Thank you so much for such a detailed reply. That’s very helpful and I shall be referring back to it to make a more ambitious sentence tomorrow ![]()
ヤミテンシ君が今年オランダから自分の心のなかに入った兄だ。 ![]()
You’re saying Yami entered his own heart though
〘自分〙の文法についてまだわかんなくて探しみてこの記事を見つけた。<< (ところで俺のことを語った, 失礼したくない)
それは話し手とか聞く者とかいるが一種の場合で依存する。例えば関西の周りで❛あなた❜意味してできたけど最も場合では自分のために【我】のようなも使うできた
https://maggiesensei.com/2011/08/05/request-lesson-私+自分-watashi-jibun-first-person-singular-pronoun/
君が日本語でこれを説明するために招待したいし君はチャレンジを取ったいいのか? 欲しれば
それは良いな練習できる
Please take a closer look at all the examples. The subject of the phrase is the same one 自分 refers to. Since the subject of your sentence is Yami, it would refer back to Yami, and not be a 1st person pronoun here. The exception is in the case of productive causatives (ie Person A made Person B do something) then it can be either Person A or B, depending on context. I don’t have the energy to put this in Japanese today.
This particular article from 10 years ago could really use a review. You can see draft notes were never edited out and the phrasing could be improved. 自分 is not a first person pronoun, but it can be used as one depending on the surrounding grammar and context.
でもヤミテンシさんはあの場合では話題じゃなかった。どこ「は」を見った?「が」を使った。「は」と「が」違います。
「俺は」ヤミテンシ君>>「が」<<今年オランダから自分の心のなかに入った兄だ。
「が」を使った「は」となしのときではそれじゃあ俺は話題だ。それじゃあ、「我」を意味した。
それはあのトラップの質問だった。草
Why do you respond like this and then expect people to want to reply or be friendly?
Like I said, the subject, which is marked with が here. I did not say the topic. In your sentence Yami is doing the entering, so when you have 自分 in the same clause, it refers back to Yami, not yourself.
失礼したくなかったけど俺はまだわかんない

Sorry I still don’t have the energy to write this in Japanese. 自分 is a lot closer to “se” in French. It usually refers back to whoever is doing the verb- who is doing the entering here.
Let’s look at some of the examples from Maggie sensei
自分が何をしたいのかわからない
The same person who doesn’t know is the same as the person who wants to do
自分の家でくつろぐのが一番いいでしょ。
The person doing the relaxing is the same as the one who has the house
自分が食べたいものを作る
The person doing the cooking and wanting to eat are the same person
Does that make it clearer?
Im still not sure, sorry I added this after a while I noticed it could be added as question material

Like in this example, maggie sensei refer that, it can be anything that can refer to jibun ? If I swapped the GA with HA would it still be the same jibun. She mentions that the target can be anybody (to him, her, you, me anybody) and that part I am not sure. If the target was me, why would I say your own problem ??
I just know in some grammar book I saw jibun for myself, but when speaking with native they were like why “jibun”. Like if yamitenshi became the topic and I was the subject would I still be jibun ? But if I remove the “me” subject part is it still mine ?
I am sorry I am not a fast learner like everyone on this platform, I can learn but it take me time to grab stuff
I think in this case それが would not work. 自分 needs to refer to some person/animal/being that is capable of making its own actions.
I think this is one that really depends on the content. Like if it in a superhero anime and the hero just finished saving someone and was talking to them, but then there was an explosion nearby that the save person comments on, then the hero says that line that the 自分 might be “my.”
Or if someone just finished cleaning the floor and a passerby’s pen/lunch/whatever spilled on the floor, I could imagine the cleaner saying this to the passerby as a “you.”
Maybe if there is a story of corruption or a problem at a company on the news and the newscaster says “it’s a problem for everyone,” but the viewer says it’s “their (the company’s)” problem.
That’s what I can think of for this example, but it really is ambiguous without more context.
I think it becomes more confusing because of trying to figure out a translation for it. If you instead think of it as usually meaning the same doer of the action rather than as a pronoun like I/she/he/etc, it’s easier. Your goal is to be able to think in Japanese, right? If you aren’t worried about translating and instead worry about just the meaning, I think thinking of 自分 as being a pronoun that matches with the doer will be easier.
It’s fine if it takes a while to learn, it’s just that comments like the ちゃん stuff from the other week and
make me feel like you’re making fun of me. I enjoy gentle teasing, but feeling like I’ve been made into the butt of a joke makes me want to leave the conservation completely and not talk anymore.
それが could work, because it could also mean “therefore” or something along those lines if there was a sentence before ![]()
しかし、これはトビックではないでしょうね。
あなたの説明に賛成です。![]()
僕は公園にまた来てもいいですか。かわいい犬が好きです。
明日は文化祭ですが 実は、それを忘れてしまいいました。
日本で東京と京都と広島と大阪と宮島を訪ねた。京都が私の一番好きな市だからきれいだよ。
I tried to intentionally use some grammar that’s a little newer to me, so feel free to let me know if I’ve got it wrong!
I think you’ve got から backwards - the reason comes before から, so what you said here is because Kyoto is your favourite it’s pretty.
Also one thing to keep in mind (not sure you were aware of this): と marks an exhaustive list. So when you list things with と the implication is there’s nothing else, that’s everything - in this case meaning there were no other places you visited (which could well be true, that’s quite a list - I’m envious). If you’re just listing a few but there’s more, you use や instead.
So for example:
パンと卵を食べた - I ate bread and eggs, and nothing else
パンや卵を食べた - I ate bread and eggs, and other things I didn’t mention here
Helpful as always @yamitenshi, I was totally unaware of the ordering with から (that will teach me to watch half a video with a half remembered grammar point!)
I did know about the exhaustive list, so although obviously there are more cities than that in Japan, that was a full list of all the ones I visited. I haven’t come across や as a list marker yet though, I was under the impression that it was と for exhaustive or も if there might be more.
冬来ているので寒いはずだ。
That might be because in textbooks から is often explained backwards. I still mess it up on occasion as well
.
も has a different role when listing items altogether. It could mean “both X and Y” or “neither X nor Y”, but I haven’t seen it used like this for more than 2 options and it’s partially context depend so one has to be careful.
俺はガチョウらというものがないと言ったばかりに、人々は俺が気違いだと思う