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畳数

English translation: Number of tatami mats

07:30 Mar 27, 2003
Japanese to English translations [Non-PRO]
/ standard measures
Japanese term or phrase: 畳数
A standard measure for house size in Jpn. What do you think of translating it just as "area," or would you put something like "(measured in tatami mats)" next to it?

Anyhoo, thanks as always for your help!
Thomas Magnuson
Canada
Local time: 18:57
English translation:Number of tatami mats
Explanation:
Rooms are commonly described as 6-mat, eight-mat or whatever
e.g. six-mat room or six-tatami room.

Typically 0.9m x 1.8m = 1.62m2, although there are variations.

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Note added at 2003-03-27 07:40:45 (GMT)
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That¥'s the size per mat...

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Note added at 2003-03-27 07:47:49 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

For the area of a whole house just ¥"floor area¥" would be reasonable. For example realty ads commonly state the area of the house in m2 and then specify number of mats for individual rooms (the mat size is more important for rooms because it dictates the proportions of the room as well as the floor area. If the area for the whole house is stated in mats you could convert to m2. I¥'d do that, particularly for a modern building, unless there was an emphasis on the Japanese architecture of the building. but if you leave it in mats you¥'d have to state it as e.g 60 tatami mats.

Mat(t)

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Note added at 2003-03-27 09:05:53 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Tsubo is more common for the whole area of a building, and for land, as Nakamura says, but in this case the area for the building seems to be in jou, not tsubo (1坪=2畳）.
You could take that as another reason to convert to just use area in m2, as XXjou for building area is not even standard usage in Japanese.
Selected response from:

Matthew Kinnersly
Local time: 10:57
Grading comment
Thanks very much!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +7Number of tatami mats
Matthew Kinnersly
5(insert a number) tatami space (or room)
Nobuo Kawamura
4number of tatami mats [tatamis, tatami's]
jsl (X)


  

Answers


9 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +7
Number of tatami mats


Explanation:
Rooms are commonly described as 6-mat, eight-mat or whatever
e.g. six-mat room or six-tatami room.

Typically 0.9m x 1.8m = 1.62m2, although there are variations.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-27 07:40:45 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

That¥'s the size per mat...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-27 07:47:49 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

For the area of a whole house just ¥"floor area¥" would be reasonable. For example realty ads commonly state the area of the house in m2 and then specify number of mats for individual rooms (the mat size is more important for rooms because it dictates the proportions of the room as well as the floor area. If the area for the whole house is stated in mats you could convert to m2. I¥'d do that, particularly for a modern building, unless there was an emphasis on the Japanese architecture of the building. but if you leave it in mats you¥'d have to state it as e.g 60 tatami mats.

Mat(t)

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-27 09:05:53 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Tsubo is more common for the whole area of a building, and for land, as Nakamura says, but in this case the area for the building seems to be in jou, not tsubo (1坪=2畳）.
You could take that as another reason to convert to just use area in m2, as XXjou for building area is not even standard usage in Japanese.

Matthew Kinnersly
Local time: 10:57
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in pair: 95
Grading comment
Thanks very much!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Hidenori Nakamura: 部屋 ⇒ XX畳、 建物 → floor area of YY "tsubo（坪）"
29 mins
  -> Good point, see above
agree  Kaori Myatt: Yes!
31 mins
  -> Thanks
agree  Philip Ronan: 畳数 can also be used for Western-style rooms without mats, so you might want to say something like "equivalent to ‾ tatami mats".
1 hr
  -> True, like 洋室７．５畳
agree  Shinya Ono: Impressive　and expansive
4 hrs
  -> Thanks. I probably spent too long looking for a Japanese house ...
agree  amit vats: GREAT EFFORT.
5 hrs
  -> Thanks
agree  horse
5 hrs
  -> Thanks
agree  MedSpecialis (X)
16 hrs
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27 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
number of tatami mats [tatamis, tatami's]


Explanation:
"Tatami", as well as "futon", is now being accepted in English. See some 900+ examples of "tatami" found in English pages. Click the link below. The plural form of "tatami" is "tatamis" or "tatami's", though I guess the former may be preferred.

For actual representations of the size of room, you may use "tatami mat" too. "四畳半の部屋" is either "four-and-a-half-tatami-mat room", "four-and-a-half-tatami room", or "four-and-a-half-mat room". All of these are found in Google:

http://www.google.com/search?q="four-and-a-half-tatami-mat"
http://www.google.com/search?q="four-and-a-half-tatami"
http://www.google.com/search?q="four-and-a-half-mat"

As you may know, there still exist many people who do not understand the notion of "tatami" or "joo". For them, you may add a square feet notation or a square meter notation. For example, "四畳半の部屋" can be "a four-and-a-half-tatami-mat room (14.58 square meters)" or "a four-and-a-half-tatami-mat room (approx. 157 square feet)".


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Note added at 2003-03-27 08:01:17 (GMT)
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For ¥"四畳半の部屋¥", you may also say ¥"four-and-a-half-jo room¥", if you want to preserve the original Japanese pronunciation. However, this is still a minority; there are only two examples of this in Google.



    Reference: http://www.google.com/search?as_q=tatamis&lr=lang_en
    Reference: http://www.teaching-english-in-japan.net/conversion/japanese...
jsl (X)
Local time: 10:57
PRO pts in pair: 1098
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

28 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
(insert a number) tatami space (or room)


Explanation:
Examples - six tatami space, eight tatami room

Nobuo Kawamura
Japan
Local time: 10:57
Native speaker of: Native in JapaneseJapanese
PRO pts in pair: 483
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