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My colloquial Japanese needs some brushing up on, in particular with grammar. I'm currently reading a manga, the context is that Character 1 showed up and Character 2 seems surprised that he's there. In response, Character 1 says:

いや、どうしたじゃねぇよ！お前が良いイチゴが出来たから、買ってくれって言ってきたんだろうが！

The first part of the sentence is fine, it's from お前... onward where I get confused. Breaking it down, here is what I understand (and I'm pretty sure I'm incorrect somewhere):

  1. お前が良いイチゴが出来たから

"Once you'd grown some good strawberries"

  1. 買ってくれって言ってきたんだろうが！

"I said I'd come and buy some of them, didn't I?"

I feel like I'm close, but might be missing something or understanding something incorrectly and would love to be corrected if I'm wrong.

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3 Answers 3

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Literally:

You said to me (お前が...言ってきた), "I've grown some good strawberries (いいイチゴが出来た) so (から) buy them (買ってくれ)" !

The ～てくる in this 言ってくる reflects an action being done toward the speaker. You said 'to me'. You 'told me'.

買ってくれ is the imperative of 買ってくれる (～てくれる = doing the action for the benefit of the speaker)

いや、どうしたじゃねぇよ！お前が良いイチゴが出来たから、買ってくれって言ってきたんだろうが！ Whadda ya mean what am I doing here? You're the one who told me to come buy your strawberries cus you grew some good ones!

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  • Oh, that makes sense : )
    – Alox
    Commented Jan 14, 2016 at 21:28
  • This is a good answer, but how can you be so sure that てくる is not used in a different sense? I don't think this is the only possible interpretation. If they were arguing, for example, about one guy stealing customers from another, it could change the meaning of てくる to be towards people in general and not that specific person. i.e. "you were telling people" or something like that. Am I wrong?
    – strawberry jam
    Commented Jan 14, 2016 at 21:32
  • @strawberry jam in your example, would'nt てきた be at the non-past tense? I.E. "It's you who have been telling people "I grew good strawberries so please, buy them here" for some time!"
    – Alox
    Commented Jan 14, 2016 at 21:51
  • @Alox If we choose to go by my interpretation of てくる, it would mean that the action of telling about X [over a period of time] ended already. I could think of several situations that would fit this saying. But then again, I could also think of a lot that could fit Ash's answer. It really depends on what was happening in the manga.
    – strawberry jam
    Commented Jan 14, 2016 at 21:54
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    @strawberryjam Yes, 言ってくる is always open to two interpretations: "you say, then come back" and "you say, coming this way (= tell me/us)".
    – broccoli forest
    Commented Jan 15, 2016 at 4:33
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いや、どうしたじゃねぇよ！お前が良いイチゴが出来たから、買ってくれって言ってきたんだろうが！

Let's break it down:

いや、どうしたじゃねぇよ！

Here he is saying that it's not right to say "どうした". The exact meaning of どうした here can change but you say you have no problems with this part so there's not much point in elaborating on that.

お前が良いイチゴが出来たから

You confused a て form type of から with the regular cause-and-effect meaning of から。When から is used with the て form of a verb, the meaning is more explicitly temporal and roughly translates to "after/once/". In this case since the past form of 出来る is used, から just means "because/since". So this changes it to:

Because you managed to grow good strawberries...

Next:

買ってくれって言ってきたんだろうが！

This one is a bit more tricky. Let's break it down slightly further:

買ってくれ

This is just a very colloquial way of asking someone to buy something, and:

って言ってきたんだろうが

The って here is the more slangy version of the と particle, so he's quoting "買ってくれ". 言ってきた means something along the lines of "you were[over time] saying"(in a different sense than ていった). Together with　だろうが(emphasis, "didn't you?!") this entire clause becomes:

You were asking [someone] to buy didn't you?!

Bringing it all together a bit more freely:

Don't "what's going on" me! Since you managed to grow good strawberries, you were asking [people/me/context] to buy them didn't you?!

To be honest the very first part could be different depending on the exact context but this is a very likely option.

だろうが

てくる/いく

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Here is my analysis, don't hesitate to correct me if you think I'm wrong.

I guess Character 2 said どうした in the previous sentence. Character 1 then answers "No, it's not どうした" meaning "You shouldn't say どうした!"

Your translation looks to me like Verb て form + から (clause A is happening before clause B) and not like Verb simple/past form + から (clause B is happening because of clause A). I would translate the first part like this :

お前が良いイチゴが出来たから、

You managed to grow good strawberries, so,

てきた conveys the idea that the action has started beforehand (てくる) and that the speaker just realised it (modal た).

お、雨が降ってきた。

Oh, it's starting to rain.

のだ is used here with an imperative meaning (do that), だろう is softening it (you should do that) and the が after だろう is exclamative (you definitely should do that!). The って before 言って is a colloquial form of と, くれ is the coloquial form of ください.

買ってくれって言ってきたんだろうが！

You definitely should start saying (to your clients?) "buy them!". [and you should have done that for some time (てくる)]

I don't know the context but here is my attempt at a translation :

You shouldn't say "what are you doing here"! You managed to grow good strawberries, you should start telling people to buy them!

Does it make sense?

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  • It's not のだ, it's のだろうが which is totally different.
    – strawberry jam
    Commented Jan 14, 2016 at 21:42
  • Yeah, you're probably right, ash's answer and yours make a lot more sense.
    – Alox
    Commented Jan 14, 2016 at 21:45

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