Speaking Japanese

How to question a charge on the bill, in Japanese

If you are in the chair right now

すみません、こちらは注文していないのですが。

Excuse me, we didn't order this one.

If that gets brushed off

お会計をご確認いただけますか。

Could you check the bill, please?

The のですが ending is doing the real work: it trails the sentence off and hands the problem over, which is how Japanese disagrees without confronting. Point at the line on the bill as you say it. これは違う — this is wrong — is grammatical and reads as an accusation.

Textbooks teach お会計お願いします and move on, as if every bill in Japan were correct. Then a dish you never ordered appears on one, and you discover the real skill: disagreeing with someone, in Japanese, in a way that lets both of you keep smiling.

If you need more than one line

softest

すみません、ちょっとよろしいですか。

Excuse me, do you have a moment? The standard opener before any awkward subject.

neutral

こちらは注文していないと思うのですが。

I don't think we ordered this one. と思う — I think — softens a fact you are actually sure of, on purpose.

neutral

注文したのはこの料理と飲み物だけです。

What we ordered was just this dish and the drinks. The correct list is what lets them fix it on the spot.

firmest

もう一度ご確認いただけますか。

Could you check it once more? Still polite, but it does not go away.

Two things worth knowing

The vocabulary is easy. The disagreement is the lesson.

のですが is the whole apparatus

こちらは注文していないのですが ends mid-air, and that is the point: the trailing が leaves the conclusion — so please fix it — for the listener to supply. Japanese handles almost every polite complaint this way. Finish the sentence and you have made a demand; trail it and you have raised a topic. Same facts, entirely different temperature.

State your list, then let them do the arithmetic

Rather than arguing item by item, give the whole correct order in one line — 注文したのは〇〇だけです — and ask them to check. It keeps you out of the role of auditor, and ご確認いただけますか, could you confirm, frames the fix as a favour they are doing you rather than an error they are admitting to.

What Aiko actually said

What you have to get done

  • Show the thing you didn't ask for
  • Say what you did ask for
  • Take the right bill and say thanks

Aiko

こちらがお会計です。ご確認ください。

Here's the bill. Please check it.

You

ありがとうございます。ただ、こちらの「海鮮パスタ」は注文していないので、ご確認いただけますか。

Thank you. But we didn't order this seafood pasta, so could you check it?

Aiko

確認します。海鮮パスタをお取り消ししました。

I'll check. I've taken the seafood pasta off.

You

ありがとうございます。私たちが注文したのは、こちらの料理と飲み物だけですので、ほかに追加されていないかもご確認いただけますか。

Thank you. What we ordered was just this dish and the drinks, so could you also check nothing else has been added?

Aiko

はい、ほかに追加はありません。ご注文はそちらのお料理とお飲み物だけです。

Yes, there's nothing else added. Your order is just that dish and the drinks.

You

ありがとうございます。内容に問題がないことを確認できましたので、こちらのお会計でお願いいたします。

Thank you. I've confirmed everything is right, so I'll take this bill.

Aiko

ありがとうございます。こちらのお会計で承りました。お気をつけてお帰りください。

Thank you. I've taken the corrected bill. Take care on your way home.

The whole conversation, unedited

A real run in the app, nothing scripted on Aiko's side. The transcript above is taken from this recording, and the objectives tick off on screen as they are met.

Turn sound on to hear it.

Now say it yourself

Reading that is not the same as producing it with someone waiting, which is the entire difficulty. You can have this exact conversation in the app: Aiko is a third of the way through, and you have three things to get done.

It is free, it takes about a minute to start, and the first attempt is allowed to be terrible.

Practise this conversation
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