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Supposing I'm meeting a colleague's wife for the first time, I was trying to
think of how to modify いつもお世話になっています to express something like "I'm always in
your husband's care". Is this appropriate? if so, how would I modify the
phrase?

I've encountered the phase used where the speaker is thanking the person he's
talking to on behalf of a third person - for example 息子がお世話になっています - and I
wondered if it works the other way around.
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2014-03-04T11:19:36.073
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2014-03-05T08:55:04.373
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question
usage
greeting the wife of a colleague with 「お世話になっています」?
I would say:

> [私は]ご主人にいつもお世話になっております。  
>  〜"I'm always in your husband's care"  
>  (I am sure you can come up with an appropriate English equivalent. The [ ]=
> unspoken.)

The following examples from the Apple dictionary illustrate the grammar for
the expression 世話になる

> 息子はその婦人にたいへんお世話になった｜My son owes that woman a great deal.
>
> 伯父には金銭上の世話になった｜I had financial help from my uncle.
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2014-03-04T12:58:19.897
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2014-03-05T08:55:04.373
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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answer
You could say to her:

> 「いつもご[主人]{しゅじん}[に]お[世話]{せわ}になっております。」= "I'm always in your husband's care".

Do not forget the honorific ご. The に can be replaced with には without changing
the meaning.

She would say to you:

> 「いつも主人[が]お世話になっております。」= "My husband is always in your care."

She will not use the ご because it is her own husband.

Finally, it is always the particle that can change the meaning of the sentence
entirely. In this case, it is に vs. が.

(If you usually did not speak all that politely or humbly, you could replace
the おります part with います, but you could never omit that ご.)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-04T13:04:31.063
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2014-03-04T13:04:31.063
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answer