CONTRIBUTED BY KAHO
Kaho’s Japanese Corner: Chotto matter kudasai
Today I would like to teach “chotto matte kudasai” today. It means “please wait for a second.”
If you are paying at a cashier and you forgot something that you wanted to buy, you can say “sumimasen, chotto matte kudasai!”. “Excuse me. Please hold on!”
Chotto = a little
matte = wait (imperative form)
kudasai = this makes the verb formal
A person who is giving service would say this to his/her customer in a politer form of the phrase, which is the following.
Shosho omachi kudasai.
This above also means “please wait for a moment”.
Chotto imeans “a little”. You can use this separately in many ways.
Someone offers you drink. If you want a little bit, you can say “chotto, onegaishimas”. “Just a little, please.”
You can add “dake (dah-keh)” after chotto and that means “just/only a little”.
Are you bored?
“Chotto matte kudasai!” I’m not done yet! I have one more thing to add!
You can also use “matte!” or “matte kudasai” by themselves. “Matte!” is a casual form. “Matte kudasai” is formal and it means “please wait”.
I hope that you find this helpful!
Want to read more of these helpful Japanese language posts? Check them all out HERE.