Hi, I have a quick question. Can a Japanese wife call her husband “omae”? I’m reading a book and I can’t tell which person is speaking and if I could eliminate the wife (because she would never call her husband “omae”) that would help. Thanks.
It depends on the writing style, the character, and the context.
Normally, I’d say it’d be pretty weird for a wife to call her husband ‘omae’ unless she was joking around, but that doesn’t mean an author wouldn’t write a character that way.
That information in isolation doesn’t eliminate anything for you, unfortunately.
Japanese writing just isn’t explicit about telling you who is speaking like English is. If you can’t recognize the speaking style of the character (the reason, I think, that LNs and manga have such weird speech patterns and tics), then you have to use context both before and after that line to determine who’s speaking.
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Thanks. I think this is a “plain vanilla” case, and the wife isn’t joking around, so it’s probably the husband who is speaking.
I’ve realized that yes you have to rely on context/logic and other clues to figure out who is speaking. I think overall I’m figuring out most of it ok.
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There are couples where this happens, but it’s quite rare to be honest. They would have to be a ヤンキー couple for that to be the case.