I picked the abbreviated form of です up in some movie about high school punks, asked my Japanese friend about it but noticed that Japanese ppl respond to it like it's sort of amusing to them when I use it.

Is there someone who can give me some insight in the cultural value of 「っす」？ Is it a high school punk way of speaking to your sempai, or just a regular sempai abbreviated from of です; is it used by every sort of person or just kids/youth?

It could be because you're foreign. When I was in the car with my friend (Japanese) and the Japanese guy driving us was using っす to end almost all of his sentences, my friend never skipped a beat, she just went with it like nothing was off. However, this guy was a little weird... various things and lilo and stich hanging all over his car.

But when my buddy (foreigner) uses it all the time, Japanese people seem to get a kick out of it, like it's their inside joke but now he knows it too. Hard to explain ;-)

Damn, that doesn't really help :p

Maybe it's the same as using なんでやねん, that cracks 'em up similarly and that is defny an inside joke thing.

Well.. from what one of my teachers told me, it is a pretty rude way to talk. Sounds like Karatekas talking to each other or something.
Did you ever watch a Japanese show or play a Japanese game that revolves around police work? Detectives talking in that way seem to be some kind of stereotype.

Edit: My teacher of course told me not to use it. As if anyone cared..

It's the same in your own language. Imagine a foreigner who can't really speak dutch all that well, yet uses modern slang. It just sounds odd and obviously isn't natural. The person has actively decided to use slang because they think it sounds fun or something.

And yeah, っす should probably be used sparringly. It's a short form of desu meaning that it's used in situations where you should be polite... yet you can't "be arsed" enough to say the whole word. As in most languages, slang should be used with friends.

It's basically a high school punk way of talking to sempai. Guys talk like that in school sport teams to sempai. You shouldn't use it in a formal setting but yea it's a good way to crack them up, and is not rude if the situation is not formal as it's a sort of 敬語.

Tobberoth Wrote:It's the same in your own language. Imagine a foreigner who can't really speak dutch all that well, yet uses modern slang. It just sounds odd and obviously isn't natural. The person has actively decided to use slang because they think it sounds fun or something.

And yeah, っす should probably be used sparringly. It's a short form of desu meaning that it's used in situations where you should be polite... yet you can't "be arsed" enough to say the whole word. As in most languages, slang should be used with friends.

good point. it is a conscious choice but then again, that is the case with the whole of my japanese; there is no real reason for me learning it aside from simply wanting to. but ill be cautious when i use it.

it's good to hear a neutral translation though. hard to get that from jpnese ppl, i find.

Sometimes I'll drop a noir-police like phrase, or words you'd see in a New York cop movie in my English...

It's all about timing.

It's more a less a "cool" way of using 敬語. In real life it is most commonly used by guys when there isn't much need to be polite, but you can't quite use fully casual speech. At a party guys will often use it with people they don't know.

I use it sometimes. It isn't hard to just replace です with っす.

thermal Wrote:It's more a less a "cool" way of using 敬語.

More like 丁寧語.