thanks for the comment!!

first off, it’s not “romaNji,” it’s “ROMAJI.” in japanese the spelling is ローマ字
which is ローマ(the city Rome) and 字 (letters).

when is katakana used…? it’s a big question, and to really master its use by native speakers, i’m gonna have to refer you to our PDF’s or anything else written by native japanese (our PDF’s are always written by native speakers, by the way).

but, as you said, romaji is used for foreign words. BUT, it can also be used as we use italics or underline or bold things in english. it can also be used to show an accent. it can also be used to just emphasize something.

that said, some words are just normally written in katakana

dame 駄目 has kanji, obviously.
but i normally see it written ダメ (strong) and だめ (softer) , when i see the kanji, i think it’s probably more formal or stiff (駄目) . i’m gonna ask a native speaker to comment on this tomorrow. but that’s my impression

a lot of my friends, especially female friends, have kanji names, but they never use them, they think using katakana or hiragana is more friendly. whereas kanji could be stiff or difficult.

for example my friend maki always uses マキ instead of 真季
seems friendlier, right?

so in japanese you’ll see the scripts being mixed up like this these days. the rules are not fixed. and it’s a lot more flexible than the alphabet!!!

it’s a lot of fun to play with hiragana, katakana, kanji and romaji!

please check out the forum, because this kind of question comes up a lot!!

and if you wanna learn how to write hiragana or katakana, we have tools in the learning center which will have you reading Japanese in no time at all!!!

Why would you use katakana for dame in the dialogue?

When is katakana used? And what is the recommendation for finding words if they are loanwords in the dictionary? Spelling of loanwords in romanji is sometimes unique.

Thanks in advance

Tryllid

Please note that the action expressed by “verb-1,” is secondary to the action express by “verb-2.”

However, if you look at the dialogue:
ご飯を食べながらテレビを見るのはやめなさい。

Isn’t eating the primary action and watching tv the secondary?

In the second example,
お父さんはいつも新聞読みながらご飯食べてるよ。

This would be consistent with the grammar point.

However, the third example:
お母さんだって、いつも編み物品柄、テレビ見てるじゃないかあ？

This again seems contradictory to your point because isn’t knitting the primary activity?

Could you shed some light on this?

Yes!! That’s where I got this phrase from: プロポーズ大作戦. Love that show!!

Thanks for the translation. Even though I have Rikachan, I didn’t know how to break up the parts-of-speech in that sentence. I guess the grammar there is a bit advanced for me.

「人生で一番好きな相手は、失おうとするまさにその瞬間に
　　　この人だったと気付くのである。」

You only notice how much you llike someone when the moment he/she leaves.

Did you find this phrase in the TV drama プロポーズ大作戦？
　
ブライアンが訳をしました。Thanks again,Brian!

彼は学生のくせに会社をつくりました。
Kare wa gakusei no kuseni kaisha o tukurimashita.
The speaker has negative feeling as
学生なのに会社をつくったの？学生なら勉強しなくてはいけません。会社をつくるなんてまだはやい！
This meaning is the student should have been concentrating on school work, but he started a company. “He should focus on being a student, but he went and started a company (and that’s a shame).” The speaker is looking down on the student for starting the company.

And 学生なのに会社をつくりました。
Gakuseinanoni kaisha o tsukurimashita.
is sort of neutral.

英語はブランアンがかきました。Thanks Brian!

“kuse ni” also has the meaning “although”, but “kuse ni” must share the same subject in both clauses of the sentence. Also “kuse ni” can’t be used with the first person.
“noni” is the most broad term, it can be used correctly with all personal pronouns, and it supports both clauses.
I am using the Japanese Dictionary of Intermediate Grammar (the blue book) for these definitions.
I hope it helps.
-Brian Sommers, Japanesepod101

“Eating dinner and eating. In some families it’s OK, in others it’s dame (forbidden).”

What is that supposed to mean? I know what dame means, but eating dinner is also eating, folks…

Sloppy editing, or what?

talk ya soon.