2

I have question regarding the 「だって出てない」 in these sentences. i can't understand what that part of the paragraph means at all. However i think i understand the rest of what is being said around that part, if i'm not, please tell me.

The context is that he's just died and is asking someone about how he is died and if a girl he tried saving is alright, to which the person replies saying she got a broken leg but is fine. She then says goes on to say the lines below.

Original text:

「まあ、あなたが突き飛ばさなければ、あの子は怪我もしなかったんですけどね」

「あのトラクターは、本来ならあの子の手前で止まったんです。 あたり前ですよね。 だってトラクターですもん。 そんなにスピードだって出てないし。 つまり、あなたはヒーロー気取りで余計な事したって訳です。 ・・・・プークスクス!」

how i understand it:

well, if you hadn't pushed her out the way, she wouldn't even be hurt.

That tractor had pretty much completely stopped from the girl's perspective. It's obvious. It is a tractor. Even if it had come a that sort of speed, (?). Basically, it means that you, under a heroic pretense, did something completely unnecessary. (Chuckling)

1
  • 1
    As a side note I'd translate the first part of the second paragraph as "That tractor would have completely stopped before it hit the girl". 手前 here means physically "in front of", not "perspective". Aug 11, 2016 at 18:41

1 Answer 1

6

In that case it's equivalent to 「も」 in meaning, but gives it a perhaps slightly childish tone.

そんなにスピードも出てないし。

It isn't even going very fast.

It'd probably be more natural to use past tense here in English since it's talking about a past event, but in Japanese it's kind of fuzzy and works OK the way it is.

8
  • 1
    I wouldn't say it's "も", but an (even more) informal version of なんて. "Hey! It can't even go fast!" where it sort of translates to both "hey" and "even".
    – Axioplase
    Aug 11, 2016 at 20:14
  • So how does 「出てない」 fit into all of this? It's the only part i'm not quite sure about now. Could you explain why 「出てない」 is used, and not some other word closer to "approach" or "to go"?
    – noobtube2
    Aug 11, 2016 at 21:00
  • 1
    @Axioplase But you can't rephrase the part as そんなにスピードなんて出てないし, right? I totally agree that the だって means も, "also", "too", or "either"; トラクターですもん。(その上/それに、)そんなにスピード{だって/も}出てないし。It was just a tractor. (Besides, / Adding to that,) It was not going that fast, too.
    – Chocolate
    Aug 12, 2016 at 0:40
  • 1
    @noobtube2 スピードが出る means "(for a car) to go fast". (cf. スピードを出す is "(for a driver) to accelerate/speed up".) スピードが出て(い)ない (is not going fast) is the negative progressive form of スピードが出る (to go fast).
    – Chocolate
    Aug 12, 2016 at 0:54
  • 1
    @noobtube2 so the thing that's coming out is the speed, -> Yeah, our Japanese brains think of it that way... I think this is like スピードが出る = speed comes out, speed is generated -> speed increases.
    – Chocolate
    Aug 25, 2016 at 0:03

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .