76890
I've been communicating back and forth with my host family in Japan.

We recently talked about a picture that I sent involving my backyard and my
host mom used the kanji 庭（にわ） which means garden or yard.

My yard actually has a garden in it though. Is she talking about the yard as a
whole or the garden in it? Is this an ambiguous case? How would I ask if she
meant the garden explicitly or the yard as a whole?

**EDIT 0:** In the US, yard typically means the region in back of a house,
whereas garden typically means a region for growing food.
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2020-04-28T03:33:22.907
76876
2020-04-28T18:17:53.780
2020-04-28T18:17:53.780
4245
4245
question
word-choice words ambiguity
庭 & Ambiguity of Yard or Garden?
庭 refers to a (wide but usually enclosed) place adjacent to a house. Assuming
your yard looks like this, 庭 refers to everything in this picture, including
the brick-paved part.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/OrLOMm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/OrLOMm.jpg)

Your "garden" may be
[花壇](https://search.yahoo.co.jp/image/search?p=%E8%8A%B1%E5%A3%87),
[家庭菜園](https://search.yahoo.co.jp/image/search?p=%E5%AE%B6%E5%BA%AD%E8%8F%9C%E5%9C%92),
[庭園](https://search.yahoo.co.jp/image/search?p=%E6%B4%8B%E9%A2%A8%E5%BA%AD%E5%9C%92),
[ガーデン](https://search.yahoo.co.jp/image/search?p=%E3%82%AC%E3%83%BC%E3%83%87%E3%83%B3)
or [植木](https://search.yahoo.co.jp/image/search?p=%E6%A4%8D%E6%9C%A8) in
Japanese. It's possible to explain the difference in sentences, but perhaps
it's best to see images, so please check the links.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-28T08:25:41.630
76890
2020-04-28T10:45:40.477
2020-04-28T10:45:40.477
5010
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76876
answer