An example sentence in the dictionary;
"Can you change this bill into 10 dimes for me?"
Why is "for me" needed? Should I say it whenever I want to change bills? I think it is unnecessary, more like excessive.
In Japanese, we never say it in this case. If somebody says "for me", it's very strange.
A friend of yours needs some change but there are no coins in his wallet. He can't speak English, so you go to a shop to ask to change with his bill instead of him.
Do you say "can you change this bill for a friend of mine?"?
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3 comments:
Hi S - that's interesting. I think "for me" just softens the request a little. It is like "watashi no tame ni" but has a similar nuance to things like "shite kuremasen ka?" and so on. "Please" is always good to add, too. :-)
By the way, can you translate "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" into English?
Regards
Rick
Oh, I see. "shite kuremasen ka?" makes sense for me. "watashi no tame ni" is a bit strange and heavy.
I always talk with my co-workers about English of "yoroshiku onegaishimasu"."Yoroshiku onegaishimasu" is really convenienrt sentence and we Japanese use it very often on business. It's necessary! But, there is no appropriate English.
"Yoroshiku onegaishimasu" means, sometimes "thank you in advance" or "tank you for your help.", sometimes "we appreciate your consideration (cooperation).", "I look forward to your continued business in the future." etc...
If we could never use "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" on business, it would be a BIG problem!
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