umasou?

[genyue]

美味そう - Sounds/seems delicious

Am I correct about that? I just needed confirmation for this ^^

---

In addition, 良く and ちゃんと, can be described as 'properly', ya?

Lastly, what's the difference between the 3 following words.. (in terms of meaning)?

?#92;く
良く
善く

[Mukade]

genyue wrote:
美味そう - Sounds/seems delicious

This means sounds/seems delicious, but it would be pronounced おいしそう.

うまい, which is not often written in kanji, would be 旨い (and thus 旨そう).

genyue wrote:
In addition, 良く and ちゃんと, can be described as 'properly', ya?

良く would be a little more like "well" (in some contexts, it could be "closely").

So, 良く食べた would be "(You) ate well (i.e., a lot)."
良く見て would be "Look closely."

genyue wrote:
Lastly, what's the difference between the 3 following words.. (in terms of meaning)?
?＼く
良く
善く

Well, that first one came up as code, so I don't know which character it is.

The second (良)tends to mean "good," and is the character most commonly used when conveying this meaning.

The third (善) can also mean "good," but another meaning it contains is "virtuous." You won't see it used too often, and almost never in the same sense of "good" as 良. When it's used, it typically means "virtuous," and is pronounced ぜん.

[genyue]

態 <-- without the '心' at the bottom, that's the 'よく' I'm referring to.

[InsanityRanch]

Wow... this is a trickier question than you would think!

First off, I think your first word is normally written 美味しそう (oishisou). That is, you left off the し. In general, adjectives that end in しい will have those two characters written at the end as okurigana, and the adverbial form will end しく

But as to the question of よく...

I can find all 3 of your forms in the EDICT (the most amazing piece of freeware ever provided for Japanese students, imo.) However, EDICT unfortunately doesn't have reibun, so I checked my electronic dictionary.

In the 和英 (Japanese-English) section, I find that the only entry for yoku is spelled in kana and the meanings "often, well (i.e., favorably), well (fully), carefully and thoroughly are offered, along with many reibun.

Checking the 国語 (Japanese-Japanese) section, I find the three kanji you are asking about, as well as two others. (Specifically, it lists 良く, 善く, 好く,
克く and ・#92;く. The final three have a pointer which I THINK means they are unusual.) The entry goes on to define several meanings, but it DOES NOT specify that different kanji correspond to particular meanings and not others. (Sometimes it does.)

Bottom line: I am planning to spell it in kana from now on. Since it's spelled that way in the examples in the J-E side, it looks as if you will not be considered illiterate if you use kana. However, if you choose a kanji other than 良, you had best know exactly what you are doing.

Which brings up the point that using kanji when most Japanese would NOT use them makes you look either pedantic (if you do it correctly) or stupid AND pedantic (if you make a mistake.)

Oh, and along the way I discovered another "yoi" meaning "drunk", spelled 酔い........... Isn't Japanese fun? <g>

Shira

[Mukade]

The different characters for よく have varying shades of meaning. In general, however, the only one that is commonly used to indicate よく, "well" is 良.

As far as whether to use this character or not...this is a trickier question than just "yes they do/no they don't."

The character 良 can be used to write よい, よさ, いい or よく.

いい and よく tend to be written in kana, although it is possible to see them written in kanji.

よい and よさ tend to be written in kanji, although it is possible to see them written in kana.

Realize that in both instances, they tend to be written one way or another, but it's not a rule. I have one of my school's newsletters in front of me right now, and よく is written in kana, よさ is written in kanji, and いい is written at one point in kana and at another in kanji!

So, don't worry about being pedantic if you want to use this character.

[genyue]

What about this 'yoku' I'm referring to?
態 <-- without the '心' at the bottom, that's the 'よく' I'm referring to.

What does it means?

[Mukade]

genyue wrote:
What about this 'yoku' I'm referring to?
態 <-- without the '心' at the bottom, that's the 'よく' I'm referring to.

What does it means?

It means "ability" or "skill." You'll see it most often in the words のうりょく (_力), "ability," or かのうせい (可_性), "possibility."

-----

i wonder why it always comes up in code?

[genyue]

Um.. I mean.. 態 without the '心' as the 'yo'

and what does that yoku means or how can it be described?

[Mukade]

Well, like I said, it means "ability" or "skill." It is almost always pronounced のう, as in the example words I quoted previously.

The よ(く) reading is not really used in modern Japanese.

[genyue]

Do you know how it is used in olden Japanese?