Questions tagged [pronouns]
代名詞. Words that substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
97
questions
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2answers
532 views
Is その a standard abbreviation of それが？
The following sentence is from the Constitution of Japan (Article 26).
すべて国民は、法律の定めるところにより、その保護する子女に普通教育を受けさせる義務を負ふ。
The English translation (or rather the original text?) says
All people shall be ...
0
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0answers
84 views
Are forms of address and kinship terms pronouns/代名詞 in Japanese? Why or why not?
It hit me when I was editing this question which had the pronouns tag. I wasn't sure if 「娘」 is considered a pronoun in Japanese. Looking for relevant examples of kinship terminology in English, I ...
0
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1answer
88 views
Why 誰か and not 誰? [duplicate]
I thought that 誰 meant 'who', such as in:
彼は誰ですか。'Who is he?'
Then, why in this sentence it is 誰か ('someone') which is used and not 誰?
彼女が誰か知っていますか。'Do you know who she is ?'
2
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2answers
183 views
Understanding the subject when it's referred to by name
I know in Japanese it's possible to refer to people by name when speaking with them, using the name instead of a pronoun. I'm trying to understand what in the sentence, if anything, makes it clear ...
0
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0answers
83 views
Connotation of あっし as a first-person pronoun
あっし is said by imabi to be a 1. person pronoun, derived ultimately from あたし・わたし and from the "working class dialect of Tokyo Bay" (which presumably refers to 下町言葉). Wiktionary claims it to ...
3
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2answers
219 views
How to refer to a person as an 'It'
In english you can call objects an 'it', as well as people, and generally seen as rude to call a person an 'it'. Is it possible for something similar to be done in japanese? Call a person an 'it'?
If ...
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0answers
96 views
Which pronoun to use for a teacher addressing students
Which pronoun should I use as a teacher when I address my students?
For instance, in this sentence "Please submit your essay on Monday"
As far as I know, あなたたち sounds rude
0
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2answers
130 views
Can I use verb as noun in a informal way? Informal Japanese
I've tried searching for the answer in a lot of place. But all I get is formal answers (like 彼女はいつ来ますか). I'm assuming that the informal style will be 彼女はいつ来てるのか。 because the verb come turned into ...
3
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1answer
325 views
The use of 僕 by office employees
In the famous 1952 film 生きる (Ikiru), the government-office employees frequently use 僕 to refer to themselves (even the female character used it). Based on this understanding of 僕, 僕 is basically a ...
1
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1answer
120 views
How much "weight" do personal pronouns have?
I always feel like I have an identity crisis when I try to say "I" in Japanese.
After reading so much about differences between the various pronouns I've gotten the impression that whatever ...
7
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2answers
481 views
Oneself words difference : 自分, 自身, 自ら, 自分自身, 己, 自己, 自力
I know it's a huge topic, but I can't understand the differences between all this ways to say oneself, and by extension yourself, himself, herself ...
If anyone can help me to have a picture of the ...
2
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0answers
86 views
Confusing interchangeability of 汝 and 己
In most cases, 汝 is the formal/archaic second person pronoun, "you/thou", and 己 is a humble and archaic first-person pronoun or a way to refer to oneself.
However, confusingly, in many ...
3
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1answer
154 views
What's the significance of this female character's use of おまえ?
I'm accustomed to thinking of おまえ, in modern Japanese, as a second-person pronoun and form of address that is used by men and boys with their inferiors or equals. But in 『少年と犬』, by 馳星周, there's a ...
0
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1answer
113 views
How would a butler/servant refer to his princess?
I'm looking to translate a catch-phrase into Japanese. It would belong to a servant/butler character, when he confirms a order, or announces his arrival, etc.
Basically "My Queen" / "My ...
0
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1answer
91 views
どちら vs どちらの for "which"
When should I use どちら and when should I use どちらの for asking a which-question?
My intuitive understanding is that どちらの is used when one wants to ask "which [noun] ..." (e. g. どちらの色が好きですか) but ...
1
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1answer
97 views
Translating without the use of pronouns
I saw this sentence in my review today:
母はいつも、単身赴任中の父のことを案じている。
No pronouns, but easy to understand. One way of translating this sentence would be
My mom (A) is always worried about my father (B) ...
6
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1answer
905 views
When can you use の to replace a noun?
How come the sentence 白いのは、高い is ok, but the sentence 学生じゃないのは、学校に行かない is not? Wouldn't the second sentence just mean "the one who isn't a student does not go to school"? On Tae Kim's grammar guide, ...
1
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1answer
76 views
Why is 自分たち used here?
I was wondering why 自分たち is used instead of, let's say トールたち or another personal pronoun to refer to Tohru and Co.
for context: Tohru and Co just finished performing a stage play. They managed it ...
2
votes
2answers
236 views
When does 彼 refer to a person of indeterminate gender?
I've seen 彼 and even sometimes 彼氏 described in several dictionaries as a pronoun that can refer to a person of any gender, while 彼女 is explicitly female. However in the wild ive never seen a woman ...
3
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1answer
328 views
How commonly is てめぇ used as a synonym for 自分?
The following exchange happens in One Piece:
ブルック: い...行くんですか！？サンジさん！！！
サンジ: 行かいでかてめぇの問題だ！！男サンジやらねばならぬ！！！
I found the sentence kind of baffling at first because as far as I know 行かいでか is Edo ...
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4answers
4k views
Is 僕 (boku) only appropriate for cisgendered men?
I'm enrolled in Japanese at my university, and we recently had a review of personal pronouns. The professor encourage us to understand and practice casual speech, and as part of that, to try finding ...
2
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1answer
128 views
What's the difference between 僕等, 我々, 僕たち, and お互い?
As I read more Japanese texts, I’m finding there are a lot of ways to say “us.” Are there any contextual differences or differences in politeness level between 僕等, 我々, 僕たち, and お互い?
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1answer
3k views
Honorifics in Japan
I learnt alot of korean and also the fact that a younger girl would call an older girl 'eonni' or and older boy 'oppa'. Also a younger boy would say Noona (older girl) or hyung (older boy). Do ...
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1answer
88 views
What is それ doing in this sentence
In reading exercise #3 of JLPT N3 読む guide, there's a sentence that contains それ and I don't understand why.
大好きなおもちゃが壊れてしまった子供にとっては、それを直してくれるおもちゃの専門家が、神様のように見えるようです。
Can someone explain to me why ...
1
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1answer
370 views
How do parents say "I" when talking to their children in Japanese?
When a parent is talking to their child in Japanese, what are the common ways of saying "I"? I've often heard parents refer to themselves in the 3rd person, ie お母さんについてきて ("come with me"), お父さんの車を洗って (...
2
votes
1answer
289 views
How politely to say "you"?
I found many variants in the internet, but they include あなた, which as I know isn't polite and better not to say it to a stranger.
So, if I don't know the name/last name of the person, don't know the ...
2
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0answers
169 views
Why was I called 君？
I’m talking with someone on Tandem who I’ve never spoken to before and he immediately called me 君. He’s only 2 years older than me and I thought きみ was for relationships where there is a bigger age ...
2
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1answer
261 views
Is an honorific necessary when using someone’s name to say “you”?
Since people often just use someone’s name to say “you” do you always need an honorific?
Like could I just say 「ボブの犬が大好きな！」to say “I love your dog!” to Bob? Or would it need be ボブさん?
3
votes
2answers
575 views
Usage of こいつ, あいつ, etc
When can I use こいつ, あいつ, etc?
I’ve seen that they can mean he/she/this/that in various contexts but when is it appropriate to use them versus 彼 or 彼女？
5
votes
2answers
272 views
Is pronoun switching on the fly a thing?
There's a song called Ame no Musique for the game Symphonic Rain.
The song's sung by a character that uses 私｛わたし｝when she speaks, but in the song there's a line that uses あたし:
アタシヲアイシテ
And then the ...
3
votes
1answer
101 views
Relative pronouns in せずにはいられない + noun
天を仰ぎ両手を合わせずにはいられない結果が得られている
In the above excerpt, I'm not 100% sure how to connect the 結果 with the rest of the sentence. I do understand that the meaning is something like "Obtained result that you ...
2
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1answer
306 views
How to use 彼 and 彼女?
The first time I saw these two terms, they were used in a love context, to mean "boyfriend/girlfriend". Later, I came to know that you can also use these to refer to "that guy/girl".
So, what I ...
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2answers
1k views
Is it acceptable to use あなた when referring to a superior indirectly?
I know that generally あなた shouldn't be used when referring to superiors. However, I find it difficult to rephrase the following sentences which refer to a superior using あなた in an indirect manner:
...
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1answer
2k views
What's the difference between "doko ga ... desu ka" and "... doko ni arimasu ka"?
I'm reading a textbook and I have this example:
Takashi-san no ie wa doko ni arimasu ka?
Trying to understand why is arimasu used instead of desu I rephrased it like so:
Doko ga Takashi-san no ...
0
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1answer
1k views
Kochira vs Konohito and Donohito vs Donata
I'm reading a textbook and I've encountered these examples:
Kochira wa donata desu ka?
Konohito wa donohito desu ka?
I know the first one is a more polite way of asking about someone, but is there ...
0
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0answers
49 views
how can I use japanese pronouns if I am beginner in the language japanese? [duplicate]
hello everyone I am very beginner in japanese just I have 2 day learning japanese then I am not expert in this language yet I saw in Wikipedia this japanese pronouns:
watashi わたし
watakushi わたくし
...
5
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1answer
130 views
Can someone explain what purpose こう and こと are serving in this sentence? and whether my interpretation/translation is somewhat correct?
This sentence here (which in context of where I found it is referring to two people, as shown in the brackets):
(私たちのことが認めてもらえるまで。) それまではこうしていることは内緒です
I vaguely understand it to mean something along ...
2
votes
1answer
198 views
Understanding Susumu Kuno's example of misuse of 自分
On Wikipedia's page for Logophoricity, there is an example of that concept in Japanese.
On this Wikipedia page, sentences from Susumu Kuno's 1972 journal article Pronominalization, Reflexivization, ...
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1answer
279 views
Can the volitional form be used to nominate yourself for something?
I did a quick search on this site to see if I could find any answer to this and found this question: Does the volitional form of a verb mean both "let's" and "I want to"?
But ...
3
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2answers
217 views
Translating "you" as 君 when giving a definition
I am trying to define the word "deceive". In English, I would say something like this (regardless of whether or not it is a good definition):
To deceive someone means that you lie to someone, and ...
0
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1answer
178 views
Formal, feminine first-person pronoun
よろしくお願いします。 I am writing a scene (in English, with occasional
Japanese for flavor and difficult-to-translate terms) where a rather
androgynous woman is in a Tokyo department store, speaking with a ...
0
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1answer
114 views
When are these different ways of saying 'I' used?
When I was first exposed to japanese language, there were three pronouns I learnt - 私、僕、and おれ。
But I've seen more pronouns and am not sure when they would be used - わたくし、わっち、わがはい、うち、おれさま、and みずから(?) ...
19
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4answers
7k views
Is it offensive to say あなた?
My teacher says that we should avoid あなた, like わたし, which could be taken off. Following this, I try to refer to the second person by the name: 加藤さんの趣味は何ですか. But there are situations where we forget ...
1
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1answer
102 views
Talking about contextual things... Which Pronouns to use?
Apologies is this is an easy to answer or hard to explain question...
In English we often use demonstrative pronouns to reference what we just talked about.
For example:
The busiest stations in the ...
8
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2answers
1k views
Usage of いる/います and ある/あります in combined words and sentences
Actually, this has been lingering for sometime in my mind about how Japanese convey a sentence which has both the living and non-living things. Will Japanese use いる or ある? or whichever comes first? or ...
4
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1answer
191 views
Please help me identify who does what in this sentence and check the translation
Here is the sentence:
妹に車で駅まで迎えに行かせます。
The translation from Tatoeba is
I will have my sister pick you up at the station.
I've been reading "Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't ...
2
votes
1answer
146 views
How to address readers/viewers in an article or video?
How should one address readers or viewers in a published work?
For example, it is common in English language articles and videos these days to end by asking the viewer to share their opinion in a ...
0
votes
1answer
141 views
Speaking in first person without saying "I"
For example:
今日から明日まで勉強します。
kyou kara ashita made benkyou shimasu.
How do I know that the speaker talks about themselves?
1
vote
1answer
129 views
How can I explain about someone who is beside without saying their name for example "he likes to eat fruits"
Is it possible for me to use あの人は その人は この人は to address somebody (instead of using their name) who is beside me because i'm doing a presentation and i'm required to describe somebody but that person ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
How do I say "the other person"?
I want to write a small dialogue.
How do I say "the other person says/answers etc."?
Then, one said...and the other replied...
When names are available I usually use those to indicate who says what,...
