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Why JLPT N1 learners mix up 謹む (つつしむ, “to be careful, to be chaste or discreet”) and 舞う (まう, “to dance, to flutter about, to revolve”).
Both are verbs describing specific physical postures or movements-controlled restraint versus expressive dancing. They are often found in classical or highly formal literature describing traditional Japanese etiquette.
On JLPT N1, this pair shows up as a vocabulary meaning question. You see one word and pick its English equivalent from four options — one of which will be the other word in this pair, chosen as a distractor precisely because of the overlap.
Reading the explanation is step one. Targeted practice is what actually moves a confusion pair out of your weak list. Free, no signup needed to try.
Practice N1 confusion pairsSpot a mistake in this explanation? Email us. Explanations are AI-generated and human-reviewed; corrections welcome.