No, I meant mostly stuff like 義、議、儀 (they all share the same phonetic component, 義 and its reading ぎ).
Yup, pretty much how I’ve been rolling as well 
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Ahhh I see, I get it! And yes I do that too. I have a much smaller sample size to work with than you do at my level I’m sure 
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Note how Ayase trails off after けど, implying something’s supposed to follow. That’s pretty common, I’d probably use “but…” rather than “however…” since what follows doesn’t necessarily have to be a contradiction to what someone said. In this case the implication is something like “but why do you ask?”
いや just means “no” - in this case, something like “no, I don’t mean anything weird by that” or something.
It’s a tricky one to explain, but let me try.
ん is just him not articulating very well, basically. There’s a る there he’s not really pronouncing (not always, sometimes it’s a contraction of の or ない - but in this case it’s not)
なぁー is just the same stretched ね but pronounced differently. Yotsuba’s dad tends to say ね this way, as you’ve undoubtedly noticed by now.
と is a quotation marker, as it’s called, it basically takes the preceding phrase as a “quote” for what follows. So 〇〇と言う means to say “〇〇”, 〇〇と聞く means"to hear “〇〇”, and in this case 〇〇と思う means to think “〇〇”. You can put sort of imaginary quotation marks aroound what precedes it, like:
「しっかりしてんなー」と思って
The て ending just means he’s not finishing his thought in that bubble at least, there’s more to follow (て being a conjunctive form, so there needs to be something to conjunct to). He’s continuing in the next bubble in this case, but that’s not always going to be the case, sometimes people just trail off there and leave what follows unsaid!
So what he’s saying is “I was thinking you have your act together, don’t you? and … [continued in the next bubble]”
That’s not quite the right translation, and a good thing too… A grown man saying this to a high school girl would sound so strange 
He’s once again not finishing his sentence, and just trailing off, but the sentence structure is very straightforward: 俺が (I, as the subject) 高校のときは (when I was in high school, as the topic) もっとー (more [something])
Considering he just praised Ayase for being so mature and dependable after commenting on her being in high school, the implication he’s making here is that when he was in high school he was nowhere near as mature.
And here he’s continuing off that and saying he still doesn’t have his act together even now:
今でも - even now
しっかりしてない - the negative continuous/“stative” form of しっかりする, meaning he’s saying he’s “not in a state of having his act together” basically
んだ - contraction of のだ, which is a bit tricky to explain so I’ll just link you this wasabi article
けど - your regular “but” or “however”, but in this case referring to a relation with the previous sentence, not the next one.
So putting all that together: “Ah, I don’t have my act together even now though”
〜て下さい marks a request - she’s saying “please get your act together”
すみません can be used as “thank you” in some contexts, but it’s an apology. He’s apologising for not having his act together yet, even though he’s an adult, basically.
いて is the conjunctive form of いる, the “existence verb” for people and animals - in a literal sense he’s saying “No, a (or my) little daughter exists” but more naturally he’s saying “No, I have a little daughter”. The て form just connects it to the next sentence.
に marks a destination, not a point of origin - that’d be から. どこか means “somewhere”, so どこかに means “to somewhere” (but it’s not known where).
〜ちゃう is a contraction of 〜てしまう marking something happened suddenly. So 消えちゃった means “she suddenly disappeared”
けど once again refers to the previous sentence, it’s not trailing off in this case. so:
“she disappeared off to somewhere earlier, though”
Close - 探してきましょう is the volitional form, which in a question basically forms a suggestion, meaning “shall I/we …”
She’s asking “Should I go look for her?”
いい in this context means something like “it’s fine” - with the same explanatory のだ from earlier. He’s saying there’s no need to look for her, it’s alright.
You may have had trouble with it, but you pretty much nailed it 
The study guide is right but presumably didn’t break it down for you.
It’s a bit of a strange construction when you look at it first. the んです is a contraction for のです which is in turn just a polite form of のだ. な is basically what だ becomes when followed by のだ. In this case, のだ is used to soft of “soften” the statement, meaning it’s just a softened form of そうか (made polite by the use of です) - which you can then translate to “is that so?” but not meant as a serious question needing an answer, just a sort of “soft” rhetorical question, which also neatly fits her confused look.
Similar to how んだ is short for のだ, んで is short for ので here, meaning “because” (working similarly to から, but with some differences in nuance, I found this explanation to be quite good)
“Because after this I’m going out [implied: going out anyway]…” (continues in the next sentence)
You missed a part of your sentence, that can’t help 
その時それらしい子がいないか注意しておきます
その時 refers to the previous sentence - she’s going out anyway, so at that time (when she’s out)
それらしい - らしい is new to you, I think, and means something like “seems like”. Here’s a more complete explanation. それらしい as such means something along the lines of “seeming like that” (meaning: giving an impression like what Yotsuba’s dad described about her)
子 is just child
いない is the negation of いる, the same as earlier, the “existence verb” for people
Now, か is a tricky one here, and I’m not quite sure how to explain it. At the end of the sentence it makes the sentence into a question, but mid-sentence it can mark a sort of “question within the sentence”. This doesn’t make the sentence itself a question, but does mark a sort of question to be answered by something else in the sentence. So for instance, 何を食べたいか means “what do I want to eat”, and 何を食べたいか考える makes that question a part of the sentence, and 考える the “means to answer it”, essentially - and as such means “I’ll think about what I want to eat”
Now, the “means of answering” are not yet specified, but follow in the part you missed:
注意しておきます is a construction you’re not yet familiar with, being the polite form of the 〜ておくconsctruction, meaning something like “to do in advance”. Meaning-wise that won’t express well in the translation, but in essence the focus is to do something with an intended future effect (in this case, with the intent of Yotsuba getting back to her dad).
注意する means something like “to pay attention”. She’s saying she’ll pay attention - as a means of answering the earlier question of それらしい子がいないか.
All put together: “At that time, I’ll keep an eye out for if there isn’t a kid like that somewhere”
って is the casual form of と, the quotation marker, so って思う marks the preceding as something someone thinks, that thing being 変な奴だ (that’s a strange fellow)
That entire construction of 変な奴だって思う becomes a descriptor for 子 (child), meaning “a child you think is a strange fellow”
いたら is the conditional form of いる, so this means “if there’s a kid you think is a strange fellow”, with the conclusion to follow:
This is the “conclusion” to the previous conditional: it’s probably that kid.
Putting those two bits together, he’s saying “If you see a kid that makes you think she’s strange, that’s probably her”
That’s はぁ - which you can translate as something like “huh?” but is really just an expression of surprise/confusion (which matches her ずいぶんね - meaning something like “that’s surprising” in a general sense)
This is her basically going full-on “lolwut”
じゃ is a contraction of では - so in a way they’re just saying では at each other 
Yotsuba’s dad just has a habit of contracting and not enunciating very well
Ayase’s saying this, not Yotsuba’s dad
There’s a cutoff between そうだ and the next sentence. So there’s あ！そうだ (Ah! That’s right) and お子さんお名前は？
お is just an honorific prefix, she’s being polite
子さん is “personifying” 子 in a way. Not sure how to explain, but it’s something you see more often when like here something like 子 is more or less used where a name would also be appropriate.
お名前は？ is leaving the question implied, but the implication is something like 何ですか should follow. You’ll see this pretty often, and it’s usually some sort of “standard question” like this one.
So she’s just asking “your child, what’s her name?”
More or less, but note that this isn’t really a question she’s asking - she’s just repeating back the information with a sort of implied “correct me if I misheard this” (from the ね).
This is あそぼう, the same volitional form you saw earlier. あそぶ is often used to mean “hang out” or something, it expresses a very general concept of “doing something together”. It’s attached to the あした next to it, so あしたあそぼう, meaning “let’s hang out tomorrow”
Kudos to you for trucking along! I tried よつばと！ when I knew a bit more than you do now and remember struggling with it a lot. To the point that I more or less gave up somewhere in volume 1, even, so respect to you for sticking with it!
Honestly, I don’t even pay attention to the mnemonics anymore. They’re so contrived I have more trouble remembering the mnemonic and which part of it is important than I have just brute-forcing the kanji into my head 
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I actually took it a little further and started treating kanji glosses in English the same way. I either focus on the reading and ignore the meaning or slap a ton of synonyms so the chances of me getting a kanji gloss wrong are minimal. Something I’m sort of planning to cover in my farewell post, but still thinking how to phrase everything nicely (read: not rude )
EDIT:
Also, because apparently pain is what I need, I decided to go back to being a level 1 squirt and play Arknights. Not necessarily in this order.
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What, are you implying that words are not a logical combination of the meanings of their kanji? Saying that is not big length husband! Not big length husband at all! In fact it’s rather big change!
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@anon33985902, if reading through @yamitenshi’s wonderful response leaves you feeling like…
…that’s perfectly normal.
Take what you can from it, and the rest will slowly fall into place over time.
I failed miserably at reading the first volume of Yotsuba on my first try, and I had already read it in English, so I even already knew what all was going on…
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I’m kind of beginning to think that よつばと might not be as beginner friendly as one would expect due to the colloquial language and maybe possibly regular books or news articles would be slightly more beginner-friendly. Like the graded readers, NHK Web Easy articles and books for younger audiences 
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But those aren’t nearly as motivating 
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Although anything a person picks as their first book will be difficult, I do agree that Yotsuba’s got plenty of extra difficulties.
My own recommendations for first manga would probably be 「からかい上手の高木さん」 if someone wants short, self-contained chapters, or else 「レンタルおにいちゃん」 if someone wants a continually moving story that slowly increases in difficulty. (But anyone already reading Yotsuba and enjoying it, I don’t recommend switching to something else.)
And of course, if someone is enjoying the material, and they’re doing fine with deciphering every little bit, then anything can be one’s first material. (I started with a word-filled 4koma with no furigana…)
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Manga generally are not beginner friendly because there is more casual speech. What is beginner friendly about よつばと it the type of vocabulary - very daily life oriented. I’ve read easier manga, but wasn’t enjoying them as much, tbh. The other beginner friendly piece of it is that, since it’s so often recommended, there’s tons of resources out there to help you along compared to other manga.
I found kids’ books harder, because the really easy ones have no kanji (so finding word boundaries as a beginner is extra terrible), and the climb towards ‘long sections of text’ once you’re out of the ‘pretty much all hiragana books’ is pretty steep (or I’m just having trouble finding those in between books - it might be that). I find it tricky finding those early picture books that are starting to have some kanji, but not also have tons of text - there have been a few, but not a lot. Manga do have the advantage that it’s a bit easier to skip things and not get lost - even if you don’t catch all the dialogue, you have lots of added context to follow the plot (usually).
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totally went over my head, actually…
So many grammar intricacies to be able to identify… Thanks for explaining this!
But it’s good to know about て for sure, just like と !!
HAHAHAHAH! I didn’t even notice this, but you just made me laugh out loud - literally.
Ah, okay. This is some context I was certainly missing by my interpretation!
I have to keep an eye out for the “ない” in sentences. I know they typically put something in the negative form, and even though ichi.moe often alerts me to this, sometimes ichi.moe is not so helpful. I actually noticed, toward the end of my reading today, that once I have the sentence typed into the computer, using Yomichan on it was a very helpful addition.
I guess I just wouldn’t think a high school girl would be saying this to a grown man… but I guess it’s true!
I do remember thinking this was an apology, but where my brain was at contextually it just didn’t seem to fit.
Dolly would not be proud
I get it!!!
Also makes way more sense!
Okay I need to understand things like volitional more… I’ve actually been meaning to type YOU a post in my study lounge asking some very embarrassing grammar questions This is sure to come.
Also makes MUCH more sense.
My ego just exploded
ALSO makes way more sense now.
Okay! I will look at your link in a bit!
No IDEA how that could happen
Kind of something like “as I just said” ??
This DOES make sense to me.
Again, context I needed and definitely missed!
so much to learn!
OKAY! Yeah I thought it was weird that he was telling her about Jumbo all the sudden, but so far he seems like a weirdo so…
HAHA okay, based on her memorable facial expression, I get it!
#evenmoreconfounded
Now I can see why this is a recommended level 17 manga!!!
EEK - missed this.
So much more nicely put…
I’m just gonna stop here and feel the win But yes I read your explanation too!
I figured the other kids weren’t just saying simple things like the study guide breaks them down, but I just went with it since after 2 hours I was almost done!
Thank you やみてんしさん！
I intend to keep it up! Even if I only learn 1 thing grammatically out of 2 hours of reading, it’s still progress! And YOUR TIME IS APPRECIATED SO MUCH FOR HELPING ME AFTER THE FACT
This is good affirmation!!!
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HAHAHHA this just made me laugh out loud. I just took the time to analyze all his help, as I really appreciate when anyone spends their time to help me!
I’ve heard Yotsubato isn’t as easy as one might think, but I like the challenge, and heck, she’s so darn cute It’s worth the effort! 
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Mmmm I definitely agree with that. My first book had almost no kanji and was absolute torture, but the plot was interesting so I plowed through. Regarding books with some kanji, Edogawa’s books might be interesting if you’re into detective fiction. The ones for teenagers have plenty of kanji already, but they don’t overdo it so they’re way more digestible. The last one I read was 天空の魔人.
As for manga, I’m wondering about stories for teenagers or younger adults. They might have a good balance of kanji and less colloquial speech. I started Spy x Family recently, but don’t have a solid opinion on the language used there yet.
But for beginners it might be a tough call either way. For instance, Naruto uses quite a bit of kanji despite the super colloquial speech (especially Naruto who speaks in slang).
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I must really understand what “colloquial” means more in terms of grammar. I was a very poor English student in high school so many grammar concepts are just beyond me still. Embarrassing, but I’m trying my hardest now that I’m learning Japanese!
I do need some graded readers
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AGREED!
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Hot tip - they cover this in the first chapter of MNN when they teach about polite negative existence - and yet I still forget it periodically when I encounter it in the wild. But, if you try to say では super fast (keeping in mind that it’s the topic particle and said ‘wa’), you can kind of hear how it sounds like じゃ, a bit, anyway.
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THIS is what I was hoping for with Yotsubato!
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Colloquial (grammatically speaking, for the language learner) really just means ‘the way people actually talk, in an informal setting’ as opposed to how they might write or talk to someone in a more formal context. In English, it might be something as simple as ‘ain’t’ in a sentence - if you speak Standard American English, that’s not ‘correct’, but it is a thing that people say.
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I get it!
I used to say “ain’t ain’t a word” in my head when I was a kid. At least it didn’t used to be. Who knows nowadays with adding slang to dictionaries 
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A quick rundown would be something like this:
- では - じゃ
- ては - ちゃ
- は (topic) - って
- lots of 俺 for men and あたし for girls
- short forms (来る) over ます forms (来ます)
- やる instead of する
- katakana used to mark phonetics of words and not merely meaning
- tons of onomatopoeia
- tons of weird insults, mostly in kana
- ぞ or ぜ as strong emphasis at the end of sentences
- わ as female sentence ender
The main issue is that that’s something Japanese kids get exposed to early on and we don’t, so we don’t have that foundation and struggle like monkeys . So one has to begin with like a solid understanding of grammar, verb and adjective stems, etc.
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