Custom Vocabulary
One interesting feature of Japanese they have lots of specialized vocabulary that show the personality of the speaker. For example, I have used わたし (watashi) as the basic word for "I" in all my lessons. However there are many different words for "I." The name of my site, for insteance, is ぼく の やね (boku no yane) and ぼく (boku) just happens to be the form of "I" that I use. Here's a list of common "I" words.
わたし (watashi) - Standard polite "I" word. Women use it in informal situations as well as formal.
あたし (atashi) - Colloquial feminine variant of "I."
ぼく (boku) - Polite boyish word for "I" and my pronoun of choice.
おれ (ore) - Rough masculine word for "I." Remember that rough words are mainly used by men in colloquial situations and are considered rude in polite speech.
There are also several words for "you." These for the most part pair up with the respective "I" words above.
あなた (anata) - Standard polite "you" word.
あんた (anta) - Colloquial feminine form of "I."
きみ (kimi) - Colloquial word for "you." Inappropriate for addressing people higher in rank than yourself.
おまえ (omae) - rough word for "you." Considered rude in polite conversation.
In addition to pronouns, Japanese also has many suffixes. So far, you have only learned "-san." Here's a list of common name suffixes.
さん (-san) - You have already learned "-san." It translates to "Mr." or "Mrs." or sometimes it isn't translated at all. It is considered polite.
ちゃん (-chan) - This is the dimunitive suffix. It is often attached to the names of babies, children, and girls one is familiar with until about high school.
くん (-kun) - This is attached to the end of boys names. Though not entirely the same, it is almost parallel to ちゃん (-chan).
せんせい (-sensei) - A polite suffix added to the end of the names of teachers and doctors. The word せんせい actually means "teacher."
せんぱい (-senpai) - The word せんぱい means someone who is senior in status to you. Thus it is added as a suffix to names of people who is above you in rank and who you respect and admire.
The only time you do not use a name suffix with someone is if you are very close friends with them. If you do not use a name suffix with someone who isn't so close, it will sound overly forward and possibly disrespectful.
There are a few other name suffixes and personal pronouns, but these should suffice for right now.
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