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Do Japanese people still use "ズボン" and "半ズボン"?

riverwest

後輩
4 Jun 2015
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Hello! I am a native Japanese speaker but I have lived in United States for over 15 years.

I am wondering about the words "ズボン" and "半ズボン". Do Japanese people still use these words? In Japanese textbooks, I see "pants" (in American English) = "ズボン". When I was a kid growing up in Japan, "パンツ" means underwear. However, when I was listening to one of Japanese podcast, I heard this Japanese lady use the word,"パンツ", for a pair of long pants. This lady in podcast actually said a slight different way when she was talking about "パンツ" (underwear) and "パンツ" (for a pair of pants). ("パンツ" for a pair of pants has slight intonation up for "ツ"). Anyway, do people say "パンツ" or "ズボン" these days? I am especially interested in opinions on somebody younger than 20s. Also, how about "jeans"? I think we used to call "jeans" as "ジーパン". But do people still say "ジーパン"? Or "ジーンズ" or perhaps "デニム" is more appropriate word?

What about shorts? Do they say "半ズボン"? "ショートパンツ"? I also heard the term "ハーフパンツ". If anybody who lives in Japan can enlighten me, that would be great.
 
I use zubon, hanzubon and all of jīpan, jīnzu, denimu. Hanzubon has a nuance of very short pants, just like taisōfuku in school. Bamyūda (= Bermuda) pantsu would be used for relatively longer ones.

As for the different intonation of pantsu, yes, especially young people often use it. A pair of pants is type0 (accent is flat) /パンツ=/, and underwear is type1(accent is on the first syllable) /パ]ンツ/. This "flatting" often occurs in young people's speech, such like バイク, モデル or ギター, and some of them are used to distinguish between different meanings. e.g., クラブ(type0 refers to discotheque), ライン(type0 refers to a mobile application program).
 
Oh I see. バミューダパンツ is also used. I didn't know about that.
Thank you for detail explanations of the intonation! I now know how to say パンツ for underwear and for long pants. It is interesting about "flatting". I am not young (anymore) but I often caught myself saying certain words like that. For example, the other day I noticed myself saying としょかん in "flatting" intonation. I wonder if this way of speaking starts in my generation... hmm...
 
Yeah, interesting. Incidentally, the correct accent of としょかん is type2 /としょ]かん/ in standard Japanese.
As you must know, other than the difference between generations, there are differences in pitch accent among regions. Your intonation could be from this.
When I was in university, my friends pointed out that my intonations of 電車 and 百円 were odd. The correct pitch accents are both type0 /でんしゃ=/ and /ひゃくえん=/, whereas my ones are type1 /で]んしゃ/ and type2 /ひゃく]えん/, respectively. I was born and raised in western Japan, and never realized that these were different from standard Japanese until then. And later, I noticed that one of my friends from Fukuoka pronounced 百円 in the same way as me /ひゃく]えん/. Interesting, indeed.
 
Hi I'm Japanese entering mid 30th but let me answer.
We use both words パンツ and ズボン but probably women more likely to use パンツ.
I guess the fashion field started using パンツ as refer to pants or jeans, and it became well-known especially among women.
Yeah... the intonation is slightly different. "パンツ" for a pair of pants are flat whereas the one for underwear drops down towards the end.
For me it's sometimes annoying because the word has also the meaning for underwear.
ジーンズ, ジーパン and デニム are also still be heard.
 
Kids are grown now, but I used to alter ズボン and say "zubbies", as in "Put on your zubbies and let's go outside." Then evenings when they'd change to PJs, it was "Put your zubbies on the zabbies," meaning they should clean up a little by putting their zubbies (and other clothes) on the stacked 座布団 in the corner. ;)
 
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