I've just started learning Japanese last week.

I'm playing a video game in Japanese. One of the characters said: "礼を言う"
(rewoiu) just by itself. The English translation was "Thank you."

I didn't recognize this as any version of "thank you" I had heard before.

The translation I get when searching is: "Say thanks". But this is basically
just a non-past verb. Can you use non-past verbs by themselves usually?

Does "say thanks" in Japanese also mean "thank you"? If so, when is it
appropriate to use this over other common forms of thank you; what's the
difference between this and "arigatou"?
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2020-09-05T05:24:01.107
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2022-03-02T06:02:55.277
2021-06-05T04:44:45.170
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question
verbs phrases
Does "礼を言う" mean "thank you"?
So, my guess is that you're playing Ghost of Tsushima, yeah? I'm playing with
Japanese audio as well and have heard several characters use 礼を言う.

Based on context, I believe you are correct that it just means 'Thank you'.
However, I have never heard this expression used in real life. My guess is
that it is meant to give the characters an old-timey feel to match the
Kamakura-jidai setting of the game.

I'm really enjoying the Japanese audio track - it definitely makes the game
more emersive and is great for some passive listening practice. I'd be careful
if you're going to study from it though, cause they are definitely using some
'old-timey' feeling expressions and you probably don't want to sound like an
old-timey samurai in real life :)

Also, you can definitely use non-past plain verbs (dictionary form) in regular
speech. They are the basis of several grammatical constructions and are used
all the time to talk in present/future tense in a casual setting with friends.

Welcome to the journey that is learning Japanese. がんばってください。
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2020-09-06T02:49:05.417
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2020-09-07T02:40:21.217
2020-09-07T02:40:21.217
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answer