Hi, in japan I was told that i need to use "o" or "お" at the beginning of a question because i'm female. i'm not sure what the kanji is, but is there any truth to this?
Some questions can be made polite by using various forms that use お. But like all polite language and honorifics, it depends on the situation. While women tend to use more polite language, this also depends on the situation. So no, there is no “rule” that women have to use お for every question. From the nature of your question, you sound like a beginner. If that’s true, focus on learning question formats and then polite formats and only then worry about combining them.
O at the beginning of a noun, you mean.
I don’t believe it matters these days. It’s more about the job type. If you work as a front desk that’s true, etc. Companies tend to hire more women first such a role.
Not every sentence begins with お. Only when you use nouns that are usually used with お in a formal style. Women are more likely to use a polite style. For example, さけ’sake’ is used as おさけ in a polite style sentence regardless of the gender of the speaker. However, women traditionally tend to use the polite register due to a lower social status.
The prefixes おー and ごー attach to nouns and have a fairly wide variety of uses in Japanese – many of which you will pick up over time, some of them fairly quickly. There’s also variation between people and change over time. If you are a beginner you should not have to worry too much about it – but hopefully the following helps a bit.
The core meaning of the prefixes is probably best explained as “prettification”. It makes the word prettier. おはし sounds nicer than はし – you will often hear this if you are asked if you want chopsticks in a supermarket.
Sometimes the prefix has become used so much it is really now a part of the word. If you want to talk about alcohol, you will almost certainly say おさけ. That’s now the word.
If you get to talk to or listen to Japanese people talking you will, hopefully, learn a lot of these patterns, just as you learn vocabulary. Don’t worry too much about it.
One “you just have to learn” thing is that おー and ごー do basically the same job, but that usually おー is used for words of Japanese origin and ごー for ones of Chinese origin, but there are exceptions both ways around and you learn them by listening. Sigh. One of those things.
The first place, as a learner, I had to start being aware of this is in polite conversation with my teachers at school and then more generally. Here I might ask おげんきですか (are you “genki” – i.e. how are you?) and the reply would be げんきです. Here I prettify the word げんき because it is about someone else but my teacher (or I if I were replying to the teacher’s question) would not prettify a word about themselves.
Just as I get called フランセスさん a lot but I would never use the さん about myself.
Hence you are supposed to say お母さん about other people’s mothers (or to your own mother) but はは about your own. You wouldn’t prettify your own.
There’s more complexity here that you don’t need to know about, but I will flag up so you don’t get completely mislead.
Point 1: there is a system of honorific and humble speech (sonkeigo and kenjougo) which you use in some situations, particularly in business, to raise up the person you are talking about and humble the person you are talking about (respectively). So you say humble things about yourself and honorific things about someone else – who may be the person you are talking to but not necessarily.
You hear this quite a bit from sales staff; in some official contexts; in many offices; and in anime for old-fashioned posh families :-).
The prettification prefixes form a part of that system, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Do not worry about it right now.
Point 2: there’s an idea of “my” group (family, business) and outsiders to that group (“uchi” v “soto”) and strictly speaking you are humble/honorific to people outside your group but not when talking about people in your group. Eg, on the phone to a client you might not use humble language to talk about your boss but you would with your colleague sitting next to you. Even more do not worry about this.
I have no idea. How the hell am I supposed to refer to my long term partner (engaged, live with)’s mother. Is she お母さん or はは. No idea.
As always much of this is breaking down.
So your best policy is just to listen when you hear it and imitate at an early stage.
After all, you probably have learned おはようございます (good morning) but the おー and the ご- are both prettifying words.
They add o on noun and o and go for verb. Well… just keigo, very formal
6 comments
Some questions can be made polite by using various forms that use お. But like all polite language and honorifics, it depends on the situation. While women tend to use more polite language, this also depends on the situation. So no, there is no “rule” that women have to use お for every question.
From the nature of your question, you sound like a beginner. If that’s true, focus on learning question formats and then polite formats and only then worry about combining them.
O at the beginning of a noun, you mean.
I don’t believe it matters these days. It’s more about the job type. If you work as a front desk that’s true, etc. Companies tend to hire more women first such a role.
Not every sentence begins with お. Only when you use nouns that are usually used with お in a formal style. Women are more likely to use a polite style.
For example, さけ’sake’ is used as おさけ in a polite style sentence regardless of the gender of the speaker. However, women traditionally tend to use the polite register due to a lower social status.
The prefixes おー and ごー attach to nouns and have a fairly wide variety of uses in Japanese – many of which you will pick up over time, some of them fairly quickly. There’s also variation between people and change over time. If you are a beginner you should not have to worry too much about it – but hopefully the following helps a bit.
The core meaning of the prefixes is probably best explained as “prettification”. It makes the word prettier. おはし sounds nicer than はし – you will often hear this if you are asked if you want chopsticks in a supermarket.
Sometimes the prefix has become used so much it is really now a part of the word. If you want to talk about alcohol, you will almost certainly say おさけ. That’s now the word.
If you get to talk to or listen to Japanese people talking you will, hopefully, learn a lot of these patterns, just as you learn vocabulary. Don’t worry too much about it.
One “you just have to learn” thing is that おー and ごー do basically the same job, but that usually おー is used for words of Japanese origin and ごー for ones of Chinese origin, but there are exceptions both ways around and you learn them by listening. Sigh. One of those things.
The first place, as a learner, I had to start being aware of this is in polite conversation with my teachers at school and then more generally. Here I might ask おげんきですか (are you “genki” – i.e. how are you?) and the reply would be げんきです. Here I prettify the word げんき because it is about someone else but my teacher (or I if I were replying to the teacher’s question) would not prettify a word about themselves.
Just as I get called フランセスさん a lot but I would never use the さん about myself.
Hence you are supposed to say お母さん about other people’s mothers (or to your own mother) but はは about your own. You wouldn’t prettify your own.
There’s more complexity here that you don’t need to know about, but I will flag up so you don’t get completely mislead.
Point 1: there is a system of honorific and humble speech (sonkeigo and kenjougo) which you use in some situations, particularly in business, to raise up the person you are talking about and humble the person you are talking about (respectively). So you say humble things about yourself and honorific things about someone else – who may be the person you are talking to but not necessarily.
You hear this quite a bit from sales staff; in some official contexts; in many offices; and in anime for old-fashioned posh families :-).
The prettification prefixes form a part of that system, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Do not worry about it right now.
Point 2: there’s an idea of “my” group (family, business) and outsiders to that group (“uchi” v “soto”) and strictly speaking you are humble/honorific to people outside your group but not when talking about people in your group. Eg, on the phone to a client you might not use humble language to talk about your boss but you would with your colleague sitting next to you. Even more do not worry about this.
I have no idea. How the hell am I supposed to refer to my long term partner (engaged, live with)’s mother. Is she お母さん or はは. No idea.
As always much of this is breaking down.
So your best policy is just to listen when you hear it and imitate at an early stage.
After all, you probably have learned おはようございます (good morning) but the おー and the ご- are both prettifying words.
They add o on noun and o and go for verb. Well… just keigo, very formal