Quote:
Originally Posted by RickOShay
Umm but for the imperative form I do not think you would attach お at the beginning. Thus, "Go to bed!" or "Take a break!". would be 休みなさい！ not おやすみなさい。
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The
imperative mood, despite the name, does not necessarily have to refer to commands, and may refer equally to requests as well.
Attaching
「-てください」, 「-いなさい」 and 「-てちょうだい」 (among others) changes the
mood of a phrase into the imperative mood. Since this is a 'grammatical concept', (and if I recall correctly), this remains true regardless of the speaker's intention.
Now, most Japanese would neither interpret 「おやすみなさい」 as a command nor as a request, but then again the interpretation of a lot of common phrases also differ from their literal meanings (「ありがとう」、「こんにちは」、
「すみません」、「ごめんなさい」, for example.). Furthermore, Robhol used the word "literally".
Quote:
Originally Posted by robhol
Both of them are used as "sleep tight" or "good night" or something to that effect. Literally, the former means rest (noun) while the latter is an imperative.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.  |
As such, I believe that robhol is technically correct.
TL;DR version: 「おやすみなさい」=Good night. It literally means "Please rest." 「おやすみ」 also means "Good night", but is less formal than 「おやすみなさい」.