何の言葉04 びっくり(bikkuri)

Hi readers!

We want to introduce to you a really casual word you can use in daily life. It’s not as “surprising” as you might think… 😮

Did you guess it already?

そそ！The word is…

Meaning of びっくり :

Feeling surprised by unexpected events. This can be used for any range of emotions from feeling happy, sad, to angry.

To use it in daily conversation, you can say
びっくりする
びっくりした
びっくり

Origin of びっくり：

When you get startled by something, your body would jerk or jump up, wouldn’t it? In Japanese, we express that body movement by the sound “びく！(biku!)”.
We also say びくびく when someone is trembling from fear. This turned into びっくり.

English phrases with similar meaning to びっくり:

“Surprised”
“Shocked”
“Startle”
“Wow”
“Omg”

 💡How to say OMG in Japanese

Since we’re on the topic of びっくり, let’s learn how to say OMG in Japanese.

There are 6 ways you can say OMG when you are surprised and feeling happy, sad, funny or angry:

・えー？！
・うわー！
・うそー！
・うそでしょ？
・まじ？ or まじで？
・やばい！

If you are super angry and shocked like you are offended by something, you can use:
・はぁ？！

But we hope you don’t have to use it!

１．「うわーびっくりした！！」 「びっくりさせてごめん！」
　“Omg you scared me!!!” “I’m sorry I scared you!”

２．私がテストで満点を取るなんて、びっくり！
　I got full marks on my test! Omg, whaat!

３．あの二人が別れるなんて、びっくりじゃない？
　Isn’t it shocking that those two broke up?

４．これで、お父さんをびっくりさせようよ。
　Let's surprise dad with this.
 

Japanese phrases with similar meaning to びっくり:

おどろく（odoroku）

Another small note, while researching this topic, I also learnt that びっくりマーク (bikkuri maaku) means “exclamation mark” ❗ Did you know that? ちょっとびっくりだよね！　

Is there anything that made you びっくり about Japanese language or culture? We'd love to hear your story!

Sincerely,
Amasugi Letter