Comparison of "迷惑をかける" and "手数をかける"?


> (1) ご迷惑{めいわく}をおかけして、申し訳ありません。  
>  (2) 毎日{まいにち}、大変{たいへん}お手数{てすう}をおかけして、申し訳ありません。

  * both basically mean the same thing?
  * the time period for #1 is from 1 _afternoon_ to several years?
  * this time period for #2 is from 1 _week_ to several years?
  * #2 is rarely used?




The two phrases are more or less the same but the way I see it, there is a
tiny but appreciable difference between them:

> 迷惑をかける = to inconvenience someone; to be a nuisance to someone
>
> 手数をかける = to inconvenience someone by putting them to trouble, that is, **by
> making them do something (often 'extra' something) for or because of you**

You can 'inconvenience' others without the inconvenienced party necessarily
being required to take the steps to solve your problem. (Examples: being a
noisy neighbor, falling behind the schedule, blocking the road, etc.) That's
when you'd apologize, "ご **迷惑** をおかけして申し訳ありません。", but not likely "お **手数**
をおかけして申し訳ありません。"

"お **手数** をおかけして申し訳ありません" you'd say only when you know you have caused or are
going to cause someone to take extra steps because of you, or in order to help
you. "ご **迷惑** をおかけして申し訳ありません。" will also do in such cases, though.

So in that light, I think it can be said that 手数をかける is one form of 迷惑をかける.

I'm not sure if I understand your second and third question correctly, but (1)
can be said about something that happened on one afternoon, or that has been
going on for years, and (2) about some situation spanning anywhere from a few
days to several decades, conceivably.

As for your last question, the addition of the two words 毎日 and 大変 means more
specificity of the entire utterance and more specificity probably means less
occurrence, so I'd guess (2) is rare compared to (1). But between
"ご迷惑をおかけして、申し訳ありません" and "お手数をおかけして、申し訳ありません", I don't think either is much
rarer than the other. (I say these without checking any corpus.)




The two phrases are more or less the same but the way I see it, there is a
tiny but appreciable difference between them:

> 迷惑をかける = to inconvenience someone; to be a nuisance to someone
>
> 手数をかける = to inconvenience someone by putting them to trouble, that is, **by
> making them do something (often 'extra' something) for or because of you**

You can 'inconvenience' others without the inconvenienced party necessarily
being required to take the steps to solve your problem. (Examples: being a
noisy neighbor, falling behind the schedule, blocking the road, etc.) That's
when you'd apologize, "ご **迷惑** をおかけして申し訳ありません。", but not likely "お **手数**
をおかけして申し訳ありません。"

"お **手数** をおかけして申し訳ありません" you'd say only when you know you have caused or are
going to cause someone to take extra steps because of you, or in order to help
you. "ご **迷惑** をおかけして申し訳ありません。" will also do in such cases, though.

So in that light, I think it can be said that 手数をかける is one form of 迷惑をかける.

I'm not sure if I understand your second and third question correctly, but (1)
can be said about something that happened on one afternoon, or that has been
going on for years, and (2) about some situation spanning anywhere from a few
days to several decades, conceivably.

As for your last question, the addition of the two words 毎日 and 大変 means more
specificity of the entire utterance and more specificity probably means less
occurrence, so I'd guess (2) is rare compared to (1). But between
"ご迷惑をおかけして、申し訳ありません" and "お手数をおかけして、申し訳ありません", I don't think either is much
rarer than the other. (I say these without checking any corpus.)

