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ばらばら

barabara

One lump comes apart into pieces: ばらばら

The picture Something that was held together as one lump comes loose and ends up lying about in separate pieces. ばらばら is coming apart and going each its own way; ぴったり is overlapping with no gap and becoming one.

Adverbs and sound words

Where the picture shows up in ばらばら

  1. smashed into pieces

    落として、皿がばらばらになりました。

    otoshite, sara ga barabara ni narimashita

    I dropped it and the plate smashed to bits.

    A plate hitting the floor and flinging white shards out in every direction

  2. order broken up

    書類の順番がばらばらです。

    shorui no junban ga barabara desu

    The documents are all out of order.

    A stack of pages thumbed through with the numbers running 3, 7, 1

  3. people arriving separately

    みんなばらばらに来ました。

    minna barabara ni kimashita

    Everyone turned up at different times.

    The door of the meeting place opening three separate times, one person coming in each time

    Used adverbially as ばらばらに.

  4. opinions each its own way

    意見がばらばらで、まだ決まりません。

    iken ga barabara de, mada kimarimasen

    Opinions are split, so nothing has been decided yet.

    Five fingers around a meeting table, each pointing in a different direction

  5. taken apart on purpose

    修理のために機械をばらばらにしました。

    shuuri no tame ni kikai o barabara ni shimashita

    I took the machine apart to fix it.

    Screws and parts removed one by one and laid out on a bench, the empty shell beside them

    ばらばらにする is scattering something deliberately.

All of it in one picture

Follow the scattered pieces and all five line up. A plate throwing shards across the floor is broken; page numbers jumbled out of order is a mess. People coming through the door one at a time arrived separately, and fingers pointing five different ways is a meeting that hasn't agreed. Screws and parts laid out on a bench is a machine taken apart.

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