Japanese Language Stack Exchange
Japanese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [second-person-pronouns]

二人称代名詞. Second-person pronouns like あなた, きみ, and おまえ (cf. English "you").

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When referring to in-laws using 義理, do you use the familial term relative to yourself or to your spouse?

When using terms such as 義理のお兄さん and 義理の弟, do you choose お兄さん vs 弟 relative to your own age, or relative to your spouses age? If you are older than your spouse, but said spouse's older brother is younger than you, which term is appropriate? I assume…
jkerian
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俺 and 僕 used as second person singular pronouns

I often see couples where the girl sometimes speaks to her boyfriend using 俺 as a 'you'. Where does it come from? Can other pronouns like 僕、私、あたし, etc. can be used the same way?
oldergod
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A polite way to say " this person"

What do I say in Japanese when I'm trying to imply, "This is my dad", "These are my parents", "This is my friend(female)" or "This is my manager"? I don't think using これ is polite, nor will 彼 be appropriate.
Venkatesh Kumar
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How to ask if a dropped object belongs to someone?

Let's say I see a wallet on the ground and a person I suspect dropped it. In English I would naturally ask" Excuse me. Is this your wallet?" A direct Japanese translation would be"すみませんあなたの財布ですか" but time and time again I hear that using "あなた" is…
Keen
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Forms of address between couples

I've come to understand that middle aged women may refer to their husbands as あなた when talking to them. If a wife is talking to a friend or work colleague, how would she refer to her husband? Also for younger people around school/university age,…
I dunno what to call myself
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Is あなた considered rude?

So a Japanese teacher told me that あなた (anata) was a bit rude. But today I talked with a Japanese and she used あなた ... so, I'm a bit confused (we just met in a language exchange app). So I suspect あなた isn't actually rude. Maybe it's the standard…
alex
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