お邪魔します

When to use it

The phrase for stepping into someone else’s home, said at the entrance while you take off your shoes. 邪魔（じゃま）is a hindrance, so you are saying ‘I am going to be in your way’. When you leave: お邪魔しました. The host answers どうぞ, お上がりください or いらっしゃい.

It also works for dropping in on a colleague’s office informally, and for asking before a visit or a call: お邪魔してもよろしいですか (may I come by?), 今、お邪魔じゃないですか (am I disturbing you?). Entering your own home is ただいま, never お邪魔します.

Examples

• お邪魔します。（おじゃま します）— Excuse me for intruding. (entering)
• お邪魔しました。楽しかったです。（おじゃま しました。たのしかった です）— Thanks for having me. It was fun. (leaving)
• 今、ちょっとお邪魔してもいいですか。（いま、ちょっと おじゃま して も いい です か）— Can I bother you for a second?

Traps for Spanish, English and French speakers

• Drop the お and the meaning flips: 邪魔！ or 邪魔だ is ‘get out of my way’. Spanish speakers who treat お as an optional politeness layer, like switching from usted to tú, turn a doorway courtesy into an insult. In this phrase the お is not optional.
• English ‘thanks for having me’ is said on the way out, so English speakers say nothing on the way in. Japanese marks both ends: お邪魔します in, お邪魔しました out.
• French ‘je ne vous dérange pas ?’ and Spanish ‘¿molesto?’ are questions the host must answer. お邪魔します is a statement made while already stepping in; nobody is supposed to reply. Only the version ending in てもいいですか is a real question.
• 失礼します also works at a door, but it belongs to offices and classrooms. Entering a home with 失礼します sounds like a parcel delivery; entering a client’s office with お邪魔します sounds like a social visit.