New Maggi’s Room (2024)

Hi everyone! Thank you for visiting Maggie’s room.  Feel free to leave a message (Even just say Hello! 👋 )  I don’t do translations, check your long writing or help your homework for school here but I can answer one or two simple Japanese questions. Love you all! 🐶❤️

70 Comments

  1. Good evening Maggie.
    1) 画像 means still image (In real life and on the internet)?
    2) In the following sentence: 伝説の最後の部分は後世付け加えられたものだ。, should 後世に be used instead of just 後世?

  2. Good evening Maggie. I came across the kanji 無造作 and am having difficulty with its second meaning. It’s second meaning basically means: Casual or careless, right?

    1. Hi Leonardo

      Yes. You usually use that word with に as an adverb
      無造作に + verb (to do something casually, carelessly)

      Ex. 無造作に置く = to put something carelessly

  3. Good evening Maggie. I would like you to translate the following sentence: あらかじめ計画して人を殺すこと。

    1. Hi Fernando

      あらかじめ計画する means to plan beforehand
      So あらかじめ計画して人を殺すこと means to kill someone with prior planning.( = premeditated murder)

  4. Good evening, Maggie. I was researching the meaning of 中庸 and I saw on a website that one of its meanings is To be ordinary. Is this correct?

    1. Hi Iraci
      中庸 (ちゅうよう) is a word originating from Confucian philosophy. Though it is not commonly used in daily conversation, it means being balanced and harmonious.

  5. Good evening Maggie,

    1) What does 得意とする mean?
    2) Does そこら mean anywhere or everywhere?

    1. HI Matheus

      1) to be good at, to be skilled at
      2) そこら(辺) =thereabouts (an unspecified location near the speaker)
      Idiom そんじゅそこらの = ordinary/run-of-the-mill
      →Sometimes you skip そんじゅ = そこらの + noun = something or someone that is not special or remarkable

      1. Thanks for the response, Maggie. But I have a few more questions. What does: 幸せを100%する and 100%の確率で mean?

        1. Hi Matheus

          幸せを100%する You don’t say 幸せを する
          I think it is missing something in this sentence. Ex. 幸せを100%ものにする/確約する etc.

          Or 幸せに100%する = to make someone happy 100 %

          100%の確率で   with a 100% probability ・ with a 100% chance
          →確実に = surely/without fail

  6. Good evening Maggie, I have some questions.

    When I researched the kanji すする I found the following definitions: 液状のものを吸い込むようにして口の中に入れる and 音を立てて少しずつ口に吸い込む。Which would be the most correct?
    What is the most correct reading of 荒野? I found three different readings.
    What does 可憐 mean?

    1. Hello Pedro
      すする: Both. You can slurp noodles, hot soup with or without making a slurping sound.
      荒野 = You can read it こうや/あらの. I think こうや is more common
      可憐 = かれん = pretty/lovely/sweet (It describes delicate beauty or innocence.)

  7. こんばんは、マギー先生。

    Is the tai form of verbs essentially an i-adjective? I came across the phrase “読みたくなった” (started wanting/came to want to read?) which made me think of the adj + なる/する lesson. Can you also then do たい+する, like 食べたくした (made me want to eat)?

    1. Hi Terry

      Sorry. I answered your question once yesterday but I misunderstood what you meant by ” the tai form of verbs essentially an i-adjective? ” part. So let me try again.

      When you use なりたい/したい with adjectives,

      かわいくなりたい = I want to be cuter

      かわいくしたい = I want to make something/someone cuter.

      Verb + たい

      読みたい / 食べたい

      When you express the change of your feelings,

      → 読みたくなる/食べたくなる (past tense) 読みたくなった/食べたくなった

      Since Verbたい is one’s spontaneous desire and you can’t control someone’s desire
      you don’t say
      X たべたくした (not natural)

      1. That makes sense. So is there an equivalent in Japanese to saying “____ makes me want to _____”? ie. “The smell of food makes me want to eat,” or “Reading books makes me want to write.” I guess for the first you could say something like ご飯の香りだから食べたくなる, but what about the second? Is there a grammatical structure that handles both? ありがとうございます。

        1. The common patterns are
          Vたら/Vていたら〜たくなる/なった
          Vと〜たくなる/たくなった
          The smell of food makes me want to eat
          食べ物の香りで食べたくなる
          食べ物の香りが食欲をそそる。
          Or I would say いい匂いで食べたくなる。
          Reading books makes me want to write.
          本を読むと/読書をすると書きたくなる。

  8. 1) Is the Kanji 美貌 only used for face or does it refer to face and body?
    2) Is the Kanji 顔かたち only used for face or does it refer to face and body?

  9. こんにちは先生。

    My bf was talking to me in Japanese using Google translate, and he said “なんと面倒なことだろう.” I could get what he was trying to say but the なんと part specifically is confusing? It’s “what” with と quotation particle, right? Like in 何と言う? So how does it make sense?

    1. こんにちは、Terry

      なんと/なんて〜だろう/でしょう is a pattern of exclamatory sentence and it means “What a ~/ How ~!”
      Actually you don’t use it in conversation so much because it sounds too dramatic but you may see in a written form
      especially when you translate English sentences, such as
      What a nice person you are./How nice of you! なんて親切な人だろう。
      What a surprise! なんという驚きだ

      Again, it is very rare to hear this in daily conversation.
      You just say ああ、面倒くさい。 = It’s such a pain. instead of なんと面倒なことだろう

      1. そうですか。Goes to show computer translations still aren’t great with nuance :P ありがとうごさいます。

  10. Good evening Maggie. I have a question about the kanji 出頭. This kanji means: Some person going anywhere or some person, specifically, going to court, government office, etc.

  11. Hi Maggie-sensei. I don’t have any question, I just want to thank you for creating this super helpful site. I managed to pass N3 this year, thanks to your fun and clear (and cute!) explanations of scary Japanese grammar rules (lol) ^_^ ありがとうございます!これからもよろしくお願いします。

    1. Hello Noi
      Thank you for your kind words.
      そして、N3合格おめでとうございます!!! 私もうれしいです!!
      こちらこそこれからもよろしくお願いします。🐶❤️

  12. Good evening Maggie. I have a question about the kanji 一言
    Does this kanji mean both “a word” and “a short phrase”?

    1. Hi Breano
      Yes, that’s right. It means “a word” but you can use it for a few words/brief speech
      一言で言うと = If I put it in one word ~
      一言言ってもいいですか? = Can I say something? / Can I say a few words?
      一言、スピーチをお願いします。= Could you give a brief speech?

  13. Good evening Maggie. I have doubts about some phrases.
    1) Does the 政府役人 part of the sentence 政府役人の豪邸が略奪された make sense? I searched but couldn’t find anything on the subject.
    2) What is the function of として in words like 突如として? From what I researched, 突如として and 突如 have the same meaning.

    1. Hi Daniel
      1) Yes, it make sense. It is talking about a mansion ( = 豪邸) and the mansion belongs to 政府役人 = 政府の役人 = government official

      2) 突如として is an expression, suddenly and you can use it without として
      So you are right. They have the same meaning. ~として is a more formal expression.

      1. Good evening Maggie. Thanks for the answer.

        But I have one more doubt. I came across the adjective 漠然とした and realized that it means vague. What is the difference between using として or とした after an adjective?

        1. Hello again Daniel
          The difference between として and とした
          〜とした + noun
          Ex. 漠然とした態度
          ~として + verb/sentence
          Ex. ( ~は、)漠然としている

  14. Good evening Maggie. I would like to know what the function of どの is in the following sentence: どの群れにも必ず黒い羊がいる.

      1. Thanks for the response Maggie. But I still have a doubt. I thought どの meant which or which way. Why was this sentence translated the way you did?

        1. You are right. どの means “which” but どの (dono) can be used as “which” or “any/every,” depending on the context.
          Ex. どの国もインフレに苦しんでいる。 Every country is suffering from inflation.
          Ex. このレストランは、どの料理も美味しい。Every dish at this restaurant is delicious

  15. こんにちは先生。
    Since potential verb form is the same as passive verb form, how would you make a both potential and passive verb?
    Example sentence: He can’t be stopped.
    Something like 止められることをできない?? Seems weird. How do you do it?

    1. こんにちは、Terry
      I would say it is not common to use passive form + できない because it looks/sounds confusing.
      He can’t be stopped. : The most natural way to say this in Japanese is to say would be
      “I/We can’t stop him.”
      →彼を止められない or 彼を止めることはできない (Nobody can stop him.”誰も彼を止められない・誰も彼を止めることはできない)
      If you want to use a passive form, it is a less direct but you say
      彼は止めらることはない

  16. Good evening Maggie. I discovered the following phrase 三角形で、先がとても鋭利な形状だ。and I had some doubts.

    1) Does this sentence make sense grammatically?
    2) I translated this sentence as: It has a triangular shape and the ends are quite sharp. Is this translation correct?

  17. I was having trouble understanding what 言う辺り means in this sentence from a popular light novel- なんでもないことのように言うあたりが、とても思いつきの噓に思えずロレンスはか固唾を飲んでしまったが、ハッとしてホロの口元に目をやった

    Thank you in advance

  18. Hi Maggie Sensei, I’ve been studying Japanese for 3 years now. My current book at school is TRY N2 (although I don’t feel at all I am N2, not even N3).

    I have a question regarding the structure of Japanese grammar. Basically TRY and also other books I have seen don’t really teach you grammar as in western languages. Rather, it is full of this forms (e.g. niyotte, nitotte, nitaishite, monda, bakarida, etc.) that sound very much like idiomatic expressions to me.

    So far everything looks very random, which makes it also more difficult to learn and memorize.

    Are those “expressions” qualified collectively somehow? And is there any actual classification/categorization or any booklet summarizing them in a structured way (e.g. by topic, use, scope) to make it easier to memorize?

    Thank you in advance!

    1. Hi Kuki
      First of all, I apologize. I have to admit, my site is pretty random 😆, but I believe there are many excellent Japanese learning sites that provide good classification and categorization in a structured way.

      I think many of them are categorized by JLPT level. So, JLPT websites or textbooks might offer better categorization.

      Learning Japanese grammar could be quite different from learning Western languages. In Western languages, grammar is often taught separately from vocabulary and expressions, focusing on things like tense and conjugation, conditional forms at different levels. But with Japanese, especially in JLPT study materials, the focus is not just on grammar but also on using expressions effectively.
      I understand it could be confusing, but I believe that if you already know the basic grammar, all you need to do is to build complicated sentences and increase your range of expressions, which would help.

      1. Hi thank you for your kind reply. Just to be clear, I wasn’t referring to your site but to the textbooks, I find them pretty random, which is surprising for a textbook imho!

  19. Good evening Maggie. I was looking at the definition of 風格 and came across the following definition: 味わい。趣。
    Can you tell me what it means? I’m trying to find out but I’m not having any success.

    1. 風格
      If you are talking about a person,
      あの人は風格がある
      He/She has a presence. (to have dignified presence)
      You can also describe classy buildings, houses, area, streets with 風格

      味わいがある/趣がある
      You don’t usually use these words to describe a person.
      味わいがある = the place has got a style
      趣がある = quaint

      1. So, if I understand correctly, 風格 and 味わい have the same meaning, but 風格 refers to people and things while 味わい mainly refers to things.

  20. Good evening Maggie. I would like to know if the following sentence is grammatically correct: 彼女は亡くなった夫の冷凍精子を用いて受精した。

  21. Maggie Sensei, あけましておめでとうございます。(.. if it is not too late to say this).

    Would you be interested in reading about some of my most recent language learning experiences in Japan? I think you will find it interesting. I don’t think it would be appropriate to post it here. I could send to your email address (which I already have), if that is OK. Then you can read at your leisure, whenever you have some time.

    Michael

    1. Hi Michael

      あけましておめでとうございます!
      Yes, I’d love to read your experiences. Sent it by email.
      楽しみにしています。

      Maggie

  22. just found out this website, i think is really wholesome that youve been doing this for so long , you can tell when someone puts love in what they do. thanks for your work, ill check some of your lessons.

  23. Good evening Maggie. I came across the following phrase: 幽閉 – ある場所に閉じこめて外に出さないこと。and I had some doubts.
    1) In this sentence, is 外に read as ほかに or そとに?
    2) When do I use 外に (ほかに) instead of 外に (そとに)? Can you give me an example?
    3) I searched the internet and discovered on a website the following word 外に出さない. Is this an expression?

    1. Hi Angelo

      The meaning of 幽閉/閉じ込めること is confinement/lock ~ in
      外に出さない = そとにださない = Not let that person outside
      It is not a set expression but 外 means outside so you can figure out the meaning.
      ほか: When you use this word as “others/another”, you use the kanji 他
      You read 外, ほか in expressions like

      思いの外 = おもいのほか = unexpectedly.

  24. Good afternoon Maggie. I have some questions that I would like you to answer.

    1) In the sentence この問題が解けなかったら、罰ゲームが待っていますよ!, the verb 解けなかったら is derived from 解ける or解く? I’m having trouble figuring this out.

    2) In the sentence もうお利口さんにしないとお仕置きしますよ。, what is the function of しない? I researched and I think it has the function of: to serve as; to act as; to work as; , but I’m not sure and would like confirmation.

    1. Hello Matheus,

      1) 解けなかったら is from 解ける (to be able to solve)
      解ける is a potential form of 解く
      問題が解ける/解けない (can solve/can’t solve)
      問題を解く/解かない (involves one’s will)

      If you use the verb form 解く, the sentence will be
      この問題を解かなかったら 〜

      2) That する/しない means “to (try) be/act/behave”
      お利口さんにする = to be good/behave well

    1. Happy New Year Maggie Sensei! Thanks for all you do for us!

      I hope this is the year we all finally achieve our New Year’s resolutions! (Mine is learning Japanese…and then becoming a host for a kids TV show that teaches English! Dream big! XD)

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