Essential Japanese Vocabulary. Akira Miura
“It may rain tomorrow.” In fact, that is the only word children use to mean “tomorrow.” Adults, however, also use two synonyms for ashita, asu あす(明日） and myōnichi みょうにち(明日）, though not as frequently as ashita. Asu is more formal than ashita, and myōnichi is even more so. Ashita may appear in either informal or formal speech, while asu is more likely to appear in formal speech, and myōnichi is used only in very formal speech, as in Mata myōnichi ojama-sasete-itadakimasu またみょうにちお邪魔させていただきます。 “I shall pay you a visit again tomorrow.”
Just as ashita あした has its formal counterparts, other temporal expressions have their formal counterparts. For example:
Asobu 遊ぶ to play
The verb asobu 遊ぶ means “to play.”
EXAMPLE:
(1) Kodomo-tachi wa niwa de asonde-imasu.
子供たちは庭で遊んでいます。
The children are playing in the yard.
Asobu 遊ぶ, however, cannot be used in reference to sports, whether sports in general or specific sports such as yakyū 野球 “baseball” or tenisu テニス “tennis.” Sports require suru する “to do” instead. In (2) below, therefore, shimashita しました must be used.
EXAMPLE:
(2) Kinō wa ichi-nichi-jū yakyū o shimashita (not *asobimashita 遊びました).
きのうは一日中野球をしました。
Yesterday I played baseball all day.
Playing games also requires suru する.
EXAMPLES:
(3) Toranpu o shimashō (not *asobimashō 遊びましょう).
トランプをしましょう。
Let’s play cards.
(4) Yūbe wa ichi-ji made mā-jan o shimashita (not *asobimashita 遊びました).
ゆうべは 1 時まで麻雀をしました。
Last night we played mahjong until 1 o’clock.
Playing musical instruments requires different verbs, depending on the kind.
EXAMPLES:
(5) Piano o hiite-kudasai (from hiku 弾く).
ピアノを弾いてください。
Please play the piano for me.
(6) Toranpetto o fuite-iru (from fuku 吹く) no wa dare desu ka.
トランペットを吹いているのは誰ですか。
Who is the person playing the trumpet?
Asobu sometimes means “to be idle, to be out of work, to be not in use.”
EXAMPLES:
(7) Ano hito wa daigaku o sotsugyō-shite kara, shūshoku-shinai de ichi-nen asondeshimatta sō da.
あの人は大学を卒業してから、就職しないで一年遊んでしまったそうだ。
I hear he has idled away one whole year without getting a job since graduating from college.
(8) Katta tochi o asobasete-oku no wa oshii desu yo.
買った土地を遊ばせておくのは惜しいですよ。
You shouldn’t leave the piece of land you bought unused.
A very common idiom involving asobu 遊ぶ is asobi ni iku (or kuru) 遊びに行く (or 来 る）, meaning “to pay a social call.”
EXAMPLE:
(9) Dōzo ichi-do oasobi ni oide-kudasai.
どうぞ一度お遊びにおいでください。
Please come and see us (not *come and play) sometime.
A
One puzzling expression for English speakers might be atama o karu 頭を刈る, which literally means “to clip one’s head,” but actually is another version of kami[noke] o karu 髪［の毛］を刈る “to give someone a haircut, to get a haircut.” We often use atama o arau 頭を洗う (lit., “to wash one’s head”), too, to mean 髪 kami[noke] o arau ［の毛］を洗う “to wash one’s hair.”
Two very common expressions containing atama 頭 are atama ga ii 頭がいい (lit., “the head is good”) meaning “smart, bright, intelligent” and atama ga warui 頭が悪い (lit., “the head is bad”) meaning “stupid, dumb, dense.”
EXAMPLE:
(1) Ano ko wa atama ga ii kara, nan de mo sugu oboeru.
あの子は頭がいいから、なんでもすぐ覚える。
That child is so bright he learns everything quickly.
A student of mine once wrote *Ii atama ga arimasu *いい頭があります to mean “someone has a good head.” In normal Japanese, however, one would say daredare (“so and so”) wa atama ga ii desu 誰々は頭がいいです instead. In fact, this pattern “A wa B ga + adj.” is commonly used to describe a person or a thing, the most famous sentence being Zō wa hana ga nagai 象は鼻が長い “An elephant has a long trunk (lit., As for an elephant, the trunk is long).” Other examples would be:
EXAMPLES:
(2) Ano ko wa me ga ōkii.
あの子は目が大きい。
That child has big eyes.
(3) Tōkyō wa hito ga ōi.
東京は人が多い。
Tokyo is heavily populated.
Atama 頭 and “head” do not necessarily refer to the same part of the human body. While “head” refers to that part of the body joined to the trunk by the neck, atama refers to the portion of the head roughly from the eyebrows up, plus the whole of the back of the head.
A
Atatakai 暖かい (or, more colloquially, attakai あったかい) is almost always translated in English as “warm,” but, unlike “warm,” atatakai always carries a connotation of pleasantness. When we have a nice warm day in the midst of winter, or when winter gradually gives way to pleasant spring weather, we use atatakai. We do not use atatakai, but atsui 暑 い “hot” instead, if, in the midst of summer, the mercury reaches, for example, the mid-80s Fahrenheit, although in English one often says “It’s very warm today,” on such a day.
Atatakai 暖かい may be used with reference not only to weather but to liquids and solids as well. Study the following examples:
EXAMPLES:
(1) atatakai tenki (haru, hi, etc.)
暖かい天気