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I want to say "it's different enough to make a difference," but I'm struggling
a bit to get there. Partly because the two uses of "different" in this
sentence are doing two different jobs. The first one refers to the relative
difference between two things being compared, the second one refers to an
absolute amount of difference that would be appreciated by anyone looking at
the given situation.

So, for example, I might want to say "the pronunciation of bun and ban are
different enough to make a difference." Here I'm saying that the relative
difference between the way the two words are said is small, especially to
Japanese who pronounce both as `バン`. However, the absolute difference is
significant in that they mean completely different things.

The key concept is that there is a threshold of difference, "just enough",
that has been achieved which causes the significance to _just barely_ pass
over from something that doesn't matter to something that does.

How would I say this in Japanese? Here are my (probably wrong) guesses:

> bunとbanの発音{はつおん}違{ちが}いは十分{じゅうぶん}違{ちが}う？
>
> bunとbanの発音{はつおん}の違{ちが}いは違{ちが}う過{す}ぎる？

_(I'm not sure if there should be a`の` in there after `発音{はつおん}`, so I'm
trying it both ways.)_
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2012-02-24T04:10:11.200
4789
2012-03-08T01:04:14.190
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question
grammar word-choice translation
How do I accurately convey "enough to make a difference"?
This may not directly answer your question. But there exists this concept of
least perceptible difference which is the smallest detectable difference
between two "levels" of a particular sensory stimulus. The corresponding term
in Japanese is `最小可知差異`.
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2012-02-24T08:18:14.897
4792
2012-02-24T08:18:14.897
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4789
answer
```

    "The pronunciation of bun and ban are different enough to make a difference."
    
```

If you said this to me, I would say "make a difference in what?". Maybe you
are trying to say:

`"The pronunciation of bun and ban are different enough that I can hear the
difference."`

I'll make two example sentences:

```

    ①bunとbanの発音には、聞き分けられるくらいの違いがある。
    ②bunとbanの発音の違いが聞き分けられる
    
```

The first (①) expresses the "relative difference" and I think it what you are
looking for. However, I think it still would be strange because you are
implying that "everyone should be able to hear the difference", whereas I
think you want to say that "I can hear the difference" which would be sentence
②.
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2012-03-07T23:21:09.827
4950
2012-03-08T01:04:14.190
2012-03-08T01:04:14.190
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answer