何の言葉08 ひとりごと(hitorigoto)

Hi readers!

Do you have this problem where you talk to yourself out loud, and someone next to you thinks you are talking to them? 😳

When I’m concentrating too hard sometimes I don’t notice that I’m talking aloud（しゅうちゅう～🕵️‍♀️）.

However, sometimes the person next to me will feel confused. They will ask, “What did you say?” 👀

You can reply with 何でもない (nandemonai) “It’s nothing”, but today we’ll learn a useful word so that you can explain what you were doing!

What is ひとりごと?

ひとりごと (hitorigoto) means the words (you say) when you are alone or expressing your thoughts out loud.

In kanji, it is written as 独り言. Here’s a breakdown of the word:

• 独り (hitori) = alone

• 言 (goto) = word (*As in “koto”ba (言葉)）

*Note: It is usually written in hiragana for daily life conversation, whereas you might find it written in kanji in lyrics or novels.

In a sentence, you use ひとりごと as

• ひとりごとを言う

• ひとりごと

English phrases with similar meaning to ひとりごと:　

- talking (aloud) to ~self

😴 Talking nonsense in your sleep

How would you say “talking in your sleep”? We don’t use ひとりごと but ねごと(negoto).

Since you know what goto means, what about ‘ne’ (寝) ? 寝 means sleep so ねごと (寝言) means the words (you said) when you are asleep.

We also have a phrase 「ねごとは寝て言え。」(Negoto wa nete ie) which literally means “Save your sleep talk for when you are asleep”.

A:「テイラー・スウィフトと付き合えるかな？」
“Will I be able to date Taylor Swift?” 🤩

B :「ねごとは寝て言え。」
“Don’t talk nonsense” 😩

*Note: It can sound a little sarcastic, or strong so this phrase should be used when someone is saying something completely ridiculous, or as a joke.

1. おばあちゃんはよくひとりごとを言っている。
   Grandma often talks to herself.

    

2. 「なにか言った？」「あ、ごめん、ひとりごと！」
   “Did you say something?” “Oh, sorry, I was just talking to myself!”

    

3. あの人、ずっとぶつぶつひとりごとを言ってるんだ。怖い。
   That person has been talking to himself for a while. Scary.

    

4. 一人暮らしを始めてから、ひとりごとが多くなった。
   I started talking to myself more when I started living alone.

    

5. 集中すると、ひとりごとが止まらなくなっちゃう。
   I can’t stop talking aloud to myself when I’m concentrate on something.

    

Japanese phrases with similar meaning to ひとりごと:　

ぶつぶつ（butsubutsu）

Do you often talk to yourself out loud? If you enjoy learning languages, one of the ways you can learn is to have a conversation with yourself in your target language. Because of this, maybe language learners have more ひとりごと than others 😆 Who knows?

We hope that this letter was an interesting read for you.

See you in the next one!

Sincerely,
Amasugi Letter