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I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - Printable Version

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I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - john555 - 2014-07-08

The sentence is from my reader. I tried and tried but can't make out what it means. I haven't looked up the translation in the back. I thought I would ask people on this forum first. After, I'll share the answer in the book, and we'll see who was closest!

Sentence is:

他の人は，欲がふかくて一銭のまちがいもないようにお金の勘定ばかりしている人間ではないかとうたがっていました。

Here is the same sentence in romaji:

Hoka no hito wa, yoku ga hukakute issen no matigai mo nai yoo ni o-kane no kanzyoo bakari site iru ningen de wa nai ka to utagatte imasita.

Thanks.

I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - Arupan - 2014-07-08

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I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - Kuzunoha13 - 2014-07-08

Other people suspected his deep greed, as well as his character obsessed with the accounting of money so that not even a paltry sum was mistaken.

EDIT: It took me a few minutes to answer, but I swear Arupan's answer was NOT up there when I started. Not that internet points really mean anything, anyway. Sad

I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - vosmiura - 2014-07-08

thought -> suspected

I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - Arupan - 2014-07-08

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I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - leecha2 - 2014-07-09

I understood it as

Quote:I began to wonder whether other people were just greedy nit-pickers.


I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - yudantaiteki - 2014-07-09

leecha2 Wrote:I understood it as

Quote:I began to wonder whether other people were just greedy nit-pickers.
There's no "began to..." in the sentence, and the 他の人 is the topic of the whole sentence, and thus the subject of 疑う rather than the object -- at least with no further context. I think you would need some explicit contrast in a previous sentence for this to mean the speaker's thoughts about other people.

I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - john555 - 2014-07-09

yudantaiteki Wrote:
leecha2 Wrote:I understood it as

Quote:I began to wonder whether other people were just greedy nit-pickers.
There's no "began to..." in the sentence, and the 他の人 is the topic of the whole sentence, and thus the subject of 疑う rather than the object -- at least with no further context. I think you would need some explicit contrast in a previous sentence for this to mean the speaker's thoughts about other people.
To provide some context, here's the sentence immediately before the sentence I'm asking about.

Sorry I have to use only romaji because I'm at a different computer and can't type in Japanese script:

Sikasi, Yokoyama-san ni wa, tanin yori zutto yoku sigoto ga dekiru no ni, onazi kyuuryoo sika moraenai no de, tanin wa toku o site zibun wa son o site iru to kangaeru syuukan ga atta yoo desu.

I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - yudantaiteki - 2014-07-09

That's what other people think of Yokoyama-san.

I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - john555 - 2014-07-09

john555 Wrote:The sentence is from my reader. I tried and tried but can't make out what it means. I haven't looked up the translation in the back. I thought I would ask people on this forum first. After, I'll share the answer in the book, and we'll see who was closest!

Sentence is:

他の人は，欲がふかくて一銭のまちがいもないようにお金の勘定ばかりしている人間ではないかとうたがっていました。

Here is the same sentence in romaji:

Hoka no hito wa, yoku ga hukakute issen no matigai mo nai yoo ni o-kane no kanzyoo bakari site iru ningen de wa nai ka to utagatte imasita.

Thanks.
OK, here is the translation at the back of the book. I would NOT have figured this out on my own (at this stage anyway):

Other people suspected him of being a grasping man always counting money to see that there had not been a mistake of even a farthing.

Looks like Kuzunoha13 is the winner:

Other people suspected his deep greed, as well as his character obsessed with the accounting of money so that not even a paltry sum was mistaken.


Thanks everyone for your input. Someday hopefully I'll be able to understand a sentence like this on my own (even while skim reading).

I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - Arupan - 2014-07-09

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I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - vosmiura - 2014-07-10

@Arupan

I couldn't honestly tell you if the nuance was more "thought" or "suspected" but what makes you say it's definitely not "suspected"? Is there a rule? I've only seen 疑う used for suspect or doubt.

Obviously "I think you're a crook" and "I suspect you're a crook" are pretty close in meaning, the latter being slightly more tentative.

I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - Arupan - 2014-07-10

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I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - vosmiura - 2014-07-10

Not very satisfactory arguments really.

The Japanese doesn't say "a grasping man", and the translation doesn't say "欲がふかくて", so I wouldn't say it was that much of a literal translation overall. The book's translation sounds natural enough.

I'm stumped by this sentence...can someone take a shot at it? - Arupan - 2014-07-10

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