うち or いえ ?

[paul_b]

In the following sentence would 家 be うち or いえ ?
Well, quite possibly it could be both but if you had to pick
one as the most likely which would it be?

彼はわざわざ僕を家まで送ってくれた。
He kindly took the trouble to see me home. [M]

(I'm guessing うち but ...)

[Tspoonami]

paul_b wrote:[small](I'm guessing うち but ...)[/small]

According to Rikaichan: いえ means a house, but　うち means one's house. So, I guess it would be うち. Actually, '私のうち' sounds kind of redundant...

[mteric]

Odd, I was just thinking about 家 yesterday. I had been wondering what the difference between うち and いえ was. I'm glad I saw this post.

[ComradeJoe]

It's definitely an epidemic, I was thinking about 家 myself the other day.
The way I understand it, うち is more like "home" while いえ is the equivalent of "house".
So maybe いえに行く would be "to go to the house" and うちに行く "to go home"?

[Shibakoen]

Tspoonami wrote:

paul_b wrote:[small](I'm guessing うち but ...)[/small]

According to Rikaichan: いえ means a house, but　うち means one's house. So, I guess it would be うち. Actually, '私のうち' sounds kind of redundant...

I agree, but in this case I don't think it's a redundant usage. "He kindly brought me home" is not the same as "He kindly brought me home to my house." The former's fine, the latter's obviously redundant. I think this sentance is more like the first and not redundant like the second.

[the_haunted_boy]

Which one would be correct? I thought that one meant home and the other mean house.

[Oyaji]

I think you are equally safe with either one.

When I give people rides and they want to be dropped off at home they usually say 「いえまでおねがいします」, because in that context a physical location is appropriate as an answer.

On the other hand, if the speaker were speaking to his wife I would think 「うち」 would be more natural.

Actually, '私のうち' sounds kind of redundant

In the example it is 「僕を家」, but either way 「うち」does not only apply to your own home; you can use 「うち」 when referring to other people's homes as well.

For what it's worth, in one of the dictionaries I looked at, the example sentences for 「いえ」 and 「うち」are almost identical, but 「いえ」 is in kanji, whereas 「うち」 is in hiragana:
(under 「いえ」)「お父さんは家にいらっしゃいますか」「いいえ、外出中です」
(under 「うち」)「お父さん、今うちにいらっしゃいますか」「いいえ、外出中です」

[Tspoonami]

Oyaji wrote:

Actually, '私のうち' sounds kind of redundant

In the example it is 「僕を家」, but either way 「うち」does not only apply to your own home; you can use 「うち」 when referring to other people's homes as well.

I wasn't referring to the example... I should probably have put a big space in between the two sentences. But still, it's good to know that うち isn't specific to the speaker... it just seems to me like if you were to say '私のうち’ in a sentence, you could probably omit the '私の’ unless you were specifically talking about someone else's home... But then again, that goes for basically everything... I feel a bit stupider now.

Still, I somehow think of my house when I see うち. I don't think of it when I see いえ, but rather a random other house. Ah, well.

[/longandtotallypointlesspost]

>_>

[Harisenbon]

Just to add to Comrade Joe's comment,

I have also been told that the difference between うち and 家 is the difference between "home" and "house"

[paul_b]

Oyaji wrote:
For what it's worth, in one of the dictionaries I looked at, the example sentences for 「いえ」 and 「うち」are almost identical, but 「いえ」 is in kanji, whereas 「うち」 is in hiragana:

Well that is useful, if only because I have to choose _one_ for the indexing.

[Mike Cash]

Tspoonami wrote:
Actually, '私のうち' sounds kind of redundant...

Yet is common....

[Infidel]

I think this sentance is more like the first and not redundant like the second.

Redundancy is the heart of English, why not other languages?
Redundancy is the heart of English, why not other languages?

Phrases like, "I'm going to kill you until you are dead!"
absolute guarantee
ask a question
bare naked
dates back
difficult dilemma
earlier in time
eradicate completely
follow after
forever and ever
gather together
honest truth
midway between
mutual cooperation
orbits around
pair of twins
past record
protest against
repeat again
same identical
sufficient enough
talking out loud
time clock
unconfirmed rumour
unexpected surprise
up on top of
various differences
we ourselves

The alphabetical lish should be a clue that I culled most of that with a quick google search.

[shin1ro]

うち sounds a little more casual than いえ to me. But I think they are quite similar.
Although 私のうち doesn't sound redundant, just うち often means my home or my family, or even our division, our company. Especially division/company cases, I think katakana ウチ tends to be used...because the meaning is slightly biased from the original.

In addition, in Kansai or here in Gifu, women call themselves as うち in casual conversation. I think it's 方言 but probably widely used in Japan and completely understood all over Japan.

[keatonatron]

shin1ro wrote:
In addition, in Kansai or here in Gifu, women call themselves as うち in casual conversation. I think it's 方言 but probably widely used in Japan and completely understood all over Japan.

It's quite common in Kanto too.

A while back I heard a man refer to himself simply as "自分". I knew people did that, in theory, but I had never heard it before so it kind of threw me off. I always use it in a phrase (自分の,自分で, etc).

[Harisenbon]

shin1ro

うちんち来や！

That was actually the first real gifu-ben I ever learned.