# My wife is inside the house.



## qweasd77

I am on the section of Rosetta Stone learning on top, under, inside, outside.  Maybe Im getting ahead of myself, but if I wanted to say "My wife is inside the house"...would this make sense?...

Watashi no okusan wa ie no naka ni imasu.

Thanks again.


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## Noamoxkaltontli

Hello again qweasd77,

Yes, and no. _wa ie no naka ni imasu_ which is what you were asking about is correct. Nice insight!

But to refer to one's wife in Japanese, you use the word _kanai_/家内. Or _nyoubou_/女房....

So the sentence would be: 
Kanai wa ie no naka ni imasu.
家内は家の中にいます。
：）


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## lammn

qweasd77 said:


> "My wife is inside the house"


 
Uchi wa uchi ni imasu.


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## Mugi

Noamoxkaltontli said:


> But to refer to one's [own] wife in Japanese, you use the word _kanai_/家内. Or _nyoubou_/女房....


Or _tsuma_/妻 or _yome_/嫁 or _waifu_/ワイフ or _kami-sama_/上様 ...
Depends on the speaker. Feminists in particular, and younger Japanese women in general, don't like _kanai_ due to its sexist connotations of a wife belonging at home. _Nyoubou_ is usually only used by 50+ year old, conservative thinking men, hence it is disliked by the younger generation. _Yome_ is a favorite of people from a rural background (particularly Kyushu, in my experience), and to some people has strong connotations of the wife becoming the possession of the husband's family. There is also an image of the wife being relatively young. _Waifu_ is often used by the same crowd that would ordinarily call their wives _kanai_ or _nyoubou_ when they are trying to come across as modern and not chauvinistic, but given that their real attitudes are usually easily discerned by the listener, this term has taken on a very patronizing tone. Although initially a term of deference to one's wife, _kami-sama_ is often used in a jocular manner, and hence can come across as being patronizing. _Tsuma_ is probably the safest word, but due to its blandness it is perhaps the one least favored by men (but for the same reason, most favored by women (in their 40s or younger)).


> So the sentence would be:
> Kanai wa ie no naka ni imasu.
> 家内は家の中にいます。
> ：）


As a side note, although this is perfectly acceptable in spoken language, discerning people would avoid it in written language due to it looking like one is making a joke.

Ps - As Noamoxkaltontli implied, okusan/奥さん refers to someone else's wife.


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## Flaminius

lammn said:


> Uchi wa uchi ni imasu.


ウチのは家にいます。
ウチ alone is a dialectal form referring to female oneself (Kyōto and around).  Any which way, the sentence is not uttered without a patronising air.



Mugi said:


> Or _tsuma_/妻 or _yome_/嫁 or _waifu_/ワイフ or _kami-sama_/上様 ... (...)
> _Yome_ is a favorite of people from a rural background (particularly Kyushu, in my experience), and to some people has strong connotations of the wife becoming the possession of the husband's family.


_Yome_, often written in katakana ヨメ in this sense, seems to be gaining grounds as a casual, unmarked reference to one's female spouse among younger generations in Western Japan (or maybe it has been so from the start).  I live in Kantō but often get exposed to this use from Kansai comedians in the media.  As a fanatic encomiast of my native variety, I don't use this word but some native Kantoites  I know have started using this.  Perhaps for them the regular 妻, albeit unmarked, is too formal.

I haven't encountered with _kami-sama_/上様.  Perhaps it is a dialectal form of カミさん?

Edit: If this discussion gets more attention, we may have to have another thread for "wife."  Or is there one already?


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## lammn

Flaminius said:


> ウチ alone is a dialectal form referring to female oneself (Kyōto and around).


 
That's one of the usage of うち.
Another usage of うち is refering to one's wife.

The 一(9) entry of this dictionary defines うち as: 


> (9) *(ア)妻*。
> 「こなたも*うち（＝自分ノ妻*）ぢやと思し召しては、又例の我がままが出ませう程に/狂言・右近左近（虎寛本）」「お袋さまや*おうちさま（＝奥様）*が、はやはや、お大体(たいてい)さまではござりませぬ/滑稽本・浮世風呂 4」


 
It seems that this usage is not very popular, though.
Also, as you have pointed out already, it does carry a patronizing tone.


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## Mugi

Flaminius said:


> I haven't encountered with _kami-sama_/上様. Perhaps it is a dialectal form of カミさん?


Perhaps I should have written it as 神様 as in うちの神様. Maybe not as common as カミさん, but Uncle Google would suggest it's still very common. A couple of Kyushu friends use the term all the time, but I'm sure I've heard it from others as well ...


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## Flaminius

Hello *Mugi*,

How did you search Google?  I got 11 500 hits for the following query:
site:.jp "うちの神様"

No pages on the first results page use this word as a reference to one's wife.  They are variously a household deity, a heroic most valuable player or an adorable cat.  Jocular remarks aside, 神様 (_kamisama_) is a god (including God).

If your Kyūshū friends call their wives うちの神様, do they distinguish a deity from a wife with intonation?  Or only context can tell?


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## Flaminius

lammn said:


> Another usage of うち is refering to one's wife.
> 
> The 一(9) entry of this dictionary defines うち as:
> 
> 
> 
> (9) *(ア)妻*。
> 「こなたも*うち（＝自分ノ妻*）ぢやと思し召しては、又例の我がままが出ませう程に/狂言・右近左近（虎寛本）」「お袋さまや*おうちさま（＝奥様）*が、はやはや、お大体(たいてい)さまではござりませぬ/滑稽本・浮世風呂 4」
> 
> 
> 
> It seems that this usage is not very popular, though.
> Also, as you have pointed out already, it does carry a patronizing tone.
> Another usage of うち is refering to one's wife.
Click to expand...

You should use those 国語辞典's (come to think of it, what an ethnocentric name....) with caution.  They list senses that have been obsolete for a long time as long as the headword is used in Modern Japanese.  The examples in sense (9) are 200 years old.  Yes, two centuries are not such a long span for linguistic changes but Japanese underwent an upheaval in these centuries.


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## lammn

Flaminius said:


> You should use those 国語辞典's with caution. They list senses that have been obsolete for a long time as long as the headword is used in Modern Japanese.


 
Caution noted, thanks!


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## Mugi

Flaminius, you're quite right that I didn't look close enough at the hits I got.
Most do in fact seem to be referring to a house deity. What about this usage though? Or this one? Or numerously here?


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## Flaminius

Mugi, 神様 in the three pages does mean one's wife.  I am pleasantly surprised by the way some people honour their wives.


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