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Saturday 23 April 2016

Eyes and Japanese


 We all know very well 目 (め) means eye . 


 But we do so many things with eye  most of our awakening time , but when we want to express those things in Japanese , we somehow have difficulty , though we may know all the connected words to express them ,and do not know which word should be put first and which in the last and what particle to be used .
  So some of the common activities which we do with eyes are dealt with and please make use of them in your day to day activities .

 As soon as we get up , we brush the teeth and wash our eyes and washing the eyes  is not 目を洗う (めをあらう). it is 目をすすぐ
wash  one's eye. すすぐ means rinsing and cleaning and similarly washing the mouth also 口 ( くち) を すすぐ.. ( a sort of better cleaning than mere washing )

  You might have observed that infants sometimes feel sleepy but they  do not want to  shut their eyes and sleep for various reasons .
( either to play or to be with their parents who has just come from their work place ). That time they will rub their eyes little bit harshly  as if they are asking sleep to go away . Adults do so in the class room when they feel sleepy . This action of rubbing the eyes to ward off sleep is called 目をこすって眠気を覚ます rub sleep out of one's eyes.
 
こする  means rub .

 眠気 (ねむけ)means   sleepy feeling 

覚ます (さます) is to awaken,

 The meaning for the whole phrase is  keeping oneself awake by rubbing the eyes.

 Quite number of times we will be searching for something and often as far as  our eyes  can see it is not found .
 To say that  you should say 

目の届く限り 
as far as one can see
as far as the eye can travel 

届く とどく  is to reach, 

限り かぎり means as far as possible,  to the best of one's ability.


 I am  not discussing all the activities  we make with eye as it will  make the blog too long and  if it is all comprehensive  ,the general tendency is to keep it  as a reference and read and used only when it is required .
 Please use these phrases when you do these activities or others do them.






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