ぱらぱら
ぱらぱら
adverb, na-adjective, no-adjective, onomatopoeia
scattered; sprinkled; flipping (pages)
1.
lightly falling in scattered drops or pieces
Describes rain, snow, or small objects falling lightly and sparsely, not in a heavy continuous flow.
雨がぱらぱら降ってきた。
It started to sprinkle.
小雨がぱらぱらと降っている。
A light rain is falling in scattered drops.
花びらがぱらぱらと散って地面を覆った。
Petals fell lightly and scattered, covering the ground.
2.
flipping through pages; leafing through
The sound or action of quickly turning pages of a book or magazine.
雑誌をぱらぱらめくる。
To flip through a magazine.
辞書をぱらぱらとめくって探した。
I flipped through the dictionary to look it up.
待ち時間に本をぱらぱらと読んでいた。
I was leafing through a book while waiting.
3.
loose and separated; not clumped together
Describes grains like rice being nicely separated rather than sticky or clumped.
ぱらぱらの炒飯が好きだ。
I like fried rice with loose, separated grains.
強火で炒めるとぱらぱらになる。
If you stir-fry on high heat, the grains come out nice and loose.
このレシピなら、家庭でもぱらぱらの炒飯が簡単に作れる。
With this recipe, you can easily make fried rice with perfectly separated grains even at home.
A versatile onomatopoeia with distinct but related meanings all sharing the image of light, scattered, discrete elements. Can be written with or without the particle と (ぱらぱらと or ぱらぱら).
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- ぱらぱら降る: to sprinkle (rain)
- ぱらぱらめくる: to flip through (pages)
- ぱらぱらの炒飯: fried rice with separated grains
SIMILAR WORDS:
- ぽつぽつ: scattered drops — implies larger, more distinct drops
- ざあざあ: heavy rain pouring — much heavier than ぱらぱら
- ぺらぺら: flipping pages rapidly, or speaking fluently — different nuance