Ending sentences with というか / ていうか


For e.g. 安心するていうか。I saw this in an interview where the person expressed relief
that a certain place was available.

Is there any nuance with just saying 安心する? This is one thing I can never seem
to get. Adding extra words at the end that just seems redundant. Except that,
ていう seems to be added everywhere by everyone like a generic individual speech
tick similar to Naruto's だってばよ。




In "real-life" informal conversations among us native speakers, we _**do
not**_ end sentences with だ/です/ます/します/しました/だった/でした, etc. nearly as often as
Japanese-learners might expect us to or have actually been taught that we do.

(Then again, native English speakers rarely speak English the way we are
taught that they do in Japan, either.)

So, how do we end sentences?

We often use sentence-ending particles and/or little phrases that just kill
Japanese-learners because those words and phrases do not translate easily.

「というか / っていうか / っつーか」(← three forms of the same phrase listed in the order of
formality) is one of those phrases that we attach to statements to avoid
directness, over-assertiveness, etc. In short, those are softeners.

「っていうか」 has a meaning and function similar to those of " _ **I mean**_ " or "
_ **I mean like**_ " in colloquial English.

**Thus, 「安心するっていうか」 roughly means "I feel, I mean like relieved."** I hope you
are starting to understand how it would not be easy to teach this in a
beginning or intermediate Japanese course. That is real Japanese, but it is
simply too colloquial.

As you have rightly observed, 「というか / っていうか / っつーか」 is heard everywhere. If a
native speaker did not use this attachment, he would still say:

  * 「安心するよね。」

  * 「安心しますね。」

  * 「安心するわ。」

Very few would just say 「安心する。」 in real life.

