Essential Japanese Vocabulary. Akira Miura
hijōni) byōki deshita.
*きのうはとても（たいへん、非常に）病気でした。
I was very sick yesterday.
This is wrong, however, because, unlike English “sick,” byōki 病気 is not an adjective, but a noun. It therefore cannot be modified by an adverb such as totemo とても, taihen た いへん, and hi-jōni 非常に. Compare this with genki 元気, a na-adjective, which may be modified by adverbs.
EXAMPLE:
(10) Merī wa konogoro totemo (taihen, hijōni) genki da.
メリーはこのごろとても（たいへん、非常に）元気だ。
Mary has been very well recently.
To intensify byōki 病気, adjectives must be used instead.
EXAMPLE:
(11) Kinō wa hidoi byōki de ichinichijū nete ita.
きのうはひどい病気で一日中寝ていた。
Yesterday I was in bed all day because of a terrible illness.
In other words, byōki 病気 functions like nouns for specific illnesses such as kaze 風 邪 “a cold” and zutsū 頭痛 “a headache.”
EXAMPLE:
(12) Kinō wa hidoi kaze/zutsū de ichinichijū nete ita.
きのうはひどい風邪/頭痛で一日中寝ていた。
Yesterday I was in bed all day because of a terrible cold/headache.
Chi
When an adult talks to an outsider (i.e., a non-family member) about his own father, chichi 父 is the correct term to be used.
EXAMPLE:
Chichi wa mō hachijū ni narimashita.
父はもう八十になりました。
My father has turned 80 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