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The phrase is:

あたしたちでつくっちゃえばいいんだよ、運命{うんめい}なんか。

So far from what I understand:

  • あたしたち is a feminine version of "we",

  • つく would be 作{つく}, which is "to do something"/"make something", I believe,

  • and ちゃう is "to do something completely".

However, from that point on, I'm confused. I don't understand:

  1. The usage of ばいいんだ
  2. Why 運命なんか is placed at the end of the sentence.

If someone could help explain these two points to me, and/or the whole meaning of the sentence it would be much appreciated.

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  • つくっちゃう definitely stands for 「作る」 here. The fact that 運命なんか is placed in the end of the sentence is a matter of stylistics, you can even find the same pattern in some western languages.
    – vdudouyt
    Commented Sep 20, 2016 at 3:46
  • Please put the Jp phrase in the Subj line. ( てしまう and ちゃう japanese.stackexchange.com/q/38421/16344 ) (T2 slogan)
    – HizHa
    Commented Sep 20, 2016 at 4:31
  • "Destiny is something we make for ourselves".
    – kandyman
    Commented Apr 6, 2018 at 19:59

1 Answer 1

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Yes, あたしたち for "we" and つく for "[作]{つく}".

ちゃう is the casual form of てしまう, whose meaning is to do completely.

ちゃう/てしまう involves feeling of "solve the problem by making it completely done" or "we don't have be concerned with it anymore after it is completely done."

In your sentence, it can be inferred that the speakers are trying to solving some problem by making [運命]{うんめい}.

Next, the phrase ばいいんだ, ば is for supposition ("if we did ...") and いい is for "good" or "OK." ん is the casual form of の, and のだ is for emphasis.

So its word-to-word meaning is like "It would be OK if we did ...". One of its better translation is: "What we have to do is only to ..."

Lastly, the reason 運命なんか is placed at the end is what we call [倒置法]{とうちほう}. As the comment above says, it is not hard to understand since we sometimes do it in English.

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