Which is the most common way to say "awkward"; 違和感, 気詰まり, or 気まずい?


Which is the most common way to say "awkward"; [違和感]{いわかん}, [気詰]{きづ}まり, or
[気]{き}まずい? Or if neither of the three, what word can I use?

For example, being the only one eating in the office is awkward for me and I'd
like to know how to express this.

Thanks in advance.




I think [this page](https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/awkward) might provide a
lot of useful examples. As you probably know, when translating, sometimes it
is best not to think about the specific word but rather to consider the
situation. I mean that sometimes, the dictionary will give you an output that
technically yes, (most of the times) is the direct translation of the word you
are looking for, but it might not be the appropriate word for that case. I
mean that for example, sometimes you might naturally use "awkward" in English,
but in Japanese they would probably use a different word.

In general, to the extent of my knowledge, 気まずい generally works well. You can
find several examples on weblio as well:

> 気まずい沈黙, an awkward silence
>
> 気まずい会話のとぎれ, an awkward gap in the conversation
>
> 私は気まずいかと思った, I thought it might be awkward

etc. To get to your specific example, I think that you could express feeling
awkward for being the only one eating in the office using 気まずい:
オフィスで私だけ食べるのはちょっと気まずい。。

Now to extend the discussion from the link above, you will see that weblio
reports 4 different cases for awkward:

  1. Something related to people such as movements etc.

In this case you have ぎこちない，ぶざまな; 不器用な，下手な.

See for example 下手な? As I mentioned before maybe this would not come to mind
if you stick to trying to use a more direct translation of "awkward". However,
that dictionary gives this example just using 下手な:

> 彼はピンポンが下手だ: he is awkward at ping pong

  2. Something related to things (hard to handle, inconvenient): 

Here you can use things such as 扱いにくい，不便な with the example being:

> 扱いにくい道具 : an awkward tool

  3. **a.** Something abstract such as situations, questions etc.

Here you have stuff like やりにくい，やっかいな，困った:

> やっかいな問題, an awkward question.

**b.** if the abstract thing is time you can use 都合の悪い:

> at an awkward hour 都合の悪い時間に.

**c.** if the abstract thing is something like silence, you can use 気まずい or
気詰まりな:

> 気詰まりな沈黙, an awkward silence

At the same page above you can even find more examples. As a tip, what
sometimes helps me in this kind of situation is to try a reverse search and
look for the original word I'm looking for as if I were someone on the other
side trying to understand its meaning.

I mean, in this case I would look for the meaning of "awkward" as if I were
Japanese. For example, just by googling "awkward 英語", which generally leads
not just the translation, but also to a lot of examples of usage as well.




I think [this page](https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/awkward) might provide a
lot of useful examples. As you probably know, when translating, sometimes it
is best not to think about the specific word but rather to consider the
situation. I mean that sometimes, the dictionary will give you an output that
technically yes, (most of the times) is the direct translation of the word you
are looking for, but it might not be the appropriate word for that case. I
mean that for example, sometimes you might naturally use "awkward" in English,
but in Japanese they would probably use a different word.

In general, to the extent of my knowledge, 気まずい generally works well. You can
find several examples on weblio as well:

> 気まずい沈黙, an awkward silence
>
> 気まずい会話のとぎれ, an awkward gap in the conversation
>
> 私は気まずいかと思った, I thought it might be awkward

etc. To get to your specific example, I think that you could express feeling
awkward for being the only one eating in the office using 気まずい:
オフィスで私だけ食べるのはちょっと気まずい。。

Now to extend the discussion from the link above, you will see that weblio
reports 4 different cases for awkward:

  1. Something related to people such as movements etc.

In this case you have ぎこちない，ぶざまな; 不器用な，下手な.

See for example 下手な? As I mentioned before maybe this would not come to mind
if you stick to trying to use a more direct translation of "awkward". However,
that dictionary gives this example just using 下手な:

> 彼はピンポンが下手だ: he is awkward at ping pong

  2. Something related to things (hard to handle, inconvenient): 

Here you can use things such as 扱いにくい，不便な with the example being:

> 扱いにくい道具 : an awkward tool

  3. **a.** Something abstract such as situations, questions etc.

Here you have stuff like やりにくい，やっかいな，困った:

> やっかいな問題, an awkward question.

**b.** if the abstract thing is time you can use 都合の悪い:

> at an awkward hour 都合の悪い時間に.

**c.** if the abstract thing is something like silence, you can use 気まずい or
気詰まりな:

> 気詰まりな沈黙, an awkward silence

At the same page above you can even find more examples. As a tip, what
sometimes helps me in this kind of situation is to try a reverse search and
look for the original word I'm looking for as if I were someone on the other
side trying to understand its meaning.

I mean, in this case I would look for the meaning of "awkward" as if I were
Japanese. For example, just by googling "awkward 英語", which generally leads
not just the translation, but also to a lot of examples of usage as well.

