Short Grammar Questions (Part 1)

But wouldn’t the direct ofject of 言う be the whole clause,「彼のことを典型的な日本人だ」?

For example:
お父さんは、お母さんはかわいいと言いました。
In this case, the direct object is not “mother”, but rather the statement that “mother is cute”.

Or:
先生は、辞書は便利だと言いました。

Is that not the same structure?

How I see it is that 彼のこと is specifically receiving the action of being called something, the rest (典型的な日本人だ) is descriptive in explaining what he was being called

As for the structure, I found this explanation on japanese stackexchange:
◯◯を △△と 言う stands for “to call ◯◯ △△”

So for the original example sentence this would make sense:
彼のこと典型的な日本人だっていう – “To call him a typical japanese person”

Thank you for the answer and the article!

I’ll have to wrap my head around this one, I think it was the だ that was throwing me out.

ありがとうございます!

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I’ve seen varying explanations of the construction [casual volitional + と思う]. My understanding is that it’s used to state intention or determination, with 思います making it sound like you just made the decision on the spot, and 思っています making it sound like you’ve put thought into this decision, and that it’s already been made when you’re speaking about it.

However, I’ve seen other usages where the meaning is more that the person thought about doing something, rather than determined they were going to do something. Example:

その間も、何度か後ろから声を掛けてみようと思った。

The given meaning is “During that interval, too, several times she thought about calling out to him from behind.”

Does past tense tend to leave this grammar construct with the “thought about” meaning? Or is it heavily context sensitive? It’s easier to parse the meaning here as “thought about” given the accompanying 何度か, but in other sentences that may not be the case. Am I overthinking things here?

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In the sentence you mentioned, this sounds like a very fleeting thing to think about. Using the ている would imply that the thinking lasted for an extended period, probably at least a few minutes at a minimum.

On top of that, 何度か seems to emphasize the limited nature of the thinking that took place.

To me it feels like the opportunity to call out to the person was not a long one.

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Hey all, I’m reading an article on News in Slow Japanese (link), and 2 things are really bugging me.

  1. 彼の声はとても美しく、日本語の歌の内容を凄く理解し、聞く人の心に響かせる。

Why is 美しく in the く form? I don’t think it’s an adverb, because 声 is a noun. I would’ve expected it to be in the て-form, 美しくて, or 美しい, since this sentence seems to be listing reasons why his music resonates with people.

  1. The uses of し are also throwing me for a loop.

In the same sentence above, 理解し.
Later in the article,
彼はその大会で見事優勝し、日本での歌手デビューを実現したのである。 and
13歳で日本にホームスティをし、日本に魅了される。 and
24歳でついに日本移住を決意し。。。

I’m confused because in Genki I learned that the し for reasons follows either だ or です for nouns and な-adjectives. In that case I would’ve expected 理解だし, 決意でしたし, etc.

My second thought was that they’re short versions of する (した). Is this maybe a trend in formal writing?

Does it have anything to do with this thread?

Thanks in advance!

You’ve discovered that the 連用形 (れんようけい) can be used the same way the て form is used for continuation, but only in writing or formal speech.

In spoken language, someone would say 美しくて for continuation.

The 連用形 is also called the マス形 because it’s the form you can staple ます to for verbs. The 連用形 of する, therefore, is し.

For adjectives, the 連用形 looks identical to the adverb form.

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Thanks Leebo!

I just read about 連用形 and I think I understand it now. Is it the form that Genki refers to as the “stem” or “base?” So 書きます stem is 書き, 転びます stem is 転び, etc.?

Since the article only uses する 4 times and not other verbs, are these correct?

In speech I’d say 友達に会って。。。, in formal writing I would write 友達に会い。。。?
I’d say 本を読んで。。。, but I’d write 本を読み。。。?

Yeah, that’s right.

Again, it does depend on the register of the writing. If you’re texting with someone, copying spoken language is expected. If you’re writing a report or something, it’s likely the more formal style would be preferred.

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True, I figured as much. So then out of curiosity, is there a separate formal writing equivalent of the ている form, or does that go unchanged?

No, other functions of the て form can’t be replaced with the 連用形 (or anything else) if that’s what you mean. So you’ll still see it when appropriate.

Within the article you linked you can find アップしていた and 与えてくれる.

Doh. Of course. But yeah that’s what I meant. Thanks for all the help!

For this example sentence for 通う:

私の妹は、四月からトフグ学園に通うことになります。

which is translated as

“My younger sister will attend Tofugu Academy starting in April.”

Am I correct in very literally translating it to “my younger sister will become commuting to Tofugu Academy in April” ?

Is this a common way that one would say they regularly attend some place – by using なる with 通うこと?

Like: 私はジムに通うことになった

My understanding of 通う is that one of the definition implies that one is going and coming back to a determined place regularly. ことになる is “will become”, you mentioned in your example, but in the sense that conditions in her life will change in this way (now going to the new school rather than the school she is going to now). You can use 通う to describe a regular commute to somewhere or comings and goings to somewhere without ことになる please refer to this for the grammar details.

As for how common 通うことになる please refer to this corpus to help you search. I’ve already narrowed it down for you to browse.

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Could anyone help me with this sentence:
死刑でもなんでもカっくらって、サッパリしなせてくれぇ!(From Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney)

I understand most of it, but I have no idea what カっくらって is supposed to be. I tried searching かっくらう、かっくらつ and かっくらる。But didn’t find anything…

Just a guess…
Could it be the kanji 力 (power or effect) instead of the katakana? the small “tsu” may be an abrupt stop. A secondary meaning of くらう is to receive (e.g. a blow) Jisho.org: Japanese Dictionary
But that doesn’t make sense…

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Ah you may be right! So it might translate to something like: Give me the death penalty or any other effect (maybe more like penalty in this case), just let me die easily?

I hate asking people to double check, but did you double check it?

Also does this character speak a dialect?

Yep, I double checked.
At least in the English version, he doesn’t speak a dialect. Just rather colloquial English.

Well… It probably doesn’t need to be said why the English doesn’t matter >_>

Presumably you’ve been reading along to this point, there wasn’t anything else out of the ordinary?