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Jason wrote:No, you can't just drop it like that. Even in polite speech, the "how do I say" phrase is なんというか, or some variation on it. It's almost a "set" phrase. To say なんといいますか sounds more like you're asking someone else, not wondering to yourself.
Brody wrote:I just talked about this with a Japanese friend. He said it was better using もっと...not in comparisons (in which case he said to use ほう/より)but with, I guess you'd call them adverbs as in もっと深く more deeply.
Kind of in places where you could also use 最も so more as an adjective of an adjective (I forget what those are called in English). So you can use them in comparisons, but it is different than ほう/より
Brody wrote:Here's my next attempt:
"There will always be someone who is better (than you)."
いつも(あなたより)上手に出来る人がいる。
Bueller_007 wrote:More confusing than this for me is the difference between もっと and もうちょっと. One of the "Japanese for Busy People" books does a semi-decent job of explaining it, but I've forgotten. I think you use もうちょっと for requests or something. Like it's more natural to say:
前髪はもうちょっと短く切ってくれませんか。
Brody wrote:I've got a kind of check-up question:
I've been musing over how to say something in the sense of "should" at the same time I've been trying to master questions within statements, for the effect of something like, "I don't know where I should go."
Recently I found this sentence in a picture book, 「お姫様はどうやって探していいのか分かないのです。」The princess didn't know how to search for them [the people she was playing hide-and-seek with.
Now, as I've learned "should," it would be something with ばいい thus, どこに行けばいいのか分からない。I don't know where I should go.
Does していい mean "should" as well? Would どこに行っていいのか分からない be "I don't know where I should go" ?
Brody wrote:In the お姫様 sentence, what about using 方 as in 探し方? Would it change the meaning?