{"id":397,"date":"2010-04-29T12:13:21","date_gmt":"2010-04-29T12:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/?p=397"},"modified":"2010-04-30T12:14:51","modified_gmt":"2010-04-30T12:14:51","slug":"describing-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/describing-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Describing People"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can describe people with this formula : name + \u306f<\/strong> + body part + \u304c<\/strong> + adjective.<\/p>\n

Here’s an example :<\/p>\n

\u4e95\u4e0a\u3055\u3093\u306f\u8033\u304c\u5c0f\u3055\u3044\u3067\u3059<\/strong> =\u00a0 Inoue has small ears<\/p>\n

(\u3044\u304a\u3046\u3048<\/strong>\/\u4e95\u4e0a<\/strong> = Inoue. \u3055\u3093<\/strong> = polite suffix. \u306f<\/strong> = particle. \u307f\u307f<\/strong>\/\u8033<\/strong> = ear. \u304c<\/strong> = particle. \u3061\u3044\u3055\u3044<\/strong>\/\u5c0f\u3055\u3044<\/strong> = small. \u3067\u3059<\/strong> = is)<\/p>\n

Now look at this sentence :<\/p>\n

\u3046\u3055\u304e\u306e\u8033\u306f\u9577\u3044\u3067\u3059<\/strong> = A rabbit has long ears<\/p>\n

(\u3046\u3055\u304e<\/strong> = rabbit. \u306e<\/strong> = possessive particle. \u307f\u307f<\/strong>\/\u8033<\/strong> = ear. \u306f<\/strong> = particle. \u306a\u304c\u3044<\/strong>\/\u9577\u3044<\/strong> = long. \u3067\u3059<\/strong> = is.)<\/p>\n

The second sentence doesn’t follow the formula that I introduced in the beginning of the post.<\/p>\n

Technically, you can describe people and things like the second sentence, but it’s much more natural for Japanese people to describe people using the formula of the first sentence than the second sentence.<\/p>\n

Now take a look at this sentence :<\/p>\n

\u9234\u6728\u5148\u751f\u306f\u80cc\u304c\u9ad8\u3044\u3067\u3059<\/strong> =\u00a0Mr. Suzuki is tall<\/p>\n

(\u3059\u305a\u304d<\/strong>\/\u9234\u6728<\/strong> = Suzuki. \u305b\u3093\u305b\u3044<\/strong>\/\u5148\u751f<\/strong> = (teacher) polite suffix. \u306f<\/strong> = particle. \u305b<\/strong>\/\u80cc<\/strong> = height. \u304c <\/strong>= particle. \u305f\u304b\u3044<\/strong>\/\u9ad8\u3044<\/strong> = tall\/high. \u3067\u3059<\/strong> = is.)<\/p>\n

The adjective \u305f\u304b\u3044<\/strong> can mean “high”, “tall”, or “expensive”. In the example used above, you can rule out the meaning “expensive” because the context tells us that height is invovled.<\/p>\n

With the sentence\u00a0below, it’s especially important not to translate the meaning literally :<\/p>\n

\u4e2d\u6751\u3055\u3093\u306f\u982d\u304c\u308f\u308b\u3044\u3067\u3059<\/strong> = Mr. Nakamura is stupid<\/p>\n

(\u306a\u304b\u3080\u3089<\/strong>\/\u4e2d\u6751<\/strong> = Nakamura. \u3055\u3093<\/strong> = polite suffix. \u306f<\/strong> = particle. \u3042\u305f\u307e<\/strong>\/\u982d<\/strong> = head. \u304c<\/strong> = particle. \u308f\u308b\u3044<\/strong> = bad\/inferior. \u3067\u3059<\/strong> = is)<\/p>\n

If you were to translate this literally, it would mean, “Mr. Nakamura’s head is bad”. Sor far, we described people physically, but this time, the sentence is describing Nakamura’s intelligence, rather than the physical description of his head.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can describe people with this formula : name + \u306f + body part + \u304c + adjective. Here’s an example : \u4e95\u4e0a\u3055\u3093\u306f\u8033\u304c\u5c0f\u3055\u3044\u3067\u3059 =\u00a0 Inoue has small ears (\u3044\u304a\u3046\u3048\/\u4e95\u4e0a = Inoue. \u3055\u3093 = polite suffix. \u306f = particle. \u307f\u307f\/\u8033 = ear. \u304c = particle. \u3061\u3044\u3055\u3044\/\u5c0f\u3055\u3044 = small. \u3067\u3059 = is) Now look at this sentence…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8589],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","tag-describing-people"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}