1

1 - Higurashi / Umineko When They Cry

Minor spoilers for Higurashi season 1 and NSFW / violent content: See 1:41 here when Sonozaki wants to go to the 'fun-filled' underground torture chamber.

enter image description here

I remember when I 1st watched this in 2009 the subtitles said 'fun-fun'. Anyhoo repeating 楽しい(tanoshii たのし​い) I guess means full of something so X-X is full of X?

2 - The Quintessential Quintuplets S01E01

See here 2:36 - 2:44. The imouto Raiha Uesugi of the male protagonist Fuutarou Uesugi says 'うそうそ' (uso uso).

enter image description here

In the manga:

enter image description here

So here uso uso means full of lies?

Or I have a feeling in this 2nd case it's a thing people do like even in English when they say 'Okay. Okay', 'I see. I see', 'Indeed. Indeed' or 'Oh man. Oh man.'

  • Edit: Re Chance's 'ジョークジョーク' and 'うそだよ' - actually these are exactly what Weevil Underwood (Insector Haga) says to Yugi / Atem in 0:35-0:45 here in the Orichalcos arc of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. (Or maybe Weevil says うそだいぇ or うそだぇ.) Lol.
3
  • 2
    I don't know well enough to write an answer, but: "Or I have a feeling in this 2nd case it's a thing people do like even in English" I think this is correct. In the first case, I suspect it's a very character-specific speaking pattern. But repeating an adjective for emphasis is not that strange; we do it in English all the time with "very". Feb 1 at 13:59
  • @KarlKnechtel Isn't "very" an adverb in these cases?
    – user55600
    Feb 2 at 12:10
  • @KarlKnechtel based on the answer it looks like we're half-right. sometimes they'll repeat stuff unnecessarily. sometimes it's necessary
    – BCLC
    Feb 6 at 11:41

1 Answer 1

6

Repeating a noun like うそうそ 冗談冗談 ジョークジョーク mean like うそだよ 冗談だよ ジョークだよ.
You could repeat them more than twice うそうそうそ 冗談冗談冗談 ジョークジョークジョーク, but it's used when you're upset like the listener got angry.
And it sounds strange if you don't repeat them like うそ 冗談 ジョーク.
I wouldn’t realize what you declared immediately.

I have no example words other than them.
簡単簡単 大丈夫大丈夫 is used, but it's like a kind of adjective, doesn't refer to what the speaker said and can be used even without repeating, compared to うそうそ.

楽しい楽しい is a different problem.
楽しい楽しい is emphasis of 楽しい, which may have a childish nuance like a word in picture book.
We rarely use it in a real conversation.
Examples
遠い遠い場所に住む友達
悲しい悲しいお話
大きな大きな動物

3
  • 1
    And the good old むかしむかし that's at the beginning at pretty much all the old stories...
    – dvx2718
    Feb 5 at 14:23
  • thanks Chance and @dvx2718 1 - soooo i assume you've seen the clip or don't care about spoilers for Higurashi: Is it likely that Sonozaki said that because Sonozaki is talking to someone below the age of 13? Like it's as if they're going to fun fantasy place found in children's picture books but actually they're going to an underground torture chamber? 2 - ah wait a minute but raiha is under 13 too. maybe the uso uso has a childlike/ childish nuance too? Or not really?
    – BCLC
    Feb 6 at 11:58
  • It may cause a kind of sarcasm that she used 楽しい楽しい instead of 楽しい. うそうそ doesn't have childish nuance.
    – Chance
    Feb 7 at 21:52

You must log in to answer this question.

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