真ん中、真ん前、真後ろ、真上、真下、真横 - How different when there's no 真 right before?


> 真ん中、真ん前、真後ろ、真上、真下、真横 (*)
>
> 中, 前, 後ろ, 上, 下, 横 (**)

I think this is an easy question, but I wanna hear your opinions about them.

How different between (*) and (**) when there's a 真 right before?

I've seen a lot of words starting with 真 which're not included above, such as:
真っ白, 真っ赤,...

Is there a common way to understand the usage of 真 generally?

Thank you.




Let's take the answer from [the explanation of this
site](https://okjiten.jp/kanji505.html). Though I remember there was an expert
in both Japanese and Chinese. mine would not be a far away from his.

I assume questions in your question .... etc are equivalent with the the
meanings of the below from the above site.

For 真ん中、真ん前、真後ろ...

> ウ：「正確・中央などの意味」(例：真正面｛ましょうめん｝、真夜中｛まよなかまよなか｝)
>
> ウ: 「To denote accuracy, the center」（ Ex:Right in front, In the middle of the
> night )

For 真っ赤、真っ白

> (11) エ
>
> エ：「完全な」、「まじりもない」(例：真水、真っ白)
>
> (11) エ
>
> エ：「perfect」, 「mixed with impurities」( ex : purest water, pure white )

**In the case of direction**

Please take a look at the below picture which I made with Excel, and please
take it as 3 dimensional.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/XPMDQ.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/XPMDQ.jpg)

> 真ん中、真ん前、真後ろ、真上、真下、真横 (*)

These 6 stands for direction.

**In English** , the below 6 words denote directions as is defined above as ウ.
I would like to explain using the above picture.

The "center" is either yourself, or someone else, or something else. The
matter is if it is objective ( = yourself ) or subjective ( someone else,
itself ( as if you are watching them from outside )), I would like to explain
with the former, yourself.

> 真ん中
>
> right in the middle of **yourself**
>
> 真ん前
>
> right ahead of **yourself**
>
> 真後ろ
>
> right behind **yourself**
>
> 真上
>
> right above **yourself**
>
> 真下
>
> right beneath **yourself**
>
> 真横
>
> right beside **yourself**

The matter in concern is if what you see at is at "right ahead, or right
beneath" etc. As I marked ×真ん前（まんまえ） or ×真下（ました）, they should not be slanted.
In the case of yourself, the object you see at 真下（ました） must exist just right
straight beneath yourself. ( even 1 or 2 degree adjustment is not allowed (
strictly speaking )) Now, 真ん中、right in the middle of yourself, when what you
see at in the middle of yourself ( for example. your belly ), it exists at the
same position of yourself.

**Example sentence**

> 彼｛かれ｝が私｛わたし｝の真ん前｛まんまえ｝にいる.
>
> He is just right ahead of me.

Here, he, must be **right ahead of you**. ( even 1 or 2 degree position
movement is not allowed ( strictly speaking )). But in reality, there will
many cases that he would be at about 10 degree right side from **right ahead**
, so virtually, it it up to how you describe.

> 中, 前, 後ろ, 上, 下, 横 (**)
>
> They are respectively as I explained above
>
> middle, front, behind(back), above, beneath(below), side ( either left or
> right unknown )

And,

> 真っ白, 真っ赤
>
> **Pure ( entirely )** white, **Pure ( entirely )** red.

from the above definition エ.

Lastly,

> Is there a common way to understand the usage of 真 generally?

I don'think so.

Because as I quoted above definitions, they are different. ( But the nuance,
both meanings, "accuracy", "pure" have common ( or near ) semantic meanings (
in my opinion )).

