20
votes
Accepted
貧しい【まずしい】 poor 貧乏【びんぼう】な poor What's the difference?
貧乏 is a Sino-Japanese word (kango), and it only refers to financial poorness. It's an easy word, but it can sound somewhat direct and rude. In formal or academic contexts, 貧困 ("poverty") is mainly ...
- 337k
15
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between 山道【さんどう】 and 山道【やまみち】?
さんどう is often an alternative name for a 登山道【とざんどう】 (a mountain trail/path where cars cannot pass). Modern hikers/trekkers normally use さんどう or とざんどう. For example 増毛山道 is a さんどう. When 山道 is combined ...
- 337k
11
votes
Accepted
Should I use 無料 (muryou) or 只 (tada) for a free chatsite?
Muryou is more formal and literally means free in the sense of "no charges apply". In your case case muryou is better, as it is less ambiguous. "Tada" also carries the meaning of "only" / "just" and ...
- 967
10
votes
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Is there any difference between 速さand 速度?
I would say there is no difference, at least in everyday language. Maybe 速さ has a slightly more casual feel to it... at least I see more myself using 速さ than 速度 in a daily conversation.
Now, 速度 is ...
- 456
8
votes
What is the difference between koi, ai, and renai? 恋、愛、恋愛
恋【こい】 and 恋愛【れんあい】 are basically the same. They both mean romantic love or romance, that feeling based on sexual attraction. 恋 is a native-Japanese word (wago or yamato-kotoba) whereas 恋愛 is a Sino-...
- 337k
8
votes
Why is 'no smoking' 禁煙, whereas 'to smoke' is 吸う?
The Sino-Japanese word (kango) that directly corresponds to 禁煙 is 喫煙【きつえん】 (喫 = "take and enjoy"), which is a suru-verb that can be found in stiff situations including statistical or medical contexts. ...
- 337k
8
votes
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Difference between 生き物 and 生物
They're synonyms, but 生き物 is more colloquial. You can still use it in formal situations, but it's not common to use 生物 in normal speech. It's not weird to refer to plants as 生き物, but I think animals ...
- 805
8
votes
Difference between 生き物 and 生物
As in @deeeeekun's answer, 生き物 is more colloquial and it is used to describe living things with clear vital sign. Students taking care of rabbits or golden fish in an elementary school is [生き物係]{...
- 5,628
7
votes
Are 漢語 always more formal than 和語？
While 漢語 is more formal/technical/academic than the 和語 equivalent in most cases, there are a few exceptions.
一番 (kango) is less formal/academic than 最も (wago).
喧嘩 (kango) is less formal than 争い (wago)...
- 337k
6
votes
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difference between 血 and 血液？
The actual meaning of 血 and 血液 is basically the same.
Having two or more different lexical items for the same concept is an extremely common phenomenon in modern Japanese. This is because when ...
- 11.7k
6
votes
Accepted
Heuristics for identifying Japanese-origin words (和語)
First of all, if a word contains both kanji and hiragana, it's very likely to be wago. (E.g. 食べる、美しい、…)
If the word consists of kanji only, like you said counting the number of syllables is a good ...
- 48.4k
6
votes
Difference between 七転び八起き and 七転八起
The longer one is the normal way to express this idea in everyday speech and writing, but it also means it looks fairly "mundane" to the eyes of native speakers.
The shorter one is less common but is ...
- 337k
6
votes
Difference between 絶滅, 消滅 and 滅ぶ
絶滅: "extinction (of species)"; a kango technical term used only in biological contexts
消滅: "disappearance", "vanishing"; a kango used with various subjects in various technical/legal/academic contexts
...
- 337k
6
votes
Accepted
Can さくじつ and きのう be used the same way?
It depends on the context.
さくじつ and きのう both mean yesterday (and the same Kanji 昨日 is used for the words). A major difference in their usage is that さくじつ is almost always used in a formal context (...
- 386
6
votes
Accepted
Native Japanese vocabulary, pure Wago/Yamato Kotoba
Although Sino-Japanese words (aka kango) are technically loanwords, they have been an integral part of the Japanese vocabulary for more than 1000 years. Practically speaking, it's almost impossible to ...
- 337k
5
votes
Accepted
When would you use 相互 as opposed to お互い？
I'm thinking the former is slightly more hard/archaic, and for written style japanese, where was the latter is more conversational? But they both seem to have the same meaning.
相互 is slightly more ...
- 15.4k
5
votes
What's the difference between 女性 and 女の人?
The meaning stays the same, but the connotation is that 女性 is the more scientific of the two. 女の人 is simple, everyday language. And while 女性 is used a fairly high amount of times also, it’s more used ...
- 633
5
votes
恥知らず【はじしらず】 versus 厚顔無恥【こうがんむち】
These two are basically same meaning,so either one is fine in this situation.
To be exact, for me, 厚顔無恥 sounds a bit stronger than 恥知らず, but Japanese don't care the differences so much.
- 86
5
votes
Accepted
Difference between 帰宅{きたく}する and 帰{かえ}る
帰宅 means "to return home", but 帰る only means "to return". You can say 会社に帰る, but 会社に帰宅する is wrong. Depending on the situation, 夜になったので帰った can mean "I returned (to the office/base/school/etc)". There ...
- 337k
5
votes
Accepted
Strictly speaking, are 重箱読み and 湯桶読み mostly 漢語 or 和語, or 50-50?
I don't know the "authoritative definition", but according to Japanese Wikipedia, 重箱/湯桶 words are not kango:
「雑木」を「ぞうき」と読むような重箱読みや、「夕刊」を「ゆうかん」と読むような湯桶読みは、和語と漢語を複合させた混種語（和漢混淆語）であり、漢語の範疇ではない。
...
- 337k
5
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between 新規 with 新しい and 新た?
新規 and 新たな cannot be used as a predicate, and they cannot be used in comparative sentences, either.
pre-noun adjectival
adverbial
comparison
predicate
新しい計画
新しく計画する
これより新しい計画
この計画は新しい
新たな計画
新たに計画する
...
- 337k
4
votes
concrete nouns and abstract nouns. いadj なadj
Yes, your observation is basically correct. Most na-adjectives are based on Sino-Japanese words (aka kango), which are words borrowed from China along with kanji, whereas most i-adjectives are ...
- 337k
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