"North is that way."
Translation:北はあっちです。
10 Comments
You can't know that this is 「あっち」and not 「そっち」without a lot more context.
This should either accept both, or have some context in brackets afterward, like "(direction far from speaker and listener)"
Is that true? I mean north is literally far from both speaker and listener always, unless you are at the north pole. Or would it be socchi if, for example, I am facing the listener and point at 'north' behind them?
"North" is generally not a location, it's a relative direction, like on a compass.
I had the same question. I thought あっち and そっち could both be translated as "that way" ? What is the difference exactly ?
12
The こ- at the start of the word (e.g. こちら/こっち/この/ここ) refers to something close to the speaker.
The そ- at the start of the word (e.g. そちら/そっち/その/そこ) refers to something close to the listener but not the speaker.
The あ- at the start of the word (e.g. あちら/あっち/あの/あそこ ) refers to something distant from both the speaker and the listener.
(And ど- at the start of such a word (e.g. どこ) turns it into a question word.)
I was wondering about putting ど at the start of these constructions. Thanks.
こっち is near to the speaker.
そっち is distant from the speaker, near to the listener.
あっち is distant from both the speaker and the listener.
