So I’m very much in the beginner stages of learning Japanese. Mainly learning the Hirigana and I know a few words here and there.
There was something I was curious about. I know よる means “night”, but I was wondering if it can be used saying goodnight to someone, or if it literally can only mean the time of day.
Obviously I know おやすみ means goodnight – but I don’t know many other phrases at the moment.
Just wondering if someone can clear this up for me. ☺️☺️
5 comments
no
i’d only use おやすみ to mean goodnight. i think it’s exactly how you stated. よる is the time of day. it’s similar to how あさ means morning but おはよう is good morning
Language works by convention, which is a fancy way of saying the meaning of things is based on *how* people use it.
よる is just an ordinary noun in this case.
In the beginning, you can learn a lot by looking up “how to say x in Japanese” to see what people actually say in a given situation. You’ll get a feel for it in no time.
Is this your first time learning a foreign language? If so, good luck. One of the first things you’ll get used to is that many words in English are used to mean multiple things, and other languages rarely have words that mean precisely the same things. Same with grammar. What is clear and what is unclear shifts from language to language. In Japanese you will always know the formality level of the conversation, for example, but frequently the subject of the sentence is ambiguous.
Short answer: no.
Long answer:
From what I understand, いい夜 (**ii yoru**) would just mean “*It’s a good night*”, if you just say it like that with nothing else added.
おやすみなさい (*o yasumi nasai*) literally means something like “*Take an honorable rest*”. お (o) adds honor/respect when you use it before a word. 休み or やすみ (*yasumi*) means “*a rest*”, and なさい (*nasai*) means “*do it*”. This なさい means something like “*do it*”, but it seems authoritative, like a teacher speaking to a student or a parent speaking to their child. This phrase seems to be ok, but it can be shortened to おやすみ (*o yasumi*).
Japan has a different culture from English-speaking cultures, so they say things in different ways.