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【No. 1331】Gomenkudasai (ごめんください - Anyone Around?)

Aug 10, 2018 02:34
Gomenkudasai

When visiting someone's house, Japanese people often say gomenkudasai (ごめんください) at the entrance.

Go (ご) is a polite prefix, men (めん) mean "pardon" or "forgive," and kudasai (ください) means "please."

That is to say, gomenkudasai implies your feelings of apologies for suddenly visiting someone's house.

Originally, this phrase literalle meant apologies, but these days it is mainly used as a greeting when visiting someone's house.

If you say gomen-nasai (ごめんなさい), by replacing kudasai (ください) with nasai (なさい), it just means "I'm sorry."
ごめんください

他人の家を訪れるとき、日本人はよく「ごめんください」と言います。

「ご」は尊敬の接頭語、「めん」は "pardon" や "forgive," 「ください」は "please" を意味します。

すなわち「ごめんください」とは、突然家を訪問してごめんなさいということを表しています。

もともとは文字通り、許しを請う際に使われていましたが、現在では家を訪問する際の挨拶として使われることが多いです。

「ください」の代わりに「なさい」を使って「ごめんなさい」と言うと、単なる謝罪の言葉になります。

Corrections (1)

No. 1 artboy598
  • Originally, this phrase literalle meant apologies, but these days it is mainly used as a greeting when visiting someone's house.
  • Originally, this phrase literally meant apologies, but these days it is mainly used as a greeting when visiting someone's house.

Thanks for the lessons as always!

Toru
Thank you so much for the correction! :)

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