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I'm trying to translate a song and I came across the following part:

消えてしまいそうな僕は

消える means "to disappear" so 消えてしまい could mean "to disappear accidentally" or, more likely given the context, "to disappear completely". Right?

Therefore 消えてしまいそう has the sense of "likely to disappear completely". My doubt is: Attaching な to this verb conjugation transforms it into a な-adjective? Simple like that? Thank you very much.

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  • It is na-adjective (conjugation-wise). laits.utexas.edu/japanese/joshu/grammar/glist/y2/ch4/… Jan 22, 2016 at 18:04
  • In addition to the two options you listed, ~て しまう very often means something akin to "and this is undesirable", and that's the meaning I'd assign for this sentence fragment.
    – oals
    Jan 22, 2016 at 19:27
  • Furthermore, I don't think you use the ~てしまう directly in English. Often I see English translations where the "accidentally" is omitted because it would make the sentence sound awkward. Not that I know anything about awkward English, as I'm not a native, but hey, I can try, haha. Jan 23, 2016 at 16:22

2 Answers 2

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「[消]{き}えてしまいそうな」 is a phrase consisting of a few words. Even though one may say that it "functions adjectivally", it is utterly incorrect to call it an adjective because it is not one word.

That phrase functions adjectivally because of the 「そう」 part. Only nouns can follow 「そうな」 as in:

「おいしそうなピザ」 (lit. the pizza that looks yummy)、「[速]{はや}く[走]{はし}れそうな[車]{くるま}」 (lit. the car that seems capable of running fast), etc.

If you saw a phrase 「~~そう」, by the way, it would function adverbially because of the 「に」. Again, one would not call that phrase an adverb just because it functions adverbially (and modifies a verb or adjective).

「消えてしまいそうな[僕]{ぼく}」 would literally mean "me who looks to be disappearing", "me who is about to disappear (completely)". Depending on the context, however, it might mean something slightly different.

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消える means "to disappear" so 消えてしまい could mean "to disappear accidentally" or, more likely given the context, "to disappear completely". Right?

You are correct in your assumption that "しまう" could either add the meaning "completely" or "accidentally", although the "accidentally" appears more evident when it is in past-tense. Also, as pointed out in comments, this could include a nuance of undesirability (perhaps redundant in the case of it meaning "accidentally"). As for the exact translation given the context, you would have to give the context to make any further judgement.

Attaching な to this verb conjugation transforms it into a な-adjective? Simple like that?

"そう" is the stem of the auxiliary verb "そうだ". "な" can be appended to it, where it would then be used as a な-adjective. Other variants include: "そうだろ", "そうで", "そうに" and "そうなら". It carries the meaning of the inception of an action, or the change from one state to another (e.g. disappearing).

From コトバンク:

動作・作用の開始や状態の変化についての判断を表す。

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