最も長い単語
mottomo nagai tango
In Japanese, "the longest word" is 最も長い単語 (mottomo nagai tango).
The phrase is used to refer to a word that has the greatest number of letters or characters in a language.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of mottomo (most), nagai (long) and tango (word).
Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?
最も長い単語 uses the word mottomo for "most", which is a more formal way to express the superlative.
How does it change in a sentence?
The adjective nagai (long) is used in its dictionary form to modify the noun tango (word).
How do you pronounce it?
mottomo nagai tango
Did you know?
- Because Japanese allows for endless compounding of nouns and adjectives, there is technically no single 最も長い単語 in the language. A word can be extended indefinitely by adding more descriptors.
- Japanese has 'agglutinative' grammar, meaning long words are often created by sticking many suffixes onto a root verb to change its meaning.
- The superlative 最も (mottomo) is so formal that in daily conversation, people often replace it with 一番 (ichiban) to mean 'the most'.
Examples in context
- これは日本語で最も長い単語です。Kore wa Nihongo de mottomo nagai tango desu.This is the longest word in Japanese.
- 最も長い単語は何ですか？Mottomo nagai tango wa nan desu ka?What is the longest word?
- 彼は最も長い単語を調べました。Kare wa mottomo nagai tango o shirabemashita.He looked up the longest word.
Example conversation
Yui and Hiroto are studying linguistics together.
- 結衣 Yui大翔、英語で最も長い単語を知ってる？Hiroto, eigo de mottomo nagai tango o shitteru?Hiroto, do you know the longest word in English?
- 大翔 Hirotoいや、全然わからないよ。Iya, zenzen wakaranai yo.No, I have no idea.
- 結衣 Yuiすごく長いから、びっくりするよ。Sugoku nagai kara, bikkuri suru yo.It's so long that it will surprise you.
- 大翔 Hiroto気になるし、教えてほしいな。Kininaru shi, oshiete hoshii na.I'm curious, so please tell me.
