ドラゴンボール
Doragon Bōru
The phrase "dragon ball" in Japanese is ドラゴンボール (Doragon Bōru), known as the name of a popular manga and anime series.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of two parts: ドラゴン (doragon), which is the phonetic transcription of the English word "dragon" and ボール (bōru), which is the phonetic transcription of the English word "ball".
How do you pronounce it?
Doragon Bōru
Did you know?
- While ドラゴン (doragon) is a loanword, the Japanese language has its own native word for dragon, 竜 (ryū), which appears frequently in the series' lore.
- The creator of ドラゴンボール based the premise on the classic Chinese novel 'Journey to the West', where the protagonist carries a magical staff and has a monkey tail.
- The series is so influential that the term ドラゴンボール is sometimes used in Japan as a metaphor for a difficult quest to collect several rare items.
Examples in context
- ドラゴンボール！めっちゃ面白かったよ！Dragon Ball! It was so entertaining!
- ドラゴンボールはとても面白いです。Doragon bōru wa totemo omoshiroi desu.Dragon Ball is very interesting.
- 子供の頃、ドラゴンボールをよく見ました。Kodomo no koro, Doragon bōru o yoku mimashita.I watched Dragon Ball often when I was a child.
- ドラゴンボールのグッズを買いました。Doragon bōru no guzzu o kaimashita.I bought some Dragon Ball merchandise.
Example conversation
Ren and Misaki are talking about their favorite anime.
- 蓮 Ren美咲さんはドラゴンボールを知っていますか。Misaki-san wa doragon bōru o shitte imasu kaMisaki, do you know Dragon Ball?
- 美咲 Misakiはい、もちろん知っていますよ。hai, mochiron shitte imasu yoYes, of course I know it.
- 蓮 Renどのキャラクターが一番好きですか。dono kyarakutā ga ichiban suki desu kaWhich character do you like the most?
- 美咲 Misaki私はドラゴンボールの悟空が好きです。watashi wa doragon bōru no gokū ga suki desuI like Goku from Dragon Ball.
