354 CHAPTER 8. SET PHRASES- Extreme apology
Literally this phrase reads ”[this is not a situation in which] saying [some-
thing] [is appropriate]”. Effectively it means ”I have no excuse [for what
I have done]” and makes it clear that the speaker is genuinely at fault for
something. Grammatically decomposing the phrase, we see:in + meaning/reason nominaliser + formal polite nega-
tion of
+ +Variations on this theme involve more, or less, formal versions of
the verbs ”to say” and ”be”, such as ,
,
, etc.- Said when picking up the phone
The story goes that this word was used because demons cannot pronounce
it, and it would allow people to tell whether a real person had picked up
the phone on the other end. Regardless of whether it’s true (it’s not,comes from
), it makes for a nice story to tell people when they
get curious about the phrase that the Japanese use when they pick up the
phone, or when it appears the signal has dropped during a conversation.
This phrase is also used to call someone’s aĴention when they seem
to be lost staring into the distance, similar to how one might yell ”hel-
loooo?” to someone who seems to have started day dreaming, in English.