248. "Excuse me"

This is a fairly well known one: すみません (sumimasen).

It can be used to get someone's attention, for example at a restaurant you can get a server's attention by raising your hand and saying 「すみません。」

Or if you want to stop someone in the street to ask them something, so on so forth.

You can also use it to apologise, but apologies can wait for another post.

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