What's the translation of "THINGS" in Japanese?

Question

hello,
I'm looking for a japanese word that means "things".
i'm interested in the way it's pronounced so please provide me the translation in western characters (as I don't speak japanese)
thanks!

Answer 1

That's a tough one. The "problem" with Japanese is that it's totally unrelated to English, so it's sometimes useless to think in terms of "translating" from one language to the other, as they have no connection with each other. For instance, there are at least five ways that I know of just to say "you" or "I" in Japanese, each a little different. You can't just "trade" one word for another, like you can in regards to English-Spanish or Spanish-French. Some things make absolutely no sense if you say them the exact same way in Japanese as you would in English. "things" is one of those words.
As mentioned, you could say "koto", which is usually in regards to abstract "things." It's also used to convert verbs into nouns. (suru = do, surukoto = doing). There's also mono, which generally, but not always, refers to concrete "things." There are tons of other words, like 物体 (buttai)、品 (shina)、仕事 (shigoto). Depends on the context.

Answer 2

Things in Japanese is "mono". And if you're referring to other meaning of thing like "fact" in English it's another word. In Japanese it would be "koto"

Answer 3

it depends on the context of your usage. it can be mono(material kind of things) koto(if related to an event, or an incident, which means, not concrete, just an idea) and these two are probably closest to what you're trying to ask. hope this helps.

Answer 4

Koto (pronounced 'coh-toe') is probably your best bet. Kotodomo ('coh-toe-doh-moe') is the best way to say it, I think, without knowing how you want to use it. Jibutsu ('jew-boot-sue') might be another.

Mono is also added to the stem of verbs to turn them into nouns (like the verb 'taberu' becomes 'tabemono', or 'things that you eat'), but as a word alone, it really doesn't work.

Hope that helps.

Answer 5

Depends on context, what are you saying?

Answer 6

interesting how a language cannot have a simple direct translation of a word, uh!

Answer 7

mono (romaji)

Answer 8

dozo-tsu