| Author | Message | ||
     jakob |
North = hoku South = nan East = toufuu West = seifuu Is there a difference when reffering to wind direction, as apposed to general direction? (I'm a little confused with east and west) | ||
| info |
"fuu" means in Japanese "wind" so toufuu means "eastern wind". | ||
| jakob |
What's the difference between the two versions, like north = hoku OR kita and west = nishi OR sei. So if I wanted to say "Northwest", would I say "hokusei" or "kitanishi"? | ||
| info |
"hoku" appeares frequently in a composite word while "kita" in an isolated word. So it is better to say "Hokusei". If you say "kitanishi", Japanese should imagine "north and west" and not "northwest". | ||
| Anonymous |
"kita" is the native Japanese word, while "hoku" is the Chinese word and usually used only in combination with something else (such as "Hokusei"). Be careful, there are lots of exceptions when reading kanji. When referring to the 4 directions in general, it is "Touzainanboku" and not "Touseinanhoku". |