yobiau

[Beliskna]

Hi all,

I have been trying to better myself by attempting to translate some of the Japanese songs in my collection, but have no idea what this word means. I think it means something like summon to meet so i'm going with come together but...

Please could someone help me out and give me some ideas.


Thanks.

[Belton]

it's most likely this compound verb

呼び合う : call to each other
互いを名前で呼び合う : call each other by name

With translations it helps to have more than just one word, even if you only need help with a single word. Especially in things like songs or poems.

good luck with the rest of it!

[Beliskna]

Thanks for the help Belton,

However i'm still new to all this and don't really understand what a compund verb is and I don't know many kanji. Still I found:

yobu = call, but what is yobi

and

au = meet

The actual context of the line is : Onaji tsuyosa de yobi au Kokoro ni nareru no naraba

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

[Belton]

I might not be using the correct term but I understand compound verbs as when two verbs are combined to make a new verb. (yobiau, omoidasu, etc.)

Here yobi is the conjunctive form of yobu (or masu stem if you prefer)
yobu (dictionary form) yobimasu (masu form) yobi (masu stem)

yobiau is also modifying kokoro here. unless a full stop is missing.

"when growing accustomed to the heart that calls out to each other with equal strength."

sounds weird. I'm sure someone else can do better than me at this.

[Beliskna]

^.^ Ahh, now I see.

I have been understanding the yobu part, it was the au that didn't make sense. I was simply taking tha au to mean 'to meet'.... as in 会う

...but the kanji used in this song for au is 合う which according to my dictionary is "to do to each other, to do mutually" and it also says its added to verb bases.

Which I suppose gives the 'call out to each other' you stated before.

Oh man, my kanji skills really suck. Can anyone recommend a good books on verbs and the like, the one I have is not very comprehensive at all. A good kanji dictionary would be sweet too.

Anyways, thanks for your help Belton, I think I have learned a valuble lesson here.

[Cielo]

The conjunctive form of the verb + 合う means "to [verb] each other"

There are so many examples, so I'll only share a few:

愛し合う　(aishiau) "to love each other"
抱きしめ合う　(dakishimeau) "to hold each other"
知り合う　(shiriau) "to get to know someone/each other"
助け合う (tasukeau) "to help each other"

[Belton]

Verb books

I'd recommend these small books from Kodansha
The Handbook of Japanese Verbs by Taeko Kamiya (ISBN 4-7700-2683-8)
Japanese Verbs at a Glance by Naoko Chino (ISBN 4-7700-2765-6)

The first one is better laid out, the second one more comprehensive maybe.
There's a whole series of these little books covering different topics. Taeko Kamiya has also written The Handbook of Adjectives and Adverbs. Also well worth a look. They're
about UK£12 -14 (US$19〜)

Kanji Dictionary

I think
The Kondansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary by Jack Halpern (ISBN 4-7700-2855-5)
is the best paper dictionary I've seen.
However it deals more with single kanji rather than being a comprehensive Japanese English dictionary. (at the moment Amazon UK has it at a pretty good price BTW)

That said I mostly use a dictionary on my Mac.
JEDict. It's faster and more convenient usually. Especially when so much of what I read is in digital form already.

[Beliskna]

Thanks Cielo for the info. Does that mean that 合う is some kind of verb ending in common use or is it a special case that's not used frequently. I really struggled to find any info on web for it... maybe I search for wrong thing huh. Anyways thanks for clearing it up for me.

Belton I have already got the Japanese Verbs at a Glance book and it is good but there is just sooo much to digest. I will check the other books on Amazon, I was actually looking at he dictionary earlier, might be my next purchase. Thanks.

Laters all.

[Jason]

Thanks Cielo for the info. Does that mean that 合う is some kind of verb ending in common use or is it a special case that's not used frequently. I really struggled to find any info on web for it... maybe I search for wrong thing huh. Anyways thanks for clearing it up for me.

合う is not a verb ending, but a verb itself (it means "to fit/suit/match"). It's very common for verbs to be combined like this, [conjunctive form of verb1] + [verb2], to create more complex shades of meaning. Here are a few more examples:

取る = to take
戻す = to return
取り戻す = to take back

張る = to affix
出す = to put out
張り出す = to put up a notice

振る = to swing
回す = to turn/revolve
振り回す = to wave around

You can't just stick any two verbs together on a whim, but it is a very common construction.

[Beliskna]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the reply, i'm learning some useful stuff from you guys. I never used the forums much, but now I see how useful a tool this can be.

Again thanks all.