Japanese Help Questions/Translations

[arwenluna]

Thank you ^^


The first guy was talking about chopping off a criminal's head, and the second guy then says 知らなかったな兄程度の腕でも人の首は落とせるのか？
So whadda ya think (i'll put the whole conversation in if you need it)
oh also the second guy is the older brother of the criminal that the first guy wanted to chop the head off of

[Nagoyankee]

Originally Posted by arwenluna

Thank you ^^


The first guy was talking about chopping off a criminal's head, and the second guy then says 知らなかったな兄程度の腕でも人の首は落とせるのか？
So whadda ya think (i'll put the whole conversation in if you need it)

I'm glad I asked for the context. Now 兄程度 means something else. Here it means 'someone only as good as my older brother'. You may know this but 腕 here doesn't mean 'arm' but it means 'skills' (skills with the sword, of course).

[arwenluna]

Sorry, I should of asked this before but I want to clarify. Could you translate this sentence 知らなかったな兄程度の腕でも人の首は落とせるのか so I can make sure I got it correct?

[Nagoyankee]

Originally Posted by arwenluna

Sorry, I should of asked this before but I want to clarify. Could you translate this sentence 知らなかったな兄程度の腕でも人の首は落とせるのか so I can make sure I got it correct?

No problem. It's a holiday here.

My translation: "I didn't know that someone only as good as my older brother could chop a head off..."

[arwenluna]

heh Golden Week I presume ^^

Thank you. As always you're a big help.

[Sleephead]

Do I have to learn the japanese Alphabeth To learn Japanese.
or is it possible to Just learn to speak and write in the greek alphabeth?

[Nagoyankee]

Originally Posted by Sleephead

Do I have to learn the japanese Alphabeth To learn Japanese.
or is it possible to Just learn to speak and write in the greek alphabeth?

You mean the Roman alphabet...

You have a big decision to make here. If you study Japanese using the alphabet, you may become able to speak and listen to Japanese, but you will FOREVER be unable to read and write it.

There are only four things you can do with a language, which are to read, write, speak and listen. Do you want all four or just two? I'd go for all four if I were you.

In Japanese, you will see almost nothing important written with the alphabet only. No books, no magazines, no newspapers, no websites, no anything....

Think hard before making your decision. It will not be very easy to change from alphabet to real Japanese, say, a year down the road once you have started.

[canikizu]

Can someone help me translate these sentences and point out their grammars, too.

あいつら買い出しから帰ってこねぇかな

あなたは飲まなさすぎ

thank you,

[Nagoyankee]

Originally Posted by canikizu

Can someone help me translate these sentences and point out their grammars, too.

あいつら買い出しから帰ってこねぇかな

あなたは飲まなさすぎ

thank you,

I can easily translate these, but as for the grammar breakdown, it won't be too easy because these are highly colloquial phrases. So bear with me.

あいつら買い出しから帰ってこねぇかな = I wish those guys came back from their shopping soon.

あいつら = those guys,　　買い出し = a trip to the store(s),　帰ってこねぇ = Kanto speech for 帰ってこない = not return,　　かな = I wonder if, I wish ~

As usual, the real subject (I) is hidden. 帰ってこねぇ is in the negative form and that is important here.

verb in negative + かな = I wish (the action described by the verb) happens sometime soon.

Sounds strange? Sure, but that's language. You know they will come back. They just went out to pick up some items. They didn't go to space. But when you want to say that you hope they return soon, you use the negative form of the verb 'return' and add かな to it.

If you use the affirmative form and say あいつら買い出しから帰ってくるかな, it changes the meaning of the entire sentence. You are saying "I wonder if they return from their shopping." That means there's a chance that they might not return at all, which is not the case.

I know this sounds confusing to you now. You will get used to it over time, I promise. I thought about giving sample sentences using 'negative verb + kana' but decided against it because that's something you would need to do as with any other grammar points.


あなたは飲まなさすぎ = You drink too little.

飲み過ぎ（のみすぎ）　＝　to drink too much

飲まなさ過ぎ　＝　to drink too little

That すぎ　ending is very colloquial (and very often heard). The original verb there is 過ぎる　= to exceed. Added to another verb (in this case, to drink), it means 'to do something in excess'.

[Nathan]

わぁ！

I knew 過ぎ was used to show excess, but didn't know about the negative making it too little! どうもナゴヤンキイさん！

How would it work with a type 2 verb? Like 寝る？ Like, "You slept too little / Didn't sleep enough."

「寝るなさ過ぎ」

間違いましたか？