I would read だけは as “at least.” But I’ll take a more in depth look later when I’m off the train.
1 Like
Ahh thanks man
if you translate it as “The weather is dull” then what does that mean? is it sunny? is it cloudy? what is a dull weather?
my guess is that パッとしません is an expression for weather japanese people use that means the weather isn’t clear. i.e お天気、パッとしません == The weather isn’t clear
sorry i don’t have an answer, but I found your question interesting
1 Like
This is a set phrase. The が is the conjunction not the subject marker.
This is as Leebo mentioned, this should be interpreted as “at least”.
This いきたい is probably definition six in jisho. Plus the helper たい to show desire. I tried English resources for this usage, but failed.
1 Like
I’m seeing なん a lot recently towards the end of sentences (before です), yet translations don’t show that as meaning anything close to “what”, and I’m not quite sure what it’s doing there. My best guess is a softener, but I honestly have no idea.
Example:
大人でも子供なんです。
I don’t know what the “なん” is doing there. ;;
It’s not 何, but the explanatory の, which is shortened to ん, and preceded by な with nouns and na-adjectives. Often, it doesn’t change the English translation because we don’t really have an equivalent for it.
2 Likes
Thank you! 
I’ve seen の and ん but not なん so it was throwing me off, haha.
Thanks Lucas! I did not know about だけは being used like that until you and Leebo pointed it out.
Here’s this from the site that used it
The typical usage of 「パッと」 is 「パッとしない」”undistinguished”, “inconspicuous”, “unspectacular”, or “unsatisfactory”. It is often used in negative expressions such as 「パッとしない成績」, 「パッとしない天気」and「パッとしな
And I got this when I looked it up in images
2 Likes
I think all this sentence is saying is “the weather may not be great but i’m certain i want to go (clearheadedly or without trouble?) (to whatever place is being talked about)” or “The weather may not be great but i’m certain i want to live )clearheadedly or without trouble?).” depending on what いきたい is.
The weather sucks but my feelings, at least, are certain…
What is the context of the sentence?
Here’s the site I got it from https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-lessons/japanese-lessons-wasabi-japanese-radio-podcasts-8-1/.
and the full thing:
12時1分に間もなく、なるところです。島原市白土町FM島原のスタジオから生放送で、私、村上隆二がお送りしているジュークボックス884です。お天気、パッとしませんが気持ちだけはしっかり、スッキリいきたいものです。さて、女性の方、お肌、自分の状態、気になりますよね。全国で、この、肌を、美しさを4 ランキングにしてしまっている5 ところがあります。化粧品会社のポーラ、先日、この女性の肌の美しさを、えー、肌の美しさを順位付けした美肌県グランプリの結果が発表されました。一位は島根県、去年に続いて一位だそうです。
I wanted to extrapolate on the response so you (and others who look this up) have more information. Please refer to this site for the uses for this grammar.
Another part I’d like to bring attention to is the な part. It’s not the same as the な sentence ending particle (obviously, not the end of the sentence), but a substitute for だ. Both nouns and な-adjectives use だ to make a complete declarative sentence or です to make it polite.
大人でも子供だ/です。
When adding the explanatory の to the end of the sentence, だ turns into な and a new だ/です ends the sentence instead.
大人でも子供なんです。
This is why having な follow い-adjectives and verbs is ungrammatical. The な helps the listener know the noun preceding was a part of a complete declarative statement, otherwise the の becomes a possessive particle for that noun.
To express state of being, when the 「の」 particle is used to convey this explanatory tone, we need to add 「な」 to distinguish it from the 「の」 particle that simply means “of”.
（１） ジムのだ。- It is of Jim. (It is Jim’s.)
（２） ジムなのだ。- It is Jim (with explanatory tone).
Example from Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese
5 Likes
I see. So 行く is like continue or go on or proceed with
1 Like
Thank you Steezis
According to my wife, katakana is not used particularly often so when it is used it’s eye catching. Sometimes they will spell Japanese words in katakana for emphasis. Conversely, hiragana is seen as softer and can make foreign things be seen in a more positive light. If you see an obviously foreign word written in hiragana it’s because they are trying to manipulate the reader into a more positive mindset about whatever they are talking about. For instance, all of the convenience store signs advertising cigarettes say たばこ.
2 Likes
And in the case of that particular word (トカゲ), it’s katakana because it’s an animal name and animal names are often written in katakana.
1 Like
I honestly think that’s less about spin-doctoring and more because it’s just been in the language so long that it’s effectively become a regular Japanese word. らーめん is also typically written in hiragana even with the katakana long-vowel mark, and I really don’t think ramen is suffering from any sort of public image issue.
5 Likes
What would be the best way to say “There are three alarm clocks in my house”. From bunpro I learned that to say that something where one noun has another you would say noun 1 + がある + noun 2, which would mean that noun 2 has noun 1. ( ベッドがある部屋), which means a room that has a bed.
With this circumstance, I tried using the rule but the answer doesn’t seem right.
I said: 目覚まし時計は３つがある私の家
A couple other online dictionaries told me that this was better: 私の家には三つ目覚まし時計があります
What’s the right answer? Answers will be appreciated.
This type of construction is used when you want to qualify something that is already part of a sentence.
[部屋に本がたくさんある] 人は話が面白い。
People [who have a lot of books in their room] are interesting to talk with
There is a main clause, “people are interesting to talk with”, and a subordinate clause specifying what type of people. In Japanese you would do that putting the verb right before the noun being qualified, as you learned from bunpro.
But the sentence you wanted to say, “There are three alarm clocks in my house”, is a straight one with just one verb and no subordinate clauses, so no need to overthink it. Just go to standard verb-in-the-end Japanese structure.
私の家には三つの目覚まし時計がある。
Or
私の家には目覚まし時計が三つある。 (there is no equivalent in English for this one, but this type of construction is extremely common in Japanese)
11 Likes