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Best Japanese word for they?
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2008/6/6 04:56
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Does it depend on the sex of the people you are talking about? For example if I was talking about a couple of guys I would use karera or for females kanojora. But what about if I was talking about a group of females and males would the best word be aitsura?
Also I find kanojora quite difficult to pronounce where as aitsura is really easy to pronounce, so in general can I just use this word or is there a better word?
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by magpie1862
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Anohitotachi is better.
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2008/6/6 10:33
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"aitsura" is a rude word. You should say "anohitotachi" if you want to be polite.
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by Minoru
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aitsura is rude? Mr Denshi Jisho didn't tell me that. What would be the english equivalent?
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by magpie1862
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"aitsura" is in any case a casual/informal way of referring to "they, those people," and I would not recommend it as a general term.
"ano hito" would be "that person (over there)" or "that person (we are both talking about)," so "ano hito tachi," the plural of this, would be a general term for they that you can use in polite speech or informal speech.
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by AK
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in the first place,
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2008/6/6 15:01
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"karera" can be used for a group of females and males.
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by Hiro
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careful with dictionaries
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2008/6/6 21:58
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There isn't really an English equivalent, magpie, it's just a very casual, dismissive word for they. Aitsu, the singular, could even be translated as "that piece of crap" (it refers to "it" as well as "he" and "she").
I really don't hear adult women saying it but my husband uses it from time to time, mostly when talking to male friends. I think you're female, is that right? It would sound quite odd for you to use it, especially if the rest of your Japanese was ordinary, polite language.
Don't place too much faith in your denshi jisho- the majority of the funny English phrases you find on sites like engrish.com have come about because of too much reliance on a dictionary, don't fall into the same trap.
Dictionaries will often give you the meaning, but not the nuances of the word, or tell you who uses it in what situations, which is probably more important in Japanese than it is in English. There are all kinds of words for "I" in Japanese, but you don't want to start referring to yourself as "ore", or "wagahai"!
As AK says, if you do need to use "they", "anohitotachi" would be best.
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by Sira
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Anohitotahi is not always polite; it is sometimes used with a distant or negative nuance. At least don't use anohitotachi to refer to your superiors.
Rather than to use anohitotachi carelessly, I would recommend: - to use proper/common nouns (eg. sensei-gata) or more polite words (minasan etc.) - to simply omit it - to simply use karera or kanojotachi depending on your situations.
Best Japanese word for they?
What would be the english equivalent?
No best or equivalent word. Don't forget English and Japanese are very different languages. Japanese doesn't have native personal pronouns.
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by meringue4
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all those theys
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2008/6/7 07:02
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So many pitfalls in Japanese- that's a nuance I was unaware of but it makes sense if I think about it.
Actually I can't think of when I have had to use "they" as a pronoun any time recently, as meringue said it's more usual to directly refer to who you are talking about, and then if the subject of the conversation doesn't change, it's understood without using the "they"- it's not like English where we have to use a pronoun or refer to the subject of the sentence every time we use a verb.
In any case "anohitotachi" might be forgiven coming from a foreigner if it was used in an inappropriate situation, but "aitsura" would probably cause great hilarity/ surprise, as it's so much stronger.
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by Sira
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