The て and た forms come up all the time. I made some flash cards for how the て forms conjugate (e.g. 〜む —> 〜んで) and it really stuck.
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Page 101
I get up, I read the sentences, and they make no sense to me… then I look at the translations posted here and start taking it all apart and figuring it all out. Writing it out really helps!
まん中に - 真ん中に, in the middle
あいた - 開く, to open, in plain past
あなは - 穴は, hole + は topic marker
Regarding the hole that was opened in the middle
この - this
石を - stone + を, the direct object particle
はこんでくる - 運ぶ, to carry, in てform, plus 来る. I have real trouble with this and always forget why くる is added to verbs. I guess it means “come and carry”!
ときに、- time / when + にparticle
When it is time to come and carry this stone
木の ぼうを - tree’s pole, ie wooden pole, plus another を
さして、- 差す, to insert, in て form (ie another verb is going to follow)
りょう - 両, both
がわ - 側, sides
から - from
A wooden pole is inserted from both sides
かついで - no idea
はこぶ - to carry
ために - for
つかいました - used
It was used to carry
Regarding the hole that was opened in the middle, when it was time to come and carry this stone, a wooden pole was inserted from both sides, and used to carry it.
Phew!
My questions:
- Someone once told me why くる is forever being attached to verbs, but I forgot! Most people have better memories than me, can someone remind me? Thank you!
- What is かついで? It looks like a verb in て form, but I have no idea!
Thank you so much for any help offered!
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担ぐ
Remember, ～ぐ becomes ～いで, so when you see ～いで, it has to be ～ぐ
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Thank you once again Belthazar!
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For some reason I thought that it was the T form of “to use”
I really need to work on my conjugations… is there any awesome tool I can use? I know the web of Genki has something, but it seems I need something to go backwards
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EDIT - trying to copy the link right this time. This post and the few after it…
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Oh. It was me?
I’d forgotten about that. 
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Wow! Thank you Micki, and Belthazar!
I need a tattoo of that on the back of my hand!
Hello all!
I just want to say, that probably today, it will be the last day I’ll be able to post translations in this book club 
Today is my last day at work, then I have a couple of days of packing, and I’m going in a 2 week vacation. I’ll be -6 hours from my current time, so 00:00 Japan time is going to be my 4 am of the previous day!, and if I want to keep my marriage I cannot be posting translations during the vacation
After that, I’m moving to Europe (+6 hours of my current time) and I’ll be starting a new job on March 1st. It doesn’t look it will be a job as relaxed as the current one… so no translations from me.
However, I plan to keep reading the book (and try to keep the pace) and come here to check my guessins and maybe help when I can.
Also, I plan to be in the next Absolute Book Club, as the reading is more flexible (2 chapters/week) and probably we won’t be posting all the sentences.
Anyways…See you around!
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Have a great holiday, and all the best for the move and the new job! Exciting times! You’ve been a super-star in this bookclub emucat, thank you so much! We’ll all miss your regular presence, but also look forward to the times when you can pop in!
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Page 102: (There are no printouts in the Google Doc for this page, so I’m going to guess where it ends)
かみの手を 切らない 人たち、その わけとは？
What’s the reason people don’t cut their hair?
かみのけは、一日に どのくらい のびると 思いますか。
How much do you think the hair grows in one day?
日本人の へいきんでは、三日で 一ミリ、一か月で 一センチメートル かみが のびるそうです。
The Japanese Person average hair grow 1 millimeter every 3 days, or 1 centimeter per month
一年だと 十二センチメートルも のびるんですね。
In the case of 1 year, it would grow 12 centimeters, right?
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That sounds… so little O_o
I was bald this summer, and boy did it seem much faster than that!
And I think I have at least that (12cm) now only since August =P
" According to the U.S Center for Disease Control, hair grows at an average of 0.50 inches (1.25cm) per month. This means the average person can expect to grow 6 inches of hair per year."
6 inch = 15.24
So just slightly more O_o
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Here are the page breaks for this section:
Page 102
. . . 一年だと
Page 103
十二センチメートルも . . . 人たちが います。
Page 104
この 人たちは . . . 元りく上たんきょうりせん手の
Page 105
ウサイン・ボルトさんや . . .
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Best wishes and I think all the hard work you put in daily with the translations will really pay off for you in the long run.
(But aren’t you going to miss living so close to Trump?
)
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You have been amazing in this book club! The line by line translation of this book has been so helpful for me. I’ve been catching up recently with some of the early chapters I missed and I can see how much more confident you have become in your translating compared to 3 months ago!
Hope you can still drop in from time to time and good luck in the new job.
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Thanks! I was level 5 at the very beginning
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Page 102 - 103
Given the も, would it be right to insert “as much as” into your translation?
一年だと 十二センチメートルも のびるんですね。
“In the case of 1 year, it would grow as much as 12 centimeters, right?”
I’m going by definition 3.
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I’d kind of ignored the も but I like your translation of “as much as”.
“No less than” would also make sense.
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Yeah I like both. When I was translating I was going for “even”, but I was if one month is 1 cm, of course 12 months is 12 cm. It didn’t make sense to add “even” there
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