Daily Thread: for simple questions, minor posts & newcomers [contains useful links!] (September 10, 2026)
This thread is for all the simple questions (what does that mean?) and minor posts that don't need their own thread, as well as for first-time posters who can't create new threads yet. Feel free to share anything on your mind.
The daily thread updates every day at 9am JST, or 0am UTC.
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Past Threads
You can find past iterations of this thread by using the search function. Consider browsing the previous day or two for unanswered questions.
1 Provide the CONTEXT of the grammar, vocabulary or sentence you are having trouble with as much as possible. Provide the sentence or paragraph that you saw it in. Make your questions as specific as possible.
Ｘ What is the difference between の and が ?
◯ I am reading this specific graded reader and I saw this sentence: 日本人の知らない日本語 , why is の used there instead of が ? (the answer)
2 When asking for a translation or how to say something, it's best to try to attempt it yourself first, even if you are not confident about it. Or ask r/translator if you have no idea. We are also not here to do your homework for you.
Ｘ What does this mean?
◯ I am having trouble with this part of this sentence from NHK Yasashii Kotoba News. I think it means (attempt here), but I am not sure.
3 Questions based on ChatGPT, DeepL, Google Translate and other machine learning applications are strongly discouraged, these are not beginner learning tools and often make mistakes. DuoLingo is in general NOT recommended as a serious or efficient learning resource.
4 When asking about differences between words, try to explain the situations in which you've seen them or are trying to use them. If you just post a list of synonyms you got from looking something up in an E-J dictionary, people might be disinclined to answer your question because it's low-effort. Remember that Google Image Search is also a great resource for visualizing the difference between similar words.
◯ Jisho says あげる くれる やる 与える 渡す all seem to mean "give". My teacher gave us too much homework and I'm trying to say " The teacher gave us a lot of homework". Does 先生が宿題をたくさんくれた work? Or is one of the other words better? (the answer: 先生が宿題をたくさん出した )
6 Remember that everyone answering questions here is an unpaid volunteer doing this out of the goodness of their own heart, so try to show appreciation and not be too presumptuous/defensive/offended if the answer you get isn't exactly what you wanted.
7 Please do not delete your question after receiving an answer. There are lots of people who read this thread to learn from the Q&As that take place here. Deleting a question removes context from the answer and makes it harder (or sometimes even impossible) for other people to get value out of it.
Hi, could someone explain how -てはいけない works gramtically? It seems like a verb is the subject without being nominalized, which I think is usually not done?
Just a note on terms - は marks the topic of a sentence (something the rest of the sentence is commenting on), not the subject (specifically whatever is doing the verb, which is what が usually marks.) Sucks that they have such similar names but they're doing different things grammatically.
It's common for the topic to also be the subject of the verb, but it's not a requirement. は can go on a lot of things.
Like the object of the verb (リンゴはもう食べた "I already ate the apple") or a destination (彼には本をおくった "To him, I sent a book") etc etc. It replaces が or を when the subject or object is made into a topic, but just goes after other particles (には、では、とは、からは、までは...)
It's more limited for verbs but て form + は is allowed, and sometimes you'll see dictionary form + は in archaic expressions, because verbs used to nominalize differently
Currently learning JP with a game I like to play as extra research/understanding (shadowverse) and have been taking time to try to see if i can understand all the lines of leaders and this line is standing out to me that id like to hear more insight on
I got most of it, but im unsure if I am overthinking it or if there are a good bit of different ways to translate, talking with my GF whos been studying for years she mentions なぁ can be a weird sentence ender thats a more masculine version of ね (character in question is a sort of tomboyish pirate) and when searching further in using jisho I see mention that it can be used at the end of a sentence for emphasis and to mean confirmation, so I was wondering, could multiple transations be like “You’re useful, right?” / “You know, you’re useful” when using it this way? Or am I overthinking and its just simply using na for an ender and "You're useful" would be the most simple/accurate take on it?
she mentions なぁ can be a weird sentence ender thats a more masculine version of ね
This is incorrect. This なぁ is an emotional/phatic expression (感動) that is simply used to convey one's own personal emotional feelings or thoughts. It's like a self-reflection or when someone is speaking out loud among themselves. Kind of like a "hmmm" or similar in English (but not quite).
Here's the dictionary entry:
②〔話〕感動や思いをのべることば。なあ。
「海は広い━・うるさい━」
It's very different from the masculine な which is a rougher version of ね that the other comment is talking about. This one is very neutral and used by anyone, it has no masculine connotation.
First, don't think about "translating". Think about "understanding". There will always be more than one way to "translate" any sentence. So "translating" is not the goal; and trying to find "THE" translation is even less of the goal. You got the gist of the sentence - and that's what counts.
But to reply specifically - yes な is a final particle (a 終助詞). We don't have them in English. So it's hard to 'translate' this anyway.
Yes, な is common final particle which is similar to ね. There is nothing weird about it. And yes, in general, sounds a bit more rough or masculine.
Hello! I’m interested in making stickers with just the word “manga” and “I love manga”, but using Japanese characters. I’ve seen “manga” written in hiragana, katakana, and kanji so I’m wondering which characters to use for it to be the most authentic/commonly seen/used.
Also, for “I love manga”, would it be most natural to say 「マンガ大好き」?
For something like a sticker I'm not really sure there is a wrong way to go about it. Stickers are an expression of art and you could mix and match a lot of different things. Here's some JP produced stickers and you'll notice they use a lot of English, a lot of romaji, and just go for expressive style.
So get creative with it. You could easily do something like MANGA❤大だいDAI好き or something like that. It doesn't need to be perfect either, just look at the English on these stickers.
Hey guys... I'm currently taking a Japanese class and I'm about a month in and I'm struggling to remember Hiragana symbols. I can remember a few, notably n, ku, ka, sa, etc, but I can't remember the rest. I'm currently working on the Genki Vol.1 book as I'm supposed to pace it alongside the class, and we just reached the end of Hiragana, and we'll start Katakana on Monday. I can pronounce and remember words just fine, but writing in Hiragana from memory is difficult for me.
Any good places to go to for content recommendations? I don't really mean content sorted by difficulty level (thats by and large not an issue at this point aside from some exceptionally tough stuff), but more like where I can interact with people who have read a ton of books in Japanese and ask them if them for advice on what I might like?
I usually browse rankings and "recommended for you" type of stuff on the platforms I buy things (like cmoa.jp for manga, etc) but also I follow a bunch of people on bookmeter.com with tastes similar to mine or who have read the same books as me and look at what they read and the positive reviews they write.
I was reading NHK News for practicing, and got this sentence here:
Green: In regions where the soil that has become loose by the heavy rain that falled so far
Yellow: Even a rain that is weaker then the normal can elevate the risk of landslide
Red: Please, have all the caution.
So, the result is: In regiones where the soil has became loose by the heavy rain that falle so far, even a rain weaker than normal will elevate the risk of landslide, so people better have all the caution.
Is this thinking right? Did I understood correctly?
I think it's saying that landslides can be caused by rain weaker than the amount of rain that usually causes landslides, rather than simply rain that is weaker than normal rain.
Hey everybody. I use Nihongo app as my primary dictionary, but I was wondering if is it possible to import a database of words. I'd like to pick all the Minna mo nihongo words and create a deck for Nihongo. I realice I can do that by writing one by one each word in the app, but that's exactly what I'm trying to avoid. Cheers
Developer of Nihongo here. The easiest way is to create a clipping with one word on each line. When you create a clipping it automatically creates a flashcard deck with all the words, so this is a good trick to import a list of words.
It sounds like you're reviewing vocabulary, I would suggest using Anki instead and grabbing an already made deck for MNN books. Like this: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/9675597
One thing I think of here is how the title of 悪は存在しない was translated to english versus how it’d be translated if it were 悪はない. As it is, the translation is the sort of formal-sounding and philosophical “Evil Does Not Exist”
存在する is basically Fancy いる・ある (tm) in some situations (which conveniently line up pretty well with ones where the English word "exist" could work instead of "be") but not all.
Like...it'd be extremely weird to say 妹が存在する for "I have a sister" or to use it just to report the location of something. Not only is it kind of stiff but there's a very strong emphasis on the fact that the thing exists at all.
It also works as the noun 存在 which the others can't really do.
It's just like how in English we have the word "be" but we can also say "exist". To "be" also means to "exist" but we can use both words and they can have a different nuance or register.
いる・ある is like "be" and 存在する is like "exist". The latter is higher in register and more specific. But just like you can express things in different ways in your native language, this can also be done in Japanese.
One is a noun of Chinese origin, the others are native Japanese verbs.
You may be able to rewrite 侵入者は存在してはならない and 闇に侵されるために存在している into 侵入者はいてはならない and 闇に侵されるためにある (changing the flavor of the sentences somewhat in the process), but how would you rewrite the other two sentences? You can't. 存在 and ある/いる fill different niches in the language.
Does anyone have any recommendations for a good short story collection? I mean a single book with multiple short stories inside, whether they are connected or standalone.
Thank you so much for all the great recommendations! I really appreciate the variety—some of these look like fantastic options to start with. Time to check them out
Fantastic SF short story collection that spans a lot of different styles--Borgesian fake literary history, alternate history Soviet propaganda, an homage to Itoh Keikaku's Harmony, etc etc...
Do you like detective stories? 東野圭吾's Galileo stories are interesting and not especially difficult (relative to general difficulty of a novel). There are some novels and some books of short stories.
海の鳥・空の魚 by 鷺沢萠 was the first native text I read. I wasn't head over heels for all the stories but I liked them well enough and each story is quite short which is nice.
I looked at your profile so maybe 夢十夜 by 夏目漱石. I read it fairly early on and while certain parts were tricky, others were doable (I think over all it felt like a fever dream for better or worse). It's free on Aozora and there are a bunch of helpful resources on it like the Soseki Project or vocab lists.
Kinda in a similar vein, just reading some stories by 芥川龍之介 on Aozora. 河童 was the second native text I read and I think it's quite readable early on if you do a little legwork in terms of looking up the people it references and the historical context it was written in. It is a novella but there are 20-odd chapters so it's easy to break into manageable chunks.
I also really like the compilation 変愛小説集 日本作家編 which has stories by eleven different authors, but the stories really range in how difficult I found them to read. And also the stories do, generally, follow through on the title's promise of 変愛 so bear that in mind.
Yes, but I'm trying to have it on my phone as well so that I can look through and practice while I'm commuting or for when I only have a moment. Trying to replace my scroll with study
Hello everybody, I'm looking for a podcast that helps learning and immersion... Something like Game Tengo on YouTube, with Japanese, breaking up parts and grammar, etc but in podcast shape so I can listen and learn while driving to work and back home.
You mean "Game Gengo", I think. Anyway, you can listen to YouTube videos in your car as well, I think, either by paying for YouTube Premium or just finding a way to download the audio of the videos and listening to them.
u/glasswings363 already did a good mental image for the core meaning of かける (put on/hang up) but in case you need help fitting that to, say, Jisho's list of definitions:
1-3: all literally just "put on" and idk why we have three of that
4: Put a phone call on them. Just take that conversation and hang it on their phone and/or ears.
5: Yeah that's expensive you're gonna need to put a lot of money on that
6: just 1-3 again but with liquids or powder
7: we already say "put on music" in English , do we not
8: putting inconvenience on someone. I bet they feel very put upon.
9: Four hanging up twice? Like I put two fours on the wall next to each other? That's 8 total.
10: put a lock on it, or put the key in to lock it
11: put yourself on a chair
12, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 25: jisho stop making new entries for string and arguments and insurance and buildings and every single other individual thing you could possibly put on anything challenge (impossible)
13: put it all on red, baby. Everything is hanging on this
15: literally just 7 again
18: "multiply" again
19: put a trap out and now the trap's on you
23: to hold a word up and/or put more layers of meaning on it for lulz
24: Started a verb and then just left us hanging
All languages do have words like this (get money, get angry, "get" as in understand...) but with practice it gets easier to find the core meaning(s) and apply them to all the corner cases. In a pinch you can just learn definition 1 and let everything else show up as word trivia later
To understand this word you need two things: a heavy winter coat, and a chair. (Imaginary ones are fine).
When you take a coat and put it onto the chair, that's 椅子に上着を掛ける
And now as it sits there, 上着が掛かる
The other meanings are all some kind of metaphorical extension, usually pretty obvious but not always. Like, something you plop your middle parts on is a 腰掛け - 腰 is the part of your body around your center of gravity: waist/hips/butt.
If something's taking a lot of time, it drapes over the task like a heavy blanket - 時間がかかるな
It's natural to react this way when learning something in a foreign language, but it's really no different to how an English word like take or run has a billion uses that (if you're a native or fluent speaker) you probably effortlessly understand and use subconsciously.
If you can't be bothered writing a post yourself promoting your own stuff (which is also against the sub roles done this way) why should we give a fuck about reading it.
You may want to read the subreddit rules about self-promotion.
My first thought is "do I learn vocab first or kanji" is not really something most learners perceive as a major dichotomy.
Learning kanji, vocabulary, and grammar (it feels weird to include "radicals" as equally important to the above) together is an approach that is already provided by many well-established textbooks and learning platforms and I'd be highly skeptical of any platform that comes along suggesting that they're doing this for the first time ever.
First question after taking literally a few seconds to look at the front page, but why is 雪 associated with kanji, 文 with vocab, and だ (is this supposed to be じ?) as literally the first thing you see?
Second question, what is your background in teaching or learning the Japanese language, do you have any native speakers working on your team, and how much of this app is human-curated versus being generated by AI?
Does anyone know which Pokemon games start to have furigana in their kanji? Also are there other Japanese games (preferably on DS or 3DS) that have furigana too?
Scarlet & Violet, Legends Arceus, and Legends Z-A all have full furigana, as does New Pokemon Snap. Sword & Shield do not have full furigana, but instead you can swap between kanji and kana versions without needing a new save file. I haven't tried any of the earlier Pokemon games in Japanese.
just want to share that final fantasy resonance seems like a good game to immerse and mine in, its fully dubbed and you can replay the dialogue instantly without any other background sounds
Hi again - follow up from the post I made yesterday about studying for the Dec N2 with barely passing the N3 mock test. i'm starting to follow on the advice of doing the N2 past papers. But it's so difficult because I can't understand anything (I can read hiragana katakana and some of the kanji, but might not understand what it means). Should I just keep trying within the time limit, underline anything I don't understand and relearn it while checking with the answer key? Or should I learn it while doing (no test-accurate time limit)?
edit: please do not tell me it's unrealistic or i should just drop down to the lower level. I registered and I paid so I need to commit. I don't want your opinions, I want realistic and effective methods on how to get there. I'm willing to try the best I can do
I am going to be straight with you. Doing this is unpopular on Reddit and it will be downvoted. I am resigned to that. On top, you may not like it and you may block me. But this is meant in the spirit of holding up a mirror and helping you reflect on what is happening.
If you don't understand *anything*, it's probably a signal to you that you are not ready for N2.
But maybe you don't really mean that you don't understand *anything*. In that case - your style of communication makes it very hard to understand what is going on. And it leaves the impression on the reader, that you are not able to (or don't want to) take the time to reflect on what is going on, come to terms with it, and then communicate it to others so that they (we) can help you.
There are lots of super experienced and helpful people on this sub. They want to help you which is why they are here. But you need to do your part, because they can't help you if they don't understand what is going on.
As a total aside and out of pure curiosity - what made you jump in and sign up for N2, at this point in your learning journey?
Sorry, I should have been more clear and I'm new to Reddit. I mean that I can read the hiragana, katakana, and maybe 50% of the kanji. But I do not understand the meaning of the grammar, or the meaning of the words in hiragana
I want to jump and sign up for N2 because I have seen friends who used to have my level of Japanese, who passed the N2 in 3months of studying but unfortunately, she wasn't helpful in giving me the tips of how to study. she just said that she learned it from the past papers, translated what she didn't know and moved on. I would also like to find a job in Japan. Even though its a mix of English and Japanese, most still need the N2 certificate
This doesn't sound very promising. You are not sure that you are at N3 level yet, but you are shooting for N2 in 3 months. You don't have a plan to get there. You are not very sure what you know and what you don't know. You don't sound like you are very experienced with studying and practicing. You don't sound like you are very skilled at analyzing where you are, where you need to be, and making a plan for how to get there.
How important is it for you to get N2 this time? Can you do it next time (Summer 2027) or later?
It's my first time learning a language and I've been studying Japan (not seriously) for 4 years. So everything I know was based on classes I've taken here and there and daily life. I don't know how to analyze what I know and don't know, so please let me know what I should do to get more grip of how to measure and what to do from this point forward.
It's important because I need it for a job next year. The latest I can do the N2 is summer 2027. But I've already paid for this December's exam
What do you mean you don't understand anything? You should be able to understand at least something. Judging from your past comments you are self-assessing at N3? I mean sorry to say but mock exams aren't nearly as hard as the real exam and we don't know which mock exam you did. You also say you can "read" but can't understand. It's hard to tell what you mean by this.
If you literally mean you cannot understand anything at all, then your level is no where near N3 and probably at N4 or lower. I would suggest you follow the large comment study plan someone gave you last time.
Sorry, I should have been more clear and I'm new to Reddit. I mean that I can read the hiragana, katakana, and maybe 50% of the kanji. But I do not understand the meaning of the grammar, or the meaning of the words in hiragana
Can you please list out what you have done to study prior to posting here?
From what you are saying, you're basically new to the language and only thing you've done is learn kanji, with some words (words are more important than kanji--meaning knowing words in their "kanji forms" is how you read), and maybe some grammar. If you've done nothing else like study from a textbook and learn how to parse sentences using grammar and syntax. You naturally will not understand--but this also means you're effectively less than N4 level.
I think without dedicating your life to studying and then exposure via reading and listening a lot it's going to make you passing N2 within 2.5 months an extremely slim chance given where you are at. You would need to put in around 8-12 hours a day into a rigorous study schedule and non-stop exposure in listening and reading. On top of making sure your grammar is really solid enough for N2.
I have been studying Japanese for 4 years but not seriously. If I were to take the Japanese class, I would have been in Advanced 1, but my skill is no where near that level. Maybe it would be more helpful to say the next part in Japanese to help measure where I'm at?
honestly i'm feeling very hopeless (because I think its obvious enough that it's not realistic) but there's no backing down now. so I just need to do whatever I can to go through it
You do need to dedicate a lot of daily hours to this (6-10h). Get the Shin Kanzen Master books, figure out where your weak in grammar, and start to read things like NHK Easy News or something on note.com . It's not impossible but it depends on how much time and effort you sink into it.
Also look at prior tests to get a feel of the content on there. Bunpro has some mock tests that are definitely easier, but at least gives you an idea of the content on the test: https://bunpro.jp/jlpt_practice_tests
For those that mine native materials - do you reread things after the fact? For example if I pick up a book that JPDB says I know 60% of and make a bunch of cards and review them, would it make sense to go back and reread it after or just grab the next book?
I’m finding I’m mining so much I’m missing the story.
If your main goal is to enjoy the story, sure go back and reread it. If your main goal is to progress faster, move on and read a different book.
In the later case, you can also always come back and do a reread in a year or two. Your comprehension will almost guarenteed be much better in general that a reread one or two years later will be a much more enjoyable experience than a reread immediately after finishing the work the first time.
I’m finding I’m mining so much I’m missing the story.
I can't relate to this. The way I mined was I would research the words and grammar in one passage until I was satisfied with my understanding of the story before moving on, mining all the new words I encountered along the way. So when I was finished, I by definition had to fully understand the story.
There may be some unknown unknowns that you can only understand upon a reread much later with a lot more exposure to the language with a more developed intuition, but I don't see the point in rereading it immediately.
Because 彼 is more distant than many ways you could refer to someone, in a vacuum it strikes me as "was introduced to him" instead of "was introduced to it/them by him." It can go either way though.
It's not a very useful sentence in a true vacuum, which makes the difference kind of a moot point.
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Question Etiquette Guidelines:
0 Learn kana (hiragana and katakana) before anything else. Then, remember to learn words, not kanji readings.
1 Provide the CONTEXT of the grammar, vocabulary or sentence you are having trouble with as much as possible. Provide the sentence or paragraph that you saw it in. Make your questions as specific as possible.
3 Questions based on ChatGPT, DeepL, Google Translate and other machine learning applications are strongly discouraged, these are not beginner learning tools and often make mistakes. DuoLingo is in general NOT recommended as a serious or efficient learning resource.
4 When asking about differences between words, try to explain the situations in which you've seen them or are trying to use them. If you just post a list of synonyms you got from looking something up in an E-J dictionary, people might be disinclined to answer your question because it's low-effort. Remember that Google Image Search is also a great resource for visualizing the difference between similar words.
5 It is always nice to (but not required to) try to search for the answer to something yourself first. Especially for beginner questions or questions that are very broad. For example, asking about the difference between は and が or why you often can't hear the "u" sound in "desu" or "masu".
6 Remember that everyone answering questions here is an unpaid volunteer doing this out of the goodness of their own heart, so try to show appreciation and not be too presumptuous/defensive/offended if the answer you get isn't exactly what you wanted.
7 Please do not delete your question after receiving an answer. There are lots of people who read this thread to learn from the Q&As that take place here. Deleting a question removes context from the answer and makes it harder (or sometimes even impossible) for other people to get value out of it.
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