Welcome to Kimetsu no Japanese, a site for learning Japanese from a manga Demon Slayer.
Today’s topic
Ch.27 Vol.4
Tanjiro Kamado (竈門 炭治郎)
Reference source : 五峠呼世晴 (2016) 鬼滅の刃4 集英社
どういう字を書くんだ
How do you write that?
Reference source : KOYOHARU GOTOUGE. (2019). DEMON SLAYER : KIMETSU NO YAIBA. VIZ Media, LL
This is what Tanjiro said asking Inosuke how to write his name in Chinese characters.
It represents Tanjiro’s innocence very well. Do we usually ask someone’s spell just after fighting against that person? Nobody cares!
It’s a simple sentence but in Japan maybe you will use it quite often. Explained later.
Lesson
| JPN | どういう字を書くんだ |
| JPN♪ | dōiu ji o kakunda |
| ENG | What characters do you write (in Chinese characters)? |
| WORD | JPN♪ | MEANING |
|---|---|---|
| どういう | dōiu | what (=どんな donna) |
| 字 | ji | a character |
| を | o | <particle> putting after an objective word |
| 書く | kaku | to write |
| んだ | nda | <Sentence-ending particle> using when asking or explaining the situation, reason, etc. (=のだ noda) |
Polite phrase
The phrase which Tanjiro said is not polite…, although you can use it to someone you don’t have to pay honor to.
So let’s see more polite ways according to the situation.
TO ELDERS, IN BUSINNESS OCCASIONS
どのような字を書くのですか (donoyōna ji o kaku nodeska )
TO FRIENDS, FAMILY
どういう字を書くの (dōiu ji o kaku no)
*an expression milder than Tanjiro’s phrase
Explanation | Kanji – Chinese characters
In Japanese language, we use characters “hiragana” and “katakana” which are just almost 50 characters for each, and also Chinese characters(hereinafter referred as kanji). How many kanji are used in Japanese?
1006 : learned in elementary school
1130 : learned in junior high school
(as of January 2021)
In Japan we learn almost 2000 kanji at school. Addition to this number there are 863 characters that can be used for person’s name.
Whole number of kanji, it is said more than 100,000 or so, but as long as you live in Japan normally, you just need to remember only 3000 characters. (Still a lot!)
I found a list of common used kanji.
https://www.bunka.go.jp/kokugo_nihongo/sisaku/joho/joho/kakuki/14/pdf/jyouyou_kanjihyou.pdf
Why Tanjiro ask how to spell?
Now you well understand lots of kanji are used in Japanese.
Yes, that’s why Tanjiro asked Inosuke how to write his name in kanji.
It is because kanji spelling of “Inosuke” cannot be only one but there are many patterns/combinations of kanji, so Tanjiro must have been curious ( maybe…).
Here picked up some INOSUKE examples;
伊之助(This is the real Inosuke’s kanji.)
猪之助
亥之助
猪助
猪介
伊乃介
and more…
They are all read as “Inosuke” and if you change kanji characters you’ll make more patterns.
In business occasions, people exchange business cards and if they find the name (especially kanji) rare and interesting, this can be a good ice-breaking topic!
That’s all!
Hope you understand this phrase is quite useful in Japan! But please remember to use a polite version of this phrase as explained here, otherwise you will be considered as a rude person. Just be careful!
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