uri futatsu lit. ‘two halves of a melon’
Japanese idiom, everyday. To look or be almost exactly alike.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Japanese speaker.
How do people use 瓜二つ
?
Everyday Japanese, mostly about faces: twins, siblings, or a child who’s the image of a parent. It behaves like a noun, so you add だ (“あの二人は瓜二つだ”) and use と for the person someone resembles: “トムは母親と瓜二つだ”. In front of another noun it takes の, as in “瓜二つの姉妹” (sisters who look identical).
Also said 瓜を二つに割ったよう
瓜二つ
in real sentences
-
あの双子は瓜二つだな。
Ano futago wa uri futatsu da na.
Those twins look like two peas in a pod.
Tatoeba, sentence by bunbuku, translation by Zifre, CC BY 2.0 FR
-
トムは母親と瓜二つだ。
Tomu wa hahaoya to uri futatsu da.
Tom looks just like his mother.
Tatoeba, sentence by daifons, translation by Hybrid, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does 瓜二つ
come from?
Digital Daijisen (via Kotobank) explains the picture as a melon split lengthwise into two matching halves, and the proverb dictionary on Kotobank lists the longer form 瓜を二つに割ったよう. Its oldest quotation is from Natsume Sōseki’s I Am a Cat (1905 to 1906), where one man’s face is 瓜二つ with another’s. English Wiktionary glosses the words more loosely as “two cucumbers”, since 瓜 covers melons, cucumbers and gourds alike.
Mistakes learners make with 瓜二つ
Adding a comparison word, as in “瓜二つのように”. The phrase already contains the comparison, so it simply takes だ or の.
Other Japanese idioms like 瓜二つ
Spot a mistake in 瓜二つ
?
Send a correction, or a sentence you’d actually say with it. Everything is read before anything on this page changes.