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According to Textfugu これ refers to an object that is in possession of the speaker’s hands and the speaker uses それ when the object is in the possession of the other person he/she is speaking to.
Other Japanese learning material say you use これ when the object is near you and you use それ when the object is away from the speaker.
Then Textfugu says あれ is used when the object is away from both the speaker and listener. I thought you could just use それ in place of あれ.
Can someone please clarify this?
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This topic was modified 9 years ago by
Alejandro.
In the posession of, or somewhere nearby. Could also refer to psychological closeness as well as physical (i.e. それ could mean “that thing you just said”). それ means “close to the listener”, though, not just “not near the speaker”.
それ and あれ are not interchangeable – if you use それ when the thing is nowhere nearby, people are going to get confused.
Thanks for the clarification.
Just out of curiosity, if I was watching a show and there is a narrator speaking. would the narrator use あれ if whatever the narrator is referring to away from the character, or would the narrator use これ/それ depending if the object is near or far away from the character?
Hmm. Good question. Think the narrator in the series I’ve been translating tends to use これ/それ. Not completely certain, though.
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This topic was modified 9 years ago by
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