Saturday, September 3, 2011

Please can someone explian Japanese honorifics?

Question:


Like;
chan
kun
sama
sempai
kōhai
shi
san


etc...

Answer:


It's all good up until the "etc." There's a lot more to honorifics than that.

There are some good books out there. This question is beyond the limits of answering here.

But, basically...

-chan - added to kids names, and sometimes adults, usually female, but not limited to females.
-kun - added mainly to boys' names, but sometimes girls
-sama - formal, added in letters or other formal situations

sempai - this is a word on its own, referring to one's senior (for example in university, someone ahead of you in your programme)
kohai- the opposite - jr.

-shi - added to names in the past. Rarely used now.
-san - very standard suffix for names. It covers everyone. Not too informal, not too formal, not gender-specific.

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