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Hi,
Does ご家族は? means ご家族は 何人ですか?
I am forcing myself study Japanese everyday, and try to come up with one question a day...
Thanks to those who have tried to help me.
--max
It is very common in Japanese to use honorific when mentioning others or whatever that belongs to others while using humbling form for oneself.
御 which is pronounced go/o is one of the honorifics.
So when asking "how many people are there in your family?", you usually use ご家族は何人ですか。
Here are some examples.
[my (humble)...] [your (precious) ...]
home: 拙宅(せったく) - 御宅(おたく)
family: 家族(かぞく) - 御家族(ごかぞく)
parents: 両親(りょうしん) - 御両親(ごりょうしん)
father: 父(ちち) - お父様(おとうさま)
mother: 母(はは) - お母様(おかあさま)
elder brother: 兄(あに) -お兄様(お兄様)
elder sister: 姉(あね) - お姉様(おねえさま)
son: 息子(むすこ) - 御子息(ごしそく)
job, work: 仕事 - お仕事
家族、両親、仕事 are not humble form but neutral - they don't have humble form.
As to family members, there are more than one honorific form.
For example,
父 - お父様(とうさま)、お父上(ちちうえ)、御尊父(ごそんぷ)
Some are often used, others are not, maybe only in a formal writing.
Adding to undrentide's post, if you're asked ご家族は?, it means differently depending on context. You'll have to interpret it based on the circumstances in which it is asked.
It can mean:
(1) Do you have family?
(2) Where is your family now?
(3) How many people are there in your famly? etc.
This is caused by omission of other parts of the full sentence, which happens very often in Japanese.
HTH!
Thanks for the detailed response.
I can think of another example: 主人 <-> ご主人
BTW, any rule of either ご or お should be used? Or I just have to memorize all of them?
It is fine, but this is also good : あなたには、家族がいますか?So If I don't omit any part of the sentence,
for (1), the question should be ご家族は いますか?(this one sounds weird tho.)
どういたしまして。日本語を上達すればするほど、面白い旅行もできるんですね。Thanks for the great lesson, Epigene, Glenn, and Elizabeth. You make my learning Japanese an interesting thing.
The final two, I'd never heard of. Thanks for the pointer.父 - お父様(とうさま)、お父上(ちちうえ)、御 尊父(ごそんぷ)
Some are often used, others are not, maybe only in a formal writing.
T
The final two, I'd never heard of. Thanks for the pointer.
どういたしまして。日本語を上達すればするほど、面白い旅行もできるんですね。
As your Japanese improves, more interesting trips also become possible.
がんばってね!
Thanks, Glenn. I need more help here...I'll help you out: 〜ば〜するほど means "the more you do..." It works with adjectives, too, actually. You can optionally leave out the 〜ば, as well.
I haven't heard of these new breakdowns or categorizations. Can someone explain further ?ith the new divisions of keigo, the ご~ and お~ variations of words are now known as 美化語 (bikago), a new category under the blanket of 尊敬語 (sonkeigo, honorifics).
I think the parts over the ^s。Which is precisely the reason I included an English translation...I don't understand what you mean. You don't understand the underscored part? Or you don't understand the parts over the ^s?
Yes, it's just a geocities site. If you have any links to shed some more light on this, please share.もう一つ、よく使われる丁寧語は名詞に付ける「お-」または「ご-」です。
例えば、「お茶」「お金」というと、言葉が柔らかくなります。これを「美化
語」と呼ぶこともあります。
基本的に「お-」は「和語」に、「ご-」は「漢語」に付けられます。
お茶 お金 お酒 お風呂 お天気 お花
ご家族 ご婦人 ご老人 ご近所 ご一緒
もちろん例外があり、「お勉強・お電話・お食事・お会計」など、音読みの
言葉に「お」がつくことも多いです。
「お-」の付けられる言葉の範囲は、境界がはっきりしません。場合によっ
て、人によって違うでしょう。とは言っても、付けすぎは困ります。お水、お
酒、おビール、おブランデー、おウイスキー、おジン、、、