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A person asks another if he knows the meaning of a certain word and he
replies:

> ううん、なんとなく使っているけど、でも、こう、 **なんていうか** 、...
>
> No, I somehow use it but ??? ...

My guess is that it means "Why do I say it?" but なんて doesn't mean "why". Can
this phrase be decomposed or is it a fixed thing I should learn?
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2015-10-14T17:01:56.210
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2015-10-14T23:33:24.060
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question
grammar
What does なんていうか mean in this sentence
It's a filler phrase.

It doesn't really mean much, but it's like asking yourself "How should I put
it?" The speaker doesn't quite know what to say next, so they say that. We do
the same thing in English sometimes.
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2015-10-14T17:58:44.473
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answer
なんていうか (or なんというか) in this context is a filler phrase used when one is trying
to find an appropriate phrase. It's an equivalent of "let's see", "what can I
say" or "you know", and you should memorize it as-is.
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2015-10-14T17:58:45.293
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2015-10-14T17:58:45.293
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The other two answers are literally correct: なんていうか... is an idiomatic phrase
that may be translated as "how should I say..." but may vary depending on
context.

That said, I'll offer a dissenting opinion: without more context it's hard to
say, but it's reasonable to guess that the speaker actually has a fairly
negative opinion of this thing they're using, but doesn't want to complain or
be directly negative about it. This is not an uncommon trend: for example, the
word "いまいち" is now by convention understood to mean "not passable" even though
it's thoroughly indirect.

As a listener, being asked to complete the trailing sentence, I would assume
that the speaker is definitely not having a fun time with whatever it is.

This doesn't conflict with the interpretation offered by either of the two
answers prior to this one.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-10-14T23:33:24.060
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