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Anonymous
Posted on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 - 09:43 am:   

My translator writes "You interrogated him" as "Kare ni shitsumon shita." Why is the "anata wa" omitted? Why is the "kare ni" included? Could someone explain this to me, and how omitted pronouns work? How are you supposed to tell what the subject is?
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Anonymous
Posted on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 02:54 pm:   

"Anata" is a rude word in japan. If you can avoid using it, it would be best. You can usually figure it out when in context. On the other hand You need to know who he interrigated. In this case, it is him (kare).
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Anonymous
Posted on Friday, June 27, 2003 - 01:59 am:   

First of all, good questions! Here goes...

"Anata wa" maybe should be "anata ga" if you want to stress the fact that "YOU interrogated him".

It's omitted because it's understood (from context) that "you" did the interrogating. You can put it in there, but that just "adds more clutter". So, if you've already stated, or know that you're talking about "you", then you don't need to say "anata wa".

Does that make any sense?

Now, on to 貴方 (anata).
貴方 is not a "rude" word unless it's for people that you already know. If you use it with your friends, it may seem like you're distancing them or being cold, kinda... The convention in Japan after you have met someone is to use either their first or last name + san/kun/chan/sama (all depending on where their position is relative to you).

my jebus, this stuff is hard to explain! hope you get it!!
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Anonymous
Posted on Sunday, December 19, 2004 - 01:56 pm:   

Do you know what the word for ice in japanese is i.e. how they would say it

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