[aDoBJG] U - Z 💮 A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

U - Z


A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar :white_flower: Home Thread

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Reading

Week
Start Date
Reading Entry Count Page Numbers Page Count
#30 Oct 14th うちに to わかる 7 512 - 531 20
#31 Oct 21st わけだ to ように1 8 531 - 554 24
#32 Oct 28th ように2 to ずつ 8 554 - 573 20

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4 Likes
  • うちに

Loved this example sentence:
何もしないうちに今年も終わった
So poetic!

This one sounds super useful too:
忘れないうちに言っておきたいことがある

Found note 4. super enlightening, helps a lot with the examples, to understand what kind of nuances can be there thanks to は.

  • ~は~だ

A bit disappointed that the first example sentence wasn’t これはぺんです :joy: But they do have the example sentence 僕はうなぎだ hehe
I mean, this sentence is such a meme, it even has its own tee shirt

6 Likes

Week 31 is here with わけだ to ように1, 8 entries. :slight_smile:

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The reading of this week felt easy :slight_smile: only やはり that I still find a bit tricky.
Really liked the comparison of や and とか, and of だろう、らしい、そうだ、ようだ.
I feel like the category [Related Expression] is one of the best features of this dictionary, even though each grammar point has its own entry, you don’t learn them completely in isolation like in some textbooks, but they compare them to similar entries and for me it really helps to notice the nuances / differences.

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More notes and thoughts I had on the reading

  • うちに - oops, I always translated うち to house, so I was always confused about this one.
  • は - for something you use right from the start of studying Japanese it has a lot of pages dedicated to it. Obviously because it has more complexity than a beginner would find helpful, but it’s still suprising.
  • ~は~だ and ~は~が - same with these grammatical constructs. On the one hand it’s nice to learn more about them, on the other it makes me kinda stop and think before using them when before it had gotten pretty instinctive.
  • 分かる - this and 分ける are kicking my butt because I just cannot remember which is which. Maybe reading this entry a few more times will help.

  • やはり - what a tricky adverb! Or at least, the explanation is tricky. I think the best thing was that it reminded me that adverbs can be placed sentence-initially as well as sentence-medially. I have a lot of trouble getting Japanese syntax in proper order, so knowing I can place something tricky like that at the beginning and not worry about it much takes some of the stress away. I’m sure it’s not correct for every adverb, but I can worry about that when I’m able to make more complex sentences than “there is a pen”-isms.
  • やすい - need to remember to not confuse it with 安い. (easy =/= cheap)
  • ようだ - can only agree with Akashelia, the related explession part here is very useful. I admit that I don’t often read them in full because of information overload, but knowing that it’s there and maybe seeing something familiar that helps recontextualize the grammar point you’re currently learning is such a great feature. Like the little diagram, too.
  • ように - I have been having trouble with this for a long time. Somehow it was always “A ように B” = ‘A is like B’. But it is seemingly a comparison of more complexity than that.

  • より - hm, the pattern seems to be “A is (something) more than B”. While AほうがBより was the same way, I remember that it could also be written AよりBほうが which would switch it around to “B is (something) more than A” [example]. So let’s not get confused between the two.
  • より² - aaand I don’t think I will be able to use this one with confidence considering the confusing mess above.
  • ようと思う - alright, so it isn’t really よう, they mean the volitional form. Something I haven’t practiced yet and had no idea this was what they meant. I was like “where’s the よう here? They’re not using it???” until I checked what the volitional form actually looks like. Oops. Also it can only be used with verbs that represents something controllable by human volition, but then they use 買う, which I thought was just that? You can’t control the rain, but you can control your spending habits.
  • ずつ - 日本語は一歩ずつ勉強しましょう。
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Yeah, as usual with Japanese you can flip the order of the clauses or drop one, because the particles tell you what role each noun is playing. The より-marked noun is setting the baseline for comparison, and then the (の)ほう-marked noun is the thing you want to talk about.

As an analogy in English, 昨日より今日の方が暑いです works kind of like “compared to yesterday, today is hot” – you can flip the pieces around : 今日の方が昨日より暑いです “today is, compared to yesterday, hot” and you haven’t changed which day you’re saying is hot. (Obviously the Japanese is expressing more of a simple comparison and is less clunky than this English is.)

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Week 32 is here with ように2 to ずつ, 8 entries.

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Looking forward to @fallynleaf 's reaction to the Key Sentence for より1, 日本語はスペイン語よりおもしろい haha :x

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The example sentence with 買う uses it in the potential form 買える. You can’t control whether you have enough money right now to buy the car or not – your current bank balance is a fact about the world, like the rain… 買おうと思う would be fine, 買えようと思う doesn’t work.

4 Likes

Ah, I finished the last entry today. Feels good to have finished.

I think overall I did find the experience of reading through them useful, but it would have been more useful if I was keeping up a regular consumption habit along with it. The main reason I fell behind for the end of this (not counting all the other times I fell behind) was because I wasn’t reading Japanese (not consuming it in another way) so it felt kind of pointless to read it.

Only reason I finished it now is because I wanted it off my currently reading pile. And it is nice to not take it with me into 2024! (I am planing to keep the book, don’t get me wrong! Just nice to not have it as an in progress book.)

5 Likes

Finally made it here!

うちに

I like key sentence D! “若いうちに本をたくさん読みなさい.” Definitely worked out great for me as a child!

The notes tell us that the うちに clause expresses the general time during which a given action or state occurs. It’s preceded by verbs describing states or progressive actions, or by adjectives, or by nouns expressing duration. The tense before うちに is always nonpast. The verb before it is frequently negated.

I think the same point in the related notes came up waaay back when during the 間に entry, but basically the difference between the two is that 間に refers to the “time space” between two points (so it can be measured in clocktime), whereas うちに doesn’t refer to measurable time space; it simply means “time space within”. うちに also can’t be used for situations where a noun is an event now, such as 試合, which is one of those top 100 frequency words in pro wrestling, probably, haha.

Here's an example from my Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling translations! This is from after rookie Wakana Uehara won the Next Generation Tournament on 2023.12.01:

Hard mode: here’s the video. Usual disclaimer that the transcription of the Japanese comes from Shupro, and the translation is mine and might contain errors.

上原「なんとか、ねくじぇねトーナメント23優勝することができました。そしてメダルも優勝って書いてあって、いまとにかくめちゃめちゃ嬉しいです。でもやっぱりプロレスデビューしたのが1月4日で、そこから1年経たないうちにこうやってトーナメントさせていただける機会が本当にないので、本当の、2回目のトーナメント優勝は私にとっても本当に自分のなかで大切な宝物というか」

Uehara: “Somehow, I managed to win the Next Generation Tournament '23! And this medal also says right here that I won, so in any case I’m super happy right now. After all, I made my pro wrestling debut on January 4, and getting to participate in a tournament like this less than a year later, you really don’t get these kinds of opportunities, so winning my first tournament is a real treasure for me.”

Something kind of funny is that I noticed they call this “wa1”, so I was like “I suppose wa1 is probably the topic marker, and wa2 is the contrastive は?” But they actually lump both は uses under “wa1” and “wa2” is… わ :sweat_smile:! So I took out the numbers because I think that makes it more confusing.

I was a bit surprised to learn that the origin of は can be traced to the conditional marker ば! I liked how the notes explained this: “when は marks X, the speaker usually assumes that the hearer knows what X refers to.” は never marks WH-words such as 何 and だれ because WH-words do not refer to a known thing, so their referents can never be in the hearer’s register.

When は is used as a topic marker, as in X は Y, X is something the rest of the sentence (i.e. Y) is about, and the focus of the sentence falls on Y or part of Y. The topic X は normally appears at the beginning of a sentence.

は is also used to mark a contrastive element. However, whether は is being used as a topic marker or as a contrastive marker is not always clear, particularly when there is one element は marked by は but there is no other element Y explicitly contrasted with X.

I thought their rules for determining whether a given は is topical or contrastive were interesting. When more than one は appears in a sentence, the first は is usually understood to be the topic marker, the second は is more contrastive than the first one, the third one is more contrastive than the second, and so on. Also, when は is pronounced with stress, it marks a contrastive element.

When は is used in negative sentences, it marks the negated element. This is a special use of は as a contrastive marker. I laughed at “yésterday” and “Bóston” in their example sentences.

There are some special rules for when particles do or don’t drop with は. The topical は also doesn’t appear in subordinate clauses.

I seem to recall getting into some argument on this forum ages ago about whether the contrastive は is distinct from the topic marker は…

No examples for this because it is far too common, haha.

According to the notes, the sentence particle わ is used only in female speech and expresses the speaker’s weak assertion or volition. It also sometimes expresses the speaker’s intimacy or friendliness.

It can follow any declarative sentence, but cannot follow the volitional forms of verbs, and can’t be used in questions. Other sentence particles such as ね and よ can occur with わ, but わ must precede these particles.

No examples for this, either, because I don’t feel like I see it terribly often in TJPW (if I have seen it, it’s likely in the Sakisama examples I’ve already shared), and I don’t want to wade through a bunch of things that are not this in the search results.

~は ~だ

I thought the same thing, haha! Something kind of funny about これはぺんです is that I found out that apparently “This is a pen” is one of the first things that Japanese speakers learn how to say in English as well! I once watched a Japanese wrestling show where a Japanese wrestler was trying to cut a promo against a foreign wrestler who spoke English, and he held up the mic and tried to say menacingly, “This is a pen!” :sob: I absolutely lost it, haha. I was laughing so hard.

The 僕はうなぎだ example has always been kind of funny to me because there’s a wrestler named Unagi Sayaka, so my brain registers “Unagi” as a perfectly valid name, hahaha!

There’s a lot in the entry for this in the dictionary, but I dunno if I have much to comment on. It’s interesting what particles can or must be dropped. Also, when the copula is used for a predicate, it usually appears in the non-past tense regardless of the tense of the predicate. And the A は part itself can drop if it can be understood from context.

No examples for this because it feels very straightforward to me and also it would be a pain to search for and sort through.

~は ~が

Another pretty straightforward one! I like their diagram, though!

Not including an example for the same reason as the last.

~はいけない

Short entry! Probably the main things to remember is that the second person subject is usually omitted, and also this is often used as a negative answer to Vてもいいですか.

The related expressions note tells us that Vてならない also expresses prohibition, but sounds a little stronger than Vてはいけない. I probably repeated this back in the N’s. I will probably forget it again.

Here's an example from the contract signing at the beginning of the TJPW show on 2023.04.29, which was for the upcoming Suzume vs Rika Tatsumi match on May 5 for the International Princess Championship, which Rika held at the time.

No video for this because it’s pretty long, but here’s the official transcript.

難波「いつくか質問させていただきます。先日の大阪大会では辰巳選手の首を絞める攻撃に対して、鈴芽選手が首を絞め返す場面がありました。鈴芽選手はどういう思いで辰巳選手の首を絞めたのでしょうか。そして辰巳選手はそれをどう感じましたか?」

Namba: “I would like to ask you a few questions. At the Osaka show the other day, there was a moment where Suzume choked Tatsumi in response to Tatsumi’s choking attack. Suzume, what was your intention in choking Tatsumi? And Tatsumi, how did you feel about it?”

鈴芽「リカさん、すごく真摯に快く挑戦を受け取ってくださったんですけど、チャンピオンとして余裕が見えるというか、眼中にないのかなという思いがあって、どうにか振り向かせたかったという思いです」

Suzume: “Rika-san accepted my challenge very sincerely and readily, but as a champion, she didn’t seem to be taking me seriously as a threat, or at least I felt like she wasn’t considering me at all, so I wanted to get on her radar somehow.”

リカ「いやぁ驚きが先に出たのと、開けてはいけない禁忌の門を叩いてしまったなと思ってます。禁忌だったので、あれは。この先どうなるかわかんないですよ、禁忌を開けてしまったので」

Rika: “Well, first I was surprised, and I thought she was knocking at a taboo gate that shouldn’t be opened. What she did was forbidden. I don’t know what will happen now, since she opened that gate.”

分かる

I don’t think I knew before now that the experiencer of 分かる takes に optimally!

The notes also remind us that because 分かる is already a potential verb, it can’t take the potential form.

And 分かる normally takes が to indicate the object of comprehension, but it must take を when “non-spontaneous comprehension” is involved, as in causative sentences or sentences in which the experiencer makes a conscious effort to understand something. I don’t think I knew this! It’s interesting that this is a must condition, too, and that が is actually incorrect in those examples.

As the related expressions note clarifies, 分かる indicates “the process of figuring something out” and is different from 知る which basically means “to get some raw information from some outside source”.

There's one use I see a lot in TJPW that took me a bit to get used to at first. Here's an example from after TJPW's 2023.12.14 show, which was actually in America! The post-match comments were (mostly) in Japanese, though, haha. Miyu Yamashita and Maki Itoh faced the current Impact Wrestling Knockouts tag champs Masha Slamovich and Killer Kelly (I believe they are no longer tag champs? And Impact is no longer "Impact", haha. They've gone back to the TNA name...).

Hard mode: here’s the video (the part quoted below starts around 1:38 in). Warning, I think the transcript is a bit confusing without the video for part of it, because Miyu’s pronunciation is kind of hard to convey in katakana haha because she pronounces it closer to the English way than the way the name is typically katakana-ized.

山下「そういうので来てほしくないし。万全な状態のマーシャを倒して私はベルトを守りたいなと思います。でもやっぱ、いまIMPACTレスリングのチャンピオンのMK Ultra、キラーキャリーとマーシャね」

Yamashita: “I don’t want her to come in that condition. I want to defend my belt by taking down Masha when she’s in perfect condition. But I still have to face the current IMPACT wrestling champions MK Ultra, Killer Carrie and Masha.”

伊藤「なんでそこだけ発音いいんだ」

Itoh: “Why are you trying to pronounce it so well?”

山下「ずっと言ってるから、いつも」

Yamashita: “I’ve been saying it that way this whole time.”

伊藤「いや別にキラー・ケリーでいいじゃん。なんでカブれてるの?」

Itoh: “No, why don’t you just say Killer Kelly? Why are you Americanized all of a sudden?”

山下「カブれてねえし」

Yamashita: “I haven’t been Americanized.”

伊藤「今回、2週間しかアメリカ行ってなくない? カブれてるじゃん」

Itoh: “You only went to America for two weeks this time, didn’t you? It influenced you.”

山下「でもやんないとさ、今日負けてるんだよ、こっちは」

Yamashita: “But I have to do it. We’re beaten today.”

伊藤「ハハハ(笑)。そうですね、負けたから頑張りますよ」

Itoh: (laughing) “That’s right, we lost, so we’ll do our best.”

山下「ホントに絶対勝ちます。応援してください」

Yamashita: “I’m going to win for sure. Please support me.”

伊藤「分かりました

Itoh: “Got it.”

山下「頑張ります」

Yamashita: “I’m going to do my best.”

Basically, I’ve seen wrestlers use 分かる a lot for what I’ve been translating as “got it!” There was a bit of a learning curve there for me as a translator before I figured out a better way than just having the wrestlers say very woodenly “I understand”…

わけだ

This one is tricky to translate sometimes! I feel like I’ve struggled a bit with understanding the nuance, too, though I think I’ve gotten better at it.

The notes tell us that わけ can be used as a full noun, meaning ‘reason’. And わけで is the てform of わけだ.

Also, はずだ “expect” is similar but not identical to わけだ. The former can express a speaker’s expectation when there is no preceding context; わけだ cannot. In other words, わけだ is highly dependent on verbal context.

Here's an example from the TJPW show on 2023.11.19, after Himawari beat Shino Suzuki in the Next Generation Tournament and made it into the finals.

Hard mode: here’s the video.

HIMAWARI「決勝戦進出決まりました。今日は半年ぶりに志乃さんとシングルだったので、お互い気持ち入っていたし、でもここで負けるわけにはいかなかったのでなんとか勝てた。今日は初めて3カウントで勝つことができた。やっぱり志乃さんだったから、感情をブチあげられた試合だったなと思いました。向こうのブロックはわかなさんが上がってきたということで、こちらも半年以上ぶりのシングル。デビュー2ヵ月目で初めてわかなさんとシングルをして、その時、私はスリーパーでギブアップという悔しい思いをした。それ以降、わかなさんにシングルでは勝ててないので、今回のねくじぇねトーナメントでリベンジを果たしたいなと思います」

HIMAWARI: “I made it to the finals! Today was my first singles match with Shino-san in six months, so we both put our feelings into it, but I couldn’t lose here, so I somehow managed to win. Today was my first time winning by pinfall. I thought that of course since it was with Shino-san, it was an especially emotional match. Wakana-san moved up in the other block, so that will also be our first singles match in more than six months. I had my first singles match with Wakana-san two months after my debut, and at that time, I had the frustrating experience of tapping out in her sleeper hold. I haven’t been able to beat Wakana-san in a singles match ever since, so I’d like to get my revenge in the Next Generation Tournament.”

Done with the W’s!

3 Likes

I thought it was interesting the way they phrased this: “The suffix -屋 is sometimes used to downgrade a person. This use, however, is very restricted.” They give a few examples and mention that they’re all derived from Vます+屋. I guess I’m not exactly sure what they mean by “downgrade a person”? Is it a derogatory way of referring to someone?

I've seen this use in Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling, though it didn't come across as having a negative connotation to me. It was in the word 頑張り屋. Here's the most recent example, from the TJPW show on 2023.12.06, which featured Yuka Sakazaki's last match as a member of TJPW (she actually did three matches that day, but the final one was a 3 minute match against her tag partner Mizuki). Here are Mizuki's comments afterward:

Hard mode: here’s the video.

瑞希「ユカッチの卒業が決まってからずっと目を背けてたから…一気に実感が沸いてて、すごい寂しくなって。何回も『イヤだ』って言ったらどうにかなるんじゃないかっていうのも思ったけど…特別な3分間がもらえたから…(涙)。でも、やっぱ闘うのはイヤだから、次はまたいつか組めたらなって思うし。ユカッチは瑞希のことをいつも心配してくれるけど、ホントはユカッチの方が頑張り屋さんで、すごい無理して人のことばっかり考えてるから。これからはホントに自分を大事にして…いっぱい輝いてほしいなって思います。でも東京女子も負けないくらい輝いていけるように頑張ります。(闘うのはイヤだけど、最後に闘えてよかったのかなと)…いつもだったらめっちゃイヤなんですけど、独り占めできたので、悔いはないです。よかった」

Mizuki: “Ever since Yuka-chi’s graduation was set, I’ve been looking away from it… It sunk in all at once, and I got really sad. I thought if I said ‘no’ over and over again, it would turn out alright, but… now that we’ve gotten those three special minutes…” (crying) “But I still don’t want to fight, so I hope we can team up again for the next one someday. Yuka-chi is always worrying about me, but really, she’s the one who works too hard, and pushes herself too much, and thinks only about others. From this point on, you should really take care of yourself… I want you to shine as much as possible. But I’m going to do my best so that TJPW will shine just as brightly."

(You don’t like fighting, but were you glad to fight in the end?)

“…Normally, I’d really hate it, but I had her all to myself, so I have no regrets. I’m glad.”

や is used to combine two or more nouns or noun phrases, but can’t be used to combine predicates. Instead, ~たり~たりする is used. N や N can be used as a noun phrase in any position where a single noun can be used, as a subject, direct object, or indirect object.

Here’s a nuance that I’m not sure I knew: N や N cannot appear in the position of X in the X が Y だ construction, because が in that construction is a highly exhaustive listing marker.

The related expressions note compares it to とか, which is used to make a rather general, inexhaustive listing of items as examples, whereas や is used to make an inexhaustive listing of items related to a specific time and place.

No や example because it would be a pain to search for.

やはり

I did laugh a bit at the first note, which says: “やはり is a speaker-oriented adverb because its use is based on the speaker’s subjective and presuppositional standards. Its overuse in conversation makes a discourse overtly subjective, but its proper use in conversation makes a discourse sound like real Japanese.”

I will seriously see やっぱり used like three times in one sentence by TJPW wrestlers :joy_cat:. There was one memorable Yuka Sakazaki promo where she herself noticed how much she was using it. So from my experience, overuse of やはり is in fact very realistic.

やはり can be positioned sentence-initially or sentence-medially, like other adverbs. It’s more emphatic in the sentence initial position, and the sentence-final やはり sounds like an afterthought and its usage is slightly marginal.

やっぱり is a more emphatic and emotive version of やはり, apparently owing to its glottal stop. From my experience, やっぱり seems to be way more frequently used in spoken Japanese. In my June-December 2023 translation document, for example, やっぱり appears a total of 110 times, and やはり appears a grand total of 0 times.

Here is the aforementioned Yuka Sakazaki promo, which was after she defended the Princess of Princess Championship against Billie Starkz at the TJPW show on 2022.11.27:

Hard mode: here’s the video.

坂崎「無事防衛できました。よし。やっぱりこうやって東京女子にいろんなおもしろい選手が集まってくれることがうちの財産なので。そこでみんなが満足してもらえるような試合にできたらなって思うのと、あと自分が幸せだったらなって思って。ベルトが防衛できて、ハッピーです。でもやっぱりマイクでも言ったけどビリーは強くて、あっちでハードな試合してるんだなっていうのはすごく感じて。やっぱり…すごいやっぱりって言ってる(苦笑)。強いなって思いました。だから、また未来にもう1回再戦したいなと思います。チャンスがあれば。

Sakazaki: “I successfully defended my belt. All right! Having so many kinds of interesting wrestlers come to TJPW, I really think that’s one of our assets. I hope we’re able to satisfy everyone with our matches, and also make ourselves happy. I’m so happy that I was able to defend my belt! But like I said on the mic, Billie is strong, and I know she’s wrestling in tough matches over there. As it turns out… I’m sure saying ‘as it turns out’ a lot.” (smiles) “I knew she was strong. And because of that, I want to have another match with her in the future, if we get the chance.”

The related expressions note talks about さすが, which is another one of those words that’s a pain to translate. It has a similar meaning to やはり, but has only one meaning, “as expected”, and indicates that the speaker is very much impressed or surprised by the given situation. It can replace やはり only when やはり means “as expected”. I find it interesting that it means “as expected” while also indicating surprise. Just kind of a fascinating word!

The adverb 結局 “after all, in short” can also replace やはり, but only when the latter means “after all”. 結局 also sounds more formal than やはり because the former is a Sino-Japanese word, while the latter is a Japanese word, but both can be used in conversational Japanese (I’ve heard both in TJPW).

The adverb まさか “by no means, on no account, surely not” is used when a given situation is far from the speaker’s expectation, so in that sense, it’s an antonym of やはり. まさか is used with a negative predicate or is used all by itself, meaning “Unbelievable!, You don’t say!”.

やっぱり was one of those words I feel like I got a much better picture of through exposure to it in native media over a long period of time. It’s seriously one of the most common words I hear in TJPW (I get the sense that it’s sometimes used kind of a verbal filler, sort of like “well” is in English some of the time), though it’s also one of those difficult to translate words, so I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it, haha.

やすい

It was interesting seeing the particle changes in the sentences in note 2! I’m not sure I had realized that all of those particles drop in the やすい construction, and the topic is the new subject of the construction. Though if the subject is under focus, it’s marked by が in this construction.

The antonym of やすい is にくい, which we talked about way back in the N’s!

Here's an example from the TJPW show on 2023.11.26, where Kamiyu tagged with the Vietnamese wrestler Viva Van before their title match:

Hard mode: here’s the video (most of it is actually in English, haha, but the beginning is in Japanese!).

上福「私はシンガポールから帰ってきて、インターナショナルなかんじのVIVAちゃんが来てくれて。名前も呼びやすいし、ルックスもめっちゃビューティーなかんじで今日のタッグはすごく映えていたし。鳥喰さんをやっつけて、いいかんじにバンバンしたんじゃないですか?」

Kamifuku: “I just got back from Singapore, and I brought the very international VIVA-chan with me. Her name rolls off the tongue, and with her mega beautiful looks, our tag team today was really attractive. She finished off Toribami-san and did it super fast and with great vibes.”

The sentence preceding よ can be any informal or formal sentence except a question, because the speaker’s strong conviction and the act of questioning contradict each other. Interestingly, if 1a is interpreted as a rhetorical question, the sentence becomes acceptable, but 1b, the formal version, cannot be a rhetorical question.

A sentence preceding よ can be an informal or a formal request. When よ is used in this way, the sentence becomes more forceful.

You can mitigate the force of the assertion by using S よね, which is basically talking as if the content of S were also known to the hearer. S よね can also be used when the speaker is addressing someone who doesn’t know about an asserted fact and there is another person nearby who is aware of it. In these circumstances, the speaker asks the person who shares the asserted fact for their agreement at the end of the sentence.

Note 4 talks about sex differences in nonpolite, informal speech. As I think I mentioned already, I don’t actually hear わ that often in TJPW! Which might be because speech trends have changed, or maybe because they’re pro wrestlers and are speaking not particularly feminine (with the exception of Sakisama).

What’s interesting to me is that all of the non-Sakisama instances of わよ in my translations from the last six months of 2023 were actually in translated speech from foreign wrestlers. So a translator chose to put them in to represent those wrestlers’ tone and speech.

I'll give an example of one of those for something a bit different. Here's from after Shazza McKenzie and Janai Kai's match at the TJPW show in America on 2023.12.14:

Here’s the video (their comments are in English).

And here’s shupro’s translation of their speech:

シャザ「ごめん」

ジャナイ「私こそごめんなさい。蹴りが入っちゃったわ」

シャザ「返せなかったのは私よ」

ジャナイ「チームでやってるんだから、一人のせいじゃないわ。私も助けに入るべきだった」

シャザ「今回組むのは初めてだったしね。それでもチャンピオンを追い詰めたわ。あと一歩だったわよね? 特訓あるのみだわ。また一緒に頑張りましょう。次こそは!」

ジャナイ「私たちをTJPWで見るのはこれが最後じゃないわよ

シャザ「あのベルト、また取りに行くよ!」

Do the わよs match their tone in your opinion? For me they do not!

The notes contrast よ with ね. In contrast to よ, ね is used when the speaker and the hearer share some specific information.

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ようだ

ようだ expresses the likelihood of something or the likeness of something, and in either case, when someone uses ようだ, their statement is based on firsthand, reliable information (usually visual).

Interestingly, though, it can be used in counter-factual situations. The adverb まるで “just” can be used for emphasis.

ようだ is a な-adjective, and the prenominal form is ような and the adverbial form is ように. The colloquial form is みたいだ, which is also a な-adjective. Its uses are exactly the same.

Really useful in-depth explanation of the differences between ようだ and だろう, らしい, and そうだ! There’s also another funky chart in here haha that’s decently helpful, but also a little confusing to parse at first…

Here's an example from Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling's show Summer Sun Princess on 2023.07.08 after Kyoraku Kyomei (Hyper Misao and Shoko Nakajima) beat two tag teams, Aja Kong & Raku, and Max The Impaler & Pom Harajuku. Misao's bike was a little worse for the wear afterward, though...

Hard mode (also useful for context, though I’ve kept shupro’s non-dialogue description): here’s the video.

荒れた会見場に自転車とともに姿を見せたミサヲと中島。

Misao and Nakajima showed up with the bicycle at the backstage interview location.

ミサヲ「どういうことだ? 何かが起きたようだが、享楽共鳴が勝ったぞ!」

Misao: “What’s that? Something seems to have happened, but Kyoraku Kyomei won!”

中島「勝ったぞー!」

Nakajima: “We won!”

ミサヲ「とんでもない大怪獣映画でしたね」

Misao: “It was an outrageous kaiju movie, wasn’t it?”

中島「そうだ、だが、この試合で三大怪獣のバトルを制したのはこの享楽共鳴だということが世界に証明されたぞ! みんな見とけよ、この後も夏を制するのは中島翔子とハイパー・ミサヲだ。この世界にな、ザ・ビッグ怪獣は中島だってことをこの夏証明してみせる!」

Nakajima: “Yes, but with this match, we proved to the world that in the battle between three big kaiju, it was Kyoraku Kyomei who had the upper hand! Look, everyone: from this point onward, it’ll be Shoko Nakajima and Hyper Misao ruling over summer. I will prove to the world this summer that the Big Kaiju is Nakajima!”

中島&ミサヲ「刮目せよ!」

Nakajima & Misao: “Pay close attention!”

ミサヲ「余談ですが、このハイパミ号、今日の大怪獣戦争でバチボコに変更してしまったので…どうしよう、これ」

Misao: “As a side note, this Hypami Mobile, it got a bit beaten up in the big kaiju battle today… What should we do about it?”

中島「うわー! クラウドファンディングとかしよう、クラウドファンディングとかしよう」

Nakajima: “Wow! Let’s crowdfund for it or something. Let’s do crowdfunding!”

ミサヲ「それか我こそは享楽共鳴のスポンサーになりたいという企業がありましたら、サイバーファイトまでよろしくお願いします」

Misao: “If there’s any company who wants to sponsor Kyoraku Kyomei, please contact CyberFight.”

中島「自転車屋さーん!」

Nakajima: “Hey, bicycle shops!”

Guess what? Misao did in fact crowdfund a new bike!

ように1

Surprisingly short notes section for this! It reminds us that although ように can be used with almost any informal, nonpast verb, it is most commonly used with potential verb forms and negative verb forms.

ように言う “tell someone to do something”, ようになる “reach the point where ~”, and ようにする “try to do ~” are idiomatic uses of ように (which the book has us read about shortly!).

Here's an example from TJPW's show on 2023.12.17, which featured randomly drawn singles matches between the roster members, each with a 7 minute time limit. This was from after Maki Itoh and Hikari Noa's match went to a draw:

Hard mode: here’s the video.

伊藤「どうもこんにちは。1ヵ月半ぶりの伊藤麻希で~す。こんにちは~。無事日本に帰ってきました~。イェーイ。今日はドローだったんですけど…特に何もないです。ドローでした。イッテンヨンは山下りなと闘うので、伊藤はそれを目標に頑張ろうと思っております。打倒・山下りなで頑張ります! アメリカでは一本やられているので、イッテンヨンで伊藤が勝てるように一生懸命頑張りますので。今はそれに集中しておりますので。すいませんね、何も面白いことはないです」

Itoh: “Hi there, it’s Maki Itoh, for the first time in a month and a half! Hello! I made it back to Japan safely. Yay! Today was a draw… it wasn’t anything special. Just a draw. I’ll be facing Rina Yamashita at Ittenyon, so I’ll do my best to achieve that goal. I will do my best to defeat Rina Yamashita! She scored a fall from me in the U.S., so I’ll work as hard as I can so that Ittenyon will be a win for Itoh. That’s what I’m focusing on right now. Sorry, I don’t have anything interesting to say.”

ように2

Here’s the adverbial form of ようだ as mentioned previously! As the notes sum it up, ように1 expresses purpose but ように2 expresses similarity, especially in appearance.

Just like ようだ, ように can express a counterfactual situation, and まるで is often used the same way.

I wasn't sure I was going to give an example for this because I thought I would likely find loads more examples of 1 than 2 when searching, but I got lucky. By a fun coincidence, this example actually comes from the same match as the above example, except this one is from Hikari Noa, the other participant in the match!

Hard mode: here’s the video.

ヒカリ「伊藤さんが海外から帰ってきて一発目の試合。くじ引きではあったんですけど、こうやってシングルで闘えて楽しかったし、嬉しかったなというのもあるんですけど、今日の前説でも発表されたように(タッグ)タイトルマッチが控えていて、今、奈穂さんが舞台で大変な中、こうやって試合をして、そうやって海外での経験をいっぱい積んできた伊藤さんに勝てれば、もっと自信がついたのかなと思うんですけど、海外でレベルアップした伊藤さんに7分ですけどドローで闘えたのは自分の中で大きいのかなと思っていて。このままイッテンヨンまで、あと1試合しかないけど負けなしで、ぐんぐん進んでいけたらなと思います」

Hikari: “This was Itoh-san’s first match after she returned from overseas. Even though it was randomly drawn, it was fun to face her in a singles match like this, and I was happy, but as announced at the start, the (tag) title match is coming up, and with Nao-san working hard on stage right now, having a match like this and potentially beating Itoh-san after she gained so much experience overseas, I think that would’ve given me a confidence boost, but being able to fight Itoh-san to a 7-minute draw after she leveled up even more overseas, that’s huge for me. There’s just one match left before Ittenyon, but I hope I can steadily keep making progress without losing.”

ように言う

I don’t think any of my textbooks covered this one (as far as I can recall, at least), and I can’t find it in any of my TJPW translations, so I’m not sure I’ve seen it before?

I thought it was interesting that it can be used either as an indirect imperative or to mean “say in such a way that ~” i.e. the use of ように. In the former case, the verb must be verb that represents something controllable by human volition. In the latter case, the verb must be a noncontrollable verb.

When it’s used as an indirect imperative, 言う can be replaced by other verbs, which means I suppose I could have seen examples of this in TJPW that aren’t coming up when I search for it haha because they might’ve used other verbs!

ようになる

This one has definitely come up before in at least one previous entry, haha. I thought the notes were helpful! Even though ようになる usually indicates a gradual change, when it is preceded by an affirmative verb, the change may not take place gradually. But if it’s a negative verb and the change is not gradual, なくなる is used in place of ないようになる.

ようになっている emphasizes a current state that has come about after a long process.

There are two ways to negate it, but they mean entirely different things, which is good to keep in mind, haha.

I think I talked about this in an earlier update, but I’m going to talk about it again because I feel like it’s easy to confuse these expressions: ことになる “it has been decided that ~” and ようになる are related expressions in that both of them indicate some change, but they differ in that the former implies a passive decision, while the latter suggests a change brought about by a long process.

Here's an example from TJPW's 10th anniversary show on 2023.12.01, after Free WiFi (Hikari Noa and Nao Kakuta) defended the tag titles against Max The Impaler and Pom Harajuku:

Hard mode: here’s the video.

角田「負けたくなくて…絶対に手放したくなくて。でも、今日のヒカリちゃんがカッコよすぎて、私はこの子の喝があればいくらでも勝てると思いました。ありがとう」

Kakuta: “I didn’t want to lose… I never want to let go of them. But Hikari-chan was so cool today, I thought with her encouragement, I could win anything. Thank you.”

ヒカリ「今回のタイトルマッチに向けた前哨戦は1回しかできなくて。ホント、試合のギリギリまで怖いって思ってて…そういう時に引っ張れるパートナーでありたいなって思ったし。怖い存在とか怖いものは1人で抱えないで、2人でどんどんぶち壊していきたいなって思ったし。今日もね、奈穂さんが守ってくれたこのベルトの価値がすごい大きくなったなって思うので、もう誰が来ても怖くないなって思いました。次こそは『ふりーWiFiがいい』って言って挑戦してほしいし、もうちょっとでアメリカも控えてるので。ベルトをもっとふりーWiFiでアピールしていきたいなと思います」

Hikari: “We only had one preview for this title match. Really, I was scared up until the very last minute of the match… I wanted to be the kind of partner who could lead the way in that kind of situation. Scary creatures and scary things that you can’t bear on your own, I want the two of us to break them down one by one. Today, I think the value of these belts, which Nao-san protected for us, has grown so much that I’m no longer afraid of anyone who steps forward to challenge us for them. So the next time I want someone to challenge us by saying, 'I want Free WiFi.’ We’ll be in America too for a bit. I want to show off the belts even more as Free WiFi.”

角田「東京女子のふりーWiFiを海外でもアピールしていきたいと思います」

Kakuta: “I want to show off TJPW’s Free WiFi overseas, too.”

ヒカリ「ワールドワイドだからね、WiFiは。あと、奈穂さん電波見えるようになったって」

Hikari: “WiFi is worldwide. Also, Nao-san, I heard that you’re able to see the radio signal.”

角田「なりました。ちょっと昨日の会見でマックスの周りに飛んでる電波がよくないなって思ってたので。いい可視化だね」

Kakuta: “I can now. I thought the radio waves that were floating around Max at yesterday’s press conference weren’t good. I have a clear picture of it.”

ようにする

I think this was also covered months back, but ようにしている expresses someone’s habitual act of making sure the speaker or someone else will do (or will not do) something.

The subjects in the ように clause and the main clause can be different.

Just like the previous entry, there are two ways to negate this, and they each have a different meaning.

Interestingly, the related expressions note here describes ようになる as the intransitive counterpart of ようにする. The former only indirectly implies human efforts behind some change that will occur or has occurred, but the latter straightforwardly indicates human efforts. I thought their examples for this were really great!

I found an example in TJPW of one of the negations! This is from the 2023.07.03 press conference before Summer Sun Princess on 7.08, where Miyu Yamashita faced Sawyer Wreck:

Here’s the full transcript and the video, though I’m not going to timestamp the part below, sorry (it’s at the end though).

――大田区総合体育館という広い会場で場外カウントなしというルールの中で、大田区総合体育館をこう使いたいというイメージはある?

――“Considering the no-count-out rule in a large venue like the Ota City General Gymnasium, do you have an idea in mind of how you want to use the space?”

山下「自分が場外を使うっていうのはないですね。私は基本的にはリングの中で闘いたい人間なので、あんまりないですけど、大田区たしかに広いですね。それをソーヤーに逆にうまく使われると自分もちょっと危なくなるのかなとは思いますけど、それはそれでワクワクするので。楽しみになりました」

Yamashita: “I don’t see myself using the outside of the ring. I’m fundamentally someone who wants to fight inside the ring, so I don’t really see myself doing it, but the venue is certainly large. So if Sawyer puts it to good use against me, I think I might be in a bit of danger, but that’s what’s exciting. I’m looking forward to it.”

――逆に場外を使わせないことが勝利への近道になる?

――“On the other hand, if you don’t let her use the outside of the ring, will that be a quick path to victory?”

山下「そうですね。外に出さないようにするところもカギになるんじゃないかな。外に出てしまえばあっちの方が上回ってくる部分もあると思うので。外に出さないことも考えたいと思います」

Yamashita: “Yes. I think the key is preventing her from going to the outside. If we end up on the outside, some of her strengths will be amplified. So I intend on not letting the match go outside the ring.”

より1

Not a whole lot in this entry! より can be preceded by either a noun phrase or a sentence, and when verbs precede it, they are usually nonpast.

Note 2 says that in the first three key sentences, も is optional after より and does not change the meaning of the sentence. I was going to say that I don’t think I can remember seeing よりも anywhere, but a quick search for it turned up plenty of examples in TJPW, haha, so that serves me right!

Here's an example from Nao Kakuta and Hikari Noa's match at the TJPW show on 2023.10.21:

Hard mode: here’s the video.

ヒカリ「タッグのベルトを取ってから、もう3試合やってきて。なんか、タイトルマッチをやった時よりも奈穂さんと電波が通じ合うことが多くなったなって。前まですれ違ってたわけじゃないけど」

Hikari: “Since winning the tag belts, we’ve done three matches already. I feel like Nao-san and I are on the same radio wavelength even more so than when we had the title match. Not that our signal was missing each other before, though.”

角田「タッグワークがよくなってきたね」

Kakuta: “Our tag teamwork is getting better.”

ヒカリ「だし、ここまで3試合ずっとWiFiでやってきたからこそ、タイトル当日まで一緒に闘えないもかちゃん、じゅりあちゃんには負けられないなって」

Hikari: “And because we’ve done all three matches as a team, we can’t lose to Moka-chan and Juria-chan, who won’t be able to fight together until the day of the title match.”

Hahaha, that’s a bit of a bold claim for an example sentence in a dictionary!

I don’t agree with it overall, but I do think kanji are more interesting than the Latin alphabet, though! I have frequently found myself wishing that Spanish had kanji, because paradoxically I think I’d have an easier time memorizing new vocab words that way :weary:.

より2

I don’t recall having encountered this use before?

The notes tell us that the use of より as a marker indicating a set point in terms of location can be extended to more abstract locations.

In the related expressions, から can be used in place of より2 when から indicates a set point in space, but when より indicates a point in time, から can replace it only if it indicates a starting time. より2 also implies a comparison of two things, while から has no such implication.

No example for this one because I’ll mostly just be wading through examples of より1!

ようと思う

The main thing to remember when using this, I think, is what note 1 says, which is that when the subject is not the first person, the nonpast form of 思う can’t be used because 思う represents an internal feeling of the speaker alone. So when the subject is the third person, 思う has to be replaced by the stative 思っている which means “he ( = the third person subject) has indicated that he feels ~, in such a way that the speaker can see and/or hear what he feels”. ようと思う also can’t be used as a question.

The negative version of ようと思う is Vinf・nonpast ~まいと思う.

The verb that precedes よう must be a verb that represents something controllable by human volition. A passive verb can be used with ようと思う if the speaker perceives the passive situation as somehow controllable.

I found a couple examples in the paragraph which follows the last example I gave just above! Here we go:

角田「前哨戦で1回もじゅりあちゃんとは会えてないけど、1人で頑張ってるもかちゃんの姿は見てて。ホントに取ったばっかりで負けられないので、この3試合で積み重ねてきている分、もちろんこっちの方が有利だなと思ってるので。もう来週、この勢いで勝っていこうと思います。で、この後は私たちは仙台なので牛タンを食べに行って、さらにプライベートでも仲を深めていこうと思いまーす

Kakuta: “I haven’t seen Juria-chan even once in the preview matches, but I have seen Moka-chan working hard on her own. We really can’t lose right after winning the belt, so especially considering the fact that we’ve been gaining a ton of experience in these three matches, I think we definitely have the advantage. We’re going to win with this momentum next week. And after this, since we’re in Sendai, we’re going to go eat beef tongue, and then we’ll deepen our relationship in private, too.”

ヒカリ「牛タンいこ、牛タン!」

Hikari: “Beef tongue, let’s go get beef tongue!”

ずつ

A nice short entry to wrap up the main portion of the book!

It was news to me that ずつ is apparently a particle, haha! It is used only after a quantifier. A sentence without ずつ can express virtually the same fact. A sentence with ずつ focuses on equal distribution of quantity, but a sentence without ずつ doesn’t.

Here are a couple examples from the TJPW show on 2023.08.12, where Yuki Arai faced Miyu Yamashita in the finals of the Tokyo Princess Cup:

Hard mode: here’s the video.

荒井「山下さんに勝てなかった…。ものすごく悔しくて…1年半前に名古屋でシングルでやらせてもらった時とは肩を上げられなかった時の気持ちが全然違くて。でも、それが成長できたってことなのかなと思いました。やっぱり山下さんはものすごく強くて、もっともっと自分も強くなりたいって思いました。でも自分に期待してくれた人が自分の想像以上にいたので、それはすごい嬉しかったし、また次があるんだったら次は勝ちたいなって思います。(一昨年、昨年とひとつずつステップアップしてきました)そうですね。1年ごとに一個ずつ上にきて、今年はベスト4に入ることができて。すっごい自分でも実感が湧かないうちにここまで来れていて…もちろん来年は今年より上を目指したいっていうのがあるし、試合としてももっと荒井成長したじゃんって思ってもらえるようになりたいなって思いました」

Arai: “I couldn’t beat Yamashita-san… I’m so frustrated… When I couldn’t lift my shoulders, it felt totally different from the end of that singles match in Nagoya a year and a half ago. I thought I’d grown. But Yamashita-san was so strong, and I want to become even stronger myself. There were so many people who had high expectations from me, more than I imagined, so that made me really happy, and if we get another match, I want to win the next one.”

(Last year and the year before last, each time you’ve moved one step up)

“Yes, I’ve gone up a step each year, and this year I made it into the top four. While I wasn’t even realizing it was happening, I’ve come this far… Of course, next year I want to aim even higher than this year, and I want to make people think that I have also grown in terms of my matches.”

And with that, I’m finally done with the main entries!!

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