What Do You Mean by ‘Susumeru’?

Japanese is rich in homonyms – words that sound the same but have different meaning (in fact, their pronunciation differs sometimes because of intonation, but it is not heard easily, so we will omit this aspect). In case of Japanese language, you can additionally see this difference reflected in the kanji characters they are written with!
Above is the example of susumeru, which mostly takes three forms:

進める – susumeru – to move ahead.
e.g.: 「進め！」と団長が新兵たちに叫んだ。
`Susume!' to danchō ga shinpei-tachi ni sakenda.
‘Proceed!’ shouted the leader to the recruits.

勧める – susumeru – to advise something.
e.g.: 調査兵団に入ることは勧めない。
Chōsa heidan ni hairu koto wa susumenai.
It is not recommended to join the Survey Corps.

薦める – susumeru– to recommend something.
e.g.: 巨人のアニメを友達に薦めた。
Kyojin no anime o tomodachi ni susumeta.
I recommended the giant anime to my friends.

Written by Amelia Lipko