Oh dear, my brain is in melt down again!
So 入ってた is a short version of 入っていた.
But could you please remind me what 入っていた is?
I just can’t find it anywhere at all.
It’s the informal/plain past progressive tense (link). Yotsuba will further slang the ending いた to just た
It’s a state verb
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/complete/progressive_tense
Tae Kim describes it as “progressive tense”, which is also tecnically correct, but is only half the story. I think it’s better to say it’s the “state verb”, because it expresses the state that something exists in. The difference is that for continual verbs it means “is doing the verb” (for example, 食べている = is eating), but for instantaneous verbs, it means “exists in the state of having done the verb”.
入る = put the item in the pocket
入っている = is in a state of having been put in the pocket - i.e. it’s now in the pocket
入っていた = was in a state of being in the pocket, but now it’s not (because he took it out again)
Speaking of which, do you know what the difference between 言っていた and 言った is? I don’t think “was saying” makes much sense compared to “said”, but I do see the former conjugation a lot in news articles (and even in Yotsuba).
Is it the sort of thing where if you say something, Japanese considers it to be something that cannot be taken back? (exists in the state of being said)?
言っていた kind of implies speaking for a longer period of time. The English usage is pretty similar here.
“President Trump was saying that he should build a big wall out of covfefe” = it’s either something he’s been harping on about for a while, or it’s something he habitually says
“President Trump said that BobaGakusei is covfefe” = it’s something he said one time.
Hm, I guess that works for those who repeatedly say things. I suppose I usually only try to say things once.
Yeah well, usually when you see it being used in the news they’re talking about politicians saying things, and you know how long-winded they are.
Wow, you guys are amazing!
Thank you both so much! You are patient and kind and I really appreciate it.
(Plus, I’m now right up to speed on the grammar point).
Thank you.
No way! It’s awesome to see people interested in Yotsuba. I started reading the series years ago, and to this day love it. I’m still a beginner at grammar, but will try to glean something from this great thread.
That’s great! Please feel welcome to join us!
Thank you.
Page 14
I was trying to work out what Yotsuba was saying in the last panel on page 14, but now I think I’ve got it!
She’s saying that her dad was bad/at fault a long time ago, but that this new character is bad/at fault now. The thing that initially threw me was that she’s using katakana instead of hiragana!
ワルかった = わるかった・悪かった
ワルイ = わるい・悪い
I don’t know, but perhaps that might be worth adding to the vocab list!
Page 17
ちっこいのがいる
Okay, ちっこい means very small, and いる shows the existence of an animate object, but what I was wondering about was the のが. Assuming the が is the object marker then の must be very rudely standing in for もの (thing), though of course 人 or こども would be nicer! What do other people think?
Page 18
久しぶりに見たなーこーゆーの
久しぶり - it’s been a while (funny how I keep seeing kanji in Yotsuba just moments after I’ve studied them on WK!)
に - particle
見た - saw/seen
なー is this linking 見た to what comes next?
こーゆー - like this (ie, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen [a four-leaved clover] like this
の - sentence ending particle
So just the one question there, about that なー
And with that the chapter suddenly comes to an end! Another super fast one! And how lovely of Yotsuba to present Asagi with a Yotsuba. Really nice! (Don’t think much of the “cool” friend though!)
It’s there. Or was it removed and then just re-added after I read this? Because I’m pretty sure it’s been there a while.
The の here is acting in its “indefinite pronoun” form, usually translated as “one”. For example:
ボブさんの車はどれですか = Which car is Bob’s?
赤いのです = The red one.
In this example, の is taking the place of 車 - in the same way as we’d use “one” to refer to an already-invoked noun, Japanese uses の.
For the sentence in Yotsubato, the implied noun is probably 人. “There’s a small one (=person) here too.”
Not exactly. This is the sentence-final な, which is then followed by the sentence’s topic. The topic being tacked onto the end seems to be something that frequently happens in casual speech. In more formal wording, it’d be something like こういう(クローバー)は久しぶりに見たな。
Don’t think too poorly of her. She just doesn’t know how to deal with kids - basically she’s a bigger Miura, with better self-control.
Thank you so much! That is really helpful and has cleared so much up! Thank you!
You know, I thought just the same! She’s like a grown-up version of Miura!
FYI, I finished the next chapter’s vocab (Chapter 16). Please feel free to make suggestions and edits.
You are a star @BobaGakusei, no doubt about it!