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One of the most fun ‘features’ of the Japanese language is how foreign words are mangled to fit the limited Japanese sound-set. For example, McDonalds becomes マクドナルド (Makudonarudo, 6 syllables), and Scotland スコットランド (Sukottorando, 7 syllables!). However, these new words are not just nouns – sometimes new verbs are created from English words, made to fit Japanese grammar. Here are some examples. See if you can guess the original English word they’re from!
ググる (guguru) – to search the Internet for something. From ‘Google’, of course.
あのCMの音楽の名前、ググっても分からなかった。 (ano shi emu no ongaku no namae, gugutte mo wakaranakatta, I tried googling for the name of the music in that ad, but I couldn’t find it)
ダブる (daburu) – to overlap, usually in a negative way, for example to have two appointments at the same time. From ‘double’.
言うことがずっとダブってしまった！ (iu koto ga zutto dabutte shimatta, We kept saying the same thing as each other)
ネゴる (negoru) – to discuss something with intent to come to an agreement. From ‘negotiate’.
北斗の拳の中古DVDがほしいけど、値段がちょっと高い。。。 (Hokuto no Ken no chuuko DVD ga hoshii kedo, nedan ga chotto takai, I really want that Hokuto no Ken used DVD, but it’s kind of expensive)
じゃ、ネゴってみてどう？ (ja, negotte mite dou, why don’t you try negotiating with them?)
トラブる (toraburu) – to have problems, or to cause problems. From ‘trouble’.
車がまたトラブってるけん、ちょっと遅れるかも。 (kuruma ga mata torabutteru ken, chotto okureru kamo, The car’s giving me trouble again, so I’ll probably be a bit late.)
ハモる (hamoru) – to be in tune with each other, to say the same thing. From ‘harmony’.
パニクる (panikuru) – to panic!
バグる： (baguru) (of software or hardware) to have an error, to crash. From the English ‘bug’, of course!
It’s kind of hard to explain, but there’s just something fun about using Google as a verb in Japanese: 自分の名前をググってみた！ (Jibun no namae wo gugutte mita, I tried googling my name.)
Any other words that we missed?