Power Up Your ちょっと
Previously I discussed how to power up your いい and make it more polite by extending the number of syllables. Well, I just remembered another useful power-up – 少々. While it may look a little short, spell it out in kana and you get しょうしょう. Here’s the chart:
ちょっと
すこし
しょうしょう
The length factor becomes even more obvious when you attach it to a normal sentence:
ちょっと待って。
すこし待ってください。
しょうしょうお待ちください。
You can also add a syllable if you’re trying to emphasize the slightness of something: ちょこっと is a fun way to ask for a very small amount. Interestingly, ちょこっと and ちょっと are casual in part because of an additional syllable – the っ, which I wrote about earlier. While it adds emphasis, it also detracts from the level of politeness. So not cool to get all emphatic up in this black tie affair.
May 14th, 2010 at 9:20 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michael, Daniel Morales. Daniel Morales said: New Post – Power Up Your ちょっと: http://tinyurl.com/25x85uu [...]
May 18th, 2010 at 9:07 am
Interesting – I had been wondering about ちょっこと. See it written from time to time, but I can’t recall ever having heard it in conversation.
October 14th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
[...] haven’t done a pyramid style list for a Japanese word in a while (not since “Power Up Your ちょっと” to be specific), so I thought that I’d do one for the word そう. I’m referring to the [...]