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

Yes. :slight_smile:

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

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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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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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 means shadow and is also read as かげ!

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Fixed. Thanks for pointing it out.

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

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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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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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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Wow! Thank you so much! You are so kind @Kazzeon. Thank you!

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What an amazing dictionary! Instantly my favourite! Thank you so much!

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Page 143

Can I just quickly check my understanding on page 143.
Dad: “Yotsuba, do you understand what a 花火大会 is?”
Yotsuba: “erm, fireworks…everyone does it, and then decides who did the best” (followed by a wonderful victory dance) “See, do I understand?”
Dad: “understand? you don’t know it at all!”

Thank you! (little victory dance of my own!)

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You have the gist of it. I’m not quite so sure about the なのか pattern, but otherwise, I’d translate it like this (some tense differences)

Dad: "Yotsuba, about the “fireworks festival”, do you know what kind of thing it is?
Yotsuba: Yeah. Um… to do fireworks with everyone and to decide who is the best. dance See, understood?
Dad: Understood. You don’t understand anything.

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That dance is what she thinks is the 花火大会. :joy:

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Brilliant! Thank you so much @BobaGakusei
Nice translation!

Yes, I kind of just skipped that bit! lol!

It’s not なのか it’s どんなのか - it’s どんな, what kind of, then の as an indefinite pronoun “one” (i.e. どんなのX, but the X is omitted) and か to mark an embedded question as per the earlier elephant question.

“Yotsuba, this thing called “fireworks festival”, do you know what kind of a one it is?”

Of course, that’s far from a smooth translation. :stuck_out_tongue:

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That one was okay. I was referring to Yotsuba’s. Can you explain this one too?

だれ が いちばん なのか きめる

EDIT: maybe it’s a similar idea.
“Who is the best one?” to decide

where 一番 is treated as a な adjective for the indefinite pronoun の

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