"Anata" roughly translates to "you," but is not used nearly as often as "you" is in English. Anata is primarily used by spouses in adressing each other and sometimes in absolutely impersonal situations such as packaged instructions or announcements. Most of the time (always as far as a foreigner is concerned), the person's name should be used instead or not referred to at all, i.e. omitted as is common in Spanish and some other languages. Some old grammar books use this pronoun extensively, but this is deprecated. As a side note, always make sure that your Japanese language study materials are up-to-date, because the language is somewhat more volatile than English.
The plural forms of this word are "anatagata" or "anatatachi". The former is more polite than the latter. The rudest plural forms of this concept are "omaetachi" or "omaera".
Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.
Lost password
Sign Up
Need help? accounthelp@everything2.com