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携帯番号交換しとくんだったな。。。

The sentence means "We have interchanged phone numbers in advance." This makes no sense with the story unless I add "should" before the "have". So could ~teoku's meaning also include "should" ("should prepare in advance") in casual speech, or something like that, which could have this sentence make more sense for me?

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  • 4
    Who told you it means "We have interchanged phone numbers in advance." in the first place?
    – user4032
    Commented Jan 2, 2016 at 11:16

1 Answer 1

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You are correct.

「[携帯番号交換]{けいたいばんごうこうかん}しとくんだったな。。。」

means that the persons involved DID NOT exchange cellphone numbers.

「しとくんだったな」=「しておくんだったな」 = "should have ~~ed"

「~~しておくんだった」, which is used idiomatically, expresses one's retrospective regret of not having done ~~. In this sense, one could call it "invisible" as it is all idiomatic instead of any part of the phrase literally meaning "should".

The "visible-'should'" versions are:

「~~しとくべきだった」 and 「~~しておくべきだった」

Thus, the sentence in question means:

"We/You/They should have exchanged cellphone numbers."

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  • An alternative translation would be "We were supposed to exchange cellphone numbers".
    – Earthliŋ
    Commented Jan 2, 2016 at 11:52

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