Turning Japanese...

[desperance]

O wise LJ, I need your fu: does anybody out there speak Japanese? What I need, all I need is the Japanese for 'very small'. Or a way of saying 'very small', if (as I assume) there are many. I have prodded various internet translation devices, and they have been variously and entirely unhelpful (one objected at the quantity of text I was asking it to handle, one offered me kanji which I cannot read - it's got to be romaji, it's for an English actor to say - and so on), and so I turn to you.

Don't ask for context, even if context is crucial for a proper answer; it's being said deliberately out of context. I am perpetrating a referential joke in two languages, and ought to be ashamed of myself, but hey...

Comments

[mssrcrankypants.livejournal.com]

Let's see, most simply, "small" is "chisai". So "very small" would be "sugoku chisai", or more slangish "chou chisai."

[j-luc-pitard.livejournal.com]

Or 'totemo chisai desu.' with totemo as a qualifier and chisai as small. Desu is sort of like 'is.'

[mssrcrankypants.livejournal.com]

Man, I haven't spoken more than about ten sentences that politely in years. I'm so lazy about it, I didn't even think to put it in my reply. "Totemo" is another good intensifier, rather than "sugoku".

[desperance.livejournal.com]

You are both of you officially declared Heroes of the Involution, First Class, and I am unutterably grateful.

Seriously, thanks...