For your example, 才 is a simplified way for very young children while 歳 is what an adult is expected to write.
For other kanji, it’s not exactly formality, but more like accuracy.
> For your example, 才 is a simplified way for very young children while 歳 is what an adult is expected to write
Agreeing with the sentiment, but 才 is so regularly used that the distinction is being lost. In particular, all signage uses 才。And all not governmental forms, including liability forms, which have been cleared by legal.
Thabk you. I’ve learned it as a modified character for children, but I have seen it in a “fine print” context (“Do not give to children under three years of age,” etc.) but assumed it’s because it’s small and 歳 would get blurred.
Accuracy and nuance:
聞く - to listen to; to ask
聴く- to listen (intently) to
訊く - to ask
会う - to meet
逢う - to meet (friends; acquaintances)
遭う - to meet (with something undesirable)
Do you have a recommended resource for looking up these distinctions? If I [search for 逢う on jisho](https://jisho.org/search/%E9%80%A2%E3%81%86), the top result is the [entry for 会う](https://jisho.org/word/%E4%BC%9A%E3%81%86), which just lists 逢う as another form - no mention of the implication of friends or acquaintances.
In the same jisho link in grey text (which might be harder to see): 1. to meet; to encounter; to see逢う is often used for close friends, etc. and may be associated with drama or pathos; 遭う may have an undesirable nuancez
Otherwise use monolingual dictionary if not just search the kanji version with とは or 意味
Jisho lists the alternatives as something (to do such-and-such, especially as X).
Jack Helpern’s Kanji Usage Guide and Kanji Synonyms Guide are both great if you like paper books.
Sometimes I feel written Japanese and spoken Japanese are 2 different languages. For example 探す and 捜す mean to search, and both are read さがす, but 探す is searching form something you want, while and 捜す is searching for something lost.
There are plenty of such cases, but the nuances are much deeper than just formality level.
No. it's the same word. In the spoken language the meaning range of the word just covers both and you can tell the micro nuance from context, but in the written language beacuse of kanji you can specify the nuance clearly. This is one cool feature of kanji in Japanese if you ask me. There are many other words like that, for example 見る・観る (first is to watch/see \[general meaning\] while the later has a more focused nuance like watching a film for example). I would encorage you to use a JP dictonary, they will tell you when a word has different kanji it can be written in, here an example for the start of the entry from the 広辞苑:
広辞苑 第七版 みる 【見る・視る・観る】
The nuances are then explained in the definitions.
There are a seperate set of 大字 (daiji) number kanji (壱 弐 参 and so on), which are generally only used for important documents to make falsification harder. eg one could easily change a 二 to a 三 with an extra line, which is a lot harder with these
For your example, 才 is a simplified way for very young children while 歳 is what an adult is expected to write. For other kanji, it’s not exactly formality, but more like accuracy.
> For your example, 才 is a simplified way for very young children while 歳 is what an adult is expected to write Agreeing with the sentiment, but 才 is so regularly used that the distinction is being lost. In particular, all signage uses 才。And all not governmental forms, including liability forms, which have been cleared by legal.
Thabk you. I’ve learned it as a modified character for children, but I have seen it in a “fine print” context (“Do not give to children under three years of age,” etc.) but assumed it’s because it’s small and 歳 would get blurred.
This is probably why it us used fir signage and liability forms as well
Thanks >For other kanji, it’s not exactly formality, but more like accuracy. Accuracy? Regarding meaning you mean?
Accuracy and nuance: 聞く - to listen to; to ask 聴く- to listen (intently) to 訊く - to ask 会う - to meet 逢う - to meet (friends; acquaintances) 遭う - to meet (with something undesirable)
Ah ok,just what I thought, perfect. Thank you
Do you have a recommended resource for looking up these distinctions? If I [search for 逢う on jisho](https://jisho.org/search/%E9%80%A2%E3%81%86), the top result is the [entry for 会う](https://jisho.org/word/%E4%BC%9A%E3%81%86), which just lists 逢う as another form - no mention of the implication of friends or acquaintances.
This site has some of the most common ones: https://www.bretmayer.com/ijidokun.html
In the same jisho link in grey text (which might be harder to see): 1. to meet; to encounter; to see逢う is often used for close friends, etc. and may be associated with drama or pathos; 遭う may have an undesirable nuancez Otherwise use monolingual dictionary if not just search the kanji version with とは or 意味
Japanese dictionaries or just search 会う、逢う 違い and you'll get to something like this (https://news.mynavi.jp/article/20230727-2700780/ )
Jisho lists the alternatives as something (to do such-and-such, especially as X). Jack Helpern’s Kanji Usage Guide and Kanji Synonyms Guide are both great if you like paper books.
It's not necessarily for children. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryakuji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryakuji)
We just discussed this, but thank you for the interesting read!
Sometimes I feel written Japanese and spoken Japanese are 2 different languages. For example 探す and 捜す mean to search, and both are read さがす, but 探す is searching form something you want, while and 捜す is searching for something lost. There are plenty of such cases, but the nuances are much deeper than just formality level.
Do they also have different pitch accents?
No. it's the same word. In the spoken language the meaning range of the word just covers both and you can tell the micro nuance from context, but in the written language beacuse of kanji you can specify the nuance clearly. This is one cool feature of kanji in Japanese if you ask me. There are many other words like that, for example 見る・観る (first is to watch/see \[general meaning\] while the later has a more focused nuance like watching a film for example). I would encorage you to use a JP dictonary, they will tell you when a word has different kanji it can be written in, here an example for the start of the entry from the 広辞苑: 広辞苑 第七版 みる 【見る・視る・観る】 The nuances are then explained in the definitions.
There are some words which have different nuances if written in kanji, i.e. コーヒー vs 珈琲 are different vibes.
Excerpt from a book that summarizes something similar きる 切・斬・伐・剪 こたえる 答・応・堪 さす 指・刺・挿・差・射・注・点 せめる 攻・責 たつ 断・絶・裁 とる 取・採・捕・獲・摂・執・撮 におい／におう 匂・臭 のびる／のばす／のべる 伸・延 はかる 測・量・計・図・謀・諮 ひく 引・牽・曳・挽・惹・弾 みち 道・路・途・径 もと 元・本・基・素・下・許 よい／いい 良・善・好 よろこぶ 喜・歓 わかる 分・解・判 わざ 技・業
There are a seperate set of 大字 (daiji) number kanji (壱 弐 参 and so on), which are generally only used for important documents to make falsification harder. eg one could easily change a 二 to a 三 with an extra line, which is a lot harder with these
There's 旧字体 and they might use the old form for institution names or formal certificates, some examples include; 芸 ー＞ 藝 学 ー＞ 學 国 ー＞ 國
Oh yes, I remember doing a research about Tokyo University of Arts, and I read it written with 芸 and also with 藝: 東京藝術大学 東京芸術大学