Short Grammar Questions (Part 2)

I think you meant to type 太り rather than 犬り.

小太り is a compound where 太り is the stem of 太る (to gain weight).

Converting verbs to their stem form is a common means of producing words of other parts of speech.

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Omg :see_no_evil: thank you, that explains a lot!

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Somehow, I never thought about it this way, but am I correct to understand that, for example,
「猫が食べたい魚」can mean both
“Fish(es) that cat(s) want(s) to eat” and
“Fish(es) that want(s) to eat cat(s)”, depending on the context?

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That ambiguity is most of the reason why が is often replaced by の in subordinate clauses.

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Little question, I’m having a little trouble figuring out what grammar points are being used here.

六年生の春休み。つまり、あと一週間もすれば、中学生になるっていう三月の終わり。

I’m understanding it to mean.

6th year student’s spring break. In other words, in one more week, it’ll be the end of March and I become a middle school student.

I just wanted to check some bits.

The も after 一週間. I’ve seen も used after a quantity to mean, ‘up to’, is that the same here? Or is it implying that there have been more weeks of break prior to this, and this is another week.

すれば I understand this to be used in situations of “if A then B” which suggests there’s a potential something might not happen, but that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening here, as one week will definitely pass. Feel like I’m missing a nuance.

っていう I have no idea what this is doing and what it’s adding to the sentence.

Thanks for any help!

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You have the structure a bit wrong here – it’s sentence fragments, and the last one ends in a noun, where most of it is modifying 三月の終わり, so your translation ought to be “the end of march where/when/that…”, not a first person statement. (Note also that the first part 六年生の春休み is a noun phrase describing a point in time, so this lines up with the second part being “つまり some paraphrasing/more detailed description of the same point in time, also a noun phrase”.)

っていう is attaching the preceding clause to 三月の終わり to tell you what kind of “end of march” we’re talking about.

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も in this case expresses a lower limit. It’s really just often used with this すれば though so I wouldn’t think too much about it.

This すれば is the meaning of する that refers to passage of time.

So
あと一週間もすれば、中学生になる
Means “Once one more week has passed, (I’ll) be a middle schooler”.

ば tells you about consistent outcomes. Again though, もすれば is such a common choice in this exact situation that I wouldn’t think much about it. Even the exact entry in the する definition for this has もすれば

「雨は一時間(も)〈すれ〉ばやむだろう」

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Ah okay, I’ve never realised that that’s what that meant! Knowing that definitely helps the rest of the sentence click into place better.

Also wasn’t aware this was another meaning of する, I was working off the assumption of it being used as "to do’, which was why that bit was throwing me a little.

Thanks for your explanations, they’ve really helped :slight_smile:

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Just in case you didn’t know, っていう is an informal variant on quotative という, so you can often find the grammar explanations for constructs involving it on bunpro or wherever under the という heading. You can also see って alone with the いう dropped. (IIRC there are also some constructions where you can’t literally just substitute in という, but it’s a good approximation.)

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Yeh I did a little googling and came across the という page on Bunpro.

I just thought it was used for a “something called x” meaning, but they describe it as a way to add extra information about something that’s not visibly obvious. This makes so much more sense now in the context of that sentence I posted.

This definitely feels like a lightbulb moment ha. I think I’ve been glossing over という/っていう a lot when I’ve been reading and listening so I think learning this will help a bunch.

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Good morning. I want to ask if し can be used with adverbs? Because i came into this article talking about a new invention and its effect:

スプーンを使って食べると、塩味だけでなくだしなどのうまみもはっきりし、よりおいしく感じられるようになりました。料理を作る際にも、新しく工夫をしようと、前向きな気持ちになれたといいます。

And according to the dictionary はっきり is either a verb, or, an adverb which must be used in this example. So how did the し show up like that?

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It’s the ます stem of する

はっきりする > はっきりし

Colloquially, はっきりして

Are you familiar with using the ます stem for continuation or was it not clear that はっきりし could be a verb.

If I’m looking at the right article, they do use the same verb し in other parts of it as well.

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Thank you. I just realized i already asked the same question here. The ます form and the fact that はっきりし could be a verb always trip me up…

This contraction is possible not only with する->して->し, but with any other verb as well, like this: 連用形 (JLPT N3) | Bunpro

Gives the sentence a more bookish feeling.

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Evening. Small question I think. I have a sentence in Ni No Kuni that says:

マジックマスターを読むためには、まずはZを押して、かばんメニューをひらけばええ

My question is around the ば. From what I understand, this is a conditional if. I thought this ば had to go on the condition, but in this case it seems to be on the result? I can’t understand why that is and could do with some guidance please?
I do think I understand the sentence as a whole. Something like "To read the Magic Master, first press Z which opens the Bag menu.
I also have no idea about the ええ on the end tbh. Starting to think I need a Ni No Kuni thread. I’m also stuck with another sentence:

メニューの右下に追加されとるはずや

What on earth is the されとる part of this. 追加 I understand as adding or addition or the likes but されとる I can’t seem to figure out or google successfully.

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ええ is いい

〜はいい is like “should” or “if you (something) it’s good” in a literal sense.

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My guess is “dialect/old dude speech, contraction of されておる, which would be されている in standard”.

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Is it ok to end sentence with 「ですかなぁ」?
It seems, かなぁ makes it a monologue question, but what if I want to politely state this monologue question…
Like, someone says something and I reply with “I wonder if that’s the case” – そうですかなぁ?

Well, ええ, that kind of とる, and や are also all Kansai-ben.

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That makes a lot of sense. I did wonder if it was just missing the te for sarete. Googling toru led me to iru a few times too so I think you’re most likely right, thanks for the help!
Assuming that is the case, what exactly is the meaning of this sentence then? I get something like “In the bottom right, additional should exist”. Is this just a context thing where I should know what the addition is?

Could you explain this please? Kansai-ben being a dialect thing? Do the general meanings still stay the same?

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