Okay I don’t know if I wasn’t looking for it correctly, but I’m trying to find the meaning of 遣い and it’s so confusing. It has so many meanings when combined with other words but I’m not able to get a “sense” of it? I can’t find the meaning of just the word without a combination (with other words), either.
遣い as a suffix basically means “use” of whatever it attaches to.
Can you give an example of what’s confusing you?
言葉遣い - speech (use of words)
仮名遣い - kana orthography (use of kana)
心遣い - consideration, thoughtfulness (use of heart)
To me they actually mostly seem pretty straightforward.
2 Likes
Okay for example when I typed it in the dictionary it comes as 心遣い、小遣い、言葉遣い and the meanings vary of course. But I wasn’t able to get the basic essence of the word. I wasn’t able to find a meaning for just 遣い。 But now that you said it means “use” as a suffix, it makes more sense I suppose.
Is it another way to say 使い?
When the meanings of those words came up the word “use” wasn’t found anywhere. That’s why I was confused. It just said things like “speech” or “spending money” etc.
Yes, 遣う is another way to write つかう.
At its core it means “to use” just like 使う does, but it tends to be used in situations where the use is more abstract, mental, involves manipulation (as in with a puppet or something). But it’s still 利用する or 用いる at its core.
つかい is just the stem form functioning as a noun.
2 Likes
Thank you so much. That clears up things nicely 
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.