What is the difference between 男の人 & 男性 and 奥さん & 妻?

H

healer

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13 May 2019

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• 2 Jun 2019

• #1

I have come across the following two sentences.
その男の人は、奥さんのためにケーキを焼いている。
その男性は妻のためにケーキを焼いている。

So what is the difference in usage between 男の人 & 男性 as well as 女の人 and 女性?
Not quite sure of the difference. They seem to be interchangeable.

奥さん and 妻
I understand 奥さん refers to someone else's wife while 妻 one's own. I would understand if the latter sentence says 奥さん but not 妻.

 

Toritoribe

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• 2 Jun 2019

• #2

男性 sounds more formal/academic than 男の人. In the formal/academic expressions, 妻 can be used also for the wife of someone else.

 

Majestic

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• 3 Jun 2019

• #3

Also, I think there is no great taboo against using 奥さん to refer to your own wife. I think kanai might be more humble, probably because the "san" part of okusan means you are using an honorific on someone in your "in group", which is generally avoided. But in the case of okusan it is an essential part of the word, so you can't leave it off - hence some people might hesitate to use it. I think okusan would actually be preferable to tsuma when talking among friends or close colleagues. Toritoribe-san will (hopefully) correct me if this is wrong.

 

H

healer

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• 4 Jun 2019

• Thread starter
• #4

It sounds like from your comments the two sentences have no wrong choice of words. I had supposed they had been haphazardly cobbled together mixing up the honorific and those not.

 

Lothor

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• 4 Jun 2019

• #5

Majestic said:

I think kanai might be more humble,

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When I first came to Japan, I was told to avoid kanai and to use tsuma by a Japanese guy since kanai is rather old-fashioned, possibly having the nuance of the English phrase "'er indoors!"

 

Toritoribe

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• 5 Jun 2019

• #6

In the same reason, some people avoid using 奥さん since 奥 means "deep inside of the house" here. A neutral word パートナー is sometimes preferred nowadays.

 

H

healer

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• 5 Jun 2019

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• #7

Toritoribe said:

パートナー

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パートナー being "partner" usually refers to people of unmarried couples in terms of the English language. Does it mean the same in Japanese language?

 

Toritoribe

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• #8

パートナー can be used for "wife" or "husband" in Japanese.