already.
When an adult talks to a member of his family (e.g., his mother and siblings) about his father, he usually uses otōsan お父さん. (Inside-the-family terms for father vary from family to family, e.g., otō-sama お父様 and papa, but otō-san お父さん is probably the most common.)
When an adult male is engaged in an informal conversation with close associates or friends, he is likely to refer to his father as oyaji 親父 “my old man.” The use of oyaji is far more common in Japanese than that of “my old man” in English, but it is restricted to men only.
When an adult talks to an outsider about the latter’s or someone else’s father, otō-san お父さん is probably the most common term.
The above rules apply to adults only. Children, whether boys or girls, most often use the term otō-san in almost all situations.
When referring to both parents, one must put chichi 父 before haha 母 unlike in English, where “mother and father” or “Mom and Dad” is quite acceptable. In Japanese, however, whether one says otōsan to okāsan お父さんとお母さん or chichi to haha 父と母 to mean “Dad and Mom” or “father and mother,” the word order is set and should not be changed, just as one would never say in English “pepper and salt” instead of “salt and pepper.”
Chigau 違う to be different, to be incorrect
Chigau 違う has roughly two meanings: “to be different” and “to be incorrect.”
EXAMPLES:
(1) Nihonjin wa Chungoknjin to zuibun chigau.
日本人は中国人とずいぶん違う。
The Japanese are quite different from the Chinese.
(2) Kono kotae wa chigaimasu yo.
この答えは違いますよ。
This answer is incorrect, you know.
These two meanings may seem unrelated at first, but they are actually not as far apart as one may think. After all, an incorrect answer is an answer that is different from the correct one.
Iie, chigaimasu いいえ、違います is often used in lieu of Iie, sō ja arimasen いいえ、そ うじゃありません to mean “No, that’s not so.” Iie いいえ is frequently left out. The direct English translation of Iie, chigaimasu would be “No, it’s incorrect”; English speakers might therefore feel that this Japanese expression is probably a strong denial. It is, however, not as strong as the English translation might suggest and is at least as commonly used as Iie, sō ja arimasen.
As is the case with Sō ja arimasen そうじゃありません, Chigaimasu 違います is most often used to contradict a question ending with a noun + desu ka ですか.
EXAMPLE:
(3) A: Are wa Tanaka-san desu ka.
あれは田中さんですか。
Is that Mr. Tanaka?
B: Chigaimasu. Suzuki-san desu.
ちがいます。鈴木さんです。
No, that’s Mr. Suzuki.
The use of Chigaimasu 違います is not appropriate as a response to a question ending with an adjective + desu ka ですか, or a verb + ka か (see SŌ DESU).
In American English, “different” is used with “from,” as in “Japanese is quite different from Chinese.” In Japanese, however, the particle used is to と, not kara から.
EXAMPLE:
(4) Nihongo wa Chūgokugo to zuibun chigau.
日本語は中国語とずいぶん違う。
Japanese is quite different from Chinese.
In American English, one usually says “A is quite/a lot/very different from B.” However, the Japanese counterparts of “very,” such as totemo/taihen とても/たいへん, don’t go well with chigau 違う. Other adverbs, such as zuibun ずいぶん and kanari かなり, are preferred instead, as in
EXAMPLE:
(5) Ōsaka wa Tōkyō to zuibun/kanari chigau.
大阪は東京とずいぶん/かなり違う。
Osaka is a lot/quite different from Tokyo.
Chokin 貯金 savings
Chokin 貯金 can mean either “saving money” or “saved money.”
EXAMPLES:
(1a) Tarō wa otoshidama o zenbu chokin-shita.
太郎はお年玉を全部貯金した。
Taro put all his New Year’s cash gifts into his savings.
(1b) Tarō wa amari chokin o hikidasanai.
太郎はあまり貯金を引き出さない。
Taro does not withdraw money from his savings very often.
In Japan, savings one can keep at the post office are called chokin 貯金, whereas bank savings are referred to as yokin 預金. For some reason, therefore, nobody says *yūbinyokin 郵便預金 or *ginkō-chokin 銀行貯金. Actually, chokin is a much more common word, while yokin sounds more professional. If you put a coin in a piggy bank, therefore, call it chokin, not yokin!
Ch
Most Japanese unfortunately have been rather prejudiced against the Koreans for no apparent reason. Especially during the time when Korea was under Japanese rule (1910–45), the word Chōsenjin 朝鮮人 “Korean[s]” was almost always uttered with contempt. It was for this reason that the name Chōsen 朝鮮 was almost completely discarded when Japan lost World War II. Since then, the Japanese have adopted the names Hokusen 北鮮 for “North Korea” and Kankoku 韓国 for “South Korea.” What is really inconvenient, however, is the lack of an appropriate prejudice-free name for Korea as a whole. Linguists, for example, still have to refer to the Korean language as Chōsengo 朝鮮語, since the language is one and the same in North Korea and in South Korea. The word Kankokugo 韓国語 (lit., “South Korean language”), which some people use, is not really an accurate label for the language.
Cho
Chosha 著者 means “person who has written a specific (usually nonfiction) book.”
EXAMPLE:
