“I work here” is 3 syllables. It’s 15 syllables for: 私はここで働いています

I know Japanese is heavy on the syllable count side, but wow, this one is a doozy.

11 comments
  1. It’s only 15 mora because you include 私は and are using polite -ます form, as well as -ている. If you were to translate what you have there literally, it would be more like “as for myself, this is where I am working”, which is 11 syllables. 私は can be dropped, and there are much shorter ways to say you are working.

    But yeah, Japanese can be a mouthful sometimes haha

  2. I mean, it could also be even shorter in real life context.

    Say you’re walking outside with a friend and you see the building where you work at, and your friend asks “Where do you work again?”

    You saying “ここ” or “そこ” while pointing to the building would convey the same “I work here/there” sentiment. So it’s two syllables.

  3. “As for me, this is where I am working currently sir” is like 14 syllables. Wow English is so unwieldy.

  4. Isn’t it also true that syllables aren’t created equal? “work” takes a bit more than こ even if both are just one syllable.

  5. Everyone trying to point out how you kinda inflated the Japanese a bit have kinda a point, but also you are correct in that Japanese is famously one of the least information-dense languages in the world. It compensates by generally pretty ruthlessly eliminating any part of a sentence that is evident from context.

  6. 1) you are counting English in syllables and Japanese in mora… you could have to at least count Japanese like syllables if you want to compare like this lol

    2) You can’t just compare the formal, long form, no context missing version of a sentence to the casual English version lol

    Most of that can be omitted in casual speech and with context.

    わたしは is free context since you’re speaking.

    ここで you were probably asked,”Why are you here?’ So you could ommit the location from context too.

    “働いている” would be the short form, which is more casual and is most likely all that you would need to say in this situation.

  7. Ya! Check out this one:

    “Shall we meet up the day after tomorrow?” (11 syllables)

    “あさって会おう?” (5 syllables)

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