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masaegu (Offline)
永遠の愛
 
Posts: 2,573
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Central Tokyo
05-01-2011, 05:13 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by StonerPenguin View Post
I have another question on the same topic. How do you say "I'm not really sure what you're trying to say. Could you write it in Japanese too please?" Is 「英語も書いてくださいませんか。」too formal? (TBH I'm not sure where to even begin on the first sentence...)
Japanese or 英語?

「くださいませんか」 sure is formal. but it's hard to decide how formal or informal I should go because i just don't know how the two of you have been speaking to each other.

「ごめんなさい。意味が分かりません。英語でも書いて もらえませんか。」 = nice and polite without being overly formal.

「ごめん。意味わかんない。英語でも書いてくれる?」 = casual and friendly if you guys have already been that close.

Important thing is to add 「で」.

Quote:
I don't want to be discouraging though. If you could help me soften it up、 I'd appreciate it
For example, this guy is writing a blog about how he recently started learning Chinese and he wrote "It yet has been a week to study chinese." I think he's trying to say "It's already been a week since I started studying Chinese." I have a feeling he translated もう as "yet" but he only wrote in English so I'm just guessing here.
He must have wanted to say まだ rather than もう. Had he written in Japanese, he would have probably said:
「中国語の勉強を始めてまだ一週間なんです。」

If you use もう(already), you are saying you think a week is a long time. Use まだ(only), and the reader will know you think it's a short time.


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