No, I think pitch accents and tones are a little different. NationMaster Encyclopedia explains it well:

Pitch accent is a kind of accent system employed in many languages around the world. In a pitch-accented language, there is one accented syllable or mora in a word, the position of which determines the tonal pattern of the whole word.

This is unlike the situation in tone languages, where the tone of each syllable can be independent of the other syllables in the word. For example, comparing two-syllable words like [aba] in a pitch-accented language and in a tonal language, both of which only distinguish low tone from high, the tonal language has four possible patterns: low-low [àbà], high-high [ábá], high-low [ábà], low-high [àbá]. The pitch-accent language, on the other hand, only has two possibilities: accented on the first syllable, [ába], or on the second, [abá].

But this confuses me, too. Shouldn't there be a third way to pronounce "aba," that being with no accent at all? Then again, I've read that unaccented words are low-high. But if that's the case, where does this flat inflection that my dictionary talks about come in? :wassat:

SaiyaJedi, thanks so much for the info about the electronic dictionary! It's still very much relevant. I haven't bought one yet due to money issues.

I have a question about pitch accent in Japanese. I've just recently realized that I only know how to pronounce words because I've heard them before. Kind of sad that this never registered in my brain until now. But anyway, I've been more conscious about it and consequently looked into pitch accent. One of my Japanese dictionaries (Harper Collins Shubun Pocket English-Japanese Dictionary) has accent marks on the words to indicate a rising, falling, or flat inflection. However, I can't find any online dictionaries that give me this information. I've found one that only indicates where the rising inflection on the word is…so is that actually the only important part to know? Is my dictionary overdoing it?

If I'm going to learn more words I'd rather just learn them right the first time, but it's difficult when I can't find every word in my dictionary. So I thought an online one would be best. Does anyone know of any site like this, or maybe you might have some information about pitch accents in general?

Can anyone recommend a good electronic dictionary? People seem to favor the ones made by Canon and Sharp. Most of them are geared towards Japanese people learning English, so I wonder how useful they'll be to me…

I don't know how to go about choosing a good one. Help?

@Sandai:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4LOFRSDX

Thank you!!

Anyone have "Nolita Fairytale" by Vanessa Carlton?

Yes 信用する can be used with ni because you could substitute the word "by" or "from"

友達は私に信用します。
Speaking of my friend he is trusted by me.

by being the key word.

I can be totally wrong but isn't that sentence incorrect? It looks to me like a passive sentence, so shouldn't it be: 友達は私に信用されます。 ?

I asked my teacher and she said to use を　with 信用する (in an active sentence, like あなたを信用しない）. I guess I'll just have to keep asking every time I learn a new verb.

Things like to agree, to oppose and to touch are once again showing a definate direction. Its kinda hard to explain but these have to do with direction as well, since the agreement is coming from somewhere ni shows where the agreement is coming from same with touch and oppose. These show definate direction, I will find my book that I learned this from and post it in a bit maybe it will make a bit more sense.

I think I understand. This looks like a vague method to figure out whether a verb uses に　or を, but since I have nothing else to fall back on, I'm going to use it and see where it takes me. Thanks for your help!

So if I'm thinking about this correctly with 信用する, trust has a direction since it comes from someone…so my guess is that it uses に. Is there anyone that can confirm that?

I know about the directional focus に　has, since that is why you use it with 行く、帰る、and so forth. But what about verbs like 賛成する (to agree)、　反対する (to oppose)、　負ける (to lose)、触る (to touch)？ I just don't get why they use に. Especially 触る which I would definitely expect to use を with. They don't really have a goal, or have anything to do with direction, do they?

A new verb I learned today is 信用する, and I tried googling it to see how it is used. Most of the time it was used with は or が, but I've seen both を　AND に　with it, which confused me even more.

Kaimei-Karasuhebi, according to Jim Breen's dictionary it's something like "Darkness-Black Snake." Although, I'm not sure about the "Darkness" part.

They don't need to look perfect, but they need to not accidentally look like another Kanji.

That's good to hear. Thank you!

I have a grammar question now. I never know when to use を　or に　to mark the direct object of verbs unless I've memorized it. To say you've won a game, for example, you'd say 試合に勝った and not 試合を勝った, and with 触る, you use に to mark the person who is being touched. Is there any reason why?

I did a little research on it and found out verbs are grouped into either 他動詞 or 自動詞, which are basically transitive and intransitive. But in Japanese 自動詞　can also take direct objects, and apparently this is when they use に, since only 他動詞　can use を. Is that right? If that's the case you'd just have to memorize which verbs are 他動詞　and 自動詞, right?

I'd be really grateful to anybody who can shed some light on this. It's frustrating to memorize new verbs but not know how to use them.

I have recently been focusing on learning how to write kanji, and I have a question about it. As of now I write them over and over while paying great attention to little details like where the hook goes, how big a line has to be in comparion to another…and I'm wondering if I'm going too far with it. Especially since I've seen variations of the same kanji. 靴, for example. I've seen this part: 化, written in a different size compared to the rest of the character. Sometimes it's as big as the rest, and other times it's smaller.

I guess what I'm asking is, how "perfect" do written kanji have to look?