にゃんにゃん - Kitty Detectives - Vol. 1

Thnak you for starting the group, I was more on the silent side with the reading but greatly appreciated the comments. Learned alot

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Hey everyone :smiley:

As you are finished with the book I assume it is okay to ask questions related to the beginning of the book?

I started to read it and your comments are a great help so far! Sometimes it is a real struggle to read the book and without your explanations I would be completely lost. :sweat_smile:

table of contents
There is this sign that explains that the book contains three stories. Do I understand it correctly that the solution is separated from the cases? So that we read the case (story) and after that comes the solution?

appearing people
Capone - likes to make sounds (meow ^^) and take naps
あいそがなくてひるねがすき。
Correct?

p. 10
ポワロ - what book title is this? Holmes was funny, but I don`t know what this could be?

本 - is this the counter for long cylindrical things? Potatoes are counted :wink:

I have finished page 12 today and although it is a struggle for me, it is much fun discovering the story! :smiley:

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ポワロ is Poirot (i.e. Hercule Poirot), a fictional detective.

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I’m reading that as “He’s not very friendly and likes to take naps” - 愛想.

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@Belthazar Thanks! I wasn’t sure about the choices jisho gave me :sweat_smile: Makes much more sense.

@Naphthalene thank you!

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In case someone is interested in a breakdown:

愛想 friendliness
が ga-particle
なくて te-form of ない (“does not have”)
ひるね nap
が ga-particle
すき to like (with null-copula, i.e. “dropped だ”)

lit. “he does not have friendliness and he likes naps”

Yes. See the drawing on the left page. Ishiyaki-imo are pretty cylindrical:

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Thanks a lot!
Why didn’t I think about looking at a picture? Nice one :grin:

I want to join in on the thanks as well =^_^=
I’ve been reading along side, and without the comments/replies I would have been very lost!
Due to my grammar level being very low (working on it though, just started Genki) I haven’t contributed. My questions would be everything (as in, please explain every sentence for me =P ) and I can’t really answer anything. But just pushing through I get a good gist of things, and by reading the comments here I get a better understanding and start picking up some grammar points =)
The farther I get in my grammar studies, the more I can contribute myself, but I’ll probably be a passive listener rather than active partaker until I’ve gotten better =)
But I do read every comment and learn a lot from it, so a big thanks to everyone!

I bough the full set (both cat and dog sets :wink: ) so hope we’ll continue with the next! =D
I will go back and re-read this one a few times too, see how much more I can catch now that I know the story.

So a BIG thanks to everyone, looking forward to the next one! =D

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Hello again :hugs:

I have more questions :wink:

p. 15
上野の上野さんていったら… 。
What does ていったら mean? I couldn’t find anything about it. :thinking:

p. 27
あたしを うたがっているの?

あたし = me
うた = song
がって = te-form of がる - to feel, to think, to want
I have no idea? Something along “Do you want me to sing a song?” ← That came to my mind after I tried google translate ^^’

ペラペラペラ - what is this?
I only found ペラペラ - fluently (speaking a foreign language)

と、すごい早口で おこりだしたので、そうそうに たいさんした。

と - as in “door” ??
すごい - amazing
早口 - fast talking
おこり - from おこる - to occur ?
だした - ta-form (past) of だ ?
ので - given that …; because of …
そうそう - immediately after
たいさん - running away
した - ta-form (past) of する - to do
The amazing fast-talking lady was running to the the door immediatly after singing???

Your help is much appreciated :blush:

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たら is if/when but come to think of it I don’t really understand how to parse this sentence either…
Probably “When he said he’s Ueno-san from Ueno…” Wikipedia says that the quotation particle って is often contracted to て after ん sound, which is the case here.

Maybe “Are you suspecting me?” (疑う = to suspect)

I think here it means “blah-blah-blah…”

Then I got mad because of her extremely rapid way of talking and quickly run away.
怒り出す = to get angry, to lose one’s temper

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Page 15

The most important thing here is the 。。。.
The question is unfinished.

“when you say Ueno-san of Ueno, 。。。?”
“When you say Ueno-san of Ueno, do you mean that…?”

And so the detective thought process begins!

At least that is how I read it. Back in the main thread, @guillepolito has this:

上野の上野さん - Ueno san’s from Ueno
て - quotation mark
いったら - This looks like いう, to say, in conditional if…

My guess:

If I did hear " Ueno san’s from Ueno"…
It looks like she’s realizing that this is the same name of the story she was reading before?

.

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Page 27

I might be wrong, but these are the notes I have written down in my copy of the book on that page:

おこりだした
怒る - おこる - to get angry
~だす - start to~
怒りだす - start to get angry
怒りだした - started to get angry
怒り出した - started to get angry

See also the first sentence on page 36:
馬来さんは、まっかな顔で おこりだした

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Thank you all very much! :smiley:

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When a translation makes no sense you should try and go back and see what assumptions you made :slight_smile:
You broke up うたがって but it’s actually from the verb 疑う (うたがう) “to doubt/suspect”.
“Are you suspecting me?”

おこり to get mad/to be irritated (masu stem)
だした → 出す since it’s used as an auxiliary you should try and look for an auxiliary entry in the dictionary. Jisho says “to begin to” and notes “after masu stem”
“Then, since I was starting to get irritated by her terribly fast talking, I immediately ran away”

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I still have 12 pages to go (first story), but I just wanted to share my happiness about being able to read the pages without much difficulty since the solution part of the story began :grin:
This is so much more fun! I don’t have to look up every second word to understand what’s going on. And I really enjoy the story :wink:

I’m so excited at the moment that I had to share, please bear with me :hugs:

And thanks again for all the great help in this thread! :two_hearts:

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Phew, it’s getting very difficult again ^^’
Thanks to all your help for page 44 I was able to understand this long and complicated sentence. But I’m not sure about the last one on that page…

p. 44
あたしは こころをきめて、こう、いった。

あたし - I
こころをきめて - to set one’s heart on
こう - that could be anything??
いった - which word does that come from?

p. 45
あたしは ほんとのことを しりたかっただけ なんです。

あたし - I
ほんとのこと - the real thing
しりた - is it the past form of 知る - to know?
かっただけ - ??
なん - is it 難 - difficulty, accident, fault?

あたしは 馬くさんの家を あとにした。

あたし - I
馬くさんの家 - Umaku-san’s house
あとにした - ??

Someone help me please! :sweat_smile:

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I still don’t get the whole sentence right.

p. 47
きのうは 警察に つきだされるかと思って どきどきしたけど、うまく妻が 機転をきかせて 病人のふりをしたら、だまされてくれて ありがとう。

きのう - yesterday
警察 - police
つきだされる - to be handed over
かと - ?
思って - to think; to consider; to expect
どきどき - to beat fast (heart); to throb; to pound
した - did
けど - but
うまく妻 - Umaku’s wife (“my” wife ?)
機転 - cleverness
きかせて - to use; to display
病人のふり - the pretense of a sick person
したら - from する, what is the ら doing here?
だまされて - to trick; to cheat; to deceive
くれて - to do for someone
ありがとう - thanks

I don’t get this into a sensible english sentence :thinking:

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Aaaaand a last post for today :wink:

p. 49 (almost finished - yay!)
それにしても、この ふてくされた顔の ねこの めんどうみなきゃ いけないわけ?

それにしても - nevertheless; all things considered
この - this
ふてくされた顔 のねこの- sulky face of the cat
めんどう - trouble; bother
みなきゃ - does it come from みる - to look?
いけない - not good; of no use; wrong
わけ - reason; cause; meaning

She’s not bothered by the sulky face of Capone?

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I’ll try to help you out as much as I can with your questions but don’t take my answers too seriously as I am learning myself.

p. 44
あたしは こころをきめて、こう、いった。

あたし – I
こころをきめて - to set one’s heart on/ to make up one’s mind
こう - that could be anything?? 斯う= in this way, thus
いった - which word does that come from? Past tense of 言う.

I made up my mind and said thus/in this way. 「あたしは…」

p. 45
あたしは ほんとのことを しりたかっただけ なんです。

あたし - I
ほんとのこと - the real thing/ the truth
しりたかった - is it the past form of 知る - to know? It’s the past tense of 知りたい meaning “want to know” and conjugates like an い-adjective.

だけ - ?? only
なん - is it 難 - difficulty, accident, fault? Explanatory particleん. You can read more about it here.

I only wanted to know the truth.

あたしは 馬くさんの家を あとにした。

あたし - I
馬くさんの家 - Umaku-san’s house
あとにした - ?? past tense of あとにする= to leave behind

I left (behind) Umakusan’s house.

p. 47
きのうは 警察に つきだされるかと思って どきどきしたけど、うまく妻が 機転をきかせて 病人のふりをしたら、だまされてくれて ありがとう。

きのう - yesterday
警察に – to the police
つきだされるか – here か acts as a question marker so there’s a question within the sentence. “shall I be handed over?” or more loosely translated “shall I turn myself in?”
と 思って- - to think; to consider; to expect
どきどき - to beat fast (heart); to throb; to pound. This onomatopoeia word is often associated with romance like feeling one’s heart beat/throb when in love but in this context I think it means feeling your heart pound from fear or nervousness like when watching a scary movie.
した - did
けど - but
うまく妻 - Umaku’s wife (“my” wife ?)
機転 - cleverness
きかせて - to use; to display
病人のふり - the pretense of a sick person
したら - from する, what is the ら doing here? Here ら turns the verb した into a conditional meaning “if” or “when”. In this context, I think the conditional can translated as “when”.

だまされて - to trick; to cheat; to deceive
くれて - to do for someone
ありがとう – thank you

だまされてくれてありがとう- literally, “thank you for doing me the favor of being tricked/deceived”. Now how this fits in with the rest of the sentence, I’m not sure. Maybe someone else could help out with this part.

Yesterday, I considered whether to turn myself in to the police and I got nervous/fearful but (my wife used her cleverness and when she pretended to be a sick person), (?)

p. 49 (almost finished - yay!)
それにしても、この ふてくされた顔の ねこの めんどうみなきゃ いけないわけ?

それにしても - nevertheless; all things considered
この - this
ふてくされた顔 のねこの- sulky face of the cat
めんどう - trouble; bother
みなきゃいけない - does it come from みる - to look? Yes

When combined, it’s めんどうをみる (面倒を見る) = to care for someone; to look after someone.

~なきゃいけない means “must” or “have to”. Tae Kim explains here.

わけ - reason; cause; meaning. As I understand, わけ at the end of a sentence can mean “acceptance of a fact in light of a certain set of circumstances”(kanzen master). The circumstances in this case being Umakusan and his wife skipping town and leaving their cat with Hanae.

Nevertheless, do I have to take care of this sulky face cat?

Hope this helps and like I said before, don’t take my answers too seriously. Good luck with the rest of your reading.

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Wow! Great questions @Atani and thank you so much for the answers @trout. I’ve just worked through them all (thank you so much again!) and learnt a lot. On page 47

I had うまく down in my notes as skillfully, thinking that the wife had played her trick with great skill. But of course that’s the joke in the name in the first place!

Thank you both again so much!

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