Translation Request Again

Original: 本当に行きたいと思わないだろう?

My guess: Do you really not know if you want to go?

The ろう throws me for a bit of a loop.

You mean だろう?

3 Likes

だろう is just the casual/more masculine form of でしょう.

Assuming you don’t でしょう it’s saying “right?” or carries the connotation saying probably/asking for confirmation.

2 Likes

“You don’t think you really want to go, right?”

Edit: gah put the really in the wrong place first. (It does matter, I see)

3 Likes

Plus, absent more context as to whether the speaker is talking about what they or the listener thinks, I would maybe do it as:

I don’t think you really want to go, right?

と思わない would be “I/you don’t think” as the negative form of と思う.

In my mind I parse that as “You’re not really thinking of going, are you?”

3 Likes

Alternatively worded, “You don’t really want to go, right?”
At least this feels right to me.

1 Like

Took the words right outta my mouth.

That does confer similar meaning, but to me obscures the usage of と思う if one is trying to break down the grammar. My version of it might a bit more stilted, but I was trying to make sure that Japanese grammar points were emphasized.

Using your version, I would expect the sentence to be written more like:

本当に行きたくないだろう?

1 Like

I was thinking more along the lines of:
行きたいと思う, “I think I want to go.” → “I want to go.”
行きたいと思わない, “I don’t think I want to go.” → “I don’t want to go.”

So the full sentence becomes:
本当に行きたいと思わないだろう?
“You don’t really think you want to go, right?” (this sounds weird, so) →
“You don’t really want to go, right?”

As Naphthalene said, the placement of the 本当に matters, but I think this is how it should be.

As, 本当に「行きたい」と思わないだろう?
instead of, 「本当に行きたい」と思わないだろう?

In the first place, both imply that the speaker knows how the person thinks, but I think it’s more unusual to put emphasis on the “really want to go” than on the “you don’t really think”.

I don’t know if I’m getting my point across here, since the English translation makes it seem similar.

本当に行きたい is completely fair, but the full sentence makes me think otherwise.

I may be wrong, but this is how I parse it.

Alternatively, how the sentence is spoken really changes the meaning. :joy:

1 Like

Also, yes, and no.

There’s a difference between not wanting to go, and wanting not to go. :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like

Plus it’s also hard when a sentence is asked to be translated in complete isolation of any further context.

But, hey, thanks for your further insight. I appreciate my take of the sentence may have been off, and it’s good to see the train of thought someone else takes in translating something. :+1:

1 Like

Yeah, I really had to think how to properly say what I wanted, instead of just going, “It just sounds right.”

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.