課長はあしたゴルフをなさいますか。Are you (lit., section chief) playing golf tomorrow?
Anata あんた is perhaps used more often by women than by men. Women say anata あ なた, for example, to their husbands or close friends.
EXAMPLE:
(5) Anata dō suru.
あなたどうする。
What are you going to do?
Anata あなた has a more informal and less polite variant, anta あんた. It is wise to avoid using this altogether since it is difficult, especially for nonnative speakers, to determine when it can be safely used. (See also KIMI. For a detailed discussion of Japanese terms of address, see Suzuki, ch. 5 “Words for Self and Others.”)
Ane 姉 older sister
Ane 姉 is a generic term for older sisters. It is used by adults, especially in writing, to refer to older sisters in general.
EXAMPLE:
(1) Nihon de wa ane wa imōto yori meue da.
日本では姉は妹より目上だ。
In Japan, older sisters are of higher status than younger sisters.
This use of ane 姉, however, is generally restricted to written Japanese. In conversational Japanese, onē-san お姉さん is the norm.
EXAMPLE:
(2) Nihon de wa onē-san wa imōto yori meue da.
日本ではお姉さんは妹より目上だ。
(same meaning as 1 above)
When talking to an outsider, an adult refers to his own older sister as ane 姉.
EXAMPLE:
(3) Kinō ane ga kekkon-shimashita.
きのう姉が結婚しました。
My older sister got married yesterday.
An adult talking to an outsider about the latter’s older sister or someone else’s uses onē-san お姉さん.
EXAMPLES:
(4) Kinō onē-san ga kekkon-nasatta sō desu nē.
きのうお姉さんが結婚なさったそうですねえ。
I hear your older sister got married yesterday.
(5) Yoshida-san no onē-san wa eigo no sensei desu.
吉田さんのお姉さんは英語の先生です。
Mr. Yoshida’s older sister is an English teacher.
An adult also uses onē-san お姉さん in addressing his own older sister or in talking to his family about his older sister.
EXAMPLES:
(6) Onē-san, chotto matte.
お姉さん、ちょっと。
lit., Big sister, wait a minute.
(7) Onē-san doko. (speaking to one’s family) お姉さんどこ。
lit., Where’s big sister?
(In corresponding situations in English, one would of course use the sister’s given name.)
The use of ane 姉 is restricted to adult speakers. Children say onē-san お姉さん in referring not only to older sisters in general or someone else’s older sister, but to their own as well, whether they are talking to an outsider or a member of their own family.
Onē-san お姉さん has variants such as nē-san 姉さん, onē-chan お姉ちゃん, and nē-chan 姉ちゃん (the last two being used mainly by children). Ane 姉 also has a variant (though perhaps not a very common one), aneki 姉貴, which is used by young men in informal conversations, primarily with outsiders.
Since ane 姉 sounds very similar to ani 兄 “older brother,” the two words must be pronounced carefully and distinctly to avoid confusion. Ane is accentless while ani is accented on the first syllable (see A
A
Ani 兄 “older brother” is the male counterpart of ane 姉 “older sister.” What can be said of ane (see ANE) on the female side, therefore, can be said of ani on the male side. One should remember the following parallels: ani corresponds to ane in usage; onii-san お兄さん corresponds to onē-san お姉さん; nii-san 兄さん, onii-chan お兄ちゃん, and nii-chan 兄ちゃん correspond to nē-san 姉さん, onē-chan お姉ちゃん, and nē-chan 姉ちゃん, respectively; and aniki 兄貴 corresponds to aneki 姉貴 (though aniki 兄貴 is much more commonly used than the latter).
A
The adjective aoi 青い and its nominal counterpart, ao 青, cover a wider range of color than does “blue,” since the Japanese word may also refer to the range of color that one would call “green” in English. Though aoi normally means “blue,” it can indicate “green” in reference to a limited number of items (though midori 緑 “green” is also acceptable), especially vegetation, as in aoi shiba 青い芝 “green grass,” aoi kusaki 青い草木 “green vegetation,” and ao-shingō 青信号 “green traffic light.” Centuries ago, according to Ikegami (p. 16), the use of ao for green was even more extensive than now; nowadays, however, in the sense of “green,” midori is becoming more popular.
Aoi 青い also means “pale” in reference to a person’s complexion.
EXAMPLE:
Suzuki-san dō shita n deshō ka. Aoi kao o shite-imasu yo.
鈴木さんどうしたんでしょうか。 青い顔をしていますよ。
I wonder what’s happened to Mr. Suzuki. He looks pale.
In this case, no other color word may replace aoi 青い.
Are あれ that
In Japanese, there are two words corresponding to the English demonstrative “that” as in “That is a park.”
