LLearn Japanese

Daily Thread: for simple questions, minor posts & newcomers [contains useful links!] (June 25, 2025)

  • June 25, 2025

This thread is for all simple questions (what does that mean?), beginner questions, and comments that don't need their own thread, as well as first-time posters who can't create new threads yet. Feel free to share anything on your mind.

↓ Welcome to r/LearnJapanese! ↓

  • New to Japanese? Read the Starter's Guide and FAQ pages of our wiki.

  • New to the subreddit? Read the rules.

  • Read also the pinned comment below for proper question etiquette & answers to common questions!

Please make sure if your post has been addressed by checking the wiki or searching the subreddit before posting, or it might get removed.

If you have any simple questions, please comment them here instead of making a post.

This does not include translation requests.

This subreddit is also loosely affiliated with this language exchange Discord, which you can likewise join to look for resources, discuss study methods in the #japanese_study channel, ask questions in #japanese_questions, or do language exchange(!) and practice chatting with the Japanese people in the server.

Past Threads

You can find past iterations of this thread by using the search function. Consider browsing the previous day or two for unanswered questions.

by AutoModerator

9 comments

  2. Hello!

    I saw this on expression notes of Genki 2 Chapter 15 and I’m confused what Genki is trying to tell me.

    “思ってる is the contraction of 思っている, where the vowel い of the helping verb いる is dropped. Such contractions do occur in the long form (です and ます) speech patterns, too, but are more frequent in the causal speech with short forms.”

    “言ってた is the contraction of 言っていた, and another example of the vowel い in the helping verb ているdropping out.”

    What I am confused by is what is Genki talking about when they say “contractions”, and is there a rule to the い dropping out of the いる and ている? Or is this this just limited to these two phrases 思っている and 言っていた?

    What is the lesson I should take away here?

    Thank you so much in advance for your help! 😀

  3. She recently rejected him and they suddenly bump to each other: https://imgur.com/a/9D1hNmP

    In 「運命かも」とか言ってもスペるだけだし, I can’t tell if it is スペる or スベる. What might スペる mean here?

  4. https://imgur.com/a/W6flGL8

    The use of とかs in this sentence 空いてる時間とか夜間にもバイトとか入れようか is confusing to me. I wonder if it is supposed to be parsed as [[空いてる時間]とか[夜間]]にも[バイト]とか入れようか.

  5. I started a Youtube playlist of Japanese videos that have soft subs in Japanese, for various topics that I’m interested in (arts & crafts, cooking, technology, shopping, etc) [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-DZCUnV_m2udB3qNghW6FeBhMn4ao1k2](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-DZCUnV_m2udB3qNghW6FeBhMn4ao1k2)

    If anyone has suggestions for similar kinds of content — I tried searching some recent threads for recommendations but a lot of them are video game streamers which I’m not really into.

  6. What is the difference between using 歩いて and 徒歩 in the following two sentences? Is the second one just a bit more formal?

    駅まで**歩いて**5分です。

    駅まで**徒歩**5分です。

  7. Are there any Anki decks / resources for drilling customer service phrases? What I mean is stock phrases that you might hear from a restaurant host, a waiter, hotel staff, konbini cashier, taxi driver, etc.

    I’m on a trip to Japan right now, and these keigo-riddled stock phrases that I’m not super familiar with give me social anxiety to do basic things even though I have enough ability to make basic conversation. It’s not a matter of knowing individual vocabulary words – I think I’d benefit from just drilling the phrases themselves and getting used to customer-service speak. An Anki deck with real-life audio of these sorts of phrases would be a godsend.

  8. Can I use both 何回も and ても into this sentence? 何回**も**聞き繰り返して**も**、聞き間違えちゃう

    Not sure if the double use of も is repetitive

Leave a Reply