On Sunday, I stopped by Uniqlo in Ginza. It was
crowded everywhere in Ginza, and Uniqlo may have been doing better business than anywhere else.
- crowded 稠密 過密 濃密 満員 (definition from jmdict)
Of course, since I was in Ginza, I was doing something
glamourous: shopping for underwear. While looking around, I found this sign:
× Men's line up will be in the next building.
◯ The men's line-up (lineup) is in the next building.
- glamour 魅力 蠱惑 グラマー (definition from jmdict)
- lineup ラインナップ 布陣 (definition from jmdict)
The first problem they have is the missing "the". "The" is necessary because we know which "men's line-up" -- it's the Uniqlo men's line-up. When your
audience knows which one you mean, use "the".
- audience 会集 観客 会見 会衆 看客 入り 引見 オーディエンス 聴衆 傍聴人 聞き手 (definition from jmdict)
The second problem Uniqlo has is "line-up". "Line up" is a phrasal verb, which means to get in line or to queue. It's possible to turn many phrasal verbs like this into nouns by adding a hyphen. Some of the more common ones have even become nouns without hyphens, like "lineup".
For me, the third problem is the biggest one. When you use "will", it generally has one of two meanings:
a) you have just decided on some future action
b) you are making a prediction about the future
- prediction 予言 予断 予測 予知 予報 予想 (definition from jmdict)
If they have made a sign, they can't be deciding right now. It's also strange for Uniqlo to make a prediction about something like the location of their men's section.
There's a special case, which is probably which caused them to make this mistake. Some native speakers have conversations like this:
A: Excuse me, where's the toilet?
B: Oh, it will be just down the hall and on your right.
Native speakers do this, and probably most people don't feel it's strange. However, it's definitely only for conversations, and I don't recommend it to any of you. You and Bさん should say "it is just down the hall on your right."
If you have any connections at Uniqlo, you should let them know. If they are trying to become an international company, they should avoid making English mistakes, especially at their
flagship store.
- flagship store 主力店舗 (definition from Eijiro on the Web)
