退役軍人の日 [たいえきぐんじんのひ] – Veterans Day
- 退 [タイ・しりぞく] – retreat; retire; resign
- 役 [ヤク・エキ] – duty
- 軍 [ヤク・エキ] – military; army
- 人 [ジン・ひと] – person
- の [grammatical] – ‘s
- 日 [ニチ・ひ] – day
Happy Veterans Day
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Category Archives: 今日の言葉
Tōhyō
投票 [とうひょう] – voting; poll
- 投 [トウ・なげる] – to throw; to invest in
- 票 [ヒョウ] – ballot; ticket
Did you throw in your ballot yesterday?
Sokuji
即時 [そくじ] – prompt; immediate; in real time
- 即 [ソク・つく] – instant; as-is
- 時 [ジ・とき] – time
Kumishiyasui
与し易い [くみしやすい] – easy to deal with; manageable
- 与し [くみし] – participate in; give; bestow
- 易い [やすい] – easy; simple
Soramimi
Are you familiar with “misheard lyrics?” This is a phenomenon that occurs when song lyrics are misheard and taken to be something else (e.g. “‘Scuze me while I kiss this guy” instead of “‘Scuze me while I kiss the sky” from the Jimi Hendrix song “Purple Haze.”)
“Misheard lyrics” is a thing in Japan, too. It’s called 空耳 [そらみみ] – “empty-ear”, and often involves the Japanese hearing Japanese lyrics in songs that are definitely not Japanese. Two of my favorites are:
- 誰の落書き？困るぜ！ [だれのらくがき？こまるぜ！] – “Whose graffiti is this? Somebody is in trouble!” (Original: “There ain’t no doctor that can cure my disease” – Bon Jovi)
- 馬鹿だもん！ [ばかだもん!] – I’m an idiot! (Original: “Bark at the Moon” – Ozzy Osbourne)
Do you know any 空耳? If so, leave a comment and share with the class!
Yakkai
厄介 [やっかい] – trouble; burden; bother
- 厄 [ヤク] – bad luck; misfortune; disaster
- 介 [カイ] – concern oneself with
You’ll notice by looking at the pronunciation, you’d expect this word to be pronounced やくかい. However, allowing a く to lead right into a か isn’t considered euphonic. To fix this, the Japanese will often omit the first syllable and replace it with a small っ, which indicates that the next consonant sound should be doubled. Thus, やくかい is rendered thus: やっかい. This happens in many other cases where the first syllable is く or ち:
- 一回 one time: いち+かい = いっかい
- 各国 all countries: かく+こく = かっこく
Tokumei
匿名 [とくめい] – anonymity; pseudonym
- 匿 [トク・かくまう] – hide; shelter
- 名 [メイ・な] – name
If you hide your name, you’re anonymous.
Tatari
祟り [たたり] – a curse
Fusawashii
相応しい [ふさわしい] – appropriate
- 相 [ソウ・あい] – mutual; together
- 応 [オウ・あたる] – apply; answer
- しい – adjectival ending
Something that mutually-applies is “appropriate.” If something is inappropriate, you can express that by changing しい to しくない (e.g. 相応しくない). If you want to turn it into an adverb, change しい to しく, and affix a verb.
Tsubuyaku
呟く [つぶやく] – to mutter; to murmur
Perhaps of interest to those involved in social media, 呟く has become the defacto Japanese equivalent for “tweeting” (e.g., to send a message via Twitter).