[TraceTheKriken]

Since most japanese words have more than one meaning, are they written in a different way in kanji (but "said" same way) or are they always written same way
for an example word "kinou" (yesterday, function), I know that "yesterday" is written as 昨日, but how about "function"?
And if it's possible to write some word in more than one way with kanji does the meaning change or is it just how it's "said"

I might have kind of asked about the same thing twice in this post (lol), I just want to know how this goes, so it'll help me when forming words in kanji

[Daiyousei]

機能 = function

I remember from Mysterious Function song.

And I'll take Mandarin as an example, all kanji, and everything will change the meaning, and in the case of speaking Mandarin, it really does depend on how it's "said", as it's a tonal language, as something pronounced the same can have different meaning if said in a different tone.

But tying into Japanese, there also exists kanji in Mandarin that are pronounced the same and have the same tone, just not like Japanese since it's not a tonal language, but it's pretty much the same idea. You'll have to figure out which ones are used based on sentence context.

Also fun fact = 機能 in cantonese is pronouced kinda like = gei nung, and with a bit of thinking you may notice it kinda reminds you of kinou

[sanekui]

Kanji is mainly used in Japanese for nouns. c:

Take the word 'Kiru' it can mean either 'wear' of 'cut', but in writing, if you use the correct kanji (which are both different.), the meaning is clear. Though, in speech, it depends on the context. Like, saying, "I would never wear that." is understood, I guess, because saying, "I would never cut that." when talking about ugly clothing doesn't seem to make sense. I don't know, I'm not a native Japanese. Heck, I'm doing this off of memory, from a lesson I got from a dictionary.

[TraceTheKriken]

Truth-chan, on 25 March 2012 - 06:54 AM, said:

Kanji is mainly used in Japanese for nouns. c:

Take the word 'Kiru' it can mean either 'wear' of 'cut', but in writing, if you use the correct kanji (which are both different.), the meaning is clear. Though, in speech, it depends on the context. Like, saying, "I would never wear that." is understood, I guess, because saying, "I would never cut that." when talking about ugly clothing doesn't seem to make sense. I don't know, I'm not a native Japanese. Heck, I'm doing this off of memory, from a lesson I got from a dictionary.

Thanks.
But still some kanji have more than one meaning even with same writing, right?
Like this one 高い (takai) high, tall, expensive. But the meanings are pretty similar to each other

[Daiyousei]

TraceTheKriken, on 25 March 2012 - 08:02 AM, said:

Thanks.
But still some kanji have more than one meaning even with same writing, right?
Like this one 高い (takai) high, tall, expensive. But the meanings are pretty similar to each other

Yep, it's a reason why google translate is not that reliable when you're translating anything longer than a phrase, It doesn't know the context you want it in.

(Though in Chinese, there is a different kanji that can be used for expensive (贵), but also another similar pair one that literally translates to "high price (高价)" and means expenssive. 高 on it's own just means high or tall in Chinese, and adding to to another kanji can affect the meaning, each kanji in Chinese is tied to it's own meaning, and it's fairly uncommon for two to share the same meaning, it's how you put them together with others to create the meaning you want.)

And Truth, I suppose the words in your signature mean "Love, hope, peace?"

[sanekui]

Daiyousei, on 28 March 2012 - 05:01 AM, said:

And Truth, I suppose the words in your signature mean "Love, hope, peace?"

...I-I think. I used Google Translate so God only knows what it actually says. XD I made the signature a long time ago, so I kinda forget. One of them is 'love,' though. (I think thats pretty obvious, right?) The others, I'm not sure... XD;;

[TraceTheKriken]

Daiyousei, on 28 March 2012 - 09:31 AM, said:

And Truth, I suppose the words in your signature mean "Love, hope, peace?"

I really don't think that's right. As far as I've learned from a web site "kiru" is "wear" (着る), "cut" (切る) or "come" (来る) (or could be "to come" not sure anymore cuz I translated the english meanings into finnish)

But there is still a broblem:

滑る (suberu) means "to slippery" (according to the site I use)
so, can someone tell me what "to slippery" means?

[Daiyousei]

slippery is not a verb in the English language, it's an adjective. You must be looking for "to slip"? I know that google translate cannot distinguish between parts of speech, it could be 滑る, but as you know, every language has it's irregulars, and that's where machine translators will flub up the most.

also I was referring to Truth-chan's signature in that quote