ken'en no naka lit. ‘the relationship of dog and monkey’
Japanese idiom, everyday. Two people who are always arguing.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Japanese speaker.
How do people use 犬猿の仲
?
Everyday and used in both speech and writing for two people (or teams, or countries) who can’t stand each other. It’s a noun phrase: “あの二人は犬猿の仲だ” (those two are like dog and monkey). Japanese has no cat in this picture, so learners translating “cat and dog” word for word get a puzzled look.
Also said 犬と猿, 犬猿の間柄
犬猿の仲
in real sentences
-
あの犬猿の仲だったトムとメアリーが結婚するなんて、もうびっくり仰天だよ。
Ano ken'en no naka datta Tomu to Mearī ga kekkon suru nante, mō bikkuri gyōten da yo.
I’m amazed that Tom and Mary, who used to fight like cat and dog, are getting married.
Tatoeba, sentence by bunbuku, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does 犬猿の仲
come from?
Japanese Wiktionary lists it as a set idiom meaning a very bad relationship, and the Kotowaza o Shiru Jiten (via Kotobank) defines it as snarling at each other like a dog and a monkey. Nihon Kokugo Daijiten’s quotation is only from 1971 (Inoue Hisashi), which surely isn’t the first use. Nobody explains why dogs and monkeys, and the explanations floating around online are folk stories.
Mistakes learners make with 犬猿の仲
Reading 犬猿 with the native words いぬさる. The idiom uses the Chinese-style reading けんえん.
Other Japanese idioms like 犬猿の仲
Spot a mistake in 犬猿の仲
?
Send a correction, or a sentence you’d actually say with it. Everything is read before anything on this page changes.