Ask anything about Japanese language - 日本語ã

[c-square]

I have a question again. It's about kon'na, son'na, an'na ("like this/that/that").
I wanted to say "I don't know anything like this", with this referring to a certain category of websites.
My first thought was "Boku wa kon'na saito wo shitteimasen". Then I thought: Since I don't know about it, wouldn't by weird to use "kon'na"? And I went for "Boku wa an'na saito wo shitteimasen".
Seems like both were wrong, 'cause I was told I should use son'na in that case. Why's that? 
Kon'na is for something near me, so it seems logical to me. But an'na seems to fit better because I was talking about a concept unknown to me. Why both are wrong and I should use son'na? It was supposed to be used about something close to the listener and it certainly wasn't. 

From what I understand, kon'na is for something close to you, son'na is for something a distance away, and an'na is for something hypothetical or at a very far distance.  Thus, "Boku wa kon'na saito wo shitteimasen" means "I don't know about a site like this specific one", "Boku wa son'na saito wo shitteimasen" means "I don't know about that kind of site", and "Boku wa an'na saito wo shitteimasen" means "I don't know about those sorts of site-things".  Another way to look at it is, kon'na is used for something at hand, an'na is used for something totally detached from yourself, and son'na is used for all the rest.

[gisaku-chan]

Wow, I have learned a lot from this thread.


Oh, I have a question. So I'm currently studying Kanji right now, and I'm finished with all 80 Grade 1 Kanji. But, I can't progress to Grade 2 Kanji because I still can't memorize the on-reading and kun-reading of all the 80 Grade 1 Kanji. On-reading (On-yama) is the Chinese reading of the character while Kun-reading (kun-yama) is the native Japanese reading. Now, what bothers me the most is, how do I know when to use the on-reading and kun-reading?

Ex.  æ°´ = water (on-reading: sui ; kun-reading: mizu)

水曜日 - suiyobi (Wednesday)

水色 - mizuiro (light blue)

Why is it that we used different readings on each word?

[meidei]

Thanks c-square. It's a bit clearer now.

gisaku-chan, the only way is to memorize every compound as a new vocabulary item. There's a limited regularity in kanji readings. After a certain point you will fall in chaos if you try to but rules in everything.

[gisaku-chan]

gisaku-chan, the only way is to memorize every compound as a new vocabulary item. There's a limited regularity in kanji readings. After a certain point you will fall in chaos if you try to but rules in everything.

What do you mean by compounds? Is it the on/kun reading?

[meidei]

I call compound any word that is made by 2 or more kanji. Scientists may disagree but that's how I call it.
水色 is a weak compound. It doesn't form a new word. So it goes with KUN-KUN. mizu-iro
水曜 is a strong compound. It forms a new word, so it's ON-ON. SUI-YOU
But there are words which are ON-KYN, KUN-ON, KUN-ON-KUN etc.

[Tanner-kun]

I was woundering how my name would be in japanese.

Tanner.

[meidei]

I was woundering how my name would be in japanese.

Tanner.

タンナー
Tan'naa

[Kor]

Is there something with the R sound and the L sound in japanese that is different from the western languages?

[meidei]

Is there something with the R sound and the L sound in japanese that is different from the western languages?

Yep. What we represent in romanization with R or L, is not a single phoneme in Japanese, but a group of allophones.
It freely varies between /ɽ/, /ɾ/, /ɺ/ and non-native speakers may pronounce it as /ɹ/, /ɻ/ or even /l/ as well.

[Callid]

Is there something with the R sound and the L sound in japanese that is different from the western languages?

Yep. What we represent in romanization with R or L, is not a single phoneme in Japanese, but a group of allophones.
It freely varies between /ɽ/, /ɾ/, /ɺ/ and non-native speakers may pronounce it as /ɹ/, /ɻ/ or even /l/ as well.

... or might pronounce it as /r/, /Ê€/ or /Ê

[meidei]

I did a bit of research online and I found that German painter's Franz Marc name is transcribed as フランツ・マルク in katakana.
In roomaji: Furantsu - Maruku

Ref:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%83%84%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9E%E3%83%AB%E3%82%AF

[Callid]

I did a bit of research online and I found that German painter's Franz Marc name is transcribed as フランツ・マルク in katakana.
In roomaji: Furantsu - Maruku

Ref:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%83%84%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9E%E3%83%AB%E3%82%AF

OK, thanks.

[Tanner-kun]

I was woundering how my name would be in japanese.

Tanner.

タンナー
Tan'naa

I don't know why but it sounds weird for a name.

[nomemory]

How important is it to use suffix, like kun, chan, san and so on and why do Hattori say Ran-neechan, isn't that for women who are older than you? And finally what does "noda" mean

[meidei]

How important is it to use suffix, like kun, chan, san and so on and why do Hattori say Ran-neechan, isn't that for women who are older than you? And finally what does "noda" mean

It's too complicated to describe the various nuances of the Japanese honorific name suffixes. You can look it up on Wikipedia though, there is an article on them. It's not uncommon for an older man to call young men and women as nii-san and nee-san to emphasize the age difference -especially nee-chan is suitable when older men (ie Mouri Kogorou) you are hitting young girls. Heiji's a special case because he's Osakan and his Japanese is weird 

noda ã