肉球 - にくきゅう - What I would have guessed if not for the context clues: Meat balls (as in food).
But from context it looks like toe pads on the cat, sure, they are “meaty”, but meat balls? Lol!!
Perhaps she’s no longueur mad at him now that she shredded his jeans in ch19? Or because he saved her from the bathtub (p17)? Or the author forgot that she was supposed to be mad at him (On another paw, cats are known to easily change their mind: one instant they let you pet them and the next you need a new hand )
That is true, but moreso that while I’ve heard they exist, I’ve never personally met a cat that likes belly rubs. They all attacked the moment you go from chest to stomach.
When she’s not in a playing mood, one of my brother’s cat* will not only let you rub her belly but even stretch so that it’s easier for you x) (and purr a lot). And I’m pretty sure mine (RIP ) liked to it too.
But both of them always had people do it to them so maybe they got used to it early?
*the other one just don’t care, do what you want with him ^^’
かしら → I wonder
=>This could give us I wonder if she did mind that too much
page 34: 「真ん中にいたいタイプだな」
真ん中 → center
に → location
いたい → 痛い? It seems strange in this context
タイプ → type?
だな → だ+な
=> I can’t come up with a good translation when using everything :-/ Without タイプ, it could be It is a pain to have her in the middle (of the postcard), isn’t it
page 45:
「あの猫きっとこのマンションで問題になっている”大きい猫”よ」
あの猫 → that cat
きっと → 屹度? “almost certainly”
このマンション → this apartment building
で → at?
問題 → problem
に → location
なっている → becoming?
”大きい猫” → big cat
よ → emphasis
=>This “big cat” it almost certainly becoming a problem for the building? I feel like this isn’t correct
「あちこちのお宅に出没してるらしいから」
あちこち → here and there / everywhere
の → “possessive”
お宅 → your home
に → location
出没 → appearance and disappearance
してる → according to ichi.moe: makes a verb from a noun
らしい → seeming
から → because
=> Because it seems to appear and disappear anywhere in your home
「問題が拡大しなきゃいいけど」
問題 → problem
が → “subject marker”
拡大 → amplification
しなきゃ → inflection of 為る? to do
いい → good?
けど → but
=> But to amplify the problem would be good? I’m pretty sure my attempts to translate these sentences are biased by my impression that they want to use the big cat as a cover in case someone start ask questions about a cat (チー) in their home.
な → strong rhetoric
=> Didn’t the cat come this once because of Chi? 屹度 not correct
The big cat doesn’t have a care in the world x) I half expected it to lick チー to show her that she can’t do anything (it actually happens p67 (ch29))
And the way ヨウヘイ tries to shoo it away is kind of stupid… what would he have done if the cat decided to attack this moving target? :')
But it’s funny how ヨウヘイ seems to be trying to translate チー’s meowings in front of the dad
I saw it as both of them super eagerly telling their version of the story, I don’t think Yohei actually thought Chi was saying any of that =P (and Chi just doesn’t seem to realize they don’t understand her )
かまい → this is the stem of 構う. However, I believe in this case it is using the meaning “to entertain; to pay attention to” (meaning #3 in jisho). This is in stem form because it is getting connected to すぎ (putting together the stem of a verb + すぎ is a specific grammatical construction). So, we have … “paying too much attention”.
ちゃった → this is the informal version of しまった. While this verb does mean “do something to completion”, it is very often used when doing something accidentally or without meaning to, which is how it is being used in this case (meaning #5 in jisho)
の → I am not really familiar with the grammatical term “genitive” and for some reason the link you provided doesn’t send me to that explanation. However, I believe this is the “explanatory tone” の.
Linking all that we have “I wonder if we (without meaning to) gave her too much attention”
いたい → This is the verb いる (to be, for animate objects), in its たい form, which expresses desire: “want to be”
タイプ → this is indeed type.
“She’s the type that wants to be in the center”, I believe this means the center of attention as much as it means in a central location.
My interpretation is close to yours, we are just differing a bit on how we are tying the words together. The difference is that in your translation you merged “big cat” with “that cat”, and I think that might be spawning the confusion:
‘That cat is almost certainly the “big cat” that’s becoming a problem for this apartment building’ => this implies that Mom has heard a rumor about a big cat being a problem around the apartment building, and suspects that cat is the culprit
出没する means “appear frequently”. 出没してる is that same verb in ている form, so this means “appearing frequently”. So basically we have ‘because it seems to be appearing frequently here and there in your house’
なきゃ is an abbreviated, informal version of なくては. The transformation goes something like this:
拡大する => to magnify
拡大しない => to not magnify
拡大しなくて => to not magnify in て-form.
So, as you can see what we have here is the negative of magnify. Dad is saying ‘It would be good if the problem doesn’t magnify’ => this is because if people are on the lookout for a cat wandering around the apartment complex, they might spot Chi and it would be a problem.
I am not very confident in this one, but my understanding is that this is connected to the previous sentence we analyzed.
チーのこと => I am not sure how to explain this, but saying “someone no koto” is a way to talk about someone in him/herself, about the existence or the being of someone. So here Dad is talking about Chi’s existence as a cat (ある is being used as “to exist”).
This is tied to the previous sentence Dad thinks the magnification of the big cat problem is bad because Chi exists as a cat, or in more natural English, because Chi is also a cat.
I’d like to hear other interpretations about this sentence though…
I know but it’s more fun to think that he’s unconsciously understanding part of what she says; parents can somewhat understand their baby, so the child could understand the kitten: it’s only normal for the minion to get his overlordlady, isn’t it?
Maybe they will once they get used to it (or when she drops the baby talk)
You have to wait for everything to load, go back to the address bar and “go” again because the content is loaded in javascript so the anchor doesn’t work right away :-/ (bad design, why use JS at all for a simple page like that?)
Oh! this explains why it is about them giving her too much attention and not about her minding their petting too much (since she didn’t do anything). I should have looked up しまった in jisho after ichi.moe told me ちゃった came from it.
It makes so much more sense x)
(Why can’t we quote spoilers? u_u)
It is how I understood it when I first read it but when I tried to understand the whole sentence I obviously failed ^^’ I merged “big cat” and “that cat” because I was already confused and didn’t know how to use both separately
I think I am trying too much to work with only what is written :x
Yes, I don’t know why I choose “appear and disappear” (and also forgot to write it as a verb in my post)
Argh! 大失敗 on this one
I think I understand; now to try and remember it until the next time I encounter it…
This basically explicit why he said it would be a bad thing previously in case we didn’t understand, makes sense (more than what I wrote anyway ^^')
Nah. You’re definitely not the only one. Besides Chi’s baby speak which I have a hard time not just skipping, the sentences you quoted above about the big cat were the sentences I had most trouble with as well.
That said, the manga is so sweet.
No, you are just better at asking questions/deconstructing, while others (me included) have a tendency to glance over and be satisfied if we got enough from context, while being super happy about the deconstructing in the comments cause we also learn from it!! <3
For the first volume, I was only reading the deconstructions others did but I feel like I didn’t actually learned anything and don’t think I could recognize the things that were discussed at the time. I probably already asked here or in last week’s thread about some of those :-/
As for being better at asking/deconstructing, I simply tried to do the same as people in the vol 1 threads ^^
I “cut” were the manga “cut” (except for the last sentence above and I should have…), then try to identify the particles and finish with jisho to find words in what is left (obviously, the more words I identify beforehand, the easier it gets); if all else fails, I ask ichi.moe (with mixed results as shown above) and use a lot of ctrl-f on some pages with grammar rules/lessons (but it’s not very effective because I didn’t read them yet ). And then I post here, crying for help because what I have is not quite correct, at best…
You probably learn a lot more that way anyway =^_^=
I cheat by duo reading with the English version =P
But I want to get better at actually translating it. Maybe when I have more time (so much going on I don’t know when I’ll have that kind of time/concentration. I haven’t leveled up since February ^^; )
No need to feel bad or embarrassed about being the only one asking questions (and, as the others have mentioned, you are not the only one having difficulties, sometimes I am staring at Chi’s babytalk for like 10 minutes and checking jisho for variations of what she’s saying before I realize what on earth she means…)
This is not different to what I do. With more experience and more grammar under your belt you will start to get better at figuring out what pieces are involved; hang in there!
One suggestion I have for searching grammar (in case you didn’t know about this already): if you create an account in bunpro, bunpro has a very useful search feature that works for free accounts. For example, I often get confused about the several grammar structure that use こと, so I can input that and bunpro will give a list of grammar points that involve that:
Clicking on each grammar, it will give you a set of links to different resources and even page numbers for textbooks where that grammar point is explained.
Sometimes I find that I know all words in a sentence, but somehow they don’t seem to fit together, that’s usually when I check here to see if there’s a special grammatical structure I might be missing. It is proven invaluable for me when reading.
Well, it does fell like I create these threads only to get help myself x)
And now, I can’t improve too much because, if I don’t need help anymore, there will only be one post per thread (or will others have to stop lurking? :3)
I admit that I don’t try as hard with Chi as with the humans… if I think I get what she says, good, if not, meh
I should probably try to really understand her (she is the MC after all) but I already took most of my afternoon trying to understand the humans*, I just could not take more time for her u_u
* well, that, some meatspace stuff and a lot of reviews; please, SRS-sama, let me enjoy my week-ends T_T
Oh! I didn’t know we had access to the grammar breakdowns and references links with a free account, good to know (I didn’t log into my account since about day 3 of my trial, right when I realized I should not have done all my lessons at once during the first few levels of WK :‘))
I should use Bunpro anyway… $3/month isn’t much (for me, I know it can be for others) and having to follow the SRS schedule will hopefully make me actually learn some grammar instead of waiting for “when I have more time” ^^’
(On another paw, cats are known to easily change their mind: one instant they let you pet them and the next you need a new hand 
)
) liked to it too.
)
(or when she drops the baby talk)
(I didn’t log into my account since about day 3 of my trial, right when I realized I should not have done all my lessons at once during the first few levels of WK :‘))
(If you feel like it and have the time for that, obviously)