Common Phrases

Linguists tell us about different kinds of words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and about the different parts of a sentence: subject, predicate, direct object, and how sentences are constructed. 

But human languages are not just structures where you just fill in the slots with the appropriate kinds of words. Idioms and standard phrases abound.  Unless you are familiar with these standard phrases, you would not sound like a native speaker, no matter how accurate your accent is.  In fact, you would sound rather odd.

Suppose you knew all the English words, and all of English grammar, but not the standard way of saying things? How would you ask to be excused because you need to use the toilet?  Dr Beverly Hofstadter (Leonard’s mother in ‘The Big Bang Theory’), excuses herself thusly: “I have to urinate.”

Perfectly correct grammar. Impeccable diction. Totally weird.

I found a nice little book called: “A Handbook of Common Japanese Phrases”, which explains common phrases.  I’m not sure yet how useful it’ll be for me, because most of the phrases seem to fit in a Japanese context, like traditional New Year greetings and traditional responses to them. 

But there’s a few that seem common enough for every day use.  I list a couple below, and will list those that I find useful as I use the book more.

おつかれさま (otsukare-sama) – good work. 

Something co-workers say to another who is leaving for the day.

If I didn’t know about this phrase, I would only be able to say things like さようなら (sayoonara) ‘good-bye’, or また あした (mata ashita) ‘see you tomorrow’.

Another stock phrase is おさきに しつれい します (osakini shitsurei itashimasu) ‘Pardon me, but I’m off’. Although the itashimasu part is a bit too honorific. I suppose you can say shimasu.

Soo Desu

According to Ann Tarumoto’s book, そうです(soo desu) can mean ‘so I hear’, or ‘I understand that…’, depending on how it’s used.

To say ‘I hear it’s hot’, we can use the plain form of the verb hot さむい (samui), and add そうで.

Recall that the plain form of a verb is the less formal form.  The plain forms for the adjective さむい (samui) are:

• さむい (samui) It’s cold.
• さむくない (samuku nai) It’s not cold.
• さむかった (samukatta) It was cold.
• さむくなかった (samuku nakatta) It wasn’t cold.

So, to say ‘I understand he is busy’ =  いそがしい そうです (isogashii so desu).

Questions

To change a adjective type sentence to a question, just add か (ka) at the end.

It’s new. あたらしい です (Atarashii desu).

Is it new? あたらしい です か? (Atarashii desu ka?)

For casual language, だ (da) replaces です (desu):

あたらしい だ Atarashii da.

But to change it to a question, you don’t change it to da ka.  Instead, ka replaces da.

あたらしい か? (Atarashii ka?)

Women more often drop the ka:

あたらしい? (Atarashii?)

since apparently the ka sounds abrupt when speaking casually.