バスが来なかったせいで、待たされた

バス has to be marked with が here because it's the subject of a verb [来る] which is a subordinate clause [ie it is modifying せい]. The subject of a verb in a subordinate clause is always が marked if it is present at all. If you start your sentence out with バスは then バス is going to be the topic, and the only way for it to be the subject of 来る is if it's also the subject of the main verb of the sentence (which would only be possible in some tortured context and probably with a different main verb to boot -- "the bus escaped the accident because it didn't come", or something?).

Hmm; that came out a bit less clear than I'd hoped, but the short answer is "use が in subordinate clauses" -- one of the easier bits of は vs が, I think.

wrightak wrote:

I don't know what I said to make you think this but you're absolutely right. I'm a huge believer in applying the grammar you learn.

It was in another thread somewhere (maybe RTK2?).

Similarly, answers that take some sleuthing stay with me far longer than anything I read passively. So, as fussy and dull as this grammar chat can sound, I find these threads helpful. I end up re-learning stuff (like when to use お and に in causative sentences) I otherwise wouldn't have, but needed to. So don't think in terms of right and wrong - it's a helpful discussion and you've been generous with explanations. btw, that 'trapdoor' bit for てしまた...that was great.

Since we're here.... perhaps I could ask someone for help with one of my KIC sentences?  I don't understand "死にきれない" in: 私は何でも悪いことはしていないので、身の潔白を証明するまでは死んでも死にきれない。　Does it mean that even death won't stop the need to prove his innocence??

Hi Thora, here's a shot at it, taking some literary liberties.


死んでも
even having died

死にきれない
It cannot be cut by death.

身の潔白を証明するまでは死んでも死にきれない。
Even if I were dead, death wouldn't stop me until I have proven my personal innocence.


私は何でも悪いことはしていないので、身の潔白を証明するまでは死んでも死にきれない。

I haven't done anything wrong in any way, and so even if I were dead, not even death would prevent me from proving my personal innocence.

アイバン

pm215 wrote:

死にきれない
It cannot be cut by death.

Isn't this the grammar suffix ~きれない rather than the negative potential form of plain old 切る ?

~きれない is something like 'be unable to do till the end'; the usual sample sentences often involve 数える [to count], thus 数えきれない星 [uncountably many stars, so many stars you couldn't count them all].

Anyway, check your grammar reference for details (I'm 5000km away from mine at the moment, unfortunately.)

You're right.... In this case, the きる is of the 'to finish something completely' variety and has nothing to do with cutting.

So it's not 'cannot be cut by death' but rather more like 'can't completely die.'

ivantolearnkanji wrote:

Second, I don't think there's a problem with an inanimate causal agent.

騙された！
I've been tricked! (by whatever)

some examples in the wild...

Thanks for the example sentences Ivan but I'm afraid that's not the causative construction. That's just the passive. The causative would be だまさせた and the causative passive would be だまさせられた.

Thora wrote:

Since we're here.... perhaps I could ask someone for help with one of my KIC sentences?  I don't understand "死にきれない" in: 私は何でも悪いことはしていないので、身の潔白を証明するまでは死んでも死にきれない。　Does it mean that even death won't stop the need to prove his innocence??

KIC = Kanji in Context, right? It's a shame we don't understand the context! It's a pretty difficult sentence that I don't fully understand either. Here's my take on it:

As people have pointed out, it's definitely the きれない construction, which is one of the JLPT2 grammar points. It looks funny here because 死ぬ is one of the few verbs ending in ぬ so its ～ます stem looks odd.

The tricky thing here is the verb that it's used with and the fact that 死んでも comes right before it. The first part obviously means "I haven't done anything wrong so...". I think the second part means something along the lines of "Until I prove my innocence, even if I die, I won't really be dead". The idea I'm getting is that if the speaker dies without his innocence being proved, then his soul cannot rest, therefore he won't fully die.

Tricky one. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah that's what I get for winging it. Thanks for the correx.