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I saw this very interesting and useful Q&A: Is ending question sentences with の really feminine? a while back, and it seemed to align with my own understanding of the 終助詞の. But I have heard this usage from male speakers, both (very occasionally) in real life and (slightly more commonly) in anime, movies and online communication, which makes me wonder if this statement found in the accepted answer is really accurate.

Decidedly feminine is when you end a statement in の

I just heard this line in an anime:

男A：マジ悪いね、付き合わせて。
男B：バカバカ、寂しいこと言わないの。

A little research on Google revealed other similar examples:

In a radio interview, 加山雄三 says

１回なんて、寂しいこと言わないの。ありがとうございました。

A line seemingly uttered by a male character in a novel:

おー勿論。ていうか友達が遊びに来るのに理由は要らないだろ。借りとか寂しいこと言わないの。いつでも歓迎するよ

Is it over-generalized to think の only occurs in female speech? What kind of men use の this way?

Eddie Kal
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1 Answers1

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の sounds feminine only when it is used to make the statement less direct. The examples in the question mean the imperative.

Cf. の (emphasis added)

［終助］活用語の連体形に付く。

１ （下降調のイントネーションを伴って）断定の言い方を和らげる意を表す。多く、女性が使用する。「伺いたいことがあるの」「あいにく母は留守ですの」

２ （上昇調のイントネーションを伴って）質問または疑問の意を表す。「君は行かないの」「そんなに悲しいの」「なぜなの」

３ 強く決めつけて命令する意を表す。「余計なことを言わないの」「遊んでばかりいないで勉強するの」

４ 念を押すような気持ちで、詠嘆・感動の意を表す。「仲がよいことだの」

sundowner
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    Still #3 sounds more feminine than #2 to me. – aguijonazo Oct 17 '21 at 03:43
  • @aguijonazo To me, it sounds softer (than ordinary imperative) or sort of 'friendly', so that it might be more frequently used by women or girls. But it should not be exclusively feminine. – sundowner Oct 17 '21 at 07:15
  • As a second thought, somehow I can easily imagine a drunk guy saying a phrase that ends with の, including an imperative. – sundowner Oct 17 '21 at 13:18