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# Fun with Japanese
- URL: https://blog.novaugust.net/fun-with-japanese/
- Published: 2011-10-25T07:36:49.000Z
- Updated: 2012-02-06T15:53:08.000Z
- Author: Matt Enlow
- Tags: Japanese, post, Tohoku Journal, 乾・岡崎研究室, 日本語, #Import 2026-06-21 14:43

Japanese has a lot of words that stand very near each other in a phonetic sense. If you write these words with their kanji (Chinese ideographs) they might not look much alike (巨大<>兄弟) but if we write them in the phonetics you're use to we get *kyodai* (gigantic) and *kyoudai* (siblings). This is the part where I make a gigantic siblings joke, but instead I move boldly forward. Another example: *kawaii* (cute) and *kowai* (scary).

Usually people give you the benefit of the doubt or make the connection, but other times...

If only I could link this post as explanation to the woman I asked for permission to sit on her dog, then she'd see it was all just a silly misunderstanding.  
*座る＜＞触る suwaru (to sit) and sawaru (to touch)*

Similarly, perhaps this post could help put my lab-mate more at ease when he's around me. He's seemed on edge ever since I asked him if he minded if I got naked in the lab, when all I wanted was to remove a flash-drive from a PC.  
*抜く＜＞脱ぐ nuku (pull out) and nugu (take off clothes)*