Kitty Detectives! Week 5 Discussion 🐱

How would you render the contrastive nature in English?

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Page 47

curvy road は straight line 。。。。… that’s the contrast, right?
So… taking @Belthazar’s sentence again, but adapting it a little…

It’s a curvy road, because it’s too steep for a straight one.
The road curves, because it’s too steep to be straight.

Something like that?

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Page 50

I’m getting all tangled up in the verb here.

「夜だったら、ここが 玄関だと 思うんじゃないでしょうか?

"If it was evening, you think the entrance was probably here, right?

I imagine the か is sort of asking for confirmation, the でしょう is indicating they expect a positive answer, but why is there a negation (じゃない)? And does the ん here work like のです?

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Verb+じゃない has a meaning something like ending a sentence with “isn’t it?” in English - using the negative as a way of requesting confirmation. “If it were night time, you’d probably think this is a genkan, wouldn’t you?”

And yeah, this is のだ > のじゃない

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For page 47’s 「道がぐにゃっとまがっているのは直線ではのぼるのがきゅうすぎるからなのだ」, I wonder if this Maggie Sensei post on ては/では is relevant:

Essentially: “If NOUN + unfavorable result.”

  • 「直線ではのぼるのがきゅうすぎる」

  • “if (straight line) + climbing is too steep”

Plugging this in to the whole:

  • 道がぐにゃっとまがっているのは❪直線ではのぼるのがきゅうすぎる❫からなのだ

  • “Regarding the bending road, it’s because(    から    ) ❪it’s too steep to climb if it were a straight line❫.”

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Page 50

犯人は 自分のアリバイが つくれる日に 宝石商を よびだしました

犯人は - the criminal + は
自分の - himself + の
アリバイが - alibi + が
つくれる日に - see question (1) below!
宝石商を - jeweler + を
よびだしました - called

Questions:

  1. So, what is つくれる? It looks like the “potential” form of 作る. Can make?
    So does つくれる日に mean "on the day [he] can make [his own alibi]?

  2. So how to translate this?
    “The criminal called the jeweler on the day he can make his own alibi”
    Not the most elegant translation.
    Any other ideas?

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Nah, the translation may not be smooth, but I think you’ve got the gist. The point is, he arranged to meet the jeweller on the same day as he’d be having his regular painting class - or in other words, he has a roomful of people who can vouch for sure that he never left the building. Or in other words, the day on which he’d have the perfect alibi.

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Cheers @Belthazar! That helps a lot!

Much of the time these days I’m looking more for confirmation rather than help getting myself out of the swamp, that’s progress, and it’s all down to all the great help from you and others in these clubs, thank you so much! :+1:

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Page 51

ここがさも一階であるかのように

ここが - here + が
さも - really (seem)
一階で - first floor + で
ある - is
かの - not sure at all, the の could be the explanation particle perhaps?
ように - in order to

“In order to (make it) really seem that this is the 1st floor”.

Does anyone have any ideas about that かの in the sentence?

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When following a verb: https://japanesetest4you.com/flashcard/learn-jlpt-n2-grammar-かのようだ-ka-no-you-da/

I realize the sentence in the book doesn’t end in a verb as the “formation” here shows, but I think this is still what we’re looking for in meaning.

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Page 51

Thank you so much for that @ChristopherFritz! That makes perfect sense!
(I think the final verb in the sentence has been dropped anyway, so the pattern fits!)

And now a final one from me this morning…

だますための一回かぎりのドアですからノブもせっちゃくざいでくっつけるだけでいいんです

だます - to trick
ための - purpose, objective, aim + の
一回 - one time
かぎりの - limit, extent + の
ドアですから - because it’s a door [whose purpose is to be used one time to trick]
ノブも - the doorknob also
せっちゃく - adhesion, fastening, sticking on … but here the confusion starts… it’s strange for this book to switch lines mid word! What’s going on?
ざいで - so this must be some kind of conjugation.
で - “with”.
くっつける - to stick, to paste, to glue
だけでいい - all you have to do is
ん - explanation particle
です - polite ending

“Because it is a door whose purpose is to be used just one time to deceive, all you have to do is stick on the doorknob with glue.”

Any ideas about that ざい…?

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So you say, but it’s just a bit past my bedtime!

I dropped this sentence (and the prior one with the かのように) into ichi.moe to discover the items in question. (I’m not actually secretly a master at Japanese grammar, unfortunately.)

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Oh, wow, that’s great! Thanks so much @ChristopherFritz, and sleep well! :+1: :smiley: :+1:

Hello! I’m kind of hit by depression at the moment, so I’m not really that active, but I keep up with the reading!
I’m currently stuck on page 48 though.

そして、四つめのかどをまがってしばらくいくと、ちょうど画家の家の二階のうらにでるのだ
そして - and finally…
四つめのかどを - fourth corner — oh I wanted to ask about the めの, but the め is turning four into fourth, right?
まがってしばらくいくと - curves for awhile into this direction, and… ?
ちょうど画家の家の二階のうらにでるのだ - came out at the backside on the second floor of the painters house

So… I guess it means that following the curved road at the fourth corner it leads to the painters house? I’m really bad at putting the parts of the sentences in the right order.

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Hi @Kappa420! I’m off to bed right now, so can’t look at the sentence (not that I’d be much use anyway), but I just want to say sorry to hear you’re suffering, and thanks for posting! :+1:

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Yes!

As for the rest of it… I thought that Hanae and Kuroboshi were invisible subjects going round the corner (まがる can mean ‘to turn [a corner]’) - the corner is an object here.

They then emerge / come out right where the painter’s house is, as you say. The と at the end of the first clause is the conditional, so on doing the first clause, the second clause happened.

So something like

And, on turning the fourth corner and going for a little way, [we] came out right at the back of the second floor of the painter’s house.

Or And, when we turned the fourth corner and went a little way, we emerged right at the back of the second floor of the painter’s house.

Anyone more knowledgeable than me know if that’s definitely right? I didn’t actually have a good grip on this sentence myself till I tried to answer.


Really sorry to hear you’re unwell at the moment - pretty awesome that you’re managing to keep up with the reading nonetheless!

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That’s pretty much what I ended up with too, though I took the subject to be a bit more of a general ‘you’ or ‘one’.

Thus, if you walk for a while taking the fourth corner, you’d come out exactly at the back of the painter’s house’s second floor!

@Kappa420 Great job sticking with the reading, depression can be a bitch. Hope you feel better soon!

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Yeah, I don’t have the book on me so couldn’t quite remember the context (i.e. whether or not it’s in the middle of telling you what Hanae and Kuroboshi are doing). Either way, there’s an implied subject!

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Hi all - just wanted to say I haven’t been kidnapped by jewel thieves and that I’m looking forward to reading everyone’s spoilers on the weekend when I can sit down and find some time to read. Thanks for keeping the thread moving along with great questions and explanations.

Kappa - hope you’re feeling better soon.

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Thanks for checking in :blush:

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