こんにちは！みさです～
実は私はお酒を全然飲まない・・・というか飲めない
（体が受け付けない）ので、
お酒の種類とかは全然知りません！
とにかく、今日は「酔う」という言葉について説明します！
Konnichiwa! Misa desu
Jitsu wa, watashi wa o-sake wo zenzen nomAnai …toiuka nomEnai
(karada ga uketsukenAi) node,
o-sake no shurui toka wa zenzen shirimAsen!
Tonikaku, kyou wa “you” toiu kotoba nitsuite setsumei shimasu!
Hello! It’s Misa!
Actually I don’t drink alcohol at all…
or perhaps I should say that I cannot drink (my body rejects it)
so I don’t know types of alcohol or anything at all!
Anyways, today I will explain the word ” YOU“.
酔う よう YOU
It doesn’t mean “you” as in “I, you , he…” or “yo-yo (ヨーヨー)” or “YO! (よっ)”.
But it has several meanings in English.
The first meaning is “to get drunk“.
First let’s take a look at the kanji 「 酒 」 (sake = alcohol)
The radical 氵means “water”
and the right part 酉 illustrates the vase to put the alcohol in.
The “sake” in English refers to the specific type of “Japanese rice wine”.
However in Japanese that “sake” in English is called ” 日本酒 (nihon-shu)”.
And 酒 (sake) in Japanese refers to any sort of alcoholic beverage.
つまり、ワインもお酒だし、ビールもカクテルも全部お酒！
Tsumari wain mo o-sake da shi, biiru mo kakuteru mo zenbu osake!
= That is, wine is “o-sake” too, and beer, cocktail, everything is “o-sake”!
Also a lot of Japanese people use the honorific お together.
So not just さけ but おさけ. さけ has a rough vibe,
and it can sound like you are an alcoholic.
Men could get away with it, but I suggest that women use おさけ
if you don’t want to sound rough.
Okay, so
酔う (you)
– This one consists of the “alcohol vase (酉)” from 酒 (sake).
And the right part is from the kanji ” 砕ける (kudakeru = to break into pieces)”*
* Like glasses do. But for glasses, 割れる (wareru) is more common to use.
E.g 窓が割れた。 Mado ga ware-ta. = The window broke.*
What the kanji wants to say is that
“drunkness” is basically the state of letting yourself get broken by alcohol.
本当じゃない？ Hontou janai? = True, isn’t it ;)
The conjugation of this verb
A lot of girls say
「あ～酔っちゃった～(´Д｀*)」
A~yocchatta~
= Aaa, I’m drunk ~
Yes, they use ちゃう (informal version of てしまう)
as if they didn’t intend (mean) to do!
To make ちゃう form, you use TE form.
Just change TE into ちゃう！
Here’s the conjugation of ちゃう. It’s basically the same as よう.
I guess よっちゃった is a lot cuter than just よった when girls say it.
But guys usually say “よった”.
Japanese people usually just say
「ちょっと酔った」 chotto yotta
=I’m a bit drunk
「かなり酔った」 kanari yotta
= I’m quite (very) drunk.
「飲みすぎた」 nomi-sugi-ta
= I drank too much.
But we do have words to describe how drunk you are.
Level 0 : しらふ = sober
It’s usually written in Hiragana, but you can write like 素面.
But the origin of this word was “white face”
and it was written like this 白面 .
The first kanji is 白い (shiro-i = white)
and the second kanji is 面 (men = surface / mask).
So white-face… What this suggests is that when you are not drunk,
your face is “white” and when you are drunk, your face is “red”.
(You’ll be shocked how red a Japanese person’s face can get by alcohol lol).
Some of my students probably remember that
the origin of the word 面白い (omo-shiro-i = funny / interesting)
is “face-white” because when you laugh, your mood / face gets brighter (=white).
Did you realize? The order is different. Haha
“Face -> White” is “funny / interesting”.
“White – Face” is “sobar”.
Level 1 : ほろ酔い (horo-yoi = tipsy)
ほろ is sometimes attached to nouns to mean “a bit”.
E.g
ほろ苦い (horo-niga-i = slightly bitter / bittersweet)
Often used with words like “くらい (=approximately)” and ” 程度 (teido = degree)”.
E.g
A 「どのくらい酔ってたの？」
B 「まあ、ほろ酔い程度だったかな。」
A “dono-kurai yotte(i)ta no”
B “maa, horo-yoi teido datta kana”
= A : How drunk were you?
B: Well, I was tipsy. (lit. It was a degree of tipsy.)
Level 2 : 酔っぱらう (yopparaU = to get drunk)
酔っぱらう (yopparau) obviously comes from 酔う (you).
But this one usually describes drunkeness in a negative way.
Like there are people who get drunk in a cute way and just laugh,
(those people are called 笑い上戸 warai-jougo)
or there are people who get drunk and start crying
(those are called 泣き上戸 naki-jougo).
But 酔っぱらい (yopparaI = a drunk person <noun>)
is the sort of person you don’t really want to deal with.
よっぱらい usually starts screaming, shouting, and eventually passes out.
For instance,
You would say
「 酔ってるの？」 yotte(i)ru no?
to someone who seems drunk generally.
You would say
「 酔っぱらってるの？」 yopparatte(i)ru no
to someone who seems to have lost control.
It’s not always like that,
but よっぱらっている usually describes someone who is not themselves anymore.
Another example :
酔っ払いに絡まれた。
yopparaI ni karam-are-ta.
= I was pestered by a drunk man.
絡む （karaMU) means “to pick a quarrel”.
But it’s usually used in a passive form – 絡まれる “karamA-reru”.
There is a similar word :
絡まる (karamARU) , which means “to get tangled”.
E.g
髪の毛がよく絡まる
Kami no ke ga yoku karamaru
= The hair often gets tangled.
イヤフォンが絡まった。
Iyafon ga karamatta
= The earphones got tangled.
Level 3 : 泥酔（deisui = wasted)
It can be a verb 泥酔する (deisui suru = get wasted),
or it’s often used with the word 状態 (joutai = state / condition).
E.g
同僚は昨日泥酔して、何も覚えていない。
Douryou wa kinou deisui shite, nani-mo oboete-inai
= My co-woker got wasted and doesn’t remember anything.
旦那は泥酔状態で帰ってきた。
Danna wa deisui joutai de kaette-kita
= My husband came home smashed.
泥酔になるまで飲んだ。
Deisui ni naru made nonda
= ~ drunk until ~ got wasted.]
And how do you say “light-weight” drinker?
お酒に弱い（おさけによわい）
It literally means that you are weak to alcohol.
E.g
みさはお酒に弱いから、全然飲まない。
Misa wa o-sake ni yowa-i kara, zenzen nomanAi
= Misa is a light-weight, so doesn’t drink at all.
お酒を飲んでも、楽しめないんです！気持ちが悪くなるだけ・・・
Osake wo nondemo, tanoshimEnai n desu! Kimochi ga waruku naru dake
= I cannot enjoy myself by drinking alcohol. I just start feeling sick…
So logically, to describe the person who can handle alcohol,
you use
お酒に強い （o-sake ni tsuyo-i)
It literally means you are strong to alcohol.
E.g
お酒に強い人は酔うのに時間がかかる。
O-sake ni tsuyoi hito wa you no ni jikan ga kakaru
= It takes some time to get drunk for those who can handle alcohol.
NOW! It’s not over yet…
酔う (you) has another meaning.
みさはお酒を飲まないから、お酒で酔わないけど、車でいつも酔う。
Misa wa o-sake wo nomanAi kara, o-sake de yowAnai kedo, kuruma de itsumo you
= Misa doesn’t drink so she doesn’t get drunk on alcohol, but she always gets drunk in cars?!
It doesn’t make sense…!
Why does Misa get drunk in a car?
No, I don’t get drunk anywhere ;)
酔う (you) can also mean “to get travel (motion) sickness“.
乗り物酔いをする
(nori-mono-yoi wo suru)
= to get motion sickness
* 乗り物 (nori-mono) means “vehicle”.
Just like 食べ物 (tabe-mono = food) = たべる (= to eat) + もの (= thing / stuff),
飲み物 (nomi-mono = drink) = のむ (= to drink) + もの,
建物 (tate-mono = building) = たてる (=to build) + もの,
乗り物 (nori-mono = vehicle) = のる (= to board / hop on transportation) + もの
車酔いをする
(kuruma-yoi wo suru)
= to get car sickness
船酔いをする
(funA-yoi wo suru)
= to get boat / ship sickness
* The word 船 (= ship) is usually pronounced like “fuNE”.*
I always 99.9 % say
「あー酔った・・・気持ち悪い」
Aaa yotta… Kimochi warui…
= “Ah…I got travel sickness…I feel sick…”
So I have to take 酔い止め (yoi-dome = travel sickness tablets) beforehand.
I travel a lot and get on airplanes (飛行機 hikouki) and in taxis (タクシー) a lot,
so よいどめ is my must-have item ^^;
Yeah, so please don’t take the title of this article seriously and get drunk…
That would be a disaster if you are the driver.
飲酒運転は違法ですよ！
Inshu-unten wa ihou desu yo!
= It’s illegal to drink drive!
みんなも飲みすぎには気を付けてね！
Minna mo nomi-sugi ni wa ki wo tsukete ne!
= Don’t drink too much, guys ;)
(lit. Everyone (also), please be careful with drinking too much)”
