Maddies Manga

Crying is something that happens rather often in shoujo manga! Be they happy tears, sad tears, or tears caused by yawning, I say it happens enough to warrant us understanding how to say “to cry”!

Example Sentences

First, let’s try…: “I started to cry when I heard he has a girlfriend…” This sentence is a little bit tricky, as it introduces a new type of verb usage!

Now, let’s make a word bank:

English	Hiragana / Katakana	Kanji	Romaji (reading)
Him	かれ	彼	Kare
Girlfriend	かのじょ	彼女	Kanojo
To exist (person)	いる	N/A	Iru
To hear (conditional)	きいたら	聞いたら	Kiitara
I	わたし	私	Watashi
To start to cry (past tense)	なきだしました	泣き出しました	Nakidashimashita

Now, let’s write it out in romaji!:

“Kare ni kanojo ga iru to kiitara, watashi wa nakidashimashita.”

Let’s change it to hiragana:

“かれ　に　かのじょ　が　いる　と　きいたら、わたし　は　なきだしました。”

And lastly, let’s add in the kanji:

”彼　に　彼女　が　いる　と　聞いたら、私　は　泣き出しました。”

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What if we want to say… “I don’t like girls who cry often“? Something a little bit mean, but some (moody male leads) can potentially relate to.

Now, we need a word bank!

English	Hiragana	Kanji	Romaji (reading)
Often	＊よく	N/A	Watashi
To cry	なく	なく	Maiasa
Girl	おんなのこ	おんなのこ	Goji
To like (negative)	すきじゃない	好きじゃない	Okimasu

＊While there are many different ways to say “often” in Japanese, they all have slightly different meanings. So, be careful when using a dictionary!

Now that we know all of the relevant words, let’s put them together in a sentence!

First, in romaji only:

“Yoku naku onnanoko ga sukijanai desu.”

Now using hiragana:

“よく　なく　おんなのこ　が　すきじゃない　です。”

Now let’s add in the kanji:

”よく　泣く　女の子　が　好きじゃない　です。”

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Let’s try one more sentence! What if we want to say… “Since I was born, I have never cried.“? Highly unlikely, but let’s see how we would say this!

Let’s get the word bank started!

English	Hiragana / Katakana	Kanji	Romaji (reading)
To be born ( te form)	うまれて	生まれて	Umarete
From	から	N/A	Kara
To cry (past tense)	ないた	泣いた	Naita
To never have done	こと・が・ない	N/A	Koto ga nai

Alright, let’s make some sentences!

First, using romaji only:

“Umarete kara, naita koto ga nai desu.”

Now using hiragana:

“うまれて　から、ないた　こと　が　ない　です。”

Now let’s add in the kanji:

“生まれて　から、泣いた　こと　が　ない　です。”

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And that’s Naku! Have you heard this word before?

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Was my post helpful? I hope you learnt something! If you want to support me so that I can continue to share my love of all things shoujo, you can always buy me a coffee!

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