Pronouns in Japanese (ANATA and KIMI are RUDE)

hey guys today i'm going to teach you all about pronouns in japanese all right let's start with the easy one so dictionaries and textbooks would teach you to use the words kare and kanojo for he and she but they are not really used when speaking japanese they do mean him she but they're mainly used in writing so when you read the japanese book you'd see the words a lot but if you're speaking japanese and you say kareva kanojo people would usually thank you talking about your boyfriend or girlfriend so kare kaming he but also boyfriend and kanojo coming she and girlfriend and especially when you're speaking informally so when you're talking to your friends kare and would mean boyfriend and girlfriend 90 of the time so if you want to sound natural when speaking japanese just stop using karen kanojo unless you're talking about your boyfriend girlfriend by the way for the word boyfriend you can also use kareshi and kareshi means boyfriend no he always boyfriend for example then you translate like my boyfriend is angry and full girlfriend it's just kanojo no special word so then what should we use instead of kare and kanojo right so there are three options the first option is to omit the word he or she the second option is to use the name of the person the third option is to describe the person so first let's talk about the first option omitting so japanese people love omitting everything like especially subjects but also particles for example my kids are watching tv correctly you're supposed to say but more naturally when speaking informally i would say kodomo terebimitera the topic marker then i also omitted the o particle the object marker and then lastly instead of me i omitted e like usually becomes tere when speaking informally so codon monterey so as you can tell japanese people love omitting everything and we also hate using words like i you he she so we actually hate using pronouns so if my friend asks me what are your kids up to right now what are you kids doing right now it's already cleared that i'm going to talk about my kids when answering that question i'm not going to say what i'm doing right now so instead of kodomova terebi they are watching tv so in english you'd still use the pronoun they or he or she right uh in japanese we just omit it or if somebody asks you what your boyfriend does like here is used as boyfriend so what's your boyfriend's job and you'd answer like uh kai shine a company employee or ginkgo in english you probably would say he is a banker he is an employee he is a programmer right you'd still use pronoun in japanese we wouldn't we would just say ah programma you could say grammar but it doesn't sound natural actually just repeating is just way too much like we like to be as lazy as possible like why would you say the word he when it's clear from the context so japanese is very contextual so that means we also tend to omit his her so you can add the no particle after kare for example to mean hit karen because no it's like apostrophe s it's a possessive particle his careno cano jono her hers but again we don't really use it for example kosuke lost his wallet in english you'd have to say his wallet right and japanese you just say kosu so you all right now the second option is to use the name if you know that person's name you'd say just use that person's name instead of using the pronoun he issued a so when speaking informally you can just use that person's name or first name or nickname but when speaking formally and you're not very close to that person you should use surname last name plus sun or last name plus sama if it's a customer okay so imagine i'm at work i'm talking to my colleague named hara dasan i call her haradasan miss harada because i'm not very close but i know her name so hara dasan and she leaves and somebody else comes and they're like wow she's so pretty who is she they would say so that person says without saying the word she like kanojo they can just say a very pretty person and then who is she again you don't have to say who is she like it's clear from the context who that person is talking about and then i can say that [Music] apparently she was a model so here i said that means like apparently i heard hara-dasa so instead of the word she i used hara dasan's name all right option three you want to talk about him or her or them but you don't know that person's name then just describe if that person is wearing a red t-shirt that person will be called [Music] akaiti literally a person of red t-shirt they might also say wearing so a red tissue wearing man person you say is enough if there is only one person in the corner for example or you're pointing at that person which is a bit rude but yeah and i stopped that person that man formerly you might also hear the word ano can be used when speaking formally but especially in business situations the word dancer is preferred so anno can be replaced with the word jose and that's used more commonly when speaking super formally so i'm not joking that woman just describe that person instead of using the word he or she you can also just use the occupation the profession or the title of the person so if you want to talk about a teacher you'd say sensei wa uh instead of he or she if you actually sign like kanojo when talking will a teacher at school there might be a problem because like are you dating your teacher you don't want to do that and if you're at a company store and you're talking to an employee and that employee is like i have to leave maybe other staff will help you then they would say hokkaido another stuff or the other stuff they don't say karega kimaste he will come he will come help you okay now let's talk about plural day and dictionaries or textbooks you will see the word karera for they but again it's not very commonly used you will see those words in writing so you say naita they cried and maybe it sounds or it looks poetic right but it would sound very weird if you use the word karera when speaking unless you're speaking very formally so again you'd usually omit or describe or list everyone's names and that might sound weird to you to list everyone's names but if they're like only three people it's not weird so let's say haruki and akira and natsumi are there you can just say harukito or you can pick one person and add tachi so akiratachi o haruki this is very common if there is like a leader in the group you can pick the leader and say natsumi tachi or if there is no leader then you just pick a random person not to me that you are ben natsumi and others are studying so this tachi can be used like others if it's combined with a name or kodomo means kid or kids but if you really want to emphasize the fact that they're more than one child then you say kodomo tachi but you know if you want to say ah the kids are loud like the kids are being annoying you don't have to say kodomota i would just say kodomova unless i really want to make sure that the listener knows there is more than one child let's say i'm sitting with my friend and i will say the kids are so loud and my friend also sees that the kids are loud then i can just say kodomo urusai now the kids are loud huh uh i don't have to say kodomo because she knows there is more than one kid in japanese generally you really don't care if the thing is singular or plural so i have loads of plushies right plush toys but in japanese plush toy or plush toys either way you say nui guru me guru me so in my case i would just say no guru mega are to me i have plushies or i have a plastoi no it doesn't matter if i really want to say that they're a lot of them then i just add the word a lot taksan so i would say is weird anyway because tachi is only attached to living things unless they're like toy story toys so the word hito means person and people right you can say i mean people plural but you don't have to do that you just say hitoga taksam so in japanese the word they is really not used at all so you'd hear the person plus touchy a lot but uh not really the word cut it up okay now let's talk about the pronoun i so probably the one you know is watashi watashi and it's probably the safest one to use and if you're a woman you're lucky because you can just use watashi when speaking both formally and informally so you can use the word watashi as i when talking to your friends and also when talking to your colleagues or boss so some when you have to speak formally and that's what i use as well watashi so when i'm talking to my friends i say watashi also when speaking formally i say watashiwa but as you know we omit the subject usually so i actually don't really use the word watashi that often in a sentence so in english i would say i i i i say i will in almost every sentence about myself i use the word i in japanese no so for example i'll go to a supermarket i wouldn't say watashiwa supani it sounds very robotic i would just say supani it could depending on the context but is like an answer for a textbook or for a sentence like may i do something like may i take a picture like i wouldn't say watashi in this sentence like watashi so actually it's best to omit the word watashi or the pronoun for i uh but it doesn't mean we never use it we have to use it if it's not clear from the context say i'm talking about somebody else and now i want to change the topic and say uh i on the other hand i have to use watashiwa so yukiko can swim but i can't and say hi oyogeru or your gennai so in that kind of situation when you have to talk about yourself after talking about somebody else it definitely is watashi okay but again if it's clear from the context or if it seems clear enough uh from the context then it's better to omit the word i uh and because if they don't know what you're talking about they're gonna ask you anyway so that happens all the time in germany so when i talk to my friends or my family i have to often ask like why who are you talking about so yeah depends on the context but generally omit watashi okay so if you a woman or if you identify as a woman then you can say watashi and that's the easiest option and it's probably the most likable option as well there is also atashi apache can be used when you speak informally but it depends on your personality so this is generalization but every girl i met who uses apache tends to be super outgoing super cheerful usually quite popular and in a more loud side super extroverted and sometimes even me so popular mean girls would definitely use apache it doesn't mean like people who use atashi are mean that's not always the case but you know at school uh every mean girl used atashi so that said something yeah but if you want to be that kind of cheerful outgoing girl type then yeah go you can definitely use apa ship and there's also uchi uchi so this one is very interesting because uchi is very common in kansai in the kansai region and the pitch is different it's uchi so uchiwa uchiwa is busy encanto the word uchi is also used and only girls usually teenage girls use this and i was one of them so when i was like maybe 13 14 this brings back so many memories like using the world which is so weird now because i've been using watashi um you know since i was maybe like 17. so that's what happens a lot with teenagers so girls like at school tend to use the word uchi or atashi but when they start going to university or start a job they switch to watashi because they think it's a bit too childish or too embarrassing to call yourself by my home but girls can use it as i it's confusing right anyway uh you can use uchi or atashi but i would say watashi is the safest option and i also use it and i am a pretty i don't know normal person a bit too nerdy but a normal person so you can you know trust my option i think so i told you that i use watashi as i and when i was a teenager i used the word uchi as i so women tend to use watashi atashi or uchi right and men also use watashi when speaking formally so if you are at work you probably want to use the word watashi for example when you are doing a presentation right so when you're casually talking to your colleagues you don't have to use watashi because that's a bit too formal but yeah if you're talking to your boss or you go to shia sho city hall and you have to talk to some people officially formally then you use watashi i think my brother-in-law also used watashi when introducing himself for the first time so instead of watashi men tend to use and now i think most of you use poke right if you identify yourself as a man and that's okay and that's safe as well and that's probably because your japanese teacher told you that ore is too harsh too rude and yeah if you are talking to a teacher or a boss so somebody you have to respect uh oreo is not the best choice but if you're talking to your friends or your family uh using order is completely fine actually i would prefer if my male friend used ore instead of poke so boku does give you this soft vibe like you know somebody who is not rude to somebody who is you know very soft gentle but booker can also make you sound like a mommy's boy you know a because kids at a very young age would use the word booker so when they're like five six seven they would use bokeh like kindergarten teachers would probably correct them uh if they're using ore like because that sounds a bit more to teenager or a bit too grown up so kids say i will play with my toy you know so using the wood booker when speaking to your friends can make you sound childish or bit yeah too much of mommy's boy so yeah i personally don't like it and i don't actually have any friends or family member who uses poke but even guys who use ore sometimes use boku because yeah ore is a bit too friendly to casual so like my brother-in-law first he used watashi in front of me and my family for the first time because he wanted to be very formal then like you know japanese family meeting is very formal not not very similar to what people in the west do anyway so he used watashi for the first time then he changed to boku when like after the first time so like the second the third dinner he used boku and then when he got very used to everyone he started using ore so you know it's like an evolution you go from watashi to boku to ore so ore should only be used with your friends or people you're close to and then maybe with colleagues or senpai you can use poker and with your boss you can use watashi just listen to what your friends or colleagues do and just adjust if every one of your colleagues is using poker in at work then you should also probably use poker but if they're using order then why not you can also use all that but yeah ore is not necessarily super rude or only used by young kids that's not true at all my grandpa used ore and he was a very polite good man he wasn't rude at all he just was a man so he said ore you will also hear guys use djiben jibin which means oneself myself so this is like a more modern thing i guess so i asked my male friend and he said switching between boku watashi ore is you know too difficult even for him like he's a japanese man and he finds it pain in the neck so oh he said gibbon can be so versatile like it's not exactly polite or correct but people don't really mind if he calls himself gibbon even at like a meeting so he just said you she's just sticking to gibbon because pokey sounds too childish to him and oda sounds too casual in front of his like senpai so now he's just using gibbon so that's an option too but i don't know because it's a bit more than your if your japanese teacher is a bit old they might correct you and now girl can also use ore poke if they want to you know my friends at school although she was you know female she didn't feel like being a girl and yeah so she preferred using ore and you know teachers were conservative so they were trying to correct her and yeah sure oda is not suitable for joke meeting but if you're talking to friends who understand you just audi is fine and i had no problem with it all this gender stuff um i hope people will be more understanding and more open-minded about it and japan is a bit behind when it comes to like gender stuff or enterprise always a step behind also in russian you conjugate the past tense for the verb uh differently depending on the gender so if you're a girl you had like ah at the end and uh i talked to a girl and like she's from russian she said she knows it's weird but she doesn't feel like it so she just uses the male form and you know i understand that some people find it weird or find it unnatural but it's their choice and you don't know what they went through you don't know what you know made them feel that way so you should never judge you know like you can correct them if you you want but if they tell you why they do it and they tell you that they want to stick to that way then you should just be understanding and let them speak that way you know so if i meet a girl and she wants to speak more masculine or she just doesn't identify as a girl then just why you know why argue with that it's their choice anyway as a language teacher i say that watashi atashi uchi are mainly used by women and ore jibin are used by men but as mesa i would say just use whatever you want even if people tell you oh that sounds rude if you feel good when you use the word order then just use order when people tell you oh bokeh sounds too childish but you want to use pogba because your favorite anime character is his pocket then just use poke it's okay to be different yeah you want to sound natural so don't always use the pronouns it's good to remember that you should usually omit the pronoun okay now let's talk about the pronoun you in textbooks auditionings again you will see the word amata and yes in writing anata is fine but don't use anata when speaking i cannot say this uh enough i've said this so many times in so many different videos so i don't even want to repeat this but do not say anata so if you say anata to me as you i would be offended it just sounds rude okay so this is the hardest part about japanese you learn a word and you see it everywhere and you get told off that it sounds rude it's like classic japanese learning uh story well anyway i see a lot of you leaving comments like anata i sensed right i know they're compliments but still because of the word anata i'm like i cannot really take this compliment um joking i appreciate any comment regardless of your you know fluency uh but yeah it's it's it's it's such a shame because the rest of the sentence is perfect so i sensed and now because of this evil honor it makes you sound like a rude you know panda so instead of the word anata use that person's name right you guys know my name misa or misa sensei so instead of anata i sense just say mr [Laughter] and now in japanese using the name doesn't make it sound like you're talking about third person for example your name is jim and i'm talking to you where do you live jim or formerly sunday rundesk yes this sentence could mean where does jim live but i'm looking at you so i'm using your name as you okay so that's what you need to remember use the name or use the title or the occupation of the person so if you're talking to a teacher you say sensei you also use the word sensei when talking to a doctor as well so you say sensei doctor my stomach hurts or if you are talking to your customer you want to say okay okay for example your customer left the wallet at the counter you want to say oh ok is this is it your wallet mr customer so instead of saying i would just say okay are you talking to senpai easy you just said senpai so senpai no cabando codendesca where did you buy your bag senpai or you can also omit right remember omit or username or describe and yeah you can also omit the word you so it's clear from the context i'm looking straight at you and say uh dokonison then i probably mean where do you live right i don't suddenly start talking about i don't know katie pamy pam when looking right at you and i didn't even mention her then yeah so just omit or use the name not another because no but i understand that some of you wanna be rude and you wanna fight on the street uh where in that case you can say omai or temer right if you want to pick a fight so if you intentionally want to be rude instead of another just say oh my so i personally don't recommend this because you will likely to gain to a five if you use those words but so i'd say omar is more common than temer but you is damn it uh especially if you watch anime or drama you will definitely hear these words oh my temer you want to remember them maybe and if you are animal villain you probably would want to remember kisama yeah in anime you definitely hear kisama when the villain is very angry like um but yeah it's very anime villainy and so you wanna maybe use omai if you wanna be rude in real life there is also kimmy kimmy is also yeah quite rude unless it's used in songs or poetry then it sounds very romantic i don't know why it's really weird right so if somebody says kimiwa i would like how dare you like who do you think you are if somebody sings me a song then like you know like or kimmy with squishy and i'm like oh it's like really stupid but that's how it works japanese is a weird language and also your boss could use kimi and i don't know i think in recent years uh it's been changing because yeah kimmy sounds rude and yeah i don't know even as a boss some people find it a little bit too rude to use kimi but you might hear kimi also kimi can be read as kum and kung is the suffix for like usually boys right like at school usually like girls would say blah blah when talking to a boy so yeah akira kum but kung can also be used at work and your boss might use khan after your name so like sumiskan that's quite normal even if you're a woman and now uh lastly i thought i forgot about we the pronoun we we you can say watash after whatever pronoun you use for i that's it but again just like the pronoun they it's not so common to use watashi oreta if i wanna say like we did something i would rather use the word ishani which means together or meena meena means everyone right i mean not that like by everyone so mean so literally together made it with everyone my beard so instead of watash that you got scooty mustache i would probably say ishonitskurimasta unless you are like a farmer and you wanna put the you know advertisement on the product saying we made it and this is the face of the you know people who involved in making these vegetables then you probably see water but yeah generally instead of the word we watashitachi i'd say somebody so again we would rather use the actual name but yeah i think that's enough for today i hope you learned a lot so basically i made the pronouns if you can't then use the name uh or describe the person thank you so much for watching if you like this video please give a thumbs up and share this video with your friends and yeah please subscribe to this channel please please do and if you could consider supporting me on patreon or coffee i would really appreciate it all right bye

Channel: Japanese Ammo with Misa

Views: 225,364

Keywords: learnJapanese, Japaneselanguage, Japanese, nihongo, kanji, hiragana, Japaneselesson, onlinejapaneselesson, japaneselessononline, japanese sensei, sensei, watashi japanese, pronouns in japanese, gender in japanese

Id: ET8HUGI0zAw

Length: 42min 48sec (2568 seconds)

Published: Tue May 31 2022