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Pronouns

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Eijay

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:09 am


I'm a little confused about pronouns. A little help here? I know the baisic ones like watashi (私) boku (ぼく) and anata (あなた), but I've encountered others that I'm not so sure about. I figure different pronouns have different conotations but I don't really know them. sweatdrop If anyone could give me a list of first, second and third person pronouns and their uses I would really appreciate it. ^^
PostPosted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 11:30 am


Wikipedia has a pretty extensive, and as far as I can tell accurate list. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pronouns. Also, the Nintendo DS language coach informs me that it can be considered rude to refer to someone as he (karera) or she (kanojo) rather than by their names.

cairaechan


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PostPosted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 12:38 pm


cairaechan
Wikipedia has a pretty extensive, and as far as I can tell accurate list. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pronouns. Also, the Nintendo DS language coach informs me that it can be considered rude to refer to someone as he (karera) or she (kanojo) rather than by their names.


"karera" is plural, by the way, the singular is "kare" or "kareshi". It implies a relationship -- "kare"/"kareshi" and "kanojo" are often used where we would use "boyfriend" and "girlfriend."

"anata," similarly, is used between husband and wife affectionately, much like we would use "darling" or "dearest."

It would seem, then, that implying a relationship where there isn't one is what's actually considered rude, although that's more of a guess on my part than something I'm positive about.

(You might observe politicians saying "anata-sama" as a way to be nonspecific about saying "you" but trying to make it more polite.)

In general, you just use someone's name where you would use a second- or third-person pronoun in English, or if it's understood from context you just leave it out entirely.
PostPosted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 1:08 pm


We have threads to ask this sort of thing, please use them

Koiyuki
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The Japanese Student Guild

 
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