You’re not wrong about that, it is a na-adjective (hence the な
), it just takes on a different meaning when used that way. I think the real lesson here is to check the word usage/type for any given definition when looking at the dictionary.
Absolutely fair. I would love to start using monolingual dictionaries, but they scare me. Any suggestions?
I have two different ways I use monolingual dictionaries - most of the time online I’ll use Yomichan, but when reading manga that’s not very useful.
When not using Yomichan, I like Weblio and Goo. Weblio in particular can give a ton of information about a word because it shows results from various dictionaries. I’ve set up Yomichan to do roughly the same thing.
For Yomichan I used this guide: Monolingual Guide - TheMoeWay
I have a few dictionaries installed:
There’s a lot of overlap between those, so you don’t need all of them, but it sometimes helps to have different wordings of the same definition to figure out nuances.
You can adjust the priority of different dictionaries to control which you see first. I have two or three Japanese dictionaries before JMdict, so the first thing I see is a monolingual definition, but I don’t have to scroll too far if I don’t want to use the monolingual definition or I can’t make sense of it. Collapsible dictionaries are the default, I think, and that also helps so you don’t have to scroll past the whole list of definitions for words like かける before you find something in English
Also, make sure you’ve enabled scanning the popup content, that makes your life much easier when you find unfamiliar words in the dictionary entries.
I also set the result grouping to group term-reading pairs - that means for every possible word/reading Yomichan recognises, I get all the dictionary entries for that one, and then I get all the dictionary entries for the next one, and so on.
Interesting explanations about 現金 as a na-adjective – I completely misinterpreted that apparently; I was thinking it was saying “it’s a matter of money”, as in she thought they should just give them money or something
Enjoying the first chapter so far! I have a rule where I only save vocab under 10k, by JPDB frequency, and there’s been relatively little of that so far 
Tbh I read the week 1 section a little early bc I was v excited to be joining a book club plus I love fantasy stories so I was extra eager lol. Very happy it’s started and we can finally discuss here!
I just read everyone’s discussion thus far about pg.8 and realized I misinterpreted the 現金なもんだ part.
I translated it as “[he’s doing it] because he’s self serving.”
mixing up もんだ with 現金なんだもん.
While I don’t think this minsinterpretation changes the overall understanding of the situation, but I now feel like もんだ, in this context seems to be a sort of statment of fact/something obvious. She’s stating “He’s self serving (that’s just the way it is).”
Plus as I’m thinking about it だもん has a kind of cutesy/girly connotation that doesnt really seem to fit Frieren’s disposition as far as I’ve seen.
I could be off here, so would love to hear others’ thoughts! 
There’s a lot of discussion about the tricky 現金なもんだ
The monolingual definitions are helpful, but for anyone worried, you don’t need a monolingual dictionary to figure it out. If you look up 現金 on jisho for example you see two entries. One says noun and one says な adjective, and since the sentence has the な present, you can be pretty sure that’s it, and alongside the second sentence that has already been discussed, then the meaning becomes pretty clear and is the only one that makes sense:
@noko the もんだ in this case is referring to the King as a noun, which we know because after the na adjective used like this we’re expecting a noun, ( not a mo and the explainer n). The explanation goes like this:
Ah you know what I see it now. I think I was just way over thinking the もんだ part.
Page 11 - I’m editing the entry in the vocab sheet for まったく (was listed as まったい, as pointed out by a comment in the vocab sheet), but I’m not entirely sure how it’s being used here:
まったく。クソみたいな思い出しかないな。
[まったく] We have nothing but shitty memories. (There is nothing but memories like shit). (also idk if we can swear on the forums but that’s basically the translation so… 
lmk if I should change it)
Just want to make sure that まったく here is the exasperated “really”/“truly” meaning (like “good grief”) and not まったく～ない (We have nothing at all but shitty memories). I assume it’s the former bc it’s in a separate sentence? And it makes sense for him to use it like that here imo
I think you’re completely correct on that and まったく is indeed the interjection
Ok! That’s what I assumed but I second guessed myself 
That was quite difficult, it took me about four hours to read the fifteen pages. Having watched the anime helped a lot to understand the context of some parts.
I wrote down some questions that I still have, thank you for any answers.
「この先の人生のほうが長いんだ。」
“のほうが” is a structure used to say that something will become more? I did some research and all I found was it being used together with より to compare two things, so I’m a bit confused.
「これで世界に平和な時代が訪れよう。」
What would that よう at the end mean?
「こうしてタダ酒も飲めるわけですし」
I think it means something like “You can also drink alcohol for free”, but I don’t understand what it is わけですし
「ヒンメルとアイゼンがタメ口きいて処刑されかけたり。」
I think it’s something like “Himmel and Heiter spoke informally with the king and were almost executed”, but I’m confused about the されかけたり part.
「ミミックに食われかけたときは」
What would be かけた?
It’s perfectly fine to use のほうが without より, when the other thing isn’t mentioned. Just think about how it’s done in English. Someone might say “This road is long”, then someone might chime in with “But this road is longer”. The same way “than” didn’t appear there, Japanese also doesn’t put it into the sentence.
Making Comparisons: Yori, Hodo, and No Hou Ga | Japanese Professor
It’s the volitional form of 訪れる. “Let’s call on a peaceful era for this world”
or something
With 訳, you can give a reason for something. In this case, Heiter is telling Frieren that the situation is nice, since they get to drink for free.
Both of these are the very same grammar point.
Well, the first one is actually する + かける, but in passive. “They were … executed”.
Now, かける indicates an action that was only partially finished, half done. They were almost executed. The mimic almost ate Frieren.
「かれいそうに」
How is this parsed? ichi.moe suggests 彼・居そう・に but I can’t make sense of that.
Also, referring back to this part of the conversation,
おっさん can also mean Buddhist priest. It is possible there was a misunderstanding with the two meanings?
it’s not parsed it’s it’s own word
可哀想 = かわいそう
means pitiful
It’s parsed かわいそう.
Only in the most casual and derogatory sense, in the same way that you can insultingly call some old guy “father” in English, but “father” is also the title for a priest.
I finished the pages! I still have questions though Thank you to everyone who has been answering them all
Top left panel, I thought Frieren’s 「街中だと見せにくいね。」meant “If we were downtown, it would be hard to see, wouldn’t it?” but then Himmel’s response (Which I think is “People get deeply moved (by this). Please read the room.”) makes me think I’m missing something there?
The panel underneath that, it’s quite difficult figuring out which grammary bits are affecting which words / clauses. I think it’s something along the lines of “Because we know a place where we can see more beauty, we will guide (/ show this place to people).”?
と doesn’t mark a hypothetical so much as a sort of logical “if A, then B” conclusion. So what Frieren is saying is “if you’re downtown, it’s hard to see” - or, in more natural terms, “it’s hard to see in the downtown”. Meaning, Himmel just said the meteor shower that comes along maybe twice in a human’s life is pretty, and Frieren is just complaining about how it’s hard to see properly.
You’ve pretty much got Himmel’s response - as in “this is something that deeply moves people, read the room”, meaning don’t whine about where we are, this is a once-or-maybe-twice-in-a-lifetime thing and people care too much about it for you to be a buzzkill and go “meh, could be prettier”.
You’ve got the gist of it, but you’ve got the wrong implied subject and object. She knows a better place, and says she’ll guide the party there to watch the meteor shower the next time it comes along, in 50 years.
に basically turns a な-adjective into an adverb, so もっと綺麗に見える means something like “where we can see [thing] more prettily” - meaning, if you watch the meteor shower from there, it’ll look even more beautiful.
Keep in mind Frieren is ridiculously old. Himmel’s seeing this meteor shower for the first time, and will see it maybe once more in his life. Frieren on the other hand has seen this particular meteor shower many times before, and will see it many times to come.
This is one of those passages that establishes Frieren’s character and how differently she perceives time. To Himmel, this is an important event and a significant promise to gather again half a lifetime from now, if they’re even all still alive by then. To Frieren, this is an offhand comment that she knows a better place to view this thing that comes along pretty often, so they might as well see it from there next time.
You know those scenes in some manga where they can’t really see the fireworks for a summer festival and someone says “I know a better place to watch the fireworks from, let’s go there next year”? That’s what this is to Frieren. Fifty years is barely a moment in her eyes.
yay! 
I think you had great questions, by the way, and I’m glad you and others took the time to make your questions so detailed. The discussions the questions started will be really helpful for people who perhaps didn’t have the time to post questions, or for people who will still come to join the club in the coming weeks so they can catch up faster.
See ya’all tomorrow for Week 2 
I am SO glad I joined in this! I actually read a scene where I understood what they were saying without having to look anything up and it was so encouraging (it was also a great scene about the shooting stars). I’m still reading with the book in one hand and my phone in the other (typing in the sentences I can’t figure out, so it’s whole different style of learning), so it’s super slow. But whenever I know what it’s saying without running it through a translator, it is really addictive. Thanks for organizing this!
Hehe, that feeling is so magical 
Thanks everyone for joining and all the great discussion so far.
Here’s the link for week 2!