The problem with はやい is that it’s a homophone.  Like so many other words in Japanese, there are multiple characters that are pronounced the same way, but have similar, yet slightly different meanings.  In some sense, this is a bit similar to—but doesn’t exactly parallel—how the Japanese ways of talking about “cold” can be confusing to English speakers.  Only, as was the case with “cold,” the similarities exist in English, not in Japanese.

はやい can be written two different ways.  速い (as we saw in the previous column) and 早い.  The confusing part comes in that some dictionaries translate both into English the same way:

速い – fast; quick; early in the day

早い – fast; quick; early in the day

So… they mean the same thing.  Right?  Then why have two completely different characters to represent the same idea?  Well, as it turns out, even some Japanese seem to have trouble knowing when to use which.

I found the following question in Yahoo! Japan’s 知恵袋 [ちえぶくろ], or “Bag of Knowledge,” a website equivalent to the English-language Yahoo! Answers:

速い・・・・と 早い・・・・の使い分けができません。 辞書で調べてはみたものの …

速い・・・・と
早い・・・・の使い分けができません。
辞書で調べてはみたものの
ピンとこないんです。
誰か あ！そうか～と思えるヒントください。

In English:

I can’t figure out the difference in usage between
速い… and
早い…
I looked in the dictionary
but it made absolutely no sense.
Can someone give me an “Oh yeah! That’s how it works” sorta hint?

One response read:

「早」は、夜明けを表す形象文字であり、転じて時刻が早いという意味。

「速」は… 速度が大きいという意味。

In English:

“早” is a character that represents daybreak, suggesting that the time (of day) is early.

“速” suggests that one’s speed (of movement) is high.

Another response added the following (red indicates words added by me):

頭の回転が速い – (lit.) “The turning of the head is rapid” (to be quick-witted)
車の速さ – the speed of a car
決断が速い – a decision is quick
ペースが速い – a fast pace
呼吸が速い – respiration is fast

遅かれ早かれ – (lit.) “late, early” (“sooner or later”)
気が早い – (lit.) “one’s ‘ki,’ or spirit/energy is early” (“hasty”)
素早い – fast; quick; nimble; agile
早起き – early rising (in the morning)
早送り – fast forward (audio/video)
理解が早い（速い）- quick to comprehend (which, apparently, can use either)

So… did that clear anything up? 

As a general rule of thumb, I recommend using 速 when talking about speed and 早 when talking about being early.  That should cover most cases well enough.

速やか [すみやか] – speed

(The more experienced among my readers may notice that the character 速 can also be read はやい.)

When に is added to the end of an adjectival noun (形動 [けいどう]) like 速やか, it’s akin to adding -ly to the end of the similar word in English, turning the word into an adverb.  So 速やか (speed) becomes 速やかに (speedily).  I will go over はやい in a little more depth in my next column, as it can be a bit confusing for beginners.

So, what prompted me to write about 速やか today?  Well, I received the following message from Facebook today as I attempted to refresh my profile page:

問題が発生しました。すみやかに解決できるよう作業しておりますので、しばらくしてからもう一度お試しください。

What this boils down to is this: “A problem has occurred.  As we are working to quickly resolve the issue, please wait a while then try again.”

Here’s a vocab list to help you through the sentence.  Please use the above translation to give you a better feel for how the words work together in context.

• 問題 [もんだい] – problem
• 発生しました [はっせい] – has occurred (しました = past tense of します)
• すみやかに – speedily; quickly
• 解決 [かいけつ] – settle; resolve
• できるよう – in such a way as is possible
• 作業しております [さぎょう]  – work; operation
• ので – because of; since
• しばらくしてから – after waiting for a while
• もう一度 [いちど] – one more time
• お試しください [ためし] – please try

真剣 [しんけん] – seriousness; a real sword

• 真 [シン・まこと] – true; reality
• 剣 [ケン・つるぎ] – sword

真剣 is a real sword.  Not a toy.  Not a replica.  Not a wooden training tool.  真剣 is a real, live, sharp blade that can maim and kill.  The notion of such a dangerous instrument gives a clear impression of something very serious.

To change this word from a noun into an adverb, simply add に: 私は日本語を真剣に勉強しました (lit – “I studied Japanese seriously” or “I made a very serious study of Japanese”).  This rules works for changing many nouns into adverbs.

One of my favorite 四字熟語 is 真剣勝負 [しんけんしょうぶ] – “a fight with real swords.”  It indicates that the effort being described is extremely serious, even to the point of life-and-death.

As I mentioned in my article “Beware of Fake Amazons,” the verb しまう is a pretty interesting one.

Adding it to the end of a て-form verb gives the feeling of having “completely” or “totally” done whatever the previous verb suggests.  Note that the main verb always takes the て form and that tense is expressed by しまう・しまった.  For instance:

• 酔ってしまう [よってしまう] – to get completely drunk
• 酔ってしまった [よってしまった] – “I got shitfaced”

しまう is more likely to be heard in “proper” conversation.  However, if you’re listening to people speak informally, you may be more likely to hear てしまう spoken as ちゃう.  This is because it rolls off the tongue nicely (and is, perhaps, a bit cooler-sounding).  Using the previous drunken examples:

• 酔っちゃう [よっちゃう] – to get stinking drunk
• 酔っちゃった [よっちゃった] – “I got totally hammered”

Do you see how the て+しまう morphs into ちゃう?  Notice also that the っ in 酔って, which doubles the sound of the next consonant (i.e. turning -te into -tte), remains unaffected.

Just remember:  て+しまう = ちゃう and て+しまった = ちゃった, and you should be fine.

複数形 [ふくすうけい] – plural (grammatical term)

• 複 [フク] – double; multiple
• 数 [スウ・ス・かず] – number; figure
• 形 [ケイ・かた] – shape; form

Most Westerners have heard of the kanji 数 (sorta), even if they aren’t aware of it.  That’s because it’s one of the characters that make up the name of the popular number puzzle “Sudoku” – 数独 [すうどく].  While it’s written “Sudoku” in English, the “u” should actually be elongated slightly, as in “Sūdoku.”  So, the next time you find yourself in Kinokuniya, asking for a book on “suhdookoo,” don’t be surprised if you’re met with curious stares.

• 数 [スウ・ス・かず] – number; figure
• 独 [ドク・ひとり] – single; alone

実家 [じっか] – home (of one’s parents)

実 [ジツ・み] -  reality

家 [カ・いえ] – house; home

Notice that today’s word is pronounced じっか instead of じつか。This is a euphonic change, and happens quite a bit in Japanese.  Heck, it even occurs in one pronunciation of the word “Japan.”  日本 can not only be pronounced にほん, but also にっぽん.  The small hiragana っ doubles the consonant sound of the upcoming consonant rather than having a voiced sound of its own.  In katakana, it looks like ッ.

To type this character on your computer, either type a double consonant or the letter x + つ.  Try it out and see if you can get it to work.

Let’s take a journey into the world of Japanese grammar. Before you groan too loudly, what I intend to with this series of articles differs from what you may be accustomed to if your exposure to Japanese grammar is limited to the “Japanese for Idjits” ilk of books. I plan to talk about how the Japanese talk about Japanese grammar… in Japanese.

In the spirit of my usual stream-of-consciousness rambling, I’m going to start arbitrarily with prefixes and suffixes.

接頭辞 [せっとうじ] – prefix
接 [セツ・つぐ] – touch; contact
頭 [トウ・あたま] – head
辞 [ジ・やめる] – word; term

Kinda makes sense, doesn’t it? A prefix is a “word” (morpheme*, more precisely) that “contacts the head” (of another word). Now that you know this word, its counterpart should be relatively easy!

接尾辞 [せつびじ] – suffix
接 [セツ・つぐ] – touch; contact
尾 [ビ・お] – tail
辞 [ジ・やめる] – word; term

You’ve probably noticed that the only difference between the two words is the character in the middle: 頭 (head) vs. 尾 (tail).

Keep your 頭 in the game, but watch your 尾! (Sorry… couldn’t resist.)

*形態素 [けいたいそ] – a morpheme is any of the minimal grammatical units of a language, each constituting a word or meaningful part of a word, that cannot be divided into smaller independent grammatical parts. For instance, the verb “walked” comprises 2 morphemes: walk and -ed.