Japanese language: kuu

食う

The Japanese word for eat that you will most usually encounter is taberu.
Taberu no ga daisuki
(I) love eating

However, there is another word for eat, using the same kanji as taberu, but pronounced kuu. Generally speaking kuu is simply a more vulgar form of taberu.
Yuube no pati, piza musabori kutta.
I totally pigged out on pizza at that party last night.

Yet, kuu has a more respectable meaning in everyday Japanese, that of being subjected to, of suffering, something.

A common, and very colorful, phrase using kuu is ohmedama o kuu, literally meaning “to eat a big eyeball,” and actually meaning “to be bawled out,” “to get a tongue lashing,” “get an earful,” “be given hell,” etc.
ボスに大目玉を食った
bosu ni ohmedama o kutta
The boss bawled me out.
The image is immediate and graphic - positively comicbook, in fact - of a barking boss, pop-eyed with rage.

Another phrase using kuu is awa o kuu, literally meaning “to eat bubbles/froth,” and actually meaning “to be confused,” “be at a loss,” “lose your presence of mind.”
あんなニュースを聞いて泡を食った
anna nyuusu o kiite awa o kutta
I was at a total loss on hearing news like that.
The image here is of eating froth that then goes to fill your head.

Another particularly memorable kuu phrase is hiyameshi o kuu, literally meaning “to eat cold rice,” and actually meaning “to be dependent on someone for food and lodgings” or “to be treated coldly,” or “to be passed over (for promotion).”
もう30歳ななにまだ親に冷や飯を食うなんて
Moh sanjissai na no ni mada oya ni hiyameshi o kuu nante
You’re 30 already and yet you’re still completely dependent on your parents, for god’s sake!

The 30 year old's possible reply?
いや、しかし、親と同じ釜のめしを食うって安心するわ
iya, shikashi, oya to onaji kama no meshi o kuu'tte anshin suru wa
literally, "yes, but I feel safer and happier being able to eat rice out of the same pot as my parents."



© JapanVisitor.com


Like this blog? Sign up for the JapanVisitor newsletter

Books on Japan
Tags
Japan
Japanese
language
kuu
idiom

Japanese language study - nukeru

日本語　抜ける

The Japanese word nukeru is frequently encountered, but tends also to be a word many learners of Japanese don’t become that familiar with.

In its principal dictionary defintion, nukeru means to fall out, escape, come loose, be omitted.
Toshi o toru to doji ni, kaminoke ga dandan nukete iku.
As I get older, I lose more and more hair.

Nanto, keiyaku wa menseki joko ga nuketerun da!
WFT? The contract is missing a waiver clause!

Sentaku suru koto ni yotte, iro ga nukeru.
It loses color with washing.

Ki ga nukeru literally means “to lose spirit,” but is used in the sense of being exhausted, feeling spent, or, in the case of beer and the like, to go flat, or lose fizz.

But nukeru is often found as a suffix to other verbs, with the meaning of “going through.”
For example:
iinukeru (“say” + nukeru) is to “explain away,” or “answer evasively.”
kakenukeru (“rush/dash” +  nukeru) means to “rush through” or “rush by,” especially in the sense of coming from behind and passing.
kirinukeru (“cut” + nukeru) means to “wriggle out” of or “break free” of something, “get through” something, “emerge from” something, or “ride something out.”
kugurinukeru (“dive” + nukeru) means to “slip through” e.g. a cordon, or “evade” e.g. the law.
supponukeru (“clean, completely” + nukeru) means “to slip through” (your fingers), or “clean forget.”
zubanukeru (“zuba,” as in “zubazuba” (“straightforwardly) + nukeru) means to “tower above,” “be the best by far.”
tsukinukeru (“jab” + nukeru) means to “pierce/break through.”

There are many more, but you get the idea: nukeru on the end of a verb gives it that extra sense of “throughness.” Think of nukeru not just the action of “falling out” or “escaping” but as the subsequent path taken by something that has “fallen out” or someone who is “passing through” or “escaping”: like the flight of a homerun hit, the trajectory of a goal shot, the whoosh of a comet across the sky - just passing through.

日本語の会話には抜けるが抜けてはいけない！
Nihongo no kaiwa ni wa “nukeru” ga nukete wa ikenai!
You can’t go leaving nukeru out when speaking Japanese!


© JapanVisitor.com


Like this blog? Sign up for the JapanVisitor newsletter

Books on Japan
Tags
Japan
Japanese
language
nukeru