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My impression is that 町 tends to be used for smaller cities and 街 tends to be
used for larger ones. Is this correct? If not, what _is_ the difference?
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2011-08-06T00:11:03.220
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2016-10-31T10:22:38.180
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question
vocabulary homophonic-kanji
まち: what's the difference between 町 and 街?
That is correct. According to 文化庁, 町 is similar to `town` whereas 街 is similar
to `street` or `avenue`. 街 can also refer to a developed town with lots of
streets and avenues, so to say.

For example, you can say センター街 (center-gai), but not センター町 (center-cho). This
is because センター街 refers to "streets with small businesses". If there was a
センター町, hypothetically speaking, a Japanese would imagine some area where small
businesses are scattered here and there, rather than an area with a few
streets with small businesses packed together.

Hence the different usage.
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2011-08-06T00:36:32.307
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2011-08-06T00:36:32.307
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answer