For "anata" (you) are these kanji obsolete: 貴方? Or is it better to use あなた? Thanks.

I don't think they are obsolete at all, if anything, 貴方 gives a more formal/serious impression.
There's also a variation of it used when refering to a woman, 貴女 (the reading is the same, just a nuance found in written language)

Odin89 Wrote:I don't think they are obsolete at all, if anything, 貴方 gives a more formal/serious impression.
There's also a variation of it used when refering to a woman, 貴女 (the reading is the same, just a nuance found in written language)

Thanks. I wondered about it because in a magazine I'm looking at they use あなた but the online program that allows me to type kanji supplies 貴方 (as well as 貴女).

It'd be interesting to see how many Japanese actually recognize those characters as "あなた". The Mac Kotoeri software will suggest a number of anachronistic usages, in my experience.

あなた is usually written with Kana. But, if you google the Kanji version, there's six million results (on the first page at least, 6/10 are Japanese). So it's obviously not obsolete.

And the Kanji themselves are definitely not obsolete. I know them both, and I'm not even all that good.

Japanese people would easily recognize that; it's (in my experience) more common in hiragana, but the kanji version is by no means obsolete, or even rare.

I agree that the kanji version is pretty common. I think either would be fine to use.

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Thanks everyone.

I have a similar question re: 友達 (friend). I think I've seen 友だち more often in print. But the first way is still acceptable, correct? Is it just personal preference?

Which ever is fine, although I tend to see 友達 more often than 友だち.

I also see 友達 more often; either is fine, but I think ともだち and 友達 are the most common (mainly depending on the audience, I think).