Using ～さん

Oni's picture

The equivalent to Mr. or Mrs. or Miss. is ～さん

USAGE: Right after the name. It is used even with friends. (Even when in English we wouldn't use "Mr.")

  • くれいさん kurei san - Mr. Clay
  • 山田さん yamada san - Mr. (or Mrs...) Yamada

Other name titles: (used the same way)

  • ～さま sama - very polite - reserved for royalty, important people, and customers of stores
  • ～ちゃん chan - used for girls and very young boys (kiti-chan = Hello Kitty)
  • ～くん kun - used for young boys
  • ～先生 sensei - used for teachers [クレイ先生 kurei sensei], doctors, and professionals

For now just use san. As you know from watching all the Karate Kid movies, it is the most common.

For more on this see Keishou

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It's seems to be like the

Submitted by manchi on Sat, 05/29/2010 - 03:58.

It's seems to be like the Telugu "-garu" which is suffixed after a name.

～ちゃん

Submitted by defroged on Thu, 09/03/2009 - 15:28.

I've heard ～ちゃん also used between good friends (men).

eyegarden's picture

前田さん

Submitted by eyegarden on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 22:42.

Hi
When I was in Japan I hung out with a group of friends and the way they used -san with each other was quite interesting. They were all close friends and spoke informally, but most of the older ones were referred to as -san and the youngest was -san too, except with his best friend. I think you just have to see what fits and feels confortable.

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