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Discussion questions
What do you think about this week’s invention from the future?
Participation
Will you be reading along with us this week?
I’m reading along
I’m still reading but haven’t reached this point yet
I’ve already read previously but I’m here for the discussion
I think what might be tripping you up is ない is short for ありません．And in addition to “there isn’t one” it can be used to say “I don’t have one”. Nobita comes running asking Doraemon for a balloon (ふうせん出して), and so from that context we can assume Doraemon means the “I don’t have one” interpretation of ない
なんか can depend on context. At the beginning of a sentence, it might be an exclamation associated with emotion.
Here after a noun and especially with a negative adjective, it has a bit of a “such like” meaning
A rough translation: I don’t have anything like a balloon
I’ve been in a Japanese slump recently, and I think participating in an easy (to me) book club will help me find some excitement again. Now, I have to go buy the book while Bookwalker’s coin deal is still going on.
I think it’s something like “give me a balloon”
or literally “take out a balloon”
出して = to give out, to take out, to show, to submit, ect. in て-form, (I think you could picture a silent kudasai after that if it makes it easier to understand, even though children aren’t that polite with their family XD )
Doreamon pulls out all the fun things he has from his pocket, (if I get it right) so this makes sense
出して here is the casual form of 出してください. Nobita is talking casually with Doraemon, that’s why he omits the ください.
Doraemon also replies in casual form, that’s why he uses ない instead of ありません.
To rewrite this in formal form: ふうせんを出してください。 ふうせんなんかありませんよ。
Sorry for the duplicate from the other thread but I dditn realize we were supposed to move here lol…
First book club！Probably not advanced enough but screw it, its good practice right？I was going to try to knock it all out at once, but after spending an hour on 2 pages this will now become a multi day project (the first time book club wasnt kidding about deciphering were they :P)!! I have a couple of questions I would like answered as well if anyone could be so kind.
On panel #1 what is て doing at the end of the verb もたせる, is this a tense thing? Or the emergence of te forms which i have only heard about so far lol. my guess translation was “Let me hold it for a bit” *answered て=-ing
On panel #3 だ is used as a particle. From what i can find online it seems to mean “it”, what are the rules behind placing it in a sentence/i thought Japanese generally leaves that to inference, “It’s your fault you dropped it/You have the fault for dropping it” *answered, だ is short for です!
Similar question to panel #1 except with だして this time
Still on panel #5, just needing a breakdown for what Doraemon is saying here.
Panel 6 stumped me a little
Panel #7 what is the う at the end of つくるう, doing? It seems extra, is doraemon trailing off?
Panel #8, whats da doing at the end here? + i dont understand what もの is doing. Guess translation is “using this makes it float”
Thank you and I am looking forward to the rest of this book club!
Hi all, enjoyed reading this but there was a lot of looking things up involved!.. Lots of new vocab and new grammar.
Just using a dictionary wasn’t really enough for me, so I made heavy use of AI to help explain the grammar to me as well.
A few of the things I found most confusing:
Page 9
The phrase in panel 19: ペンギンが空をとんじゃおかしいよ
Is it right that とんじゃ is a contraction of とんでは ? That’s not something I’ve seen before. So the literal translation is something like “About the penguin flying in the sky, it’s strange”
Page 10
Panel 22 was just quite a long sentence for me, which I found hard to piece together the multiple clauses. I wasn’t familiar with できる being used as “to be ready”, I’d only seen it as “to be able to”. I’m also not familiar with some of the casual / commanding grammar this character uses like the “てろ” ending. Literal translation as I understand it is something like “Until it’s ready, to not fly, everyone hold it down”
Hi, I am not at all an expert, but a few of my assumptions on your Qs.
For Q4/panel 5 check our mitrac’s answer above.
For Q7/panel 8 I think もの is meaning “thing”, so the first bit is something like “things that are made with this”
It’s using a lot of casual form, so I’ll include the formal form too. Hopefully it will make it easier to understand.
Explanations
ちょっともたせて
→ ちょっともたせてください
→ “(Please) let me hold it for a while.”
If you see a sentence ending in て form, it’s often the casual form of 〜てください, where the ください is omitted. If it ends with a triple dot, it usually indicates the speaker trailed off mid-sentence. In this case, the root verb is もつ (to hold), which changes to the causative form もたせる (to let hold).
Yes だ is short of です
ふうせん だして
→ ふうせん を だして ください
→ “Please bring out a balloon (from your magical pocket)”
ふうせん なんか ないよ
→ ふうせん なんか ありませんよ
→ “I don’t have something like a balloon.”
「ない」is the plain form of 「ありません」, 「なんか」means “something like”, “such as”.
ないと こまる んだ
→ （ふうせんが）ないと こまる んです
→ “I’ll be in trouble if there’s no balloon.”
This uses the grammar 〜と, meaning “if/when”.
じゃ、あれ で つくろう
→ では、あれ で つくりましょう
→ “Then, let’s make it using ‘that’.”
〜おう is the plain form of 〜ましょう, used for suggestions.
これ で つくった もの は 空 に うかぶ んだよ
→ これ で つくった もの は 空 に うかぶ んですよ
→ “The things made using this will float into the sky.”
「もの」 means “thing” or “object.”
First of all, a disclaimer that I have next to no formal education, and I’m just going with whats sounds about right.
Page 9
ペンギンが空をとんじゃおかしいよ
Well, first of all, the character saying this, Suneo. His way of speaking is kinda oldish, not in an archaic way, but kinda like an energetic uncle? It’s funny :3
Basically he’s just saying “it would be weird for a penguin to fly (on the sky)” so your translation isn’t wrong.
About the とんじゃpart, I hear it a lot in casual Japanese, (especially from grandma lol) but I would really like to hear an explanation from someone who’s studied grammar as well T.T my guess is the same as yours
Page 10
Yeah, this panel was also just hard to read because of the way the bubbles were positioned.
This characters way of speaking is very forceful, he’s the biggest kid in their group after all, so I’m guessing we will all get plenty of practice
Yes, じゃ is a contraction of では. You see it a lot at the beginning of casual sentences, for example at panel 7. In business setting, at the beginning of a sentence, they use では instead because it’s more formal.
Page 10
できるまで、とばないように、みんなでおさえてろ。
“Until it’s ready, so that it won’t fly, everyone hold it down.” (He’s giving an order)
できる has a lot of meanings. One of them is “to be finished” or “to be ready”.
おさえてろ is the imperative form of おさえてる, which is the short form of おさえている. So the evolution is like:
おさえる (root verb) → おさえている (~ing / state) → おさえてる (casual) → おさえてろ (imperative)
I’m joining the Absolute Beginner Club for now cause I just need to read something simple and relaxing after taking the N4. Plus, I’ve never experienced Doraemon. Always heard it was good for beginners.
Nothing that difficult here, as I would have expected. Although it still kinda throws me off when I see かな by itself without the kanji. It’s just a little harder to read now.
I wasn’t sure what to translate タケコプター as. The dub went with ‘Hopter’, but I just settled on Bamboo Copter since it sounded better in my head.
Welcome to Week 1 of ドラえもん ・ Doraemon 
Vocabulary
Discussion Guidelines
Discussion questions
Participation
ふうせんを出してください。
we have a week to do the reading, and everyone reads at their own pace. 
