Is there a disappointed or sad "boo" equivalent in Japanese?
Kind of like:
Person 1: Hey man, can I borrow 10 dollars?
Person 2: Nah, I don't have any change.
Person 1: Boo, now I don't have enough to go to the concert.
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Could always try ブー ;) – ssb Jun 20 '13 at 06:09
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1Disappointed or sad...? Do you mean like トホホ? – Jun 20 '13 at 06:18
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@snailboat How about either? Since boo can be used for disappointment or sadness. Don't you think? – Tek Jun 20 '13 at 06:19
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I think it's more along the lines of "boo hoo" rather than a ghost "boo" or a sports "boo" in the context. Regional thing? I've never heard it. – jmac Jun 20 '13 at 07:06
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1I always thought "boo" in this context was more expressing disapproval (the sports "boo") and not sadness, but now this is becoming a question about English. – Jesse Good Jun 20 '13 at 07:14
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How about [嫌]{いや}だ? – Earthliŋ Jun 20 '13 at 07:18
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@jmac The "regional" thing could be that "boo hoo" is shortened to "boo". In which case wouldn't it be a duplicate of http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/9656/questions-on-the-word-%E3%82%B7%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B7%E3%82%AF? In which case I'll close my question =/ – Tek Jun 20 '13 at 07:21
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3@Tek Even if it were boo hoo, I don't think it's a duplicate of that questions, as if you were to say シクシク at the beginning of a sentence the meaning would probably not be conveyed in the sense you're asking. – jmac Jun 20 '13 at 07:23
2 Answers
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I think you could say 「トホホ」. It's a lot like "boo hoo". I've heard that it's used more in fiction than in real life, but I think that's true of "boo hoo", too.
Chocolate pointed out on chat that you could also say 「あーあ」. Although I don't see entries for this interjection in any Japanese dictionaries, you can find it in Japanese-English dictionaries such as edict. Edict describes it this way:
oh no (used as an expression of despair or when giving up); sigh of boredom or disgust; oh boy
Another related word is 「がっかり」. Again, I'll quote edict:
feel disappointed; dejected; lose heart; feel emotionally drained; feel let down
Edict lists more parts of speech for this word than Japanese dictionaries, so I decided to link to it here. You can say, for example, がっかりした or がっかりだ. I think you can also use it as an interjection, though the only place I could find listing it that way was ALC: がっかり！
