待たせてしまって！

[healer]

I've come across the following sentence at Unintended Actions.
ごめん、待たせてしまって！
Sorry about (unintentionally) making you wait!

From what I can remember, sentences ending in te-form is just a short or casual form of て-form + ください.

I wonder if someone could explain to me how the English translation comes about or is there a typo there?
For the English translation I would say ごめん、待たせてしまった (or ごめん、待たせてしまいました).

 

[Toritoribe]

From what I can remember, sentences ending in te-form is just a short or casual form of て-form + ください.

That's just one of the usages of the -te form at the end of a sentence.
As for your example, that's an inversion of 待たせてしまってごめん (said "sorry" first, and then added the cause/reason of their apology).

 

[healer]

That's just one of the usages of the -te form at the end of a sentence.

I don't remember what this ~te form is for other than what I had said.
Could you please tell me or remind me what this ~te form structure for? Thanks!

 

[Toritoribe]

The -te form doesn't have any meaning by itself. The function of it is just to combine two clauses, and the meaning is decided by the relation between the two clauses. In your case, the -te form 待たせてしまって indicates the cause/reason of the main clause ごめん.
examples of cause/reason
事故があって、電車が遅れた。
雨に濡れて、風邪をひいた。
風邪をひいて、学校を休んだ。

As for the -te form at the end of a sentence, wikipedia has an explanation.
A sentence that ends with the te form may be meant to draw attention, either serving the purpose of an exclamation mark or to indicate the speaker isn't done and may want the listener to have a moment to process, may want the listener to give permission to continue, or may want the listener to infer the rest. The latter case is equivalent to ending a sentence in English with "so..."

Japanese conjugation - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[healer]

Thanks!
I was thrown with the sentence ended with the te form while it can't be interpretecd as a request.
Japanese verb conjugation - Wikipedia is a very informative page you gave.

It says there as follows.

• In general, the te form indicates that the verb is operating in conjunction with another verb, which may be left out for various reasons and to various effects.
• In requests with くれる kureru and 下さい kudasai. These words may be left offin casual speech, which is usually the reason a sentence ends with a te form. This version of the te form also serves as a light command that is more socially proper than the true imperative.
  • 本を読んでください Hon o yonde kudasai: "Please read the book."
  • 殺してくれ Koroshite kure: "Please kill me."
  • 食べて Tabete: "(Please) Eat."
  • 読んで Yonde: "(Please) Read."

I'm not too sure what "left out" emboldened above actually means. Does it refer to sentences ending with the te form? I guess so.
The "left off" emboldened in the second sentence is not clear to me either. Does it mean both くれる kureru and 下さい kudasai are omitted?

The example of "殺してくれ" has the くれ in imperative form, hasn't it? And the imperative form is stronger than the one ended with te form, isn't it?

 

[bentenmusume]

I'm not too sure what "left out" emboldened above actually means. Does it refer to sentences ending with the te form? I guess so

As toritoribeさん and the wikipedia page explain, the ～て form can always be thought of as connecting one clause to another, but the following clause to which it's connecting can be omitted in casual speech, especially when whatever would follow is clearly implied from context.

Your original example of ごめん、待たせてしまって！ is an inversion, rather than a strict omission, but you can also find cases where the second clause isn't explicitly stated at all, because it's implied.

For example,

A: 仕事帰りに一杯飲みに行きませんか？ Shall we go out for a drink after work?
B: すみません！今日はちょっと用事があって・・・ Sorry! I have plans today, so... [I can't go].

The trailing off after the ～て form is softer/less direct than explicitly saying 今日はちょっと用事があって行けません, ちょっと用事があってダメなんですよ, and therefore is quite common in everyday Japanese conversation.

The "left off" emboldened in the second sentence is not clear to me either. Does it mean both くれる kureru and 下さい kudasai are omitted?

"Left off" in the second sentence is the same thing. You see the examples of 食べて／読んで (or 食べてね／読んでね, which you'll often find in everyday speech) can serve as requests without explicitly including a verb of giving.

The example of "殺してくれ" has the くれ in imperative form, hasn't it? And the imperative form is stronger than the one ended with te form, isn't it?

Yes, くれ is an imperative form and thus stronger and more than ～て、～てね、～てください, etc. This particular sentence sounds like it could come out of a comic book, video game, war movie, or what-have-you.

 

[bentenmusume]

(Sorry, added some info to my post above that I forgot to copy/paste in when originally replying.)

 

[healer]

(Sorry, added some info to my post above that I forgot to copy/paste in when originally replying.)

Sorry! What did you add?
I can't find anything other than your bracketed statement.

 

[bentenmusume]

Sorry for the confusion! I added a couple of lines to the original post (e.g. the 今日はちょっと用事があって・・・ example) that I originally had forgotten to copy/paste in.

If you didn't view the post immediately after I posted it, then perhaps you already saw the edited/complete version the first time. Anyhow, just let us know if you have any additional questions!

 

[healer]

仕事帰りに一杯飲みに行きませんか？

Strictly speaking, do Japanese questions ever end with a question mark? Don't they always end with 。regardless? I had supposed they don't, especially when they end with か? They do use exclamation mark, don't they?

 

[Toritoribe]

Both a period and question mark are possible (and exclamation mark, of course). A question mark is used to make clear it's a question. The context usually shows if it's a question or not, but there are cases where both are possible, even when ending with か.
e.g.
A: 知らない？
B: 知らない。
A: ほんとに知らない？
B: ほんとに知らない。


行きませんか？そうですか、行きませんか。
Don't you go? I see, you don't go...
(The second 行きませんか is said with a falling intonation, and か expresses the speaker's disappointment/discouragement.)

 

[healer]

Thanks a lot!
I had thought that ending with か is always a question which is wrong as substantiated by your examples.

 

[healer]

Both a period and question mark are possible

Sorry, some clarification is in order.
I remember a textbook says Japanese questions don't end with question mark but Japanese period (。). Does it mean a question mark for a question is optional and for emphasis or clarification only? In other words, I'm asking when we use question mark and when we don't.

For example:
Can we write "行きませんか。"instead of "行きませんか？"

Please just let me know if it is always a question mark for a question. Thanks!

 

[Toritoribe]

A question mark or an exclamation mark is not used officially, but actually they are commonly used, not only in manga, novels or something but also even in newspapers or the like. You can think that it totally depends on the writer's preference (except very formal or official texts, of course).