# Please translate this Japanese phrase

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-translate-this-japanese-phrase/730485>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 10, 2015, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-translate-this-japanese-phrase/730485 "2015-09-10T01:47:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2015, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-translate-this-japanese-phrase/730485/1 "2015-09-10T01:47:04Z")

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I don’t know for sure how it’s written, I’ve only heard it in conversation (in Japanese language TV shows on TV Japan, so there aren’t subtitles).

Also I don’t know how to do kana or kanji on my keyboard, so I will have to do it in romaji. This is why I can’t look it up on any online translation source, none of them seem to accept romaji input.

_Moo shika shite_

or it might be two words, like

_mooshi kashite_

or some other configuration. It must be a common phrase, I hear it a lot. From context, I’m guessing it’s something like “do you think that…” or “you don’t suppose that…”

Am I close?

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**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2015, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-translate-this-japanese-phrase/730485/2 "2015-09-10T04:03:51Z")

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Moshi kashite?

Means “sort-of” or “perhaps” or “kind-of” in a really rough sense, or sort of “uh-huh, go on, tell me more” in a sort of skeptical way.

Like a very polite (diffident?) way to disagree without really disagreeing, or to distance yourself from what the other person said without saying they’re wrong. That sort of thing.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2015, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-translate-this-japanese-phrase/730485/3 "2015-09-10T04:22:28Z")

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Thank you very much.

Now I see that I should have looked up the whole expression in my dictionary, it has “moshikashitara” as “perhaps, maybe, possibly, it is to be feared that.”