Which Japanese first person pronoun do you use and why?

I voted in the wrong poll, can I unvote? XD

I exclusively use 不肖私 so as not to offend anyone by my choice of pronoun

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I use 僕 because that’s what my Japanese tutor uses for himself and I sort of ended up copying his speech patterns. I used to say わたし before getting a tutor.

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Probably best answer so far. I was trying to think what my teacher - who I’ve been going to for about 2 years - uses, and realised I don’t think I even know. So yeah, if at all possible, use nothing.

Isn’t 私 kind of that for girls, though? Since it’s the only real option, formal / casual connotations don’t really apply.

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Nonbinary gender, and 僕. I know 私 is more neutral but I lean closer to the masculine so if anyone’s gonna gender me it’s probably as a softer-spoken guy, regardless of pronoun. Plus I just like the word 僕 for whatever reason. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Haha,watched spongebob and Plankton refers to himself as 俺様. its made me happy

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I don’t know if it’s only Kansai-ben, based on other replies it sounds like it’s more commonplace. I got this Kansai e-kotoba jiten a couple days ago for fun and just found a listing for ウチ so it looks like at the very least it’s been incorporated into Kansai-ben

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I generally use 私 or 僕 with friends, but I’m moving more towards 自分 if I use anything at all.

I also don’t know that I would say 俺 isn’t a ‘sane’ option for a non-male speaker. Where I live (Niigata prefecture) I’ve heard women refer to themselves as 俺 and no one has blinked an eye. It’s been over a variety of age groups and situations as well. I assume it’s a dialect thing and it’s obviously not standard, but it’s well within the realm of possibility for a woman to use 俺 seriously.

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Some girls use it where I live in too even though it’s not super common. However I feel like people (especially outside of these kinds of area) would be less willing to take a female foreigner using 俺 seriously unfortunately.

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はい、はい、シフェス殿。分かりました。

Hmm, I suppose it is. I guess what I mean is that I wish there was a less boring one I could use :joy:

Woah I want that book :scream: Also I suppose that makes sense; I feel like I hear a lot of Japanese people call things “Kansai-ben” that are actually slang that I’ve heard people from many areas use.

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Pretty much always use 私. As it just works anytime and anywhere.
But even though I’m a girl, I also reaaally love 俺. lol. Especially 「俺っち 」like holy crap, it’s so dang freaking cute. It often slips out when I’m playing competitive games with friends. Because like… I get really competitive, and 俺 just has a stronger feeling to it.

Which I could use it more without looking like a weirdo. lol

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Quite a bit of Kansai-ben is used everywhere I think. So I guess it’s trendy. Or if not trendy then always good for a laugh haha. My co-workers love to use Kansai-ben as a punchline.

I’m trying to think of other examples I have heard regularly though… Personally I kind of want to use うち. One of my friends from Osaka used to use it a lot. I could probably get away with it too since all of my co-workers know I studied in Kansai. hmmmmm :thinking:

Vaguely related: One of my friends mistakenly tried to tell someone the other day that using 超 instead of とても or めっちゃ the local dialect where we live. I had to be like nope that’s standard everywhere haha :sweat_smile:

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You would be in trouble learning a language like Portuguese then. Even with something as simple as a “thank you”, women have to say “obrigada” and men “obrigado” :roll_eyes:

Nobody else uses わし?

Sometimes I like to make that joke wth friends. I have the reverse problem to most here 僕 is a bit young for me to use .

As a result I almost always use 私. And I’ve never had anyone remark that my Japanese sound particularly feminine. You can do that more easily in other ways such as ね after plain form verbs. Easy mistake to make.

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Well, it’s still not as bad as German, in which there are three genders and Mädchen is neutral.

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Yeah, my brother once mentioned that to me. What is the neutral gender for? Objects and inanimate stuff?

I never use anything other than 私 (わたし). To me, using anything else would just feel weird. It feels like you’re putting that flag out there, that you are declaring you’re an advanced Japanese speaker, by choosing not to use the standard thing taught to beginners.

I’m sure people in this topic who are saying they use other stuff aren’t intending it to be interpreted that way, but that’s how I imagine Japanese people interpreting it, so I don’t even consider it.

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It’s not for anything, it’s mostly random or according to word ending, as it is in Portuguese, only there are three instead of two.

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The goal is still to learn the language. If using anything else makes you more precise in using Japanese (taking into consideration the situation), why wouldn’t we use them? :o

How do you treat yourself with your gf? If I may ask :slightly_smiling_face:

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