greeting the wife of a colleague with 「お世話になっています」?


Supposing I'm meeting a colleague's wife for the first time, I was trying to
think of how to modify いつもお世話になっています to express something like "I'm always in
your husband's care". Is this appropriate? if so, how would I modify the
phrase?

I've encountered the phase used where the speaker is thanking the person he's
talking to on behalf of a third person - for example 息子がお世話になっています - and I
wondered if it works the other way around.




You could say to her:

> 「いつもご[主人]{しゅじん}[に]お[世話]{せわ}になっております。」= "I'm always in your husband's care".

Do not forget the honorific ご. The に can be replaced with には without changing
the meaning.

She would say to you:

> 「いつも主人[が]お世話になっております。」= "My husband is always in your care."

She will not use the ご because it is her own husband.

Finally, it is always the particle that can change the meaning of the sentence
entirely. In this case, it is に vs. が.

(If you usually did not speak all that politely or humbly, you could replace
the おります part with います, but you could never omit that ご.)




You could say to her:

> 「いつもご[主人]{しゅじん}[に]お[世話]{せわ}になっております。」= "I'm always in your husband's care".

Do not forget the honorific ご. The に can be replaced with には without changing
the meaning.

She would say to you:

> 「いつも主人[が]お世話になっております。」= "My husband is always in your care."

She will not use the ご because it is her own husband.

Finally, it is always the particle that can change the meaning of the sentence
entirely. In this case, it is に vs. が.

(If you usually did not speak all that politely or humbly, you could replace
the おります part with います, but you could never omit that ご.)

