ladyfaile wrote: i didn't realize there was a box for common words, i'll look for that next time. i've noticed that with jisho... that it gives too many forms without listing them in a way that implies which is most common or most useful etc. i tried to go by the example sentences.
The box isn't on the home page, but if you go to the "Words" tab then you get to select it. It really narrows things down a lot.
Some words...
Japanese takes a lot of words from foreign languages. Nouns are by far the most common, but did you know that they have made verbs out of foreign words as well? These are often written in a combination of katakana and hiragana for the verb endings, or sometimes just in hiragana.
1.
サボる
さぼる
saboru
to be truant; to play hooky; to skip school; to skip out; to be idle; to sabotage by slowness
You can find it in the last definition, but this word comes from "sabotage" and now usually means skipping some commitment (work, school, your workout... not meals)
学校をサボる がっこうをさぼる gakkou o saboru = skip school
2.
パニクる
ぱにくる
panikuru
to panic
This one should be obvious... :)
3.
トラブる
とらぶる
toraburu
to make trouble, to get into trouble
This one should also be obvious...
There are also some verbs that are often written in katakana and/or hiragana that have come from other places.
4.
びびる
bibiru
1: to feel nervous; to feel self-conscious; to feel surprise;
2: (Colloquialism) to get cold feet; to get the jitters; to feel frightened
This one comes from びんびん(binbin) which was an onomatopoeia for the sound of soldiers armour clashing together. If you heard this sound in the distance you would feel nervous or frightened.
何ビビってるの？ なにびびってるの？ nani bibitteru no? = why are you so nervous?
5.
テンパる
てんぱる
tenparu
This one is an interesting one, because it originally had the exact opposite meaning. It comes from a mahjong term, that is kind of the equivalent of check mate, and came to mean fully prepared and ready to act. Apparently somewhere in the last 10 years or so the sense of "the end" became stronger, and now it is commonly used in a kind of "end of one's rope" sense.
Jisho.com says "about to blow one's fuse"
I would say "overwhelmed and on the verge of panic". Impatient, anxious, flustered
テンパって、頭が真っ白になった。
てんぱって、あたまがまっしろになった。
tenpatte, atama ga masshiro ni natta.
I was so anxious, my mind [head] went blank [became pure white]. (the [] are the literal meanings)
(ie the feeling you get when you are confronted with real Japanese people for the first time and all of that Japanese you practiced so hard just disappears and you can't say anything)
6.
バレる
ばれる
bareru
to leak out (a secret); to be exposed (a lie, improper behaviour, etc.) (behavior)
This one is always written either in katakana and hiragana, or just hiragana, but no one seems to know where it comes from. Still it is quite appropriate here.
ネタバレ ねたばれ netabare = spoiler
(neta is news, material, trick, evidence etc... this can be everything from ruining the punchline, to exposing the trick in magic, to giving the ending of a drama away)
↑ is a noun that comes from the phrase ネタがばれる (expose the trick/news/material etc)
A common drama exchange (in "Pride" it was kind of a running gag)
A: ばれた？ bareta?
B: バレバレ。barebare
A: You knew?
B: It was so obvious.
