Hold On!

Just a little "vocab" question...

hold on (lit: (please) wait a little) = ちょっと待って（ください）

[after you said ちょっと待って（ください）] I'm back = ???

[responding to ???] Welcome back = （お）帰り

Thats really what I wanted to know lol


-Tommy

In what context are you saying "I'm back"? If it's in the "I'm home!" context people say ただいま.

お帰り usually means welcome home, doesn't seem to be used in a lot of other places.
"I'm back" as a follow up to ちょっと待ってください would be 戻って来ました！

Tomii515 said:

hold on (lit: (please) wait a little) = ちょっと待って（ください）
[after you said ちょっと待って（ください）] I'm back = ???
[responding to ???] Welcome back = （お）帰り

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When asking this kind of question, it's easier for others to answer if you explain under what circumstances/in what situation you would like to use those expressions.

As Bucko mentioned, ただいま and おかえり（なさい） is normally used between someone who was away from home and someone who welcome back the person. (A family member who came home in the evening is welcomed by another family member, or between friends/colleagues when one was away for a while on business trip, holidays, etc.)

When talking with someone face to face, or on the phone and you need to be away for a few minutes, the normal exchange would be:

casual:
ちょっと待ってて（ね）。 (then leave.)
お待たせ。 (when came back.)

polite:
すみません、少々お待ちいただけますか。
お待たせしました。

I don't think there's fixed expression to be used by the party who was been kept waiting.

The one exception I can think of is "chat" on the net.
When someone is leaving for a little while but to be back soon, one might say
ちょっと待ってて
and when came back,
ただいま
then the one who was waiting could say
おかえり

Sounds like he means over the phone.

I usually hear はいはい when one of my friends have returned from placing me on hold.

When talking with someone face to face, or on the phone and you need to be away for a few minutes, the normal exchange would be:

casual:
ちょっと待ってて（ね）。 (then leave.)
お待たせ。 (when came back.)

polite:
すみません、少々お待ちいただけますか。
お待たせしました。

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Particularly in a formal or business setting, I might use しばらく待ってね（ください） for a pause in the conversation over, say, 30 or 40 seconds.
If it were more casual or I needed to be away from the phone only 5-6 seconds, ちょっとのほうがいいかな？


Depends on the tolorance level of the clients, too, but anything longer than that, I'd ask if I could please call them back. At least that's how I recommend doing things in America.

Elizabeth said:

Particularly in a formal or business setting, I might use しばらく待ってね（ください） for a pause in the conversation over, say, 30 or 40 seconds.
If it were more casual or I needed to be away from the phone only 5-6 seconds, ちょっとのほうがいいかな？


Depends on the tolorance level of the clients, too, but anything longer than that, I'd ask if I could please call them back. At least that's how I recommend doing things in America.

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I wrote "a few minutes" to contrast for longer absence, say, hours, or days.
My example is not to imply you can keep your client wait for such a long time in actual business scene, but simply to show "only for a shor time".
The main topic here is what to say when keeping someone waiting, and then what to say when on his/her return, not the business manner.

undrentide said:

I wrote "a few minutes" to contrast for longer absence, say, hours, or days.
My example is not to imply you can keep your client wait for such a long time in actual business scene, but simply to show "only for a shor time".
The main topic here is what to say when keeping someone waiting, and then what to say when on his/her return, not the business manner.

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Yeah, I know he probably wasn't interested in how to treat corporate clients particularly. Thanks, undrentide. And sorry Tommy for not having anything to contribute to the question and getting us off track once again....:sorry: