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日語 Japanese Ask Questions Thread2 質問

Name: Anon 2008-03-22 1:37

If you have a question about the language, ask it and fellow 4channers might see it and answer it for you.

Japanese - Ask questions thread
http://dis.4chan.org/read/lang/1174719097/l50

Name: Anonymous 2009-11-09 23:56

So, this is something I've been wondering for a while. Here's the situation:

Me, a 21 year old male who wants to speak politely, but not so politely it's overly feminine or distant-sounding. In which situations should each of the following be used to refer to another person?

omae, kimi, anata, anta

From what I can gather from guessing (I'm sure I'm wrong with some of this):

omae: Very casual, somewhat rude if used towards someone I don't know well, extremely rude to use on someone of higher social standing or age than me. Maybe good for using on fellow guys around my age?

kimi: Somewhat polite, but less polite than anata. Maybe good for using on women around my age?

anata: Very polite, probably only good for using on people of higher social standing in formal situations, since it seems overly feminine.

anta: Actually, I think I've only ever heard women use this. Is this like the feminine equivalent of 'omae' or something?

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On a related note, how old is too old to be using 'boku'? 'ore' seems too harsh for me, but 'watashi' seems too feminine. I'm a bit confused.

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