"D'oh!" in Japanese?

Japanese Language
#1

I’ve been using LangCorrect for a while, whenever I have a spare moment to write in Japanese and have it proofread. (Wonderful community there too, by the way!)

A lot of my mistakes are silly things that I should’ve known better than to do. In English, I would probably say, “D’oh!” Some friendly, mildly humorous, tacit acknowledgment of my own blunder, you know?

I have no idea what the Japanese equivalent would be. Phrases like 「しまった」, 「くそ」, and 「ちぇッ」 all strike me as too rude to say to an Internet stranger, and the transliteration 「ドォッ」 probably wouldn’t come across the same considering that the show has undoubtedly had a different cultural impact. I’m certain there’s some interjection that I can lead with before I explain that I really thought I wrote the thing correctly, but I’m drawing a blank here. Ideas?

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#2

あっちゃ～ springs to mind, though I do wonder if you need to be a wrinkled old granny to use it. :stuck_out_tongue:

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#3

I’m not quite sure I see how しまった is “worse” to say to an internet stranger than “D’oh!”. They’re both very casual.

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#4

I think I’ve seen って used this way.

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#5

まったく might cover the meaning in a lot of situations, working as a kind of “good grief” or exasperated feeling

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#6

I thought that might be the case. Back in the 90s, my first high school Japanese class’s required dictionary was Martin’s. I remember the only profanity in it was “damn,” which was しまった. I know that dictionary painted an incomplete picture, but in my brain しまった is always a little more vulgar than I know it actually is.

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#7

おっと！ comes to mind.

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#8

depending on the context あち！Or いた！

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#9

I think 「あら」is the word you are looking for. It’s what you say when you realise you made a mistake.

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#10

Jeremy, you might want to stick to しまった when you make a mistake haha. あら is a bit different and usually for girls

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#11

I disagree. I have heard plenty of men say 「あら」in exactly the context that an English speaker would say “Oh” when they make a mistake.

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#12

I agree with Vanilla. It’s in the dictionary entry as well.

［感］物事に感動したり、驚いたり、意外なことに気がついたりしたときに発する語。ああ。まあ。現代では主に女性が使う。「—、お久しぶり」

To me it also feels like something older ladies specifically would say if they made a mistake, not all women.

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#13

My male coworkers say this all the time. It just means “oh dear”

The stereotype is women using it a lot but it in of itself is not really gendered and used by everyone

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#14

Guys can say ara…but in the context of making a mistake I feel like guys don’t really say it. Maybe you heard あれ

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#15

あれ seems more plausible to me.

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#16

I have been actively discouraged from using あら by my gf, the guys I work with tend to say “あれ?” and “おら?”

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