Do you know who they're used for?
2006-08-28 03:29:47 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Etiquette
-san is the generic indication of respect you use in almost all settings except among friends and family.
-chan indicates affection, and is generally used for (young) girls, but can also be used in other situations if you know the person well; otherwise it'd probably come across as pejorative
-kun is used for guys in a sense similar to -chan, and also for subordinates at work
-sama is really respectful and usually not used except of royalty
-dono, or -tono, is somewhat old-fashioned, I believe, but you see it in anime a lot; it's kind of like "sir" in English
-sensei literally means "teacher" but it's used for teachers, medical doctors, authors, etc.
-sempai is used for superiors or upperclassmen
-hakase is used for PhDs
-taichou means "captain", such as for athletic teams
-chama is a combination of -chan and -sama and is used by girls to sound cute
-heika, -geika, -denka, and -kakka are all for various levels of nobility, but I can never remember which is which
-hime means "princess"
...that's all I can remember right now. @_@
2006-08-31 12:53:24 · answer #1 · answered by Elwen 2 · 5⤊ 1⤋
San and sama are the formal ones, kun is the male informal, chan for children, sensei for teachers, senpai for mentors. Those are the titles I remember from Japanese.
If you're interested, this article has a full listing of honorifics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_titles
2006-08-28 13:57:37 · answer #2 · answered by purplekitten 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
-San is used for people who are older than you or people you don't know well.
-Chan is used for close friends or little kids.
-Chin is a variation on chan that's more cutesy.
-Kun is typically used for boys (and is used a little bit like "-chan," I think)
-Sama is used for royalty.
-Dono is another word for "sir," I think.
-Sensei is "teacher," and is used either as a suffix (for example, "Kyoko-sensei") or by itself.
-Senpai is "upperclassman." Used the same as "sensei."
-Taichou is "captain." (And, in Bleach anyway, Fukutaichou is "lieutenant.")
I think that's about all I know. And I did cheat a little and refer to Wikipedia for some of these, but this was mostly just for clarification on how some of these are used.
2006-08-28 16:34:59 · answer #3 · answered by Qchan05 5 · 5⤊ 0⤋
they have lots, as far as i know.
There is polite, respectful and humble language which they use depending on the situation. Every one has the words and suffixes of its own.
2006-08-28 12:07:42 · answer #4 · answered by Mondschein! 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
none
2006-08-30 04:53:42 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
none.... don't speak the language
2006-08-28 10:31:12 · answer #6 · answered by Unknown 3 · 0⤊ 6⤋