Questions tagged [pronouns]
代名詞. Words that substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
119
questions
3
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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 ...
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1
answer
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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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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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1
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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 ...
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1
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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 ...
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0
answers
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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
...
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1
answer
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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 ...
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1
answer
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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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4
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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 ...
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2
answers
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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 ...
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1
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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 ...
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1
answer
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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(?) ...
6
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1
answer
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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, ...
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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 ...
3
votes
1
answer
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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 ...
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votes
1
answer
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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 ...
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1
answer
149
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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?
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1
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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 ...
7
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2
answers
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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 ...
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1
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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,...
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votes
2
answers
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Pronoun collocations
I have embarked on a project of translating a novel I am writing into Japanese in parallel with writing it, and one of the hardest parts for me (in contemplation, I haven't really gotten that far) is ...
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How can I tell wether this pronoun points forward or backwards in context
For full context see this document:
https://www.docdroid.net/qteAJpo/img-20170628-0002-new.pdf.html
最近、いろいろなところで開かれているビジネスマナーのためのメンタルトレーニングでも、これと同じようなことを行います。
I'd like to know for this これ in bold: ...
- 4,847
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2
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In which cases pronouns can be omitted in questions?
The phrase "doko kara kimasu" is translated as "where do you come from" . I suppose this a short version of "anata wa doko kara kimasu ka" . If I want to ask where does he come from? I suppose I ...
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Difference between どこですか and どこにいますか/どこにありますか?
(1) 本はどこですか。
(2) 本はどこにありますか。
Unless I'm mistaken, both those sentences mean something like "where is the book", what's the difference between using です and あります to indicate position?
I ...
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votes
2
answers
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Why is "My Apps" translated to マイApp instead of something like 自分のApp?
In iTunesConnect (for those who don't know, iTunesConnect is a website where developers and iBook authors can manage their apps/books), there is this "My Apps" button:
When I change my OS's language ...
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1
answer
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Use of personal pronouns when talking to different "ranked" people. (In the same conversation)
First time posting here.
I have a question that have been bothering me for quite a while.
I wonder how to use the personal pronouns (僕/俺 & お前/きみ/あなた) in a conversation with different "ranked" ...
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2
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Using 貴様 {きさま} as a joke?
I already know that 貴様 {きさま} is a very rude, derogatory term in japanese, and is practically forbidden in real life situations.
However, I came across a song called キモチ by Mukai Shuutoku, and it ...
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How would one address oneself when speaking to royalty?
Apart from avoiding using personal pronouns, when speaking to royalty, would one just use watashi, like in the following example:
Time: 05:32 - 05:50
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/...
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2
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Subtle differences between だれ and どなた?
I would like to know what the subtle differences are between the interrogative pronouns だれ and どなた. Is the latter more subtle or something? What is the exact difference?
Also, how compatible are ...
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1
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Are there rules for when pronouns in Japanese can be omitted?
Are there rules for when pronouns in Japanese can be omitted or you learn that by experience only?
- 4,447
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3
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こちら (kochira) or これ (kore)?
What's the difference between
'Kore wa watashi no ... desu' (これ は わたし の 。。。 です)
and
'Kochira wa watashi no.. desu' (こちら は わたし の。。 です)
when introducing a person?
Is kore used for inanimate ...
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What word can I use for 'they', when referring to a mixed gender group?
I.e. for a group of guys, you have: 彼たち、かれら
and for girls it's: 彼女たち 彼女ら
So if you have a mixed group, which one should you go with? Is there a different word?
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Pronoun あちし: real or fiction
I've seen in manga あちし, which means "I". However, in every dictionary I've looked at, it doesn't exist. So is this a fictional pronoun?
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Japanese automatic subjects (Omitting pronouns)
In Japanese, you can often omit 私, あなた, and friends in sentences, then rely on context to get the correct subject.
However, without these words, I have no idea how to differentiate between sentences ...
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2
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In a sentence that ends with a verb, when could "が" modify a 3rd person pronoun?
3rd person pronouns (both English and Japanese) and the particle "は" have a commonality. For pronouns (jp & eng) antecedent must exist in the conversation. An "antecedent" is what the pronoun ...
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use of 〜ちゃん as a generic term
In a Shimajiro educational book I saw a line similar to this:
___ちゃんが知ってる乗り物は何ですか？
(the actual one had less Kanji but you get the point)
The question is why was ちゃん used here as a generic term. ...
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自分 How to know what it means?
自分 can mean myself and yourself but, how do you know when the speaker is referring to him/herself or to you? As in, how could you know when the speaker is saying "myself" instead of "yourself" (to the ...
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Nuance between 僕 and 俺?
I'm aware that this is a common question and one that can be quite situational, but I have a few specific questions regarding nuance between these two pronouns for "I".
jisho.org describes 俺 as "Male ...
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Using a person's name in place of a pronoun
When is it right to use a persons's name instead of a pronoun when addressing that person? I'm confused by the following scenario:
The kids are discussing what presents they got last year. Maruko ...
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2
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What is the nuance of someone pointing at you with the pronoun あの人?
Consider the situation in which you are speaking closely around the same table with two other people or more. Someone talking to another person there and referring to you in the conversation with the ...
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1
answer
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Do you really have to say "かれ" (3rd person pronoun) here?
The context is that A, B, and C just got home. They are now wandering around a big house looking for a group of kids. The 3 are wondering if the kids have been studying. A has not yet talked with C:
...
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1
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僕 in 敬語 - is it possible?
With 丁寧語, it's very possible - 僕が行きます is a perfectly normal thing to say. But what of 僕が参ります? Would that sound odd? 私が参ります would be more normal, I think, but is 僕が参ります possible at all?
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こちらの vs この when referring to something
Is there a actual usage difference between these two pronouns? Or is it simply that こちらの is more formal than この?
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Politeness / political correctness and gender polarity of "plural" suffix -等(ら) for 彼 and 彼女 etc
The definitions on ejje.weblio:
彼ら
彼女ら
What I would like to know is:
彼ら is definitely gender neutral and 彼女ら can only have females in the group, right?
As explained in Why is “学生” made “plural” ...
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1
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indefinite pronoun equivalent of "one" e.g. "one must...", "one might..."
What is the best way to formulate a natural equivalent in Japanese?
From my experience, the most common way seems to be contextual inference. Pronoun dropping is obviously super common, but whether ...
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votes
0
answers
122
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How to do plurals? [duplicate]
I've seen there are two ways of saying we and pluralizing words using:
ら、たち
But I can't see the difference and I'm not sure if it can be used with all the pronouns. Are there other forms of ...
- 511
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votes
1
answer
677
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How should say I: 僕、俺、私？ [duplicate]
I want to know the difference among all the ways of saying I, both men and women. I know there are 私、僕 and 俺 for men; 私、あたし and うち for women; and also for elder people I've heard わしゅ. I'm not sure ...
- 511
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1
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Usage of the pronouns 「我が輩」 and 「方」 in everyday life
I want to know if these pronouns are used in real situations. I saw them come up in some video games and wonder if people really use them.
我{わ}が輩{はい} - I've read that this an old usage word but I've ...
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Are anaphoric personal pronouns limited to the third person (彼, 彼ら etc)?
(I hope this question is just a sanity check but these things are sometimes worth asking.)
On p31 of the Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar, Makino tells us that anaphoric personal pronouns ...
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3
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What does it mean when この is in front of a personal pronoun?
As in このオレさま and この僕も. I know the literal translation, but I never understood what the intent of it is.
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