Nihongo Notes

Expressions Accompanying an Action

Mr Lerner and a couple of colleagues went driving in the counrty in Mr Tanaka’s car last Saturday. They had a good time, but on their way home one of the front wheels got caught in a pothole, and they had to push the car up. The men raised the car together saying
    Se-e-no!
Mr Lerner was interested in this type of expression and wondered what other exclamations are used when starting an action.
There are several expressionns called kakegoe, used when one starts an action that requires some physical effort. Seeno is used when two or more people start some strenuous action together. With the sound "See" they get ready, and with "no!" they start exerting their strenght together.
    Ichi, ni, no, san!
    (one, two and three)
is also used to start a group action. In this case too, people get ready with Ichi, ni no, and start the action with san! These two expressions are also used when starting a song, or some other musical performance.

When one gathers one’s own physical strenght to do something, one says

    Yoisho!
This is most often usedwhen raising, pulling, pushing, or carrying heavy objects. It is also used whenone stretches to reach an object on a high shelf or the like.

Dokkoisho is used when one pulls oneself together to start an action. Elderly people tend to use it often when starting various actions such as standing up from a seat, climbing steps, bending down to pick something up, and even sitting down.

    Wasshoi!
is used when carrying an omikoshi, a portible shrine at a festival. It is uasually repeated as in
    Wasshoi, wasshoi.
when people carry the omikoshi along the street
Follow this link for an index of Nihongo Notes
Nihongo Notes is taken from a series of columns that appeared in The Japan Times
written by Osamu and Nobuko Mizutani They are not designed to teach Japanese, so much
as they are to better one's Japanese.

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