Translation: "this is the best"

lucagalbu · (#1 (**permalink**))

Hi all. Is it correct to say: "kore wa saikou desu" to say this is the best?

MMM · (#2 (**permalink**))

Yes. That works perfect.

lucagalbu · (#3 (**permalink**))

great!! thanks

LearnAmazingJapanese · (#4 (**permalink**))

My two sense...er cents:

"This is the best"

...translates a bit differently depending on context:

This is the best (I've ever eaten, etc.)...

Kore ga saikou desu

This is the best (decision, etc..)...

Kore ga ichiban ii desu

or

Kono hou ga ii desu (this is "better" or "the best" option)

And so forth.

If there was a little more context available, we could probably get you the most appropriate translation for the situation.

Sore ja.

lucagalbu · (#5 (**permalink**))

I have to say "xxx the best", eg "inuyasha the best!"

Shaelyn · (#6 (**permalink**))

if you refer to "that" as in "InuYasha", wouldn't it be are instead of kore? or am I mistaken?

kore is like saying something that is mine, or is in my space "over here." I'm not sure if kore would be used for a tv show.

but then if you want to say "InuYasha is the best" specifically instead of "this" or "that," you wouldn't use kore, sore or are at all, would you?
or maybe you would. I dunno, that's a lesson we're sorta in the middle of.

input pls. I'm confusing myself.

pandayanyan · (#7 (**permalink**))

i dont think that for a show it is so much the owner of it but whether it is something that is happening right then(kore *right here*) or will happen later(are) or has already happened. So for him it would be kore i believe because he is talking of the show that is happening right? If he is just speaking of it in general i think the pretense of kore/are/sore could be dropped all together.Someone correct me if i am wrong?

MMM · (#8 (**permalink**))

How's this to make it more confusing?

Once something becomes the topic of conversation, or is obvioulsly the topinc of conversation, then it can change to "kore".

For example, you could be at a movie with a friend, and the main girl suddenly dumps her boyfriend because he likes to eat chips in bed.

"Sore wa shinai deshyou" (Who would do THAT?) might be a response.

However halfway through the movie you could say

"Kore wa ii hanashi da ne" (THIS is a really good story.) Even though you and your friend are "physically" closer than you are to the movie screen, you would say "kore" as it is obvious you are sharing the same experience of the same story. If you said "Sore wa ii hanashi da ne" it would sound like "That is a good story", and might refer to some story a character in the movie said. Like if the main dude said, after the main girl broke up with him "I eat chips in bed in memory of my dead mother who loved nothing more than eating chips in bed." Then you could say "Sore wa ii hanashi da ne" (He put together a great story.)

If your friend tells you a story you haven't heard before you could say "Sore wa ii hanashi da." (That is a great story.), but if it is a story you have heard before, you might interrupt her and say "Kono hanashi ga suki." (I really like this story.)

pandayanyan · (#9 (**permalink**))

Actually that makes perfect sense to me ha ha! odd huh? So that means that is you were referring to said movie after the fact and in past tense (i.e. that movei was good) you would use Sore right?

MMM · (#10 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by pandayanyan

Actually that makes perfect sense to me ha ha! odd huh? So that means that is you were referring to said movie after the fact and in past tense (i.e. that movei was good) you would use Sore right?

Hmmm... that's a very good question.

There are a few ways you could say that.

先の映画がよかった。　Saki no eiga ga yokatta. The movie [from just before] was good.

今の映画はよかった。　Ima no eiga wa yokatta. The movie [right now we just saw] was good [compared to another movie].

You could use "sore" after the fact if you were comparing it to another movie you had seen more recently, but right after the movie, it will probably be "kore" until it isn't obvious what you are talking about. For example, if you see a movie with a friend, and then don't see each other for a week, but want to bring up that movie, and how much you liked it.

"Konaida, sono eiga wa yokatta ne." (The other day, that movie was pretty good.)

The logic isn't THAT far from English...