Japanese Questions

[harpoondude]

Ok, it seems I didn't read the forums properly. I'm really sorry, it seems for questions THIS is the forum to be in. This is the topic:

Reading and Writing Help

I'll quote what I wrote here if that's ok. If a mod can delete or... move the old post that would be great. Sorry once again.

Heya, thanks for offering your help!

There's just a few things I'm confused about. I'll just ask like, a couple of questions now and then. So I'll start with some really basic ones.

First is, Honorifics. When putting an o before Namae (なまえ) Correct me if the hiragana is wrong, but that makes it honorific. Just interested, what falls under the catagory of honorific. It only applies to people correct? But I can't use this infront of a persons name? So what else can I use it for? I wouldn't be able to use this with animals for example? Because from what I know Ookami (おおかみ) would become like, Oookami, and kami (which I believe is god) would become... wolf?

Secondly, the word Mate(matte?)(まあて). This means 'Too see' almost? Not literally eyesight but as in, 'to meet' 'to see'. Am I right to assume that?

Edit: Sorry not matte, matta. The reason I assume this is because 'dewa mata'(ではまた) means see you later. And because 'Mata ashita'（また明日） means see you tomorrow. The way I'm seeing it is that mata is 'too meet' and dewa is later and ashita is tomorrow. But thing is, dewa arimasen means something is 'not' something, so would that mean when you say:

Neko wa dewa arimasen

You are actually saying:

The cat is later not

Surely not? So what is the meaning of dewa? See, I'm in all these loopholes I'm so confused.

Another question. Why does 'dewa mata' have the mata at the end, and 'mata ashita' has it at the beginning? Does this have something to do with the meaning of dewa?

[Harold]

Originally Posted by harpoondude

Heya, thanks for offering your help!

There's just a few things I'm confused about. I'll just ask like, a couple of questions now and then. So I'll start with some really basic ones.

First is, Honorifics. When putting an o before Namae (なまえ) Correct me if the hiragana is wrong, but that makes it honorific. Just interested, what falls under the catagory of honorific. It only applies to people correct? But I can't use this infront of a persons name? So what else can I use it for? I wouldn't be able to use this with animals for example? Because from what I know Ookami (おおかみ) would become like, Oookami, and kami (which I believe is god) would become... wolf?

Secondly, the word Mate(matte?)(まあて). This means 'Too see' almost? Not literally eyesight but as in, 'to meet' 'to see'. Am I right to assume that?

Edit: Sorry not matte, matta. The reason I assume this is because 'dewa mata'(ではまた) means see you later. And because 'Mata ashita'（また明日） means see you tomorrow. The way I'm seeing it is that mata is 'too meet' and dewa is later and ashita is tomorrow. But thing is, dewa arimasen means something is 'not' something, so would that mean when you say:

Neko wa dewa arimasen

You are actually saying:

The cat is later not

Surely not? So what is the meaning of dewa? See, I'm in all these loopholes I'm so confused.

Another question. Why does 'dewa mata' have the mata at the end, and 'mata ashita' has it at the beginning? Does this have something to do with the meaning of dewa?

Huh?! You are making somethings things too hard and complicated.

For honorifics, you just have to know what words can have an お at the front of them, like お名前 and お皿. I haven't heard anyone put お in front of オオカミ... For people, you should use さん, 先生,　さま, and so on.

Mate, matte, mata, and matta all mean different things.
Mate - not a word
Matte - this means "wait!'
mata - this means "again," it doesn't mean to meet (where did you find this?)
matta - this means "I waited"

dewa means like "well then"
so, in English,　ではまた明日 means, "well then, again tomorrow." which can be better translated as, "see you tomorrow."

You shouldn't really split ではありません into two words... I don't know if there's any lingual reason for it, but it just means "is not."

Neko wa dewa arimasen -> Neko dewa arimasen
The first sentence means, "The cat is not." which doesn't make much sense. The second sentence means it is not a cat. Do you see the difference?

Hope this helped!

[harpoondude]

Ahhhhh. Sorry, it's just that some of the grammer guides online aren't exactly... ok well they don't explain. They just tell you something and theres no real breakdown of what it is. If I paste what I read:

"Dewa mata（ではまた）" is also often used as "see you later", similar to the English expression.

How about "See you tomorrow"? "Tomorrow" is "ashita（明日）" in Japanese. I think you can guess what the the answer is: "Mata ashita（また明日）".

I hope you can practice these greetings. I am going to tell you one more phrase, "Mata raishuu（また来週）". This means "See you next week".

In the second paragraph the writer assumed you know what he's talking about. Which I do not as he hasn't really broken it down for me. If I had just started learning, I would've just assumed 'dewa mata' was the way it was always said. It's just because I noticed the word in 'is not' as you said.

I assumed that because only 2 words were being used. I figured it was translating as 'tomorrow we meet' 'next week we meet' 'later we meet'. Thanks for the help!

Looks like I need a better resource rofl. Happen to know any GOOD japanese website?

Edit: Why is the hiragana for 'ha'(は) used instaid of 'wa'(わ) in 'ではありません'. Sorry, I'm a little bit confused by all of this. And learning the kana is meant to be easier than the language lol.

[chryuop]

Try these two sites, they are rather good.
Tae Kim's Japanese guide to Japanese grammar
Japanese-Online.com ::: Online Japanese Language & Culture Resource Community :::

They have both good grammar reviews.