# chotto



## truepurple

OK so "matta" seems to mean wait, something I picked up more solidly, more recently. And what I've understood for awhile from watching anime, "justamatta" means wait a moment  (for some reason I keep on thinking there should be a "oh" a the end of that, should there be? I can't recall) A easy way to remember that is to think of how similar it sounds to "Just a minute/moment"

So does "justa" or something like that, mean moment or short period of time?

While we are talking about time periods, I've known for a long time that zuttoe means forever or a very long time, thanks the the ending song of a anime. But which is it? forever? Long time? Can be both? Uses since then seem to suggest it can mean a long period of time other then forever, I think.


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## Shiratori99

"Chotto matte" means "wait a moment".

Zutto is a bit hard to explain, but it can mean both forever or a long time, among other things.


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## truepurple

So does justa/chotto, mean "short moment of time" or something similar?


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## Shiratori99

truepurple said:


> So does justa/chotto, mean "short moment of time" or something similar?



It means "a bit", so chotto matte literally means "wait a bit".


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## truepurple

So if someone asked me if I wanted some crackers, and I said "juta",  they would take that to mean I wanted just a few crackers?


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## Shiratori99

truepurple said:


> So if someone asked me if I wanted some crackers, and I said "juta",  they would take that to mean I wanted just a few crackers?



Hmm, no. You'd say something along the lines of "sukoshi (a few) dake (only)" instead. Chotto is indeed more often used to mean "a short time".


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## karlalou

truepurple said:


> So if someone asked me if I wanted some crackers, and I said "juta",  they would take that to mean I wanted just a few crackers?


Yes, that's right. Chotto means a little, and can be used for the amount you eat, or you do something 'chotto'.


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## truepurple

You two are saying different things, how am I to know who is right?

Does someone have a audio file with someone saying "chotto"?


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## Shiratori99

truepurple said:


> You two are saying different things, how am I to know who is right?



Trust karlalou, haha.



truepurple said:


> Does someone have a audio file with someone saying "chotto"?



The google translator has an audio feature for pronouncing words.


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## truepurple

https://translate.google.com/#en/ja/chotto

But the english side absolutely sounds wrong. And the japanese side doesn't sound right either.


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