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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Lower Intermediate Season 4 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
18 Responses to “Lower Intermediate Lesson S4 #12 - What Did You Expect?”
Wednesday at 6:30 pm
皆さん、こんにちは!
Do you agree with Sato-san and Yamada-san’s theories on the case?
Wednesday at 10:08 pm
Kono ketsumatsu ha sugoi bimyou desune
Chotto nakaretandesu
Thursday at 1:59 am
NE TA GI RE
DO KYU N
Thursday at 3:52 am
JP101!
I like today’s lesson and picture! I love the american eagle and the color purple too.
S_R_C
Thursday at 5:02 am
could someone explain 微妙 a little further? I dont understand why it can mean delicate, subtle,..and also lame. In english subtle usually has positive implications: a subtle play of words in a poem, a subtle taste in a well-prepared meal….in cases like these is 微妙 analogous to the english subtle? Is 微妙 negatively subtle in that it is not enough of something?
peter has often used 微妙 in a positive way in lesson conversations…is it usually positive or negative?
Thursday at 7:13 am
真犯人は誰か教えてくださいね〜 私はすごく知りたいですよ!!
ボナスAudioをください!
Thursday at 11:53 am
to me, it’s sometimes best to NOT take the word’s translation literally, ecspecially if it’s an evolved meaning of the word. Take the word “bad” for example. for awhile, it actually meant “GOOD!” in english! how would you explain that to a japanese person if they took everything literally???
犯人は人間じゃないです。どうぶつのはずです。でもね。。。たぶん人間も動物もじゃありません。。。hmmmm。まだ謎ですね!
Thursday at 1:58 pm
Chris -san
I loved your comment!


そうですね。I agree. 微妙な話ですね。Bimyou na hanashi desune.
Mapi -san
Sindyシンディー -san
It’s a cool picture, isn’t it?
Yadokari-san
The 微妙 has many meanings and can be either positive and negative or could be neither, depending on a context.
→微妙な違い subtle difference
→微妙な問題 touchy problem sensitive matter
→微妙な服 not really great out fit(usually negative connotation)
Gabriele -san
ゆういちさんに聞いてみますね。
Harmoni -san
謎ですね~。
Thursday at 3:34 pm
I don’t think “should’ is generally a good word to use when translating はず because (at least in my experience) it’s more often used to indicate that something is preferable or right (like ほうがいい or べき) and only infrequently to mean that something will happen or is expected to happen.
Actually, I’m wary of the word “should” in general. Sometimes the meaning of “should” (statement of expectation or suggestion/recommendation or moral judgment) is clear from context, but sometimes it can be unclear which meaning is intended. Since the meanings are quite different, that can be a problem.
Thursday at 4:16 pm
thank you for the examples, naomi….thats all i was looking for harmoni
Thursday at 10:42 pm
こんにちは,
可能性:低ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー⇒高
「かもしれない」→「だろう・でしょう」→「はずだ」
「~と思う」は?
直美先生は美人のはずです!!!
Is 「~と思う」 for expressing opinion but not possibility ?
v
v
v
きれいな声ですね~。。
Friday at 11:08 am
L33tminion-san

そうですね。”Should”にはたくさん意味がありますよね。
You’re right. English “should” can be translated in many ways in Japanese.
日本語⇔英語 の訳はとても難しいので、たくさん例文を読むのが一番だと思います。
Sometimes it’s really tough to find the right translation. I think the best way to get the meaning is read sample sentences as many as possible.
メー-san
Thank you for the kind comment as always
>>>Is 「~と思う」 for expressing opinion but not possibility ?
You’re right. So -と思う can be combined with 「かもしれない」「だろう・でしょう」and 「はずだ」.
ex) 雨が降るかもしれないと思う
Saturday at 2:20 am
直美先生、
ありがとうございました。
もうちょっと聞きたいです。
先週から、上司は毎週の週報を書かせます。 すごく難しいです。。
「かもしれない」、「だろう・でしょう」、「はずだ」は書き言葉ですか?話し言葉ですか?
レポートの中には、使えますか?
Monday at 1:38 pm
メーさん
全部書き言葉にしても大丈夫です。
ただ、「ーかもしれない」は書き言葉ですが、報告書にはあまり使わないかもしれませんね。「可能性がある」とかの方がいいと思います。
Monday at 3:00 pm
直美先生、
ありがとうございました.わかりました。
Wednesday at 12:32 pm
Why is “kanousei” translated as “probability” or “possibility”? In english, these are definitely different. “probability” indicates the possibility that is most likely, where as “possibility” does not specify. Is there no distinction of these concepts in japanese?
Sunday at 1:58 am
To answer ゆういちさん’s question, I think it was a racoon dog. And I also think racoon noodles are delicious!
(That’s strange - even though I’m a paid subscriber, and logged on, I still have to fill in my name and email. As this discourages comments, can you guys please fix this? Thanks!)
Saturday at 9:23 am
あの二人お祖母さんとお祖父さんはそのドラマは微妙だと言ったのに、
実際はストーリーにすごく凝っているみたいです。
二人はそのドラマを楽しんだと思います。
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