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Honorifics

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Kouhai
20 Jul 2010
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This is what I know of the use of honorifics, but I would like to know if there are other things I have to learn with these, or if I have learned something wrong


San:
- Used like the English "Mr", "Miss", "Ms" or "Mrs"
- Used in combination with a workplace, to refer to the person who works there, like Honya-san when you talk to the person who sells books in a bookstore.
- *company name*-san to refer to the company when talking about another company or when talking within the company
- In childish language it can be used for animals or inanimate objecs

Chan:
- Used for babies, young children, lovers, cute animals, teenage girls, youthful woman, or close friends
- combining it with a superior's name would be rude

Kun:
- used for superior persons, male children or male teenagers when addressing
- used to refer to people of junior status, male children or male teenagers

Sama:
- Used to refer to people with a higher rank, customers, or people you admire
- when used to refer to yourself it's arrogant
- used on postal letters and packages

Senpai
- used when referring to your seniors, exept people like bosses or teachers

Kohai
- Used when referring to juniors

Sensei
- Used to refer to Doctors, teachers and politicians

Shi
- Used in formal writings an speech to refer to people you don't know
- If you are referring to one person who already has been mentioned, you use only shi without a name

No kimi
- Used by men in the addressing if letters to refer to the women they love



And here are some things I don't understand very well:

Apparently I can say Ojii-chan, which means grandpa, but I don't think I can refer to my grandpa as a cute person or teenage girl or something… same for Oji-chan and Onii-chan

What is the difference between otou-sama and chichi, okaa-sama and haha, etc.
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Apparently I can say Ojii-chan, which means grandpa, but I don't think I can refer to my grandpa as a cute person or teenage girl or somethingツ… same for Oji-chan and Onii-chan
Children use "chan" also for relatives; ojii-chan, oji-chan, oto-chan, onii-chan... (So if you are mature, you'd better not to use "chan" for your relatives in front of non-family-members.)

What is the difference between otou-sama and chichi, okaa-sama and haha, etc.
Words for family members have two different forms in Japanese. When referring to one's own family members while speaking to a non-family-member, neutral, descriptive nouns are used, such as haha (母) for "mother" and ani (兄) for "older brother". When addressing one's own family members or addressing or referring to someone else's family members, honorific forms are used. Using the suffix san, as is most common, "mother" becomes okaa-san (お母さん) and "older brother" becomes onii-san (お兄さん). Sometimes the diminutive honorific chan or the reverent honorific sama are used instead of san.
Japanese honorifics - Wikipedia

As in the quote above, "chichi/haha" is used when referring to the speaker's own father/mother while speaking to a non-family-member. Otou-sama/Okaa-sama can be used for one's own father/mother(mostly in upper-class), but is usually for other people's father/mother.
 
Thanks
And I have just thought of another question 😅

When I'm talking about my boyfriend, do I have to use -chan because that honorific is used for lovers too? or is that just when a boy talks about a girl?
 
You don't have to. Also chan is a bit feminine or childish, so if that is the effect you are going for. A lot of guys have -chan nicknames used amongst friends. Outside of formal uses, it really depends on the persons involved and their habits and personalities.
 
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