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- Topic: Japanese >
- "すき"
106 Comments
1086
So is the "u" not pronounced or underpronounced for this word? Or is the speaker just saying it fast? Because it sounds like she is saying "ski"
The "u" sound in words like this tends to be very weak. Same with です. It usually sounds more like "dess" than "desu."
This is a dialectal/accent thing. The Tokyo dialect is the national standard; earlier in Japanese history, the Kyoto dialect was standard. There is at least one dialect per prefecture in Japan, and some of them (e.g. Kansai) pronounce the "u" part of す more clearly than in the Tokyo dialect.
Devoicing of vowels is a pretty complex topic and varies by regional dialect. Kansai speakers will often pronounce the う sound in すき and です while Tokyo speakers will not.
This is called a ten-ten, and it marks impure sounds. For て for example, adding a tenten (で) will change the sound from te, to de. The change in sound depends on which sound (ka, ga, ma, etc.) you do. For example, any ka sound with tenten turns it into ga, sa is za, and so on.
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This is, well it's also a tenten, but usually the word dakuten is used. It makes the consonant voiced. (voiced means that you use your vocal chords while pronouncing it, think of the difference between s and z, they are the same except for the vibrations in your throat, some other unvoiced-voiced pairs are: t d, p b, k g, s z, sh zh (j in japanese), ch j, ts dz)
I saw someone answer already, but i wanted to reccomend a YouTube video titled "Learn All Hiragana in 1 Hour" by the channel JapanesePod101. I learned all my Hiragana there before jumping into DuoLingo and id say it helped tremendously. Take it slow! its an hour long video but it took me 3 weeks to get all the way through it. Go at your own pace!
Though What "likes" does すき actually mean? Is it the conjugated likes in "she likes idk apples" or is it more likley the plural of the noun of somebody liking sth?
好き「すき」is actually an adjective. Rather than the verb "like" in english, think of すき as "likeable" or "desirable" describing a noun.
Yeah, 好き is an adjective meaning that something is liked. This is why you use the "は" particle rather than the "を" particle, which is used with verbs. So when you use the word "好き" in a sentence, you are literally saying that what you are talking about is liked (by you).
@Daniele14584
Yep! Duo will start introducing kanji right after the hiragana skills in Intro1 :)
I will say though that kanji is a big enough topic to get a course all in itself so Duo isn't really equipped to teach it in depth. There are multiple apps and books and websites that focus exclusively on teaching kanji. Kanji Garden, Kanji Tree and WaniKani seem to be the top recommended ones by learners here. You can also learn them by using a good dictionary like Jisho.org which provides stroke order, readings, examples, etc.
Hey, I saw your comment about Kanji system below another comment and I wanted do know if there's something about kanji in this duolinguo course.. If not, where can i get to learn it? Thanks :)
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My friend started learning Japanese before me and told me that a "u" after a "s" is unpronounced.
I took japanese is high school. It depends on the word usually. Even if "su" isn't normally pronounced, it's not wrong to pronounce it.
It seems as though pronouncing the full letter should rarely if ever be "wrong." The issue however is with whether or not native Japanese speakers tend to fully pronounce certain sounds fully or "skip" over them. In English, there are countless cases where some people "skip" syllables in a word even when they shouldn't "really" be skipped, simply because it is what they are used to hearing and/or speaking. As somebody who is attempting to learn Japanese however, it is frustrating to see a lot of sounds on this site not pronounced when we're attempting to learn what sounds each character is supposed to make.
It's just a way to get used to how words/phrases are naturally pronounced in Japanese (though the issue with fully pronouncing or not also seems to be connected to regional differences when it comes to Japanese).
If you're English-speaking, you can think of it in a similar way as "I am" versus "I'm". Skipping vowels for speed and efficiency is a quite common phenomenon in languages. Some languages evolved with time in such a way that they bundle several consonant sounds next to each other (by dropping vowels that once have been in between them). See, for example, the English word "strength", which is one syllable nowadays.
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the rule is: drop u and i between two voiceless consonants (in japanese: k, s, h, t, sh, ch, ts, not sure if p is considered voiceless), the i rule only applies if it's a special consonant like sh or ch
That's voiceless vowels for you. :) In Japanese, a vowel occurring between two voiceless consonants tends to be devoiced. The 'u' in "suki" is sandwiched between the voiceless consonants: /s/ (voiceless alveolar fricative) and /k/ (voiceless velar stop) and hence ends up being voiceless. The interesting this is that voiceless vowels aren't an alien thing at all. They are precisely what occur in place of normal vowels when we whisper. So to pronounce "suki" with a devoiced 'u', all you need to do is say the "suk" part as if you were whispering. :)
I'm looking at some examples and it seems to be mainly sandwiches with "k" and "s"? Yes?
The first one. However, 好き (すき) is not a verb, but an adjective (or a noun). So if you want to say " I like this book" you will say 「この本が好きです」. Which literally is more like " this book is likeable" .
好き is a form of the original verb 好く "to like" which is largely unused/obsolete now
(sorry for using romaji) If you want to say "I like mochi", you would say "Mochi wa suki (pronounced "ski") desu". literally "mochi is pleasing to me".
Sorry, there is a mistake in my above comment . It should be "Mochi ga ..." not "wa".
So basically just like Spanish (and likely many other languages), with "[me/te/le] gusta" etc. That makes it a lot simpler actually, thank you!
Yeah, languages are much easier to learn when you actually understand the meaning instead of just parroting :q Unfortunately, almost all language c(o)urses focus on the latter :q
Fun facts: すき/好き/suki = like. きらい/嫌い/kirai = dislike. You can make them stronger by adding だい/大/dai. With that you get 大好き/だいすき/daisuki = love and 大嫌い/だいきらい/daikirai = hate.
The "u" in "su" is weak and sounds almost silent. Much like Sasuke and Akatsuki sounds like Saske and Akatski.
I thought suki meant moon? Is it a different spelling that I'm thinking of, or simply an alternate definition?
The meaning of Japanese sentences very strongly depend on the context. You can really yell to your boy/girlfriend "(だい)すき！" to express "I like you (very much)!" even this sentence has no subjects or objects. If your friend asks you "Do you like it?" he may uses "すきですか" (か=question marker), and you can even just simply answer "すきです。" to mean "Yes, I like it."
- 1306
It is used as an adjective instead. "好き" (すき) Literally means "(You) are liked (by me)" instead of "(I) like (you)" (Terms in parenthesis are implied and can change with context)
Nihongo ga suki desu i like japanese
sushi ga suki desu i like sushi
anime to manga ga suki desu i like anime and manga
and also
kare ga suki desu i like him
kanojou ga suki desu i like her
anata ga suki desu i like you
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In response to @Kimiko_Sensei , this is it in the japanese hiragana form. にほんごがすきです。(I like japanese) すしがすきです。 (I like sushi) アニメ とマンガがすきです (I like anime and manga)
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In response to @Kimiko_Sensei , this is it in the japanese hiragana form. にほんごがすきです。(I like japanese) すしがすきです。 (I like sushi) アニメ とマンガがすきです (I like anime and manga)
I speak portuguese, so this "like" is "I like cake" or "Pokémon is like Digimon".
If I understand the other comments correctly, it's used in a way that's similar to 'gostar' ('gustar' in Spanish): things that you like are really things that are pleasing to you.
I recognize the Kanji for "big"-- 大 --there. That is simultaneously funny and convenient. Like it transliterates to "Big Likeable" or something.
Doesn't it mean ''love'' in some translations? Or is that just a Google Translate error?
The term is somewhat ambiguous depending on the situation, but as a rule of thumb, I would say, to think of it as "love" when referring to a person and "like" when referring to objects.
Suki also means moon right? As far as I know like and moon are both すき but they have different kanji
Slight sound/spelling difference
好き・すき・suki・"like"
月・つき・tsuki・"moon"
Almost, you're missing a few pieces.
First you need some particles. These are pieces of grammar used to mark what each function each word plays in a sentence. Japanese doesn't rely heavily on word order to determine function like languages like English does.
私は寿司が - watashi wa sushi ga ,
は "wa" marks "I" as the topic, the overarching thing we are having a conversation about.
が "ga" marks "Sushi" as the subject, the more specific thing we are relating to ourself.
好き・すき・suki is called a "na" adjective. This is an adjective that functions similar to a noun and it cannot be used to end a sentence. You need to add the copula です desu (functionally similar to the verb "to be")
The full sentence would be
私は寿司が好きです・わたしはすしがすきです・watashi wa sushi ga suki desu
broken into its grammatical components it's like saying (On the topic of me) (Sushi is the thing) (That is likeable
Last note, pronouns are rarely used in Japanese speech. If they can already be implied from context who you are speaking about they can be dropped entirely.
Since the listener can probably assume you're making a comment about yourself a simple 寿司が好きです・"sushi ga suki desu" is enough information to be completely understood. :)
Then "watashi" itself, what does it mean? Sorry for using Romanji, I don't know how to use hiragana with my laptop keyboard and anyway thank you for your willingness
私・わたし・watashi is the polite first-person pronoun "I"
As I mentioned in the last part pronouns are rarely used so it can often be dropped and implied through context
- 937
好き is actually an adjective that means "likeable". If something is likeable (好きです), that means you (or someone else) likes it. (あの人が好きです = (someone) likes that person) You can also use it as an adjective: 好きな人 = a person whom (someone) likes.
The thing that likes is given by the topic. 私は日本が好きです。 = I like Japan. Of course, you can leave out anything that's obvious.
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Homonyms are very different across languages, especially if they are 0% related. So no, this is just "like" as in the verb. (well actually this is an adjective so it translates more to "likeable" but some words just don't have a good translation)
愛してる is very strong and is more of a love used for things like deathbed confessions; you'll rarely hear it used in real life. 大好き is far more common
So, is it a verb "to like"? Why does it read as "likes" (3rd person, singular)
In Japanese it is actually used as an adjective, similar to "likeable, favorable"
The translation used to say "like" without the s; I suspect the s was added to help clear confusion between the verb/adjective "X likes Y" (correct) and the comparison "X is like Y" (incorrect)
Why does the English alphabet of Suki say Likes?? They dont sound the same.
"suki" in Japanese means "likes" in English
好き・すき・suki・likes
kanji・hiragana・romaji transliteration・english translation
usage example:
寿司が好きです・すしがすきです・sushi ga suki desu・"I like sushi"
好く・すく is the verb form but it is pretty much never used, it's become obsolete. The noun form of the verb 好き・すき used as an adjective (the one taught here) is the most common way to say you like something.
There is also 好む・このむ which rather than 'like' means something closer to "To prefer"
I LIKE to suki (ski) or suki (suck) up to her because you LIKE her
If it is a translating question you need to type the English translation, "like"
If it is a listening question you need to type what you hear in Japanese すき
"suki" is just the Japanese word transliterated to the roman alphabet and isn't accepted by Duo
好き・すき・suki・"like" (adjective)
I'm not sure what you mean by "uso suki" as that doesn't have a meaning and Duo doesn't teach it. Are you thinking of 嘘つき・うそつき・usotsuki・"liar"?
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Come potrei sapere che cosa? Se la うè presente? Se i consonanti sono muti (p, t, s, k, ...) o è il finale di parola, è possibile che non suona. Ma è POSSIBILE, sentimento è importante. Scusa il mio basico italiano.
Yes, how could I know that the vowel was mute? It seems to me a lack of precision in the duolingo explanation. Sorry for my english, your italian is good! "Vado a sentimento" is an italian way of saying that means I follow my instinct.
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Thanks for the compliment. However, I will repeat myself in English if something is not clear enough. If a u or i is pronounced next to a sonorant consonant or at the beginning of the word, it's not dropped. If that vowel is pronounced between two mute consonants or at the end, then it COULD be dropped. But as it's only a possibility, then you still have to be guided by your guts.
- 1306
You can always pronounce it and you won't be wrong. Choosing to pronounce it is more personal preference than a rule. When hearing other people omit the "u" vowel you can always tell because there is no way to write the syllable without a vowel in the Japanese writing system.
Ciao! da quel che ho capito leggendo gli altri commenti, la pronuncia della "u" in " suki" è qualcosa che dipende dalla regione di provenienza! Alcuni giapponesi tendono a saltarla, altri no.. Come va col giapponese? io ho appena cominciato e sono entusiasta xD Ciaooo
