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?
Lv 5
? asked in Society & CultureLanguages · 7 years ago

"This" or "That" in Japanese?

This is a rather semantic question of I'm sure no great importance, but in a situation where you are pointing to something which is in a glass cabinet in from of you (in a shop, say), would "kore" or "sore" be more natural to refer to it? Or is either fine?

In English, either would sound fine, but I don't know whether this might be an idiomatic thing that doesn't hold in Japanese.

Update:

I know all about the whole "kore=closer to speaker than listener, sore=closer to listener than speaker" thing, but my whole point here is that in this sort of situation the object would be more-or-less equidistant.

I suppose one could say it is "closer" to the other person in an esoteric sense. If it belongs to them or the shop they work in then it could be considered "closer" to them. But would that make a difference here?

5 Answers

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  • Gordon
    Lv 6
    7 years ago

    kore/sore translates roughly into this/that, but you know that isn't 100%.

    Exactly as Duffy says, the use of those words depends on the spacial relationship between the speaker and the listener and the object, whereas in english this/that depends solely on the object's relation to the speaker.

    kore=closer to speaker than listener

    sore=closer to listener than speaker

    So, if there is no listener, you would think "kore" because the nearest listener is in another room. But if a listener is present, then you must consider their position to the object relative to your own.

  • 7 years ago

    Either is fine but if you really want to be specific

    kore-the object is closer to you but far from the listener

    sore-the object is far from you but closer to the listener

    Hope it helps:)

    Source(s): I'm Japanese
  • Red
    Lv 4
    7 years ago

    Kore -> This (near the speaker)

    Sore -> That (away from the speaker, near the listener)

    Are -> That (away from both)

    Dore -> Which?

    In my opinion 'are' would be good too?

  • Anonymous
    7 years ago

    Sore

  • ?
    Lv 5
    7 years ago

    its fine, thats a universal language trait.

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