- Forum >
- Topic: Japanese >
- "あの、すみません。"
"あの、すみません。"
Translation:Um, excuse me.
63 Comments
1116
"Anou"/あのう is used to call someone's attention or to start a conversation or to politely intervene/interrupt one. "Eeto"/ええと is mostly used when the speaker is still collecting his thoughts while talking.
References:
@lessthanthre3 あのう is just the longer, more hesitant version of あの. It's commonly written as あのー or あのーー, or however long you feel like holding the お sound. There's no real difference in politeness, aside from keeping someone waiting longer than necessary for you to finish thinking out loud.
Yes, あの here is basically just a filler word, or an interrupter. Ah and um are both acceptable
あの is one of many useful filler words you should use in conversation when you slow down to try to remember what word to use. It'll make your speech sound more natural and fluent, even if you aren't.
- 532
The problem is that in English, it makes you less fluent, and any English course, especially a speech course, will tell you to leave it out.
That creates a few problems. First of all, a proper translation tells what a native speaker would say to convey the same information. Second of all, um isn't a word used in writing. Third of all I keep getting it marked wrong, because autocorrect keeps changing it to "I'm" because it thinks that um isn't a word.
That makes the whole thing awkward.
Generally yes, but in this case すみません by itself is an expression, not a conjugation or negation of something.
Later some verbs will sound like it (like 住みません (すみません) = to not reside), but the context (VERY important in japanese) will tell you what it means.
I agree with you that it's best to think of すみません as an expression, but I belieive the expression did come from a negative conjugation.
In the same vein as はじめまして originated from a longer phrase, I think すみません came from something along the lines of 「ご迷惑をかけて気が済みません」 meaning "I've inconvenienced you, and I don't feel at ease about it".
Ah, like the German "es tut mir Leid" (literally, "it causes me pain")?
Perhaps? My German isn't very ... existent >
But 気が済まない【きがすまない】is an expression describing more of an antsy or agitated feeling, rather than physical pain.
Well, there is scientific research suggesting that such pain is experienced in the brain exactly the same way as physical pain :) but I think "it pains me to think [that I hurt you]" is a good way to apologise :)
- 376
You are correct. すみません indeed comes from the verb 済む (すむ), which means "to settle," "to manage with," "to be okay with," with the expression meant to imply that one is not okay with the actions that they are committing or have committed. You also see this verb used in なくて済む, ~ずに済む, to mean "to be okay with not doing," or more broadly, "to get by without" or "not have to."
This might be a dumb question, but how/why is there a specific word for "um"? Isn't that a sound you make when you can't think of what to say?
Yes, it's quite common actually. But it's kind of an accepted bastardization of the expression, and as such, すみません is more formal/correct.
Not quite. They both have different functions equal to "um", "ah", "uh," etc. in English. "Etto" is most commonly used for when you are thinking of something and not sure what to say, like if you're stumbling on a sentence or don't know the answer to a question. It can also be a reaction sort of like "huh..?" in some situations. "Ano", on the other hand, is like a more polite "um." You use it if you want to hedge what you're saying - like if you're trying to correct someone in a polite way (eg. "Um, I thought it was...), or know what you're going to say but want to sound a little unsure for politeness and so on. The example here is "Um, excuse me," and I imagine this is meant to be read like you're asking for directions from a stranger or something like that, because it sounds very polite. Long explanation but I hope it made sense! Sorry for no kana, I don't have a Japanese keyboard on my phone.
- 567
What does "sumimasen" have in common with "arimasen"? I mean, both of them are polite words, but why exactly? Can someone break it down for me?
- 372
They're unrelated; one means "excuse me" and the other means "there isn't". -masen is the polite negative conjugation of a verb, usually, so it's used in "there isn't". As for it being used in "sumimasen", it doesn't really show negation.
Actually, grammatically, sumimasen is the polite-negative form of sumu (to settle, to be clear). This word, over time, has evolved into a fixed one-word catch-all expression of 'Excuse me', or 'Apologies'.
As far as why it is polite, it is because they follow the -masen form. More simple forms end in -nai. Sumanai becomes sumimasen. Aru becomes arimasen.
I heard sumimasen means (it is) unexcusable! Apparently a polite way of asking for excuse.
- 1116
"Anou"/あのう is used to call someone's attention or to start a conversation or to politely intervene/interrupt one. "Eeto"/ええと is mostly used when the speaker is still collecting his thoughts while talking.
References:
- 532
In other words, あのう serves the same purpose as "excuse me" in English, which is used exactly in those circumstances. So あのう、すみません is how one would say "excuse me."
If I wanted to tell someone how to say "excuse me" in Japanese, that phrase might be suitable. Likewise, if someone learning English wanted to know the English equivalent, I'd teach them "excuse me." No language source says that the proper way to say it in English is to put an "um" in front of it, and if that were remotely the case, then someone who spoke any language who was learning English would be told that.
So "excuse me" is a better translation, without the "um."
If I told someone to say that in Japan if they wanted to get someone's attention, and is the equivalent of "excuse me," you are unlikely to get a teacher who says "no it isn't because that means 'um, excuse me.'" That would imply that it's better to leave off the "あのう" .
Ironically, these same lessons are full of phrases that Duolingo translates to an English phrase that would be used in the same situation, even though the word for word translation would be nothing alike. I have no idea why Duolingo insists on the opposite here, instead of considering the whole thing a phrase that corresponds with a specific phrase in English.
Why is 'er' not accepted?! I'm English and I say Er or Erm but not Um!
- 430
So if I have this right, if I were to combine what we learned earlier for "please excuse me" we would type/say it like this?
あの、どもすみません。 (Ano, domosumimasen)
Interesting that 'well' is not accepted for あの - I guess 'um' is more universal, but it seems like 'well' is often used to buy time to think, as well. Maybe more often in written dialogue.
Well, yeah - in that specific context before すみません it totally could! But what about in instances like how I used it to start that last sentence - would that be あの? Only reason I ask is that I've seen it in subtitles that way before, although I realize that may simply be a colloquial translation - 'well' is a funky word in that particular usage, and it may only be context that led to the translation
So I wrote "Em" instead of "um" and lost points, thing that would be okay if the same had happened when I wrote "Moskow" or "Venece", but no. I feel that Duo's "strictness" sometimes don't make sence.
- 368
I got it wrong when writing in Japanese because I didn't write the comma. When translating to English, no punctuation is needed.
- 24
I translated this as "ah, excuse me" and it said it's wrong! This is obviously a Duolingo mistake, as it suggested that it could mean "um" , or "ah"
