As you suspected, this usage of と is a conjunction that links two actions together.
I’m not sure what Kiki means on V2 page 65:
なければないようにやっていくつもりですから It seems like she’s saying that if she doesn’t have (food), she’ll just go without, but that seems really extreme. Am I reading that wrong? the
Can you post the whole sentence? And can you check your post for typos? It looks like there might be some in there.
P74 in my book
She’s saying that she doesn’t need much - she just wears the same black clothes, and doesn’t eat very much, and doesn’t plan to acquire things she doesn’t already have. So it’s not that she’ll starve, but she’s not seeking to earn more than she needs to get by.
I did have one typo ( つinstead of っ), it is fixed.
The whole sentence:
洋服もこのとおりだし、食べものもすこしでいいし…なければないようにやっていくつもりですから
I guess what got me is that there’s no indication that なければ refers to additional items above and beyond the necessities she just mentioned, but I suppose that’s maybe just understood?
I understood it to refer to things both mentioned and unmentioned, but you are correct, there is nothing specifically referring to additional items. I don’t think she would want to go without food though, which was in your original post. It’s a kid’s book after all. But as long as she has a small amount of food and a simple outfit, she will be content.
Clearly her cat doesn’t eat as much as mine does.
Witches’ cats seem to be weird anyway. They certainly have a long lifespan:
(from chapter 1)
魔女のおかあさんは、女の子が生まれると、同じ時期に生まれた黒猫をさがして、
(…)
やがて女の子も成長し、猫にかわるようなたいせつな人ができ、結婚ということになると、黒猫も自分のあいてを見つけて、わかれて暮らすようになるのでした。
I mean, it’s not unusual for a cat to live up to +/-20 years old, but to begin a new life at that age? Impressive.
Hey, good news! I did, in fact, manage to finish up section 1 of chapter 4 before Friday.
The bad news, as you may have guessed, is that I didn’t get any reading or questioning done yesterday. Ah well. It’s a success to me. And six days to read 13 pages isn’t bad at all. Well, before everyone completely moves on from the previous section…
-
むすめさんはことばとは反対に、ちょっとつまらなそうな顔をしました。- This is just saying that Despite talking about witches having fangs and horns, she seemed uninterested/bored, right?
-
この町には魔女がいなかったもんだから。- I was going to ask what the もん added to this sentence, but a quick search elucidated me. もの or もん are used to indicate a reason, excuse, or dissatisfaction. In this case, it would be an excuse.
-
それもきょうの四時までにとどけるって。ちょっとでもおくれたら九十四かいもさかだちさせられちゃうんだから。- I lost the subject a bit here. Is she saying She needs to deliver her own parcel to her customer by four o’clock today, and if she’s even a little late, she’ll be forced to stand on her head for 94 hours?
-
わんぱく坊主、それでわかるわ。- Is she saying The recipient is a rascally boy, and Kiki will know who it is when she gets there?
I think I vaguely remember Jiji being snarky to the stuffed animal in the movie, actually. It’s been probably two decades since I’ve seen it, but I did have it on VHS as a small child.
Just logging on to note I did some reading on this rainy day. Feeling depressed since covid is spreading out further in Japan and お盆 is just happening. Bored and lonely I guess.
Anyway,
Yeah that’s how I read it. And I think you’re right about the もん thing, I think it can be interchangeable with もの when presenting things as reasoning.
I read four pages today and really this was the only thing google/dictionaries couldn’t help with. I tried an online parser but it didn’t help.
キキがあわててとめようとしてもだめです
I have
キキ / が / あわててとめよう / として / も / だめ / です
But I don’t really know what’s going there in the middle I thought it was like あわてる but I don’t know where the とめよう comes into it.
Hope everyone is hanging in there.
It’s saying “in contrast to her [seemingly excited] words, she looked uninterested”
Seems to be saying that, but I feel there’s something about 九十四回も逆立ち that is not literal, I’m not sure.
Yes, that she’ll know him just from this.
That 九十四回 is 94 times, not hours
And it could be handstands or headstands, we cannot really tell.
Ah, you’re already in the next section! Took me a sec to find that one
The middle part is
慌てて - in a panic / hurriedly
止めようとして - tried to stop [Jiji, I think] (this is V-volitional + とする, a frequent grammar point)
も - even though (well, actually ても means this, but I did not want to mess with the verb)
ダメです - it is in vain / does not help
Could you help me figure out what はじに means here and たままで? I’m having difficulties parsing the second one out.
It is this one: 端 - Jisho.org
ベッドのはじ に - at the end of the bed
すわった - past tense of 座る, to sit
まま - まま - Jisho.org here: without change
see also Expressing a lack of change – Learn Japanese
で - て-form of the copula (basically “and”)
all together it’s something like: just remaining seated at the end of the bed [without moving]
Funny, I always interpreted this type of usage as the particle で. I have no idea which is right though (not that it really matters).
I only properly learned this very recently myself, but I guess it stuck
But maybe it stuck too much actually… A quick web search reveals that it can be a part of まま:
sigh
Looks like I’m right on this one. The Goo entry for ままで says:
名詞「まま」+格助詞「で」
sorry it was actually this part: そばにぺたりとたままで過ごしてきました. I know the ままで but here there’s a た connected to it! Or connected to ぺたりと, but that didn’t make much sense to me.
This is still the lady across the street speaking, she’s saying that the promise she was forced to make (from the previous sentence) was that she would deliver the package by 4:00, or she will have to do 94 headstands. The って and the end of the sentence is what makes me think she’s quoting the promise she made. (って is a contraction of といって) The promise and package are for her nephew, not a customer.[quote=“Sharpevil, post:170, topic:26128”]
わんぱく坊主、それでわかるわ
[/quote]
Since Kiki just asked for a name, I think she’s saying that if Kiki asks for “the rascal,” people will know who she’s talking about. But your interpretation seems valid, too.
I think it is literal, because she goes on to say …どっちがあたまでどっちがあしか、わからなくなちゃうでしょ which is exactly how I would feel after doing that many headstands!
Is it possible that you jumped back a line when reading? My sentence says
そばにぺたりとくっついてはなれません。
Or are we still talking about different sentences?