Help "町中”:まちじゅう or まちなか?

[quiet sunshine]

1. How to pronounce 町中 in the following sentence?
少し雪が積もっても町中が混乱します
2. When to pronounce it as "まちじゅう" and when to pronounce as "まちなか"?
I'm confused, thanks in advance.

 

[PaulTB]

1. How to pronounce 町中 in the following sentence?
少し雪が積もっても町中が混乱します

I think it would be "まちじゅう"

2. When to pronounce it as "まちじゅう" and when to pronounce as "まちなか"?

I'm not actually sure.

Off hand I can't think of examples where it should be まちなか (although that certainly exists as a word) - I think the EDICT example indexing is incorrect on this one.

 

[Elizabeth]

1. How to pronounce 町中 in the following sentence?
少し雪が積もっても町中が混乱します

Wouldn't this normally be expressed more like 雪が少しでも積もったら....?
'Although the snow piles up a little' somehow sounds like something about snow piling up (regardless of the amount) should actually have a calming effect on the town or translated as "Even if the snow piles up a little" that there is always confusion in the town regardless of snowfall levels/amounts piled up.

 

[Kerog]

In that sentence, the correct pronunciation of 町中 is まちじゅう.
It means "whole town" or "All in the town."

 

[J44xm]

I believe this information from WWWJDIC might help:

街中; 町中 【まちじゅう】 the whole town
町中 【まちなか】 downtown; (P)

 

[epigene]

1. How to pronounce 町中 in the following sentence?
少し雪が積もっても町中が混乱します
2. When to pronounce it as "まちじゅう" and when to pronounce as "まちなか"?
I'm confused, thanks in advance.

As Kerog-san says, the correct pronunciation for this sentence is "machi-ju," because it suggests the entire town. Translation: The entire town falls in chaos with just a little snowfall.

"Machi-naka" is used when you are talking of something or activity found "in the town."
町中（まちなか）で、珍（めずら）しい物（もの）を見（み）つけました。 (I found something interesting [when walking around] in town.)

HTH!

 

[PaulTB]

"Machi-naka" is used when you are talking of something or activity found "in the town."
町中（まちなか）で、珍（めずら）しい物（もの）を見（み）つけました。 (I found something interesting [when walking around] in town.)

I should steal that for an EDICT example sentence - I don't think they have any good まちなか examples.

 

[Tamie]

As an example...

家中（うちじゅう）all round the house
家の中（いえのなか）inside the house

なか is used more commonly with の。

 

[epigene]

I gave an example of "machi-naka" in order to distinguish from "machi-ju." It doesn't mean that it is very common in usage, as Tamie-san comments.

 

[quiet sunshine]

Thanks for all the replies!
What I understand now is:
~中（じゅう）:means whole, such as 世界中, 一年中...
~中（なか）:means among, part, the more common usage is ~の中
Am I right?

 

[epigene]

Thanks for all the replies!
What I understand now is:
~中（じゅう）:means whole, such as 世界中, 一年中...
~中（なか）:means among, part, the more common usage is ~の中
Am I right?

Yes, you're right!