よつばと! Vol 3 Discussion Thread (Yotsuba&! Reading Club)

Japanese Language Reading
#218

Okay, let’s see… there’s 6 points of confusion on the vocab list still.

  1. Page 140, there’s handwritten kanji next to the katakana テレビ. We’re not sure what about the TV needs to be set up. Can anyone identify the kanji?
  2. Page 142. What’s wrong with Yotsuba saying that she’ll でる at the fireworks display? Is this verb not something used with people?
  3. Page 148. しか買ってやらない. Does the やる add anything to the meaning? Why not just say しか買わない?
  4. Page 153. Yotsuba is trying to get Asagi to see the fireworks display and says あさぎに + みてもらいたい. I might be mixing up the give/receive verbs, but I think あげたい would have been better since Yotsuba is the subject of the sentence.
  5. Page 156. What is きてこう? It seems like it might be a compound verb with the casual + volitional conjugation.
  6. Page 156. Is つけとく short for 付けておく?
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#219
  1. The issue with recognising the kanji is that it’s in simplified form (i.e. compare 聞 with the version that appears in the manga). After more playing around with radicals, I rather suspect what we’re looking for is 欄 = column in a newspaper. “I’d like to see the TV column”.
  2. Think the meaning being used here is “to participate”, but she won’t be participating, she’ll be watching.
  3. やる is the higher-to-lower status version of あげる. 買ってやる = buy for her.
  4. Yeah, that I’m not entirely sure of.
  5. きて行こう, I think.
  6. Yes. Also, the meaning being used here is “to add”. I.e. add water to the flowers = water the flowers.
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#220
  1. It’s hard to read simplified kanji. T_T 欄 does look pretty close, if you assume the simplification is to 聞’s. (Though honestly, I wouldn’t have been able to identify either one.)
  2. でる does imply that she’ll be making an appearance, but a spectator wouldn’t do that.
  3. Oh yeah. We did just have a few chapters about やる(ing) flowers. It’s good to think of in terms of あげる.
  4. Oh well, the intent is still understandable.
  5. Another abbreviation, but 行こう does make the most sense.
  6. 付ける is a very versatile verb. “to apply” “to put on” are much closer in meaning than “to attach” if we’re referring to water and flowers.
#221

It’s the last week for Volume 3. Thanks for reading along!

Chapter 21 Vocab List

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#222

How long until we start volume 4? i might need to grab a copy of books 4-14 ><

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#223

I suspect we’ll be taking a break for a while before starting on Volume 4. Perhaps a month or so? There isn’t a plan in-place yet, but we should figure this out in the meta-thread (https://community.wanikani.com/t/よつばと-reading-club/24216).

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#224

thank you i will look there!
a month is good for me

#225

Page 122

Can I ask a quick question about way back on page 122?

What do people think is going on with the モテモテだなあ at the bottom of the page?

Is it the dad saying that Yotsuba is popular with the owl? Or something I’m not seeing?

(I love how terrified Yotsuba is! So cute!)

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#226

Yes. :slight_smile:

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#227

Page 130

Back in chapter 19, page 130, Yotsuba’s dad says:

よつばはゾウが何言ってるかわかるかー？

I know he must be saying “Do you understand what the elephant is saying?” but I’m having a bit of trouble seeing how it all fits together:

よつば - Yotsuba!
は - “as for”
ゾウ - elephant
が - object marker
何 - what
言ってる - saying
か - ???
わかる - understand
かー？- question

I’m not sure why both ‘say’ and ‘understand’ take the forms they do, and what that か is doing in the middle of the sentence. Any help much appreciated!

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#228

Not entirely clear on the issue with わかる, but 言ってる is short for 言っている = is saying.

The か marks an embedded question - Do you understand “What is the elephant saying?”?

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#229

Thank you! Got it! Never seen one of them before, never knew it was possible! Thank you so much!

#230

Something that doesn’t have much to do with what you asked, but is another form of か in the middle of a sentence: かどうか

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#231

Actually, this か is pretty much exactly the かどうか structure, only without the optional どうか tacked on.

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#232

Page 130

Still on page 130 (you can see how slowly I read!), middle frame.
The small writing says: そこの木陰で
The kanji is 木陰 - こかげ. The shade of a tree.
Just to point out that the vocab list (which is superb and without which I would be utterly lost) has it down as 木影.
Though that makes perfect sense! Jisho says 影 means shadow and is also read as かげ!

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#233

Fixed. Thanks for pointing it out.

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#234

Thank you so much for all your amazing work @BobaGakusei!

#235

No problem! It’s a good reminder for me to be careful when using an IME. Sometimes, the first option isn’t necessarily correct one!

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#236

Page 137

I am totally lost at the bottom of page 137!

  • お父さん昨日あんなにがんばったのにね
  • 子供たちは
  • …何がやったっっけ？

This is all I’ve got:
お父さん - father
昨日 - yesterday
あんな - ???
に - particle
がんばった - worked hard (derived from ‘good luck’)
のに - but
ね - sentence ending particle

子供たちは - as for the kids

何が - what
やったっっけ？- Kansai dialect - what did they do? ???

Any help much appreciated!

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#237

お父さん昨日あんなにがんばったのにね
お父さん - father
昨日 - yesterday
あんなに - so; like that; to that extent; to that degree (similar to そんなに and こんなに)
がんばった - worked hard
のに - even though
ね - sentence ending particle

Even though your father worked so hard yesterday (they barely acknowledge him, or something like that)

子供たちは - these kids; kids these days :smh: (lit. the kids are; as for the kids)

何が - what
やった - did
っけ？ - I do? (particle indicating that the speaker is trying to recall some information)

Oh yeah, I used this dictionary to make sure I had the right idea for あんなに, のに, and っけ. It’s pretty useful!

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