# let me think about it please



## ty604

let me think about it please -  informal/formal/honorific/business styles please.

Also what about let me sleep on it? Is there a colloquial equivalent?

Thanks


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## margaritainny

informal: "Chotto kangae sasete"  
formal: "Sukosi kangae sasete kudasai" 
honorific: "Sukosi kangae sasete itadake masuka" 
business: same as informal or honorific

For "let me sleep on it", I would say "hitoban kangae sasete kudsai."


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## xxAxx

Just in case you need the kanji.
informal:   ちょっと考えさせて。
formal:     少し考えさせて下さい。


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## Aoyama

For "sukosi", I think suko*sh*i is better, to keep in accordance with Hepburn transcription.


> For "let me sleep on it", I would say "hitoban kangae sasete kudasai."


or may be : hitoban kangae okasete kudasai ? (Sorry no kana/kanji here).


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## margaritainny

Aoyama said:


> For "sukosi", I think suko*sh*i is better, to keep in accordance with Hepburn transcription.
> 
> or may be : hitoban kangae okasete kudasai ? (Sorry no kana/kanji here).




Yeah, you are right, Hepburn transcription... 

"kangae okasete kudasai (考え置かせて下さい)" sounds OK to me as well, but maybe "kangae oku （考え置く）" sounds a bit like "I will think about it for a while (over a longer period of time)" or "I will keep that in mind for future consideration (eg: 考え置くべき問題）".  

Well, this is a personal preference in the end, so either is fine, I guess.


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## Flaminius

Hello Margarit,

 A belated welcome to you.  

I don't presume to know everything about Japanese but I am not sure how to use 考え置く.  Is it a more stylistic version of 考えて置く?  Correct me if I am mistaken but I just thought so based on your example:


> "I will keep that in mind for future consideration (eg: 考え置くべき問題）"



I see that 置く enhances the modified verb with such senses as future consideration, preparation for something, and as long as necessary.  The point common for these is that the action of the modified verb finishes when an action takes place irrelevant to one's volition.  I am wondering if it may not be compatible with the implications of "Let me think about it please."

The latter recognises that the ball is in the speaker's side of the court.  It promises albeit implicitly that the speaker will take an action once sufficient thinking is done.  In contrast, the implication of 置く is to wait for the ball to bounce in one's court.


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## margaritainny

Flaminius said:


> Hello Margarit,
> 
> A belated welcome to you.



Thank you!   This forum is very interesting and motivating! 



Flaminius said:


> I don't presume to know everything about Japanese but I am not sure how to use 考え置く.  Is it a more stylistic version of 考えて置く?



I also kept thinking about it after I posted my last reply.  Since I didn't find "考え置く" in a dictionary, I guess it is rather a colloquial expression.  I don't think it is used much in a daily conversation, but I've heard some people using it in business settings.   

I agree with you that this is a more "stylistic" version of 考えて置く.  考えて置かせて下さい sounds a little redundant, so I suppose the first て was omitted and became 考え置かせて下さい, don't you think? 




Flaminius said:


> The latter recognises that the ball is in the speaker's side of the court.  It promises albeit implicitly that the speaker will take an action once sufficient thinking is done.  In contrast, the implication of 置く is to wait for the ball to bounce in one's court.



The rest, I cannot imagine myself explaining more eloquently than you did.  But I have a slightly different view regarding the implication of 置く as I think it does recognize that the ball is already in one's court, but does not promise that it will hit the ball back to the other side of the court.  置く　has a meaning of 放置する、そのままにする (leave something alone, unattended).  So, 考え置く can be a rather passive expression as it does not necessarily promise that the speaker will come back with an answer.  Maybe it is used often by Japanese bureaucrats 

Well... I am not a linguist in the end, so please correct me if I'm wrong.


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## Aoyama

Well, I am the one who wrote "kangae oku/okasete" in the first place, without thinking too much about it. I didn't write "kangaete okasete"(but thought about it) because the two "te" seemed odd to me.


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## Flaminius

Hello again,

You two are right.  考え置く is much niftier than 考えて置く when used in the ください construction.  Old habits die hard, especially there is a special purpose for them.  



> So, 考え置く can be a rather passive expression as it does not necessarily promise that the speaker will come back with an answer. Maybe it is used often by Japanese bureaucrats


I would venture to think that if something is not necessarily the case in theory, it is rarely the case in practise.  I'd imagine 考え置かせてください is more a flowery protocol than a substantial commitment.


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