だった / できた / まえ / 決まった用紙 / あったり

[eeky]

Hi,


1. つい、友達と話すみたいになっちゃってさあ。さっちゃ んのところはどう？ソフトウェアの会社にいるんだった よね。

My translation: "By mistake, I end up (talking to my work colleagues) as I would to friends. How is it at your place? You're at (i.e. work at) a software company, right?"

As far as I can tell, the speaker is talking about the place さっちゃん works now, so why is だった past tense? Is the speaker referring to the fact that he heard this information in the past? Or could it be a bit like English where the past tense is sometimes used to make a statement more tentative or questioning?


2. そろそろ仕事関係の客があなたを訪ねて来る時間ですが 、３階の図書室へ行く用事ができたので、ちょっと席を はずしたいと思っています。

My part translation: "A guest is due to visit you on business, but [something about going to the third floor library on an errand], so you want to leave your office (lit. seat) for a short while."

What is the meaning of できた here? And why is it past tense?


3. 後指を指すのはやめたまえ。

Translation given: "Don't talk about people behind their backs."

What is まえ?


4. 決まった用紙があるかどうか

What does 決まった用紙 mean? (The context is topics relating to a pupil asking a teacher for a 推薦状.)

5.
足立：　あ、もしもし、田中さんのお宅ですか。
田中：　はい、あっ、なんだ〜。その声は足立か？
足立：　あったり〜。今度の金曜日ヒマ？

My translation:

Adachi： Hello, is that the Tanaka residence?
Tanaka: Yes ... oh ... is that Adachi?
Adachi: ???. Are you free next Friday?

a) What is あったり?

b) These dialogues use these 〜 characters extensively, apparently to mark a pause or an extended vowel or something. What exactly is their purpose? Is this standard Japanese typography? (For some reason, for me, the display font on these forum pages shows them as a superscript, but they shouldn't be superscripted.)

c) Is there any reason why ヒマ is in katakana? Is it just for emphasis? (It didn't seem a word that obviously neede emphasising.)

[Toritoribe]

1)
That doesn't express a tense. It's a colloquial expression used for 想起(recall) or 確認(confirmation). See the difference between your example and ソフトウェアの会社にいたんだよね. The latter means the past tense "You worked at a software company" and suggests she isn't there now.

2)
That's an exercise "What do you say in a situation like this?", right? It's more close to the perfect tense; "something has come up."

3)
"The -masu stem of a verb + たまえ" is a male imperative (usually from superior to subordinate). たまえ is from the imperative of 給う.

4)
recommendation letter in a prescribed form

5) a)
当たり: bingo

b)
That's the same as the long vowel mark "ー". 〜 shows it's colloquial.

c)
Yes, it's for emphasis and shows it's colloquial.

[eeky]

Thank you.

2)
That's an exercise "What do you say in a situation like this?", right?

Right.

I have just noticed that the second character of 会社, which displays fine for me in the edit window, now shows up as a different and unfamiliar character when I save the post. It displays as the right-hand character of the two below, which I understand is an older non-simplified variant.

kanji variants.png

Do you see the same?

Also, could you confirm whether you see the ～ character incorrectly superscripted?

(I plan to report these as glitches; I just wondered if you saw the same on what is presumably a Japanese-version OS.)

[Mike Cash]

つい doesn't always mean "by mistake".

Sometimes, as in the case with #1, it is more of a "I just happened to find myself ......."

[Toritoribe]

I have just noticed that the second character of 会社, which displays fine for me in the edit window, now shows up as a different and unfamiliar character when I save the post. It displays as the right-hand character of the two below, which I understand is an older non-simplified variant.

kanji variants.png

Do you see the same?

Also, could you confirm whether you see the ～ character incorrectly superscripted?

(I plan to report these as glitches; I just wondered if you saw the same on what is presumably a Japanese-version OS.)

No. Both characters are displayed correctly on my PC.

[eeky]

Oh, OK, thanks.