79 Comments
1056
Isn't さようなら supposed to be used like farewell for an extended period of time?
It is not to be used like an english day to day (good)bye
It can certainly be used on a day to day basis. There are more casual ways of saying it (like how in English you can say "see ya" or "later"), but there's nothing wrong with saying さようなら as a simple "goodbye".
In Japan though, if you try to say さようなら to someone like when leaving school or something, they will think you're weird. さようなら sounds more like "I'm breaking up with you." or generally "Goodbye forever" than "Bye!". If you are in 小学校 (elementary school) then you would be taught to say 先生さようなら (goodbye teacher). However, when you get older, you use 失礼 します (excuse me) formally, or またね(see you later), じゃあまたね (well, see you later) じゃあまた,じゃあ, or それじゃあ (for guys mainly). If you're going to see someone tomorrow, like a classmate, then you could say また明日 (see you tomorrow, or literally, again tomorrow). Don't say さようなら please.
Right. For a simple " 'bye " you may want to use "またね”(matane), which means "see you later."
- 2042
Jaa mata or mata ne are very casual and informal, like a breezy "See ya later!"
Sayounara is a serious, long-term "farewell".
here's a few more ways of saying bye/later/see you later. じゃね(see you later) また明日/またあした(See you tomorrow/Again tomorrow)
Makes me wonder what the Japanese equivalents of "See ya; wouldn't wanna be ya!" and "Smell you later!" are.
Culturally, I mean; I'm sure they don't use those exact phrases cuz, like, they couldn't possibly rhyme the way they do in English.
Also またね、 じゃあ、また後で、 ect. I personally think the list is endless because new ways are like made up everyday
Could also use またね！which means see you next time! If i remember correctly さようなら! Is used for when you are not going to see that person again.
またね used when you say it to a friend if you see them in short time. さようなら is the polite form and also used when you won't see someone for a long time. And it is true that さようなら also means farewell.
Too be safe, when you have to leave the house, use 行ってきます to ensure that you are coming back. When with friends, use じゃあね to sound open-hearted, rather than using さようなら。
Ittekimasu is only used as an expression when you are leaving your house and someone is home "waiting" for your return. Ittekimasu literally means to go and come back. But used in the same context as the English expression "I'll be home soon/I'll be back soon."
Since this is formal, does that mean you would say it to Someone Like A Boss, A co-worker, a teacher, Etc. and not a friend or family member?
- 2042
Not formal in that sense. "Sayonara" is closer to "farewell". It's a more long-term, serious good-bye, rather than a "see you next week" good-bye.
Good answer. Actually, in some instances "Sayonara" could be an extrenely unhappy thing to hear
Sayounara is a formal good bye for a long period of time or when your pathes will cross again a long time from now.
Mata ne is like saying "see you again" but is informal and should only be used with friends and family members.
To make it more formal, you can say Mata aimashou. Which basically means "lets meet again soon"
Mata means "again."
- 2042
It looks like the answer is no. If one word ends in a sound and the next word begins with the same sound, they are pronounced separately, not blended together.
- 2042
That's a good question. I'm going to ask it in the general discussion forum. But my gut instinct says no, you pronounce it twice distinctly, because gemination is phonemic.
This phrase has a very special etymology comparing to "Au revoir." or "Auf wiedersehen." It is shortening for earlier/archaic Japanese word "さようならば," meaning "If that's the way it is."
- 2042
sayounara is the exact Romanization of the hiragana spelling.
sayonara is the way we spell it in English.
Sayonara is always remembered as the famous "Hasta la vista, baby" by Schwarzenegger, in the spanish version. It would have been pointless to use a spanish sentence in the spanish version (nobody would get the joke). Not sure why, but Spain changed it for a japanese version .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxobpBKInFw
- 2042
Not the よ per se. Any syllable that ends with o lengthens (diphthongizes) with u. Any syllable that ends with e lengthens (diphthongizes) with i. Other vowels lengthen without becoming diphthongs.
ALOT of Japanese words are pronounced with an extended "o" so it can be written as "ou", but in English you just see it as "o" (eg, bakugo, bakugou. Shoto, shouto,)
- 2042
The romaji transliteration is sayounara, but it is rendered in English as "sayonara".
Have you seen this when you spell さようなら, ら is spelled like "ra" and when you say only ら (not into a word) it is spelled more like "la".
- 2042
The sound in Japanese is really the tap (a.k.a. flap), but it can sometimes sound like an American R or an L. A native Japanese speaker does not distinguish between these sounds.
A tap/flap is the sound in the middle of "water". It's not /t/ and it's not /d/. But we interpret it as like /d/ because the tap/flap is not a core sound in English.
I always say SAYONARA but here it had the U. So is it SAYOUNARA or SAYONARA.
The 'ou' combination in Japanese is whats called a "long vowel". The added 'u' is supposed to be a signal to extend the length of time that you pronounce that 'o'. At that point it often becomes a dipthong. So, "sayoonara" (notice the doubled 'o') or "sayounara" (which is apparantly more common) works, but not "sayonara" because that is too short an 'o'.
- 2042
Are you asking about how many characters are in the Japanese writing system? Because they use 4 systems all told, and only rōmaji (the Roman alphabet they borrowed) is an alphabet with letters (26).
There's also hiragana and katakana, which are twin syllabaries that have 46 base syllables each. (The sound values are the same, but the characters are not interchangeable. There are rules regarding when to use which system.) We're learning hiragana right now.
Then there's kanji, which is a logographic system borrowed from Chinese. There are about 2,000-3,000 in common use in Japan.
- 2042
It extends the "o" sound of "yo" into a long vowel -- a diphthong just like the long "o" in English. They spell it out explicitly in Japanese.
Depending on how you look at it, the word is NOT 4 syllables long, but actually 5 syllables; OR it IS four syllables but the second syllable is pronounced with twice the duration of the others. It's a good idea to familiarize yourself with long vowels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw0s7wUoQZg and double consonants https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNgRjzc_-fc before you continue.
- 2042
さ - sa
ち - chi
ら - ra
It's the two opposite-facing ones with the top stroke crossing the vertical stroke I have trouble remembering the difference between. The other one, none of the strokes intersect.
It's a bit like remembering the difference between p d g q. Practice, practice, practice.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.innovativelanguage.com/sns/em/content/lp/kana/hiragana_chart.jpg
- 2042
を should be labeled as "wo". See how it's in the W column?
It's a historical quirk. These days, を is used exclusively as a grammar particle (it marks the direct object of the verb) and is never used when spelling words.
- 2042
I'm not sure what you mean by "simpler". さようなら is a somber long-term good-bye. You can't substitute something like またね or じゃあね because it's too casual.
This last letter when only has the sound of "DA", but in the phrase Sayonara it has a sound of "RA".
Are these sounds being pronounced correctly or not? Thank you.
- 2042
English ears hear "D" because the actual sound, the alveolar tap /ɾ/, is not a core sound in our language. We have it, but only as a variation on D and T, so we don't perceive it accurately.
In Japanese, the alveolar tap is a core sound of their language, and its variants are R and L. This is why Japanese speakers have trouble with the English R and L.
Why is u used in the word, can't it just be sa-yo-na-ra. Why it is sa-yo-u-na-ra?
- 2042
In Japanese, the difference between pronouncing vowels and consonants for normal, short, and extra time makes all the difference in the meaning of the word, so they need to indicate this when they spell the words.
In Japanese as in English, /o/ pronounced long becomes the diphthong /oʊ/ and /e/ pronounced long becomes the diphthong /eɪ/.
- 2042
No. The Japanese phoneme is actually the alveolar tap/flap ɾ, which shares qualities with D and the American R, but is a different sound altogether.
Nope, it really is sayonara, or more accurately "sayounara". You're probably getting confused by the fact that the flappy, lilted Japanese 'r' is very different from the open, almost vowel-like English 'r'.
Dude, the English "Sayonara" was actually borrowed from the Japanese language. =D That's why they sound so similar. XD
Why is there not an "I" after "sa" in sa-yo-u-na-ra but there is a "U" after "Yo"?
- 2042
In Japanese as in English, long え diphthongizes into えい and long お diphthongizes into おう. Unlike in English, this is directly reflected in how they spell the words.
The "a" in "sa" is not long.
I have a Japanese friend, and while she was leaving, she said Sayōnara, even though, we see each other weekly.
