Lesson 22 of 40
Vocabulary Sprint w04 — how it feels, and who is allowed to say so
about 12 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Say how you feel with a plain adjective, and how someone else seems without claiming to know.
- Tell an adjective that reports from inside a person from one that judges them from outside.
Words this lesson teaches
- うれしい
- glad — an inside word, so plainly true of you and not of others
- 悲しい
- sad — also an inside word
- 恥ずかしい
- embarrassed, ashamed
- 寂しい
- lonely — of a person, and also of a quiet street
- 怖い
- frightening, or frightened — the topic decides which
- 眠い
- sleepy — an inside word, which is why you cannot flatly say it of your colleague
- 優しい
- kind — an outside word: you can see it, so you may say it of anyone
- 厳しい
- strict, severe — of a person, a rule or a winter
- おかしい
- funny, or odd — the same word for a good joke and a bad noise
- 喜ぶ
- is delighted — the verb behind うれしい, and usable about anyone
- 驚く
- is startled, is astonished — the written twin of びっくりする
- びっくりする
- gets a shock — what people actually say out loud for 驚く
- 笑う
- laughs, smiles — one verb for both
- 怒る
- gets angry — the feeling, not what you do to somebody
- しかる
- scolds someone — what an angry person does, and it takes を
- ほめる
- praises someone — the opposite of しかる, same shape of sentence
- 謝る
- apologises — what follows being scolded, and it takes に for the person
- いじめる
- bullies, torments — heavier than the English word tease, and never affectionate
- 騒ぐ
- makes a racket, makes a fuss — of a crowd or of one loud child
- 祈る
- prays, wishes for — used at a shrine and in a farewell alike
- 気持ち
- feeling, how one feels — the noun that lets you talk about a feeling without asserting it
What it explains
You are the only person whose inside you may report
This is not politeness, it is evidence. Japanese keeps a visible line between what you know and what you infer, and an inner state belongs on the far side of it for everyone but you. So the plain adjective is reserved for yourself, and about anybody else you reach for something that shows your grounds: そう for what you can see, らしい for what you have heard, or a verb for what somebody did. English hides this — "he's happy" and "I'm happy" look the same and are not the same claim at all.
怒る is the feeling; しかる is what you do about it
Four of these verbs make one small scene and it is worth learning them as such. 怒る is getting angry and takes no object — the anger is yours and stops there. しかる is scolding somebody and takes を, because it lands on a person. ほめる is its exact opposite in the same frame. 謝る is the reply, and it takes に for whoever you are apologising to. A manager who is 怒っている may or may not しかる anybody; that is the difference, and it is the difference English blurs when it says told off. いじめる belongs nearby and does not belong in the scene: it is not strong teasing, it is bullying, and the word carries the weight of a newspaper headline.
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.