Exercise 8: Tone of Compliments

Certain words (ほんとにhontoni‘really, very,’とてもtotemo‘very’) are often used tointensify compliments.Note thatthose words are pronounced slowly and emphaticallyto make the compliment sound sincere.

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In case the recipient of the compliments refuses or deflects compliments, the speaker tends toextend the compliment again, stressing that s/he really meant it

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Native speakers of Japanese, especially those of older generations, may not compliment as often as speakers of Western languages.One study showed that Americans complimented approximately 8 times (!) more frequently than did Japanese (Barnlund & Araki, 1985).Bear this in mind when you don’t get an expected compliments from Japanese speakers!

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