Saying thank you and asking someone to repeat in Japanese
You've greeted someone, but you didn't quite catch what they said. In this lesson you get their attention, ask to hear it again, say thank you, and answer with はい (hai) and いいえ (iie) to fit the moment. With these, a missed word no longer has to end the conversation.
Recap: the greeting comes first
With a neighbour or an acquaintance you're meeting, the conversation opens with a greeting, and any request comes after it. The hour picks the greeting: おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) in the morning, こんにちは (konnichiwa) during the day, こんばんは (konbanwa) after dark. With a stranger in the street it's different: there's no encounter yet, so すみません (sumimasen), coming up shortly, opens the contact on its own.
- formal
おはようございます。
こんにちは。
こんばんは。
Model: rehearsing with a neighbour
Ana is learning Japanese and asks her neighbour, Mrs Sato, to say the daytime greeting again so she can hear it properly. Listen once without reading, and notice what follows the greeting: a request, an agreement, a thank-you. Mrs Sato's はい (hai) accepts the request, and the final いいえ (iie) refuses nothing: it works like “not at all”.
- A
こんにちは。
- B
こんにちは。
- Aformal
すみません、もう一度お願いします。
- B
はい、こんにちは。
- Aformal
ありがとうございます。
- B
いいえ。
The formulas and the two answers
すみません (sumimasen) gets someone's attention before a request; it's also a light apology, for instance when you bump into someone, so in these two uses it does the work of both “excuse me” and “sorry”. もう一度 (mō ichido) means “once more” and お願いします (onegai shimasu) means “please”: together they ask someone to repeat, and すみません in front makes the request gentler. ありがとうございます (arigatō gozaimasu) is a polite thank-you; it ends in ございます, like おはようございます, and that final ます sounds close to “mass”. Learn each formula whole, without cutting off the end. はい (hai) and いいえ (iie) don't always match “yes” and “no”: the next section shows what they do in each situation.
- すみません。Excuse me.
- もう一度お願いします。Once more, please.
- ありがとうございます。Thank you.
- はいyes
- いいえno
はい and いいえ depend on what came before
After すみません, はい (hai) means “yes? go ahead”. After an offer such as もう一度？ (“once more?”), はい、お願いします accepts and いいえ、大丈夫です (iie, daijōbu desu) declines kindly. After a request, はい agrees, as in the model. After a thank-you, いいえ (iie) means “not at all”. You'll also hear どういたしまして (dō itashimashite), “you're welcome”, but you don't have to say it: it isn't the only natural reply, and a simple いいえ works too.
すみません。
はい。
もう一度？
- formal
はい、お願いします。
- formal
いいえ、大丈夫です。
- formal
ありがとうございます。
いいえ。
どういたしまして。
Your turn, and a summary
Imagine you meet your neighbour in the afternoon and miss what she says. Cover the sentences below and say, in order, the greeting, the request and the thank-you. Then answer her offer to repeat with a yes, and on another try with a no. Only then check. In short: the greeting opens the encounter, すみません gets attention or softens the request, もう一度お願いします asks, ありがとうございます closes, and はい and いいえ answer whatever was just said.
こんにちは。
- formal
すみません、もう一度お願いします。
- formal
ありがとうございます。
- formal
はい、お願いします。
- formal
いいえ、大丈夫です。