Alright, I finally finished the whole chapter 2! I don’t know how y’all manage to stop with poor Hanabi all alone out in the streets, haha.
Time to read a bit more deeply. Here’s my one question from the first 3 pages of the chapter!
ebook page 17:
貝殻をモチーフにしたキーホルダー
I get that this is a “keychain with a seashell motive”, but what exactly is the にした (にする, I assume) doing here? Is it an actual seashell that was (literally translated) “made into a motive” (or more naturally translated, “used as decoration”)?
I wouldn’t take that highlightet part on Jisho at face value XD.
My interpretation is not like yours. It just means A seashell motive keychain. NOT that the keychain IS literally a seashell. I tried looking into the grammar some more to find the necessary references but it’s pretty late and would probably take too long at the moment sorry -.-. It’s just that the モチーフにする feels somehow like a “use as motif/blueprint” to me.
Love how last chapter I mentioned that it’s interesting how the main character isn’t saying stuff out loud when alone to tell the plot or their feelings, and now we have the sentence “That might be why I talk to myself so much”
It’s a motif, not a motive. It’s a keychain designed after a seashell (or with a seashell theme)
It may be the “to be” sense of する? I know that the end result of AにしたB is that A is a phrase that describes B (I forget the grammatical term for that just now), but I don’t know the actual grammar behind it
While I do understand this instinctively as simply “seashell motif”, with no actual seashell being involved, like the others who have replied to this, I’m finding it surprisingly difficult to find an official grammar explanation on AをBにする. Most sources will say what you stated, that it means using A for B or turning A into B, so that might be interpreted to imply that an actual seashell is turned into a motif. Of course, if you think about it, a motif is an abstract concept, not something tangible, so even in English, turning a seashell into a motif basically means using the seashell shape as a basis for a design, doesn’t it?
In any case, I found this answer on StackExchange that you might find helpful.
Most of the time, you can think of the “AをBに(して)” construction as “with A as B”, “with A at/in B”, or “thinking/making/using A as B”.
A を B に／とする means either make A into B or have A as B . Whether the change of state is involved or not (i.e. A is “made” into B or originally so) is unspecified and always left ambiguous, so you can only choose the right side from context.
I read that seashell sentence and grammar the same way when people are “wearing a facial expression”, earlier in the chapter we have パパは悲しそうな顔をして、あたしを見る So it makes sense that the same/similar grammar function would describe something carrying a shape of something else, in this case a keyring in the shape of a seashell.
This might not be the correct grammar rule, but it makes sense in my head.
Read the whole chapter last night and will re-read it tonight as well to see if I can clear up some of the confusions I had. But really enjoying this so far, I’m surprised at how “not exhausting” it is to read a book like this one.
This is slightly more straightforward, you can even translate it directly: “make a [adjective of your choice] face”. But yes, encountering する often enough (and there’s no avoiding it, it’s everywhere), helps develop an instinctive feel for its varied uses.
I actually had one question and this is just because I saw a new definition of ように but here in this sentence
ますます自分の存在感がうすくなったように思った I translate that into “I thought it was as if my existence became thinner and thinner” would that be a correct translation of ように in this sentence?
Page 22 or so I ran into this sentence: その イラスト が、 どれ も すごく かわいく て、 こんな の ほしい って 自分 でも 作り たく なっ て しまう。
Which I get the first half but the second half (こんな の ほしい って 自分 でも 作り たく なっ て しまう) I am not able to understand all the grammar rules that are going on here.
-Why is the て form modifying 自分？is it because she has the continuous want?
-is でも after 自分, like as in even I?
-last one: why is 作りたい negative and followed by しまう?
I’m sure it says something like : the drawings were all so cute and she wants to make one like that herself. However, because たい is negative I was thinking it is the opposite until I realized that made no sense.
There is no te form. The te form of ほしい would be ほしくて. This is the quoting particle って.
自分で - by myself
も- too
Like @grahpou says, this is not negative. 作りたい → 作りたく → 作りたくなる → 作りたくなって + しまう。“I ended up wanting (~getting to want) to make”
(The negative te form of 作りたい would be 作りたくなくて)
Thank you guys both for the help! I don’t know how I thought ほしい was in the て looking back on this. Isて behaving like a subject marker like shown here or is it different?
I’m confused about this sentence, and exactly who is talking here (page 4 of chapter 2 of the e-book):
「時間がなかったんじゃない？それに、これからは、あたしたちも手伝うっていったんだし」
As I understand, This is Hanabi speaking here, saying “You didn’t have time? Also, you said you would help us from now on.” but that seemingly came out of nowhere, Hanabi being that sassy and all XD. Also, let me know if I didn’t interpret this sentence correctly.
Also, (a few sentences after), there’s this sentence which I’m not sure how to break down:
「ママは、食卓のむこうのソファにどっかりとこしをおろす」
It’s mainly the 「とこし」part I’m confused about and how it fits in.
This is when dad complains that the bathroom has not been cleaned and the laundry is piling up, right?. Hanabi is speaking, as you say. The lack of pronouns can be very confusing. The first sentence is her explaining why the bathroom may be in the mess - there was no time. んじゃない？ would mean, “isn’t it because”? We can only assume that it was her mother who didn’t have time. The next sentence has a pronoun though: あたしたち. I assume this refers to Hanami and her dad. Not sure how it works exactly. Hanami refers to herself with あたし, but is it okay to use that to also refer to the dad? In any case, context gives me the impression that she’s referring to the members of the household other than her mother. “We would help too from now on.” Who said it? It’s not clear. あたしたち probably. “We said we would help too from now on”.
On your second question, 腰を下ろす (こしをおろす) means to sit down. と is just the quoting particle for どっかり, defining the way she sat down.
Ah yes, your interpretation makes more sense, Saying that her mother didn’t have time and that both Hanabi and her father said that they would help. Another instance of ambiguity in Japanese throwing me for a loop, hopefully I can get more used to it soon lol.
Ah right, I really do need to get a grasp on the と particle. Any recommended video/article which will help me in that regard?
Could someone please help with this sentence? I have literally no idea how to interpret it XD
「ほんとは、“おばさん” なんだけど、”愛子さん“ってよんでって、小さいころに言われてから、ずっと ”愛子さん”ってよんでいる。」
So, the aunt’s name is Aiko, which apparently also means “favoured child” and there’s some play on words going on I assume but I can’t figure out what is referring to whom
