Saturday, August 20, 2016

都合が悪い and 調子が悪い

Question about Japanese
What is the difference between 都合が悪い and 調子が悪い


Answer:
都合が悪い there's no free time, or the request is unfavorable

Aさん:今から、打ち合わせできる?
Bさん:ごめん、今手が離せなくて、都合が悪いんだ。

調子が悪い something don't work well

Aさん:会社の車、使っていいかな?
Bさん:あ、今調子悪いんだ。エンジンがかからないんだよ。

著者 and 作者

Question about Japanese
What is the difference between 著者 and 作者?


Answer:
"著者" means people who wrote some texts. Such as: novelists, writers, dramatists, essayists.

"作者" means people who created some arts. Such as: painters, sculptors, music composers.

The meaning of "作者" includes "著者". So you can replace the word "著者" by "作者".

丸い and 円い

Question about Japanese
What is the difference between 丸い and 円い?


Answer:
There may be some answer that "丸い is used for 3D shapes, 円い is used for 2D shapes".

That answer was correct only in the olden days.

実際には「円い」という表記はほとんど使われません。
「円」はcircleを表すのに対して、
「丸」は角張っていない形を表します。
そのため、「丸」のほうが広い意味で使えるので、「円い」と書くべきときにも「丸い」と書く人が多くなり、今ではそれが普通になっています。

Actually, most Japanese use "丸い" for both 2D and 3D.
The expression "円い" are hardly used.
The reason is:
represents a circle.
represents a shape that is curved and without sharp angles.
So have more broad meaning than .
In these days, many Japanese people use 丸い for explaining not only 3 dimensional object, but also 2 dimensional objects, such as dishes.

One more note:
丸い can be used for explaining personal characteristics.
Such as: 彼は丸い性格をしている
Meaning: He has a gentle character.
円い can't be used in such a case.

要旨、要領、要綱、要点

Question about Japanese
Please show me example sentences with 要旨要領要綱要点.
Tell me as many daily expressions as possible.
挙げた文では勝手に代えられる場合もは教えてください。同じ使い方のある他の代えられる言葉あれば教えてください。定義を日本語でも調べたら、同じくらい「まとめたもの」みたいな説明ばかりで、実際の使い分けはわかりません。


Answer:
Imagine that you are listening someone's speech.
If you find some important points, you will write them down.
After that, you will have a bulleted list of several important points. That is "要点".

If you made a new text, well organized and easily understandable, which include the meanings of the list only, with no other information or opinion, for explaining the summary of the speech to others who didn't hear that, the text is "要旨".

"要領" means a guideline.

If there is an organization and participants. The organization has a guideline which the participants should obey. In such case, "要領" is used.

Therefore, if you made a speech, for example "The most impressive place I have ever been to", the summary of it is a "要旨", not a "要領". Because such a kind of speech has no guideline.

"要綱" means a brief text which describes the destination, the long term goal, the basic policy of an organization.

Exceptional usage of "要領" (replaceable with "要点")

Example text:
Tanaka requested Suzuki to explain what they should do.
But Suzuki's explanation was not to the point.

↑The second sentence can be translated into following 2 patterns.

(1) 鈴木の説明では要点がわからなかった
(2) 鈴木の説明は要領を得ていなかった

In this case, both "要領" and "要点" are usable, even if Suzuki's explanation was not about a guideline of an organization.

Because "Tanaka" needed the information "what they should do", this is a kind of guideline. So "要領" can be used there.

スマート

Question about Japanese
What does スマート mean?

Answer:
頭がいい、という意味でスマートを使うことはほとんどありません。

However, the following sentence is an example of such meaning.
彼はスマートなやり方をした。

In Japanese, スマート(meaning of clever) is not used for people. it can be used for explaining a way of doing.

ちょっと補足。
「スマート」は女性に使うことが多く、slim でかつ beautiful なイメージです。clever や intelligent なイメージはありません。
男性に使う場合も同じ意味ですが、そもそも男性にはあまり使いません。

スマートなやり方」のように人の行動に対して使う場合は clever, intelligent な意味になりますこの用法はよく使われます

玉と球

Question about Japanese
What is the difference between 玉 and 球?

球 means a ball, which is used for throwing or hitting. So almost all kind sof ball sports are named by using "球".
Such as:
野球 baseball
蹴球 soccer
籠球 basketball
水球 water polo
排球 volleyball
撞球 billiards
(The pronunciation of "球" is "きゅう(kyuu)" for above all cases).

Originally, in ancient Japan, 玉 meant jewel (ex. jasper, jade stone ).
玉 is pronounced as "ぎょく(gyoku)" for this meaning.

In the old days in Japan, jewels were cut, ground and polished as round shape.
So the word 玉 got a new meaning of "round shaped thing". The pronunciation is "たま(tama)" for this meaning.

Compared to 球, there are some differences.

球 is more rounded, more ball like shape.
玉's shapes are more freestyle. Include not ball like shape, such as: a teardrop, a curved teardrop ( you can see examples of curved teardrop shaped 玉's at the URL https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=%E7%8E%89&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=939&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizlL-7mL7OAhUDE5QKHbzGCR4Q_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=%E5%8B%BE%E7%8E%89 ), or oval shape, and so on.

調整 and 調節

Question about Japanese
What is the difference between 調整 and 調節?


Answer:
I hope the following example will help you understand the difference between 調整 and 調節.

The meanings of 調整 and 調節 are very close. I looked up both words in a dictionary, and found the same translation, "control, adjust, regulate" for both.
But they are not identical. The major difference is:

調整 has the meaning of "negotiation", but 調節 doesn't.

Imagine that you are driving two of your friends to some airport.
If friend A requested you to speed up, while friend B wanted you to drive slowly, there is a conflict of opinion. "調整" is used in such a case.

友人Aはスピードを上げることを望んだけれど、友人Bは安全運転でゆっくり行くことを求めた。
そこで私は2人の意見を調整して、時速80kmぐらいで走ることに決めた。

In this case, "調節" is not suitable. Only "調整" fits the context.

After the negotiation, you decided to drive at 80km/h.
Then you will control the accelerator pedal to go at 80km/h.
This operation is not a negotiation. So "調節" is natural for describing that.

「調整」は、「行き過ぎを抑える」という意味で使われることもあります。

Imagine that there are some movements, such as:

Urbanization of rural areas.
Flow of a river.

When these movements are progressing too rapidly, the administrator of that must take a measure to slow them down.

"調整" can be used in this situation. "調節" can't.

In such a situation, "調整" means "slow down".

友達 and 仲間

Question about Japanese
What is the difference between 友達 and 仲間?

Answer:
The meanings of those words are very close.

If a group of people has common aim, and if they cooperate together for getting the goal, 仲間 is more suitable.

What does 対 mean?

Question about Japanese
What does 対 mean?

Answer:

たい versus
つい pair

Additionally, "対" has several different meanings depends on the contexts.

[about]
この議題に対して何か意見はありませんか?
Do you have any opinion about this issue?

[anti, against]
対戦車ミサイル
Antitank missile
万人の万人に対する戦い
The war of all against all

[whereas, while]
彼が南に向かったのに対して、彼女は西へ歩いていった。
She walked toward the west, whereas he went to the south.

causative sentences

Question about Japanese
How do you know the difference between "make somebody do" and "let somebody do" using causative sentences in Japanese.

Ex: お母さんは子供に本を読ませた

(The mother made/let her child read the book)

Answer:
It's impossible. More information is needed to distinguish that.
If you want to tell the difference clearly, please read the examples below.

お母さんは子供が本を読むことを許した。
The mother let her child read the book.

お母さんは子供に本を読むように命じた。
The mother made her child read the book.