Short Grammar Questions (Part 1)

I used the “please” to make the distiction between 死んで and 死ね easier but I guess i shouldve put the ~ください at the end of it.
Anyways, thanks you guys so much for you quick and helpful answers!

I was doing some translation and a couple of sentences had 今 with a past-tense predicate. Obviously it doesn’t make sense to translate it as ‘now’ if the verb is in the past. So would it be better in that case to translate 今 as “at that time” or am I totally misunderstanding what 今 is doing in that sentence?

Sorry about the lack of example, but it’s homework, and I want to steer clear of asking you to do my homework for me :wink:

An example would be helpful regardless. We can just refrain from giving a full translation. :slight_smile:

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I was going to give a more detailed explanation, but I think I answered your question just now.

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Would this be similar to たところ?
Or is there a difference in nuance?

Well I can give my own translation, then I’ve already done it and I’m not asking someone else to do it :wink:

今はいているくつは少し小さいので、足が痛くなりました。だから、今買ったばかりの新しいくつをはきました。

“Because the shoes he was wearing at the time were a little small, his feet hurt. So he put on the new shoes he had bought just then.”

(I should say that the context of the whole paragraph is 先月, so that’s another thing that makes ‘now’ an inappropriate translation.)

This one doesn’t seem confusing at all. He’s wearing the shoes now, and they started hurting in the past. I don’t see a contradiction.

I can see why this is a little confusing due to the multiple actions, but now doesn’t literally mean “at this moment I am speaking.” It’s broader than that. It can mean the future too (though obviously not in this passage).

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Now can be used in the past…

“Since the shoes he was now wearing were a bit small, his feet began to hurt. For that reason, he put on the shoes that he had just now bought.”

The two uses of now in these two sentences end up having slightly different meanings, but the English now and the Japanese now are nuanced enough to allow for that (I think).

Edit: Also, the 今 plus the ばかり intensifies and slightly changes the meaning of the 今 to make it feel even more recent than the previous 今 if that makes any sense.

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Hello, I have some confusion regarding this sentence:

なんだって、こう、飛ばされてばかりいなけりゃならないんだ

I’m not sure what he’s saying in the bold. Is he sarcastically saying “jeez. I just have to fly away do I?”.

I’m confused because I’ve heard that sarcasm doesn’t really exist in Japan, so I can’t be right

thanks in advance

Without any context it’s really hard to help. 飛ばす has a lot of meanings. With what’s provided, it’s not what you’re saying because “to fly” would be 飛ぶ. 飛ばす, however, is transitive, which means we need an object. Plus it’s written using passive voice. Without the previous sentences or context it’s really hard to judge which definition would make sense.

Using the first definition, こう、飛ばされてばかりいなけりゃならないんだ would probably be “(something) has to be always launched/fired/shot (in) this way.”

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Sorry for the lack of context, though I do understand it enough thanks to your bringing attention to the 飛ぶ—飛ばす difference. It was from the カモとりごんべえ story, specifically from this site: カモとりごんべえ <福娘童話集 日本の有名な話>.

Thanks for your answer!

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At this time in the story, it seems ごんべえ was sent through the air for the third time in a row, so he is pretty much complaining about it.

The verb in the sentence is 飛ばされる, passive form of 飛ばす, to mean that ごんべえ is being sent through the air not by his own will (i.e. he is being sent by the other ducks; when working at the field; and when opening an umbrella)

ばかり has some different uses, but in this case it means “full of” (not sure how to say it in nice English) and creates this meaning of “to keep doing something”, like again and again, with a negative nuance.

いなけりゃならない is just a short form of いなければならない

In total, I would translate it to something like “Why do I have to keep being sent flying away like this?” (if someone with better English can come up with a better sentence, please do so)
But I don’t see why this would be sarcasm. He is just expressing his frustration.

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Wow I feel guilty about the effort you put into that answer, I can’t believe you went and read that entire thing. Believe me, if I knew you in real life I would have baked you a cake. Thank you very much!!

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「よし。そいつにかけるぞ。バルサのしりあいで、だれかバルサの買い物を、かわってやっている者がいないかを全力でさがせ。とくに、山越えの旅に必要な物を買っているような者がいないか、をな。

What’s the をな all about? Is it just a shortening of the previous “全力でさがせ” plus a softening at the end?

Context if needed: The speaker is looking for some fugitives (one of which is called バルサ) and they’re deciding their plan of action.

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精霊の守り人? :slightly_smiling_face:

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∻∻∻ 当たる!∻∻∻

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hi guys, 質問があります
In bunpro, i studied すぎる grammar. the grammar is quite simple but i had trouble with this sentence
お菓子を 食べすぎない でください
Now this look strange to me, because according to the grammar it should be 食べなさすぎる
Note: the grammar says: the ない form of the verb minus い + さ + すぎる. and when i checked TaeKim again it turns out I’m right, and here is a quote of TaeKim’s post

  • 食べな → 食べな → 食べなさ すぎる

So, my question: is お菓子を 食べすぎない でください correct? why is it correct? and how is it different from 食べなさすぎる

god I hope this is a short question

Yeah, that’s absolutely fine. It’s “please do not (eat too much)” rather than “please do (not eat too much)”. You’re being told not to eat to excess, not to not-eat to excess.

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食べなさすぎる is 食べない + doing that too much, so in non-awkward English it would mean to eat too little.

食べすぎない is just the negation of 食べすぎる, so it means to not eat too much.

So it is quite different in meaning and both are grammatically correct.

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Sorry but i find you two contradicting each other. from what i understand, @Belthazar says the two sentences have the same meaning but with just a difference in emphasis. Meanwhile @Myria thinks the two sentences are totally different.

But i think I’m beginning to understand
食べさすぎる = don’t eat too much
食べなさすぎない = eat too little
Is that right?