Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term
Spirits (alcohol)
| 5 +1 | All you need to write is "お酒" |
KathyT
|
| 5 +2 | スピリッツ, 蒸留酒 |
jsl (X)
|
| 5 | さまざまな（いろいろな）酒 |
humbird
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| 1 | 酒類 |
Maynard Hogg
|
Nov 30, 2005 23:51: Maynard Hogg changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"
Non-PRO (3): humbird, KathyT, Maynard Hogg
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Proposed translations
All you need to write is "お酒"
I accidentally 'hid' my answer - not sure how that happened.
Reposting same answer below:
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It sounds like you want to make some signs or something for different sections of a gift shop.
All you need to write is simply : お酒 (o-sake)
Change your encoding to Japanese Auto select if you are having trouble reading the Japanese fonts.
お酒 is fine for all alcoholic beverages, both singular and plural, and if this is indeed for a sign, is best left without any other additional words. Vodka, whisky, etc. all fall into the category of 'o-sake'. If a Japanese customer is looking to buy whisky, they will immediately head for the section identified as お酒.
(For wine, though, they will go to "ワイン" <if distinguished as separate sections>.)
Good luck!
Maynard's comment (neutral):
Maynard Hogg: Something doesn't ring true here. The next time I visit Narita, I'll whip into Duty Free and whip out my お散歩カメラ.
My reply:
> haha, yes please do! I'm generalizing, obviously, but my point is that (assuming that this is for some kind of store sign) you won't find a sign saying, さまざまな酒, and 蒸留酒 is highly unlikely. Sometimes you see スピリッツ but usually it's just simply 「お酒」.
スピリッツ, 蒸留酒
"スピリッツ" (supirittsu) is the katakana version of "spirits". "蒸留" in "蒸留酒" stands for "to distill".
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Note added at 2005-11-30 16:30:43 (GMT)
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See:
http://www2.freejpn.com/‾az0861/spirits.htm
さまざまな（いろいろな）酒
Japanese does not have strict rule to differentiate singular and plural. Therefore when translate, direct translation of singular would do. But if you want to emphasize it is plural, then you would use something like ----
さまざまな、いろいろな、種々の、etc.
As for dictionary definition of spirits -- (in English)
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=spirits
spirits An alcoholic beverage, especially distilled liquor.
Discussion