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それじゃあとりあえず―――今は、アルクェイドとの事をどう言い訳したものか、なんて真面目に考えなくっちゃいけないか―――

I do not understand why it's どう言い訳したものか.

Shouldn't it be どう言い訳だったものか?

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  • Are you confusing どう言う訳 with どう言い訳?
    – Earthliŋ ♦
    Oct 20, 2015 at 16:37
  • 言い訳=Excuse right?
    – Splikie
    Oct 20, 2015 at 16:59

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言【い】い訳【わけ】する here is a transitive verb made of a noun "言い訳" (an excuse, apology) and する, meaning "to make an excuse about ...", "to try to justify myself about ..."

どうXしたものか is a common pattern which means "How (the heck, etc) I should do X".

アルクェイドとの事を言い訳する = アルクェイドとの事について言い訳をする = make an excuse about the matter with Arcueid

アルクェイドとの事をどう言い訳したものか = how I can make an excuse about the matter with Arcueid

どう言い訳だったものか is ungrammatical, and I'm not sure what you wanted to mean by that. Did you mean どういう訳だったのか (somehow; for whatever reason)? Or どういう言い訳だったのか (what kind of excuse it was)? Neither makes sense in this context, anyway.

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  • I did not understand why it used する in the past tense and I tought that with だった could make sense. I looked up online and found out that するものか=How can I do something But why does it use the past tense?
    – Splikie
    Oct 20, 2015 at 17:47
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    Hmm, どうしたものか is a very common phrase which means "what I can/should do (about the difficult problem)", which is probably worth memorizing as it is. Have you seen どうしたらいい used just in the same way as どうすればいい? People usually doesn't care about the past here. Maybe this question is related.
    – naruto
    Oct 20, 2015 at 17:58
  • In reverse, どう言い訳するものか implies you won't make any excuses.
    – user4092
    Oct 21, 2015 at 2:20

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