Uki Uki NihonGO + Culture! – Lesson 22 – Onomatopoeia Food

 ウキウキ NihonGO! Lesson #22 – Onomatopoeia Food
Welcome to Uki Uki NihonGO! + Culture

こんにちは。Every language has beautiful expressions that are vivid and rich in meaning. In Japanese, onomatopoeia is one of the most fascinating and also fun aspects of the language.

They often have an interesting rhythm, like コロコロ、ドンドン and ぷくぷく and they are an essential part of the language.

It’s said that Japanese people regularly use several hundred onomatopoeic words in our daily conversations. With that much variety, they enable us express the exact states of mind, movements, situations, etc.

There are two types of onomatopoeia in Japanese. 擬音語 imitates actual sounds that you hear, just like sound effects. For example, コンコン is the sound of a door knock.

擬態語 expresses things that don’t have sounds, for instance ウキウキ, the title of our show, which expresses that you are looking forward to something with great excitement.

So we’re happy to bring you the first one of our onomatopoeia series today. Here, we’ll look at オノマトペ on everyone’s favorite topic – food!

1. ペコペコ means you’re hungry. So you can say,
ああ、おなかペコペコ。I’m starving.

2. グーグー rumbling of your stomach

クラスでおなかがグーグーいって、はずかしかった。
I’m so embarrassed my stomach was grumbling in class.

3. アツアツ – piping hot

これ、アツアツだから、きをつけてね。
This is super hot, so be careful.

4. トロトロ – melty

このトロトロのチーズ、おいしい！
This melting cheese is super good!

5. こんがり means when something is baked perfectly to golden brown.

パンがこんがりおいしくやけました。どうぞめしあがってください。
Our bread is fresh out of the oven and golden brown. Please have some.

These are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many, many more fun & useful onomatopoeia, so please stay tuned for more in this オノマトペ series in our future videos.

では、また。

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Music by: Soichiro Migita