Help with this sentence

きょうの夕方デパ-トから 荷物が 届く予定 なんですが。。。

This phrase was taken from my textbook. From the context I guess it's direct translation would be something like "Well....I made a delivery arrangement at the mall this evening..."

However from the sentence I can't seem to find anything that suggests the "making/arrangement" of the delivery.

Can someone help me breakdown the sentence so I can understand it better? More specifically why the textbook used "届く予定 なんですが" instead of something like "届く予定 がありますが". And does the "なん" behind 届く予定 indicates that it's a noun or something?

Thanks in advance for any help!

If I translate the sentence into English, it would be something like" the item which I ordered from the mall/department store is supposed to be delivered in the evening."

I hope this will give you some idea to understand the sentence.

Hmmm.....

荷物が 届く予定 なんですが。。。

So what about the quote above? Why not use
 "届く予定 がありますが" instead?

If possible a breakdown of how the quote above was structured would be nice.

[きょうの 夕方 デパ-ト から 荷物が 届く]予定 なんですが...
It is that the schedule is [that a parcel from a department store is to reach me this evening]...

I guess the textbook is trying to show you the usage of "...n desu (ga)..." or "...no desu (ga)..." an expression to explain the situation/reason and hesitation.

In this case, the speaker is either:
(1) calling up the delivery company and asking about his parcel: showing hesitation and a question, WITHOUT actually asking the obvious question of "what happened to the delivery, it has not reached me."
(2) or someone has asked the speaker to go out for the evening, and this person is stating the reason he cannot leave the house, because a delivery is scheduled. SO he is avoiding a clear "no" to the invitation.

Without the "...n desu" expression, it will be:

きょうの　夕方　デパートから 荷物が 届く予定 です。
きょうの　夕方　デパートから　荷物が届く予定だ。
The plan/schedule is that a parcel from the department store is to arrive this evening.

This is placed in the "..n desu" construction, where the last "desu" or "da" changes into "na" then "n desu" is added.

If you want to use 届く予定がありますが　to
mean 届く予定なんですが　,it is fine with me.

なんですが　is a colloquial form of なのですが。
届く予定なのです。In this case, I feel 予定　is functioning as a verb.
届く予定があります。In this case, there is a 予定（plan) where something to be delivered, so 予定　works as a noun.

I think it is just an alternative way of saying. In English too, there are many ways to express something.

Okay I'm pretty close to getting the hang of it.

My last query regarding this issue would be why the sentence would give the idea/assumption to the listener that he/she is expecting a delivery?

The speaker doesn't mention that he is the one expecting the delivery. Since it uses なのです wouldn't that mean that it is either a noun or na-adjective? If so how does it give the idea of the action where the speaker had "made/arranged" a delivery?

I expect that I will get the percel from the department store this evening.

かいものなんですが、出かけなければ ならない。それで スーパー に 行いて 野菜 を 買って ください。

This is a sentence I constructed.

Would the phrase "かいものなんですが" from the above sentence mean, "I wanted to go shopping"? Or should I have wrote "かいもの予定なんですが"? Or is this sentence structured wrongly?

Damienne,

As I mentioned, the "na" is a form of "da" in my explanation. It is combined with "...n desu" so it looks like "nan desu," but it is not a noun at all.

The part that tells me that he is expecting a parcel is because he is saying 荷物が届く予定. = a parcel is due to arrive. As he says "arrive (to me)" I can tell that it has been arranged for in advance.

About your sentence:
かいものなんですが、出かけなければ ならない。それで スーパー に 行いて 野菜 を 買って ください。

If you want to say you "want to" go shopping, then: かいものに　行きたいです。

Your sentences say "As for shopping, I need to go out. So, please go to the supermarket and buy some vegetables." You seem to be asking someone else to buy for you :) Please be clear what you want to say so that I can help :)

Also, this "... n desu" expression is used to explain reasons/situation. If you simply want to say you want to go shopping, you don't have to use this construction.

Yes,the sentence does not say he/she is the person who made the arrangement for delivery.

It simply states a fact that somthing will be delivered to someplace/someone.

I put "I" because it just came to mind since in English you can not omit the subject to construct a sentence, In order to determine who the speaker is we need more context.

なんですが and なのですが are used in many ways.
It is difficult to understand every usage.
But one thins I can tell you is なんですが in届く予定なんですが is differnt from なんですが　in かいものなんですが。

The former なん/なの functions as propositinoal particle following 予定 while the latter is to mean "concerning/about/on".
Please note 買い物（かいもの）なんですが　is at the begining of the sentence.






It is difficult to

AK is right. the meaning of your Japanese sentence is unclear.
I think the words "かいものなんですが、" has no meaning. if you omit the words "かいものなんですが、" , it will be much better Japanese.