~おき

[Rob]

JLPT３　Vocab list
number 81 ~おき　is listed as unknown
According to my wordtank it is probably
~置き　meaning every other or interval
any example I see is おきに
日おきに　every other (second) day
4 時間おきに　every 4 hours, at four hour intervals
電車は５分おきに走っています　the trains run every 5 minutes

however it seems that it describes the gap so
今週は二日おきに雨が降りました
is
This week it rained every third day.
and not
This week it rained every second day.
It describes the interval not the occurance.

I'm unsure but the starting state may be the same as the re-occuring state.
So in the example above it was raining, then two days were clear then it rained, then two days were clear then it rained.

(Very useful site by the way. I was wondering what all those level 3 kanji were doing on the 2005 level 4 exam! just as well I was a bit ahead in my reading.)

Robert Belton
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www.shiawase.co.uk
Adventures in Japanese Study
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[spurrymoses]

Hey Rob,

Thanks for that. The question mark alongside no.81, of course, just means that I couldn't figure it out The Content Spec doesn't have a translation or explanation. Sometimes they have an example, but I don't think this one did, so I just didn't know what they were getting at.

What you've said sounds feasible. I've never heard of the grammar you've described but I'm happy to learn it.

I'll make sure my human Japanese dictionary agrees, and update the listing.

I really appreciate getting the list completed and corrected so thank you for that bit of research on your word tank.

[Rob]

While you're checking your human dictionary run おりる　by them.

level3 #111 and level4 #139
下りる　is descend a mountain or stairs but
降りる　is get off a bus or train.
I was using 下りる　for both until my teacher corrected me.

I think it is a short coming in EDICT that a lot of kanji definitions are identical when they are synonyms. I doubt the kanji are interchangeable. How to chose the correct one?
とまる　（止まる　泊まる）and つくる　（作る　造る）being some examples I can think of that took me a while to figure out.

It does encourage me to check more comprehensive sources though. Native speakers being one of them.

I've now probably run out of any usage comments. Come to the limits of my knowledge. I don't want to sound critical or anything.

[spurrymoses]

[spurrymoses]

My human dictionary is asleep at the moment...
but your point about 降りる　and 下りる looks right after checking the example sentences in EDICT.

For 下りる there are 5 example sentences involving descending stairs and 4 descending mountains or hills - from a total of 11 example sentences.

And for 降りる almost all of the sentences involve getting off a car/bus/boat/airplane or at a station.

There was a bit of overlap but these are probably just typos from people who weren't sure or just got it wrong - which happens often enough in the EDICT sample sentences.

So, I think you're right.