Fansub TV Forums -> Troubleshoot & Support -> Miscellaneous

Recently I've just noted that there's a word after each member's nick (for ex, san, chan, chi, sama, dono....etc). Can anybody explain what these words mean? I know "chan" means to address a girl in a friendly way, but how about other words?

Gladly i will.

Yes, indeed -chan addresses a girl formally, but not specifically girls, mostly female. -kun addresses in the same manner to a boy.

-san is a more common way to address a person, usually with the same significance as almost anybody else would have.

-chi, less commonly used, is addressing a somewhat newcomer to a certain group, such as yourself.

sama's a respectful way to address an elder person, or someone with higher significance than you. say, like daft. since he's admin, you'd address him as "daft27-sama". Dono's another way to show respect to an elder, but with a little less significance.

In complience to the one above, you have instructors/teachers as well. You'd address them as "sensei", which is common throughout students.

Now, you see other things, like student-to-student relationship. Pretend you're an underclassman, below me. You'd address me as "hamasusuke-sempai", and usually i'd adress you as "paganini-kouhai" (not directly, though.) This is more in an academic level, where senior students help out junior students, though it's wierd when junior students kiss up to them XD.

then there's -shi. shi addresses an unknown person, usually in a writing. say you don't know me, but you address me in a writing (not directly though), so you address people as shi.

There's plenty more of member titles. you can address family using member names (like bold-nee-san or something). But it's very less common to hear on the streets, yet you hear a lot of it in anime, just to show that there's relation. Addressing -san is common above all.

all those are common when addressing a person. now, addressing the right person is tricker. for example, if i was your older brother, you wouln't adress me as -aniki. Aniki is more of a "possession" word. you wouldn't call me aniki directly, but more as "That's my aniki doing my homework (in other words, your brother is doing your homework)".

Instead of addressing that, you'd address your brother/sister as nii-san or nee-san.

that's all from me for now. if you need more help, post again. there's a lot more to address people besides using the japanese titles. you can wiki it, if you like; it's more detailed than my explanation.

i'm gonna keep this topic pinned, just in case a question like this comes around again.

it actually wasnt pinned so i pinned it for u .

In the Tsubasa manga from del ray they say that the title -Dono is how someone adresses a lord or someone else of great significance. So shouldn't Dono be over Sama?

Me too, I would like to know if dono is higher than sama.........

-dono is below -sama. I say this because of the show Mirage of Blaze Naoe calls Kagatore -sama, but he refers to all the other warlords as -dono. Therefore, -dono must be below -sama because anyone who has seen Mirage knows how much Naoe is obsessed with and 'loyal' to his master Kagatora And Kagatora doesn't seem like the type of master who would allow his vassal to give more respect to his enemies.

chiisai is practically right. -dono shows a level of leadership, while -sama shows a level of mastership. they both mean the same thing, yet they don't address the same person under the same title.

currently, the level of significance is on the FTV member ranking. first theres -chi, then -san, and so on. -dono comes before -sama.

also, -dono can refer to a person who you address formally, yet you do not want to come under him, under his leadership. that's why, like such, -sama is the last title for respect, under which everyone tends to be as respectful to their elders, that's why -sama has the highest significance.

I actually depends on the use. Dono is usally used for offical people that you want to show respect to. It may be a political or religious leader, a member of the royal family, etc.

But it does not mean that Dono is above Sama. It is preatty much equivalent in politeness, but used un different circumstance.

heheh , don't forget the kenja sama You need lots of respect for him, otherwise, who knows what these old people might do ...

Yeah, I remember the word "sama" from Air, when Uraha and Ryuya address the winged princess as "Kanna-sama" ^^

Never seen any anime in which "dono" is used. For "chi" I saw only in Angelic Layer when Misaki's friend called her Misaki-chi.

"san, kun, chan" I've heard a lot.

Japanese language is surely complicated in the way of addressing people, compared to "You and I" in English, lol.

How about addressing a person without any of these words in Japanese? Does it mean that you're a boyfriend/girlfriend to her/him?

If that the case it means that the relationship between the person who is addressing and who is addressed is close. Doesn't mean to be a boyfrind/girlfriend. Close friend also.
However sometimes,people who have a close relationship usually use slank word as the nick name. for example, miko-chin. that's also can do, even though their relationship is laready close they can still use the nick name behind if they wan t to or even 'slank' it.

no no no! saying the names without a member title doesn't mean much at all. It's a show of friendship, whereas there's a bond between two people, and/or the person doesn't want any significance to themself. it's not rare, but people do ask others just to call them by their name, so that they act like a lady/gentleman.

EDIT: apparently jul10 got to it first...

Trinity blood uses dono for the pope and cardinals.

I heard dono here and there has well, but its rarely used. I belive ut is a bit antiquated. For instance, you don't hear people say "my lord" a lot these day. It is still used where appropriate, but not often. Same goes for "eminence" (don't think I spelled it corectly in elglish!).

But you do hear "Lady" more often. Even if it was origianlly reserved to high status women and nobility. It is now used comonly.

"dono" is used in Air as well. Kanna uses "Ryuya-dono". I believe it is respect for his skill and posistion to protect her. He is also the main leader for escaping the castle. Or my brain could just be fizzled because its too early to be up during summer vacation.

I really like this method with the honorifics. I think it is cool and appropriate for an anime forum

when i am at the bank at tokyo bank
they call you xxxxx-sama
e.g for me, they announce chin-sama, when they call you up

Hmm, I just asked this to my japanese friend since I was a bit curious about this too.
Which one is true "senpai" or "sempai"?
Hmm, as far as I know the true one is "senpai", some translator (subbers) make mistake from "senpai" to "sempai". Well I was not sure, but after I asked my japanese friend he said that the true one is "senpai". So, well I just want to clear that's up. It's is not sempai but senpai.

This is a bit of a rethorical question. There is no "true" form of a translation. せんぱい is a japanease, the way you translate it in another alphabet is open to interpretation.

Because you have to take what is available in the language you translate into.

I was told in class (by Japanese teachers) that we can romanize it either way. Sometimes it'll sound more like 'm' and others like 'n', but it's the same Japanese character and that's all that matters.

as bold said both are right in a way but if u were to write that word in romaji it would be "senpai" as in hiragana there is no sound for the letter "m" .

Maybe thats the reason why my friend told me that sempai isn't correct.
btw, I just see fayewong's message, and I'm wondering what does kikei means? what about w6? chibi kami sama? well, I know that chibi means little or short, hmmm, but kami sama....I have heard about it, but forgot where did I hear that.