Translation guide
Ways to express avoiding a topic, question, or responsibility in Japanese, ranging from indirect phrasing to direct refusal.
The speaker avoids answering directly, often by changing the subject or giving a vague reply.
Literally 'to divert the conversation'. A common, natural way to describe evading a topic.
He always dodges the topic.
Without answering that question, he changed the subject.
To dodge a question or evade giving a clear answer, often with a sense of being evasive or slippery.
He dodged the question.
Don't be evasive; please answer properly.
To gloss over, deceive, or cover up. Used when someone avoids the truth or fudges an answer.
He laughed it off to evade the issue.
He tried to cover up his mistake.
To speak ambiguously or beat around the bush, literally 'to muddy one's words'.
He beat around the bush and didn't say it clearly.
To evade skillfully and persistently, often with a slippery or non-committal attitude. Conveys a sense of dodging repeatedly.
He evaded skillfully and never touched on the core issue.
The speaker shirks an obligation or escapes a situation.
To escape from or avoid something undesirable, such as responsibility, danger, or a situation.
He tried to evade responsibility.
To avoid or evade, often used in formal contexts like risk avoidance or duty evasion.
He evaded military service.
To run away or flee; can be used metaphorically for evading a situation.
To slip through or evade, often implying sneaking past a barrier or obligation.
Specifically refers to illegally avoiding taxes.
はぐらかす focuses on dodging a question or giving an evasive answer, while ごまかす implies deception or covering up the truth. ごまかす can also mean to cheat or falsify.
The English word 'evasion' is often translated as 回避 (kaihi) in formal contexts, but in everyday conversation, more specific phrases like 話をそらす or はぐらかす are more natural. Using 回避 for casual dodging can sound overly stiff.
You can't escape from reality.
危険を回避するために迂回した。
We took a detour to avoid danger.
彼はいつも面倒なことから逃げる。
He always runs away from troublesome things.
He slipped through the checkpoint.