Hi Kazzeon! I’ve been really busy this week and have only just got back to Yotsubato! And here we are finishing. Well, it was great, and all your contributions were fabulous! Thank you so much! And see you again for volume 2!
Wow, I’ve been away for the last five days and I was terrified that I’d never catch up on this discussion, but there’s only been a few posts while I was gone. Is chapter 6 and 7 just plain easier and so there have been no questions? Or have people got tired of Yotsuba? It can’t be that!
So, what happens to this thread now? Does it stay open after our finish date, for people to post comments and questions for years to come, or does it get closed? For me, I don’t mind which, just wondering.
Anyway, I’ve got a load of catching up to do with chapters 6 and 7. So no doubt I’ll be posting more of my beginner questions soon! Thanks everyone!
I presume we leave it open. As posting bumps it to the top anyone can notice and answer regardless of whether or not they were part of the club, even without reading the manga if it is grammar related.
Makes sense!
Page 177
えな says: 私セミ捕りなんてしたことないよー？
This is what I understand:
私 - I
セミ - cicada
捕りなんて - some form of “catching”
した - to do?
こと - thing
ない - negative
よ - sentence ending particle
The the best I can come up with is “I’ve never done this thing ‘cidada caching’”.
Can anyone give me any pointers about how the grammar works here?
Thank you!
I’m not particularly advanced, But I think the こと here doesn’t mean “thing” but implies that it never occured before.
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/genericnouns
So perhaps it means
I’ve never catched cicadas before.
That’s how I understood it at least. But as I said, I’m still a beginner.
You got the translation already figured out. Just two tips
- なんて is for emphasis and it emphasises セミ捕り which is the noun “Cicadas catching”
- the grammar at work here is V-た・こと・ある which means “have V(past) before” but since it is in the negative here it becomes “have not V(past) before” or with する (した) “have not done before”
Thank you! Yes, you are right! You know, I study and study and study but always forget. Now that you mention it, it comes right back! Thank you so much! And thank you for the link too. I’ll look at it now! (I need the lesson!) Thank you!
Thank you downtimes! You’ve cleared it all up for me! Thank you so much!
Page 217
よつば’s father says (I think; there are some missing strokes in one of the kanji if so) まじめに聞かん方がいい in handwriting right after あいつの言う事の半分は冗談だから.
まじめに - earnest
聞かん方 - haven’t seen this before, but the dictionary says naughty child
がいい - I’m starting to suspect that いい can mean all kinds of things in Japanese…
I can’t figure out what this means as a sentence.
Thanks.
I’m not sure about it either, but whenever I see 方がいい, I think of its use in expressing something as being better. Check out this page: Using 「方」 and 「よる」 – Learn Japanese
If it was 聞き instead of 聞かん, i’d say he’s saying “In earnest, her hearing is better (than mine)”, but I’m not sure.
I don’t think it’s meant to be naughty child, since this uses 方 instead of 坊 which is what I see as used for きかんぼう.
聞かん方がいい means “it’s better not to listen”
聞かん → 聞かない in a casual form
方がいい → better
Someone was faster, but I’ll still explain 
(Twice D:)
I got confused with this, did you mean 半分は冗談だから？
あいつの言う事の半分は冗談だから : Because half of what he (ジャンボ) says is a joke.
まじめに聞かん方がいい: It’s better not to take him seriously.
まじめに - earnestly / seriously
聞かん (きかん) - not listen (from 聞かない)
方がいい - it’s better / it’s good (when comparing to something else)
It’s better not to listen seriously.
I can understand why it would be confusing, since it confused me too, but it seems that this sentence is all about the parsing.
You could read it and think: まじめに / 聞かん方 / がいい, which could mean.-
It’s good to listen seriously / It’s good to have a way of listening that is earnest
There’s also the difference between 坊 and 方:
聞かん方 could mean way of listening
聞かん坊 naughty child (probably from 聞かない坊 or child who doesn’t listen)
Hope this helps. 
Oops, yes, thanks, I’ve fixed it now. I was paying less attention to typing that sentence since I was just giving it for context.
Thanks!
I started saying dictionaries can be really unhelpful sometimes, but as Kazzeon pointed out I wasn’t even reading the word in the dictionary properly.
People who actually know the answer are definitely helpful.
Good catch! That was my problem. I need to pay more attention. I’m here trying to learn kanji after all, I should notice what kanji I’m looking at.
No problem! You made me revisit that part, since at first I just glossed over it without giving it much thought.
Page 215, 父ちゃん says
どっちが上でどっちが下だかわかるまい－
どっちが : Which one
上 : Above
どっちが : Which one
下 : Below
だ : Possibly to be
か : Question marker ?
わかる : To understand
まい : ???
Which one way is up and which way is down ? + Understand somewhere.
Is まい supposed to be a negation here ?
My understanding is that this is the negative volitional. In other words a strong will not to do something. So in essence the sentence: どっちが上でどっちが下だかわかるまい
Would seem to mean “I have no idea (i.e., not going to try to understand) which way is the top or bottom” – This is very loosely interpreted since I don’t have the manga
This first is more about the form:
This link is more about the explanation of the grammar:
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/volitional2
Maybe after looking at these and comparing it to the context you could get a better interpretation than the loose one I produced.
Thank you I didn’t know about that. It does makes sense in the situation.