Thank you!
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It is indeed. It’s the same って, just without the っ on it. It gets used from time to time. If there’s any nuance between the pronunciation of ってことは and てことは, it’s very subtle.
Here, the 「そー」 is from 「そう」. The phrase 「そうなんだ」 (「そうなのだ」) would translate somewhat literally as “It is that it is so,” with that explanatory のだ in there.
It’s used when someone has provided you with new information, and you are responding sort of like “Is that so?” in English. While it’s a statement in Japanese, it can be spoken as a question with rising intonation at the end.
In Takagi’s case, she’s drawing out the last vowel (「そうなんだーーー」), which I read like, “Oh, so that’s how it is,” as if she’s speaking with (feigned) disbelief.
It's normal usage. You'll find オレ to be fairly common.
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Ah, thank you, so far so good, at least I recognized it. I’m still not sure what it means, though. Its meaning always feels elusive to me, and こと certainly doesn’t help. Would it mean something like What is written?/What does it say? ?
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(Page 13)
For てことは, it helps to “expand” it:
「と いう こと は」
This て (or って) is typically used as a shorter version of と＋いう. The と marks what came before it as a quotation (direct or indirect), and いう means “to say”.
If there is nothing immediately before って (in the same word balloon), then likely it refers to the prior word balloon, whether that was from the same speaker or a different speaker.
In this case, I think it’s referring to the ろ:
「〖ろ〗ということは…」
This whole line is a topic (marked by は, with the comment about this topic in the next panel). However, you can only put は onto a noun. 「という」 ends in a verb, and 「て」 is essentially a particle itself. In order to attach は, we need to turn て into a noun.
One way to do this is by using the noun こと. On its own, こと doesn’t mean anything more than the very generic word “thing” in English, except that it refers to something intangible, such as a concept or a feeling or something that was said.
Because こと has no meaning on its own, it needs to be modified by something. In this panel, the こと is modified by て, which means it’s the “thing” that was said (which I think is referring to the 「ろ」).
Altogether, this might translate a bit literally as, “Regarding the thing that was said…” In English, we might go with “Which means…”
So you could translate write the panel as, “Ro? Ro?! Which means…!”
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Thank you for the clear and detailed breakdown. I hadn’t occurred to me that って could be referring to a previous balloon (silly me), this explains a lot. However, even after this clear explanation, I still doubt I’d be able to confidently understand this construction if I came across it again. Is it that Japanese as a language often leaves so much to the imagination, or is it just my inexperience that makes me unable to tell what three simple words strung together might mean? I’m really hoping the latter.
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p5 (panels 3-6)
次の手を考えなければ。
I have to think of my next move. (NB: 考える → think; なければ → must)
どうすればいい!?
What should I do?
どうすれば高木さんをはずかしめられる!?
What should I do to embarrass Takagi-san? (NB: The lack of kanji tripped me up here. I understood this as 筈かしめる instead of 辱める, which really made no sense at first. Can’t always rely on dictionaries, though the vocab spreadsheet came in handy)
p6
ねえ。
Hey.
な。。。なに？
W-What?
消しゴム貸して、忘れちゃったの。
Give me your eraser, I forgot mine.
ははん！消しゴムを忘れるなんてドジだねぇ。
Ha! You forgot your eraser (lit: ドジだね → “what a blunder”).
そーね。(NB: そー instead of そう)
That’s right.
うーん。。。
huh…
そーいえばさー
Come to think of it…
p7 (panels 1-2)
消しゴムに好きな人の名前書いて、
If you write the name of the person you like on the eraser,
使い切ったら両想いになれるってやつあったよね。
when you use it all, they say you’ll both fall in love, you know?
あー、あったねそんなの。
Ah, there’s something like that？ (NB: の question again)
今考えるとホント子供だよなー。
Now that i think of it, you really think I’m a child? (Q: My first translation was “it’s really childish, don’t you think?”, though I couldn’t justify 子供だ being used as an adjective instead of a noun. Yet, I still feel like the latter fits better in context. Answered by @ChristopherFritz)
No outstanding questions! Everything was already cleared up.
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I write a lot about how the brain is a pattern recognition machine. The more you see the same language construct over and over, the easier it will get to grasp what is going on. The grammar pattern becomes more clearly recognized over iterations.
For me, I “level up” my recognition in stages:
- Encounter grammar for the first time, and look it up.
- Encounter grammar again, but don’t recognize that I’ve ever seen it before. Look it up, only to realize I’ve already read about it before. (This step may repeat a few times!)
- Encounter grammar again, and I recognize that I’ve seen it before, but I have no idea what it is. Look it up and think “oh yeah, that’s right.” (This step may repeat a few times!)
- Encounter grammar again, and vaguely recall it. Look it up to confirm. (May repeat a few times!)
- Encounter grammar again, and sort of recall it. If I’m unsure, look it up to confirm. (May repeat a few times!)
- Encounter grammar again, and context helps me to understand it. (Definitely repeats a few times!)
- Encounter grammar again, and I understand it without thinking about it.
I listed 7+ iterations, but some things I get more quickly, and others take a lot longer. (I was completely stuck on って for the longest time until I realized I was only thinking of direct quotes while trying to understand instances of indirect quotes.)
This pattern recognition while reading is similar to SRS, except without optimal spacing between reviews.
Consider the following sentence:
“Did he tell you he asked her to give it to him?”
Questions:
- Who is “he”?
- Who is “she”?
- What is “it”?
- There are two “he” and one “him”. Does these refer to one, two, or three people?
When observed on its own, this sentence is leaving a lot out. But in context, it would makes complete sense.
Another English sentence that you may have encountered:
“Hungry?”
One its own, it doesn’t tell you much. But in context, it makes perfect sense.
You’ll find the same is true for Japanese. Anything that’s clear from context it fair game for being left unsaid. Subjects are often not spoken. Once a topic is establishes, it’s not stated again (unless the topic changes, and needs to be changed back again). There are whole constructs where it’s common to leave off the second half of a statement.
That last one is common in English as well:
“I wanted to help out, but…”
You’ll get used to it in time. Some things will remain difficult longer, but others you’ll get used to sooner. The key is to ensure you understand the grammar you’re looking at, and that you’re sure of what took place leading up to it.
Occasionally I’ll be reading a manga and find I’m suddenly lost. I try to keep reading, sometimes even for a few pages, just to see if I can figure it out. Often, I end up having to double back to a few pages before I got lost, and ensure I understand everything. The last time this happened, a single word in someone’s dialogue triggered a memory of the end of the prior chapter, which put everything into perspective for me, and I was able to re-read the pages with complete clarity.
Certain sets of very few words are very common, and may be contracted for brevity. It’s understandable that it takes a bit of time and effort to get to know them initially. Once you do, the most common grammar structures slowly become more accessible, one by one, and you find yourself about to read many bits and pieces. That makes way for focusing on the more difficult grammar!
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I joined this bookclub aiming to catch the general gist of the text and slowly become more familiar with Japanese through emersion. While I don’t understand the fine detail points of grammar, it was extremely motivating to be able to get through the chapter with “ease”. Thank you to everyone who worked on the spreadsheet! Without you it would have taken me three times as long to look everything up. Thank you for helping those of us who are newer to Japanese!
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I’m going through slowly. So many of my questions have already been asked and answered, thanks everyone! One part I’m having trouble with:
On page 4:
「ちょっと西方あけてくんない？」
あけて is the て-form of あげる, to open. But what does くんない mean?
The vocab sheet shows that あけてくれる means “to open as a favor”. I take this to mean we’re attaching くれる, to make it a request. That would make sense.
But why is the negative form くんない used? Is this like when we negate questions in English to sound polite, like asking “will you not do this for me?” I’m also confused because I think the negative form should be くれない, which makes me believe I’m interpreting everything wrong, unless this is one of those colloquial changes in pronunciation?
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(This is page 4, correct?)
This is exactly it. It’s common in Japanese to ask a favorite in the negative. “Won’t you come to my party?” for example.
I’ve read that this makes it easier to decline, because you can decline by agreeing. “Won’t you be able to attend my party?” “Yes, I won’t be able to attend.” (Compare with: “Will you be able to attend my party?” “No, I won’t be able to attend.”)
Thus, you’ll often see requests written in the negative.
As for the wording here, this is an example of an “R to N” sound conversation. I don’t know the proper term, but some sites simply refer to it as “slang”, so maybe that’s it.
Here, we have くれない, and the れな sound merges into んな, resulting in くんない. This seems to be how Takagi speaks casually, as seen on page two where she says 「何してんの」 rather than 「何してるの」.
For an English comparison, which do you say? “would you” or “wouldjya”?
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Thanks so much! I can’t believe out of everything it was the page number I got wrong (edited to fix it). Hopefully I’ll get used to the “R” to “N” changes.
It’s funny you use the “wouldjya” example. Years ago I had a literature teacher who told a story about moving from Brittan to America. She kept hearing people say weird words that don’t make sense in context, like “jew” and it took her a while to figure out people were saying “would you”. We sure do that a lot in English.
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I didn’t even consider whether “wouldjya” and “couldjya” get used in English outside of American English. I wonder if American television and Hollywood movies are popular enough outside the US that English speakers in other countries are generally used to our “compressed” way of saying some things.
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As a brit, there’s definitely some Americanisation, however Britain has its own variety of regional dialects that have all sorts of weird differences in what gets contracted and word choice etc, plus common slang and vernacular that have come about through a mix of things (like the ever-popular “innit” which is a contraction of “isn’t it”)
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I haven’t started, but I will read this week, I hope.
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You are absolutely right, of course. This is exactly how I approach vocabulary, but for some reason, I got a little impatient with grammar. Thank you for your encouraging words.
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Confidence is low in some sentences, but here’s the next few pages:
pg. 4-5
ゆがんじゃったのかなー、ちょっと西方あけてくんない？
Is it bent? Hey Nishikata, won’t you open it for me?
あ、うん。
Uh, sure.
なんだ、簡単にあく…
What, it easily opens…
うわぁ！
Aaaaaaahh!
なんだ西方。
What is it Nishikata?
な、なんでもありません。
N-nothing at all!
くつくつく。
Heh, heh
西方ってホントいい反応するわー。
Nishikata, you react really well!
う、うるさいなっ。
Sh-shut up.
くそ…また、まんまとやられた。
Damn…again, it was successfully done.
しかもオレがやろうとしたことを先に…
Moreover, right before I was about to do it…
そもそも高木さんがオレに助けを求めるなんておかしいんだ。
Anyway, it’s suspicious that Takagi would [do] something like request help from me.
そこで気づけよオレ…
From that I realize…
さすが高木さんだ。
That’s just like Takagi.
I’m not sure about the sentence しかもオレがやろうとしたことを先に…
I looked up that volitional verb + とした means “try to ~” or “be about to ~”, but does adding こと mean something else?
そこで気づけよオレ… ← Not a lot to go on here. I looked up そこで and 気づく separately and gave it a shot, but my translation is probably really off.
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This line uses smaller っ. You should be able to produce them by typing “kukkukku”. You should also be able to type っ on its own by typing “ltu” or “xtu”, depending on the software you use for tying Japanese.
The particle を can only attach to a noun. 「オレがやろうとした」 is a clause (ending in a verb). Since this clause represents an intangible thing, we can use the generic noun こと (“thing”). The clause modifies こと telling what kind of thing this こと is.
Rather than “what I was trying to do”, we get a result more like “the thing of what I was trying to do”. And since こと is a noun, we can attach を to it.
At a glance, I’d say your translations fairly right, including this one.
Edit: For anyone wondering about recognizing つ vs っ, it can be difficult to tell the two apart in manga. Here’s a comparison from the aforementioned page:
Notice the different in height used for the two in this font. That’s the clue to knowing whether it’s full-size or half-size. Some manga, it’s not so easy to tell.
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While I certainly struggled with the finer points of grammar in this chapter (there’s a lot of heady contractions, would be lost on me without these grammar breakdowns 
), this story was especially easy to follow along with the pictures, which helps a lot! Hopefully that continues in the upcoming chapters.
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Another pair of pages done - this surely is slow going, but I feel like I’ve already learned a lot. Really enjoying the story too. As usual, please do let me know if I’m off anywhere
Chapter pages 10 and 11
「ち・・・違うんだよ、」
Th… that can’t be, (the んだよ here adding strong emphasis)
「誰かが書いたんだよきっと！！」
Someone (else) must have written on it!!!
「何も書いてないじゃん！！」
There’s no writing here!!
- Something I’m wondering with this is that 何も is “nothing”, and 書いてない is in the (continuous) negative, but the sentence isn’t “there is nothing not written” or something like that, so if someone wouldn’t mind breaking this down that would be helpful
Edit: I’ve done some research and think I’ve worked this one out now - apparently 何も can meaning nothing when paired with a negative verb - so I was just confusing myself
「てか高木さん消しゴム持ってるじゃん！！！」
I mean, Takagi-san has an eraser, doesn’t she!!!
「でっ」
Ow-
「うるせえよ。」
Stop that now.
- Here I believe the what’s happening is that うるさい has had the ending vowels slurred into an え sound, which I’ve read sometimes happens with adjacent vowels. I imagine the teacher is practically growling this at Nishikata.
「ス・・・スイマセン。」
S… sorry
「ぷくく、あわてちゃって怒られちゃって」
Haha, didn’t mean for you to get so flustered and angry.
- I’m not sure on the ちゃって, but after doing some reading on Imabi it seems like it’s using the function of showing regret, but maybe this is off
「もーいいかけんにしてよ。」
Oh well- it’s over now.
「こっちのセリフだ！！」
- No idea with this one. Not sure how to make sense of it
「先生ートイレ行ってきていいですかー？」
Teacher~ is it ok if I go to (and return from) the toilet?
「くそっ・・・たかぎさんめ。」
Damn. That damn Takagi-san.
「今に見てるよ。」
Now you’ll see.
「そうだ！！」
That’s it!!
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I highly recommend watching this CureDolly video on ちゃう. It’ll expand and help round out your knowledge of ちゃう beyond what imabi gives. (I’m short on time, or I’d try to summarize the relevant parts. But the whole thing is worth a watch.)
For me, ちゃう is one of those ones that I had to see used many times, in many contexts, with many meanings before I really started to get a feel for it.
This one is かげん. If you re-translate this line, does the セリフ line after it make sense?
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