Difference between 下る and 下がる ???

[kentaku_sama]

I've first saw this in my kanji in mangaland book. 下がる (sagaru) means to descend 下る (kudaru) means to go down. Now Myself believe that (in english anyway...) to go down and to descend is about the same meaning. So if someone could clear this up for me and what each one is used for.

[two_heads_talking]

Hmm, are descend and go down different words? Then isn't it possible there are two different words with slightly similar meanings in Japanese too?

[Yudan Taiteki]

I've first saw this in my kanji in mangaland book. 下がる (sagaru) means to descend 下る (kudaru) means to go down. Now Myself believe that (in english anyway...) to go down and to descend is about the same meaning. So if someone could clear this up for me and what each one is used for.

kudaru usually has the meaning of "going down" in the sense of leaving a major metropolitan place (like the capital) and going to the country, for instance. I'm not sure I've ever seen it used in modern Japanese, but it's used fairly often in classical Japanese, i.e. the famous "azuma-kudari" sections of the Ise Monogatari.

There's also 下りる(おりる), which means something similar and overlaps with 降りる, but I would need to look at a J-J dictionary to work all this out.

[spin13]

下がる (sagaru) means to descend 下る (kudaru) means to go down...So if someone could clear this up for me and what each one is used for.

You should probably use a dictionary.

[keatonatron]

kudaru usually has the meaning of "going down" in the sense of leaving a major metropolitan place (like the capital) and going to the country, for instance. I'm not sure I've ever seen it used in modern Japanese, but it's used fairly often in classical Japanese, i.e. the famous "azuma-kudari" sections of the Ise Monogatari.

I've seen it used in parking garages and train stations, labeling which road or stairway is reserved for those heading down.

[kentaku_sama]

So sagaru means to descend,bring down,lower, make lower ect... as in: Lower the crate please. And Kudaru is used in a sense as in (elevator voice: "Going down...") or going lower in the country or downtown or something like that. (please correct me if I'm wrong) Would this apply to the word "Condescend" or the phrase "Tone it down" or "lower the lighting"?

[NocturnalOcean]

I've first saw this in my kanji in mangaland book. 下がる (sagaru) means to descend 下る (kudaru) means to go down. Now Myself believe that (in english anyway...) to go down and to descend is about the same meaning. So if someone could clear this up for me and what each one is used for.

kudaru usually has the meaning of "going down" in the sense of leaving a major metropolitan place (like the capital) and going to the country, for instance. I'm not sure I've ever seen it used in modern Japanese, but it's used fairly often in classical Japanese, i.e. the famous "azuma-kudari" sections of the Ise Monogatari.

I am pretty sure you see it in Modern Japanese. Whenever you go down a stair at a train station or similar places.

[furrykef]

but it's used fairly often in classical Japanese, i.e. the famous "azuma-kudari" sections of the Ise Monogatari.

"E.g.", not "i.e."

So sagaru means to descend,bring down,lower, make lower ect... as in: Lower the crate please. And Kudaru is used in a sense as in (elevator voice: "Going down...") or going lower in the country or downtown or something like that.

下がる is intransitive, meaning it cannot take an object, so it cannot be used in "lower the crate". The verb you'd be looking for in that case is 下げる (さげる), which is transitive. There are a lot of -aru/-eru pairs like this.

I've seen it used in parking garages and train stations, labeling which road or stairway is reserved for those heading down.

I think it could be just be an abbreviation of 下がる, like how 入り口 is often abbreviated 入口. But I could just as easily be completely wrong.

- Kef

[NocturnalOcean]

I've seen it used in parking garages and train stations, labeling which road or stairway is reserved for those heading down.

I think it could be just be an abbreviation of 下がる, like how 入り口 is often abbreviated 入口. But I could just as easily be completely wrong.

- Kef

I think you are wrong.

The direction for stairs are 下る and 上る, read as (kudaru and noboru).

[furrykef]

*shrug* OK. I was just sayin' it's hard to tell if you're only going by the written form; seeing 下る on a sign might not be the same thing as seeing 下る in a sentence. One cannot make too many assumptions.

(And before you think it's silly that a sign might follow different orthographic standards, I've heard of elevators in Latin America with a button labeled "LLamar", on the logic that "ll" used to be considered its own letter... yet I've never seen or heard of "ll" capitalized that way anywhere else, either before or after "ll" lost its status as a single letter. It should be "Llamar".)

[Yudan Taiteki]

*shrug* OK. I was just sayin' it's hard to tell if you're only going by the written form; seeing 下る on a sign might not be the same thing as seeing 下る in a sentence. One cannot make too many assumptions.

The primary question is "What word do Japanese people use to express a down staircase/elevator?" The answer is くだる, and thus if you see 下る on a sign indicating a down staircase, it will be read くだる rather than さがる.

[furrykef]

I guess that answers that, then.