Heating water for a bamboo bath with 湯を沸かす
Vocabulary Explanation: Collocations for cooking
Hakumei and Mikochi went to a newly opened hot spring, only to find it closed for cleaning. Instead of giving up, they decided to build their own open-air bath by splitting a giant bamboo stalk in half. Hakumei split the bamboo while Mikochi cooked over a campfire. Then Hakumei, gathering stones near the fire, called for Mikochi to bring a pair of tongs.
- ミコチ:
- 「何に使うの？」
- “What are they for?”
- ハクメイ:
- 「湯を沸かすんだよ」
- “To heat the water.”
- Literal: “I'm going to boil hot water.”
Key Points
- 沸かす means to heat a liquid until it’s hot or boiling. Japanese names the result, so the object is 湯, “hot water”, even before it’s hot.
- The same verb heats a bath: 風呂を沸かす. Hakumei is heating water for the bamboo tub, not for cooking. On the next page she uses the tongs to drop stones heated in the fire into the water.
- Hakumei says plain 湯, without the polite お that most speakers add in お湯を沸かす. Leaving it off fits her brisk, plain way of talking.
- んだ is the casual form of のだ. It presents the line as an explanation. Mikochi brought the tongs without knowing why, and Hakumei fills her in.
- よ marks information the listener doesn’t have yet.
- 何に使う asks what something is used for. に marks the purpose: 料理に使う, “use it for cooking”.
- The rising の asks for an explanation in casual speech. Hakumei answers in kind with んだよ.
Vocabulary
何 (What)
何 asks what something is. It is read なに, or なん before certain sounds.
使う (To use)
使う is to use something as a tool or means. It also means to spend money or time.
湯 (Hot water)
湯 is heated water. It also means bath water or a hot bath, and appears in words like 銭湯 and 湯船.
沸かす (To boil)
沸かす means to heat a liquid until it boils, as in お湯を沸かす, “boil water”. It also means to heat a bath, and to stir a crowd to excitement.
See Also
- Vocabulary: Collocations for cooking
- Grammar: Reasoning with 〜のだ