Thank you!
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Well, new year, same old me, back to studying Japanese after a really long break in which I forgot pretty much everything. Rather than do the sensible thing and start by reacquainting myself with hiragana and looking at some basic grammar, I’m picking up Yotsuba again where I (think I) left off. Thank you for any help you can offer with my questions!
Page 119 - second panel
いえのそとなのにそうじするの?
いえのそと - 家の外, outside the house
なのに - and yet
そうじ - 掃除, cleaning
する - do
の - informal question marker
It’s outside the house, and yet you’re going to clean it?
(No question, I worked it out by typing it out)
そうやで - that’s right
やで - no idea!
Some kind of dialect for です?
家の前がきれいやと気持ちええやろ?
家の前 - in front of the house
が - particle indicating some grammar or other (subject, object, it all makes my head spin)
きれい - lovely
やと - no idea!
気持ちええ = 気持ちいい, good feeling
やろ? - no idea!
It’s a good feeling when the front of the house looks nice.
へー what?!
Yep. The trick with understanding Grandma is that Grandma speaks in Kansai-ben (although she does try to avoid it).
そうやで = そうだね
Remember that や = だ in Kansai-ben, and see if you can work it out now.
It’s more like “Oh?” in this context, I’d say.
Thank you so much Belthazar!
So…
そうやで = そうだね
やと = だと, copula + と, if?? If the front of the house looks good, you have a nice feeling… ?
やろ = だろ = だろう = don’t you agree?
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May I ask one more?
Page 119 - third panel
よつばは何しに出てきたんや
よつばは - Yotsuba and は topic marker
何しに - DeepL says 何しに means “what for?”, but I can’t find that in the dictionary
出てきた - okay, this is 出る, to come out, in the て-form, with きた, which “indicates action that had been continuing up till now / came to be” in the past tense!
ん - I remember this…… the explanation particle, because she’s asking for an explanation!
や - okay, so this is だ, but why is she putting a だ at the end of a question?
-What are you doing out here Yotsuba?
Thank you again so much!
It’s 何 + する in stem form + intent に.
I kinda think this くる is spatial rather than temporal - i.e. just plain “came out(side)”.
Well, here it’s taking the place of か, I guess.
You are a star! Thank you so much @Belthazar ! Much appreciated, and Happy New Year to you!
No real questions. Just that, after spending all this time typing it out (while trying to figure it out) I’m not going to let it go to waste!
Page 120 - first panel
でもとーちゃんしんぶんかうのやめよーかなーっていってるから
でもとーちゃん新聞買うのやめよーかなーっていってるから
よつばのしごとなくなるかもしれない
よつばの仕事なくなるかもしれない
でも - but
とーちゃん - dad
新聞 - newspaper
買う - to buy
の - I’m guessing that this nominalises “buy”, ie, turns it into a noun? Buying? Not really sure.
やめ - stop
よー - sentence ending particle
かなー - I wonder
って - quotation particle
いってる - saying
から - because
よつばの仕事 - Yotsuba’s job
なくなる - to be lost
かもしれない - might
But because dad is saying he’s wondering whether or not to stop buying the paper, my job might soon be lost
“But dad’s been going on about stopping the paper, so I might soon lose this job”
Aye. There’s also an omitted を afterwards.
Actually, this is やめよう, the volitional form of やめる.
You are tooooooo good! Thank you again @Belthazar ! ![]()
Page 137
A sudden realisation hits Yotsuba, and she exclaims このいえは… よごれている. Which I take to mean “this house…. is dirty” (so far, so good?)
But then she corrects herself: よごされている… Which I guess means “this house has been made dirty” (by someone other than Yotsuba!)
Am I right?
Gran catches this and says: なんで微妙に言い直した, “why did you subtly rephrase that?”
Page 138
second panel
そんなことしとるんやったら よつばも掃除せなあかんな
そんな - that sort of
こと - thing
しとるん - kansai-ben for してるん, “doing”
やったら - if you do
よつば - our hero
も - also
掃除 - cleaning
せなあかんな - random string of hiragana (which must mean “must/have to” in kansai)
“if you do that sort of thing, you’ll have to clean too Yotsuba”
Questions: (1) why do we have two “do’s in this sentence (してる and やったら), and (2) what is that last phrase in standard Japanese?
Page 138
Final panel
Gran has said that cleaning is fun, and our little green-haired hero replies:
よつばにそうじさせようとおもってそういうことをおとなはいう
よつばに - to me (Yotsuba)
そうじ - cleaning
させよう - let/make
と - if
おもって - think?
そういう - such
こと - things
を - particle
おとな - adult/s
は - topic marker??
いう - say
“Adults say such things to me if they think it’ll make me (do the) cleaning”
Any help here much appreciated!
I love yotsuba’s granny.
That’s how I read them. Yotsuba is clearly (I think) trying to distance herself from responsibility.
As an English translation, this looks good. If we wanted to stick a bit closer to the Japanese, the core of this is a topic: 「おとな」 and a comment 「いう」, and everything before おとな is a modifier of it; this could thus be: “Adults who think they can make Yotsuba clean say that.” (My translation isn’t perfect, as I’m running low on time and just stuck “that” at the end.)
The second one’s not やったら but だったら. It’s ~んだ + ~たら
しないといけない
Thank you so much @ChristopherFritz and @Belthazar . Really, very much appreciated. Thank you.
Page 144
Just a quick question about the final panel. Yotsuba is about to apply a heat-patch to dad’s back, and asks:
しっぷはきれいにはりますか? すこしぐちょっとはりますか?
しっぷ - poultice? I’m not even sure of this in English, can’t say I’ve ever used the word.
は - topic marker
きれい - nice
に - direction particle
はります - 貼ります, to stick
か? - question
すこしぐ - few/little while/short distance
ちょっと - a bit
はります - to stick
か? - question
As for this heatpatch (poultice), would you like me to stick it on nicely, or to stick it on すこしぐ?
Any ideas what she’s talking about?
Typo alert! But before that.
Certainly not American English!
Can also refer to neat, so きれいに can mean to stick it on neatly. Thus, the other option may be something that’s not “neatly”.
Here’s the typo: It’s actually ぐちゃ.
すこし+ぐちゃと.
If you have any trouble with ぐちゃ, try doing a search for ぐちゃぐちゃ.
Got it! Thank you so much @ChristopherFritz !
So nice of Yotsuba to give her dad the choice!
Thanks again!
(Ps, I know I’m not one one to talk, disappearing for months on end, but is @Kazzeon still around?)
He says he is, but I’m not sure I believe him. ![]()
So, who likes Yotsuba’s granma?
- Like her? I love her!
- She’s okay.
- Glad she’s not my gran!
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@_Marcus I’m still around, kinda. I don’t check the forums anymore since we moved to discord.
Glad to see you’re back. ![]()