Tips for looking up tricky grammar when reading?

Japanese Language Reading
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Hey all, this is something I have stumbled into multiple times and I thought I’d post a topic and get some discussion going. I was doing some random reading and I stumbled upon this sentence, which I’ll use as an example for a broader issue I have.

あたしんとこで買ってけば、どんな病人だって生き生きピンピン、ケロンのパーよ！

Now, as I’m reading this and looking up things I don’t know, I’m also making assumptions, especially when something isn’t easily searchable in an online dictionary. For instance.

I don’t know what あたしん means, but this character is speaking casually so I am going to assume that it’s some kind of pronunciation detail on あたし

I don’t know what とこ means, but again she’s being casual so I’ll assume it’s an abbreviated ところ

(No idea about the ケロンのパーよ part either, but I was reading a game screenshot out of context so it’s possibly some game jargon or character name)

So my rough idea of a translation would be “If you’re buying it at my place, even an ill person will be feeling lively!”

But this brings me to my main point. While I’m reading, I’m not able to conclusively figure out a few things, I make assumptions and move on. Maybe I’m right, maybe I’m wrong. I do this kind of thing all the time while I’m reading, and I’m bound to misunderstand quite a bit. But when I’m studying with flash cards and I get something wrong I get immediate feedback, and that helps me remember for next time I encounter that word or phrase. With reading practice, I’m worried that I’m going to cement incorrect meanings, and with no way to correct myself.

Am I overthinking this? Surely this is just something you have to deal with while practicing. And yet I can’t help but feel that I’m doing something wrong, not looking up grammar as well as I could be, not studying hard enough in some way. I would be extremely appreciative for opinions from people who are a little deeper into their study than I. What do you all think?

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I can’t help with a lot of it, but ん is の and とこ is ところ. So your interpretation of that part at least is right.

I have nothing helpful to add to your overall concern unfortunately. :sweat_smile:

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Regardless, I appreciate the response :slight_smile:

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Plug whatever parts you don’t understand in google. If that doesn’t work, ask us or just give up because you’ll end up learning it somehow later anyway :wink:

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You can always plug sentences like this into ichi.moe. You will still need to do a bit more investigate work, but it is usually good at breaking up sentences into their constituent parts even if it isn’t 100% perfect.

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Thanks, both. I had never heard of ichi.moe, and trying it on the example sentence I used, I have to admit it was way better than I expected! I’ll keep this in my toolbelt for sure.

And yeah, I understand that at some level I’m not going be able to understand everything, I just move on if I really can’t grasp something. But google tends to fail me for a lot of grammar if it isn’t completely straightforward. Or maybe my google-fu is just lacking.