Monday, 27 July 2015

usage - Is it normal to use ただいま in situations other than ただいま戻 【もど】りました?


By itself, I would say that 「ただいま」 means something like "just now". I've used it a few times in sentences like this, but it feels somewhat awkward, as I am always reminded of ただいま戻【もど】りました.


So, for example, would ただいま in the following sentence sound unnatural/awkward?



ただいま、面【おも】白【しろ】い事【こと】に気【き】づきました。




Answer



As istrasci says, can be a rather formal word to use. But it also has uses outside of the super formal ceremonial use - you still hear it fairly often in announcements, as in those you would hear in an ad or department store.



One common use is with a noun that ends with 中


You've probably heard this in an ad before:


只今、発売中


I just saw this when watching a comedy show when the lead character is doing nothing:


只今アイドリング中


Also I have heard in this use case when some status is being reported:


只今、到着しました。


This can also be totally informal such as:


只今起きた


只今食べた



You can also say 只今気づいた but my gut feeling is that you can't add the 面白いこと in there without being awkward, even though it doesn't seem to break any grammatical rules. I don't have anything to back this up other than most of the 只今 cases I've heard have been short examples with just the verb or a noun. Please correct me if I am wrong.


No comments:

Post a Comment

readings - Appending 内 to a company name is read ない or うち?

For example, if I say マイクロソフト内のパートナーシップは強いです, is the 内 here read as うち or ない? Answer 「内」 in the form: 「Proper Noun + 内」 is always read 「ない...