes, it is more polite.

[Joey]

ありがとうございます　Bueller_007さん and Jasonさん！

[Bueller_007]

Yes, it is more polite.

Makes sense.

[Joey]

What is the difference between using "ga" or "kedo" as "but"? Is one more polite or something because as far as i know they are interchangeable, but i don't know very much... Thanks in advance.

[rdesiree]

Hi Joey, I'm sure Jason or Bueller will respond more detailed on this.
But in the meantime, maybe you want to check a thread which contains among other things also the ga vs kedo problem:

http://www.japanesepod101.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=425

(In case the link doesn't work: it's the "conjunction"-thread in "all about Japanese".

[Jason]

Yeah, I explained it on that thread. Basically, the "but" が and けど are exactly the same meaning wise. The main difference is formality.

[Bueller_007]

I've wondered about this as well, so I looked it up in my bible.

が is a disjunctive coordinate conjunction. This means that in "S1 が, S2", both are independent clauses and should be of the same politeness level. i.e. you shouldn't use ～ない in one and ～ません in the other.

けど (and variants) are subordinate conjunctions. Therefore, in "S1 けど, S2", S1 is the subordinate clause, and S2 is the main clause. This means that S1 is always in plain form (except in very, very formal speech) and the politeness of the clause depends primarily on S2.

In sentences that would otherwise be identical, the difference between が and けど is the subordination of the first clause when using けど, and the level of formality, が sounding more formal or bookish than けど.

[Joey]

ありがとうございます。Thanks for the link Rdesiree-san, and thanks for the explanations Jason-san and Bueller_007-san.

[Jason]

が is a disjunctive coordinate conjunction. This means that in "S1 が, S2", both are independent clauses and should be of the same politeness level. i.e. you shouldn't use ～ない in one and ～ません in the other.

That's odd, because we were always taught that in normal politeness, it wasn't necessary for S1 to be polite form, too.

[Bueller_007]

が is a disjunctive coordinate conjunction. This means that in "S1 が, S2", both are independent clauses and should be of the same politeness level. i.e. you shouldn't use ～ない in one and ～ません in the other.

That's odd, because we were always taught that in normal politeness, it wasn't necessary for S1 to be polite form, too.

I remember reading something like this a long time ago too, but a very rudimentary Google search for ませんが and ないが seems to confirm what my book said... The politeness levels of S1 and S2 match each other.

Perhaps that was just a simplification (an extension of the properties of kedo) given to make Japanese seem easier and more consistent for beginning learners?

To be more specific on what my book said, on their scale of ?, ??, ???, and X (where ? sounds awkward and X is just flat-out wrong, they said that this kind of sentence would rank as one question mark:

肉は食べるが、魚は食べません。

This one ranks as two:

肉は食べますが、魚は食べない。

[Joey]

sumimasen, I have a question.

In beginners lesson 57 one sentence is: "８時のやくそくなんですけど。" and it is translated as "I have an 8 o'clock appointment." My question is "what does the なん mean in that sentence?" From what i know i would have said "８時のやくそくがあります" Could someone please clear this up for me? Thanks in advance!