"ごちそうさまでした。"
Translation:Thank you for the meal!
86 Comments
hello. We say "itadakimasu"(いただきます) before the meal. And we say "gotisousama" (ごちそうさま) or "gotisousamadesita" （ごちそうさまでした）after the meal.
I had watched family were praying to their god before meal in the movies.
And I had thought there are resemble custom in the world.
We say with the feeling of thankful.
95
Thank you. What I meant was, does the phrase have a literal meaning (e.g. I guess that こんにちは comes from 「今日は[I hope you are doing well]」 or sth like that)? ごちそうさま looks like a noun for me, and indeed it’s listed in jisho () ご馳走さま , but not with a very enlightening definition. Could you explain what it roughly means?
ごちそう means feast. So this phrase would literally mean "It was a feast". As for the さま、it's the same one used as a honorific, I believe. Just part of the set phrase.
The are three different systems to write in romaji. そら It's using nihon-shiki, while the most common in this forum is the hepburn system. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Japanese
Thank you!
Romaji has 'English' wiki! Wow! ( ˆoˆ ) Is romaji famous? Really?
It is called 'ヘボン式' as 'the Hepburn system' in Japan.
(However we call it 'オードリー・ヘプバーン' as Audrey Hepburn) 'the Hepburn system' is a bit hard. For example, I type 'tatititeto' as 'たちつてと' in J style. But 'ta chi tsu te to' as 'たちつてと' in H style. I think 'たちつてと' is one group. They are friends, similar friends. 'T' plus vowel. Why 'ch', 's'? (´･_･`) I do not know. Because English pronunciation is not my basic. More confuse 'ちゃ'. I use 'tya' as 'ちゃ'. ちゃ is a combination of 'ち' and small 'や'. 'ti' plus 'ya' → tya. Why 'cha’ as 'ちゃ'? I am confused... And sorry. So I use nihon-shiki.（＾∇＾）
But this is very interesting. I didn't know that everybody use the Hepburn system. I am a minority here.
In English, "ch" (sometimes "tch") is its own special sound, so ちゃ = "chya", but the ゃ seems to remove the "y" sound, so we write "cha." It was confusing to me, too, at first, because, logically, I would think ち would sound like "ti."
ふ is also confusing, because it is the only character in Japanese that makes an "F" sound, (logically, I would expect it to be "hu," not "fu"). They are very different sound classes in English. In English, "F" is closest to "V" (unvoiced versus voiced). But Japanese doesn't have "V" at all! You use a "B" sound, instead (e.g., my name is Dave, but in kata it's デイブ, and Deibu in romaji).
Every language has its special cases, I suppose. :D Thanks for all your very helpful comments on these lessons!
@デイブ
Chuck Norris is written as 'チャック・ノリス/ちゃっく・のりす'. Yes, it is 'ch...'. I see. You say like this sound.: )
Yes, typically we feel F and H are close sounds.
Line of は. はひふへほ ha hi hu he ho
It is difficult that thinking F and V are close for Japanese.
But the knowledge of your comment is much helpful for Listening! I am not a English native speaker and not a child already. It is necessary to counsciously listen it. It is very important that we know the theory of sounds, I think.
Thank you! :D
Originally, these odd sounds were in line with all the others. But [i] has a habit of palatalizing a preceding consonant, producing palatals. [ti]→[t͡ʃi]. Consonants like [t], [d], [s], and [z] are prone to palatalizing. In English words of Romance (French and Latin being two of them) origins, /k/ and /g/ are palatalized instead. In English, however, you can often hear a palatalized /t/ or /d/ such as in: ‹did you›→/dɪd.juː/→[dɪ.d͡ʒuː].
I hope this explains sufficiently, or if not, it should set you on an expedition to learn more about phonological changes.
@LiKenun
I have just known 'grammar Nazi'. hahaha You are a necessary person here.
@LiKenun Thank you for the wonderful explanation. Few things are as interesting as reading about phonological changes across languages.
English also has this palatalized /s/ as in <as you> ~ /æʒju:/. But I am not sure if it is just an American English thing or encountered in other dialects as well.
I was a bit confused about the various rōmaji systems at first (wondering 'but where's ti tho?' and later... 'ti? what the what?! it's chi I say! chi!'), but then I remembered how I read that Titi (father) turned into Chichi and also the cycle of sama - chama - tama. Just another case of language evolution and dialect. {^_^}
Also, with the h-row, a couple centuries ago it was fa fi fu fe fo. Around the late 18th century you start to see descriptions of Japanese noting that "f is sometimes pronounced h", and by the mid-19th century f had become h, except in fu, in most dialects.
Hi, I am from Mexico. In my Japanese school teachers forbid the use of romaji as soon as you learn katakana and hiragana, it is considered low or wrong once you have the basics, what do you think about that?
These phrases don't really translate, they are more of a verbal custom. "Thank you for the food" is a common attempt, and not too far off if you think of talking to the food.
I also wonder if they say it commonly everywhere before having a meal..... or just at home?
By one of the top comments, this particular phrase is usedafter the meal.
Sori, is it necessary to say this before and after the meal? Or is it optional?
I figure it's just good manners to do so. When speaking Japanese, a solid piece of advice is, "if in doubt, be polite".
- 95
si => shi is a regular sound change in Japanese; all si’s are pronounced as shi. This is the reason why, if you look at a Kana table, you will find in the row with the consonant "s-": さ、し、す、せ、そ (sa, s(h)i, su, se, so). So since there really is no differentiation between si and shi in Japanese, Rōmaji input methods will usually allow you to type either to get the syllable し, so many people end up omitting the “h” since it’s one more keystroke.
why "gotisousamadesita"?? is not it " gochisousamadeshita"!!! how should i know how to read correct way?
- 95
The syllable ち is part of the t- series: た ta, ち chi, つ tsu, て te, とto. It’s simply that ち and つ used to be pronounced “ti” and “tu” in the past but the pronunciation changed slightly. But for this reason many romanisations allow writing “ti” and “tu” for these Kana.
"Gochisosama/gochisosama deshita" is more of "thank you for the meal/ it was tasty" and as mentioned by others, said after the meal. "Ittadakimasu" is also similiar and shows gratitude for the food- and also is closer to " I'll have it now" and said before starting to eat.
ご (go) is an honorific in the same vein as お (o), and both are represented by the same kanji, though it's rarely used in current Japanese. さま (sama) is another honorific, typically reserved for deities and royalty, and さん (san) is actually derived from it, as a shortening in more casual speech, but in current Japanese is distinct form. ちそう (chisou) is a feast, rather than a simple meal, or just food.
The meaning then, is a very polite and flattering to the host, "That was a feast". A good idiomatic English translation of the literal meaning might be "That was a feast fit for a king!", however, it's actually a set phrase in current Japanese, and essentially means "Thank you very much for the hospitality".
So if you buy a meal from Mcdonalds do you say いただきます and ごちそうさまでした。 and to whom do you say them?
I do not say it at only McDonald's purchase. Because it says at the time of meal, not at the time of purchase. If you will eat at McDonald's, the time is before eat. you are sitting down and put a hamburger on the table and say "いただきます." We do not think 'to whom'. You begin eat it. You have finished eating a hamburger. While sitting down, you will say "ごちそうさま". if at a restaurant you will pay after meal. you payed and clerk will say 'thanks' etc. then you say 'ごちそうさま' to clerk. not duty. it is okay if not say.
If person is alone, may be not say.
I've also read that the さま can also mean "like" or "as" referring to the way something is. Is this correct? And if so, can't ごちそうさま mean "like a feast"?
mare68157さんへ
Perhaps, I think that we are so happy because we can have eat today as well. We can not live without to eat. This situation what we can eat is big happy. We can get food easily at the shop or so. But formerly it had been too hard to get food. Maybe there are many people who cannot get today's food somewhere on the earth now. People who experienced war have known real hungry. The number of them become few in Japan. Perhaps they think that you have to feel thankful to get food.
Of course we do not think deeply each time. It is just the custom. And this is personal opinion. Don't mind.
ありがとうございます！そらさん, your explanations are very helpful in putting it all into context.
If you love kanji, here is the kanji form: 御馳走様でした。(御・ご、馳走・ちそう、様・さま) or ご馳走様でした。
でした is the past tense of the verb to be です. Hence, it means 'was'. As in, 'it was a feast'.
Ok so ごちそう is "feast" さま is a honorific, and でした is "was" so the REAL translation is "It was a feast" and it is USED AS thanking for the mea
@sgising2 さん
Yes, Steven is written 'スティーヴン' well . But Dave is written 'デイブ' well. (There are people who write 'デーブ' as well.) We believe デイブ is closer pronunciation. Though I don't know truth. :D
So is "いただきます" and "ごちそうさま" something you'd say amongst the people you are eating with or to the people who made the meal? It would feel weird saying this to a waiter knowing that they themselves didn't prepare the meal.
I think a number of translations would work here: For example, "That was a feast!" would capture the sense of "gochisou," which means something like "feast." "Thanks for the great meal" would also capture that sense. Just "Thank you for the meal" seems to miss the fact that the meal was considered extraordinary, a "gochisou"!
Is there a threshold for how substantial the refreshments need to be before this phrase is used ? If you eat a piece of cake and drink a cup of tea would you say it? If you just had a small snack like a cracker or a piece of fruit would you still say it ?
It is so funny that i got it wrong because i typed "Thanks" instead of "Thank you" . LOL
Quick question. If you are not ready to eat, could you just say "itadakimaSEN"? Or would you have to say something completely different?
In previous questions, it said that "gochisousama" means "thank you for the meal", but this one included "deshita" at the end, so I assumed it was looking for something different involving some sort of past tense construction, so I put "It was a good meal", but it marked it wrong, saying that it should've been "thank you for the meal". So... according to this... the "deshita" part is just meaningless? It has no bearing on the sentence whatsoever? I find that difficult to accept.
There should be more alternate answers but (according to my japanese colleagues) ごちそさまです and ごちそさまでした have effectively the same meaning. Personally I've heard the latter used more (but that may just be a regional custom) and it makes more sense to me as you are talking about the past tense.
Is this more of a prayer? Or is this the kind of thing you can say to whoever fed you the meal?
Anyone have a good way to remember this phase?
"Eat a Duck, I must"
works for the pre meal phrase いただきます.
Any good ones for
ごちぞうさま でした ?
how would I construct this sentence? if i dont remember this whole thing.
I'd like to know: do you say this sentence after each meal or just when someone invited you?
Is this used when invited over for a meal by friends AND at a restaurant? What is the proper context?
- 23
I still say that 'rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub" should be a valid answer.
