Someone vs. だれ

[Paul De Stefano]

Reading posts in SuzuQ's introduction stimulated my thinking that these words are not equivalent; as so often happens when comparing words in our two languages.
I believe that "someone" has the implication of singling out one person among a group (at least theoretically.) I tried thinking about how to express this concept in Japanese and came up with this phrase: 人々から一人を選ぶこと。
Since I am quite inexperienced in expressing myself in Japanese, I would appreciate any and all corrections in my thinking and my short phrase.

[richvh]

Perhaps ある一人の人間, as used in the story ホルン?

[Naikou]

If you want to talk about someone explicitly, and it is someone you know, you will most often just use that person's name. If you want to say in general, someone, for example: Someone read a book.
You will use dareka (だれか).
Dareka ga hon wo yomimashita. 誰かが本を読みなした。Someone read a book.

だれ (dare) is just the question word 'who'. You know the difference when using question word, don't you?

Who read a book? 誰が本を読みました。Dare ga hon wo yomimashita.
Someone read a book.誰かが本を読みました。Dareka ga hon wo yomimashita.

As for making a reference to someone you don't know, most often you will either use 'ano', 'sono' (if the person is visible to you and the listener, and you are mentioning the person for the first time in the conversation). These words mean something like 'that'

あの人 = that person = ano hito
その人 = that person = sono hito (When the person you are mentioning is standing close to the person that you are mentioning the person to. For example. A = you, B = listener, C = person being mentioned.

A BC. )

'Aru' can be used too, but I'm not proficient enough yet to explain that.

When you want to say: I will pick one person, you can indeed use　一人を選ぶことです。The 人々から part isn't really necessary, as you will always pick a person from other persons, unless you want to explicitly say, I will pick a person from THAT group, or from THOSE people. Then you will use その/あの人たちから一人を選ぶことです。

人たち is a variant of 人々, but sounds more appropriate here in my opinion.

[TrilinguisT]

sono/ano aru hito - this/that one person....
does that help? hahaha i doubt it, but i did use this telling my penpal about someone.

[Sorako]

Couldn't 或人 be used? I mean, if you are indeed wanting to express "someone".

Such as 或人を選ぶことです。

If I'm wrong, let me know.

[TrilinguisT]

Sorako - i just said that. hehehe

[AJBryant]

Actually, it would be 或る人...

But unless I'm very mistaken, あの或る人 has rather specialized and peculiar uses -- similar to the English "that certain person" -- and isn't used too terribly often (as its English counterpart isn't, as well).

Tony

[Machina Maw]

誰か
だれか
Somebody.

[Sorako]

Sorako - i just said that. hehehe

Oh, nyah. I had my page open for a while when I was responding. xD I got up and like...made a sandwich and came back to answer. *shrugs*

[TrilinguisT]

watashi no naka ga peko peko de naita~~~ sando ga oishisou ndayo!!

[AJBryant]

It occurs to me that "onaka" is about the only part you have that by default gets the honorary "o-" stuck in front of it. Peculiar, no?

Tony

[Samusai]

Naikou wrote:
Dareka ga hon wo yomimashita. 誰かが本を読みなした。Someone read a book.

Uuuh, I believe you wrote "yomiNAshita." Trying to throw off the noobs, eh?

[xhilononi234]

I don't understand exactly what you are asking. From what I know, the only way to say someone is dareka or if you want to be respectful, donataka

[Yudan Taiteki]

Please do not necropost. Don't respond to a post that is more than a few weeks old -- certainly not one that is two years old.

[spin13]

Please do not necropost. Don't respond to a post that is more than a few weeks old -- certainly not one that is two years old.

Since what's done is done...

It occurs to me that "onaka" is about the only part you have that by default gets the honorary "o-" stuck in front of it. Peculiar, no?

Tony

I think you're forgetting お尻, one of the two reasons why so many more western women appear in Japan's lingerie ads.