When you want to start conversation with someone, starting with greeting is the first step in any language, right? Nice greeting makes your relation with family, friends and customers etc. much better!
In this session, we learn about greeting when you want to say “thank you” and ” I am sorry”.
When you show thankfulness and reply
どうもありがとうございます (Doumo arigatou gozaimasu)
どうもありがとうございました (Doumo arigatou gozaimashita)
ありがとうございます / ありがとう(Arigatou gozaimasu / Arigatou)
ありがとうございました (Arigatou gozaimashita)
どういたしまして (Dou itashimashite)
ありがとう is one of the most common Japanese phrase which foreigners know. That means “thank you” in English.
ありがとうございます is more polite than ありがとう. When you add どうも at first of this phrase, it will be much more polite. ありがとうございました is used when you want to show thankfulness to what someone have done something for you in the past or just now.
For reply to ありがとう, you can use どういたしまして. That means “you’re welcome” in English.
When you apologize
誠に申し訳ございません / 申し訳ございません (“申し訳ありません” also ok.)
(makoto ni moushiwake gozaimasen / moushiwake gozaimasen)
すみません
(sumimasen)
ごめんなさい / ごめん
(gomennasai / gomen)
申し訳ございません is polite expression when you apologize. When you add 誠に, it will be more polite. You should use誠に申し訳ございません when you apologize to your customer.
すみません is also polite expression. Please note that this expression also means “exceuse me”. Some foreigner thinks Japanese always apologize since we always say すみません. But すみません is often used as “excuse me” , not as “ I am sorry”.
ごめんなさい and ごめん is more casual expression. You can use these phrases to your friends.If you use this to your boss, that is very impolite!.
When we apologize, we often bow with saying these phrases.
You may watch that in TV drama or manga, right?
This is post about other greetings
Greeting① – あいさつ(こんにちは, さようなら etc.) with native Japanese voice
Ok, so much for this session!
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