jpkuelho wrote:

僕がどうもそういうのが好きではなかったので

whats どうもうそういうのが　supposed to mean?

"I didn't/wouldn't have really liked something like that"?

そういうの = that kind of thing/something like that
どうも's meaning is really ambiguous to me and I have a really hard time figuring out how to properly translate it.. in this case I'd say it means something like "really/not really".

That's my best guess.

FooSoft wrote:

I'm running into a little bit of confusion in sentences like this:

菓子業界が始めたイベントですが、便乗する人たちもいます

Specifically regarding the も particle. I know how the particle works most of the time but not here. I'm used to seeing patterns where it's used for inclusion with a previous sentence, but here there is no nothing to be inclusive with.

I just can't quite pin down what も gives in this sentence over が. Any tips?

"Although this is an event the candy industry initiated, many more people are starting to jump in."

I think も is "more" in this case. As in, people, other than just those who are part of the industry, are also starting to jump on the bandwagon.

I think if が was used, it would imply something different. "Although this is an event the candy industry initiated, people are jumping in." In other words, of all the possible industries that could create an event, it was the candy company--god help us--but somehow, in someway, people are participating, although we can't begin to figure out why.

[edit] Actually, thinking of it in a very literal sense--the way I put it doesn't really stay close to the original--I think も would more mean "also". So, literally, "There are also people who are jumping on the bandwagon." But "Many more people" sounds better to me than the literal translation. Realistically, though, it's not completely accurate.

Last edited by mirina (2010 January 20, 4:13 am)

thanks for your help
now a challenge(I guess), saw this on a lyric :


12月24日また一人罠に落ちたね
Q+Ⅱ(クィーン)の君を舐め尽くしたなら

the translation I found says :

on dec 24, another person is trapped
if I lick her all over -- a 14-year-old girl

I want to know what this Q+II means?

Can someone explain to me the meaning/usage of "yatsu" in those sentences? I know yatsu can be used when referring to someone, but I don't think this is the case.

「波長が合れないってヤツか。」

「初恋は実らない法則って奴？」

Both of those uses look like こと rather than もの to me, although I'm not 100% confident without context.

I don't know if I'd say that やつ is most commonly used of a person.  Maybe in fictional stuff, but in real life I hardly ever hear anyone use やつ to refer to a person (because it's so rude), but I hear it all the time referring to an object or thing.  I certainly would not feel comfortable myself using it with a person, but I use it frequently as a substitute for もの.

In a sentence like this:

「彼女は国際的に有名な歌手です。」

So 国際的 is a な adjective, but why is it followed by に? It's almost like it's being used as an adverb. Except, what's the verb?

「コロンブスは最も有名な探検家だ。」

Is similarly confusing for me.

最も is an adverb, is it being applied to だ？ If that's the case, is 国際的に being applied to the implied だ that's not shown because of the polite です?

Last edited by FooSoft (2010 January 23, 2:33 am)

FooSoft wrote:

「彼女は国際的に有名な歌手です。」

So 国際的 is a な adjective, but why is it followed by に? It's almost like it's being used as an adverb. Except, what's the verb?

Short answer: it's modifying 有名.
Long answer: adverbs modify predicates, which might be adjectives as well as verbs, for example in "この辞書は非常に高いです"  非常に is modifying 高い. Your original sentence has an embedded subclause 国際的に有名な which is modifying 歌手, and within the subclause
国際的に is modifying its head, ie 有名.

In your other example 「コロンブスは最も有名な探検家だ。」 最も is modifying 有名 again.

I'm reading a manga recently and I'm trying to understand the nuance behind this kanji use.

Example: アンタに何が解かる(わかる）!!- "What do you know!!"

The writer has been using 解かる all over the place in place of　分かる and I suspect there's some underlying meaning to it, but I'm not quite following.　Anyone have a clue?

yudantaiteki wrote:

The 解 kanji is sometimes used when わかる means 理解する (understand).  Because わかる is not an "official" reading of 解, it's not always used.  Different dictionaries give different opinions about when to use 分かる vs. 解かる vs. 判る; it's not something that you have to be overly concerned with.

Ah that's interesting. My 英和辞典 shows the 判る as an "Uncommon" use but completely left out 解かる, so it must hardly never be used I'm guessing. I see it in the 国語辞書 though. Thanks!

One other one: そんな簡単に自覚なんて出来る訳がない (Context involves the care of a young child and the lack of oversight by the speaker)
The scanlation translated it as just "Like I could be that responsible all of a sudden." but I've entered it into my deck more as "It's simply not possible to be that aware." Which works better? Also, is there any good way to translate the meaning behind the use of なんて・なんか? As I understand it, the meaning in Japanese is somewhat abstract and more of an emphatic use to "belittle a noun" as someone here or over at Tae Kim said. So in the text of the example, the speaker is belittling their own awareness of things?

Thanks, again.

Last edited by vix86 (2010 January 23, 1:17 pm)

FooSoft wrote:

yudantaiteki: Do you know of any books or grammar guides that do go over this kind of stuff? I hate seeing what looks to be simple grammar and not being able to pick it apart

Check out the book: A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar by Seiichi Makino. In general, the "A Dictionary of Begin/Inter/Adv" series is good. I say Intermediate in this case though because there's actually a really nice opening "Special Topics" section in the book called "Toward Better Reading Comprehension." Its a very in depth section on breaking apart Japanese sentences to understand them better.

edit: FooSoft, check your email.

Last edited by vix86 (2010 January 23, 2:06 pm)

vix86 wrote:

One other one: そんな簡単に自覚なんて出来る訳がない (Context involves the care of a young child and the lack of oversight by the speaker)
The scanlation translated it as just "Like I could be that responsible all of a sudden." but I've entered it into my deck more as "It's simply not possible to be that aware." Which works better?

I don't think your translation is entirely correct -- 簡単に doesn't really match with "Simply" the way you've used it in your English.  そう簡単に (and also そんな簡単に apparently) is sort of an idiom that means "suddenly", "all of a sudden", or sometimes "with little/no effort".

自覚 may work better as "responsible" in a translation although it's not completely literal, なんて is sort of belittling here in that it's used to emphasize the fact that 自覚 is not possible for the speaker.  できる in this case should not be expressed in a passive, universal sense -- it definitely means "I can't..." rather than just abstract "It's not possible".

Two cautions about using fan scanlations (or any translation, I suppose) are (1) literal translations often don't work, so the translations given in them may not be entirely useful for you to learn the grammar of the Japanese sentence, and (2) fan translators don't always know what they're doing.  I did some fan translations a number of years ago for a manga scanlation group, and there were times when I honestly didn't understand the Japanese and I just guessed.

As for FooSoft's question, maybe I should start a new thread about that.

Last edited by yudantaiteki (2010 January 23, 2:58 pm)

What do you mean "accept it the way it is"?  How can you understand the sentence if you don't know what's modifying what?

yudantaiteki wrote:

I don't think your translation is entirely correct -- 簡単に doesn't really match with "Simply" the way you've used it in your English.  そう簡単に (and also そんな簡単に apparently) is sort of an idiom that means "suddenly", "all of a sudden", or sometimes "with little/no effort".

自覚 may work better as "responsible" in a translation although it's not completely literal, なんて is sort of belittling here in that it's used to emphasize the fact that 自覚 is not possible for the speaker.  できる in this case should not be expressed in a passive, universal sense -- it definitely means "I can't..." rather than just abstract "It's not possible".

Two cautions about using fan scanlations (or any translation, I suppose) are (1) literal translations often don't work, so the translations given in them may not be entirely useful for you to learn the grammar of the Japanese sentence, and (2) fan translators don't always know what they're doing.  I did some fan translations a number of years ago for a manga scanlation group, and there were times when I honestly didn't understand the Japanese and I just guessed.

As for FooSoft's question, maybe I should start a new thread about that.

All this is very helpful thanks! Sounds like the scanlation was closer after all. I'm well aware of the pitfalls of using scanlations. The problem is there really isn't an optimal solution for doing something I enjoy (reading manga I find at Bookoff) and using it to learn Japanese at the same time (AJATT philosophy). So guess I'm just stuck checking translations of people every now and then to make sure they are correct.

Thanks again!