Japanese question: 開いています?

May 2021 3 206 Report

Japanese question: 開いています?

I've been using Rosetta Stone: Japanese for a while now, and in one lesson I've come upon something very confusing. In contrasting things that are open and closed, it introduces two apparently different verbs for being open: ひらいています and あいています, both of which are written in kanji as: 開いています (it incorrectly renders the furigana in every instance as あ, even when ひら is obviously pronounced). At first I thought that they were used to refer to different types of objects (doors or windows, for example), but the dialogue that immediately followed confused me further:

Woman: すみません。スーパーは開いていますか。(In this case pronounced あいています)

Employee: はい。開いています。(In this case pronounced ひらいています)

I'm understandably confused. Are there different instances where either one of the two are used? Are these two terms interchangeable? Or is this a mistake on Rosetta Stone's part?

Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Update:

@ithinkthereforeiam: Wow, thanks a lot! That was really helpful. I'm a little confused about the difference in your example, since I'm not very familiar with transitive verbs, though. Thanks again!

Update 3:

Oh, I think I got it now. Correct me if any of the following is wrong: 開ける is the transitive verb, and 開く is the intransitive form. The intransitive form has two interchangeable pronunciations, あく and ひらく. Your second example, 店を開く is using the intransitive form and is thus incorrect. It would, however, be correct if written as 店が開く. Am I on the right track?

Society & Culture / Languages

dog

Verified answer

Let's tidy up them.

VT and VI of "hiraku/開く/ひらく”are same.

But "aku/開く/あく” is VI, "akeru/開ける/あける is VT.

5step application

●VI ＆VT　ひらく・ひらかない・ひらく時・ひらけば・ひらけ

　　（開く・開かない・開く時・開けば・開け）

●VI　あく・あかない・あく時・あけば・あけ　

　　　（開く・開かない・開く時・開けば・開け）

　VT あける・あけない・あける時・あければ・あけろ

　　　（開ける・開けない・開ける時・開ければ・開けろ）

ポテトヘッドさん：銀行口座は開く・穴は開けるなど慣例的に

どちらかを使うが意味は通じる。口を開ける/開く、胸を

開ける/開く、蓋を開ける/開く、封を開ける/開く、などなど

interchangeableな場合が多いと思いますよ。少なくとも

意味は間違いなく通じるね。

X~P!!tch B;;ack D::rkness~X

Maybe What The One The Woman Said (ããã¦ãã¾ã) Is Used In Order To Ask A Question~

And The One The Employee Used (ã²ããã¦ãã¾ã) Is Used To Respond To Something.

Or, It Could Be A Gender Thing P: (Masculine, And Feminine)

I'm Just Guessing Though...

Hope I Helped:)

potato head

"aku" can only become intransitive verb, but "hiraku" can be both transitive and intransitive verb. So when you see éã is used as an intransitive verb, it can be either "aku" or "hiraku."

e.g. æãéãã¦ãã which means "the door is open" can be both "tobira ga hiraiteiru," and "tobira ga aiteiru."

When éã is used as a transitive verb, it can only be "hiraku" and most of the time, it's same as "akeru," which is the transitive form of "aku."

e.g. ç§ãæãéããmeans "I open the door" and it can only be read as "watashi ga tobira wo hiraku." And it means same as ç§ãæãéãã. (Watashi ga tobira wo akeru.)

I said "most of the time" because in some idiomatic phrases, transitive "hiraku" and "akeru" are not interchangeable.

E.g. When you want to say "I open a bank account" in Japanese, you say éè¡å£åº§ãéã (ginkou kouza wo hiraku) but you do NOT say éè¡å£åº§ãéãã (ginkou kouza wo akeru.)

Edit:

ithinkthereforeiam san, yes I totally agree with you that in most of the cases, they are interchangeable. But I'm talking about a few exceptional cases where using hiraku sounds more natural than using aku. æå³ã¯éãã¦ãã¡ãã£ã¨ä¸èªç¶ãªå ´åãããããªãã¨ã

âãã®èª¬æåãããããã§ãã

http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_d...

Roy E san,

please refer this sites too

http://thejapanesepage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2...