Quote:
Originally Posted by pacerier
thanks for the detailed reply duo =P
anyway i was wondering is 友人 a formal version of 友達. in what situations would i be using the word 友人?
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Believe me, this is my third attempt to answer this question. I failed the last two times because exceptions kept coming to mind while writing and the posts got too big and confusing.
The shortest answer will be this. 友人 is more formal than 友達.
When talking about a second friend with your friend, you use 友達.
If you (an 18-year-old) are writing a compo for school about a fiend, use 友人.
If you're introducing a friend to your family or other friends, use 友達.
If you're introducing a friend to someone that isn't so close to you, use 友人.
友人 is usually not even in the vocabulary of a 7-year-old kid.
I'm forcing myself to stop here. Why are you even asking this?
I'd need about 20 pages to explain this. Have you even started speaking Japanese in complete sentences? If not, don't worry too much about this. This is something you will be learning through lots of reading and speaking and making mistakes.
EDIT: Adding one more line. This is about the classical 訓読み words vs. 音読み words issue.