ぶるplay the …; put on airs
Someone makes a show of being something: the expert, the grown-up, the good child. It grates on the person saying it. Everyday, and alive: people put it on new words.
He plays the expert and uses nothing but difficult words.
as praise
He doesn't put on airs, and he listens to what the younger staff think as well.
How to form it
専門家 → 専門家ぶる ／ 上品な → 上品ぶる ／ 偉い → 偉ぶる
A noun, a な-adjective without な, or a few い-adjectives without い. It changes like a godan verb (う-verb): ぶって, ぶった, ぶらない.
- Said about
- Other people. About yourself, mostly to deny it (善人ぶるつもりはないが, "not that I'm playing the saint") or looking back at yourself as a child.
- Tone
- Critical, or teasing with a child. In the negative it is praise: 偉ぶらない人, someone with no airs.
- Where you'll meet it
- Conversation, novels, columns.
The words you will hear
大人ぶるact grown-up
Every time I tried to talk like a grown-up, my mother was holding back a laugh.
いい子ぶるplay the good boy or girl
My little brother only plays the good boy in front of the teacher.
上品ぶるput on refined airs
I just can't warm to her affected, refined way of talking.
もったいぶるmake a big thing of it; keep people waiting on purpose
Don't keep me in suspense. Hurry up and tell me the result.
知ったかぶりpretending to know (a noun)
If you don't know, just ask, without pretending that you do.
Others: 通ぶる (play the connoisseur), 悪ぶる (play the bad boy), 被害者ぶる (play the victim), 先輩ぶる (pull rank as the senior).
A show, not a lie
Someone who really is your senior can still 先輩ぶる. What grates is the show, not whether it is true. And it goes on a word for a role or a quality. Pretending to be asleep, or not to hear, is ふりをする: 寝たふりをする.
大人びる or 大人ぶる?
My sister is only in junior high, but she talks like someone much older.
How she comes across. Nobody is putting on an act.
My sister is only in junior high, but she puts on a grown-up way of talking.
An act, put on to be seen, and you aren't impressed.
びる is a look that has come by itself. ぶる is a show.
Close neighbours
びるN1
A look that has come by itself, with no act in it. Only a handful of words: 大人びる, 古びる.
As the boy grew taller, his face suddenly began to look grown-up.
ふりをするN3
Plain pretending, after any plain form. It says the thing isn't so.
Although he knew the answer, he pretended not to know.
Check yourself
1Which sentence is a complaint about her?
Choose an answer to see why.
2Which one fits?
彼は
Choose an answer to see why.
More sentences
That customer was playing the connoisseur as he chose the wine.
Not that I'm playing the saint, but I can't walk past someone in trouble.
The hero of the novel talks in a would-be gentlemanly way.