#if you've seen this post on cohost that's also me and it still amuses me

[meaig]

One of the things I really like in languages in general is wordplay or usage of homophones and words with similar meanings.

Japanese delivers on both, and I especially love moments like these:

Text from the image:　「こたえる」とは言ったが、「こたえる」とは言ってねぇな]

Mikage basically says: "I said that I will 'respond', but I didn't say that I will 'answer' ". I found it really interesting and funny because not only 「応える」 and 「答える」 sound the same, they also have similar meanings: "to respond, to answer" and "to answer, to reply".

The catch is that the longer explanation of the first 「応える」 meaning goes like "to show a response, a reaction to something". Which means Mikage says he will react to the questions but not necessarily answer them.

This truly is golden, and makes learning so much more interesting for me ,D