Quote:
Originally Posted by Sashimister
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. |
I agree, at some point you need to put the dictionary and grammar book down for a moment, and just get out and start talking to people. Your best lessons in the long run will be the ones you learn on your own through experience.