Jisho.org Forum

Generally, kimi is used for people of higher rank to lower rank. omai is used between closed friends, and anata is neutral.

Many textbooks say that "anata" shouldn't be used, and san or the title of the person should be use. However, I asked my Japanese friend about the usage of the word. He said that it is OK to use anata since it is neutral.

Context may be implied without ... implying it visually.

Forbidding always aim at some unit(s), group, therefore there is no need to concrete / include such in a sentence.

It'd look:
１６歳だけのですから、この映画を一人で見てはいけません。

For addressing people I strongly recommend this:
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/address.html#part4

@ccpan: really? i've only heard it being used when wives talk to their husbands, thats why i kinda agree with it.
oh and i think the place where i've read before is that link MaestroS provided.

@MaestroS: well, if you put it that way it makes sense (why didnt i think about it earlier...).
just curious here, but what if i wanted "この映画を一人で見てはいけません" at the front?
would it be like: "この映画を一人で見てはいけません,　16歳んです." ? Because the sentence only said "You are 16 years old" and didnt say anything about だけ or から. (or is it implied, so we translate accordingly?)

and yes, if there is one thing that i noticed fairly quickly since learning japanese is that most of the time, context is implied. Thats why you dont always see "私は...."; or even if you see it, it's in brackets like "（私は）...."

Think you got all your answer..well that's a nice way to learn Japanese though!

...? sorry i dont really get what you mean :P (see its just not with japanese language than im bad with these implied things, english too.)

if you meant that i already got my own answers to my questions then well.. haha, thanks. But i still need to ask anyways since im not that sure whether its right or not :P

But you shall not perform DIRECT translation. CONTEXTUAL translation is the best choice here. English and japanese language are very, very different and the way things are expressed in these both languages quite differs.

この映画を一人で見てはいけません,　16歳んです. would work in this way:

A: この映画を一人で見てはいけません。
B: どうして？
A: 16歳んですから。

Japanese people would give you reason if you might be forbidden to do something.

ah.. thank you for the explanation.

those contextual things are that im bad at. I do understand what they mean just.. i suppose my japanese is unnatural :P (yet... i hope..)

１６歳んです　×
１６歳なんです　◯

erm, what is なんです?

@kannonfodder

A contraction of なのです.

According to the context, I would say,
この映画を一人で見てはいけません。まだ１６歳ですから。or in more friendly conversation,
I may say:
この映画を一人で見てはいけない。まだ１６だから。
I add 「まだ」, meaning, "(not) yet" or "still" for clarification and naturalness...
If I use 「なんです」, I think it's better to add 「から」(「１６歳ですから」「16歳なんですから」) to show the reason.