I was wondering what the differences are between these three: ～ がたい、〜にくい、〜づらい They all seem to be some sort of variant of "Hard to do ~". But it seems they are used with different verbs and/or imply slightly different things. However, I'm not sure on what these are. Questions: 1) When should you use one of these over the others. For example, when should you use ...

すみません is the correct pronunciation, so on that count I suppose it would be considered more polite by a very small margin. But just like in English, people can be lazy with pronunciation, which is why you'll sometimes hear すいません. You also might run across すんません and すんまへん, but from what I've read these are more Kansai-isms than anything else. When in doubt ...

What is the difference between 大変{たいへん} and 難しい{むずかしい} which can both mean difficult. In which context should i use one or the other? Thanks in advance.

I believe the difference emphasis. それは分かるわけがないでしょう。 sore ha wakaru wake ga nai deshou. - I'd read this as わかりようがない それは分かるはずがないでしょう。 sore ha wakaru hazu ga nai deshou. - and this as he doesn't have a chance to understand this. This is the stronger of the two.

This is a pair of polarity items. One appears in positive contexts, the other in negative: イギリスの ジャムは とても おいしいです。 イギリスの ジャムは あまり おいしくありません。 Every language has words like these. For example, in English: I like pie, too. I don't like pie, either. Here, too and either are polarity items. In our positive sentence we ...

Online dictionaries give 痛い and 辛い the meaning "painful" and among others: 痛い (itai): sore 辛い (tsurai) bitter, heart-breaking In what contexts one of them can be used while the other ca...

My question comes from this case: 会う 逢う 遭う 遇う I see they all are read あう, and mean "to meet". So, why are there these many cases? And more important, which one should I use? I knew 会う, and when I r...

Between voiceless consonants, u and i sounds often become silent. The most notable example is the ending ました or ます in verbs. In the case of kakikonde 書き込んで it would be kak-konde, with very light i sound, not kakonde like you said. 氏名 shimei refers to 氏 and 名, which combine to mean "full name". On the other hand 名前 is often use to indicate the "given name". More ...

Hutsuu, bejitarian muke no oishii shokuji o mitsukeru no wa muzukashii desu. = It is normally hard to find good vegetarian food Supein ryouri wa donna kanji desuka? = What is Spanish food like? Sono tabemono wa oishikatta desu. = That food was delicious What's the difference between shokuji, ryouri and tabemono?

Is there, even if it's speculative, any explanation to the squareness of kanji characters? Why are 口, 回 or 円 not circles or round like の, for example? Was making circles with early day tools too