# 住む/住まう？



## kaneko

Hi everyone! I'm new here, as you can see. I've been studying Japanese for a while, but just this year I've started taking it seriously and trying to talk with people... and I've found that talking is very difficult for me.

So, my question is, is there a difference between 住む and 住まう? I've never seen 住まう until right now, and it's not even in the wordreference dictionary... I've been asked 「どこの国に住まわれてるんですか？」, and trying to understand what 住まわれてる means I've come across 住まう (of which I think 住まわれてる is a form of? is this the passive form?).

I think that means "what country do you live in", but I don't know how to do a more literal or correct translation - or even if I understood what has been said!

I'd appreciate any help you could give me. Thank you in advance.

Edit: I've read a thread and I think that it's 住まって+いる in a colloquial form and now it makes more sense... but maybe it isn't, since it's 住まわれてる and not 住まってる. I'm still wondering about that and about why did they use this form of asking me where I live?


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## frequency

Is 住まう old/archaic Japanese? I'm sorry I don't know much. 住む is much more normal now.
(Is 住まわれている possible? But I suspect it's misuse.)


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## kaneko

Hi! Thanks for answering! I thought it could be the way they say it where they live (can't think of this particular word in English right now, sorry), but since I'm not at all familiar with this... What I mean is that this person is a native speaker and has said that to me. Why is that? Does the phrase mean what I thought that means?


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## 810senior

Basically, both indicate a same idea that you're living in the said place. Anyway, the sentence above means simply "what country do you live in?". (住まわれている is a more polite form of 住まっている, inf. 住まう(to live, to dwell), in view of the context)
I think どこの国に住まれているんですか would be rather popular, which is, of course, the same as above.


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## kaneko

810senior said:


> Basically, both indicate a same idea that you're living in the said place. Anyway, the sentence above means simply "what country do you live in?". (住まわれている is a more polite form of 住まっている, inf. 住まう(to live, to dwell), in view of the context)
> I think どこの国に住まれているんですか would be rather popular, which is, of course, the same as above.


Hi! Thank you for answering! I'm glad I understood what the sentence meant. But, is there a grammatical reason behind 住まれている or it's just a (grammatically incorrect or commonly said) way of saying it? Is there a reason for choosing that other than to be polite?


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## 810senior

kaneko said:


> Hi! Thank you for answering! I'm glad I understood what the sentence meant. But, is there a grammatical reason behind 住まれている or it's just a (grammatically incorrect or commonly said) way of saying it? Is there a reason for choosing that other than to be polite?


Hello!

That's the grammatical reason that we often say it for the polite speaking by conjugating into a passive form, e.g. 先生は何と言われたのですか？(What did the teacher say?),
on top of that, some sentences can refer to both politeness and passive intentions as literally.


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## karlalou

住まう is, according to a dictionary, it's continuous form of 住む.
Nowadays we usually say 住んでいる. We would ask someone どちらに住んでいらっしゃるんですか？

Other verbs that conjugate in similar way include 向く-向かう, 語る-語らう.

住まわれて in 住まわれてるんですか？ is a conjugation of 住まう for politeness.
住まわれてるんですか？ is polite and good quality Japanese.

We also often say どちらにお住まいですか？

[edit to add]:

from dictionary (Weblio): *住まわれる*
総務省からのお知らせ (a word from government for evacuees)：*住まわれていた*市町村以外の市町村へ避難されている方、…
国木田独歩 (1871-1908, a well-known novelist of Japan)「武蔵野」より：たとえば君が*住まわれた*渋谷の道玄坂の…
太宰治 (1909-1948, a well-known novelist of Japan)「きりぎりす」より：お小さいくらいのお家に*住まわれて*居られました ...
There are so many examples found on the net, especially at 青空文庫(online library). When we use れる・られる as passive voice we say *〜に*〜(さ)れる, while when we use them in polite expression we say （〜が）〜(さ)れる. We might not say the subject, but it should be known from the context.


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## wind-sky-wind

"住まう" is much the same as "住む," but suggests "to keep living for some time."
Nowadays, however, it is used mainly like "お住まいですか？" and the noun form "住まい."

And when you let a house or room to someone, you can say "（人を）住まわせる."

I rarely use "住まわれる," partly because "...（ら）れる" means both "honorific" and "passive."
So, "住まわれる" sounds "passive" and I can't get it immediately.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

「どこの国に住まわれて*い*るんですか？」
I think I encounter this expression quite often.
I think adding the い makes the sentence more natural, but without the い version also functions well.


I think it's a kind of keigo expression (polite expression).
住まわれる is the polite version of　住む in this context.
I don't know its grammatical explanation well, and it may be a dialect, but I think it resembles れる・られる expressions.
One thing for sure is that it is not a passive voice, but it's a polite expression, maybe dialectal or ungrammatical.

Are there any native Japanese speakers who agree with this opinion?

(edit) By the way, I found a grammatical explanation.
http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1117799546


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## 810senior

I once came up with the aspect as a passive voice but it's not able to be conjugated in that form because 住まう is an intransitive verb. (Imagine how you can *be *lived in a place, we live but aren't lived).
Anyway let me make them more adequate: the _polite form_(also grammatical _possive voice_, even if it doesn't work in reality) of 住む is 住まれる, as for 住まう, it is 住まわれる.


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## frequency

810senior said:


> as for 住まう, it is 住まわれる.


住まう is a correct verb, and we actually have this one. And you 810 are going to make　the polite form （丁寧語） with it.
But you mean that we're not sure if this possible or not, don't you?
住まわれる、というのは可能なのかな？


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## 810senior

そうですね。
「住まわれる」という語自体は、「住まう」を丁寧語の形に活用させたもので、文法的になんらおかしくないですし、個人的にはありじゃないかなと考えてます。

As a matter of fact, we're able to see many people use this word in their sentence on Google.


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## kaneko

Thank you all for your answers! I'm reading about passive voice right now (since I hadn't studied it before, so it was part of my confunsion), and more about intransitive verbs. It confused me since it was a lot in only one sentence. Thank you all, again!


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