Cool Compound – 初耳
Short and simple today. 初耳 (はつみみ) is a nice quick way to say that you’ve heard something for the first time. Makes sense, right?
This:
それは初耳だ。
is 40% more efficient than this:
それを聞いたのは初めてだ。
And 初めて聞いた (the pattern I always used that now makes me think of an Eastern-European-accented “First time I hear this!”) I think should really only be used as a modifier, i.e. 初めて聞いたとき.
July 31st, 2009 at 10:16 am
that’s excellent! it really is.
I don’t know if this has been published on the blog before, but I like this compound when pondering whether I’ve seen or heard of something before: verb + remember
聞き覚えるかなぁー
kiki oboeru kana-
見覚えるかなぁー
mi oboerukana-
それが食べ覚えるかなぁー
sore ga tabeoboeru kana-
and so on..
it’s really cool and fluid.
cheers again
July 31st, 2009 at 10:18 am
follow up,
I’m not really sure to what extent you can use it as well. I don’t know how many verbs you can prefix remember with. I have yet to use
やり覚える yet, so I don’t know how it will go down.
July 31st, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Hell yes. You know you have had an interesting week when you get to use this most days!
August 1st, 2009 at 12:51 am
I have the same feeling about 初めて聞いた, and yet I am pretty sure I have actually heard it frequently from Japanese people. For what it’s worth, Google has 526,000 hits for “初めて聞きました”.
August 1st, 2009 at 1:18 am
Have to agree with Nick here. 初めて聞いた is a perfectly acceptable way of conveying the notion. As for the Eastern-European vibe, that may be for good reason. Many E. European languages have a system of declension and conjugation that renders word order fluid by comparison with English. Japanese has some similar qualities. But this 初耳 is interesting. Apparently they’ve got a 初目(はつめ) as well, which is sort of self-explanatory (http://monjiro.net/dic/head/29/99452/12/8). I’m starting to wonder if one can make a compound out of any of the sensory organs…there’s a first time for everything after all.
August 1st, 2009 at 7:06 am
Good point, Nick. And now that I think about it, 初めて知った is a perfectly valid phrase, so I guess 初めて聞いた really is okay…must’ve psyched myself out that I was speaking weird Japanese.
Hey Jake, those are definitely cool phrases, but I think they’re most often used in the pattern 見覚えがある. 見- and 聞き- being far more common than any others.
August 1st, 2009 at 8:08 am
yeah, I kind of forgot about the ” がある ” bit. haha, hope I haven’t corrupted too many of your readers!
Thanks for the heads up, and thanks for the cool blog (only just found it!)
-Jake
August 6th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
That’s ace! I thought I’d contracted it enough when I’d got to その話は初耳だ but it turns out I don’t even need the 話! Superb cheese..