The difference between "Okiniiri no" and "Ichiban suki na"


My text book has the following examples:

> _Ichiban suki na nomimono wa mizu desu._  
>  My favorite drink is water.
>
> _Okiniiri no tabemono wa piza desu._  
>  My favorite food is pizza.

What's the difference between "Okiniiri no" and "Ichiban suki na"?




**Essentially the difference is one thing (一番好【いちばんす】きな) vs more than one
thing (お気【き】に入【い】りの).**

* * *

The way I see it here in Japan the 一番好きな phrase is powerful and states your
_most liked_ item/thing/etc. (singular/単数)

You can think of it as "like most" instead of "favorite". When comparing the
degree you like something in Japanese this would have the figurative gold star
next to it.

* * *

Then we have the お気に入り phrase which I like to think of as a list of things you
have stowed away in box. (multiple things/リスト的・複数【ふくすう】)

A good example would be your bookmarks in your browser; when you find a
something on the internet you like you go up to the top and press the _o kini
iri_ / **お気に入り** button. However, if you were asked what your _favorite_ site
is you wouldn't show them a list of all your bookmarks right? That would be
the use of the "ichiban suki na no ha" phrase, not the o kini iri phrase.

However, if someone asked you.

"Show me your top 10 favorite websites."

That would be where you would use the お気に入り phrase. You could say,

> あなたのお気に入りのウェブサイト、トップ１０を教えて！

or

> 気に入っているトップ１０ウェブサイトを教えてください。

Hope this helped.




I think you can roughly equate

  * 一番好きな _ichiban suki na_ = my [most] favourite
  * お気に入りの _okiniiri no_ = one of my favourites

so that

> _Ichiban suki na nomimono wa mizu desu._  
>  My favourite drink is water.
>
> _Okiniiri no tabemono wa piza desu._  
>  Pizza is one of my favourite foods.

You can have several _okiniiri no_ things, but only one _ichiban suki na_
thing.

