(japanese) name + shi

Hi! if I say something like:
Ohio gozaimashtanda, Name-Shi, kyo wa ogenki?

or

Kore wa watakshi no tomodachi, Name-shi.

Does it sound silly/playful or rude?

Also, what if I say Name+Jin?

example:
Naomi-jin kyo wa ikimasen ne?

or Name+hito

I have never seen name+hito or name+jin used. The first form sounds like a classification of people (kinda like how koibito = koi + hito = person you love, or in other words, are in a relationship with… so Naomi-hito would kinda maybe turn into the person who Naomis or who you Naomi? it doesn’t really make sense), and the second sounds like the name is the name of a place (e.g. furansu-jin = person from France, rosshia-jin = person from Russia… so Naomi-jin would be person from a place called Naomi).

I typically see -shi used when talking about someone in the third person in a polite or honorific way: in other words, when referenced in academic discourse or newspapers. I can’t remember seeing it used as a form of address when speaking to someone in the second person. That’s not to say it doesn’t exist, of course, owing to my imperfect memory and the gaps in my own Japanese education.

Typical forms of address that I’m familiar with are -sama, -san, -kun, and -chan. There are a few others, but the ones that pop into my mind are really slang-y and not really used in “normal” contexts.

Ohayou gozaimashitanda sounds very strange to me. Kore is used for things, not people; I would use kono hito in standard situations and kono kata in formal or extremely polite situations. Watakushi sounds pretty formal as well; watashi is neutral, and probably better.

Good luck with Japanese! Hopefully this is somewhat helpful. Already it is too long.

yurithebest

As I answered it the before, we don’t say “Ohio gozaimashtanda”.
we usually say “ohayoo gozaimasu”

We don’t say “Naomi shi”. We don’t say “Naomi jin”.
We usually say “Naomi san”.

Kore sounds rude. Kochira is better.

Here are the correct expression.
Ohayoo gozaimasu, Naomi san. Kyoo wa ogenki desuka?

Kochira wa watashi no tomodachi no Naomi san desu.

Naomi san, Kyoo wa ikimasen ne?

Hope this helps. Nihongo no benkyou gambatte ne!

cool! are there any “comical”/silly/interesting honorifics that I can use on people?

A lot of the “silly” honorifics are corruptions of standard honorifics (e.g. -kun → -kyun) done to make things sound funnier or cuter, and are really slangy. But because they’re almost on the level of an in-joke, I would never use them with people who I wasn’t close friends with (actually, I’d probably never use them anyway, since they make you sound like a 14-year-old trying to be cool, but…).

As far as the standard honorifics go, -san is pretty bland and doesn’t have much comedic value. -kun is likewise not very useful, since it’s largely used for males of equal / lower status (from bosses to male subordinates, or referring to male students in schools, especially by teachers) and doesn’t really convey a huge amount of closeness. -chan is cute, by nature, but it’s not really safe to use with people you meet unless they tell you to call them it (the odds of which rises with their blood alcohol concentration) because it’s so familiar. It might be more useful to you for telling other people to call you it, especially with people lower in status than yourself that you want to make more comfortable in casual situations (so, not in the office, but at after-work parties and the like). -sama can be used when you want to show deference and respect to a person in a funny way, but you have to be careful because it can sound sarcastic.

okanoshita that explanation was AMAZING! any other honorifics similar to -kyun? Can I invent my own?

Also, in a recent lesson I came across -senshi (for sportsmen, etc)- can you explain how it is different from -sensei? Also, can I say something like “Ahh Nikada-senshi, ohio gozaimasu!” or is it only used by sports commentators/etc?

sorry it was “-senshou”

"sorry it was “-senshou” "

Wrong again. It is せんしゅ . You can figure out the romaji :slight_smile:

Just a suggestion: If put more effort into learning kana, and waited until you were advanced before tried the very culturally bound task of cracking one-liners, you wouldn’t have this problem.

before tried >before trying

I would completely back up dooo on this. Japanese is not a European language, which means that the wordplay is particularly difficult to grasp. Far harder than the grammar. If you’re having trouble with the correct phrase for ‘good morning’, you’re not really in a position to work out witty ways of addressing people without being in grave danger of offending them.

Nihongo ni wa “goodo morningu wa” ohio gozaimasu desu- kore wa wakarimasu. Demo, watakshi wa taksan experimentou ga hoshii- Nihongogo wa totemo tanoshii!!!

As for accidentally offending the Japanese, that’s probably an inevitability of having to learn Japanese, and as I’m learning I’ll probably offend several dozen at least until I get any good, but that’s a price I’m willing to pay since there are many more Japanese that I can later be friends with. Be it an incorrect honorific or accidentally saying “thank you” to a compliment when I was in fact supposed to vehemently deny any positive qualities on my part. In any case, in 90%+ of cases, “offended” means they’ll smile politely and then just never talk to me again- I can survive that.

You are in more danger of being a nuisance than offending them. But if chewing through people by doing things you could easily avoid is how you roll, more power to you.

“by doing things you could easily avoid”

  • the entire point is to learn what things to avoid

You could learn what to avoid like most others, by observing examples in your study or by listening to your betters… ooops forgot, … you’re already the best :slight_smile: