4641
Is ojiisan an idiomatic word choice for a chronologically gifted man, akin to
obaasan for elderly women? For example, when giving your seat to them on the
train.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-09T02:10:35.643
4609
2012-02-12T11:09:10.850
2012-02-10T14:02:54.183
15
91
question
word-choice politeness
Is it natural to call elderly men ojiisan?
おじいさん means both a grandfather and an elderly man. When written in kanji, it
is written as
[お祖父さん](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E3%81%8A%E3%81%98%E3%81%84%E3%81%95%E3%82%93&dtype=0&dname=0ss&stype=1&index=102536800000&pagenum=1)
when it means grandfather, and written as
[お爺さん](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E3%81%8A%E3%81%98%E3%81%84%E3%81%95%E3%82%93&dtype=0&dname=0ss&stype=1&index=102536900000&pagenum=1)
when it means elderly man. The same applies to おばあさん
([お祖母さん](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E3%81%8A%E3%81%B0%E3%81%82%E3%81%95%E3%82%93&dtype=0&dname=0ss&stype=1&index=102686200000&pagenum=1)/[お婆さん](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E3%81%8A%E3%81%B0%E3%81%82%E3%81%95%E3%82%93&dtype=0&dname=0ss&stype=1&index=102686300000&pagenum=1)).

It is natural to call an elderly man おじいさん. However, I have heard that some
people do not like the use of おじいさん and おばあさん which mean elderly man and
woman, and that in particular they do not like to be called that way. I guess
that the reason for this is that calling a person おじいさん or おばあさん may imply
that the most relevant attribute of the person is his/her age. Although I do
not find it reasonable, I may hesitate to call someone who I do not know at
all おじいさん or おばあさん to avoid unnecessary conflict.

By the way, similarly to おじいさん and おばあさん, おじさん can mean an uncle or a middle-
aged man, and written as [伯父さん (elder brother of parent), 叔父さん (younger
brother of
parent)](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E3%81%8A%E3%81%98%E3%81%95%E3%82%93&dtype=0&dname=0ss&stype=1&index=102547100000&pagenum=1),
or
[小父さん](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E3%81%8A%E3%81%98%E3%81%95%E3%82%93&dtype=0&dname=0ss&stype=1&index=102547000000&pagenum=1)
(middle-aged man, but not commonly written in kanji). The same applies to おばさん
([伯母さん,
叔母さん](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E3%81%8A%E3%81%B0%E3%81%95%E3%82%93&dtype=0&dname=0ss&stype=1&index=102688900000&pagenum=1),
[小母さん](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E3%81%8A%E3%81%B0%E3%81%95%E3%82%93&dtype=0&dname=0ss&stype=1&index=102688800000&pagenum=1)).
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2012-02-11T12:18:12.227
4641
2012-02-11T12:18:12.227
15
4609
answer
Note that you can also call middle-aged woman 奥さん and middle-aged man 旦那さん,
ご主人さん. (What I mean by middle-aged is 35~55+). Not really used by young
people, rather between middle-aged people or from staff to customer; さん
becomes さま then.

As well, you can call young people (15~30) おにいさん/おねえさん even if they are
younger than you. In Kansai, we call staff this way too (I believe it's not
common in Tokyo area).
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2012-02-12T11:09:10.850
4657
2012-02-12T11:09:10.850
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4609
answer