Omission and repetition in Japanese

Japanese
#1

The Japanese miss out a lot. We are often told you don’t have to say stuff that is obvious. And even in English we try to avoid repeating the same word in a sentence.

Now I’ve noticed a few sentences on here that repeat a word. Here is an example.

猫と 犬 とどちらが 可愛いと聞かれたら、犬の方が可愛いと思う

If I was asked which is cuter, between dogs or cats, I think I would say dogs are (cuter).

Putting cuter in brackets in English acknowledges the fact that we would miss it out.

So how do we know when to add stuff we would normally assume is implied, when we are so often told this is a language that misses out obvious stuff?

#2

Well, I would say:

a「猫と 犬 どっちが 可愛いと聞かれたら、犬の方と思う。」most casual (notice change of どちら to どっち and lack of second と)

b「猫と 犬 とどちらが 可愛いかと聞かれたら、犬の方だと思う。」The most natural version can be used in speech in writing.

c「 猫と犬とどちらが可愛いと聞かれたら、犬の方が可愛いと思う」Still natural, but the average person would simply say B since it is easy to understand “what is cute” from the context and also it is faster to say.

I would say, omit things that can be understood from the context so far. Generally, what can be skipped in English can be skipped in Japanese without any problem.

#3

cheers, I assume the ka after kawaii in B is a typo?

#4

It is not a typo, but quoting whole question including question particle か。

「猫と 犬 とどちらが 可愛いか」と聞かれたら、犬の方だと思う。
If I am asked “which is cuter, between dogs or cats?”, I think I would say that dogs are.

Stylistic thing. It is ok without it. :+1:

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#5

Ah, yeah, I get it. Cheers.

1 Like