At a convenience store: answering the bag question
Listen for 袋 and answer お願いします to accept or 大丈夫です to decline the bag.
At a convenience store register, listen for 袋. One beginner checkout pattern is 袋はどうしますか. Answer お願いします if you want the bag or 大丈夫です if you do not.
The core exchange
店員：袋はどうしますか。 客：お願いします。店員：袋はどうしますか。 客：大丈夫です。These short responses are all the exchange needs. The surrounding question gives 大丈夫です its declining meaning here.
Another question you may hear
The question can also be 袋はいりますか, “Do you need a bag?” This wording became especially useful to recognize when stores began mentioning that bags cost money.
店員：袋はいりますか。 客：はい、お願いします。店員：袋はいりますか。 客：いいえ、大丈夫です。Listen for the noun
At the register, the question may arrive quickly. You do not need to understand a long exchange before responding. First identify 袋. Then give the complete short response that matches your choice.
- First
- お願いします。
- Second
- 大丈夫です。
In this bag exchange, the first accepts and the second declines.
The same words can do different work in another situation. 大丈夫です after a health question means “I am all right.” Here, the bag question fixes the intended reading: you are fine without the offered bag.
Language reference
Vocabulary
- 袋
- bagnoun
- 大丈夫
- all right; fine without it in this contextna-adjective
Grammar pattern
- お願いします
please; yes, please in response to an offer
Form standalone service-response expression
Register polite response in this checkout exchange
Pop quiz
Question 1: The clerk asks 袋はどうしますか and you want the bag. Which answer fits?
- A. 大丈夫です。
- B. はい、お願いします。
Show answer
Bはい、お願いします。
はい、お願いします clearly accepts the bag. In this context, 大丈夫です normally means that you are fine without it.