9

When asking, "which is better," in Japanese, I could write どっちがマシ？

However マシ has a negative connotation, implying that even though something is better it's still undesirable.

What's a word like マシ that I could use when asking "which is better?" that doesn't have this negative connotation?

Improve this question
2
  • どちがまし doesn't mean "which one is better", but "which one is the least worse?". Anyway, @Sawa already answered.
    – Axioplase
    Jul 28, 2011 at 3:03
  • @Axioplase I think the English comparison covers all the cases, so it is okay to say that the Japanese expression translates to "which one is better", but when you translate that into Japanese, you have to use different translation depending on whether the comparison is within the good domain or the bad domain.
    – user458
    Jul 28, 2011 at 14:44

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
6

You can say

どちらがよい?
どっちがいい? [Colloquial]

without negative connotation. Or, if you want to imply that both are good, and want to ask Which is even better?

どちらがよりよい?
どっちがよりいい? [Colloquial]

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .