Exercise 8: Tone of Compliments

Certain words (ほんとに  hontoni ‘really, very,’  とても  totemo ‘very’) are often used to intensify compliments.  Note that those words are pronounced slowly and emphatically to make the compliment sound sincere.

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

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In case the recipient of the compliments refuses or deflects compliments, the speaker tends to extend the compliment again, stressing that s/he really meant it

Example 1

Example 2

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Native speakers of Japanese, especially those of older generations, may not compliment as often as speakers of Western languages.  One study showed that Americans complimented approximately 8 times (!) more frequently than did Japanese (Barnlund & Araki, 1985).  Bear this in mind when you don’t get an expected compliments from Japanese speakers!

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