This whole bit is confusing, obviously I have the English translation but I don’t really understand why it translates to that. Can someone break it down?
1 Like
Well, for starters the English translation seems to be off.
和食でも、洋食でも, So, the でも part is like “or something”
いい is just “good” though I’m going with “fine” to sound more natural
じゃない and かな are giving like a rhetorical “isn’t it this?” kind of vibes, not actual negative
和食でも、洋食でもいいんじゃないかな。
Whether it’s Japanese or western food, both are fine, aren’t they?
そうだ is literally “this is so” which isn’t the most natural English. It’s kind of agreement, kind of filler words sometimes. Here, the English translation has gone with “hey” and that’s good enough.
そうだ、知ってる？
Hey, do you know?
日本では In Japan,
計画が - plan
上手くいかなかった so I chucked this in ichi.moe (useful for helping break down future sentences.) The base is 上手くいく which is “to turn out well.” This is in past and negative.
ときに when
こう - this
言う - to say
ん - explanatory thing. If you’re familiar with /s for sarcasm, this is that for explanations.
日本では計画が上手くいかなかったときに、こう言うんだ。
In Japan, when a plan didn’t go well, they say this.
So, the last sentence doesn’t have any question words in it. So to me it reads more “did you know they say this in Japan?” which is different from the given explanation.
(Accidentally hit enter before I finished, hence the edit.)
5 Likes
Thanks for explaining
1 Like
it’s also better to look at individual words/phrases in japanese rather than at how someone might have decided to phrase it in english because english and japanese are so widely different
you can “translate” word by word into a sort of broken english sentence ie.
it’s a lot easier to see how the sentence actually works in japanese
the screenshot is from Learn Japanese – Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese
2 Likes
That’s what I tried doing but I still got confused
1 Like
I read that ん was to make a sentence more polite
I can’t remember definitely where I saw ん was added to make a sentence more polite, it’s possible it was Japanese from zero but I’m not sure I just know I used that for learning mostly
Nah, in this context it’s a way of shifting mental tracks. Like “Oh yes, now that I remember…”
Or, ya know, “hey”. 
I kinda want to know what it is that Japanese people say when a plan doesn’t go well.
7 Likes
The explanatory の softens the sentence a bit, makes it less straightforward and therefore a bit less assuming, at least that’s how I understand it. You’re not just stating cold facts, you’re having a discussion.
1 Like
What’s going on with that. Punctuation though?
Oh nevermind I see what they’re doing. Once again mislead by the English translation…
1 Like
What’s going on with your. Punctuation?
1 Like
Do you mean ん
ん in this case is just a contraction of の. こう言うんだ → こう言うのだ
4 Likes
How did you learn that it’s the same thing
My real name is Jake Japan. I invented Japanese.
2 Likes
It was a genuine question
I’m not sure how to answer it then, most resources discussing this structure should point it out, for instance the link provided by @RebBlue above: んだ: Japanese Explanatory Form (んです/のだ/のです)
Or alternatively bunpro here: ～んです・のです (日本語能力試験 N5) | Bunpro
There is no real difference between ん and の. Only の is considered ‘correct Japanese’, but ん evolved to make things easier to say. ん is the most common form in spoken Japanese, and the use of の could be considered a bit formal, or ‘stiff’.
Maybe also see:
I can’t be bothered to watch the entire video but she usually has good explanations with plenty of examples.
3 Likes
(The plural was intentional.)
1 Like