Japanese forms?

T

thepainneverends...

先輩

31 Dec 2005

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0

• 8 Feb 2006

• #1

Somone told me today that Japanese takes 20+ forms for basic communication, what does that mean? All I can guess is it's the honorifics.

 

Mikawa Ossan

いかんわ！

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17 Sep 2005

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• 8 Feb 2006

• #2

Japanese takes 20+ forms for "basic" communication?!?!?

I think that someone is full of 20+ forms of something!

 

T

thepainneverends...

先輩

31 Dec 2005

37

0

• 9 Feb 2006

• Thread starter
• #3

Mikawa Ossan said:

Japanese takes 20+ forms for "basic" communication?!?!?
I think that someone is full of 20+ forms of something!

Click to expand...

What does he actually mean by "forms"?

 

Mike Cash

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

Twenty-year veteran

15 Mar 2002

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• 9 Feb 2006

• #4

thepainneverends... said:

What does he actually mean by "forms"?

Click to expand...

Why not ask the person who told you that? Wouldn't that make more sense?

 

M

moofs

先輩

27 Mar 2005

78

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• 9 Feb 2006

• #5

maybe the person is referring to the conjugation of verbs, adjectives, etc... dunno if there's 20+ forms, but that's the closest i can think of that is even remotely related to whatever "forms" is.

 

Buntaro

運動不足

Twenty-year veteran

27 Dec 2003

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• 9 Feb 2006

• #6

Perhaps forms means levels of politeness.

 

T

thepainneverends...

先輩

31 Dec 2005

37

0

• 9 Feb 2006

• Thread starter
• #7

Mike Cash said:

Why not ask the person who told you that? Wouldn't that make more sense?

Click to expand...

It was on another forum, I asked, yet I've had no reply. Although, I think he may have been talking about Kanji?

 

Glenn

一切皆苦

8 Jan 2004

7,842

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• 11 Feb 2006

• #8

That doesn't seem right at all. I think the closest thing would be inflections and auxiliary verbs, but I really don't know what they could be talking about.