vocabulary questions

[Sashimister]

Originally Posted by pacerier

thanks for the clarification regarding 暑い and 暖かい. i've got that info from a book, but i'd guess its inaccurate. anyway it wrote something like this: "When 暑い is used for the weather, it normally has a negative connotation such that it is too hot to stand"

I already said "no connotations" like three times in my last post, so I won't say it again. Some people even like it to be hot.　I myself hate going to the beach on not-so-hot days.

The phrase "It's hot today." doesn't always mean "Damn, it's too f**ing hot today", does it? It's the context and/or the speaker's way of saying the word "hot" including his facial expression that can give a negative connotation. It isn't the word 暑い.

Also, in the same book, i found this sentence: この映画は全然面白い and the translation they gave was “This movie is very interesting”. But I’d thought that 全然 can only be used for negative sentences, so i was wondering if this usage is common.

It's common in colloquial/slanguish speech among younger people but it's obviously too early for you to learn it. You use that sentence in a compo and every single teacher in Japan will correct it. That usage didn't even exist 25 years ago, and you never know how long more it lasts.

Other than that, is it true that although ゆっくりした田舎の生活 and のんびりした田舎の生活 means a “slow-paced country life”, using のんびりし shows an attached “good” meaning (slow and peaceful)?

True. The second one is more natural and much more common.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by Sashimister

I already said "no connotations" like three times in my last post, so I won't say it again. Some people even like it to be hot.　I myself hate going to the beach on not-so-hot days.

The phrase "It's hot today." doesn't always mean "Damn, it's too f**ing hot today", does it? It's the context and/or the speaker's way of saying the word "hot" including his facial expression that can give a negative connotation. It isn't the word 暑い.

Haha, maybe OP is from up north and really hates the heat and doesn't understand our love for it!

[pacerier]

You use that sentence in a compo and every single teacher in Japan will correct it. That usage didn't even exist 25 years ago, and you never know how long more it lasts.

ok thanks for the caution, i will use とても instead when its not a negative statement.

Haha, maybe OP is from up north and really hates the heat and doesn't understand our love for it!

hehe i sure do hate the heat, here in singapore we get hot weather 365 days a year argh



btw, if someone is holding on to me and i shout はなしてくれ, would that be 離してくれ or 放してくれ?

also, is it true that 単語 is an abstract entity of a word and 字 is a physical entity of a word? E.g. if i want to look up a word in a dictionary it is 辞書で単語を調べる, but if i were to say the dictionary has 500 words it will be 辞書に字が５００ある?

[Sashimister]

Originally Posted by pacerier

btw, if someone is holding on to me and i shout はなしてくれ, would that be 離してくれ or 放してくれ?

放してくれ

also, is it true that 単語 is an abstract entity of a word and 字 is a physical entity of a word? E.g. if i want to look up a word in a dictionary it is 辞書で単語を調べる, but if i were to say the dictionary has 500 words it will be 辞書に字が５００ある?

辞書で単語を調べる is good. We use ことば just as often, though.

辞書に字が５００ある sounds very wrong. That would be 単語.

[pacerier]

oic, anyway i was wondering how will the "word-length" of a japanese essay be counted? (like in english, if i were to say a 1500 word essay, its very easy to count each word individually and add up the total)


also, when we send a (written) invitation to someone, what’s the difference in nuance between 招待状を送る and 招待状を発送する, or is there no difference?
and when we receive the invitation, which would be appropriate: 招待状を受け取る or 招待状をもらう?

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by pacerier

oic, anyway i was wondering how will the "word-length" of a japanese essay be counted? (like in english, if i were to say a 1500 word essay, its very easy to count each word individually and add up the total)


also, when we send a (written) invitation to someone, what’s the difference in nuance between 招待状を送る and 招待状を発送する, or is there no difference?
and when we receive the invitation, which would be appropriate: 招待状を受け取る or 招待状をもらう?

There's no such thing as word length in Japan. Character count is the metric in Japan.

And 発送する is more formal than 送る. The first is an example of 漢語 or something (I think that's the term for this). Whatever this class of verb is called, it's almost always KANJI+KANJI+する, and it's more formal than the "native Japanese" verb.

It's exactly like the relationship between Latin and Germanic words in English.
"poop" vs "feces"
"chew" vs "masticate"
"blow up" vs "inflate"
etc.

[Sashimister]

Originally Posted by pacerier

oic, anyway i was wondering how will the "word-length" of a japanese essay be counted? (like in english, if i were to say a 1500 word essay, its very easy to count each word individually and add up the total)

lol The system is much easier in Japanese than in English. In Japanese, you just count the 字, not the words. The Composition Paper used in schools is already devided into 400 spaces. The teacher just tells you how many pages s/he wants you to write.

also, when we send a (written) invitation to someone, what’s the difference in nuance between 招待状を送る and 招待状を発送する, or is there no difference?
and when we receive the invitation, which would be appropriate: 招待状を受け取る or 招待状をもらう?

送る sounds less formal than 発送する.
発送する sounds colder and more business-like than　送る.

受け取る simply means "I'm in receipt of ~~." It can (but not always) sound cold.
もらう has a connotation that "you are happy" to receive ~~.

[pacerier]

cool, does it mean that when talking to friends we will hardly use the kanji + kanji +する type of verbs?

also, i was wondering is it true that workers in government industries like schools, post offices, theme parks, hospitals, transport services like bus, train, taxis etc, will be called 職員. and workers of private companies will be called 社員?

[Sashimister]

Originally Posted by pacerier

cool, does it mean that when talking to friends we will hardly use the kanji + kanji +する type of verbs?

No. It Isn't all that simple. You're over-generalizing.

also, i was wondering is it true that workers in government industries like schools, post offices, theme parks, hospitals, transport services like bus, train, taxis etc, will be called 職員. and workers of private companies will be called 社員?

No. Who told you that? Both are used in private companies.

FYI, in Japan, the Post Office is no longer operated by the government. Very few theme parks are, too.

[pacerier]

FYI, in Japan, the Post Office is no longer operated by the government. Very few theme parks are, too.

cool =) i didn't know that. anyways, what may be the primary difference between 社員 and 職員?


Also, is 毎年 more commonly read as まいとし or まいねん? And if we have 毎年毎年 to mean “year after year”, will it be read as まいとしまいとし or まいねんまいねん. Similarly, what’s the preferred pronounciation for 毎月 (まいげつ / まいつき) and 毎月毎月.