Can you help me with this? I don't get it D: 兄/お兄さん- It says… - Feed Post from KenjiSama to mog86uk
Can you help me with this? I don't get it D:
兄/お兄さん- It says that's older brother, but I'm confused. Which one do I use? And I thought that you used this one-兄貴 aniki or oniichan.....T_T
Also this one--姉/お姉さん- oneechan?
And this one--夫/ご主人
And lastly this one--妻/奥さん
兄/お兄さん- It says that's older brother, but I'm confused. Which one do I use? And I thought that you used this one-兄貴 aniki or oniichan.....T_T
Also this one--姉/お姉さん- oneechan?
And this one--夫/ご主人
And lastly this one--妻/奥さん
posted by KenjiSama
Comments 7
The first item of the pair is the general use word, the second has the honorific suffix (which can be changed).
In the case of husband and wife, 夫 and 妻 designate your husband/wife, while ご主人 and 奥さん another person's spouse.- A little errata: goshuujin can be used also with your husband.
I would say to go look it up, but pretty much every explanation doesn't fully explain the topic.
http://japanese.about.com/library/bl_family.htm
It says the first column is for referring to your own family (i.e. when talking about them to other people), but you don't use this column when talking TO your family members. The second column is used to refer to another person's family members, AND it is also this column which is used when speaking to your own family members.
The first column is basically the plain noun form of the word like "a brother", "a mother", etc. This is used to speak humbly of your own family. The second column is a polite form of address, which is more like a honorific pronoun which is used in place of the family member's name.
Even this isn't the complete picture though. When speaking TO your own family in private you would likely have more endearing ways of talking to eachother, dropping some of the formalities. This person's answer should be helpful to you:
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080229084130AA3GepU- I read that Yahoo answer again and realised that it is even better then I noticed earlier. That random person on Yahoo Answers explains the topic better than most textbooks seem to!! I regret not saying it like "This person's answer will be very VERY helpful to you"! :D
Everyone should definitely read it. Read it through a few times to make sure you weren't skimming over too much:
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080229084130AA3GepU 
Hi! My sensei told us that names for family members are different, it has something to do with the speaker..
example: 母/お母さん
・母 is when you use it as topic your sentence and pertains to your own mother.
母は足が長い。(haha wa ashi ga nagai.) My mother has long legs.
・お母さん（おかあさん）is use (1) when you address your mother directly, and (2) when you refer to some else's mother.
(1) 「速くいらっしゃい、ビル」("hayaku irasshai, Biru.")
「はい、おかあさん」("Yes, Mother.")
"Come home early, Bill."
"Yes, Mother."
(2) お母さんによろしくね。(okaasan ni yoroshiku ne.) Say hello to your mother for me.
I checked some sites for the examples.. Hope this helps... :)- ～ちゃん（~chan）, aside from the function of addressing a child or someone younger than you,
ex. Yuki-chan (Yuki is younger than you or a child for that matter),
is also used for endearment or if the person you are talking to is very close to you regardless if he or she is younger than you. It can replace ～さん（~san）but only if you are pertaining to a very close friend or family member..
Oniisan --> Oniichan (older brother) :3
Ojiisan --> Ojiichan (grandfather) ^^
Be careful, don't use them to stranger.. :)
thx ^-^