The illiterate fan fic writer has me on the wall again.

今、ナズを見失うと、二度と心通わないような気がした 。

I want to translate this as "If I lose sight of Nazu, I felt my heart would never waver again," except the story's more or less made it clear that his heart is never going to waver no matter what happens next. And he's mixing his tenses. And he never loses sight of her, if it matters.

Then there's this one: It's a girl talking to a guy. She loves him. He loves someone else, and tells her about it. This is her summarizing what came after.

そして君の告白を聞いてもう無理だった。 気がつくと君を誘惑した。 幸せだった。ずっと君の傍に居たいと思っていたから。 その幸せを手放す事は出来なかった。 だからあんな約束をした

Two things:
1. The 気がつくと is a different tense than the rest of it, and
2. what she describes comes out of order. He confesses, they make a promise together, and then she seduces him. But she describes it as he confesses, she seduces him, and the result is why she made the promise.

I want to believe that there's a secret to the と particle that unravels everything for both of these sentences. Otherwise, I'm lost.

「今、ナズを見失うと、二度と心通わないような気がし た 。」 is actually a good sentence. The author is a poor writer as I stated clearly last time but he could not be writing every sentence terribly. It may look to you as if he were mixing tenses but he is not. The reason that you feel he is is that you are translating word for word into a language that is not even remotely related to Japanese. 　

Perhaps the word 「今」 got you confused. Unlearn "今 = now"　now. 今 refers to the moment in the past when he felt this way, not the very moment that he is writing about it. Let me give you the best free piece of advice that I have given in weeks here. Whenever you feel like you are seeing a tense mix-up in Japanese, pretend there is a hidden direct quote in the sentence.

Pretend this is what you are seeing:
『今、ナズを見失うと、二度と心通わない』ような気が した 。

If your Japanese is good enough to be reading a fan fic, I am certain that you can see exactly what I am trying to say here.

BTW, 二度と心通わない does NOT mean what you said. It means "we will not be able to understand and love each other again." This is Reason #2 that prevented you from comprehending this sentence.
_____________

Before attempting to answer your question. I must ask this. Does it actually say 「気がつくと君を誘惑した。」? It is not a natural-sounding phrase. 「気が付くと」 should be followed by 「していた」.

1. There is no tense problem with 気がつくと. None. Give up super-direct translation.

2. It does not say that making the promise was the last thing she did.

「と」　is used for a different meaning in each sentence.
今、ナズを見失うと = if
気がつくと = before I knew it

Yes, yes I do. Thank you.

The only reason actually. The whole sentence fits a pattern I'm used to when I know the right meaning. Funny that.
_____________
You're right. It's していた. I edited out the parts I'm too embarrassed to admit to reading and got too aggressive. It was originally して and then... some explicit bits... ¬.¬

Is that an idiom or is there a pattern I don't know?

PS: I'm an utter fake. I have two semesters of Japanese, a dictionary, a grammar, the Tanaka corpus for reference, and a lot of patience. The illustrations on this story generated a lot of WTF among my friends and I'm still the one with the most Japanese skill, so I'm slugging through it. The pictures were so innocent, the story is so :o

Thank you for your help, as usual.

No, it's just a more natural way to express the literal meaning of the sentence in English. If we take a look at the phrases「ナズを見失うと、二度と…」 and 「気がつくと君を誘惑していた」 we find no crucial difference in Japanese.
Also recall that is more a "when"-if than a "conditional-if."

気がつくと君を誘惑していた => I come to my senses and I was seducing you. => When I came to my senses, I... => Before I knew it, I...

How old do I sound like?
 

私の声は何才のように聞こえますか?

is this right?

You don’t need that "のように". If anything, you can exchange it for "ぐらい"。

One more then?
行動に移さないご主人様が悪いと自己正当して、ご主人 様も傷つけたんだ。
I have some sort of mental block with that と particle. No matter how many explanations of it I read it fills me with dread when I see it, even though it should be very simple.

Start with the simplest phrases, then. Do you have trouble understanding these sentences? Would you have used 「と」 had it been you writing these? If not what would you have used?

「このピザはおいしいと思う。」
「スミスはハンサムだと思う。」
「『君は本当にきれいだ。』とボクはマリアに言った。」
「自分はバカだと感じている。」

「と」 is used for quoting speech, thoughts, sensations.
「と」 works sort of like, if not exactly like, "that" in phrases like:
"I feel that ~~~."
"Someone said that ~~~."
"You think that ~~."

In the sentence 「行動に移さないご主人様が悪いと自己正当して、ご主 人様も傷つけたんだ。」:

Someone 自己正当した that 行動に移さないご主人様が悪い and the same someone ご主人様も傷つけた.

I'm currently having trouble understanding some sentences.

1. http://i.imgur.com/iLsaU.jpg
I'm thinking of interpreting the line as "But I don't know whether it is because I can't see you as someone for romance or because of another reason", but I'm not really sure. Please correct me if I got it wrong.

2. http://i.imgur.com/jf9SJ.jpg
The word 肩 is bugging me a little. Can I take it that there were cherry blossom petals on Aoi's shoulders, and they fell after she had shouted the line out? Also, what would be a good English equivalent for 素っ頓狂 in this context?

のように→ぐらい『に』

「私の声は何才ぐらいに聞こえますか?」

I am unable to open your first link.

2. You are right about 「肩」. 素っ頓狂 here means "out of pitch" or "funny in the sense that her voice is out of pitch".

It's strange. The link is still working here. Maybe there are some technical problems with regions.

I hope this one will work.
http://i41.servimg.com/u/f41/11/31/41/30/ilsau10.jpg

Thanks. It opened.

Regarding your translation, I do not know where you get the "I don't know whether it is because " part. However, I do admit that the line is not easy to translate and one actually does need to use words that are not in the original.

My own TL:
"But I cannot see you, how should I put it, with romantic interest. To me, it would just be wrong if I did something like that."

Thanks a lot for your correction, masaegu :) That line looks nothing like in other languages that I know, so my guess was quite wild as you see.

Thank you. All of those make sense. And now so does the sentence I asked about.

I don't have anyone to speak Japanese with, so I would've had to fake it. For 1 and 2 I'd probably use a 私には to dodge the whole issue. Or 貴方には and then ですか, ですね, or なのか, or something. For 3, I'd've said something using って, freaked out when I realized it wasn't polite, stared blankly for 4 or 5 seconds, then said と言った. For 4, I have no idea. I'd probably give up and say something completely different. I'm not a very good speaker.

thank you.

I have a couple of vocabulary questions today.

http://i41.servimg.com/u/f41/11/31/41/30/mix01_11.jpg
1. Am I right to assume that 抜けるような青空 means a cloudless blue sky?
2. May I ask what 舞い散る means?

1. Yes. I read that sentence as something like "a street lined with trees where the sakura are stained with the color of the cloudless sky; toward the fluttering pink petals, one can see a large, white school building"

2. 舞い散る is a poetic way of talking about leaves falling (dance + fall). There was a very popular song when I lived in Japan: 「さくら」～ケツメイシ - YouTube

Part of the lyrics:
さくら舞い散る中に忘れた記憶と
きみの声が戻ってくる
吹き止まらない春の風　あのころままで

きみが風に舞う髪かき分けた時の
淡い香り戻ってくる
二人約束した　あのころのままで
ヒュルリラ　ヒュルリラ

Later on they sing a lot about
花びら舞い散る
記憶舞い戻る



はは、youtubeのビデオを観たとたんに、すごく懐かしん� �しまったぞぉ！

Thanks a lot for the help, KyleGoetz :) Nice song btw.

Hi, I have a question regarding this phase "プログラムメニューにセットする". I was thinking if I could use particle "を" instead?

Hi, am I right to say that I cannot use "起きる" for the following phrases? If so, why? And is there any other verb choices that I can use instead?


1. オーブンの上段に棚をセットする。

2. カセットテープをプレーヤーにセットする。

3. テーブルの上にコーヒーをセットする。

4. 皿を食器洗い機にセットする。

What do you think 起きる means? You absolutely cannot use it in any of these sentences. Even if you ignore the plain meaning of 起きる (to get up, to wake up, to occur, to happen), it's an intransitive verb, and you're trying to feed it an object, which is agrammatical.

I'm honestly not sure you can even use　セット for all of those. I know 置く works perfectly fine for putting coffee on a table. You 入れる things into the dishwasher and oven. However, you can definitely セット a tape in a tape deck. But I don't see why you couldn't 入れる a tape, either.

「起きる」 only means what KyleGoetz said.

BTW, your sentences #1 and #3 make no sense to begin with.

1. 棚・・・？By 棚、you mean オーブン皿？(oven rack?)　I'd say, オーブンの上段に、「オーブン皿を」セットする/入れる。
2. カセットテープをプレーヤーに入れる would also be fine.
3. テーブルの上にコーヒーを置く/乗せる。(not セットする)
4. 皿を食器洗い機にセットする/入れる。

My mistake. I was referring to 置く instead of 起きる as "put".

Am I right to say that phrases and sentences on ALC is not always accurate? Sometimes I get confused because of the samples there.

Put it this way, what exactly is "セットする" most use for?

I have never seen a wrong example.

But remember that it is used by professional translators and made by professional translators, so the examples will often be artful translations, since literal translations are often considered bad.

It is NOT used as a verb nearly as often as you seem to believe. You could easily live the rest of your life without ever actively using it, except for one meaning "to have one's hair set".

The other meaning is "to place something in a proper manner", not just "to place something", which is why some of your sentences look weird.

セット is more often used as a noun as in 「４点セット」, 「ギフトセット」, "a set meal", etc.



マクドナルドの「ハッピーセット」


コーヒーセット

Thanks for the help, KyleGoetz and masaegu.

Let's look at the following phrases:

誰は日本語がわかりますか。
The intended translation being:
"Does anyone understand Japanese?"
(i.e. would be practical on a forum or an IRC channel).

I assume the sentence feels sloppy, what would be a proper way to structure the sentence so that it feels natural?

Also this phrase:

日本語がわかりますか。
The intended translation being:
"Do you understand Japanese?"

This feels more direct, as you're just speaking to one person, instead of any[one|body].

Would that be correct?

Thanks for any help!

It is incorrect. You do not say 誰は anywhere. There are two ways to correct your sentence.

誰が日本語がわかりますか。= Who (which one of you) knows Japanese?

誰か日本語がわかりますか。= Does anyone know Japanese (around here)?

It is correct. You are speaking to the person(s) that are right in front of you.

To explicate from a learner's perspective, you can never have a question word as a topic. Imagine the absurdity of this in English: "As for who, is Japanese understood?" That's what 誰は日本語がわかりますか translates to. Nonsensical.

Question words are never followed by は. It's が or some other non-は particle.

I have a question regarding the language exchange websites, which are the most popular among japanese english learners? I am thinking that I will learn more and faster if I start speaking completely in japanese (even if it's half broken).

Asking for help among bilingual people would be rude, and the language exchange ads in here seem to have very few replies , that's why I ask, what websites would you recommend?

what does this mean?
 

ネズミくんふいたｗｗ

That's going to need some context.
ww == lol because it looks like ハハハ.

Without context, I want to say it's "The mouse whistled." I can't conceive of a mouse playing a flute or something, which is also a choice, and while there are other meanings for ふいた, whistled (to me) seems most likely to generate laughter.

I think it's w because that's the first letter in 笑い.

Until you see someone say wﾊﾊﾊw. BUT! Wiki agrees with you. I stand corrected.

And as long as we're on the subject, my favorite is still wﾊﾊハハノ丶ノ丶ノ＼ノ＼

Japanese for "I have to go"
 

行かなければなりません

This sounds harsh because it seems like saying "I musn't not go"

Is there some other way to say it?

Context needed.

吹いた = played a horn instrument, bragged, etc.
拭いた = wiped

It does NOT sound harsh; in fact: it sounds very polite if anything.

Other possible phrases:
行かないと。
行かなきゃ。

It sounds more natural if one adds そろそろ in front of these two.

Just so you know, I'm a lawyer. Want me to sue you for copyright infringement?