ジョンは赤ちゃんを優しく抱きました。

Sentence Discussions Japanese
#1
English Translation

John held the baby gently.

Is it “いだく” or “だく” for this reading？

#2

@Conor_JPN
You are right. だく is the correct pronunciation in this context.

  • いだく means “to bear a feeling of” or “to have a thought/guess” (e.g. 疑念を抱く = to cast doubt on; 野望を抱く = to be ambitious).
  • だく means “to hug”, “to put one’s arms around somebody/something”, or “to have sexual intercourse” (slang).

If you don’t want other people to take the sentence as slang (i.e. pedophilia), you’d better say:

  1. ジョンは赤ちゃんを優しく抱っこしました。(pron. だっこしました)
  2. ジョンは赤ちゃんを優しく抱きかかえました。(pron. だきかかえました)

The first sentence is frequently used in the context of general babysitting. The second sentence with 抱きかかえる sometimes implies that the person is fragile, injured, sick or trapped in debris, and that the speaker (John) is rescuing them.

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