12

Context

I saw many times people using 落ちる in a chat followed by 後で. I assumed that the user expressed his intent of temporarily leaving a chat and planned to come back later.

Question

  • As the title mentions, is 落ちます an equivalent of "AFK1" with the underlying meaning of coming back later on?
  • Is there a way to differentiate "I got to go" (I don't plan to come back) and "I'll be back" (I temporarily leave the chat/game/whatever)

1AFK: Away From Keyboard

Al-un
  • 223
  • 1
  • 9
  • 1
    For the sake of clarity maybe you should specify what AFK means for people not familiar with this terminology. – Tommy Oct 06 '17 at 02:50
  • @Tommy totally correct. I just added the acronym definition assuming that it would be enough, especially on the point that the leaving is *temporarily* only – Al-un Oct 06 '17 at 06:57

2 Answers2

9

落ちます is closer to "gotta go now." It usually means not returning for the day, unless otherwise modified by しばらく, ちょっと, 30分くらい, 飯食ってくるので, etc. A typical response for 落ちます would be おやすみなさい, また明日, お疲れ様, etc.

後で usually indicates the person who said this somehow knows the other person is coming back relatively soon. It's not a typical response for 落ちます modified by nothing.

If you want to explicitly say "I'll be back", you can use すぐ戻ります, ちょっと外します, しばらく落ちます, etc. Many online gamers will understand "AFK", too.

Chocolate
  • 62,056
  • 5
  • 95
  • 199
naruto
  • 285,549
  • 12
  • 305
  • 582
  • `Many online gamers will understand "AFK"` -- ちなみにですけど・・・"BRB"も、通じます？日本人（のゲーマー？）の間でも、"brb"ってよく使われてますか？ – Chocolate Oct 06 '17 at 01:17
  • 1
    たぶんAFKとかLOLとかよりはずっと知名度低い気がします。 – naruto Oct 06 '17 at 01:27
  • @naruto Thanks for your answer. I did not notice how the *modifier* such as `しばらく` were important – Al-un Oct 06 '17 at 07:05
  • 1
    @Chocolate I'll comment in English as my Japanese grammar is clumsy. I would like to add that I feel a [subtle difference between **AFK** and **BRB**](https://obviate.io/2009/08/03/brb-versus-afk/). I personally expect *BRB* to be short and not necessarily AFK (example: I'm switching to another application) and usually expect AFK to be a justification: `AFK drink` (so about few minutes), `AFK groceries` (maybe an hour) or a duration `AFK 5 min`. – Al-un Oct 06 '17 at 07:14
  • @Al1 ありがとうございます。上手く使い分けするのはとても難しそうですけど、がんばります＾＾ – Chocolate Oct 07 '17 at 01:48
3

落ちる could refer to the Internet connection, meaning the person will leave and therefore the connection will drop.

I'm taking liberties here but you can think of it as

（今日のところはこれで。ネット接続が）落ちます。（また）後で。

keithmaxx
  • 1,392
  • 6
  • 13
  • 1
    `今日のところでこれで` <-- You meant to say 「今日のところ**は**これで。」, no? – Chocolate Oct 06 '17 at 01:56
  • @keithmaxx Thanks for your answer and example is appreciated. However, I have to confess that naruto's answer rather fit what I have met – Al-un Oct 06 '17 at 07:02