English and Japanese are completely different languages (actually many linguists think Japanese has no known related language), and often times cannot be translated verbatim. In this section I collect such expressions that you just have to know how to say.
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Counting in Japanese
Japanese, along with Chinese and Korean, uses counting suffixes when counting things […]
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Do for me
Japanese extensively uses expressions “do for me” (along with “do for somebody“). The both of the below examples can be translated “he helped me” in English, but while the first one is an emotionless statement that simply states the fact, the second one is from your personal and emotional perspective. “Do for me” is used…
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Do for somebody
“Do for somebody” is the opposite side of “do for me“, and they are both used extensively in Japanese (and Korean). “Do for somebody” is used when you do something solely for the benefit of somebody else: There are multiple “do for somebody” with different speech levels. Since やる、上げる can be very patronizing, they are…
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Finally
There are multiple “finally” in Japanese, each with different connotations and usage […]
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For the first time in
Both “for the first time in …” and “the first something in …” are expressed using “振り(ぶり)” in Japanese.
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Have
“I have a car”, “I have confidence”, “I have a chronic knee pain” and etc., these simple and ubiquitous phrases in English are not so straightforward in Japanese. 持っている (持つ＋接続助詞て＋補助動詞いる) is a common, and straightforward-for-English-speakers expression. Note that “I have such and such” is always 持っている, which is the continuous/progressive tense. However, “to have such…
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Should have done
するべきだった is formal and literary form of “should have done”. However in conversations, especially about personal issues, すれば良かった is more commonly used […]
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Start doing
There are multiple verbs in Japanese that mean “start doing something”, working like auxiliary verbs, and with slightly different usages […]
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Stop (intransitive)
There are multiple intransitive “stop” in Japanese, with different usages and connotations […]
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The more, the more
“The more, the more” statements are expressed “～すればするほど” in Japanese. As you can see “～れば～ほど” is applicable to not just “the more, the more” but “the bigger, the better”, “the less, the worse”, so on and so forth.
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What clause
The particle “の” is used to turn the preceding clause into a “what” clause in English, as in “what I don’t understand is …” You can just add “の” to 形容詞 and 形容動詞 as below to create the same structure Note instead of a “what” clause, you can also use “事” as well, just like…
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Yes and No
In Japanese, “yes” (はい, ええ, うん, etc.) or “no” (いいえ, いや, ううん, etc.) as a response to a question signify if the question as the statement is correct or not, NOT if your response is positive or negative. This gets very confusing for English speakers, when the original question is a negative sentence […]
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ある and いる
ある and いる both mean “to be”, “to exist” but the usages are different. Basically いる is for animate things like people and animals, and ある is for inanimate and/or abstract things. However, ある can be used for animate things when they are an abstract group ある can be used also for someone to be…
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とめる and やめる
とめる and やめる are both “to stop” and even use exactly the same kanji as “止める”, but there are distinctive differences in the usage […]
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ほうが良い
したほうが良い [verb 連用形+perfect た+ほうがいい] is used in conversations all the time to mean “should” and/or “had better” […]
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事（こと）
事 is without a doubt one of the most often used, and most important words in Japanese. The below examples are both “she worries about you”, but the second one with “の事” is far more common and sounds natural for native speakers: Similarly the below are both “I decided not to go”, but the second…
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良い
The constructions like “it is OK to do…”, “it is OK if you…” using 良い is extremely common in Japanese. They are usually translated in English as “you can/may/should…”, and especially in conversation used almost exclusively over other constructions like “～すべきだ”, “～することが出来る”. The opposite of 良い is usually NOT 悪い, but rather 良くない, いけない, 駄目だ,…