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Related: About this forumJapanese word nuances: 美味しい (oishii) vs. 美味い (umai) used to describe food
Im always amazed at the differences in nuances between words that seem so similar at first glance. Oftentimes these subtleties are not described in a dictionary anywhere, and the only way to really get them is to ask a native, or spend many years of your life immersed in that culture hoping you can acquire the linguistic sensibility of a native.
In todays post Id like to talk about two words, which both are typically used to be describe good-tasting food. They are おいしい (oishii) and うまい (umai).
The former of these, oishii, is typically taught in textbooks as a standard way to say food tastes good, which would roughly parallel with English This is great or This tastes good. It can also be used to express a good-sounding offer, 美味しい話 (oishii hanashi).
umai fundamentally means someone is good or skillful at something, as in the expression 口が美味い (kuchi ga umai), which means something like a smooth talker or someone who is good at swaying others. It is somewhat similar to 上手 (jouzu) for this usage. However, it can also be used to mean tasty in a way similar to oishii.
I remember a long time ago when I first started studying Japanese, a good friend of mine had told me a story where he was corrected by a Japanese person who said he should not use umai in a certain situation. I dont remember the exact details, but I think he said something about how it was less polite than oishii.
I brought up this topic with a Japanese person today, and she confirmed that umai is definitely less polite. She used the following words to describe it:
下品 (gehin): crude
下町 (shitamachi): downtown (in this case, sort of the opposite of culturally refined)
砕けた (kudaketa): slang (literally broken)
She recounted a story where she saw that word used in a childrens book, and how that somehow felt inappropriate, since it be unusual for a child to use this word. However, for older males she said she felt it would be perfectly normal.
So there does seem to be a significant difference between these words, although when exactly is safe to use umai is a bit unclear. Personally I try to keep to using more oishii, though if the mood strikes me I will throw in umai once in a while. At minimum, you may want to consider at least using oishii whenever you are speaking with polite Japanese (ie. desu/masu forms).
Even if I were to interview 100 Japanese people and get a good consensus on these two words, Id bet that would change in the next decade or so, since Japanese seems to be evolving at a pretty fast pace these days.
Note: In the title I wrote these words in Kanji, but in practical use I think the their hiragana forms are more common.
http://selftaughtjapanese.com/2015/11/16/japanese-word-nuances-%E7%BE%8E%E5%91%B3%E3%81%97%E3%81%84-oishii-vs-%E7%BE%8E%E5%91%B3%E3%81%84-umai-used-to-describe-food/
edited to note:
However, there is one caveat for using umai. Except for the third usage, umai is considered to be a very informal and not-too-polite word. It should only be used by males in informal situations. If females use it, they are considered to be a bit rude or mannish.