-naide (-ないで) within a sentence
You all should know -naide when it’s at the end of a sentence. It’s a abbreviation of -naidekudasai meaning “please don’t x.” Now there’s another basic meaning of it that seems to be basic knowledge but I curiously didn’t know up until lately (d’oh). If -naide is used within a sentence, all the more if there’s no comma following it, it very likely means “without x.” And miraculously, now that (even) I know that, I’m coming across that phrase quite frequently. Huh.
Koko made (ここまで)
Now for some very short phrases you might not know which are frequently used within light novels and stuff. “Koko made” (literally “until here”) usually has the meaning of stuff like “stop right here” or “that’s it for today” (usually at the end of a class).
Nani Sore (なにそれ)
It has a whole bunch of different ways to write/say it, “Nanda sorya” is probably the strongest way to express its meaning and hence you gotta watch out for nuancing its intensity. The most precise and on-the-spot english equivalent is “wtf” (ya’rly). But really just “wtf” and not “what the fuck,” the difference lies within its intensity. While nowadays “wtf” is almost neutral in its intensity, the full phrase “what the fuck” carries a ruder nuance and wouldn’t convey the initial one. Now that was just the most precise version, you can’t just write “wtf” into a translation, that’d look retarded. You should be fine with “what the heck/hell/eff…” plus complete it with whatever the context gives (if necessary), “what the heck is that?”
