Meaning Comparison of the Words Aijin and Mikake, Shoumi-kigen and Shouhi-kigen, Tengoku and Gokuraku

Abstract

The similarity of meanings in foreign language vocabulary a learner learns often increases the burden of learning a foreign language. This article aims to look at examples of words that have similar meanings in Japanese, namely the words aijin (??) and mekake (?), which correspond to the word mistress in English, the words shoumi-kigen (????) and shouhi-kigen (????) which correspond to the word best before in English, the words tengoku (??) and gokuraku (??) which correspond to the word heaven in English. This paper uses literature studies and is qualitative descriptive research. The analysis of examples of use in sentences shows that although the words have the exact equivalent and have similar meanings, there are subtle differences that cause the synonymous words to be unable to replace each other. In other words, there are no entirely synonymous words.