LogFAQs > #979515556

pokedude900 posted...

While musuko does mean son, it doesn't always carry the connotation of a relative. It can also just mean a young boy. Like I see musume used to mean girl all the time across various Japanese media.

Are you sure about that?

I used to study Japanese, including living in Japan for two years (admittedly, I was quite shy at the time so my speaking skills suffered), and I don't remember ever hearing musuko used to mean boy. Musume as girl? All the time. Definitely a thing. But musuko always meant son whenever I heard it.

But maybe I'm wrong. It has been a while since my Japanese studies were more than just watching subbed anime. So I looked up some Japanese/English dictionaries, but it seems to be as I remember. Musume can mean daughter or girl, but musuko just means son (ignoring the slang usage to mean penis).

I admit I might be missing some subtlety in the language, but unless someone better at Japanese comes in and tells me I'm mistaken I'm standing by my reading of SMB3's Japanese manual. Maybe you're fluent in it and I've been making a fool of myself, but I'm fairly confident on this one.