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I came across a sentence and was wondering what the と in it functions as, as well as the exact meaning of 色々

色々とお母さん、 言いたい事が溜まってるの

The context is that a high school boy has been doing things that his mother disapproves of, and his mother has been tolerating them but one day told him to sit on the floor and said the sentence above.

I'm thinking that it's quoting the mother's thoughts, and that an unspoken あって follows と. Furthermore, I'm thinking that the 色々 is there to remove the need of completely telling what happened along with the feelings the mother may have and just say "various things".

My translation is: "Various things (many things along with her feelings/opinions on them unspoken) happened and I have a lot of things I want to say (lit. things I want to say are accumulating/piling up)"

Is this correct?
If it is, can あって be replaced by 思って, making the sentence to mean that she has been thinking on various things instead of various things happened"?

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  • So 色々と serves to amplify the 溜まってる, making the "MANY"? I end up asking this because I seem to recall several sentences along the lines of 色々と + end up being... eg : (色々と全然寝られない) But then again, it is a vague recollection
    – Nazaka
    Jul 1, 2015 at 12:32
  • <So 色々と serves to amplify the 溜まってる, making the "MANY"?> Yes, that's it. <色々と全然寝られない> Well, I suppose it is something like 色々と(あったので or 考えると)全然寝られない.
    – eltonjohn
    Jul 1, 2015 at 12:35
  • Is there any difference between 色々あったので全然寝られない and 色々とあったので全然寝られない? Any change in nuance, perhaps?
    – Nazaka
    Jul 1, 2015 at 12:45
  • <Any change in nuance, perhaps?> I would use them interchangeably, but 色々とあったので全然寝られない may sound more grumbly.
    – eltonjohn
    Jul 1, 2015 at 13:02
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    @eltonjohn: Comments are not for answers.
    – istrasci
    Jul 1, 2015 at 14:42

2 Answers 2

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色々と = various, all kinds of.

お母さん = mother (of course!) In this case she addresses herself "mother" rather than "I / me" to emphasise that she is extremely irritated.

言いたい事 = things (I want) to say.

溜まってる (<- 溜まっている) = to have built up, to have piled up, to have accumulated.

Thus

色々とお母さん、 言いたい事が溜まってるの

= "Your mother has MANY things to tell you, okay?"

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    "In this case she addresses herself "mother" rather than "I / me" to emphasise that she is extremely irritated." >> But most Japanese mothers use お母さん or ママ etc. instead of 私 when talking to their kids, even when they are not irritated.
    – chocolate
    Jul 2, 2015 at 16:09
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    "色々と = various, all kinds of." >> It might be helpful to mention that 色々と is a 副詞 (not 形容動詞), so it modifies the 用言「溜まっている」
    – chocolate
    Jul 2, 2015 at 16:32
  • @Choko: <most Japanese mothers use お母さん or ママ etc. instead of 私 when talking to their kid> Maybe, especially when their children are pre- adolescent. But in this case, her son is a high-school boy, so her irritation accounts for her stand-offish attitude toward her own son.
    – eltonjohn
    Jul 3, 2015 at 6:55
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    1. They normally stop calling themselves ママ and switch to お母さん as their kids grow older, but most mothers of college students here even call themselves as お母さん when they talk to their son/daughter. 2. A mother of a high school boy calling herself お母さん doesn't show her irritation. If she uses お母さん when she's irritated, then she must be using お母さん when she's not irritated too. A mother calling herself お母さん doesn't sound harsh or stand-offish, but sounds softer. On the contrary, a mother calling herself as 私 would sound cold, harsh and stand-offish.
    – chocolate
    Jul 3, 2015 at 15:50
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    Some mothers use お母さん, others 母さん. It's a matter of personal preference. Those who call themselves お母さん when angry call themselves お母さん when not angry, too.
    – chocolate
    Jul 4, 2015 at 4:19
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I don’t feel the nuance of 色々とあって from the mother’s remark, 「色々とお母さん、 言いたい事が溜まってるの」. To me it sounds like she is only saying, “Mom has a lot of thing (piled up) that I want to tell you.”

「いろいろと」 simply means “various.” Of course, many things should have happened before the mom made this remark. Her son made a lot of things that vexed her. But that is an unsaid part, not mentioned in the quoted statement.

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