Japanese dictionary & Nihongo study tool.
The Japanese grammar content is from jgram.org licensed CC BY-SA 2.0.

< back to grammar index
JLPT N3
Edit  dc
Meaning
by the way
by the way it looks like rain
それはそうと。話題を変えるときに使う語。
Edit  dc
Formation
See also
Phrases
あめがふってきたなあところでめしにしないか
Hey, it's starting to rain By the way you want to go get something to eat?
Edit  #1099 bamboo4
「ところで」のほかのいみわたしがせっとくしたところであいつはみみをかさないだろう
(alternate usage) No matter how much I try to persuade him, that guy won't listen.
Edit  #1101 dc
ところで、あなたのしごとはなにですか。
By the way, what do you do?
Edit  #4942 Miki
ところで、あなたはしゅくだいをしましたか。
By the way, have you done your homework?
Edit  #4943 Miki
ところで、ちょっときみにはなしがある。
By the way, I have something to tell you.
Edit  #4944 Miki
ところで、あなたはこんばんひまですか。
By the way, are you free tonight?
Edit  #4945 Miki
Discussion and comments
Tokoro de is normally written in Hiragana although Kanji is possible. It will always be used to change the topic in a conversation. So if you were to see, "By the way...." it could start a clause or be after a complete sentence where you or someone says something and you use tokoro de to add more information or something that popped into your mind because of it.
IMABI
different ways of saying "by the way"

chinami ni > related to that...
tokorode > by the way (unrelated)
soieba > speaking of that

from here

「ところで」は、今まで話していた事とまったく違う話題に変えるとき使います。「ちなみに」は、今まで話していたことと関連して他の例などを挙げるときや、ある話題に対して相手の感想などを聞くときにも使います。だから「ところで」と「ちなみに」はまったく違う意味を持っています。
dc
ところで、Googleで”Japanese Grammar"+databaseの検索の結果、70ページ目になるため、おめでとう!
By the way, congratulations to getting to the 70th page on a Google search for "Japanese Grammar" + database. ;-)
Amatuka
By the sounds of it I'd guess "Talking about which" would work well for ちなみに.
Amatuka
To be specific, #1101 is in 〜たform + ところで and as such it is different from other examples under this head.
bamboo4
それはさておき would be another similar expression.Perhaps the two should be linked.
ちなみに can also be "now that you mention it."
bamboo4
Added another meaning of ところで
bamboo4
not to be confused with tokoro as in place or time
dc
Is example #1101 the reason this entry is marked as -1? because other than that example this is a solid entry that I have heard used a million times since I have been in Japan. 日常の日本語だよ
tigert
〜たform of verb + ところで
and just ところで、ちがうのものです。
If it is just ところで,which being used at the beginning of a separate sentence, it means 'By the way'.
If it is a verb in 〜たform + ところで 、then it is
「〜ても...」という意味です。(希望どおりにはならないだろう)
holland, yes, it is used when you want to change the topic.

Also, as far as example 1099 is concerned, I'm thinking that it's better to say, ”...ところでご飯(ごはん = meal)食べにいかない(か)?”
ozonitabetai
Is it used when we want to change the topic??
holland