12/16 [Japanese Expression]

Have you heard of these Japanese

words; やつ、こいつ、あいつ or so on？

Those are rough and rude words to express people.
I’d say,
やつ is a rough version of expressing “a person”.
こいつ is “this person” and あいつ is “that person”.
(Actually some men use these expressions among his close friends that don’t sound rude it’s more like a friendly usage.)

e.g.1
お前嫌なやつだな！（おまえ いやな やつ だな）: You are a disgusting person.
こいつ嫌い！（こいつ きらい）: I hate this person.
あいつ何者？（あいつ なにもの）: Who the heck is that person?

I don’t recommend you to use any of those for the meanings but we casually use them in normal conversation in a different way.


e.g.2
そこに置いてあるやつ取って。（そこに おいて ある やつ とって）: Can you pass me the thing placed there?
こいつを引っ張るとふたが開けられる。（こいつ を ひっぱる と ふたが あけられる）: If you pull this thing, you can open the lid.
あいつはまだ使わないから置いておいて！（あいつ は まだ つかわない から おいて おいて）: We don’t use that thing yet so please leave it there.

Can you get the nuance?
We can also use them to express “a thing”. It still sounds a bit rough but not too rude among your friends.

やつ in this usage is used by both men and women but the others are normally by men.

Even if you happen to hear one of these, the speaker is not always in a bad mood.😉