Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Hi, everyone! I'm Alisha.
皆さん、こんにちは。Alisha です。 (Mina-san, kon'nichiwa. Alisha desu.)
Welcome to another Whiteboard Lesson!
In this lesson, you'll learn how to talk about asking for clarification.
Let's get started!
Okay, let's start by looking at the vocabulary for this lesson.
The first word is もういちど (mō ichi-do).
もういちど (mō ichi-do)
もういちど (mō ichi-do) [enunciated]
もういちど (mō ichi-do), which means “again”
もういちど (mō ichi-do) “again”
In today’s lesson, we’ll understand this to mean “(say that) again,” もういちど (mō ichi-do).
Okay. The next word is ゆっくり (yukkuri).
ゆっくり (yukkuri)
ゆっくり (yukkuri) [enunciated]
Notice the small っ (tsu) here. This means we need to make a stop before the く (ku) sound. So, not ゆくり (yukuri), but ゆっくり (yukkuri), ゆっくり (yukkuri). This means “slowly,” slowly.
ゆっくり (yukkuri)
In today’s lesson, we’ll understand this to mean “(say that) slowly.”
ゆっくり (yukkuri)
ゆっくり (yukkuri)
Okay. The next vocabulary is おおきなこえで (ōkina koe de).
おおきなこえで (ōkina koe de)
おおきなこえで (ōkina koe de) [enunciated]
Which means “in a loud voice,” in a loud voice.
おおきなこえで (ōkina koe de)
To break this down, we have the word for “big” or “large” here, おおき (ōki), おおきな (ōkina), and then, こえ (koe), which means “voice,” and で (de), which marks the manner in which we do something. So, this literally translates to “in a big voice,” but in natural English, this means “in a loud voice.” So, おおきなこえで (ōkina koe de) means “in a loud voice.”
In today’s lesson, we’ll understand this as “(say that) in a loud voice.”
おおきなこえで (ōkina koe de)
Okay. The last one is えいごで (Eigo de).
えいごで (Eigo de)
えいごで (Eigo de) [enunciated]
えいごで (Eigo de), which means “in English,” in English.
えいごで (Eigo de)
So, in this lesson, えいごで (Eigo de), we’ll understand as meaning “(say that) in English.”
えいごで (Eigo de)
Okay. So, with these vocabulary words in mind, let’s take a look at some dialogue sentences.
Okay, let’s take a look at the dialogue for this lesson.
First, we start with this sentence…
はじめまして。(Hajimemashite.)
はじめまして。いしかわ です。(Hajimemashite. Ishikawa desu.)
いしかわ です。 (Ishikawa desu.)
はじめまして。いしかわ です。(Hajimemashite. Ishikawa desu.)
The response is…
すみません。もういちど おねがいします。 (Sumimasen. Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu.)
すみません。もういちど おねがいします。 (Sumimasen. Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu.)
The response to this is…
い・し・か・わ です。(I SHI KA WA desu.)
い・し・か・わ です。(I SHI KA WA desu.)
So, what does this mean?
This first sentence, はじめまして (hajimemashite) means “Nice to meet you.”
はじめまして。(Hajimemashite.) “Nice to meet you.”
We follow this with いしかわ です (Ishikawa desu) “I’m Ishikawa.”
いしかわ です。 (Ishikawa desu.)
“Ishikawa” is the person’s name. We follow this with です (desu) to mean “I am.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Ishikawa.”
The response to this is…
すみません。 (Sumimasen) “I’m sorry” or “Excuse me.”
もういちど おねがいします。 (Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu.)
もういちど おねがいします (Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu), which means “Say that again, please,” say that again, please.
もういちど おねがいします。 (Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu.)
So like I couldn’t hear you. Can you say that again, please?
And the response to that is…
い・し・か・わ です。(I SHI KA WA desu.)
い・し・か・わ です。(I SHI KA WA desu.)
So, Ishikawa-San breaks down the name into syllables.
い・し・か・わ です。(I SHI KA WA desu.) “I’m Ishikawa.”
Okay, let's take a look at some more examples of this kind of pattern.
Okay, great! Now, let’s take a look at some examples of some other ways that you can ask for clarification.
The first one is this:
すみません。ゆっくり おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.)
すみません。ゆっくり おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.)
This means "I'm sorry. (Say that) slowly, please."
すみません。ゆっくり おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.)
In this pattern, we have ゆっくり (yukkuri), the word “slowly.” So, “slowly” is just slowly, yes, but in this context, we understand that it means “(say that) slowly” because we’re having a conversation, in this case, an introductory conversation. So, although it’s just “slowly” in a direct translation to English, we understand that it means “(say that) slowly” or repeat that slowly, please.
すみません。ゆっくり おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.)
The next one is…
すみません。えいごで おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Eigo de onegai shimasu.)
すみません。えいごで おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Eigo de onegai shimasu.)
This means "I'm sorry. (Say that) in English, please."
すみません。えいごで おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Eigo de onegai shimasu.)
In this pattern, we have えいごで (Eigo de) which means “in English.”
Again, from context, we understand that えいごで (Eigo de) “in English,” means say that in English, please.
So…
すみません。えいごで おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Eigo de onegai shimasu.)
Great! So, now that we have these examples in our mind as well, let’s take a look at the basic sentence pattern you can use to ask for clarification yourself.
Okay, great! Let’s take a look at the basic sentence pattern for this lesson.
We start with すみません (sumimasen), すみません (sumimasen).
Then [phrase] おねがいします (onegai shimasu).
すみません。[Phrase] おねがいします。(Sumimasen. [Phrase] onegai shimasu.)
Which means “I'm sorry / Excuse me plus the [phrase] and please.”
すみません。[Phrase] おねがいします。(Sumimasen. [Phrase] onegai shimasu.)
So, in this pattern, you can substitute one of the words that we practiced earlier; ゆっくり (yukkuri) or もういちど (mō ichi-do) or えいごで おねがいします (Eigo de onegai shimasu) to ask for the kind of clarification you need.

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