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* Let me know what you think of the lesson! Too easy? Too difficult? Anything unclear?
A blog about Japan, dating, social skills, and travel. Aiming to provide well-balanced Japanese perspective.
あんた
君
あなた
Suppose a person's name is max and i want to ask him " are you ok ? " withought using any of these words (anata, kimi, omae, anta)
You would say, 'Max, daijoubu?'
Wait, wasn't jibun in the list of "I"'s that the Japanese don't use often? Does it mean "I" as well as "you"?
Good observation! Jibun is a really weird word because people use it for both 'you' and 'i'.
In fact, 自分 can almost be translated to any singular "-self" word, as in "myself", "yourself", "oneself", "him/herself".
Thanks Yuta-San, I enjoy your lessons a lot.
Hi Yuta!
Thanks a lot for the video! I am not that good at Japanese I think, but I'll give it a shot.
Kimi, omae, jibun, teme, anata and that's about it I think. Also, I was wondering if you or anyone else here has a link to a place where you can practice the Japanese writing system, as I can only recognise a few characters in katakana but would like to get better.
Again, thank you very much!
P.S. Think I accidentally reacted to another comment instead of to the video
After thinking, I have questions.
How would I say "with you" without using (anta, kimi, etc) like if I wanted to take a picture with somebody and I was asking them "Is it ok if I take a picture with you?" and also, How would I say do you like without using (anta, kimi etc.) or is it kind of like Gakusei, where they understand that you're asking them a question? or would you just say the Japanese word for interests?
"With you" can be expressed with the phrase "issho ni", which means "together". Let's go with your example. You'd say:
Watashi to issho ni shashin o torimasu ka?
(Literally: With me together picture take?)
(Of course the more natural translation is: Do you want to take a picture with me?)
[shashin = picture/photo; torimasu = -masu form of the verb 'toru' which means "to take"]
If you notice in my original sentence though I didn't actually use any variation of 'you' at all. That's because if I'm speaking to someone 'you' is implied so there's no need to be direct and use any kind of word to express 'you'.
That's a very important point to keep in mind when studying Japanese. It's HIGHLY CONTEXTUAL. The speaker IMPLIES and the listener INFERS. So when communicating, the more vague you are the more polite you are, and vice versa.
For your last question, how to say "Do you like…", let's cover all our bases, shall we? Let's go over different variations of this that a beginner student would encounter and look at ways it'd be actually used in the real world versus textbook examples. Imagine I'm talking to you and about you. I want to ask "Do you like pizza". Some variations include:
1. Anata wa PIZZA ga ski desu ka?
2. Jakayla-san wa PIZZA ga ski desu ka?
3. PIZZA (ga) ski desu ka?
4. PIZZA ski (ka)?
Time to dissect:
1. Even if I didn't know your name in this situation, 'anata' (or any other 'you') is still pretty rude. I'm talking to you, right? Why do I have to say 'you' in the sentence? If I'm talking about someone else, of course I'd have to be specific and use that person's name. I can't just imply a person I'm thinking about and expect you to follow. You're not a mind reader.
VERDICT: This is a classic textbook example for new learners but it should NOT BE USED.
2. If I still wanted to be more specific, an alternate option to actually using a word for 'you' would be to just use the person's name directly. Earlier I said that being more vague is considered more polite. Another thing to keep in mind is the less you include in a sentence (of course, only if it's already understood), the more NATURAL you sound. So even if I didn't use 'you' and just used your name, again, I'm talking to you, right? So using your name, though more polite, is still rather redundant.
VERDICT: This is a standard sentence when 2 people are starting to get to know each other. Forget #1. Start here.
3. Expanding on that point of leaving out what's not necessary, I'm no longer addressing you other than the fact that I'm talking directly to you. I put 'ga' in ( ) to show that this particle can be left out as well.
VERDICT: 'Desu' is still used so it's still polite and it's starting to sound more natural and colloquial.
4. Going a step further the particles 'ga' and 'desu' are gone and the same can be done with 'ka'. But if you leave out the question-marking particle you'll have to show it's a question by a rising intonation at the end of the sentence.
VERDICT: Definitely more colliquel but also more familiar. So this shouldn't really be used from the get-go but rather when 2 people are on friendly terms and it's been established that there's no need to be so formal and use keigo and stuff.
"With you" can be expressed with the phrase "issho ni", which means "together". Let's go with your example. You'd say:
Watashi to issho ni shashin o torimasu ka?
(Literally: With me together picture take?)
(Of course the more natural translation is: Do you want to take a picture with me?)
[shashin = picture/photo; torimasu = -masu form of the verb 'toru' which means "to take"]
If you notice in my original sentence though I didn't actually use any variation of 'you' at all. That's because if I'm speaking to someone 'you' is implied so there's no need to be direct and use any kind of word to express 'you'.
That's a very important point to keep in mind when studying Japanese. It's HIGHLY CONTEXTUAL. The speaker IMPLIES and the listener INFERS. So when communicating, the more vague you are the more polite you are, and vice versa.
For your last question, how to say "Do you like…", let's cover all our bases, shall we? Let's go over different variations of this that a beginner student would encounter and look at ways it'd be actually used in the real world versus textbook examples. Imagine I'm talking to you and about you. I want to ask "Do you like pizza". Some variations include:
1. Anata wa PIZZA ga ski desu ka?
2. Jakayla-san wa PIZZA ga ski desu ka?
3. PIZZA (ga) ski desu ka?
4. PIZZA ski (ka)?
Time to dissect:
1. Even if I didn't know your name in this situation, 'anata' (or any other 'you') is still pretty rude. I'm talking to you, right? Why do I have to say 'you' in the sentence? If I'm talking about someone else, of course I'd have to be specific and use that person's name. I can't just imply a person I'm thinking about and expect you to follow. You're not a mind reader. VERDICT: This is a classic textbook example for new learners but it should NOT BE USED.
2. If I still wanted to be more specific, an alternate option to actually using a word for 'you' would be to just use the person's name directly as ways to establish you as the subject. Earlier I said that being more vague is considered more polite. Another thing to keep in mind is the less you include in a sentence (of course, only if it's already understood), the more NATURAL you sound. So even if I didn't use 'you' and just used your name, again, I'm talking to you, right? So using your name, though more polite, is still rather redundant. VERDICT: This is a standard sentence when 2 people are starting to get to know each other. Forget #1. Start here.
3. Expanding on that point of leaving out what's not necessary, I'm no longer addressing you other than the fact that I'm talking directly to you. I put 'ga' in () to show that this particle can be left out as well. VERDICT: 'Desu' is still used so it's still polite and it's starting to sound more natural and colliquel.
4. Going a step further the particles 'ga' and 'desu' are gone and the same can be done with 'ka'. But if you leave out the question-marking particle you'll have to show it's a question by a rising intonation at the end of the sentence. VERDICT: Definitely more colliquel but also more familiar. So this shouldn't really be used from the get-go but rather when 2 people are on friendly terms and it's been established that there's no need to be so formal and use keigo and stuff.
Hello Yuta. Thank you very much for another great lesson.
Its very helpful and Im very excited for the next one.
Have a great time and thank you again 😀
あなた
おまえ
てめえ
あんた
きみ
Hi Yuta, nice Lesson, now I understand Japanese people doesn't really use the word "You". I watch anime and I often hear these words from the characters:
Anta
Kimi
Anata
Kisama (when a character is mad or something of sort)
Temee
and Omae… these are the only words I know that means "You" in english until I watched you're lesson.. Thank you for the Awesome lesson
Well. I`m a bit outdated, but…
I have already known such pronouns like "anata", "kimi", "omae", "temee"(I`ve saw "temae" somewhere, but I`m not sure if it`s correct). And I`ve seen "Jibun" and "otaku" but not as pronouns (Well, "Jibun" as pronoun but for "I")
I assume that Japanesse people use names instead of "you". Correct me if I'm wrong.
About the word "anata" i thougt it meant "dear" used by couples or is something completely different?
And "otaku" what about this word, doesn't mean "someone who is "addicted" to something"?
evangelion with the sound ge like in "geronimo"???? I thought it was with the sound ge like in "okage"
I've not seen onushi お主 before… and I've seen otaku おたく before but not as meaning the word 'you'.
Everything else I have seen and I typically try to skip 'you' when saying something in Japanese.
Allays words I know ti say "you" in japanese are in the video. In the video there are some I didn't know until today.
I made I big mistake on my first word ^^"
it is just all.
I know it's rude, but I do like to use てめえ, but I only use it to my friends as a joke.
Anata! ~ Err about this one, Can't it also be used romantically? ^^
Omae!
Anta!
Temee!
Kisama!
I only knew "anata" and "otaku" before seeing this video. "Jibun" also rings a bell–a little one.
anata, kimi, anta, omae, temee, kisama, sore dake desu. anime mimashita dakara.
Japanese 'You':
Anata, anta, kimi, omae, temee, otaku, jibun, kisama.
That's all I can remember now. But aren't 'temee' and 'kisama' an insult? I can recall them being used as insult.
Omae, Anata, Anta, Kisama, Kimi, temee.