CONTRIBUTED BY KAHO
Kaho’s Japanese Corner: Dozo vs. Domo
Dozo is a very useful word. It means “here you go” or “go ahead”. How can we use this word?
You’re in a food court with some friends. It’s crowded and your table has one empty chair. A Japanese person comes and asks if she/he can take the empty chair. (More likely that Japanese people would be too shy to ask, but you never know.) You can say “dozo“, “go ahead”.
You walked to a line to pay and someone walked to the same line at the same time. You want to let the person go first, you can say “dozo“.
Your child is on a swing at a playground and a Japanese kid is waiting. When your child is done, you can say to the Japanese child “dozo“, “here you go”.
Very practical and easy to use!
As a reply, you can say “domo“. Domo arigato means thank you very much, but “domo” doesn’t mean very much. Domo by itself is casual “thank you”.
You paid your bill at a restaurant and received change. You can say to the person at the cashier “domo“, “thanks”.
If you want to thank someone properly, Arigato is more polite, but if you want to quickly thank someone for something little, “domo” is good enough.
Domo for reading! No, I should say “Arigato!”
Want to read more of these helpful Japanese language posts? Check them all out HERE.
