Talk:Gomen nasai

Nihongo and stuff

The title adds: (ごめんなさい, lit. "I am sorry"). I cannot see that this is very accurate, nor that it helps at all. Firstly, gomen nasai (with or without a space, but the space probably helps) is correct and simple Hepburn transliteration of the Japanese expression. Adding the kana fairly obviously does not help anyone who cannot read it, and tells anyone who can read it absolutely nothing. (Perhaps it is most commonly written in hiragana, but the two examples in a Japanese online dictionary both write it as ご免なさい - even though they cite 御免なさい as the "kanji" form; this would at least tell J readers something.) Secondly, I don't see how "I am sorry" is in any sense a "literal translation". So I suggest removing it, but ask for opinions, since this is replicated in other places (the various misspelled songs, for example.) Imaginatorium (talk) 08:48, 3 June 2020 (UTC)

I'm in favor of keeping the kana, though I'm not opposed to adding a kanji version as well. The expression is usually written in kana, so this should be kept. It's irrelevant that you find the spelling obvious, because Wikipedia always shows how foreign words look in their native language. For example, it's obvious to speakers of Russian how Boris Yeltsin's name is spelled in cyrillic, but nonetheless Wikipedia does include the Russian spelling so that we can see what it looks like in his own language. "I am sorry" is of course the correct translation, though for expressions like this literal might be the wrong word. It literally means "please forgive me". Anyway, I'm open to modifying this part, but one way or another the kana needs to stay and remain prominently in the first sentence.Kate Riley2019 (talk) 21:29, 5 June 2020 (UTC)

I agree with Riley2019, ごめんなさい is generally written in kana (but can optionally be written with kanji, whether for formality, stylistic reasons, or various other reasons of the author. I am not sure what the consensus standard is, but I would consider it best to have a kana (common) version and an alternative kanji version. That being said, I do find it a little weird ごめんなさい has its own article. Seems unusual given it's just a foreign phrase, but I guess if "C'est la vie" has one... 02:54, 23 October 2021 (UTC)

Gomen nasai (ごめんなさい, "I am sorry") is an informal Japanese-language apology, less polite than the standard "sumimasen". It can also be shortened to gomen ne (ごめんね) or gomen (ごめん).

Gomen nasai (ごめんなさい, "I am sorry") is an informal Japanese-language apology, less polite than the standard "sumimasen". It can also be shortened to gomen ne (ごめんね) or gomen (ごめん). 2001:4450:46AC:2400:9D29:1D94:415E:14CB (talk) 13:21, 12 October 2022 (UTC)