Thank you so much Kazzeon! And a quick question, if I may, for you or Belthazar, or anyone who happens to be around:
そんなにしなくていいんじゃ…
そんなに - so much
しなくて - negative て-form of する
いい - fine
ん - explanation particle
じゃ… - a shortened じゃない…?
DeepL tells me that this means “you don’t have to do that much”, but I can see there is some grammar going on here. I looked it up and it seems to be なくてもいい = don’t have to (N5 grammar. How did I ever manage to pass that??!!), but what I don’t understand is why dad throws another negative at the end (I guess it’s going to be a じゃない, isn’t it?). Any help much appreciated!
There is no negative at the end… Like when I say “that’s a dog, isn’t it?” then it still means “that’s a dog” without any negatives. Same with じゃない - you can simply ignore it because it just acts as a softener and doesn’t have any inherent meaning, so to speak
My best guess:
Yanda: well, next time, I’ll come visit you grandma
Grandma: yes, come, come, and it would be nice if you could bring some Toraya Yokan with you!
O yes, thank you, I know that, over a decade of trips to my in-laws here in Japan leave me in no doubt about it. What I was wondering about was if Yanda works for Toraya. It is possible I suppose. Did I miss it earlier in the volumes?
And… on to the next questions! Sorry, I still have so many!
Page 154
かどをきらんとあわせるのがたいせつ
かど - corners
を - object particle
きらん - no idea, something to do with cutting?
と - if / when / and / no idea!
あわせる - 合わせる, to join together
の - nominaliser, ie turning “to join together” into a noun… joining together
が - another pesky grammar particle
たいせつ - important
“it’s important to cut and join together the corners” - is that right?
ここはおりがみをおるかいしゃにする
ここ - here
は - topic particle
おりがみ - origami
を - object particle
おる - to fold
かいしゃ - company
に - direction particle
する - to do
I’m just a bit confused by the する at the end. I guess she’s saying “this place (home) is an origami folding company” or “we’ll turn into an origami folding company” or “let’s be an origami folding company” or something along those lines. How can I translate that する do you think?
I have not found a definite answer on this, but please have some speculations:
Given the fact that there is a と after the word leads me to think that キラン is an adverb taking the particle と (which is often the case for onomatopoeic words). As such, it is describing the way the 合わせる is supposed to take place. From your second question I can derive that the context is origami Therefore I suspect this means something like “properly” or “accurately” or “neatly”.
Which tells you what the subject of the sentence is. “The proper folding”
Literally: “The proper joining of the corners is important”
Naturally: It’s important to neatly fold the paper by making the corners match properly"
This is actually にする, which is (of course ) a grammar point:
Yotsuba is helpfully listing all the things she’d recently learnt…
いがいがのなかにくりがあるとか
いがいが - this one had me stumped. The first definition on Jisho says “bur (of a chestnut, etc.)” which I guess is the spiky outside shell to the conkers inside. Not a word I knew in English until tonight! I thought this can’t be right, but then I remembered the camp she went to in volume 12 (I’ve not yet read volume 12, but I’ve looked at the pictures!).
のなか - I juggle between the cheat tools till I find something that might fit, and wheras Jisho was stumped by this one, ichi.moe gave me “in the middle of a field”. But then I thought, hang on, doesn’t のなか just mean “in the middle”, don’t I already know this?
に - direction particle
くり - 栗, Japanese Chestnut.
が - identifier particle
ある - there is
とか - etc
“There is a chestnut inside a chestnut bur” is the best I can come up with, which is a lot better than I had before I started typing this post!
Therefore I suspect this means something like “properly” or “accurately” or “neatly”.
) a grammar point:
