ボールは爆発せんばかりに、膨らんでいた。

From Tae Kim,

What does the せん　mean, I've left this sentence go for a while assuming I would figure it out later, but during today's reviews I became irritated and decided to get it figured out, NOW.

No newb replies please.

It's a form of する. せんばかり, just like いわんばかり.

Edit: I've personally NEVER run into this form of grammar, so I wouldn't worry about it too much, probably very rare.

I imagine it's conjugation. せん is just a negative form of する, if the section of Tae Kim's guide that sentence is from is any indication.

Tobberoth Wrote:It's a form of する. せんばかり, just like いわんばかり.

Edit: I've personally NEVER run into this form of grammar, so I wouldn't worry about it too much, probably very rare.

I was quite confused with it! Thanks a lot.

Mcjon01 Wrote:I imagine it's conjugation. せん is just a negative form of する, if the section of Tae Kim's guide that sentence is from is any indication.

I never read along on the site to begin with. >_<

Yonosa Wrote:No newb replies please.

Aijin and Magamo are newbs so you are probably missing out on good advise with this requirement.
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=3249

I just took a look at the article in question on Tae Kim's website. Apparently his explanation of ばかり isn't appropriate. At least, 3/4 of Summary of Basic Conjugations in the ばかり section is wrong, and the example sentence 昨日のケンカで何も言わなかったばかりに、平気な顔をしている。 is totally mistranslated.

I know it's almost impossible to explain the usage of ばかり and underlying grammar rules in a simple way. But if you want it to be easy and simple, ignore everything he says about ばかり = "as if" except the Positive-NonPast case. For some reason, his explanation works for that case.

Also, he says,

Tae Kim Wrote:Similar to the 「～がる」 grammar, this is usually not used in normal everyday conversations. I have seen it several times in books and novels but have yet to hear this grammar in a conversation.

But this is total nonsense. 〜がる is used like everyday, and the ばかり in question would appear even in the stupidest threads on 2ch. I did a little googling, and here are somewhat less intelligent examples:

心当たりが溢れんばかりにwww

なんだこのディスプレイから溢れんばかりの負のオーラは...

もうｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗしぬｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗ
本気で吹いたｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗ
だめだ何回読んでも吹くｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗ
溢れんばかりの才能に腹筋が崩壊したんだが
相変わらずおもしれえｗ
おもすれーｗｗｗｗ作者さんがんばってくだしあ

Tae kim is not a good source for grammar?

I heard the website was solid over all, and I guess so. But no website is error free, and Tae Kim is no exception. Apparently it's not as reliable as printed grammars for native speakers and/or experts, but it should be a nice website for beginners, I think.

If by "good" you mean "good enough to get the gist of sterilized textboook-ish language," I guess the website is excellent, albeit it contains some errors and typos.

I haven't used Tae Kim yet but it would be a bombshell for many users here if it was discovered not to be accurate.

Here's how I'm looking at it: If you're planning on doing AJATT's 10,000 sentence method, don't count ANY sentence that

A. You pulled out of a dictionary/resource book/iKnow to give context to a word
B. You pulled out of a resource book/Tae Kim's site to give context to a grammar concept

Those sentences are like kanji keywords in RTK: a basic learning resource. They are dry and sterile. However, they are invaluable in getting a foreign concept across to you either in a simple use in the foreign language or a simple explanation in your language.

Now, the 10,000 sentences (or fraction thereof), should come from native sources that aren't trying to teach the native language (for the most part). Preferable it's a large group of sentences all related to each other in a concept called a "story". Use the dry, text-booky stuff to help relay the meaning of the native sentence to you.

bodhisamaya Wrote:I haven't used Tae Kim yet but it would be a bombshell for many users here if it was discovered not to be accurate.

I already pointed out a minor error on the website somewhere on this forum when someone asked a question about Tae Kim's very confusing example sentence, though? I guess the ばかり section is one of the rare cases, but there are not-good explanations/examples.

Maybe we should wait for Aijin and see what she says about 言ったばかり, 言わなかったばかり, etc. At least his explanation contradicts my intuition, or I should say 昨日のケンカで何も言わなかったばかりに、平気な顔をしている。is inappropriate to illustrate the grammar point. To me it's strange to interpret it as あたかも昨日のケンカで何も言わなかったかのように、平気な顔をしている, though a machine translator might take it that way.