Tonyせんせい,
In the Greetings Section of the book, it has two sets of words that are used for when leaving and arrive at home, いってきます and いってらっしゃい for leaving, and ただいま and おかえりなさい for arriving. The book explains that there are different words used for different situations, but you can't have a word for every situtation (can you?). Can these be used in other situtions? or just to/from home?
Thanks, Shutoh
Sorry Sensei,
The way you explained is the same as the book. What I meant by different situation was situations other than leaving or arriving home. For example if I were out with my, at say a department store, and wanted to go look at something in a different area, could we use *ittekimasu/itterasshai* when I left to the other area and *tadaima/okaeri* when I met back up with my family?
ps. I must have projected some explanations onto the explanation for these two words when I mentioned different words for different situations. I wasn't looking at the text when I wrote the question. Also, sorry for disturbing your vacation. Please don't feel obliged to answer this question until you are back home.
Thanks, Shutoh
Hi, Shutoh! I'm actually out of town on vacation now, so I can't check Genki to see exactly how they're explaining this, but here's how it goes:
When somebody leaves home, they usually call out to everyone there いってきます！ (Lit., "I am leaving, and will come back"), and anyone there will respond with いっていらっしゃい (or the abbreviated いってらっしゃい), which literally means "Go and come back".
When somebody returns home, they enter and call out ただいま！ (Lit. "Just now (I have returned)), and the response from anyone who is home is おかえりなさい or the abbreviated form, おかえり, which is a formal command form of the verb かえる, "to return".
There are variations of the above, but generally speaking they are either very formal or very informal. The above are the most common forms, and the forms that you are most likely to use.
Ah! I see. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
No, the いってきます／いってらっしゃい and ただいま／おかえりなさい combinations are mostly only used for home or office situations. Your book probably doesn't mention it, but these phrases might also be used if you leave your office, but will come back before the end of the work day.
When you arrive at work in the morning (or at the beginning of your shift), you use the phrase おはようございます (even if it isn't morning--this phrase literally means "it is early"). When you leave for the day, you apologize to other people who are still in the office by saying おさきにしつれいします。The response is usually おつかれさまでした, Maybe this is an example of an "other situation" they're mentioning?
I can't think of any other such pairs off the top of my head, but if anything comes to me I'll add it to this thread!