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Just thinking about it quickly, as far as I can tell (and I may certainly be wrong) we don’t really change “I’m sorry” or “Thank you” to the past tense in English. However, it seems like Japanese sometimes does. For example, すみませんでした and ありがとうございました. I’m a little unclear as to when to do this. Is it as simple as apologizing/thanking for something that already happened vs something happening now? So if you gave me something yesterday do you use ありがとうございました to thank me for it today? In English we would just say thanks regardless of whether I gave you the thing yesterday or now. It would be understood from context. You might say “Thanks for doing that yesterday” but it still doesn’t really change “thanks.”
Same question for sorry.
ありがとうございます = thanks for something you’re doing now, or are about to do. “Thanks for passing me the salt”
ありがとうございました = thanks for something you’ve done in the past. “Thanks for teaching me Japanese this past year”
すみません = Excuse me, I’m about to bother you. “I’d like to get past”
すみませんでした = Sorry to disturb you (but I’m done disturbing you now).
Similarly:
しつれいします = (on entering a room) sorry to bother you
しつれいしました = (on leaving the room) apologies for the disturbance
The thing about English is that the verb “thank” refers to the actual act of thanking, so if you say “I thanked you” it sounds like you’re saying “I already expressed my thanks yesterday, so I don’t need to say it again”. In Japanese, ありがとう conveys the gratitude that you felt at the time of the favour. Kind of. Or maybe that’s just more confusing. =P Either way, past tense for past events (even though you’re thanking in the present). It’s one of those places where English and Japanese just don’t quite correlate.
No, that makes sense. That’s sort of what I figured, but I wasn’t sure. You match the tense of “thanks” etc with the time the related action occurred rather than the when the relevant emotion is expressed. (btw, that’s a terrible sentence, I apologize) In English you’re expressing gratitudenow so “thanks” is in the present.
Thanks! Arigatou Gozaimashita!
I just read over this thread and it helped me as well, I wanted to add an additional question to this tread, Is their more ways to use “sumimasen” and “arigatou”? Like future tense or soemthing like that? For example if I want to thank someone for something they will do for me in the near future.
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This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by
There’s no separate future tense in Japanese – there’s past, and then there’s non-past.
That said, one other thing you could say as thanks for a future event is よろしく – basically “please take care of me” but kinda conveys an impression of “I’ll be relying on you”.
Awesome clarity to some confusion I had thank you kindly, that was something I had confusion about for quite some time.
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This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by
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This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by
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