そんな

Japanese

Alternative spellings
其様な (literary)
其様 (literary)
其麼 (literary, obsolete)
那麼 (literary, obsolete)

Etymology

Contraction of その(よう) (sono yō na).

The interjective sense is an ellipsis of a phrase like そんなことはありえない! (Sonna koto wa arienai!, Such a thing is not possible!).

Pronunciation

  • (Tokyo) んな [sòńná] (Heiban – [0])[1]
  • IPA(key): [sõ̞nːa̠]

Adjective

そんな • (sonnairregular

  1. like that; that kind of

Inflection

Only used in adnominal form そんな (sonna) and adverbial そんなに (sonna ni).

Synonyms

  • (dialectal)
    • そない (sonai)
    • そげん (sogen)
    • そげな (sogena)

See also

Japanese demonstratives
ko-
“this”
(close to speaker)
so-
“that”
(close to listener)
a-
“that over there”
(far from both)
do-
“which”
(indeterminate, question)
Object これ (kore) それ (sore) あれ (are) どれ (dore)
これら (korera) それら (sorera) あれら (arera)
Determiner この (kono) その (sono) あの (ano) どの (dono)
これら (korera no) それら (sorera no) あれら (arera no)
Kind こんな (konna) そんな (sonna) あんな (anna) どんな (donna)
こういう (kō iu) そういう (sō iu) ああいう (ā iu) どういう (dō iu)
Place ここ (koko) そこ (soko) あそこ (asoko)* どこ (doko)
こっから (kokkara) そっから (sokkara) どっから (dokkara)
Direction / Human こちら (kochira) そちら (sochira) あちら (achira) どちら (dochira)
こなた (konata) そなた (sonata) あなた (anata) どなた (donata)
Direction こっち (kotchi) そっち (sotchi) あっち (atchi) どっち (dotchi)
Human こいつ (koitsu) そいつ (soitsu) あいつ (aitsu) どいつ (doitsu)
Manner こう () そう () ああ (ā)** どう ()
Degree これくらい (kore kurai) それくらい (sore kurai) あれくらい (are kurai) どれくらい (dore kurai)
これだけ (kore dake) それだけ (sore dake) あれだけ (are dake) どれだけ (dore dake)
これほど (kore hodo) それほど (sore hodo) あれほど (are hodo) どれほど (dore hodo)

* irregular
** regular (long vowel)
† potentially rude or derogatory

The kanji () (ko), () (so), () (a), and () (do) can be used for determiners, but they are almost always spelled in hiragana.

Interjection

そんな • (sonna

  1. expression of disbelief; no!; no way!; impossible!; it can't be!

See also

  • (impossible, it can't be): まさか (masaka), ばかな (baka na, how absurd)

References

  1. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN