Chinese speakers might think they know the difference between 伯父さん and 叔父さん, both read ojisan.
In Chinese Mandarin, the character 叔 is used to refer to brothers of your father only. It’s not used for brothers of your mother nor sisters of either side.
However, this is not the case in Japanese. In Japanese, both sides use the characters 伯父さん and 叔父さん to refer to male siblings of both sides of the family, as well as 伯母さん and 叔母さん to refer to female siblings on both sides of the family.
So what are the differences?
伯父さん is used to refer to your parents’ elder brothers while 叔父さん for younger brothers. Likewise, 伯母さん is used for elder sisters while 叔母さん for younger sisters.
As for the random ojisan on the street, that’s written as 小路さん. Funny huh?
Very interesting. I never realised there was a difference in the words since they sound the same. Thank you for sharing.
In Chinese, 伯 is for elder brothers, 叔 for younger brothers too! That’s another similarity 🙂
I didn’t know that!
Interesting!
Just wondering if you could do an entry to explain the difference in using そう・よう・らしい・みたい
Googled it and didn’t really get a clear understanding but you seem to be able to explain things pretty well, so if its not too much trouble… 🙂
Agree.. Jinhan always explain things pretty well!
Hi Jinhan,
Do you mind explaining the difference between 持っていく(take)&持ってくる(bring)?
Thank You
I’m not sure how I can provide a better understanding given that you already know one is “take” and the other means “bring”
Sorry, I should have been more specific. While take and bring means the same thing(or almost) in English, there is a contextual difference in Japanese usage. Just like how 行きます(go)&来ます(come) also has a contextual difference, likewise for 連れていって&連れてくる。I am not sure if I am explaining this clearly, but the underlying idea is that I am confused on the fine line between the former and latter.