Lesson 29 of 40
Vocabulary Sprint w10 — three words for a gift, and five suffixes for a place
about 12 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Choose between プレゼント, 贈り物 and お土産 according to the occasion.
- Read a place name from its suffix — 館, 園, 会, 屋, 道.
Words this lesson teaches
- プレゼント
- a present — birthdays, Christmas, occasions with a cake
- 贈り物
- a gift — the native word, and the formal one; weightier than プレゼント
- お土産
- something brought back from a trip for people who did not go — not a keepsake for yourself
- ハンドバッグ
- a handbag
- サンダル
- sandals — and any open, slip-on shoe, which is a wider range than in English
- スーツ
- a suit
- スーツケース
- a suitcase — the same スーツ, in the sense the English compound had
- 指輪
- a ring — 指 finger and 輪 a hoop, so the word says what it is
- アクセサリー
- jewellery — narrower than the English accessory, which covers belts and bags too
- おもちゃ
- a toy — written in kana; the kanji form exists and is rare
- ピアノ
- a piano — played with 弾く, not 遊ぶ
- コンサート
- a concert
- テニス
- tennis
- 柔道
- judo — 柔 pliant plus 道, a way; the same 道 as in 書道 and 茶道
- 踊る
- dances — the verb
- 踊り
- a dance — the stem of 踊る used as a noun, as 引き出し was in w09
- お祭り
- a festival — from 祭る, and the お is habitual rather than added politeness
- 展覧会
- an exhibition — 会 makes a gathering of anything, as in 会議
- 美術館
- an art museum — 美術 fine art plus 館, a large building; a general museum is 博物館
- 動物園
- a zoo — 動物 animals plus 園, grounds; the same 園 as 公園
- 神社
- a Shinto shrine — 神 a deity plus 社; a Buddhist temple is a different word, 寺
- 床屋
- a barber's — 屋 names a shop and the trade in it, as in 本屋 and パン屋
What it explains
お in お土産 and お祭り is not politeness you can remove
There is an お you add and an お that is simply part of the word. In お茶, お金, おつり from w06a, お土産 and お祭り, the お has fused: 土産 and 祭り exist but sound clipped or literary, and nobody offers you a 土産 at the door. Compare the お of お名前 or お荷物, which you attach to honour the person you are speaking to and drop when speaking of your own. The test is whether the bare form is a word people say. This matters because removing a fused お sounds odd rather than casual, and adding an honorific お where one is already fused — お御土産 — is not a thing at all.
神社 and 寺 are two different institutions
A 神社 is a Shinto shrine and a 寺 is a Buddhist temple, and they are not two words for the same thing — the buildings differ, the architecture differs, and the words are never swapped. English travel writing blurs both into temple and leaves learners saying 寺 for a place with a torii gate at the entrance. The characters help: 神社 is 神, a deity, beside 社, and 社 is the same character as in 会社, because it originally meant a place of communal observance rather than a firm. Knowing which word to use is not a matter of belief; it is the same order of fact as knowing that a station is not an airport.
The scene itself is in the app.
Lesson one of this track is free to read in full. From lesson two on, the story, the audio and the review are part of a free account.