Comments on: The most useful word… EVAR

By: Yas

Yas — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:02:39 +0000

My Japanese friend taught me “いい” in the use of “i didn’t have to/didn’t need to”. I think it’s the same thing as turning someone down. For example, we were on the way to the supermarket so i could get cash, but i didn’t actually need to go to the supermarket anymore since we found an ATM. i asked how to say “i didn’t have/need to go to the supermarket”. I thought it would be a more complex sentence but she said it’d be something like “スーパーはいい”. It confused me at first since I’d have assumed that meant “supermarket’s good, let’s go to the supermarket” when it really means “that’s okay, no thanks”. It’s actually very similar to english in that way.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:58:02 +0000

見るがいい! (Behold!)

A less common construction involving いい, but you will probably hear it often in theatre, medieval settings in novels, etc. It can be used with other verbs other than 見る: 聴く, やる, etc.

By: QKlilx

QKlilx — Sun, 04 May 2008 07:41:02 +0000

Perhaps 格好いい and 可愛い should be mentioned since they both sound like they use いい, but only the former does. Then mention how they are properly conjugated into the negative.

Turning someone down definitely needs to be mentioned and contrasted to accepting or praising. I feel that your article heavily emphasizes translation problems regarding いい as opposed to the various usages of いい.

One more usage: “fine.” As in, “it’s fine, don’t worry about it.” An example in Japanese would be 「いいじゃん」. There’s no context in my example, but I think you get the idea. I’m ill and sleepy so I don’t feel like coming up with long examples. :P

By: Norgus

Norgus — Sat, 03 May 2008 09:27:01 +0000

Oh, sorry I didn’t see you mentioned ‘turning people down’ in your comment.

By: Norgus

Norgus — Sat, 03 May 2008 09:26:03 +0000

Good article, I can think of one more usage of いい which is a little strange to English speakers.

That is denial!

Aさん　最近ストレスたまってるんだ。
A) [My] stress has really built up lately.
(I’m really stressed lately)
Bさん　コーヒーでも飲んで一緒に話したら？
What if [you] had a drink of coffee or something and talk [about it with me]
(Why not have a coffee and talk about it with me?)
Aさん　いいよ！話したくないし。
[I'm] good! And [I] don’t wanna talk [about it].
(I don’t wanna!)
Bさん　何よ、その態度！
What’s with that attitude!?

I think you really need the right ‘pitch’ on the いいよ part for it to work, so it’s probably difficult for people to read text and understand it if they haven’t come across the usage before.

By: Tae Kim

Tae Kim — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:04:32 +0000

Thanks for catching the typos. I admit I didn’t spend as much time as I usually do in proofreading to get this post out the door.

Turning people down is a good one and something that needs to be approached with care since it can mean either yes OR no depending on your tone.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:07:07 +0000

Yeah, that should be 早く. Also, I’ve always processed that いいから早く貸して’s いいから as kind of like “come on” or “whatever.” Thus, I would consider translating that as “Come on, just hurry up and hand it over.”

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:50:40 +0000

I think you left out that you can use いい to turn someone down, like:

田中さん：アイスが欲しいですか？
山田さん：いいですよ。

Oh, and I noted a couple small typos some beginners might find confusing:
* コンビに→コンビニ
* Bさん)　いいですすよ。→いいですよ。

Also, I myself found this construction slightly confusing: Aさん）　いいから早くて貸して。
Could you break that down for me? Something like “Because it’s fine, and I’ll be quick, loan it.” Or should 早くて be 早く?