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Japanese Gender Pronouns?
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2014/8/15 16:39
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In the English language, there are gender pronouns: He, She, Him, His, Her, and Hers. Now what about in the Japanese language? My friends and I are debating whether Kun and Chan would be considered gender pronouns. Are they? Kun=male Chan=female
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by georgem
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Re: Japanese Gender Pronouns?
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2014/8/15 17:05
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he - kare him - kare wo his - kare no she - kanojo her - kanojo wo hers- kanojo no
and yes, "kun" is for male(boy) and "chan" is for female(girl) usually. Use them with the name like "kun" or "chan" and it's more use for children. For adults we have another one which is "san" and we can useot for both male and female.
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by haru505
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Re: Japanese Gender Pronouns?
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2014/8/15 19:39
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And I had heard "you guys" in English. I know "guys" is used for men, so confusing.
By the way, you can use "kanojo-ra" for females. Anyway, in Japanese history, originally "kare"(ή) means "third person" or "that person" only. In the modern time, making differences between "kare" for male and "kanojo" for female was caused by European language.
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by ajapaneseboy
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Re: Japanese Gender Pronouns?
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2014/8/15 20:04
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They can be refereed to both male & female groups = Kere-ra or Kanojo-tachi. (eg, They went to dinner with firends, "Karera-wa tomodachi to issho ni yushoku ni itta", or, "Kanojo-tachi wa tomodachi to issho ni yushoku ni itta").
"Kun" is mainly used for boys, but the person in higher position often use "Kun" to lower person in position both men & women(eg, tutors/teacher to pupils/students). It normally "Kun" can be used for young boys whom they are not mature. You can be use "Kun" to a mature person if you are a higher in position or older, but it's typically used "San"(eg, Saito-san), if you are both mature.
"Chan" can be used for young persons(both boys & girls) or between very close friends. It's better not to use "Chan" if you are both not in closer relationship.
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by tokyo friend 48
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Re: Japanese Gender Pronouns?
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2014/8/15 22:38
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Also there's not really a one-to-one correspondence between usage of Japanese pronouns and English pronouns. Japanese pronouns tend to be more nuanced, but also used less often.
For example, it wouldn't be common to ever use "kanojo" (she) if you were talking about your mother - you'd use the word for "my mother" instead.
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by Umami Dearest
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