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- "white"
"white"
Translation:しろい
43 Comments
More generally, you can find many "shiro"-named anime characters of white oriented appearance, or lack of emotional expression, or that seem innocent, or some combination thereof. The reason is that "shiro" can be interpreted, as "white", "castle" (as in "keeps things inside"), or as innocent.
Note however that in the "white" context (maybe others too), "shiro" is the name of the color (noun), while "shiroi" is the attribute of being white (adjective).
Make sure to take this with a grain of salt as I've only been learning Japanese for about a year now.
The white can be "shi" + "ro" but can be "shi" + "ro" + "i" too. Why? Someone can help me?
Noun: "I do not wear the color white", "White is the color of snow", "White goes first in chess", "White is my favorite color", "White is the combination of all the colors in the spectrum"
Adjective: "The snow is white", "I wear white shirts"
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No, the chi in German is pronounced with the back of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth. The shi in Japanese is pronounced with the tip of the tongue, not the back.
You can pronounce it as "she" in English as @Kimiko_Sensei explained (while also shortening the "e" sound), but if you wanna be more accurate to its actual pronunciation, the "sh" part actually requires your tongue to be somewhere between where it would be for the English "s" and "sh" sounds. It's the same sound as the "x" sound in Mandarin Chinese pinyin.
Katakana, while most often used for non-Japanese words, is another set of characters with the same phonetics as hiragana. しろ and シロ are the same 白 "white". Unless there's a word pronounced shiro in another language I don't know.
No I know that. But Shiro is clearly a Japanese word (since Shin Chan's dog is white), but my question was why did they write it in Katakana? Just for fun?
I don't know you've been downvoted Utsav, it's a pretty interesting question.
Katakana is often used in advertisement, posters, and manga in a similar way to ALL CAPS BEING USED IN ENGLISH! It serves to emphasize the words or to make it look like they are being shouted.
As Kaj pointed out, it is also used for loan words from other languages and I suspect the reason for the choice here is closer to that idea. Obviously, the name comes from the Japanese word 白, but it now no longer means "white"; it's just the dog's name. Shiro and Kuro (黒 = "black") are pretty common pet names (and people's nicknames too) in Japan, but it's along the lines of how people named "Smith" aren't necessarily blacksmiths or goldsmiths; it's just a name. So writing it in katakana helps to differentiate it as a name, as opposed to a color.
As for why it's katakana rather than hiragana, that's largely a personal choice I think; some people choose to name their dogs しろ and others choose シロ
I remember because Jushiro Ukitake and Toshiro Hitsugaya from BLEACH both have white hair lmao
I think of skiing (shi) on theし (looks like a jumping hill) and on ろ i think of the capital R and an o together without the back of the R
No need to post multiple times,
From yesterday https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/22949430$comment_id=44008107
白・しろ・shiro・white (noun) 「し shi - ろ ro 」
白い・しろい・shiroi・white (i-adjective)「し shi ろ ro い i 」
From two days ago https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/22949430$comment_id=43970944
白・しろ・White (noun)
白い・しろい・White (adjective)
If they don't mention, how are we supposed to know whether the word is a noun or an adjective?
Both answers are accepted in the Japanese translation and there isn't a difference in how the English is written (both noun and adjective being "white")
These early hiragana lessons are more for learning and practicing the syllables than getting into grammar. Colors and how they are used are taught more extensively in the clothes skill.
This is one of the first sets of opposing words I learned in Japanese. :3 Still pleased that after a year away from learning, I still remember it.
I learned because of a convention mascot pair in my hometown. The girls' names were Shio and Kosho and for a long time, my friend group had misunderstood their names and kept calling them "Shiro" and "Kuro." And in that same con, I was introduced to a character from from Trigun (my now favorite anime) called Kuroneko-sama and won a pin of him from a family friend.
Not that this is terribly helpful, but this is how I remember those word sets and its a fun story. :>
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Happy learning!
^ 塩 Shio and 胡椒 Koshou are "Salt" and "Pepper" so even then still fitting that cute white/black theme. You weren't too far off :)
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Just a quick note:
You can add い to the end of some colours to turn them from nouns to adjectives.
しろ is "white" as a noun.
しろい is "white" as an adjective.
This also goes for black, red, blue, and yellow.
Someone please explain the diffrence between shedo and shedwen or what it said
白・しろ・shiro・white (noun) 「し shi - ろ ro 」
白い・しろい・shiroi・white (i-adjective)「し shi ろ ro い i 」
I'm not sure what you mean by "shedwen"
Shiro and haku are both readings of the kanji 白 meaning "white"
"shiro" is the noun "white" (or 白い shiroi for the adjective) and the kun-yomi (native Japanese) reading
"haku" is the on-yomi (Sino-Japanese reading) usually used in compound words like 白状 hakujou "confession", 白人 hakujin "caucasian", 白鳥 hakuchou "swan"
Mark sure to check the comments
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/22949430$comment_id=44008107
白・しろ・shiro・white (noun) 「し shi - ろ ro 」
白い・しろい・shiroi・white (i-adjective)「し shi ろ ro い i 」
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/22949430$comment_id=43970944
白・しろ・White (noun)
白い・しろい・White (adjective)
The Kanji for しろ is 白 , but be careful not to confuse it for the Kanji for sun/day: 日
