なぜ?どうして?Finished!

Wow, so fast! Thank you Belthazar, much appreciated!

We want @Belthazar translations!!

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Honestly, it’d be basically the same as @Micki’s :stuck_out_tongue:

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There is a Jisho definition for these two combined: はるかに

Thanks, that is helpful. I hadn’t seen a formal explanation of this construction before. To me when I see this construction I naturally read the X-て form as X-ing, and the くる as “comes”.

In this case 落ちた来る - comes falling

This usually seems to fit the sense of the sentence and means roughly the same as the more formal explanation.

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Thing is, it can くる mean it comes temporally as well as spatially. :slightly_smiling_face:

Honestly, I never really got the hang of that usage…

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I like that! It’ll certainly help until I can get my head wrapped round the full grammar explanation! Thank you!

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Hi! Sorry to jump in on your book discussion. I ordered the book and will start reading probably around the time all of you have finished haha. So I was wondering if you have already talked about continuing with other naze doushite books after finishing this one? I know it’s still about two month until you’re done with the current book… I’m just very eager to join a book club from the start :slight_smile:

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I was also wondering about that :stuck_out_tongue:

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Page 83 - trickier than it looked at first…

エンジェルフォールとは、 「エンジェルのたき」と いう いみです。

Angel Falls means “Angel Waterfall”.

エンジェルは、 このたきの ことを よに ひろめた たんけん家の 名前です。

エンジェルは、 Regarding Angel

このたきの this waterfall’s

ことを - thing/circumstance plus object marking particle

よに to the world

ひろめた past tense 広める=spread/disseminated/popularised

たんけん家の 名前 explorer’s name

です。polite sentence ender

As for Angel, it’s a {spread this waterfall’s thing/circumstance to the world} explorer’s name.

Or:

Angel is the name of the explorer who spread this waterfall’s existence to the world.

Caption

おちる 水が と中で とびちってしまうため、 たきつばが ない エンジェルフォール。

Angel Falls - because the falling water is completely scattered on its way down, there is no plunge pool.

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Yeah the second sentence on p83 was a bit tricky, but mostly because I still struggle with knowing what to do with こと as it seems a bit abstract sometimes… I have trouble coming up with an English equivalent.

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I don’t think there has been any discussion about what we read next. One of the nice things about this book has been that it is essentially a series of separate short essays, so you can join where we are part way through in a way you couldn’t with a novel. I didn’t start reading along until a month in once JLPT was out of the way.

You should be able to join us where we are. We start a new chapter tomorrow. Even if your book hasn’t arrived usually all the sentences get posted with spoilers to cover the translations.

I’ve come on a very long way with my reading in six weeks in this book club so I would recommend it! (Thanks @marcusp for setting it up!)

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Thank you @frayderike! I think the best thing is to finish the book and then discuss what we do next. Or set up a different thread for the discussion. Discussion here would just drag the thread off-topic and be a real pain for future readers. But yes, great idea!

Page 84 - Great pictures in this chapter! Tricky 3rd sentence…

水の 上を はしる、にんじゃみたいな トカゲが いるんだって!

There is a ninja-like lizard who can run on water!

日本に いる トカゲは、草むらなどに くらして います。

There is a lizard in Japan that lives in places like the grass.

小さくて、 すばしこく, つかまえようと思っても なかなか つかまりませんね。

小さくて、- small and

すばしこく, - nimbly

つかまえ - catch (stem form)

ようと - (I’m not sure about this, ?a set construction with the stem form of a verb)

思って - thinking

も - more/even

なかなか - very/not readily

つかまりません - not catching

ね - isn’t it

Not sure how to put that all together…

せかいには、かわった とくぎを もつ トカゲが います。

In the world, there is a lizard which has an (some) unusual special skill(s).

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This is what I had for 84

水の 上を 走る、にんじゃみたいな トカゲが いるんだって!

There is a ninja-like lizard that runs on top of the water!

日本に いる トカゲは、草むらなどに くらして います。

In Japan there is a lizard that lives in grassy places and the like.

小さくて、すばしこく、つかまえようと 思っても なかなか つかまりませんね。

Tiny, nimble, even though you think you can catch it, you are unable to, right?

せかいには かわった とくぎを もつ トカゲが います。

In the world there are lizards that possess various special skills.

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Thanks @Luacat. Your translations look good.

How did you understand this part of the sentence?

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つまかえよう is the volitional form of つかまえる. Volitional+と思う = (I) think I will [verb]. It’s in the grammar dictionary as “yo to omou” if you have it.

Think I’d translate it as something like “As soon as you’ve decided to catch it, it’s somehow disappeared”, though that’s rather a loose translation.

I’d also translate 日本に いる トカゲは、草むらなどに くらして います。 as In Japan, lizards [in general] live in grassy places and the like - the lizard that’s the focus of this article is not the one of lizards that live in Japan (spoiler alert: it’s from Africa), so the first line is just establishing a baseline of what one would expect lizards to be like.

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That is really helpful thank you! I’m familiar with the polite volitional form but didn’t realise there was a plain form too.

I’ve now learned about how to form the plain volitional form here: https://kawakawalearningstudio.com/all/make-use-japanese-volitional-form/

And found this on volitional form plus と思う here (The Japanese volitional form (~しよう、〜しましょう): much more than just “Let’s” – Self Taught Japanese):

Use 6: Volitional + と思う to express thinking about something

This form is used when you want to talk about the fact you have a certain will or intention, without actually making an offer to someone directly. The 思う verb can be in various different tenses or even in the middle of a sentence.

  • 図書館に行こうと思ってる。
  • I’ve been thinking of going to the library.

Here is an example of someone talking about a past volition (intention).

  • その雑誌を買おうと思ってたんだけど、高いからやめた。
  • I was thinking of buying that magazine, but since it’s expensive I changed my mind.
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Page 84

Thank you for your translation and hard work Micki!

But can anyone help me with the last part of this sentence?

I know いるんだって is いる, there is, plus ん, the explanation particle, but then what is だって? It looks like the informal copula だ plus the informal quotation particle って. Is that right? And what does it all mean? How would you write it if it were more formal?

Thanks for any help anyone can offer!

Sorry I’m late to respond… but it looks like you have found the answer anyway :slight_smile:

This is what I though of it as:

つかまえる = to catch/to seize
ようと 思って = volitional form + 思う, to think about/consider
も = even though

Should probably be more like “even though you think about catching it” rather than “even though you think you can catch it” which is what I ended up writing.

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Page 84:

INFORMAL PARTICLE OR CONJUNCTION (usually used by women and children) MEANING: but, because, also, even

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