348 CHAPTER 8. SET PHRASES
know you did, apologise with.
This phrase is also used to turn down important offers, where the
act of turning down the offer may lead to problems for the other party
(such as when someone is depending on you, or when someone confesses
their love for you).
- ”Good day”
This is the particle (pronounced ), added to the noun meaning
”day” (pronounced instead of ). It’s technically an unfin-
ished phrase just raising the topic of ”today” and then saying absolutely
nothing in regards to it, but this has become the standard way to say ”good
day” in Japanese.
- ”Good evening”
Like , this is just added to , ”this evening”.
- ”Farewell”
Realise the full meaning of this word before you use it: is short
for
, which is old Japanese for ”Things being as
they are, I shall speak my farewells”. The modern version, too, really does
mean ”farewell” and not just a plain ”good bye”. There is a very explicit
connotation that it will be a considerable time until the speaker will see the
person it is spoken to again, if at all.
- ”There is nothing [I/he/she/we] can do
about it”
This phrase is quite often (and to the horror of many a translator) translated
literally as ”there is no helping it”. Now, the number of times you will
hear this phrase used in English is probably a very small number indeed,
and as such this phrase is much beĴer translated with ”there’s nothing
[I/he/she/we] can do about it”.
