Which reading should I use for 家, いえ or うち?

Japanese
#1

I’m confused as to which reading I should use for 家. Most answers I’ve found online state the general distinction is that うち is to reference your own home/house while いえ refers to a house or home in general. While this seemed straightforward it didn’t line up with the example sentences on Bunpro. I then came across an alternative suggestion that うち is more for referencing a home, rather than the building of the house itself, for which you would use いえ.

Assuming the above is correct, when applying this to the examples it mostly makes sense. However there are still some that don’t quite make sense to me:

  1. The following is the only example sentence for いえ where the translation refers to a home rather than a house. Is it because the context of the sentence is around homelessness, which is specifically about not having a physical “house” to live in rather than the absence home in an emotional sense?
    最近さいきんまでホームレスだったので、家いえがあることに対たいして常つねにありがたさを感かんじています。
    I am very grateful to have a home , as I was homeless until recently.

  1. Despite it translating to “house” the meaning of the sentence is not about the physical building itself but the people who live in it, so its meaning is closer to the of “home”. Is that right?
    私わたしの家うちはみんな英語えいごを話はなす。
    Everyone in my house speaks English.

  2. This one I have no clue on, it’s about buying a physical house.
    決断けつだんをする：「よし、決きめた！この家うちを買かうことにする！」
    Making a decision: ‘Okay, I’ve decided! I’m going to buy this house !’

  3. (Extra one, not about house/home) I know the いえ reading can also mean family, the うち entry on Bunpro doesn’t state that as a possible meaning however there is an example sentence where うち is used to mean family:
    家うちは全員ぜんいん頭あたまが固かたいので、家族かぞくでなぞなぞを出だし合あっても一向いっこうに答こたえに辿たどり着つかない。
    Everyone in my family is hard-headed, so even when everyone in the family tries to answer a riddle, we never seem to figure out the answer.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

3 Likes
#2

Hey @giffinator94 !

The difference between いえ and うち is very similar to the difference between a home and a house.

いえ is similar to ‘house’ in English since it is usually used to refer to the physical building/a place to live.

うち is similar to ‘home’ in English since it can be used to refer to the physical building, a building/location a person grew up in, or a place they think they belong to. However, in addition to this, the Japanese word うち can be used to refer to one’s family.

1 uses いえ since the speaker is talking about how they are grateful that they have a place to live.

2 could be talking about everyone living under the same roof, or everyone in their family.

うち can be used for 3 since it can be used to refer to the physical building. When うち is used to refer to a physical home, it emphasizes that the speaker has some emotional connection to that place. For example, 友達のいえに行ってた and 友達のうちに行ってた has a slight difference in nuance.

  1. You can use うち to refer to your family, but you cannot use いえ. Since いえ is used for the physical building, using it in this context would sound unnatural.

I hope this helps!

9 Likes
#3

Thank you for your response @Fuga! Your explanations for 1-3 so make sense to me, I think it will take some time for me to fully wrap my head around which reading to use in any given scenario but I will get there!

I am confused by 4 though. On Bunpro it says that いえ is used for family and has several sentence examples of this. It doesn’t state that うち can mean family but does have one example sentence where it does. Is this a mistake in Bunpro?

1 Like
#4

In Japanese culture there is a strong sentiment of “inside” vs “outside”.

Interestingly, in the jouyou kanji chart only one kanji has the reading of うち which is 内 meaning inside (vs outside 外).

So when you refer to someone’s house, whether it be yours or someone else’s, as うち or おうち you are giving it the sentiment of it being a private, personal thing rather than just いえ being the physical house.

If there is an お in front of 家 it’s always read うち.

I’ve been taught that unless there is an お before the kanji, or furigana うち above the kanji by itself, it’s safe to read it as いえ.