Expressing Emotions (1) Pleasure and Sadness

[leunas]

Expressing your emotions is an important part of communication. Adjectives are used when expressing emotions.

Ureshii
うれしい glad, happy
Shiawasena
幸せな happy, fortunate
Zannenna
残念な unfortunate, disappointing
Kanashii
悲しい sad
Sabishii
さびしい lonely

Emotions are usually expressed straightforwardly, therefore informal speeches are widely used. Here are some useful expressions. Click here to learn about the sentence ending particles. ("naa", "nee" etc.)

Ureshii naa. (Male speech)
うれしいなあ｡
Ureshii wa. (Female speech)
うれしいわ｡ I am glad!
Shiawase da naa. (M)
幸せだなあ｡
Shiawase da wa. (F)
幸せだわ｡ I am happy!
Zannen da naa. (M)
残念だなあ｡
Zannen nee. (F)
残念ねえ｡ I am sorry to hear that.
Kanashii naa. (M)
悲しいなあ｡
Kanashii wa. (F)
悲しいわ｡ I am sad.
Sabishii naa. (M)
さびしいなあ。
Sabishii wa. (F)
さびしいわ。 I am lonely.

When describing someone's emotions, "~sou desu (looks, seems)" is added to the stem of the adjective.

Yuki wa shiawase sou desu.
ゆきは幸せそうです｡ Yuki looks happy.
Chichi wa totemo sabishi sou deshita.
父はとてもさびしそうでした｡ My father seemed very lonely.


japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa081200.htm?nl=1