One of my Japanese senseis corrected my homework, and several times she drew a triangle next to the item she was correcting. Does this have a special meaning in Japan?
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3 Answers
In Japan (or Japanese schools), it usually means "Not correct but not completely incorrect, either".
〇 = Correct
△ = In-between "I'll give you half a point!"
☓ = Incorrect
The three symbols are read, respectively, まる、さんかく and ばつ.
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Is it always used for in-between correct/incorrect situations, or is it ever used for non-confrontationally saying "wrong"?– coburneOct 10, 2014 at 14:15
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19Hence Japanese Playstation games using Circle for Yes and X for no, unlike US/European games. That was the original intent behind the design of those symbols.– AlmoOct 10, 2014 at 14:50
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3@coburne: In the role of a teacher, there is no need to avoid confronting a student with a mistake. I've usually seen △ to explain "You may see native speakers use this, but it's technically incorrect".– jkerianFeb 17, 2015 at 5:25
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What does it mean if the triangle is followed by a number? I have some technical documentation that is full of triangles followed by a number. Example: "When result attribute value is 98, this element is always empty. △２". Example: "Sets cash in information and cash out information after the normal finish of deposit transaction. △１".– dan-gphSep 4, 2017 at 6:24
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To answer my question, the △ in the document I am looking at appears to refer to a document revision number, so it must be the Greek letter Delta, standing for "difference", and it has nothing to do with Japanese at all.– dan-gphOct 16, 2017 at 5:29
△ means " almost" or "close" in Japan. 惜しい、もう少しで正解 in Japanese.
answered Oct 9, 2014 at 12:30
Δ is the greek letter for delta. The upper-case letter Δ can be used to denote a change of any changeable quantity. This means the answer is WRONG and needs to be changed.
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2Δ is delta, but △ is さんかく. This is comparable to the difference between 口 and ロ.– GoBustoJun 9, 2015 at 10:44