Kotoba no Hibiki

---

A: Excuse me, should I ask Mr Yamada about this task?
B: You can ask him a few questions, but I don’t think he knows much about it.
A: I see. What about Mr Ueda?
B: Good idea! He’s the right person to ask.

In this situation, what should you say ‘you can ask him a few questions, but…’ in Japanese?

Business

B：聞きいてみてもいいけど、あまり詳くわしくないかも。

Note: This is not a word-for-word translation.

---

Advanced Tips

A word-for-word translation

B：いくつか質問しつもんしてもいいですが、あまり詳くわしくないと思おもいます。

That sounds a bit strange in Japanese.
In situations where you don’t think it’s a good idea, but there might be a chance, we usually use an expression like ‘you can try asking him if you like’.
This sentence can be translated as 聞きいてみてもいいけど.

In this example, the person you are asking is him, but if you are the person being asked, you can say something like the following:

聞きいてくれてもいいけど

聞きいてくれても構かまわないけど

一応いちおう聞きくけど

If you think he might know more and you think it’s a good idea to ask him, you can say 聞きいてみるといいよ.
This implies the nuance of recommendation.