掲示板 Forums - Differences between じゃ and じゃあ

Hi. Anyone can tell me the differences beween じゃあ and じゃ?

Ah yes, I already knew that. But sometimes じゃ can be used in the same way than じゃあ.

For example (some examples from the dictionary):
じゃ、またねっ！ = See you later!
じゃ、諦めるんだね = So you give up, right?
じゃ、何が食べたいですか = What do you want to eat?

In this case (when じゃ means "well then" as じゃあ), what's the difference between じゃあ and じゃ?
Is じゃ a casual abbreviation of じゃあ too (as one of では)?

I see. Thanks for the help.

The best thing that I can suggest, for these questions and for future impasses, is to break each part down, take the literal translation, and accept which English approximation seems the best fit in that instance.

で. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . は. . . . . . . . . では/じゃあ / じゃ. . . . . . . . . "As for then", "well", "see ya later", etc

so/then/from/by/out of . . as for . . . . . . じゃあ / じゃ are just contractions

じゃ more formal, is used for the copula

それ. . . . . . . . . . . で は. . . . . . . . . . . . . . それじゃ. . . . . . . . . . "From that,..." "As for that,..."

That. . . . so/then/from/by/out of as for

そう. . . . . . . . . . . . . . する. . . . . . . . そうして. . . . . . . . . . . . . . "So,...", "Thus,...." "do like that",

so/thus. . . . . . to do . . . . . . . . so do/doing/thus do/doing . . . . . . ."do thus", "So doing,...", "And so,..."

It may seem clunky at first, but it gives you a sense of Japanese lingual thought, how ということです (so-called thing exists) can mean "it is reported that..." (Pops up all the time in Japanese news reports).

Sorry, the posts won't carry over spacing I had in the original draft, makes this look like a horrible mish-mash. I can't copy and paste from JWPce anymore, either.

But if you can glean what I was trying to do, I hope this helps.

Thanks for the tips!