notnotchris
Senior Member
U.S.A., English
That is different, q_006 (perhaps a different thread?).
"Sou desu ka" means "Is that so?" or "Really?"
The response, "Sou desu" means "That is so" or "Yes, really".
Based on that thread, sou desu = That is so. So I'm curious to know if sou (japanese) actually means so (english). If not, what does it mean literally?
"Sou" as in "そうですか (Sou desu ka)" is equal to "so" as in "Is that so?" It's quite surprising there's a word that sounds the same, means the same, and is probably not a denizen from one language to the other, in both of the totally unrelated languages.
A little off the topic, but I remember someone, either British or French, was saying "Ah, so?" in English, which sounds surprisingly Japanese and surely makes Japanese people surprised, like "Does he/she understand Japanese?". because we say "ああ、そう？(Ah, sou?)" probably in the same context as well.
notnotchris
Senior Member
U.S.A., English
(I can't make links but this based off of the -sou desu thread)
Based on that thread, sou desu = That is so. So I'm curious to know if sou (japanese) actually means so (english). If not, what does it mean literally?
If you know the words kore, sore, are (this, that, that over there)
as well as koko, soko, asoko (here, there, over there)
Then you may better understand so, since it belongs to the trio ko, so, a (in this way, in that way, in that (other) way)
Note that ko, so, and a are all long vowels
(こう、そう、ああ‘)
Taken in the right context, so does mean 'so' in English. Be careful though since the English word 'so' has many meanings. The one that so translates to is
"Is that so?" (so desu ka?).
sekaijuuni
Senior Member
United States, English
You can technically translate it as "Is that so?" or "Really?" but don't take that to mean that people are constantly questioning the legitimacy of your claims. More practically, it's like, "Uh-huh. I am listening to your story."
holasunshine
Member
Français
Maybe I'm a bit out of context, but about what akimura was saying,
But I think those similarities are interesting.
I was thinking that my german friends say "Ach so", that sound like the japanes "ah
sou" and have a similar meaning too.
(It will be "Ah bon" in french)
