Question
Updated on
30 Dec 2019
- English (US)
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Portuguese (Brazil)
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Japanese
Question about Japanese
How do you know when it is appropriate to use 私, 僕, 俺, and 自分？ Don’t they all mean the same thing?
How do you know when it is appropriate to use 私, 僕, 俺, and 自分？ Don’t they all mean the same thing?
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- Japanese
All of them mean the same thing, but
僕 and 俺 are used by male basically.
You can use 私 regardless gender and situation.
自分 is used regardless gender and it is used in casual situation, but I think it is used less than the others.
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- Japanese
私：in a formal situation you should use it, female usually use it.
僕：male use it, it is politer than 俺, but when I ask about the usage to boys, they want call temselves 「俺」.
I recommend you should use 「僕」at first, cz non-Japanese speaker's「俺」sometimes sounds cheeky.
「自分」some male use it, originally soldiers call themselves 「自分」
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- Japanese
私 (watashi) is used in a polite conversation like in a business scene.
私 (watakushi) is even more polite.
俺 is used among very close friends or family and not very polite. Sometimes it's taken negatively (being arrogant).
僕 is rather neutral. Some people accept this in a polite conversation, but I would recommend using 私 in business.
自分 is not really a pronoun for "I" and like "my own" or "myself".
ex) 自分の家 "my own house" or 自分でやる "I (will) do it myself"
But, indeed, some people use this simply for "I", as polite as 僕 (others don't like this use).
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