Thursday, May 12, 2011

Japanese kanji question suteki?

Question:


素敵

elementary- enemy???

why would that mean... great, fantastic?

Answer:


There is no reason because the use of these two kanji for this word is what we call ateji 当て字 - they are used to represent the pronounciation only, not to convey any meaning. For this reason it it generally not recommended to write suteki is in kanji; if you pay close attention, you'll notice that major Japanese newspapers write it as either すてき or ステキ, but not as 素敵.

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