Abstract
The paper aims to tackle two neglected issues in teaching Japanese as a foreign language – the pluralization of nouns and the differentiation of synonyms – by analyzing three Japanese words that correspond to the meaning “people”. We examined the usage of these words in compositions written by intermediate-level foreign students and native Japanese speakers that were compiled in the corpus “A Country Easy to Live In.” Although these words appear in the sentences of both groups, our analysis reveals that in Japanese, the meanings of singularity and plurality are marked and that distinguishing them poses challenges to students. We also show that the distinction between the plural meaning of “people”, expressed by the nouns 人々 hitobito and 人達 hitotachi, needs to be given more attention in Japanese language teaching.
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