Actually saying ‘You’


* The video is hosted on Vimeo. If you can’t see the video, make sure that you can access Vimeo first.
* Let me know what you think of the lesson! Too easy? Too difficult? Anything unclear?

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
469 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Griselda
Griselda
10 years ago

Would this sentence be rude to ask a stranger? ใ“ใฎ ็Šฌ ใฏ ใ‚ใชใŸ ใฎ ใงใ‹๏ผŸ

MysticFuryOFC
MysticFuryOFC
10 years ago

I only knew ใ‚ใชใŸ and ๅ›.

Danni
Danni
10 years ago

I only know omae and anata to be honest. xD I only read manga and the few animes I watch are yaoi.

Danni
Danni
10 years ago

I only know omae and anata to be honest. xD I only read manga and the few animes I watch are yaoi.

Will
Will
10 years ago

ใ‚ใชใŸใ€ใŠๅ‰ใ€ๅ›ใ€ใ‚ใ‚“ใŸ I hear all the time in anime. There's also the odd ใŠใฌใ— (when the character speaks like an old person, usually using ใ‚ใ— for "I"), ่ฒดๆง˜ and ใŠใฎใ‚Œ (those are more widely used as an angry interjection though), and I remember hearing ๅƒ• being used when referring to young boys. I should have heard a lot more but can only remember those right now. Never actually heard ่‡ชๅˆ† being used in that sense though, I think.

Terpomo11
Terpomo11
10 years ago

Incidentally, some of you might be interested in this: TV Tropes has a whole page about Japanese first- and second-person pronouns, some of them rather uncommon.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/JapanesePronouns

Michelle
Michelle
10 years ago

My mom uses "jibun" a lot. She would say, "Jibun dake kangaeru kara…" or something like that. saying I would only think about myself.

S ใจ B
S ใจ B
9 years ago

Thank you very much for the lesson. It was very informative.

I actually heard/read anatagata (plural) (I think from a girl), anata (guy, girl), anta (girl), kimi (guy), omae (guy), temee (guy), kisama (guy), onushi (guy) and otaku . I can't quite remember from whom I heard the last one. Maybe also from a guy. And I do remember all those 'you's from Manga, Anime and games. Wow, japanese entertainment really is colorful! O.o

I do have a question though: Isn't 'anata' also used by wives to say 'dear' to their husbands?

Kind regards
S ใจ B

Anonymous
Anonymous
9 years ago

i always thought kimi was reasonably polite, thanks to the anime experience :'( maybe because of "kimi ni todoke"

anata, kimi, omae, otaku, temee, kisama, onushi, anta…
i feel like i've heard more but they're things that wouldn't really count
like "kono-…" or "yarou" in fights,
or bouya

Anonymous
Anonymous
9 years ago

In my textbook it has a conversation like this:

Person A: Onamae wa nan desu ka?
Person B: Sumisu desu. Anata wa?
Person A: Suzuki desu.

Something like that. So is "Anata wa?" ("And you?") inappropriate in this case or is it okay? If it's not okay, what should this conversation actually look like?

Sir Poopcelot
Sir Poopcelot
9 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

You can also say " Kimi wa nan desu ka?" for what is your name?
Just a lil' FYI

Sir Poopcelot
Sir Poopcelot
9 years ago
Reply to  Sir Poopcelot

I fucked up i meant to write " Anata no onamae wa nan desu ka" for what is your name – soooorry

Anonymous
Anonymous
9 years ago

I guess this another example of how anime Japanese differs from real Japanese? I hear all the variations of "you" constantly in the shows that I watch. Some used in a rude context, some not. I learned most of the words for "you" just by watching anime, before even deciding I'd try to learn a language.

zaynah-
zaynah-
9 years ago

the ones I know are anata, omae, kisama, temee, kimi, and anta :3 oh and jibun but I'm pretty sure you can't be like "jibun wa" lol more like…"jibun no sei desu"…or am I making things up? xD

thank you for the informative video! I didn't realise that these versions of "you" were more an anime thing than real life.

Pauline Graillet
Pauline Graillet
9 years ago

I will give the feeling I had when I hear the word in the context but as a watcher of animes and reader of manga (as you said, Japanese people don't speak like that in real life).
List of japanese "you" I know :
Anata : common word that almost used in all anime (and I thought that was the official "you" in polite Japanese… oh well, I will try to not use it …).
Omae : I thought it used by girls and boys in the context of friendship and familiar but in the same time, it keeps a bit of politeness (but you said it's more man's word like "ore").
Anta : I hear it like you described it, as a sense of tense and of conflit (whether is for joking or for provoking others).
Kimi : I thought it was used for polite people who are older than yourself but as you said it's more like a superior position (status maybe).
Kisama : I hear it like it's almost an insult used by someone upset but also who has a important status (reputation or family honor) or someone who wants to feel superior compared to the person she speaks to.
Temee : it's like "kisama" but used by punks or other kids from the streets.
I didn't know about "jibun" as I thought it's used for our ownself (oftenly translated by "yourself", "herself", "himself", "myself"). As for "otaku", it"s more the signification of someone who has a passion (for the common passion of mangas and animes).
I don't have any ideas for "onushi", I"m unawared of this "you" but I would say (just by impression) it's used for the most formal people like the royal family members and the relatives or by people from other era (like Edo period).
If the feeling I described for those "you" you didn't talk about is not the right feeling, please let me know the real context they can be use (I would finally understand … well I hope ^^).

Leila
9 years ago

I recently subscribed to these lessons and they are interesting BUT I have to say I'm a bit surprised regarding the level of the lessons. I sign up as "upper intermediate" since I'm a graduate student who majored in Japanese studies (but with an awful japanese, fufufu), but so far all the topics that has been brought up has been too easy for me. Is this really concidered upper intermediate or am I getting other videos by mail aswell?
Also, I would like to hear more when you explain grammar. Like in this video you say that we should not use anata to strangers. What I would like to know then is; why (what tone does anata give in Japanese) and what should be used instead (to a stranger).

Otherwise I really enjoy your youtube channel, especially the videos in which you interview Japanese people! =) (I use them as Japanese practice, trying to listen as much as I can to how people speak)

Skye
Skye
9 years ago

Anta, Anata, Otaku, Jibun, and I've heard more but that's all I can think of at the moment.

Zsuzsa
Zsuzsa
9 years ago

I find it quite interesting, that the japanese language used in manga/anime differs from the normal spoken japanese. Why is that? It is an interesting fact, and your videos are the first, where I hear this. Many of my japanese language teachers (they were not from japanese origin) advised me to watch anime in order to learn the language. Maybe it is not the best idea, because it can mislead you, and you end up beeing rude, or weird whyle talking.

Anonymous
Anonymous
9 years ago

I head all of them in One Piece xD

Darshana
Darshana
9 years ago

anata
anta
kisama
theme
omaye
kimiwa

I can't remember anymore. I heard all of these in anime. ๐Ÿ™‚

Henrique
Henrique
9 years ago

So I was wondering, to say "I", for example, ็ง or ๅƒ• can be used, and to say "my", ็งใฎ and ๅƒ•ใฎ can be used, isn't it? Like…
"This is my book."
ใ“ใ‚Œใฏๅƒ•ใฎๆœฌใงใ™ใ€‚

But what about "your"? Suppose I see something on the ground, probably dropped by someone, and a person is standing right next to that thing… I would pick it up and ask to that person: "Is this yours?" But how could I say that in Japanese, not being rude?

By the way, the only "you"s I know are those in the lesson, except for ใใชใŸ that I heard in Spirited Away. Haku said that all the time with Chihiro.

jack
jack
9 years ago

kimi
anata
omae
kijo
kisama
onore
temae

1 3 4 5 6 7 18