6.4 Food and drink — Epoché
What you will be able to do Name fifty-five foods and drinks, and order them. Tell a native word from a borrowed one in this group, and know why they are not interchangeable. Use the three words for rice, and the two for water, correctly. Say that something tastes good, in the two ways Japanese distinguishes. Prerequisites : lesson 6.3 — numbers grouped in ten thousands, and the shopping words. Food is the group with the highest proportion of borrowed words in the language, which makes it the easiest vocabulary in phase 1 and the most misleading. The trap is not that the borrowed words are hard; it is that the borrowed word and the native word for the same thing are different words , with different ranges, and choosing the wrong one is a mistake no English speaker expects to be possible. Word list Staples Word Meaning Notes ごはん ja gohan cooked rice; and by extension a meal ひるごはんどこでたべるの？ Where are you going to have lunch? おひるごはんつくってくる。 I'll go and make lunch. おこめ ja okome uncooked rice, rice as a crop ライス ja raisu rice served on a plate, in a Western-style restaurant パン ja pan bread めん ja men noodles, as a category そば ja soba buckwheat noodles うどん ja udon thick wheat noodles ラーメン ja rāmen ramen おべんとう ja obentō a packed meal in a box おかず ja okazu the dishes eaten with the rice Meat, fish and eggs Word Meaning Notes おにく ja oniku meat ぎゅうにく ja gyūniku beef ぶたにく ja butaniku pork とりにく ja toriniku chicken さかな ja sakana fish さかなをおねがいします。 The fish, please. さかなをたべる。 I eat fish. さしみ ja sashimi raw fish, sliced すし ja sushi sushi すしはおいしいです。 Sushi is delicious. たまご ja tamago an egg ハム ja hamu ham ステーキ ja sutēki steak Vegetables and fruit Word Meaning Notes やさい ja yasai vegetables ニンジンはやさいです。 Carrots are vegetables. やさいてんぷらはどうですか。 How about vegetable tempura? くだもの ja kudamono fruit トマト ja tomato tomato ニンジン ja ninjin carrot — an ordinary word, often in katakana たまねぎ ja tamanegi onion じゃがいも ja jagaimo potato きゅうり ja kyūri cucumber キャベツ ja kyabetsu cabbage りんご ja ringo apple みかん ja mikan a mandarin orange いちご ja ichigo strawberry バナナ ja banana banana Drinks Word Meaning Notes おみず ja omizu water — cold water おみずをもってきてください。 Could you bring me some water? おゆ ja o yu hot water. A different word, not "hot" plus "water". おちゃ ja ocha tea — green tea unless said otherwise おちゃをおねがいします。 Tea, please. こうちゃ ja kōcha black tea, the English kind むぎちゃ ja mugicha barley tea, drunk cold in summer コーヒー ja kōhī coffee ぎゅうにゅう ja gyūnyū milk, as a drink ミルク ja miruku milk, in coffee or for a baby ジュース ja jūsu any cold soft drink ビール ja bīru beer おさけ ja osake sake; and alcohol in general ワイン ja wain wine Taste, and at the table Word Meaning Notes おいしい ja oishii delicious — used of what you are eating たいへんおいしいですよ。 It tastes really good. このおかしはおいしいです。 These sweets are delicious. うまい ja umai tasty — blunter, more masculine, and also means "skilful" あまい ja amai sweet からい ja karai hot, spicy; also salty in some regions しおからい ja shiokarai salty すっぱい ja suppai sour にがい ja nigai bitter あつい ja atsui hot (to the touch) つめたい ja tsumetai cold (to the touch) おなかがすいた ja onaka ga suita hungry — literally "the stomach has emptied" のどがかわいた ja nodo ga kawaita thirsty — literally "the throat has dried" おはし ja ohashi chopsticks おさら ja osara a plate おちゃわん ja ochawan a rice bowl おかし ja okashi sweets, confectionery The native word and the borrowed word are not the same word Five pairs, and in every one of them an English speaker's instinct is to reach for the borrowed word because it is the one they recognise. That instinct is wrong in every case. Pair The difference ごはん / ライス Both are rice. ごはん is rice in a bowl, Japanese-style, and also means "a meal". ライス is rice on a flat plate beside something Western — curry, a steak. Ask for ライス in a Japanese restaurant and you will get a puzzled look. ぎゅうにゅう / ミルク Both are milk. ぎゅうにゅう is the drink, sold in cartons. ミルク is what goes in coffee, or what a baby drinks. おちゃ / こうちゃ Both are tea, and neither is borrowed. おちゃ alone means green tea; English-style tea has to be named, and it is こうちゃ , "red tea", from the colour of the liquid. おみず / おゆ Cold water and hot water are different words . You cannot make one from the other with an adjective. Asking for あついおみず is the kind of thing that marks you out immediately. ジュース / a fruit juice ジュース covers any cold soft drink including cola, so it is wider than the English word rather than narrower. If you want orange juice, say オレンジジュース . The おみず / おゆ pair is worth a second look, because it is a place where Japanese divides the world differently rather than merely using a different word. English treats temperature as a property of water; Japanese treats hot water as a separate substance with its own name, and has a whole vocabulary around it — the bath, the tea, the instant noodles. There is no adjective route from one to the other. How English does it Two observations, and the second is the useful one. English also has native and borrowed pairs for food , and it also uses them differently. A cow in the field and beef on the plate; a pig and pork ; a sheep and mutton . The native Germanic word is the animal and the borrowed French word is the meat, a division that has been in English since 1066. So the phenomenon is familiar; it is the specific lines that differ. And Japanese draws the line in the other place. ぎゅうにく is literally "cow meat" — native words compounded — where English switches to French for the meat. The borrowed words in Japanese food vocabulary mark the dish as foreign , not as prepared. The useful observation is about adjectives of taste. English has one word, hot , for temperature and for spice, and resolves it by context. Japanese has two, and they are not related: あつい is temperature and からい is spice. An English speaker saying "this soup is hot" has to decide which they mean before they can say it, and that decision is one Japanese forces and English does not. The same applies to おいしい and うまい . Both mean the food tastes good. おいしい is the neutral, polit