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What would one use for the equivalent of the "inter-" and "intra-" prefixes in English?

e.g. intercity, intracity, inter-server etc

I did a fair amount of looking around. 間 looks like it might be usable for some of the inter- words and 内 for a fare few of the intra- (intramural soccer = 校内サッカーリーグor学内サッカーリーグ？）but I was hoping there would be something more consistent.

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  • My guess is: because you didn't show much of an attempt to figure out the answer yourself. Look up intercity, interstate, interregion, intracity, intraregion etc in a dictionary and see if you notice any patterns.
    – dainichi
    Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 7:16
  • 外 vs 内. Here you go.
    – oldergod
    Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 7:22
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    dainichi > I actually did do a fair amount of looking stuff up but found nothing consistent. Even if it were the case that I didn't do research, why would that mean that this should be labeled as "off topic". It's certainly not off-topic
    – paullb
    Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 8:36
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    @paullb for intra-, click dictionary.reference.com/browse/intra- , scroll down to "World English Dictionary" where it says "inside"... For inter-, I agree that 外 is the wrong translation. 間 works better.
    – dainichi
    Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 8:54
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    Sorry if I gave the wrong impression, I didn't vote to close, I'm just guessing. As for 間 and 内, I'd say you're pretty much on the spot. If you're worried about consistency, maybe list some words that you feel dont fit the pattern.
    – dainichi
    Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 9:02

1 Answer 1

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You can translate inter- and intra- to ～間 and ～内 respectively.

(Note that they become suffixes rather than prefixes in Japanese.)

References:

  • I read dainichi's comments above;
  • I found this answer on ye olde Bag o' Wisdom;
  • I looked for patterns in the inter- and intra- words in my Kenkyusha J-E dictionary; and
  • I briefly checked Google to see if the patterns seemed correct.
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