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訊く　聞く　聴く

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The7thSamurai

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What's the actual difference between these words? According to my dictionaries 聞く 聴く can mean ask or listen, but 訊く only means ask. I actually stumbled across 訊く in a book I'm reading where a girl goes into a shop to ask about a job she saw advertised. It uses the form ～について訊いてみた, and funnily enough when I looked up 訊く on alc.co.jp up comes this very form again:

http://www2.alc.co.jp/ejr/index.php?...EWi72JXCKoa0Je

So I wonder if 訊く is only used when you're inquiring about something?
 
Bucko said:
So I wonder if 訊く is only used when you're inquiring about something?
Click to expand...
Yes, that's right. The kanji itself stands for "to ask."

The alternative usage of the kanji 訊 is 訊ねる（たずねる）, also meaning "to inquire."
 
epigene said:
Yes, that's right. The kanji itself stands for "to ask."
The alternative usage of the kanji 訊 is 訊ねる（たずねる）, also meaning "to inquire."
Click to expand...

I see. And just to confuses things more たずねる can be 尋ねる 訪ねる or 訊ねる . Although I think the second one only means 'to visit', and might be considered a completely separate word altogether.
 
Yes, but please note that you start seeing a trend in preference when choosing from the altneratives of kanji available when writing "kiku" or "tazuneru" or some other words on which a number of options apply. If either not altogether certain or usage is confusing, many Japanese choose to just use hiragana.

Also, it helps to know the root meaning of each kanji when you select the kanji to be used.
 
Bucko said:
What's the actual difference between these words? According to my dictionaries 聞く 聴く can mean ask or listen, but 訊く only means ask.
Click to expand...
聴く should only be "listen" (especially music/tv/radio ??) (聞く = closer to "hear") but hardly ever gets used as "ask" in my experience.


日本語にはこういうことばがたくさんありますね。本当に面白いと思います。。。

たとえば、「わかる」は「分かる」「判る」「解かる」、
「かける」も「掛ける」「懸ける」「架ける」
「はねる」も「跳ねる」「撥ねる」 「刎ねる」などありますね。

それぞれ意味が微妙に違いますね。
 
This kind of readings are proving very difficult for me, mainly because of my electronic dictionary. It does not explain the different entries, and when it uses examples sentences using a word like kiku with multiple kanji, it only uses the hiragana. After seeing things like 撮る for photography or 描く for draw quite a lot, they sink in, but if I dont have repeated exposure, its tough going. Does anyone know a site with info on these kinds of words?

And to piggyback, 想い出す and 思い出す--is there a difference?
 
訊く - ask
聴く - listen, hear
聞く - 訊く or 聴く

訊ねる - 尋ねる

The Murakami book I'm reading seems to exclusively use 訊く for "きく (ask)" and 訊ねる for "たずねる (ask)"
 
The best dictionary to learn the meaning of homonymous kanji characters and to be able to differentiate them is the 漢和辞典
I don't know whether there is an English-Japanese version of this dictionary, but I do recommend using this JJ dictionary after reaching a level where you can manage reading Japanese with some help of a JE dictionary or 国語辞典

As for 思い出す and 想い出す , the difference would be that 想 is kanji representing thought while looking at something attentively from a distance (this based on my kanwa dictionary). So, the first one is defined as remembering and recalling in general, while the second suggests pensive immersion in remembrance.

HTH!


I think the author likes using the kanji 訊 because of this root meaning?

 
Last edited:
Elizabeth said:
I think he just really likes using kanji.
Click to expand...

Yea, that's almost surely true. He consistently spells ほとんど as 殆んど, and uses all sorts of characters that most authors would not use without furigana.
 
Use of 訊く used to be quite common. I have noticed it in most of the books I have read.

I have no real way of knowing, but I suspect that furigana usage is not always left in the hands of the author.
 
Yeah, a good JJ dictionary would be the way to go, but I just purchased a new JE dictionary recently (Kodansha's Communicate) to help express things I would have wanted to say in English, and have been spending exorbitant amounts on textbooks lately (and will continue to do so until the JLPT is done). Also my backpack just won't fit anything else. Perhaps when the JLPT is over I'll get the one you recommended...
 
聴く is best remembered as listening to something with specific intent or purpose. This works for listening to something like music, for example. 聴解 （ちょうかい） means listening comprehension. Hopefully that helps.

As others have mentioned above, 訊く specifically means to "ask", but you often see 聞く in its place. 聞く can mean "ask" or "listen" (pretty similar when you think about it) for simplicity. Usage of 訊く over 聞く for "ask" is usually a style issue. Both are fine.
 
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