Translation guide
The English word 'tan' has several distinct meanings. This guide covers the most common ones: a suntan, the color tan, the mathematical tangent function, and the process of tanning leather. Each meaning has different Japanese expressions.
The brown color of skin from sun exposure.
The most common word for suntan or sunburn. Can refer to both a healthy tan and a burn, depending on context.
夏に海で日焼けした。
I got a tan at the beach in the summer.
日焼け止めを塗らないと、ひどく日焼けするよ。
If you don't put on sunscreen, you'll get a bad sunburn.
Literally 'wheat-colored skin', a common and positive way to describe a tanned complexion.
彼女は小麦色の肌がきれいだ。
She has a beautiful tan.
Loanword from English 'suntan'. Used in fashion/beauty contexts, but less common than 日焼け.
サンタンオイルを買った。
I bought suntan oil.
The light brown color.
Loanword used for the color tan, especially in fashion and design.
タンのジャケットが欲しい。
I want a tan jacket.
Light brown color, a more traditional Japanese description.
The trigonometric function tangent.
Standard mathematical term. Often abbreviated to タン in speech.
タンジェントの値を計算してください。
Please calculate the value of the tangent.
Formal mathematical term for tangent, used in textbooks.
The process of treating animal hides to make leather.
The noun for tanning (leather). The verb is なめす.
この工場では革のなめしを行っている。
This factory carries out leather tanning.
Specifically vegetable tanning using tannins. Technical term.
タンニンなめしの革は丈夫だ。
Vegetable-tanned leather is durable.
日焼け (hiyake) covers both suntan and sunburn. Context or modifiers like ひどい (severe) clarify the meaning. For a clear 'sunburn', you can say 日焼けで赤くなった (turned red from sunburn).
I painted the wall tan.
Draw the graph of the tangent function.