Japanese people often use the word, “guzen”, in various situations, meaning ‘accident’, ‘chance’ or ‘coincidence’ in Japanese. In this blog post, I will explain it in detail based on its kanji expression. And also, I will explain how Japanese people use it through examples. Let’s get started!

Contents

• Definition and meanings of “guzen”
• Kanji components of “guzen”
• Example of guzen meaning ‘coincidence’
• Example of guzen meaning ‘by chance’
• Summary

Definition and meanings of “guzen”

First of all, let me start with a definition and meanings of “guzen”.

• guzen – 偶然 (ぐうぜん) : a noun meaning ‘accident’, ‘chance’ or ‘coincidence’ in Japanese. From the grammatical point of view, it is a noun, but sometimes can be used like an adjective meaning ‘accidental’. Additionally, depending on context, it can also be used like an adverb meaning ‘accidentally’, ‘by chance’ or ‘unexpectedly’.

As you can see here, it has several definitions and meanings. In principle, it is a noun. Depending on context, however, it can also be used like an adjective or an adverb.

In Japanese, the border between nouns and na-adjectives can be very ambiguous since na-adjectives basically consist of one noun part and one conjugative suffix. Especially in casual conversation, therefore, only noun parts of na-adjectives are often used in the same way as na-adjectives are. For this reason, “guzen” can be used like an adjective depending on context.

Normally, nouns are very different from adverbs in Japanese. So, they cannot be used in the same way, or even in a similar way. Nevertheless, sometimes, “guzen” is used as an adverb to mean ‘accidentally’, ‘by chance’ or ‘unexpectedly’. This can be considered as its special trait. Later I will explain how to use it as an adverb through an example.

Kanji components of “guzen”

When we meet new kanji expressions, we should check their kanji components in detail to understand their meanings deeply. So, here, let me check kanji components of “guzen”. Below are the ones.

• 偶 – a kanji character widely used in Japanese words related to ‘being accidental’ or ‘contingency’.
• 然 – a kanji character widely used to express a state of something.

From these two kanji characters, we can understand that “guzen” literally expresses a state of something being accidental. This idea is completely in line with its meanings. In other words, its kanji expression exactly expresses what it means. Like this, checking kanji components in detail can be very helpful to deepen understanding of kanji expressions they form.

Example of guzen meaning ‘coincidence’

Below are new words used in the example.

• ano – あの : a demonstrative pronoun meaning ‘that’ in Japanese. In the example, it is put before the noun, “jikan”, to describe it.
• jikan – 時間 (じかん) : a noun meaning ‘time’ in Japanese. Learn more about “jikan”.
• ni – に : a case particle used to indicate a particular time when something happens. In the example, it is put after the noun phrase, “ano jikan”, to indicate the particular time when “I” met “him”.
• kare – 彼 (かれ) : a pronoun meaning ‘he’ in Japanese.
• to – と : a case particle often used to indicate a person being together with the speaker. Based on this concept, it is put after the pronoun, “kare”, to indicate the person that “I” met.
• at – 会っ (あっ) : one conjugation of the verb, “au”, meaning ‘to meet’ in Japanese. In the example, it has been conjugated for a better connection with its following word.
• ta – た : an auxiliary verb put after a verb or adjective to make its past tense. In the example, it is put after the conjugated verb, “at”, to make its past tense, “at ta”.
• koto – こと : a noun meaning ‘thing’, ‘matter’ or ‘affair’ in Japanese. It is often put at the end of sentence to make a noun clause. In the example, it is put after the sentence, “ano jikan ni kare to at ta”, to make a noun clause in the sentence. In this regard, its role is quite similar that of “that” in English.
• wa – は : a binding particle working as a case maker or topic maker. In the example, it is put after the noun clause, “ano jikan ni kare to at ta koto”, to make the subject in the sentence.
• deshi – でし : one conjugation of the auxiliary verb, “desu”, put after a noun or adjective to make it polite. In the example, it is put after the noun, “guzen”, to make it sound polite.

This is a typical usage of “guzen” as a noun, meaning ‘coincidence’. Japanese people often use it like this.

Example of guzen meaning ‘by chance’

Below are new words.

• watashi – 私 (わたし) : a pronoun meaning ‘I’ in Japanese.
• ai – 会い (あい) : one conjugation of the verb, “au”, meaning ‘to meet’ in Japanese. In the example, it has been conjugated for a better connection with its following word.
• mashi – まし : one conjugation of the auxiliary verb, “masu”, put after a verb to make it polite. In the example, it is put after the conjugated verb, “ai”, to make it sound polite.

In this example, “guzen” is used as an adverb meaning ‘by chance’. Since it is used as an adverb, we can put it almost everywhere in the sentence.

This example sentence could sound a bit more casual than the previous one. This doesn’t mean it cannot be used in formal situations though.

Summary

In this blog post, I’ve explained the word, “guzen”, in detail based on its kanji expression. And also, I’ve explained its usages through examples. Let me summarize them as follows.

• guzen – 偶然 (ぐうぜん) : a noun meaning ‘accident’, ‘chance’ or ‘coincidence’ in Japanese. From the grammatical point of view, it is a noun, but sometimes can be used like an adjective meaning ‘accidental’. Additionally, depending on context, it can also be used like an adverb meaning ‘accidentally’, ‘by chance’ or ‘unexpectedly’.

Hope my explanations are understandable and helpful for Japanese learners.

Masaki Mori

Japanese Particles Master

Masaki Mori is a Japanese particles master. Through teaching Japanese language, he is trying to spread the culture of Japan. His goal is to preserve it as much as possible.

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