なんなりと言ってくれ
If you read this thread from the beginning, you would know EDICT sucks. But it's the only one I feel comfortable using and it works for this sentence.
何なり なんなり (n) any; anything; whatever
と is the particle. Here it is the quoting particle.
Xという is a common sentence pattern. と is used to identify the thing being said.

I don't know the 2nd sentence.
What the heck, I'll give it a try anyway.
1円なりとも無駄に使ってはだめだ
Is なり
也 なり (aux-v,uk,arch,n,suf) be (an affirmation); be (location); sum of money (used to express an exact sum on a receipt, envelope, certificate, etc.)

Then I looked up on ALC 無駄に使.
http://eow.alc.co.jp/%E7%84%A1%E9%A7%84%...-8/?ref=sa

とも is the particle. Here it means even if.

So a more literal translation: Even if it's one yen, you mustn't misspend it.
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Complete brain fart:
思い込みって言うのよ
What does the の mean?
wrong impression...QP (quoting particle)...saying...EP (emphasizing particle)
Can't put it together...

Hi, I've been trying to get back into the swing of reading Japanese and I kept seeing this phrase at the beginning of sentences: 「そういや」

The latest source was from Yotsuba! (vol. 01, pg.7):
「そういや明日から夏休みだなぁ」

Can anyone give me an idea of what it means? Thanks in advance!

Edit: Typos...

そういや =　そう言えば, so it`s used when introducing a related topic to the conversation. `That reminds me` or `Now that you mention it` are good equivalents.

This paragraph was a bit tough for me, to follow (the 2nd and 3rd sentences), does this look look like an OK translation and if I seriously screwed something up?

そして「食欲出てきた」とメニューを開き、竜児もそれに付き従い、注文したのはハンバーグが二つ。この前作った奴のほうが全然おいしいと当たり前のことを言い合い、どっちがドリンクバーを取りに行くかで揉め、蹴り出されるように竜児が行かされ、そして ――限りある時は、刻々と積み重なった。 　淀むことなく、誰の上にも平等に。

And then, [Aisaka], getting an appetite opened the menu. Ryuuji did the same. The order was two hamburgers. They quarreled about about the obvious topic of whether or not the the [cookies] that were made earlier were delicious and about who will go to the drink bar to pick up drinks. Ryuuji was made to go, as if he was kicked out [of his seat]. The time he had to do this was running out [literally, accumulating against the time limit]. He wasn't wasting time by anybody's standard.

I'm assuming the と in 全然おいしいと当たり前のことを言い合い is being used as a quote, to mean something like と言う to modify 当たり前のこと?

FooSoft Wrote:This paragraph was a bit tough for me, to follow (the 2nd and 3rd sentences), does this look look like an OK translation and if I seriously screwed something up?

そして「食欲出てきた」とメニューを開き、竜児もそれに付き従い、注文したのはハンバーグが二つ。この前作った奴のほうが全然おいしいと当たり前のことを言い合い、どっちがドリンクバーを取りに行くかで揉め、蹴り出されるように竜児が行かされ、そして ――限りある時は、刻々と積み重なった。 　淀むことなく、誰の上にも平等に。

And then, [Aisaka], getting an appetite opened the menu. Ryuuji did the same. The order was two hamburgers. They quarreled about about the obvious topic of whether or not the the [cookies] that were made earlier were delicious and about who will go to the drink bar to pick up drinks. Ryuuji was made to go, as if he was kicked out [of his seat]. The time he had to do this was running out [literally, accumulating against the time limit]. He wasn't wasting time by anybody's standard.

この前作った奴のほうが全然おいしい is making an implicit comparison; if you hadn't specified cookies in the context the obvious assumption would be that they'd had a go at making hamburgers before, but maybe they're comparing cookies and hamburgers.

I think you've misinterpreted the time limit bit. The part of the second sentence before the "――" is a set of clauses indicating various things they've been doing that are gradually eating up time. The bit after the dash is "their limited time gradually accumulated", but as you say it's more natural English to say it was running out. So the structure is something like "They argued about [this], they squabbled about [that], and -- their limited time gradually ran out."

The final sentence is another of those verbless fragments which is a clarification of the preceding sentence, it's describing the manner in which the time is accumulating: without pausing, piling up impartially on top of everybody.

Quote:I'm assuming the と in 全然おいしいと当たり前のことを言い合い is being used as a quote, to mean something like と言う to modify 当たり前のこと?

Sounds about right.

Thanks so much pm! I was thinking そして was leading into the future action of 限りある時刻々と積み重なった but looking more carefully at the meaings of it, I can see how it can be used here as "as thus" or "and now". I don't think I've been aware of such a "reflective" usage of そして, I've always thought of it as "and then".

Something that has popped up twice in my textbook is te-forms for negative verbs. So far I have seen:

1. 分からなくて (i.e. 分からない, drop い and replace with くて)

2. 消さないで (i.e. 消さない, add で).. (I found this in this phrase: "消さないでください", "please don't turn it off")

What are the conjugation rules for converting negative verbs to te-form? I was under the impression it's usually the first way (I read that on a website once), but could you really use either way?

IIRC, there are some pretty good posts, maybe even in this thread(?) explaining the difference...better than I can explain it, at least, but...

There's 2 circumstances off the top of my head in which they differ:
1. なくて is used in the "don't have to" sense --> 行かなくてもいいよ
2. ないで is used when asking someone not to do something --> 触らないでください
You would never say 触らなくてください, and I've never seen 行かないでもいいよ

So that's a general observation I've had.
Then you can get into things like when it's describing a sequence of events:
靴をはかないで出かけた。
靴をはかなくて出かけた。

I think the first one has more of a "left without putting on shoes" whereas the 2nd is like "didn't put shoes on and left"
So, essentially the same...

もうこの新聞読んだ？

もうあの映画見た？

With casual speech, can particles just be dropped like in the above two sentences (which are from my textbook)? I'm pretty sure they're not typos, but I just wanted to check.

Yep, particles are dropped all the time.

And in some cases, it's what you would call a "zero particle" rather than the particle being dropped -- there are times where putting in the particle would change the meaning. を and が tend to have emphasis whereas は has contrast, and sometimes you don't want either.

My textbook has just introduced もう/まだ, and in all the sentences so far, the verb is past, or non-past negative. but then I came across this sentence:

もう四時半になりますが息子はまだ学校から帰りません。
It has already become 4 o'clock, but my son has not yet returned from school.

The translation is my own, but I don't think it's correct, because I was thinking it should be "もう四時半になりましたが", i.e. past tense. What does the present tense here actually mean? Does it mean "It will already become four o'clock", but that doesn't make much sense. Thanks for any clarification.

もう in that case describes an emotion - specifically irritation or annoynace. So in that sentence, the speaker is annoyed that their 息子 hasn't returned from school.

No, that's the "normal" もう; it just means that it's already 4:00. I think it's just describing a present condition so なります is being used.

Two questions

「むかつくん、じゃぁぁぁぁぁぁぁ―――――っ！」
In the context of being angry/irritated what is じゃぁぁぁぁぁぁぁ―――――っ supposed to really be? Only thing that I can じゃ as in では and that makes no sense!

「すれ違う彼らが電柱を血祭りに上げているサマが不意に頭に浮かび、竜児は思わず小さく笑った。」
I don't follow what サマ is supposed to be here. Does it refer back to 彼ら or something? Also is に上げている "get up to do"? My best guess at translating this is something like:

"Ryuuji suddenly thinks of passers-by getting up to victimize the lightpole and unintentionally laughs a little bit."

My textbook has a section on なる, and it says that past tense なる means "has become (and now is)" and non-past tense generally means "will become". So the usual way to talk about present condition is using the past tense of なる, which is reflected in the textbook's sentences, where all sentences about a present condition are with なる in past tense. That's why I'm confused. I shall suspend that particular sentence for the time being.

内供の自尊心は、妻帯というような結果的な事実に左右されるためには、余りにデリケイトに出来ていたのである。
"Naigu's pride was too delicately constituted for it to be affected by such practical eventualities as marriage."

How does this sentence get its sense of 'for it to be'. ty

FooSoft Wrote:Two questions

「むかつくん、じゃぁぁぁぁぁぁぁ―――――っ！」
In the context of being angry/irritated what is じゃぁぁぁぁぁぁぁ―――――っ supposed to really be? Only thing that I can じゃ as in では and that makes no sense!

じゃ、is a dialect. Not sure where it's from probably 関西 or 四国. In standard Japanese, it is 「だ」. So it's just むかつくんだーーーーーーっ！

FooSoft Wrote:「すれ違う彼らが電柱を血祭りに上げているサマが不意に頭に浮かび、竜児は思わず小さく笑った。」
I don't follow what サマ is supposed to be here. Does it refer back to 彼ら or something? Also is に上げている "get up to do"?

サマ=様 "the way" or "How". 血祭りに上げる is an idiom that means "beating someone up until they are bloody". So it's "How they beat up the light-pole until it's bloody." It doesn't make much sense to me but I guess with the context it will.

Cosign Wrote:内供の自尊心は、妻帯というような結果的な事実に左右されるためには、余りにデリケイトに出来ていたのである。
"Naigu's pride was too delicately constituted for it to be affected by such practical eventualities as marriage."

されるためには = for it to be.

I personally like simple "to be" better, but I'm not an expert.

Sweet, thanks masaman! It's kind of interesting, this character just uses normal だ for everything except those expressions with じゃ, maybe people just switch between them randomly

You betya, FooSoft.

Tokyo people, or standard Japanese speaking people, sometimes use dialects to give their speech some peculiar flavor. じゃ in this case sounds more emotional than だ. I guess it's because people in Tokyo nowadays watch 関西 comedians talk like that on TV.

Hey, having trouble with a written sentence:

私達家族一人一人に気遣う様など、父は「昔の日本女性を見ているようだ」と形容したくらいだ。

I'm understanding this as:

Each person in our family worries about themselves and so forth. "It's like looking at a Japanese girl from the old times", expressed Dad.

Or something like that... Not fussed with natural sounding English, just want to understand it properly. Confused about the 様　and など...

SammyB Wrote:Hey, having trouble with a written sentence:

私達家族一人一人に気遣う様など、父は「昔の日本女性を見ているようだ」と形容したくらいだ。

I'm understanding this as:

Each person in our family worries about themselves and so forth. "It's like looking at a Japanese girl from the old times", expressed Dad.

Or something like that... Not fussed with natural sounding English, just want to understand it properly. Confused about the 様　and など...

OK, here are some attempts to take it apart a bit:

Firstly, you've got the subject of 気遣う wrong. This sentence seems to come from this reading passage, which provides enough context that you can tell that the person doing the worrying/being concerned is Jill. So "私達家族一人一人に気遣う様" is something like "the way that Jill cared/worried about everybody in our family".

XをYと形容する is to describe X as Y (although here the など is masking the を, I think). So the father is describing this behaviour of Jill's as being like that of an old-fashioned Japanese girl.

など basically indicates a non-exhaustive list; English "etc" and "and so on" are vaguely the right meaning but often don't work as direct translations. You can use this with lists where only one item is actually given: the meaning is that it's not just this particular thing Jill did that prompted the father's comment, but also various other similar but unstated things.

くらい here is providing a 'so ... that ...' meaning: Jill is (not just averagely thoughtful but) so caring that the father makes this comment.

Thank you pm125!! That was really helpful. Seems so obvious now.

Got another one, from the same passage:

「少し口喧しかったかな」と今になって時々思うこともあるが、陰でこそこそと悪口を言うよりは、あれでよかったのだと思う。

I'm understanding as:

I sometimes have the thought "I wonder if I was a bit critical?" But I think it's better than secretly speaking ill behind her back.

Bit confused by the 今になって　is this just "now" or like "these days"? literally "it's become now" 今になる

And also the あれで is throwing me off...

SammyB Wrote:「少し口喧しかったかな」と今になって時々思うこともあるが、陰でこそこそと悪口を言うよりは、あれでよかったのだと思う。

I sometimes have the thought "I wonder if I was a bit critical?" But I think it's better than secretly speaking ill behind her back.

Bit confused by the 今になって　is this just "now" or like "these days"? literally "it's become now" 今になる

And also the あれで is throwing me off...

今になって kind of feels a bit like "looking back", to me: the author didn't think that at the time (ie when the homestay person was there) but does sometimes think that now.

あれでよかった : あれ here is referring to the situation of giving lots of warnings and so on: "it was better that way" ("better" comes from the より, not inherently from this phrase). Compare これでいいの？.

Okay back again.

まず最初にする診察は「問診」ー言葉で病状を聞くことだ。

How is　にする　working here? I'm understanding the sentence as something like:
Now, the first medical examination: "Medical Interview" -- to ask a patient's condition using words".

And another sentence:

先ほど話した、どんな言葉づかいをするかというのも、そのうちのひとつに入るだろうし、問診をはじめる前に一言、たとえば「ずいぶんまちましたか？」と聞いてみたりする。

Is the author referring to something he wrote earlier?

Does the sentence mean:

As mentioned a while ago (about what kind of words to choose), you'll probably only get one in, so before you start the interview, try to ask something, for example "Did you wait long?"

I don't understand what the も is doing there... or そのうちのひとつに入るだろうし...