Apologizing: Vocabulary

At the end of these lessons, you will be able to:

Apologize to someone
Write the hiragana:
- あ、い、う、え、お
- a, i, u, e, o

Vocabulary

Phrases and Expressions

sumimasen - excuse me; I'm sorry
doomo - a type of greeting

Other Words and Expressions for the Lesson

Issho-ni kakimashoo. - Let's write together.
_____-o kaite kudasai. - Please write ______.

Vocabulary Notes

Sumimasen. (Excuse me; I’m sorry.)

The word sumimasen is used in Japanese to express an apology and in meaning is similar to the English Excuse me or I’m sorry.

Teacher: Sumisu-san desu-ne?
Student: Iie, Buraun desu.
Teacher: Aa, sumimasen. Buraun-san desu-ne?
Student: Hai.

Gairaigo Review

Sumisu = Smith
Buraun = Brown

You can also say sumimasen if you want to get someone’s attention. In some cases sumimasen can even be used when in English we would say Thank you. This is because the Japanese person saying Sumimasen feels that he has inconvenienced the person who just did something for him.

**Doomo. (a type of greeting)**

In Lesson 1 you learned that Doomo means Thank you. It can also mean Hello or Hi.

Expanding Your Vocabulary

At the beginning of TV lesson 3 you hear a lot of words which have been borrowed from English and which are now used in Japanese. Although we use the term “borrowed,” these words will probably continue to be used in both languages for a long time.

antena: antenna
ashisutanto: assistant
oodio: audio
kamerman: cameraman
kontorooru-ruumu: control room
direkutaa: director
sutajio: studio
toire: toilet

Can You Remember?

In Japanese what do you call borrowed words such as antena and kameraman? They are called .*

Sometimes they look rather strange in Romanized Japanese, but remember what you learned about syllables in Japanese. Japanese words are made of syllables which consist of a single vowel (five possible vowels), a single consonant (only n), or a consonant plus one of the five vowels. When an English word is taken into Japanese , it has to be changed if it does not fit into this syllabic pattern. Look at the following English words:

antenna, escalator, skirt, banana, camera, sport, plastic

Which of these English words will fit easily?
Which will change a lot?

*The blank is filled with the word gairaigo.

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Lesson content based on material created by Georgia Public Broadcasting, 1996. All rights reserved. Used with permission.