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masaegu (Offline)
永遠の愛
 
Posts: 2,573
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Central Tokyo
10-01-2011, 11:35 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by TerenceLau View Post
How would you say "pants"?

I've learned the word ズボン but not all pants are trousers. There are a few instances when I say パンツ to Japanese customers, they would deny and say that they aren't looking for underwear. I looked up "pants" on jisho.org and it gave me a bunch of entries for different types of pants; like ~パンツ. I wonder, must I be fully descriptive about pants when I don't have the physical item in my hands to play "show and tell" with my customers?
If you want a single word to use at your store, that would be スラックス, period. It would by far be the safest (and easiest) choice.

You can use パンツ with those who look clearly fashion-concsious, but the pitch accent is different for it than when it means "underwear". If you can pronounce it correctly, this is the word that would help you sell more pants than when you use スラックス because it would make YOU look more fashion-conscious.

I would never use ズボン at The Gap. It sounds too old and unfashionable.


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