If so many meanings have the same word, How am I meant to tell which meaning they mean when talking to someone in Japan? I don’t understand at all

7 comments

1. It’s not really that different from English. Think about the word “character”; it has multiple meanings (movie character, written characters, building character) but we all know which one the other person means. Context is key.

2. I *have* a pen.

   I *have* been to Japan.

   Let’s *have* lunch.

   I’m *having* a baby.

   I *have* a cold, but I *had* a good sleep last night.

   I *had* an accident but it *had* no long effects on my health.

   Society is all about the *haves and have-nots*.

   *Have* Fun!

3. As others pointed to, it’s the same in English, Spanish, and any other language. In comparison to English (at least in my experience, I assume it’s objectively true), Japanese has a lot more homophones, but they’re not unique.

   You understand through context, for example:

   合う and 会う are both read あう/au

   合う can mean “to match” (other contextual meanings)
   ジーンズはどんな物にも合う
   (Jeans go with everything)

   会う can mean “to meet”
   カフェで彼女に会った
   (I met her in a cafe)

   It might seem crazy and hard at first, but I promise as long as you study, it’ll make sense in time.

4. It will come from context, so as you become more familiar with the language and listen to whole sentences, it will become clear.

5. Every one mentions context but what about pitch accent? Is that helpful?

6. Imagine learning English and getting used phrasal verbs like “bring up” or “take off”

   Memory and context. That’s the key.

7. Right. When I lookup a most non trivial words there are many many possible translations. It seems only a native speaker would know which one.