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Japanese: 閉じる vs 閉める | ||
Tags: Meaning of words | Japanese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Akalabeth Groupie Canada Joined 5517 days ago 83 posts - 112 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Japanese | Message 1 of 5 05 July 2010 at 10:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Can anyone tell me the difference between these two words? For some of the example sentences at
http://jisho.org/words?jap=閉じる+閉める&eng=&dict=edi ct they seem interchangeable. Is the only difference that 閉める is mostly for doors, whereas 閉じる is more versatile maybe? Edited by Fasulye on 05 July 2010 at 10:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ericspinelli Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5781 days ago 249 posts - 493 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Italian | Message 2 of 5 06 July 2010 at 2:53am | IP Logged | ||
There are situations where they are interchangeable and some where they are not. For one, 閉じる is both transitive and intransitive, while 閉める is transitive only (閉まる being its intransitive pair). Other than that, when one is preferred over the other is a matter of convention.
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| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6766 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 3 of 5 06 July 2010 at 3:09am | IP Logged | ||
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I usually consider these on a case-by-case basis, but my "Effective Japanese Usage Dictionary" (a great book every
learner should have) says this: 閉める To reduce or eliminate an opening in objects such as a door, window, drawer, or box. Unlike tojiru, expressions such as hanbun shimeru (close halfway) and sukoshi shimeru (close partway) are possible. 閉じる To return an object, such as a gate, door, book, eye, mouth, or flower, to an unopened state. There is a sense that the object is used to separate the inside from the outside. It also means "to bring to a conclusion". If you look up 閉める in a Japanese dictionary, you see that it really has a broader range of meanings. It can be written 締める, in which case it means to tighten or fasten. Written 絞める, it means to strangle. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Akalabeth Groupie Canada Joined 5517 days ago 83 posts - 112 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Japanese | Message 4 of 5 07 July 2010 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the explanations. So can words like "eye", "mouth", and "flower" not be used
with 閉める? I'm not sure I understand the "separate the inside from the outside" part. Would you not 閉じる for a door inside a house, since both rooms are inside? While we're at it, I'm also kind of confused about 昨年 and 去年. From http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q121 4476172 it seems to be just a difference between literary language and colloquial language? My Japanese still isn't great, so I just want to make sure I didn't misunderstand what's written there. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| starst Triglot Senior Member China Joined 5512 days ago 113 posts - 133 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, Japanese, EnglishC2 Studies: FrenchC1, German, Norwegian | Message 5 of 5 08 July 2010 at 5:51am | IP Logged | ||
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It's better to consider 閉める/締める/絞める as three different words with the same pronunciation.
For me, 閉じる is always used with things that have two or more parts, which go from surrounding to center to close, e.g. eye, mouth. Door is a bit more complicated, you can use 閉める or 閉じる depending on which kind of structure it has. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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