よつばと! Vol 2 Discussion Thread (Yotsuba&! Reading Club)

According to this fan wiki, Miura is a girl

1 Like

Page 15

On page 15 Yotsuba says:

なにもんだおまえ!?

using the vocab sheet, I think this is:
なに - 何 - what
もん - もの - 者 - person
だ - plain form of です
おまえ - お前 - very casual form of “you”
か or の to form a question is not there.

My question is, why does the だ come in the middle of the question, rather than at the end?
Again, any help much appreciated! Thank you!

Edit: or is it just a case of “you” being added at the end as a kind of interjection/afterthought?

Aww. Kinokuniya was completely out of volumes two. Guess I won’t be reading along with everyone…

This is less だ coming in the middle and more the topic おまえ coming at the end. Seems to be a reasonably common pattern in casual speech.

3 Likes

Later volumes state it explicitly, yes. She’s a girl. :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like

Thank you!

One small confession, mind: when I say “reasonably common in casual speech”, my main source for this fact is anime and manga. I don’t know for sure whether people speak like this in real life.

4 Likes

I’ve also seen なにこれ (as opposed to これはなに) crop up from time to time in casual speech, so my guess is that often Japanese people will mess up the sentence order in very casual speech. Things placed at the beginning of the sentence generally have more emphasis so it could be down to emphasising different parts more.

2 Likes

Page 15

Just a quick question. On page 15 when みうら explains her shoes she says:
これはなー靴の裏にコロコロがついてんだ
I’m wondering about that なー
Is just a sentence ending particle (similar to ね), or is it something else altogether?
Thank you!

Thank you!

It’s the same as what よつば does during her speech, also seen on the previous page. It’s just a sound that adds emphasis or signifies interest/excitement. I read it as “Oh, these, huh? These shoes…” with a showoffy tone in her voice.

2 Likes

Oh my goodness! Yes! I never really noticed that on the previous page! Wow, perfect, thank you so much fl0rm!

You shouldn’t think of だ as a casual form of です because they have different nuances and have different usages. This explanation may be a bit confusing, but at least take a look:
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/polite#_is_NOT_the_same_as

4 Likes

On page 20
みうら:よつば の は へた だろう
Literal translation : Yotsuba - の - as for - not skilled - probably is

“I think Yotsuba is bad at drawing”

I’m not sure what the の is doing there though …

Also the harshest thing said in the book so far I think! Why I felt the need to share :slight_smile:

Edit: actually みうら seems to have a lot of trouble with being polite looking back at page 8

1 Like

I’m pretty sure the の is making it possessive, as in “Yotsuba’s drawing is bad, isn’t it?” (but the actual word “drawing” is left implied here, so it’s just “Yotsuba’s is bad, isn’t it?”)

9 Likes

Miura has zero ability at dealing with kids. She learns eventually, but actually gets worse before it gets better.

1 Like

This whole chapter was so heartbreaking, poor よつば!

On page 20 in the last panel よつば says

でもえなもふーかもとーちゃんもみんなうまいっていった

I get most of it but the えなも at the beginning I’m not sure what it means. is the え meant to be 絵 for her drawing? Or something else?

It’s the names of her neighbours, えな and ふうか. The も is used like a comma in an English list.

There’s a subtle difference in how things like ふう and とう are pronounced, versus being a single long syllable, which she isn’t producing (maybe because she doesn’t hear it or because she doesn’t have the control to sound it out), hence the ーs in her speech.

4 Likes

Ah thanks! I must have just completely forgot that characters name! All makes sense now

Wow! That is amazing. Thank you so much senblue. I’ve just learnt a lot there! Thank you!

I think she is saying “But Ena and also Fuuka and Daddy and everyone says I’m skilled at (drawing)”. I thought it was very cute…

1 Like