わかる is already that kind of conjugation of わく.

I'm watching a 実況 of 7 Days to Die. The guy got hit by a zombie wearing a red jacket (the 骨サンタ) and then started bleeding out. Then this sentence popped up:

骨サンタと馬鹿にしたせいか驚きの一発をくらってしまう

I don't understand what the か at the end of せい is in there for. Wouldn't it make more sense to say せいで or something?

My first hunch, that it's basically a internal question turned out to be true. Apparently せいか（所為か） means "it may be because of".

If this is the same vid, then the text (as written on the screen) is:

青サンタと馬鹿にしたせいか
怒りの一発をくらってしまうw

It sounds to me like the narrator is making a bit of wordplay with 青 and pronouncing it アホ (hence the irate santa), though that might be me mishearing. (The meaning is as Tetsueda said.)

Quote:My first hunch, that it's basically a internal question turned out to be true. Apparently せいか（所為か） means "it may be because of".

Ah I see, I guess that's more of the Japanese way of skirting around what you want to say instead of just saying it? Haha. Thanks for the reply!

Quote:If this is the same vid, then the text (as written on the screen) is:

青サンタと馬鹿にしたせいか
怒りの一発をくらってしまうw

It sounds to me like the narrator is making a bit of wordplay with 青 and pronouncing it アホ (hence the irate santa), though that might be me mishearing. (The meaning is as Tetsueda said.)

That is the same video. I didn't even read the kanji correctly, lol. I was wondering why he was saying アホ, that makes more sense. I commend you searching for the video to find it, haha.

(2016-01-01, 5:52 pm)HolyKotor Wrote:

Quote:My first hunch, that it's basically a internal question turned out to be true. Apparently せいか（所為か） means "it may be because of".

Ah I see, I guess that's more of the Japanese way of skirting around what you want to say instead of just saying it? Haha. Thanks for the reply!

English can make "perhaps because" and "because" type distinctions too. It's just flagging up that it's a supposition rather than a certain fact (since we don't know the Santa's motivation for certain). This isn't a case of the speaker being indirect about what they want to say, IMHO.

Just to clarify, the insult is 青サンタ, i.e. because he's actually a fearsome zombie not a green santa. The アホ thing was a bit of a distraction.

Xと馬鹿にする = to make fun of by calling X

Translation:
Maybe because I took the piss by calling him a green santa, I end up copping an angry punch.

Hello everyone I'm still reading Soul Eater and I just came across another sentence that I can't quite understand, a teacher looks at Maka's soul and after noticing its wings and halo says:
マかちゃんの魂の形状が５千万人に一人といわれている「天使型」でしょ?
(天使型 has this reading in furigana: エグリゴリ)
Anyway I'm curious about the ５千万人に一人 does it mean that one every five thousand people has one?

(2016-01-06, 9:54 am)Kuroro Wrote: Hello everyone I'm still reading Soul Eater and I just came across another sentence that I can't quite understand, a teacher looks at Maka's soul and after noticing its wings and halo says:
マかちゃんの魂の形状が５千万人に一人といわれている「天使型」でしょ?
(天使型 has this reading in furigana: エグリゴリ)
Anyway I'm curious about the ５千万人に一人 does it mean that one every five thousand people has one?

Close. One in every five thousand would be ５千人に一人.  What we have here is ５千万人, 5 thousand 万(10,000) or 
50,000,000.  So, it's 1 out of every 50,000,000 people that has the aforementioned shape.

That's fifty million but otherwise you're right.

Quote:Anyway I'm curious about the ５千万人に一人 does it mean that one every five thousand people has one?

One person in every 50 million (５千万), but yeah.

edit: LOL double beaten to it, all within a minute XD

I hate numbers lol one in every 5 thousand did sound a bit strange lol thanks guys

Maka-chan's soul has the said-to-be 1 in 50 million "angel form", right?

マかちゃんの魂の形状
Maka-chan's soul's shape/form

５千万人に一人といわれている
said to be 1 in 50 million people

「天使型」でしょ?
"angel form", right?

天使型 would normally be read てんしがた ('angel form'), but presumably this is referred to as エグリゴリ in the manga, which sounds more like "gouging fanatic" or something.

エグリゴリ→グリゴリ（Grigori）あるいはエグリゴリとは旧約聖書偽典『エノク書』に出る堕天使の一団。原義は「見張る者（ギリシア語: egrḗgoroi (ἐγρήγοροι)）」という意味である。
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B0%...4%E3%83%AA

lol thanks - I assumed it must be one of those blood-thirsty horror mangas

Thank you both Ash_S I'm glad you explained the reference to those angels, I would have never guessed it it actually fits her perfectly since Maka is one of the few characters who has the ability to see and evaluate the souls of others

Hey everyone, having some trouble with this one

才能のある子は他にいくらでもいる, 才能のある子は他にいくらでもいる、だからあのときが限界だったの

I don't understand how 他にfunctioning...

Thanks

他にいる is 'there are others'. (他にある sometimes, but in this case we're talking about people so いる)
他にいくらでもいる is 'there are countless others'.
The subject of that phrase is 才能のある子.
Make sense now?

(2016-01-15, 1:18 am)SomeCallMeChris Wrote: 他にいる is 'there are others'. (他にある sometimes, but in this case we're talking about people so いる)
他にいくらでもいる is 'there are countless others'.
The subject of that phrase is 才能のある子.
Make sense now?

Yes, thanks!

Hello everyone I'm not really sure about the meaning of this sentence:

自分から知ろうとしない限り他人の本当の姿なんて見えてこない。大抵そんなものだと思う。

'As long as I try not to feel it myself, other people won't get to see my true self either. That's pretty much what I think.'
This is how I would translate it, anyway the two things that bother me are the 知ろうとしない限り part and the 大抵 in the second sentence, is it linked to もの or does it express a general opinion as in 'I think that's how it is for most people'?

自分から知ろうとする = try and know [something] 'from yourself' ie. make the effort yourself to try and know [something]

You won't discover other people's true selves unless you make an effort yourself to try and know them. That's pretty much how it is.

Wow I was off by a lot lol thank you Ash_S

I have a few more questions

First of all what does であり mean?

(練金術師よ大衆のためにあれ)
術師の常識でありプライドだ

And then there is this sentence from a DoBJG

山口さんは笑いながら私の話を聞いていた

The translation was 'while smiling' but when I first read it I thought he was laughing perhaps beacuse he wasn't taking the speaker seriously. Do you think the sentence is ambiguous without context? Or was I just wrong?

(2016-01-27, 9:05 am)Kuroro Wrote: I have a few more questions

First of all what does であり mean?

(練金術師よ大衆のためにあれ)
術師の常識でありプライドだ

OK so you're missing either one of both of the following two bits of knowledge
1. である means だ・です。
例）吾輩は猫である。I am a cat.

2. The 連用形 (masu-stem) can be used like the te-form
例）右手で方程式を解き続け、左手で名前を書き、ポテチを取り・・・食べる!!
＝右手で方程式を解き続けて、左手で名前を書いて、ポテチを取って・・・食べる!!

例）昨年の冬はとても暖かく雪も降らなかった。
＝昨年の冬はとても暖かくて雪も降らなかった。

so AでありBだ。
＝AであってBだ。
＝Aで、Bだ。
=[it] is (both) A and B.

Quote:And then there is this sentence from a DoBJG

山口さんは笑いながら私の話を聞いていた

The translation was 'while smiling' but when I first read it I thought he was laughing perhaps beacuse he wasn't taking the speaker seriously. Do you think the sentence is ambiguous without context? Or was I just wrong?

I guess its technically ambiguous but smiling sounds right here. Because they were 'listening' to what the "I" had to say. 私の話を聞いていた。You generally don't laugh all throughout 'listening' to what someone's saying?
If it was 時に笑いながら (while sometimes laughing/smiling) or something then I think it would be more ambiguous.

Thank you so much! I didn't know the である - です thing and I thought that usage of the stem was restricted to written Japanese so I wasn't even expecting it to show up in a dialogue. Best example ever there lol I'm thinking about reading Death Note too but I'm a bit worried about the heavy amounts of dialogue