I'm writing a short story for the hell of it. It helps me exercise the grammar I've learned recently, but have yet to have the opportunity to use. It really makes me think and learn on the fly, but sometimes I come across something I cant figure out. Here's what I want to say.

"What's funny is, I don't even like ramen." (which isn't true I LOVE ramen, but my character doesn't).

I scratched my head for a little while and then gave up and ran it through Google translate to see what it might say.

何おかしいですが、私でもないラーメンが好きです。

This is beyond my scope I think, but it just doesn't seem right to me. I looked for examples sentences containing でもない and nothing seems close. That and does 何おかしい mean "What's funny is..."? Just doesn't seem right to me. HALP!

何おかしい=what's funny. なに　おかしい　(direct translation), not in context.
(it's right)

If you're having trouble formulating what to say, then your not there at the moment(in the language, just need more vocab+context)

Don't worry, i still suck in japanese. I can understand it really really well and read it, but my output is lacking.(Going to put a lot of effort into output this summer)

ta12121 Wrote:何おかしい
(it's right)

not it's not. "何かおかしいですが" -> "something is funny, but..."
"何おかしいですか" ->"What's funny?"

でもおかしいのは、ラーメンなんて好きじゃないんだ！
"But what's funny is..." or "The funny thing is..."
"[it's that] I don't like ramen!"

It's not necessarily "don't even" but on the fly, this is probably what I would say.

Unless "liking ramen" is a standard, then
ラーメンさえ好きじゃない
I don't even like ramen!
Kind of like..."I don't like any food. Not even ramen!"
But I'm guessing yours is more like "I was served a huge amount of ramen. And I don't even like ramen!"

IceCream Wrote:But maybe something like ラーメンなんか好きじゃない。

I'm going to hijack this thread because something has been bothering me for a while, and I didn't find it in my grammar dictionary.

Can you explain what the なんか is doing there in the middle? I hear it daily, multiple times, and I've never been able to puzzle it out.

Thank you! And my apologies for the hijack!

Correct me if I'm wrong but, it seems like you're trying to write in English, but with Japanese words. Write what you know is correct Japanese. If you can't come up with something that matches what you want it to mean, rewrite the situation.

wccrawford Wrote:Can you explain what the なんか is doing there in the middle? I hear it daily, multiple times, and I've never been able to puzzle it out.

"Emphasis of an unexpected feeling or a negative feeling."
-- http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?t...a;%20nante
Also:
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/forum/vie...hp?id=2430
Post #4, by pink~hime has some excellent example sentences

However!
If I were to give a definition to it, I would say it's similar (although not exactly the same) to:
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
It adds a similar feeling to the sentence as the "Frankly"
"My dear, I don't give a damn" <-- Just factual information
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" <-- Adds more emphasis or, almost, a condescending tone to it

Thanks Asriel. That clears it up a bit. The reason why him not liking ramen is funny or ironic is because he works at a ラーメンや and has so for years because he has no ambitions to do anything greater with his life and yet he doesn't even like the thing he prepares every day.

In your example sentence:
でもおかしいのは、ラーメンなんて好きじゃないんだ

のは I understand, it just never occurred to me to use it.
なんて though, I'm having trouble understanding it's function in this sentence. Rikaichan says it means "such as" or "things like". Does it mean "I don't like things like Ramen."?

IceCream Wrote:its a sort of filler, that puts the word to the left in a bad light. Or, it just works as a kind of "sort of", that makes the statement less strong. i think the best translation i have for it is "sort of" or "somehow". The translations aren't that good though, actually.

Wow, yeah, I'd have been years coming up with that. I had a feeling that it didn't translate well, since I can usually figure out what things mean when they do.

Thanks a ton!

Edit: This thread has been educational gold. Thanks everyone!

Reading the responses in the thread so far, I think that IceCream's なんか may or may not be better than なんて
Either way, it's the same basic idea, just depends on how much you want him to not like ramen.
なんか -> actually, I don't like ramen!
なんて -> Ramen? Why would I like that?!

(terrible translations, but whatevers)
As for what it means, check out IceCream's and my posts a little while ago.

A bit late, but just to offer some other possible suggestions.

If you were going to use でもない, I think it'd be better off at the end like what IceCream suggested.

でもおかしいことに（でも不思議なことに）、ラーメンは好きでもないです

私でもないラーメン would be something like 'a ramen which isn't even me'.