[aDoBJG] S 💮 A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

[fallynleaf]

しか

I was a bit surprised by the related expressions note here that said that かかる can be used with しか, but not だけ. I didn’t know that!

The differences between ばかり, しか, and だけ in the example were interesting. And the fact that Xばかり can’t be used if X is a single entity, and also can’t be used with negative predicates.

(I thought I’d look for an example, but I did a ctrl+f search for “しか” and got 110 results just within the past few months, most of which didn’t appear to be this, and decided never mind…)

しまう

This one’s tricky! When I first learned it, I didn’t realize at first that the uses described in notes 1 and 2 were the same word, haha!

The contractions mentioned in note 4 totally confused me when I first encountered them! You’ll see these all the time in native media.

The related expressions note comparing the past tense and 終わる with しまう was handy for helping understand the particular nuance of the “finish doing” meaning. And しまう can be used with noncontrollable verbs (like 忘れる) while 終わる can’t.

Here's an example from Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling! Another recent one; this was from the 2023.09.18 show, after the preview match between Free WiFi and Toyo Mates ("Toyo" as in Toyo University) leading up to the upcoming tag title match:

Hard mode: here’s the video. The wrestlers had some fun with the post-match comments here, haha.

上福「怖いものがなにもなくなったね。だってオレたち、丈夫な体を持ってるって証拠だよ、ここに立ってんだもん。前哨戦ということでWiFiと…なんだろうな。憎らしいんですよね、WiFiって。そもそもWiFiって何なの？ 見えないもので言い張ってきて。東洋大学はちゃんと実在してるからね。WiFiなんて見たことあります？ どこに飛んでるんですか？ そういうめちゃくちゃなこと言いやがって、どこにあんだよ、バカ。絶対に使わない、私はWiFiを」

Kamifuku: “There’s nothing to be afraid of anymore. The fact that we’re standing here is proof that our bodies are strong. In this preview match with WiFi… I don’t know. I hate it, WiFi. What even is WiFi, anyway? They’ve been asserting something you can’t even see. Toyo University at least has a verifiable existence. Have you ever seen WiFi? Where is it flying off to? Saying such absurd things, where is it, you idiots? I absolutely won’t use it, WiFi.”

桐生「使わないの？」

Kiryu: “You’re not going to use it?”

上福「使わないよ。もう私は角田奈穂と試合をして勝つまではWiFiを使いません。どんな時もね。ギガを払うので。私の意気込みは以上です。貴様ら、なんかある？」

Kamifuku: “No. I won’t use it until I’ve beaten Nao Kakuta in a match. No matter the time. I’ll pay for phone data. That’s all I’ve got when it comes to my enthusiasm. You guys got something to say?”

桐生「街で変なWiFiをつなげちゃうとね、情報が抜かれたりとか、そういう危険性がすごくあるってこと…（ここでWiFiらしきものがカメラの前を横切る）」

Kiryu: “If you connect to suspicious WiFi in the city, there’s a substantial risk of having your information stolen or something like that…” (at this point, something WiFi-like crosses in front of the camera)

上福「いまWiFi飛んでた？ んなわけないか」

Kamifuku: “Was that WiFi flying through here just now? There’s no way.”

桐生「だから怪しいWiFiには気を付けてください。情報を抜かれてしまう可能性があるので」

Kiryu: “So please be careful of suspicious WiFi. There’s a possibility that they’ll extract your information.” (something crosses in front of the camera again)

上福「（再び何かが横切る）WiFiって見えないものだよね？」

Kamifuku: “WiFi is invisible, right?”

桐生「見えないと思う」

Kiryu: “I don’t think you can see it.”

知る

Not a lot in the entry for this one!

I don't know if this really needs an example, because it feels pretty straightforward to me, but here's one anyway. This is from the 2023.09.10 TJPW show, which is where Mahiro won the qualifier match that earned Toyo Mates their shot at the tag belts:

Hard mode: here’s the video.

上福「真弥ちゃんがやってくれました」

Kamifuku: “Mahiro-chan did it!”

桐生「やりましたー！ やったー！ これで10月…9日？ たま未来メッセで、挑戦、できる」

Kiryu: “I did it! I did it!! And so, October… 9? At Tama Mirai Messe, the challenge, we can do it.”

上福「え、最近日本語覚えた？」

Kamifuku: “Uh, did you only just learn Japanese?”

桐生「ごめんなさい、ちょっと言葉が出てこなくなっちゃった」

Kiryu: “Sorry, I’m a little bit at a loss for words.”

上福「正直、私は自分が夏のトーナメントで燃え尽きていて。真弥とのタッグ…頑張るには頑張るけど、自分のこと優先したいなって思ってたので、若干ね…ホントにごめんね。ごめんねだけど、期待…期待をそこまで真弥ちゃんに（してなくて）、できんのかな？って疑いの気持ちの方が正直強かったんですよ。でもやっぱ仕事だから頑張ろうって言わなきゃいけないじゃん。だから真弥頑張れるって口では言ってたけど、心では真弥ダメなのかなってちょっと思ってた。でもそれ全部ごめんなさい」

Kamifuku: “To be honest, I got burned out in the summer tournament. I thought, ‘Tag team with Mahiro… I’ll do my best, but I want to put myself first.’ I’m just a bit—I’m REALLY sorry. I’m sorry, but my expectations were… I thought, ‘Can I really expect that much from Mahiro-chan?’ Honestly I felt more skepticism than anything. But it’s my job after all, so I have to say ‘I’ll do my best.’ So the words coming out of my mouth were ‘Mahiro can do her best’, but in my heart, I was wondering if she really was no good after all. But I’m sorry about all that.”

桐生「あ、ありがとうございます。謝ってる」

Kiryu: “Oh, thank you. For apologizing.”

上福「謝ってる。ごめんね」

Kamifuku: “I’m apologizing. I’m sorry.”

桐生「ホントに上福さんのこの夏の活躍、私の力に勝手にさせていただいて」

Kiryu: “Really, Kamifuku-san’s success this summer, I took advantage of it and let it give me strength.”

上福「よかった。ホントにこれは嘘抜きで（8月の後楽園の）2日間、マジでずっとセコンドついてくれて。1日目なんてさ、物販ないから次の日もあるし、みんな早く帰りたいから早々に私服になって着替えてたわけよ。その中で真弥ちゃんは私のセコンドにつくためだけにそのままいてくれて。ホントにこの人の人柄の良さ、人間としての人柄の良さをすごく感じて。でも、プロレスラーとしてのすごさはまだ見えてなかったので。まず夏に真弥の人柄の良さ、すごく知って。一緒にお出かけも行って、ランチもしたよね。だから、これからは、この秋は真弥のプロレスラーとしてのすごさを私は痛感していきたいし、アラサー2人頑張ろう」

Kamifuku: “I’m glad. I’m truly not making this up, for two days (the August Korakuen shows), she seriously seconded me the entire time. On the first day, since we weren’t selling any goods and there was another show the next day, everyone wanted to go home early, so everyone was changing out of their ring gear quickly. But despite that, Mahiro-chan stuck around just so that she could second me. I really felt the goodness of her character as a person, as a human being. But I still had yet to see her greatness as a professional wrestler. First, in the summer, I really became aware of the goodness of Mahiro’s character. We went out together, we got lunch together. So from here, this fall, I want to be fully aware of Mahiro’s greatness as a pro wrestler, and the two of us will do our best in our thirties.”

桐生「はい！ アラサー、なるほど。頑張っていきましょう」

Kiryu: “Yes! In our thirties, that’s right. Let’s do our best.”

(Lots of recent examples from Kamiyu, haha. She’s one of the funniest people on the roster, though is also probably the hardest to translate… )

[fallynleaf]

そうだ1

Pretty short entry! I don’t know if I have much to remark on with this. I feel like as a beginner, I expected to have a lot more trouble confusing そうだ 1 and 2 than I actually have ended up having in practice, haha.

No examples for this because I can already tell that 95% of what I’ll find will be like “そうですね” and the like .

そうだ2

As note 1 says, そうだ expresses the speaker’s conjecture based on visual information, so it can only be used when the speaker directly observes something. It can’t be used to express the speaker’s conjecture concerning a past event or state.

いい and ない become よさそうだ and なそうだ!

I think it’s interesting that N+copula can’t precede そうだ, but it can if it’s neg・nonpast.

Note 4 says that negative forms of verbs usually don’t precede そうだ. Instead, it’s Vます そう に/も ない, so the そう is negated, not the verb.

It’s interesting that it can be used to express the speaker’s conjecture concerning their own non-volitional future actions based on what they feel. I don’t think I knew this? Or at least, not consciously, haha.

そうだ is a な-adjective! So if it appears before a noun, it’s そうな.

それで

As note 1 says, S1 それで S2 can be rephrased using ので if それで means cause or reason. Though the ので construction is a single sentence. The difference between them is that それで combines two sentences much more loosely than ので.

S1 それで S2 can also be rephrased using だ/です から, if S1 indicates a cause or a reason for S2. The difference between それで and だから is similar to the difference between ので and から.

Here's an example from the 2023.10.04 Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling press conference before Wrestle Princess, where both tag teams in the title match were interviewed:

No video for this one because it’s long and I don’t want to hunt down timestamps. Here’s the full transcript, though.

真弥「やっぱりこの対戦者のふりーWiFi、息が合ってるし、すごいいいチームだというのは私も重々承知しているんですけど。私たち東洋盟友も年々強くなっているということは自信を持って言えます。ちょうど1年前くらいにタッグベルト挑戦して、負けてしまってはいるんですけど。そこから1年間、ホントにいろんな経験をして強くなってると思うので。で、それで挑戦権をこうやってつかんでいまここにいるので。是非、東洋盟友でベルトを取りたいと思ってます。そういうことです」

Mahiro: “I’m very aware that our opponents, Free WiFi, work well together, and they’re a great team. But I can say with confidence that Toyo Mates are getting stronger year by year. We challenged for the tag belts just one year ago, and we lost. But in the year since then, we’ve really experienced a lot and have gotten stronger. And so we’ve secured the right to challenge, and now we’re here. I really want to win the belts with Toyo Mates. That’s what I mean.”

それでは

Another contraction note! それでは is contracted into それじゃ or それじゃあ in informal speech. It’s also often shortened to では, which is further contracted to じゃor じゃあ.

それでは is used in sentence-initial position, though as the examples show, it can be used based on some nonverbal shared knowledge.

I didn’t think I’d find any それではs in my TJPW translations, since generally the contractions and such are more common in this setting (and I wasn’t exactly in the mood to hunt down a contracted example among the many results that were bound to come up), but I actually did find a few!

Two of the three from the latter half of this year are from Sakisama, but one was from Rika Tatsumi as well. All of them were used when the person was wrapping up what she was saying and saying goodbye.

Here's a Sakisama example from after hers and Mei Saint-Michel's match on 2023.09.23:

No video because this was said in the ring. I’ll include the 八王子 joke bit before it haha because I feel like the WK crowd might appreciate it.

沙希様「八王子ですって？ どこの国の王子だか分からないけれど、ご挨拶がないんじゃなくって？ いいわ、その八王子よりもワタクシたちの方が位は高いの。なぜならワタクシたちは世界の、全宇宙の覇者なわけ。そうよね、メイ・サン」

Sakisama: “Hachioji, is it? I don’t know what country those princes are from, but they didn’t think to greet us? It’s alright, we have a higher rank than those eight princes. Because we are the supreme conquerors of the world, of the entire universe. Isn’t that right, Mei-san?”

メイ・サン「ウィ。お覇者でございますわ！」

Mei-san: “Oui. We are the supreme conquerors!”

沙希様「だからね、お覇者として次の10月だったかしら？ そちらでお試愛しますわ。だから今日、ワタクシたちはこの後、お中華街に行かなくちゃいけないわけ。2人でおフカヒレパーティーよ。それではみなさま、またお来月、お多摩でお会いしましょう。ごめんあそばせ」

Sakisama: “So, as the supreme conquerors, this October, is it? We will have a match there. So that is why we have to go to Chinatown after this. The two of us are having a shark fin party. Well then, everyone, we will see you next month, at Tama. Please excuse us.”

Sakisama, I hope you and Mei have fun traveling through space and time raising dinosaurs and having tea parties with samurai warlords and riding flying bicycles. I will miss you

That’s all I have time for now. Though I suppose I might have to wait for someone else to post before I can post again …

[MissDagger]

Here’s a friendly posting streak break. You may continue your useful write ups again!

[fallynleaf]

それから

Pretty straightforward! Once upon a time, I got it confused with これから on occasion, haha, but after you repeatedly encounter これからも頑張っていきたい and the like, it’s easy to keep them straight, haha.

Some of the stuff from the notes that I thought was interesting is that それから can be used to indicate something which the speaker forgot to mention, and it’s also often used by the hearer to elicit more information from the speaker.

Also, the verb/adjective forms/stems before this don’t have their own tense. The tense is identical with that of the main verb.

The related expressions note points out that Vてから and Vて, それから are similar, but Vてから expresses chronological sequence, and Vて, それから expresses chronological sequence and/or enumeration. (Enumeration is like stating a list of things, like: “[blank], [blank], and then [blank]”)

Also, Vて/Vます, それから, and adj-い-stem くて, それから, and adj-な-stem くて, それから are very similar to し when they express enumeration.

そうして/そして and それから are interchangeable when two events do not occur simultaneously.

I found just one example (surprisingly? I guess I figured it'd be more common) from Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling in the past few months. This was from the 2023.09.03 show, after a preview match leading up to the pair of matches to decide who qualified for the tag team championship deciding match at Wrestle Princess:

Hard mode: here’s the video. Some fun extremely heavy sarcasm from Kamiyu in this, haha.

上福「勝ったね、チームで」

Kamifuku: “We won, huh? As a team.”

桐生「勝った…！ 勝ちましたね。嬉しいです」

Kiryu: “We won… I won! I’m so happy.”

上福「これはトーナメントっていうのかな？ じゃないけど、そういう系だよね？」

Kamifuku: “Are they calling this a tournament? It’s not, but it’s in the same family, right?”

桐生「上がったら挑戦ができる」

Kiryu: “If you reach the top, you earn the right to challenge.”

上福「ちょうど1年前くらいの今日に…ちょうど1年前じゃね？ 違うか。明日か。名古屋でうちら1年前にタッグを組んで挑戦して。（桐生に）すごい自分で自分のベストバウトって言ってたもんな」

Kamifuku: “Just about a year ago today… wasn’t it a year ago? No? Tomorrow? In Nagoya a year ago, we teamed up and challenged for the tag titles.” (to Kiryu) “You called it your personal best bout.”

桐生「言ってたっけ？ ちょっと記憶が…」

Kiryu: “Did I? I don’t remember…”

上福「そういうとこで挑戦して、それから約1年、私は一度も真弥ちゃん以外の人と組みたいとか、真弥ちゃん以外の人と組んで勝てて、すごい『こういうパートナーいいなぁ』とか。真弥じゃない人と組んで『華やかな人って素敵だな』とか思ったこと、ホントにマジで1回もないのね。だから、1回もなくて真弥が一番いいなって思ってこの1年やってきたから、マジでこれはいいチャンスだなって思って。楽しみだなって思ってます。どう思う？」

Kamifuku: “We challenged like that, and then for about a year, I never said that I wanted to team up with anyone other than Mahiro-chan, or that I can win by tagging with people other than Mahiro-chan, or ‘how nice it is to have a partner like this.’ When I teamed up with someone who wasn’t Mahiro, I didn’t think, ‘this gorgeous person is so wonderful’. Truly, seriously, not even once. Without wavering even once, I’ve been thinking for the past year that Mahiro is the best, so I seriously think this is a great chance. I’m looking forward to it. How about you?”

桐生「そんなに目逸らすの？」

Kiryu: “Why do you keep averting your eyes?”

それなら

As note 1 informs us, the それ here refers to a previously-spoken sentence.

それなら has a more formal form, それならば, and a more informal one, そんなら. Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t find a single それならば in my TJPW translations. I was surprised that I didn’t see any そんならs or a それなら, though! I think それでは is much more common in this setting.

The related expression note here tells us that although それなら and それでは are very similar, they differ in that the former is dependent on verbal context while the later is not.

それとも

I can’t recall learning this in any of my textbooks (though I easily could’ve just forgotten), and I don’t think it’s super common in TJPW. I only found a few examples.

Here's one from the 2023.02.18 TJPW show in Nagoya, after Aja Kong teamed up with Moka Miyamoto against Yuki Arai and Miyu Yamashita, leading up to an Arai vs Aja singles match:

Hard mode: here’s the video.

アジャ「私、これが発表になった時に言ったんですけど、前哨戦なんて位置づけはまったくしてないので。今日で終わって有明なくてもしょうがないかなくらいに思ってたんですけど、どうやら有明まで続くらしいので。（宮本に）ただ今日は…最後、ごめんね。山下のが後頭部にカコーンってきて、ちょっと助けにいけなくて最後は残念な結果になってしまって申し訳ないなと。ただ私はこれが決まった時点で前哨戦ではないと言っているので、ひとつ今日その通りにファイナリー封じということをきちんと考えて、封じ手を考えてありますので。さぁ、ああいう封じられ方をして彼女はファイナリーをあと1カ月間でどう打てるか。最後、あと1カ月ありますけどってリングで言ってましたけど、荒井優希に1カ月にあるようにアジャコングにも1カ月があるので。私は色んなことも考えますし、まだまだ開けてない引き出しもありますので。3月18日にその引き出しをどれだけ開けるか。それともまた新たな引き出しをこの1カ月で増やすか。そして、完膚なきまでにまた彼女を叩き潰したいなと思います。（宮本に）有明は対戦相手は違うけど、最近調子いいみたいだからしっかり、お互いに勝つ姿を見せよう」

Aja: “As I said when this was announced, I don’t think of this as a preview match at all. I was thinking that it wouldn’t matter if it ended today and there was no Ariake, but it seems like we’re continuing until then.” (to Moka) “I’m sorry about what happened at the end there. Yamashita conked me on the back of the head and I wasn’t able to save you, so I’m sorry for the disappointing result. However, I said that this was not a preview match when it was set, so in line with that, the only thing I’m thinking about is how to seal away the Finally, if there’s a way to do it. Then, having prevented her from using it, how can she hit a Finally one month from now? At the end, she said in the ring that she has one month, but just as Yuki Arai has one month to prepare, so does Aja Kong. I have a lot of things in mind, and there are still some drawers that I haven’t opened yet. So what will I pull out of those drawers on March 15? Or will I be able to perhaps add something new to my arsenal in this next month? I want to crush her again until there’s nothing left.” (to Miyamoto) “We have different opponents at Ariake, but you seem to be doing well lately, so let’s both show a winning effort.”

そして

I somehow never realized that そうして and そして can be interchangeable! The note for this one says that normally they are, but if そうして is used in the original sense of “by doing so”, it cannot be replaced by そして.

The other note tells us that the two sentences in the example for this construction can be combined using the てform of verbs or adjectives, but this version is encountered less frequently and sounds a little redundant, because the てform alone can mean “~ and”.

I found a lot of examples of そして in my TJPW translations, and exactly zero examples of そうして in the sense that is equivalent to そして, haha! I also found two Vて、そして examples just within the past couple of months (sometimes natural speech is a bit redundant!).

Here's one of those, from Hikari Noa's comments after the show on 2023.09.03:

Hard mode: here’s the video.

ヒカリ「次の広島でトーナメント予選があるんですけど、今日はタッグパートナーが舞台でお休みで。でも、なんかお互い目指す場所は一緒だと思ってるし。奈穂さんはいまひとりで頑張ってるし、私もこうやってひとりで頑張って、そして勝ったので。不安はないなっていうのはありますね。今日はひとりで頑張って勝ちをつかんだので、ここに奈穂さんが加わればもっと最強になって。2人できっとベルトを巻けるなって思います」

Hikari: "The tournament qualifier is in the next show in Hiroshima, but today my tag partner is absent due to a stage performance. But I think the two of us are both aiming for the same place. Nao-san is working hard on her own right now, and I also worked hard on my own and won. I’m not anxious at all. Today I tried my best and got the win, so if Nao-san joins me, we’ll become even stronger, and with the two of us, we’ll surely be able to win those belts.”

Also,

I'm including another example because I noticed a truly impressive amount of そしてs in Sakisama and Mei Saint-Michel's comments in the ring after the (last?) NEO Biishiki-gun match at Wrestle Princess on 2023.10.09:

No video for this, sorry! I included shupro’s description at the end because it had yet another example, haha.

メイ・サン「沙希様、セ・ボン…本日も勝利の美しいバラが咲き誇りましたわ！」

Mei-san: “Sakisama, c’est bon! Another beautiful rose of victory blooms today!”

沙希様「そうね、メイ・サン。本日も美しかったわ。そして先生、マーサちゃん…本日もとってもまぶしいばかりのダンスだったと思わなーい？ こうやって見るかぎり、ワタクシは思うの。ここはもう十分に照らし終えたと思うわ。お分かり？ ワタクシもね、また違うところを照らしにいかなくちゃいけないわけ。そう、ワタクシが一カ所にずっと留まってるとお思い？ そう、世界中ね、光の差すところは１カ所だけじゃないわけ。ワタクシだってここにいる美威獅鬼ベイビーちゃんたち、みんなを連れていきたいわ。そうだわ。ワタクシとみなさまの間にふたつ、お約束をしたいの。守ってくださるかしら。

Sakisama: "Yes, Mei-san. It was beautiful today as well. And, doctor, Martha-chan… wasn’t today’s dance just dazzling? As I look out over this place, I feel that we have illuminated it enough. Do you understand? I must be on my way to bring light to another place. Do you expect me to stay in one place all the time? Yes, all over the world, the light shines in more than one place. I want to take all of you with me, all of the Biishiki Babies who are here. That’s right. I want you to make two promises with me. Will you keep them for me?

まず一つ目は、あなたたちは美威獅鬼ベイビーちゃんなわけ。いつも心に美威獅鬼軍っていう自覚を持ってほしいわけ。最近たるんでるんじゃなーい？ そしてもう一つは赤いバラを見たら、ワタクシたちのことを思い出してほしいわけ。そうやってワタクシたちはあなたたちを少しずつもらっていくの」

First, you are all Biishiki Babies, so I want you to always carry a sense of Biishiki-gun in your heart. You haven’t been slacking recently, have you? And second, when you see a red rose, remember us. That way we can keep a little part of you wherever we go."

メイ・サン「沙希様、メイ・サン、次は恐竜を飼ってみとうございますわ。あとは…お殿様とオティーパーティーもしとうございますわ。あと、そして空飛ぶお自転車でみなさまとお散歩しとうございますわ」

Mei-san: “Sakisama, next I want to keep a dinosaur for a pet. Also… I want to have a tea party with a samurai warlord. And, I want to go out for a stroll with all of you on a flying bicycle!”

沙希様「ね、いろんな時空を旅しましょう。そして全部にフリフリにリボンを付けましょうね。ワタクシが今日言ったふたつの約束の絶対に守ってくださいまし。先生とマーサちゃんもご一緒してくれるかしら？

Sakisama: "Let’s travel to various places through space and time. And let’s put ribbons on all of them. Please be sure to keep the two promises that I said today. Doctor and Martha-chan, you’re coming with us, right?

ありがとう。頼もしいわ。では、また次お会いする時までこの約束を守ってちょうだい。それではみなさま、また次回お会いする時まで…ごめんあそばせ」

Thank you. I’m counting on you. Then, until we meet again, please keep your promises. On that note, everyone, until the next time we meet… please excuse us."

4人で集合写真に収まり、沙希様はバラを観客に配りながら花道を後にする。そして入場ゲート前であらためて4人で深々と頭を下げてから退場した。

And in front of the entrance gate, once again the four of them bow deeply before making their exit.

[fallynleaf]

I’m back!! Finally free from NaNoWriMo, and also free from the stressful first week of December I just had. Gonna try to finish the basic volume before the start of the intermediate!

すぎる

I see this one a lot in Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling! I don’t know if I have much to comment on, though, haha! It was always pretty straightforward to me. The main thing to watch out for here is the two irregular forms the notes point out: いい changes to よ before すぎる, and ない changes to なさ.

The most common form I see this in with wrestling is probably "強すぎる", haha. Here's an example from after Maki Itoh's match with Nyla Rose at TJPW Wrestle Princess on 2023.10.09. Can you figure out who won based on her comments?

Hard mode: here’s the video.

伊藤「あーもうだめ。だめだ。ナイラは強すぎる。さすがAEWのトップスターは違いますね。でもいいところまでいったかなー。わかんない。うーん、まあいいや。またナイラと次闘うときあれば、伊藤がまた勝てるように頑張りますので。To be continuedです」

Itoh: “Ah, that’s it. Rats. Nyla’s too strong. As expected from a top AEW star, she’s different. But did I manage to get somewhere? I don’t know. Well, it’s alright. Next time, if I face Nyla again, I’m going to do my best so that I can win.” (in English) “To be continued.”

すきだ

Another one that’s pretty straightforward? Well, が being the particle used for the thing that is すき’d is the main confusing part.

I see this all over the place in TJPW! It's hard to pick just one example, but here's from after Mizuki beat her tag partner Yuka Sakazaki to become Princess of Princess champion at Grand Princess on 2023.03.18.

No video for this because this was said in the ring immediately after the match!

瑞希「大好きです。応援してくださるみなさんのことも、東京女子の仲間たちも、そしてユカッチも大好きです。歴代のチャンピオンたちみたいになれるように瑞希も頑張る。尊敬するみんながつないできてくれたベルトと歴史をしっかりと持って、もっともっとワクワクするような東京女子にしていくのでこれからもみなさん付いて来てください。ユカッチ、闘ってくれてありがとう。やっぱりユカッチの背中は大きくて、届かないなと思うことばかりだけどユカッチから勝てたことは瑞希の自信になったし、リングの上では誰にも強くおるけど、リング降りたらいっぱい甘やかしてください」

Mizuki: “I love you! I love everyone who supports me, I love my friends at TJPW, and I love Yuka-chi. I’m going to do my best to be like all of the former champions. With this belt and the history that has been passed down to me from everyone I respect, I’m going to make TJPW even more exciting, so please keep following us. Yuka-chi, thank you for fighting me. You have such a large presence, and I always feel like I’ll never be able to reach you, but beating you has given me confidence. I strive to be tougher than anyone in the ring, but please pamper me a lot out of the ring.”

少ない

I did laugh a bit over example sentence c (日本語が書ける外国人は大変少ない。). I’ve certainly seen a fair share of arguments on this very forum whether or not writing Japanese is actually worth learning, haha.

Something important to keep in mind for this is that 少ない can’t be used before a noun, except in a relative clause where it’s the predicate of the subject of the relative clause.

Here's an example from after Mizuki defended her title against Maki Itoh at Summer Sun Princess on 2023.07.08:

Hard mode: here’s the video.

瑞希「ありがとうございました！ すごい今は、ちょっと安心しているというか…。私が歩んで来た過去も、この必死な防衛ロードも、間違ってなかったんだなって思えるし、ここから先の未来も東京女子のみんなと一緒に歩んでいける、伊藤さんと歩んでいけるって、ゆかっちと残り少ない時間、でも、ずっとずっと歩んでいけると思ったらすごい幸せだなと思いました。本当に愛されてるなと思いました。ありがとうございました。

Mizuki: “Thank you so much! Right now, I feel a bit relieved… I think the past that I’ve walked, and this desperate road of defenses, those choices weren’t wrong, and from here, I’ll be able to walk together with everyone in TJPW, and with Itoh-san, into the future as well. I don’t have much time with Yuka-chi left, but it makes me really happy to think that I’ll still be able to walk with everyone even when she isn’t here. I truly felt that I was loved. Thank you very much.”

I don’t think I remember seeing わずか before? I did find a single instance of in my translations, though!

This was after a singles match between two of TJPW's newest rookies, Himawari and Shino Suzuki, which happened on 2023.05.05.

I don’t have a full transcript for this, just the tweet caption, which only captures part of what she says! Here’s the video for reference.

HIMAWARI「同期の中でも特に仲良い志乃さんとシングル。ほんのわずかな差ですけど、先にデビューしているのもあって負けられない気持ちで、最後ギチギチに腰をやってやりました！ 志乃さんと今日闘ってさらに一緒にタッグ組んだりしたいなって思いました！」

HIMAWARI: “I had a singles match with Shino-san, who I’m particularly close with out of everyone in our class. There’s only a small difference between us, but I made my debut first, so I felt like I couldn’t lose. I just about did her back in at the end there! Fighting Shino-san today made me also want to tag with her!”

I think I’m going to stop here for now! I’ll save all the するs for another post, haha!

[fallynleaf]

Since する is so common, I’m not going to try looking for examples for most of these, haha.

する1

Something I found interesting right away is that it defines する as “S.o./s.t. causes a state or action to take place.” I think this helps make the ことにする and ことになる distinction clearer (as well as the idiomatic use described in note 4, where it means “decide on ~”, with the dictionary linking it back to にする).

Ah, should’ve read a bit further before I wrote that, haha, note 8 states it even more clearly! It says that する basically means some causative change that is under human control, whereas なる ‘become’ basically means spontaneous change that is almost beyond human control. Interestingly, I don’t think there are any entries for なる by itself in any of the three volumes? I didn’t see it in the index when I tried looking it up, at least.

I thought the example with injury and illness was interesting! Injuries take する (since they normally occur due to human carelessness), and illness takes なる, except in cases of past illness, apologies implying that one has caused illness due to carelessness on one’s part, and statements of one’s medical history.

This made me wonder how Pro Wrestling NOAH wrestler Kenoh talked about catching covid that time he wrote an apology for it in shupro and everything…

I thought the related expressions comparison that illustrated the passivity of なる (in comparison to する) was interesting. It reminded me a bit how sometimes formal writing in English will use passive voice to remove focus on the agent.

The related notes also mentions that する can be replaced by its informal version やる when it means “do/play s.t.” or “play a dramatic/social role”, or if it takes a Sino-Japanese compound as its direct object (like 勉強する). I’ve definitely seen this before, haha!

する2

The notes to this one specify that for this to be used, the bodily part or attribute must be inalienably possessed by the subject. Or in other words, that it must be such an essential part of the possessor (=subject) that they/it can’t exist without the part or the attribute.

Interestingly, in the main clause, する always takes the ている form, but in a relative clause, している can be replaced by した.

The related expressions section says that sentences of this construction can be restated using the は が construction, with the only perceptible difference between する2 and this being that the latter is more analytical than the former. In other words, in the key sentence 長い足 is one unit, but in 足が長い, “legs” is first presented as a single unit and is then further characterized as 長い.

It took me a moment to figure out what they meant by “more analytical” here… I think it’s this aspect of the definition for “analytical”: “separating something into component parts or constituent elements.”

Maybe it’s more like:

洋子は長い足をしている。
Yoko has long legs.

洋子は足が長い。
Yoko has legs that are long.

する3

Not a lot on this one! The note specifies that if something is perceived visually, either the ～をしている structure or the ～は～が structure is used. It does not say if there is any difference in tone for that example here like there is for the last one.

する4

I forgot about this one! Another short entry. I thought it was interesting that when する is used to mean “lapse of time”, it can only be used in a subordinate clause (though for cost, using it in the main clause apparently is fine?).

すると

The note says that the と is the conjunction と (と4, which I suppose I’ll be reading about soon, haha). Therefore, in KS(A), sentence 2 normally expresses an event that is beyond the control of the speaker, so it can’t be a command, a request, or a suggestion.

すると is the shortened form of そうすると. They have identical meanings and can be used interchangeably. They’re related to the expression それでは “then”, but unlike それでは, the second sentence in (そう)すると cannot be a command, request, suggestion, or something which can be controlled by the subject of the sentence.

I do have an example for this one because it's a bit easier to search for, haha! This is from after Reiwa AA Cannon's (the tag team of Saki Akai and Yuki Arai) last match on 2023.09.18, which ended in Arai challenging Akai to a singles match before Akai retires.

Hard mode: here’s the video.

赤井「まだAA砲がラストっていう実感も何もないんですけど、今日AA砲がラストという場所が優希ちゃんの、SKEのお膝元である名古屋で締めくくることができて。それはちょっと胸がいっぱいなところはあります。対戦相手が愛野ユキ選手、自分にとっては彼女がデビューした時からずっと何か引っかかってて思い入れのある選手だったので、こうやって名古屋でAA砲と対峙する場所にいてくれて嬉しいのと。あともか選手は自分は若手の中で勝手にこの子いいなって推してたので。あの熱さを今日自分が実際に体感できて、自分の残りの引退ロードの糧になって自分の強さにつながる気がします。

Akai: "It still doesn’t really feel like this is the last of AA Cannon, we were able to close out the last AA Cannon match here in Nagoya, on Yuki-chan and SKE’s home turf. I’m a little bit overcome with emotion. Yuki Aino was my opponent, and I’ve felt something of an attachment to her ever since she debuted, so I’m happy that she squared off with AA Cannon here in Nagoya. And Moka, I thought that girl was good, so I nominated her out of all of the young wrestlers. I felt that I was able to experience that passion in action today, and I feel that it’ll sustain me and give me strength for what remains of my retirement road.

優希ちゃんが最後にリング上で言ってくれたシングルやりたいって言うのは…正直、いままで何度も優希ちゃんの怖いもの知らずでビックリする発言には腰抜かしてきたんですけど、今日が一番ビックリしました。自分がまだ優希ちゃんを敵として見れてないので、次のシングルやる日までにちゃんと敵として、倒さなきゃいけない相手としてスイッチを切り替えます。優希ちゃん、私は隣にいると心強いかもしれないけど、対峙するとめちゃくちゃ怖いっていうのを…これも優希ちゃんの勉強になればいいなって思います」

What Yuki-chan said in the ring at the end, about wanting to do a singles match… To be honest, I’ve been shocked time and time again by Yuki-chan’s fearlessness and her surprising proposals, but today’s was the most surprising. I still can’t view Yuki-chan as an enemy yet, but by the day of our singles match, I will have flipped the switch to viewing her as an enemy, as an opponent who must be defeated. Yuki-chan, I may be a reassuring presence when I’m at your side, but when we stand face to face, I’m quite frightening… I hope this will also be a good learning experience for you."

And with that, I am done with the S’s! Hooray!!