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I have started to learn japanese recently and tried to translate some lyrics.

But I pumped quickly on words I was unable to translate even with jisho.org and romaji version of the songtexts.

Talking about:

最高になりたくって　一番になりたくって

(FAKE IT by Perfume)

つまらないノイズ　かき消すように

(Thrill by BAND-MAID)

So I found out (with help of the translation) that き消す means "come to erase" and なりたくって "want to be".

Now, I looked up that it is possible to combinate verbs with V1 ~i + V2. Am I right, when saying なりたくって is a combination of なる and たくる, where なる was changed to なり and たくる was just appended in vTe?

The same for き消す - き comming from 来る in ~i Form and 消す was just appended to get the phrase "came to erase"

But if this assertion is correct, how do I determine if I have to translate it to present (want to be the best...) or to past (came to erase...)?

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  • You are on the right track, however some of what you said is incorrect. なりたくって is composed of なり+たい+って. たい indicates desire, って is colloquial quotation particle short for という
    – user11589
    Feb 13, 2016 at 18:38
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    wrong lyrics...I think. がき消す→かき消す(drown out?) ノイズ（を）かき消す
    – user12545
    Feb 13, 2016 at 19:17
  • when なりたくって is composed of なり+たい+って, why isn´t it なりたいって instead of なりたくって? Sadly I find no explanation anywhere, how to combine multiple forms. Where does the く come from ?
    – user12542
    Feb 13, 2016 at 20:02
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    ^ The て in なりたくって(＝なりたくて) is not quotative, but the conjunctive particle て, i.e. なりたくて is the te-form of なりたい. ～たい conjugates to ～たく, like i-adjectives
    – Chocolate ♦
    Feb 14, 2016 at 5:00

2 Answers 2

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(The only reason I am posting an answer is that this thread contains an unbearable amount of misinformation from multiple users and I would rather not see the thread get bumped automatically again.

@chocolate's comment above is just about the only trustworthy information that has been given so far.)

「なりたくって」 is just an informal and colloquial pronunciation of 「なりたくて」, which is the te-form of 「なりたい」. There is nothing wrong or unnatural about using colloquial forms in song lyrics.

The "rumour" in the thread that the 「って」 here is quotative should be ignored permanently. If it were quotative, the phrase would be 「なりたいって」, and not 「なりたくって」.

Thus, 「[最高]{さいこう}になりたくって」 means "wanting to be the best". 「[一番]{いちばん}になりたくって」 means just about the same thing.

Finally, 「かき[消]{け}す」 means "to drown out (noise, sound, etc.)", and it is one word.

There is no 「[来]{く}る」 in 「かき消す」.

Thus, 「つまらないノイズ　かき消すように」 means "as if to drown out the dull noise".

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The 「たくって」 is an erroneously extended form of 「たくて」 often said by women. It's for emphasis. While it looks like the 「って」 from 「という」, it isn't.

As mentioned in the direct comments to your post, the correct lyric is 「かき消す」.

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    I'm not comfortable with using "erroneous" to describe emphatic gemination, because it sounds like Perfume's songwriter made a mistake, but I'm fairly certain he wrote it that way on purpose.
    – user1478
    Feb 13, 2016 at 22:59
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    Naturally he did. Grammatically it's erroneous in that it isn't "new" per se (it doesn't add information), but it does add emotional impact.
    – Colin Woodbury
    Feb 13, 2016 at 23:22
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    +1 although "erroneous" might not be the best word of choice.
    – Amani Kilumanga
    Mar 15, 2016 at 0:28
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    Untextbooklike?
    – nodakai
    Mar 15, 2016 at 18:26
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    How about "colloquial"? :-)
    – user1478
    Apr 14, 2016 at 0:50

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