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Question to Teacher: How do you know when凄い is positive or negative?
Course 3 Lesson 1: Masumi and I (New Adjectives)
Question to Teacher: How do you know when
Course 3 Lesson 1: Masumi and I (New Adjectives)
| Simbo | Post Date: 2008-03-19 06:50:10 |  save to notebook | saved questions | ||
 member since 2007 Sep 06 Questions: 7 Comments: 5 | Hi.
I'm a little confused on the use of sugoi. In this lesson it is used for "amazing, great, wow" as in: sugoi ne. (WOW, it's amazing isn't it) and, sore wa sugoi desu. (That's great/amazing) However, in Japanese from zero book 2 lesson 9 short dialogue the following phrase is used: sugoi kao yo. In this context meaning you look terrible (literally your face is terrible) So if sugoi is both "great" and "terrible" is there any easy way to know which meaning is intended. For example if someone said to me anatano kurumawa sugoi desu. Should I be pleased or slightly offended. Thanks Simbo | ||||
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| JFZ_George | Post Date: 2008-03-23 08:35:02 | ||
 member since 1997 Aug 25 Questions: 21 Comments: 2700 |
First it is important to know that sugoi can be a positive and a negative word. It is also used in many cases to mean "very".Japanese, much like English, has quite a few words that seem to reverse meaning depending on the context. Let's look at a few examples: Sugoi mondai desu ne. It's a horrible problem. In this case since the word "problem" sets up sugoi to be negative.Anata no kuruma wa sugoi desu. Your car is great. This one is positive because none of the context is making sugoi negative.Now let's look at how you can use sugoi as "very". You simply replace the last i with ku .Sugoku atsui desu. It's very hot. George @ YesJapan.com | ||
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| Simbo | Post Date: 2008-03-25 08:35:13 | ||
member since 2007 Sep 06 Questions: 7 Comments: 5 |
Arigatou gozaimasu!
That makes more sense now, thanks. I'll try to tink of it as an adjective that strengthens the feeling of a topic or sentence. Simbo | ||
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| Kinzokusei no Inu | Post Date: 2008-03-30 06:12:41 | ||
 member since 2005 Aug 25 Questions: 20 Comments: 198 |
すごい It's interesting also to note that in everyday casual talk, the word 凄い gets used grammatically incorrect a lot. Like, instead of the correct 凄く暑い, you often hear 凄い暑い Bad grammar but common nonetheless. | ||
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| JFZ_George | Post Date: 2008-04-11 02:46:15 | ||
member since 1997 Aug 25 Questions: 21 Comments: 2700 | Yes very good point Kinzokusei. I personally use SUGOI in that way all the time because Japanese people use it that way and it is rubbed off on me. | ||
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