It has been long time since I wrote on this blog last time.
Today, I had a question on Japanese from my deary friend, Lucas. Hi Lucas =D!!
Question was on you in Japanese. I believe in English, there are not too many ways to say "you". Is that right??
What I think of is... just you.......
Anyways, Lucas's question was what how to use "omae" and "anata". His knowledge on those 2 words was like this "I have read that anata is used between close lovers, but I have also read it is used between businessmen."
OK. Let's explain what I think... what I know :p.
Now let's start with "you" expression we have in Japanese.
We have
1) Anata
2) Kimi
3) Omae
4) Anta (this one came from "Anata" I believe)
and there are several more like "Ondore" "Odore" "Ondorya" lol, those are something that you would not want to use for your friends or whatever, only when you try to get ready for fight or something XD. Just for your info :p.
In Japanese, we tend to omit subject like "I " and "you" in conversation unlike English. If you want to ask "What would you like to drink?" then we would say "nani ga nomitai?"
In this phrase, "nani" = what, "nomitai" = want to drink, "ga" = something that comes after subject in Japanese. So there are no "you" part in Japanese.
Anyways.... so go back to 1) Anata 2) Kimi 3) Omae 4) Anta.
Anata, would be used for
1) someone close lover, like wife to her husband
2) someone you do not know much, like someone you just met (it is a bit weird concidering 1) isn't it?)
3) between business man (this can count as (2) too I think)
Overall, Anata is an expression pretty polite.
Kimi, would be used for
1) someone at the same age or younger, we do not use this for elder people
Omae, would be used for
1) among men, this sounds a bit rough or macho. Some girls use this (I do too sometimes) but it does sound like she is not very feminine (^^;.
2) someone younger than you. But this also sounds like you are a bit bossy I think.
Anta, would be used for
hummmm a bit hard to explain... this sounds a bit casual or rough.
So, "anata" would be the most approprite in any occasion I think.
Hummmm would this be good enough?? Maybe not. If you ask me more, then I will try to answer further ne ;)!!
xoxo
I like your explaination of when to use "you"! Very interesting. I did think of a couple of different ways Americans can say you. For short, we could say, "Love ya" or Don't ya know? But of course Down south we say for "You all"..."Ya'll" with a long southern draw.
ReplyDeleteMy hubby Ryan from up North, could say, "Yous Guys" but that is of course not proper English.
Yeah, but both "ya" and "y'all" are colloquializations of the same word, "you." In this manner, they aren't really different; they're just slurs of pronunciation.
ReplyDeleteAh!!!! Carla and Jashin! You guys have commented on my blog. Thank you!!!!
ReplyDeleteArigato Arigato! Jashin, Carla is my best friend from the US from my exchange year :D. Carla, Jashin is one of my customers of eBay and became good friends :). He has young sister the same age with my niece Meru. His sister and Meru try to write back and forth too XD. Isn't it cute?!?!
Pleased to make your acquaintance, Carla.
ReplyDeleteI've been meaning to write for almost a week, but have been busy, and forgetful. I remembered another word for you that English used, that eventually fell by the wayside with the advent of New English. Like most European languages, English (even the end of Middle English, as evidenced in Shakespeare) had two second person pronouns, one for singular, one for plural. Those being the obvious "thou" and "you" respectively. Like I said, though, we don't use "thou" anymore, opting for the simpler (and likely polite form), "you" to avoid confusion, I suppose. I don't really know why we got rid of it, while most other European languages did not.
So there's more on the idea. I think most European languages have only two second person pronouns, familiar and plural/polite. And that's my take on that.