could someone tell me the function of とこ?

この荷の目方は70キロってとこかね。

I couldn't find anything in DoBJG on it. Thanks!

rokudo Wrote:could someone tell me the function of とこ?

この荷の目方は70キロってとこかね。

I couldn't find anything in DoBJG on it. Thanks!

ってとこ sounds like an abbreviation of といったところ, which is actually listed in the Kanzen Master N1 grammar book. Just means that it's "at most 70 kilos-ish", and has the connotation that 70 kilos isn't very much.

Though, I wouldn't be surprised if it's also used in a slangy way to just mean 'about.' 'About 70 kilos'

thanks Tzadeck

アメリカで日本への土産を買うとそれが日本製であることがよくある
Often there are times when we find out that a souvenir we've bought in America for someone in Japan is made in Japan.

日本への土産 ---> If you remove the へ it's a Japanese souvenir. But with it, what is it? Souvenir to Japan?

Also where is "we find out" in this sentence?
(日本製である)? 〜Present tense + ことがよくある = There are times often

Thanks

Standard noob disclaimer applies but:

アメリカで日本への土産を買うとそれが日本製であることがよくある

へ = directed towards, so 日本への土産 = directed-towards-japan souvenir = souvenir for someone in Japan

と = (in this usage) and-then, A と B = A happens and then B happens

(Above covered in Tae Kim)

である = to be (literary)

よくある = (exp) is often the case

(From Rikai)

Literal translation:

The matter of buying a souvenir in America intended for (someone in) Japan and then it being the case that the said souvenir is made in Japan, is often the case.

Xanpakuto Wrote:アメリカで日本への土産を買うとそれが日本製であることがよくある
Often there are times when we find out that a souvenir we've bought in America for someone in Japan is made in Japan.

日本への土産 ---> If you remove the へ it's a Japanese souvenir. But with it, what is it? Souvenir to Japan?

Yeah, it's a souvenir to Japan. It's ambiguous what it would mean if it said 日本の土産. Then the sentence would read "When you buy souvenirs of Japan in America, you often find out that they are made in Japan." 'Souvenirs of Japan' could possibly mean the same thing as 'souvenirs made in Japan,' so it becomes an odd sentence without it. 日本への土産 makes the sentence a lot more clear.

Xanpakuto Wrote:Also where is "we find out" in this sentence?
(日本製である)? 〜Present tense + ことがよくある = There are times often

Thanks

I guess it's a combination of the と grammar (買うと) and それが that make it sound like someone buying a souvenir and then finding out that it was made in Japan. But it's not explicitly stated.

If you translate "買うと" literally, it's "if you buy it".
買う is a verb and と following to a verb can't be translated into "and".

It's often said that と is 'and' or 'with'. But that's not accurate. what leads to 'and / with' is structure of a noun connected with と.

Thanks for the help everyone. I have this simple sentence that I just can't get a hold of. Please help again　笑

もう少しすれば主人が帰って参ります
In a short time my husband will be here.

What is the すれば doing there? I know the use of する in this sentence is measuring time, but why is it すれば, a conditional.

An attempt at a literal translation:
If a little more time passes, husband will return?

Xanpakuto Wrote:Thanks for the help everyone. I have this simple sentence that I just can't get a hold of. Please help again　笑

もう少しすれば主人が帰って参ります
In a short time my husband will be here.

What is the すれば doing there? I know the use of する in this sentence is measuring time, but why is it すれば, a conditional.

An attempt at a literal translation:
If a little more time passes, husband will return?

Just to clarify about the する, here it means to pass time (する：時間が経過する). The grammar means what it always means--"If some time passes, my husband will come back" or perhaps "If you wait a little, my husband will return." So, you're right.

It sounds natural in Japanese but a bit awkward in English, but you just have to accept that. Just how words don't always line up perfectly between languages, grammar doesn't either. No grammar in English is exactly the same as the conditional in Japanese, and often which grammar sounds natural to express something is a matter of convention. すれば and したら are both used in this way. 「３日したら帰る」

(Oh, also, perhaps someone can explain this better than I would be able too--I would have to reread a description of this to explain it--but both the したら and すれば grammar have a feeling of before and after in addition to 'if'. So interpreting this as "After a short time passes" seems just as legit.)

Tzadeck Wrote:Thanks guys! Besides the 練った that covers most of it.

I was making pasta from scratch the other day and I 練る'd (kneaded, I mean kneaded..) the shiz out of that shiz.
You do the same when making 壁土 because it's originally straw and dirt and etc.. quite obviously nothing at all like a sand pile. But then you add water and knead it to death (with your feet) to make something like plaster that can be used to coat walls and I guess, if you were a little kid who didn't know better, might be mistaken for sand.

So she jumped into a big pile of sludgy .. stuff.

フハハ,フゥーハハハハ!我,ついにアキバの都市伝説を解明せり!

What's that せり?

Vempele Wrote:フハハ,フゥーハハハハ!我,ついにアキバの都市伝説を解明せり!

What's that せり?

If ya wanna get into the specifics of it, there's a lot here (I'd just read through it carefully and summarize it myself, but I gotta do some stuff before bed):
http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/953943.html

But, one person says it in it's simplest form, that it's just another way of writing した here. Just like せず is しない(で）, せり is した. But the two long posts explain it with more nuance. As for the quote, he's trying to sound pompous.

It should be している rather than した, but who knows if he's using it correctly.

Vempele Wrote:フハハ,フゥーハハハハ!我,ついにアキバの都市伝説を解明せり!

What's that せり?

It's an ending that suggests completion. (http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/953943.html) So the above would be, "and finally the urban legend of Akiba is (fully) explained."

I would guess there is a bit more too this ... the writer is trying to sound a particular way but the cultural implications are beyond me. Hopefully one of the people who studied classical Japanese can chime in.

tokyostyle Wrote:

Vempele Wrote:フハハ,フゥーハハハハ!我,ついにアキバの都市伝説を解明せり!

What's that せり?

I would guess there is a bit more too this ... the writer is trying to sound a particular way but the cultural implications are beyond me. Hopefully one of the people who studied classical Japanese can chime in.

I think you only need to know the nuance of 我, to be honest. He's trying to boast--"MUAHAHAHAHAHA, *I* have finally solved the urban legend of Akihabara!"

Thanks guys. Spot on on the trying to sound pompous and possibly using it incorrectly - he's a self-proclaimed mad scientist (emphasis on the mad. Lots of emphasis on the mad) and フハハ,フゥーハハハハ is his signature laugh.

Tzadeck Wrote:I think you only need to know the nuance of 我, to be honest. He's trying to boast--"MUAHAHAHAHAHA, *I* have finally solved the urban legend of Akihabara!"

Wow, I totally blurred right over that! 我, the favored "I" of villains everywhere.

Tzadeck Wrote:You don't think there's a lot of overlap? The word いなか gets used in Japanese waaaay more than words like 'countryside' in America, including places that we in America would call suburbs. If there was a city like Kyoto in America, and then next to it a small city like Kameoka, we would probably call it a suburb. In Japan it's usually just いなか.

Absolutely. It wasn't my intention to suggest that inaka can only mean “countryside” or that there is never any overlap.

It wouldn't be surprising if, for eg, only one of two official “suburbs” were referred to as “inaka”. That might be a result of certain characteristics of the area, perceived relative centrality, hyperbole, etc. I mean, some people in Tokyo consider large cities in Kansai to be inaka. I know a few people who consider anything outside the Yamanote loop line to be inaka. haha.

I suppose what I was trying to convey is that inaka can be a tricky word to translate. There's a lot of baggage: it has a range of meanings; it has a range of pragmatic implications depending on the situation; and it can touch on cultural stuff related to identity, status, uchi/soto, etc. Some of the potential English equivalents are similarly fraught with ambiguity and subtle situation-dependent nuances. Aligning the cultural/situation nuances takes a bit of care, that's all.

I haven't actually seen the clip, so I was making some assumptions when I said that “suburb” might not capture the intended negative meaning in this particular scene. Pls take it as more of a food-for-thought comment.

(Sorry about the slow reply, Tzadeck)

What does 裁ち落とし means? Currently reading a photoshop colouring tutorial. One of the layers was named 裁ち落とし分(５mm仮). Is it about making a border about 5mm?

Also, does ブラシのボケ足を少し強くて means increasing the brush's blurrness?

CK_Byuu Wrote:What does 裁ち落とし means? Currently reading a photoshop colouring tutorial. One of the layers was named 裁ち落とし分(５mm仮). Is it about making a border about 5mm?

It's the cutout layout or masking layer. 仮 means temporary but I'm not sure what ５mm仮 is supposed to imply.

CK_Byuu Wrote:Also, does ブラシのボケ足を少し強くて means increasing the brush's blurrness?

Yes, wikipedia says that ボケ足 is short for ボケの深さを足の長さ. (There's also a bit in there that maybe people just confused ボケ味 and ボケ足 and extended the latter to have a made up meaning. In any case it's all about the blur caused by the focus of the camera lens.)

Thanks, tokyostyle. One of the image shows a border about 5mm, so maybe ５mm仮 means "temporarily cutting out about 5mm" since it can be adjusted later ( I think).

母が..............水汲みをしていても縫い物をしていても、途中でほっぽって、必ずくっついていった。

What does ほっぽって mean? I'm guessing って is referring to ほっぽ?

ほっぽる
http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/204783/m0u/
Never heard it before but 2nd meaning on here probably.

From the 大辞林:
ほっぽる
(1)乱暴に物を投げる。ほうる。「荷物を手荒に―・る」
(2)途中でやめる。ほうり出す。「仕事を―・って出掛ける」

It's weird that Edict has ほっぽらかす and ほっぽりだす but not this.

Xanpakuto Wrote:What does ほっぽって mean?

ほっぽ・る
［動ラ五］
１ 勢いよくほうる。ほうり投げる。「帽子を―・る」
２ そのままにして捨てておく。「約束を―・って帰る」

Apparently it is regional and comes from ほっぽり出す.