Japanese language help!

[Kinsora]

Originally Posted by Harold

Polite ≠ Formal!

how does that work? 私に、ご利用の理由を説明する。

[CaptainThunder]

Originally Posted by Kinsora

how does that work? 私に、ご利用の理由を説明する。

To give an example, speaking with a teacher would be a polite situation, while delivering a speech to a company would be a formal situation.

I believe what we're getting at is that the ます form is for normal, everyday politeness, while truly formal situations call for keigo.

[m4x30000]

thanks for all your help, it's really appreciated!!

I pretty much get all of it now, but 2 things still bothers me :

1. I can't find 「合 (あ) っている」in any dictionary ? What is the root of the verb, or asked in another way, 合って is the -te form of which verb ?
2. In the second sentence, I get the missing い but what about the ん before 「です」 ? ... 今日本にすんでいるんですか ... is it just a matter of pronunciation ?

[Lucas89]

合って is the て form of 合う

And the ん before です is just short for の, which you will hear alot in speech just like the missing い in いる or います

Edit:
Another thing that caught me out the first time i saw it was the same thing but for nouns and -na adjectives.
So you might see for example

学生なんだ or 静かなんだ

Although those are obviously not full sentences, 学生 being a noun and 静か being a -na adjective they have to use なの instead of just の after them, so again the の can be shortened to ん to make なん

if you don't do this it could change the meaning.

学生なんだ - He/She/It/Whatever is a student.
学生のだ - It is student's (The possessive の)

I'm not sure if i have explained very well so maybe someone else will do a better job

[chryuop]

The thing of the なの is easily explanaible. Nouns and na-adjectives cannot have a predicative form on the contrary of true adjectives. Knowing this, you will understand that 学生 is not a proper grammar, but it must be 学生だ. Grammatically when you have だ preceeding の it becomes な (maybe a native speaker can be more precise on the reasons).

(Just to complete more what Lucas' s point was).

[KyleGoetz]

chryuop I'm not sure what you're getting at. Are you saying that だの (だ preceeding の like you said) must become だな? That doesn't make any sense.

And note that 学生なのだ and 学生のだ are completely different constructions. The former means "He/she/it is a student," while the latter means "It is the student's [thing]."

[chryuop]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

chryuop I'm not sure what you're getting at. Are you saying that だの (だ preceeding の like you said) must become だな? That doesn't make any sense.

And note that 学生なのだ and 学生のだ are completely different constructions. The former means "He/she/it is a student," while the latter means "It is the student's [thing]."

No I was saying that as far as I know だの is not correct. The more formal 先生ですか would become informal 先生なの. It is the だ which changes into な and not the の.