# Teasing Master Takagi-san 😝 ・ Volume 1, chapter 2

**URL:** https://community.wanikani.com/t/teasing-master-takagi-san-%F0%9F%98%9D-%E3%83%BB-volume-1-chapter-2/51249
**Category:** Book Clubs
**Created:** [May 7, 2021, 7:12pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/teasing-master-takagi-san-%F0%9F%98%9D-%E3%83%BB-volume-1-chapter-2/51249 "2021-05-07T19:12:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 215

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### Author: ![Jonapedia](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/jonapedia/32/309350_2.png) [@Jonapedia](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Jonapedia)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2022, 3:05pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/teasing-master-takagi-san-%F0%9F%98%9D-%E3%83%BB-volume-1-chapter-2/51249/215 "2022-05-31T15:05:03Z")

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> [@anon99047008](#):
>
> Maybe @Jonapedia has some thoughts on this discussion?

OK, I’ve only briefly skimmed what’s been said, so do tell me if I’m raising something irrelevant. Better yet, I’d really appreciate it if someone could point me to the post that started the discussion if I’ve missed it, especially if I’m really off the mark in whatever I’m saying.

The first thing I’d like to say though, is that, funnily enough,

> [@mariodesu](#):
>
> I had the sensation that when I find な + single particles (or couples as のか) the majority of time, that な is just the form of the copula だ in it’s form for embedded use in other structures

if we’re using traditional Japanese grammatical analysis, this is 100% correct. If you take a look at a monolingual dictionary or a grammar site covering the verb stems (similar to what we’d call ‘conjugations’ in other languages, except that they’re more like prefixes because they’re not always full words) for だ, you’ll see that な is listed as a special form of だ that only appears after な-adjectives and in certain other special cases (like after a noun and before の). It’s technically called the ‘adnominal form’ (連体形, れんたいけい), and is used to modify nouns as one would with a relative clause. In other words, yes, it’s very much used to replace だ in a modifying clause, because it **is** だ, after a fashion.

In the case of the sentence it seems you were looking at, the structure is

> [noun]なのか

If this were not a question, and did not involve の, it would end in だ. (The same logic is what motivates the switch from だ to な before のだ in the structure for emphasis/explanation 〜のだ.) Honestly, with a rising tone (and a question mark), 〜なの alone would suffice for asking a question, with the nuance often being one of asking for explanation or confirmation (kinda like using ‘really’ in a question in English). Adding か, if I’m not wrong, makes the question even stronger/more forceful, and for that matter, のか is used more commonly (to what extent, I don’t know) by men. However, it can also be used by women, and can apparently also be used to seek clarification or in one’s private thoughts (e.g. ‘ah, so that’s what’s happening, is it?’). The の we see here – as I understand it – is the same の we see in 〜のだ, and is effectively a nominaliser that’s used to raise a particular matter for consideration, hence the explanatory/emphasising nuance.

I don’t know enough about the story to translate the sentence perfectly, but my opinion is that the person who did the answering (答え…) was a woman/girl who was at best able (…られる) to say that she was experiencing the effects of her monthly cycle as an explanation/excuse for whatever had happened. That’s the sense I get.

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