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Informal Commands in Japanese | ||
Tags: Polite/Informal Forms | Japanese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| kaizen Groupie Canada Joined 4958 days ago 48 posts - 52 votes  Studies: French | Message 1 of 6 12 September 2012 at 12:44am | IP Logged | ||
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I can't remember where I came across it, but I saw "食いな" used to mean "Eat!" I'm assuming that comes from "食いなさい" and if it does, is that a commonly used form? And how would that compare to "食え"?
Would it be something like this, going from most polite to least polite: 食いなさい (polite) 食いな (a little polite) 食え (casual) Thank you 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5465 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 2 of 6 12 September 2012 at 1:21am | IP Logged | ||
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食いな is not really polite at all. It has the nuance of urging someone in a friendly
manner to try something that you think they'll enjoy; a kind of warm, well-meaning encouragement. It should only be used when talking to people you are on casual Japanese terms with. 食いなさい is much stronger, and certainly sounds like an order that cannot be refused. However, this form is only used by women. It sounds very feminine. 食え is the strongest of all. It is not casual, but bordering on aggressive. You should be very careful when you use this form. Among close male friends it may be OK, but for safety's sake you should probably avoid it. By the way, the verb 食う in itself is a rough, slang word for 食べる. Women would rarely use it, and it can sound pretty crude. Again, caution is advised! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Fiveonefive Diglot Groupie Japan Joined 5694 days ago 69 posts - 88 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Swedish | Message 3 of 6 13 September 2012 at 2:09am | IP Logged | ||
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Pretty much only yakuza would use 食え.
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| zerrubabbel Senior Member United States Joined 4601 days ago 232 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Mandarin | Message 4 of 6 15 September 2012 at 4:39am | IP Logged | ||
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there is nothing wrong with 食べって下さい is there?
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| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5465 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 5 of 6 15 September 2012 at 4:54am | IP Logged | ||
In this case it would be 食ってください (くってください), which is perfectly grammatically correct, but seems a little strange. In and of itself, 食う is a casual slang word, and therefore to couple it with the polite ください is a little unusual. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say this. If you're using 食べる (たべる) instead, you would get 食べてください, which of course is perfectly fine and used extremely often in food-obsessed Japan! By the way, the forms of 食べる for the original question would be: 食べな 食べなさい 食べろ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kaizen Groupie Canada Joined 4958 days ago 48 posts - 52 votes Studies: French | Message 6 of 6 16 September 2012 at 12:55am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you very much to all of you for the replies. They've been very helpful.
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