Help on how to say something simple :)
 

Hi, this is my first post, I wanted to look through my old Japanese books and brush up before school starts again and have a question. Bare with me, its been a while :)

Anyways, how would I say "She will probably get married" and "She probably is getting married"

あの女の人はけこんするかもしれません。

~かもしれません, works with the the root, so is あの女の人はけこんしてかもしれません。incorrect?

Also, is there a more casual way to refer to 'Her' than あの女の人は?

Thanks, somehow I feel this is a really noob question :pandasmile:

あの女の人はけこんするかもしれません。is correct (except for けっこん)

I am not sure the difference between the two English sentences you wrote, but あの女の人はけこんしてかもしれません。 is not correct.

You could say

あの女の人はけこんしているかもしれません。But that would mean "That woman may be married"

かもしれません is closer to "maybe" than "probably".

Couldn't you just say あの女は for the lady?

or possibly even more simply 彼女は（かのじょは）

あの女 is closer to "that b***h" than it is to "that lady" and should be avoided.

Thanks! What I was trying to say in the first sentence (the correct one) was that she will maybe get married. In the other one I wanted to imply that she might be getting married that that particular moment, which あの女の人はけこんしているかもしれません。 would work, since being married is an ongoing action right.

Thanks for the clear up on the あの女の人, I wouldnt wanna say something rude on accident! I forgot about 彼女, thats probably what I was looking for.

Thanks again, i'll be posting again im sure, I plan to be studing a lot and will no doubt have more questions :)

結婚しているかもしれません sounds more like "She might be married." "To be getting married right this second" is something else, possibly involving 途中, but I'm not sure. 結婚している途中 seemed right at first glance, but I think that isn't much different from 結婚している. 途中 indicates an action currently in progress.

Also, 結婚 is けっこん, not けこん.

Just avoid the whole issue and say something like 今はあの方の結婚式でしょう。

I always forget the small tsu >,<. In 今はあの方の結婚式でしょう。i've never used あの方の before, what does it mean?

Whoa Really? O_O Thank you for the warning! Also thank you to Columbine for the suggestion!

方 is a polite (or at least, less direct) substitute for 人 when you're talking about people you either don't know, or don't know very well. You can add it onto the end of あなた to make the 'you' less direct as well.


From what I understand of being rude in Japanese (and how to avoid!) it seems to come of being either too direct, like saying あんた (あなた) instead of someone's name, or being inappropriately polite. Which is why words like おまえ are often used as swears or rude words, but there are actually ways you can use them that are quite polite and technically have an origin in polite language.

あの方（かた） is a polite way of saying "that person."

Oh, so its pronounced がた　I looked it up and it said 'honorific pluralizing suffix' So it would be refering to both of the people getting married instead of just the one person?

[edit] whoops.

Umm, one last question (I have so many!), is there a 'best' generic kanji to use for あなた？ the dictionary gives me a few different ones ie. 貴方, 貴女, 貴男, judging by the last character the first would probably be the most generic?

edit - ohh あのかた is singular.

That makes sense how calling someone 'you' rather than their name can be rude, all this is assuming that the person being talked about is not present.

I ~think~ so, if it's あなた方. But if it's just two or three people, sometimes you add on ３人、二人 just to clarify. I'm not 100% certain on the usage of 方 in this instance.

貴方 is the most common kanji combination, i think, but it's much more common to see it in hiragana, (with any 方 in kanji).

or at least not immediately present. I could point to a lady across the room and ask of my friend something like 「あの方は誰ですか」.

No. か、か、か、かた. Not がた.

Also, two more things:
1. Don't use a kanji for あなた
2. Don't use あなた. You're almost guaranteed at this point in your learning not to be in a situation where it's normal, let alone normal to use あなた方.

What are you trying to say right now that you think requires あなた?

So THAT'S what's so wrong about あなた! OK, I'm not sure what you mean by "direct" though . . .Is it just more respectful to say something like

としろさんはなんさいですか instead of using あなた?

Yes, it is immeasurably better to use a person's name.

And あなた sounds too familiar/direct/close/whatever.

It's like how you wouldn't say "Hey, you" to the President of the USA.

Well, in all my Japanese books, they are mostly based on formal spoken Japanese, I think its important to learn the less formal/casual half as well. I didnt know that あなた was so casual, on the verge of being rude like saying "おまえ”？

As for not using the kanji for it, is that because its just not a word normally spelled in kanji in Japan? My kanji is very weak and I learned that the best way to learn it is by using it, so I try to every opportunity I get.

It would seem rather strange to use あなた with 方, since one is polite and the other informal. Maybe if you dont know someones name you would use it to ask? あなた方は名前ですか？

edit- oh Columbine had my question answered. Ty guys you're all really helpful :)

Here are a number of usages of あなた方: “あなた方”の検索結果（43 件）：英辞郎 on the Web：スペースアルク

And if you don't know someone's name, you would just say お名前はなんですか。 You rarely ever use a first- or second-person pronoun in Japanese.

Compare; "Hey, you dropped this." with "Excuse me, but I think you may have dropped something,"

One is direct; it's assertive and fingers a person explicitly as the cause of an action. "You dropped". The other is passive, indirect and gives lea-way for excuse. "I think you may have". And it's automatically more polite.

Or; "I hate Mr. Yamada." with "I wouldn't really say Mr. Yamada is my favourite person." The second one skirts the issue.

With friends and family, it's ok to be that direct, but you wouldn't really say stuff like that to your boss, or people you don't know, right? It's the same in Japanese.

And as everyone's already said, always use a name if you can.