Which is the best word to put in all brackets.
- ( )い おゆで コーヒーを いれないで ください。
- のどが かわいていたので、おちゃが ( )くて よかった。
- おふろが ( )かったから、かぜを ひいた。
- ビールが ( )くなって、おいしくない。
a. あたたか(い) b. あつ(い) c. つめた(い) d. ぬる(い)
The answer is d. ぬる(い), which is usually translated as “lukewarm.”
The translation of each choices are:
- Please don’t make coffee with lukewarm water.
- As I was thirsty, it was good that the tea was lukewarm.
- As the bath (water) was lukewarm, I’ve caught a cold.
- The beer has gotten luckwarm, and it is not nice.
Having said that, the nuance of ぬるい is more like “not hot enough” and/or “not cold enough” against your expectation. So for these examples, the temperature of the actual liquid would be:
- lower than around 80 ℃
- around 50 to 60 ℃
- lower than around 35 ℃ (In Japan usual bath water temp is about 40 ℃)
- above 10 ℃
ぬるい is not about the actual temperature.