Usage patterns 芋いも を 掘ほ る to dig up potatoes
In autumn, we dig up potatoes in the field.
芋いも を 引ひ く to fail; to draw a blank
I completely choked in the important match.
芋いも の 皮かわ をむく to peel a potato
My mother peeled the potatoes and put them in the curry.
芋いも を 蒸む す to steam a potato
I steamed a potato and topped it with butter.
Expressions 芋いも を 洗あら うよう jam-packed; teeming; heaving with people 芋いも の 煮に えたもご 存ぞん じない being ignorant of the ways of the world; knowing nothing of life Related words 芋 is a slangy, insulting way to call someone a bumpkin, while 田舎者 is a more direct, standard term for a person from the countryside.
田舎っぺ is a very colloquial, mocking term for a country bumpkin, similar in tone to using 芋 this way, but 田舎っぺ is more explicitly about rural origin.
芋 is a broad term covering tubers and root vegetables like taro and sweet potato, while じゃがいも refers specifically to the common potato.
Counted with The all-purpose counter for small discrete objects, used when no more specific counter applies.
Used for long, slender potatoes/tubers (芋 ), whereas 個 is the more common counter for potatoes in general.
Word family· 67 potato
sweet potato
roasted sweet potato; baked sweet potato
imoni; taro and meat soup
hornworm; hairless caterpillar
Show 16 more Show fewer taro; dasheen; eddo
Japanese yam; Dioscorea japonica
Chinese yam; nagaimo
sweet-potato vines
taro; cocoyam; dasheen
seed potato
shrimp-shaped taro variety
sweet potato
groundnut; hodo; potatobean
secondary taro corm; taro cormel; taro bud
tertiary taro corm; taro cormlet
paddy-field taro; taro grown in flooded fields
purple yam; water yam · purple-fleshed sweet potato · Conus pauperculus (cone shell)
purple sweet potato
freeze up; get scared; lose one's nerve · camp; stay in one spot
rustic samurai; boorish samurai
See all 67 in Explore →
Written forms 芋いも Usage 40%
Standard kanji spelling for tubers and related senses.
イモ Usage 30%
kana-only spelling
Katakana spelling used for emphasis, in casual contexts, or when referring to the derogatory sense.
いも Usage 28%
藷いも Usage 1%
rarely-used kanji form
Rarely used kanji form; mainly seen in specific plant names or older texts.
薯いも Usage <1%
rarely-used kanji form
Rarely used kanji form; mainly seen in specific plant names or older texts.
Etymology The historical derivation is uncertain. The kanji 芋 is conventionally associated with tubers.
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