>>>Today’s Word>>>
Let’s learn one word from today so that you can expand your vocabulary!
Today’s word is ごはん(ご飯)[gohan]
ご[go*1] is a prefix*2 for the following noun.
飯 means rice.
Are you interested in why the kanji “飯” means rice?
Each Kanji has each meaning.
(I always tell learners of Japanese about it.)
Trivia:
The kanji is composed of two parts;
the left part of the kanji means to eat and
the right part “反[tan]” is a unit of an area.
反[tan] was originally used for an area of rice field.
Therefore, the kanji 飯 means rice out of the historical background.
Do you know most Japanese people eat rice every day even if we have already adopted
various kinds of Western culture?
Rice is very important for us and is our staple diet.
(I eat rice every day even in America..)
Usage:
So, when we ask someone, “did you eat ‘gohan’?,”
the ‘gohan’ implies and means not rice but a meal.
In Japanese we would ask you, “(anata-wa*3) gohan (wo*4) tabemashitaka/tabeta*5?”
*1)the pronunciation is not go[gou] in English but [go] in Japanese.
*2)美化語[Bikago] – more refined language by prefixing “O” or “Go”
*3)you can omit the word in a casual conversation. it means “you”.
*4)you can omit the word in a casual conversation.
*5)’tabeta’ is a casual form of the past tense of “taberu= eat” while ‘tabemashita’ is a polite form of the past tense of “taberu= eat”. If you add “ka” then it turns to be a question. However, in a casual way, you can omit “ka” with a tone of a question.
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