I’m sorry if this is the wrong place to post but I didn’t really need a translation more of an explanation.
I’m watching a show called Cold Case (Korudo Kesu: Shinjitsu no Tobira
: コールドケース～真実の扉～)
And in the show I have heard the characters use Haha to refer to the victims or someone else’s mother multiple times.
From what I have managed to find and from what I can understand, so do you only use Haha when talking about your own mother and not someone else’s mother.
I think they have used Chichi to refer to victims dads as well, if that helps.
So is there a reason they use Haha instead of Okaasan?
Or have I just been hearing/misunderstanding what they are saying and just made assumptions based on the subtitles.
1 comment
[母](#fg “はは”) is the neutral term. Referring to someone else’s mother this way when you’re talking them could be taken as impolite. But it would be appropriate, for instance, in formal writing, to refer to someone’s mother (in fact in that context using polite language would be outright inappropriate/unexpected — it would be better to write [鈴木](#fg “すずき”)の[母](#fg “はは”)である than [鈴木](#fg “すずき”)さんのお[母](#fg “かあ”)さんです). I am guessing that in the show you are watching two people are talking about the victim’s mother among themselves and have no particular relationship to these people, so they are not using polite/honorific language.
Your classes probably taught you “use [母](#fg “はは”) to refer to your own mother and お[母](#fg “かあ”)さん to refer to someone else’s” because that is the polite thing to do if you’re talking to someone. The actual use is more subtle.