Unlike English or Chinese, the personal pronoun “I” in Japanese consists of different forms. Different forms are mainly varied with areas, gender, formality and ages. Below are some commonly used personal pronouns:
1. わたし（私）
² It is in a formal style.
² It can be used by both males and females.
² In fact, in some casual or informal occasions, わたしwould no longer be considered as neutral, but feminine.
l It is used by people of different ages, background and gender, and it is commonly used in books, magazines and advertisement.
2. わて
² It is used in the Kansai dialect.
² Its nature is similar to わたし.
l This is an advertisement board of 大阪のお土産や. Since Osaka is in kansai area, and the image of this product refer “himself” as 「わて」, so this has indicated that the use of personal pronouns also varied with area.
3. わたくし （私）
² It is used in a very formal occasion.
² It is considered the most polite and formal personal pronoun.
² It can be used by both genders.
l It is often seen in the book title, so maybe it is one of the occasions in which「わたくし」is used.
4. あたし
² It is in informal style.
² It is mostly used by young women as it sounds kind of cute.
² It is considered as girlish if males used it.
² It commonly appears in conversation, but not in written forms.
² It is found in the lyrics of some Japanese jingles.
l 「カブトムシ」はaikoのジングル. aikoは日本の女性シンガーソングライター.「あたし」appears in the lyrics of this song.
Here are the lyrics:
-あたしもどんどん年老いて
-深い安らぎ酔いしれるあたしはかぶとむし
-深い安らぎ酔いしれるあたしはかぶとむし
l 「横顔」もaikoのジングル. 日本テレビ系ドラマ『ホタルノヒカリ』の主題歌となった曲.「あたし」also appears in the lyrics of this song.
Here are the lyrics:
-あたしはとても切ない
5. ぼく （僕）
² It is in casual, informal style.
² It is mostly used by males, but kids use it as well.
² As it is a boyish word, females rarely use it.
² Its kanji is equivalent to male servants in Sino-Japanese word form.
l In these two books, the writer himself used 「ぼく」to express himself as a young little boy. He has an identity as a grandson, as well as a son, and he is trying to use his words and pictures to describe his relationships with his grandmother and mother. Here we can see that 「ぼく」is used by little young boy.
6. おら・オラ
² It is used in the Kanto dialect.
² It is commonly used by children because of the influence brought by Crayon Shin-chan.
l It is seen that in the manga of “Crayon Shin-chan”, the main character Shin-chan often uses 「オラ」to express himself. As Shin-chan is a few years- old kid, it is not surprising that children who have read this manga would imitate Shin-chan and use 「オラ」to express themselves.
l “Dragon Ball” would be another popular manga among young kids, in this manga, the characters also use「オラ」 to express themselves, thus kids could be easily influenced by the manga and use 「オラ」to express themselves in their everyday life.
7. おれ・オレ
² It is in informal style.
² It is mostly used by males as this pronoun gives a sense of masculinity.
² Females rarely use it.
² In certain occasions, it may be considered as rude.
l In one of the most popular sport-themed manga “Slam Dunk”, the main character Hanamichi Sakuragi is a teenage boy who later notices that he is very interested and talented in playing basketball. He is considered as rude in school and among his schoolmates, and he often use 「オレ」to express himself, so this has actually shown that「オレ」 is mostly used by males and it is kind of rude using this pronoun.
l Mitsui Hisashi is also another player who is in the same team as Sakuragi, he was once a gang member, but then he felt regretful about himself and has decided to join the team again. He is considered as rude also and he uses「オレ」, so this has further affirmed the use of 「オレ」.
I would like to use 「わたし」and「あたし」. This is because「わたし」is the most commonly used personal pronoun, and it can used by males and females, as well as formal and informal occasion, so the chance of wrongly using certain personal pronouns can be reduced! As for「あたし」, since it is made for young girls, so there should be no reason for not using 「あたし」in my daily casual conversation as a young teenage girl ! : )
