とは particle in context sentence

母親とは、あんまり仲が良くないんだよね。
I don’t get along with my mother very much.

So considering とは in the sentence above, it kind of implies “despite her being my mother…” Is that right?

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I think because と is what makes the ‘with’ in the sentence, and は marks the topic, so the combination means ‘with’ but puts the emphasis on 母親.

So it sounds like “With my mother, I don’t get along very much.”

I may be wrong though.

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I think you’re right, it’s just と doing it’s normal particle thing for 母親, and は doing it’s normal particle thing for 母親と. You can pair up a lot of particles like that.

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Yeah, pretty sure it’s leaving stuff to be understood.
母親といるのはあんまり仲が良くないんだよね

or something like that

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“as for with my mother, my relationship isn’t quite good.”

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Sorry I’m not being clear, とは is a particle, it’s not just と and は side by side doing their respective things.

  1. Indicates a word or phrase being defined, or for which a definition is being asked
  2. Used between two clauses that are opposed in meaning; the first clause represents a concession to the second (usually in the form of とはいえ)

I felt like this is an example of the second usage, though I glossed the parenthetical part before I posted this, I think @StarMech picked up on that.

とは is a particle that means those things, sure. But this is just regular と + は, not とは.

EDIT: And I don’t think there’s any reason to assume anything substantial got omitted. Obviously the personal pronouns of the speaker are nowhere to be seen.

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Ok, so I’m just reaching too far with nuance when interpreting :male_detective:t4::eyes::x:. Thanks all. :+1:

The reason I thought something might have been omitted was you might take for granted that the relationship with the mother should be good by virtue of cultural norms. But I couldn’t say that with certainty, hence the post.

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I think that makes the は feel more correct, probably because of the way は can be used to imply contrast (in this case, to social norms/what you’d expect). The same sentence with no は would be a pretty bland way to phrase it.

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