Hey guys i’m watching Dagashi Kashi Episode 1 and am about 3 minutes into the episode when the MC asks his father a question.
で話して何?
How does the grammar work in this instance?
My only understanding of the て form is to use it as either:
A request: 猫を助けてください。
An action in progress 猫を助けています。
A sequence of events: 猫を助けて家に帰ります。
Which implies it’s kind of like a verb potential, i’ll admit my grammar isn’t fantastic.
But not as a sentence end. Is there a particle or phrase being omitted through context that i’m not told?
My best guess at this point is it means “What are we talking about?” in a fairly casual, maybe even rude way.
で、 (starting a sentence with で、is like "So, ")
話って (話 can mean story, but also conversation. If the other character had said before 話がある it would be like “we need to talk”, and って is the casual quotation particle, so “about the story/conversation”)
何? (“what is it”).
Putting it together, で、話って何? would mean basically “So, what did you want to talk about?”.
That is, if the line was 話って and not 話して. Gotta admit, 話して何 doesn’t make a lot of sense.