Understanding わりかし

Question

「バカっ。タダでもらえりゃなんでももらうのかおまえはっ」
Idiot! Will you take anything if you can get it for free?
「うん、わりかしもらう方だね。よっぽどいらない物以外はっ」
Yes, I tend towards the receiving side. Unless it's something I really don't need.

Goo tells me that わりかし is a vulgar way to say わりかた. But I don't understand how to use that word either.

I can't see how translations of 'rather', 'quite' or 'comparatively' can fit into this sentence. To me these words should modify other adjectives/adverbs rather than verbs. Is there an implied adverb missing?

More generally how do I use わりかし? Could you perhaps give a few examples?

Answer 1

How about:

"Yeah, pretty much so." or

"Oh yeah, I'm pretty much the type (who ~~~~)."

At the least, that is the "feeling" of the expression 「わりかし～～方{ほう}だね」. Dictionaries will give you definitions, but they will not teach you how a word/phrase actually feels to the native speakers. Without a feeling for the word, no good translation will come.

Those translations of mine should capture the feeling I am talking about, but they do not reflect the grammar used in the phrase. As far as pure grammar, 「わりかし」modifies the following verb「もらう」 because 「わりかし」 is an adverb.

A proper grammar analysis and a good translation are often two different things altogether.

How native speakers use 「わりかし」:

「このピザ、わりかしうまいね。」 "This pizza tastes quite good."

Modifies the adjective 「うまい」.

「わりかし打{う}つね、あのバッター。」 (in baseball) "That batter hits rather well." ← Implies "better than expected".

Modifies the verb 「打つ」.

Answer 2

わりかし certainly sounds slangy/colloquial, but its original version, わりかた, is rarely used today. A less slangy way to say this is わりと (relatively, rather). In a very formal situation, you need to use 比較的 (comparatively).

As for translation, yes, "rather" is the first word that come up to my mind. In informal situations, わりと and わりかし can directly modify normal verbs like this:

• 彼女はテレビで{わりと/わりかし}見る。 ≒ 彼女はテレビで比較的よく見る。
  She is seen rather commonly on TV.
• 彼は{わりと/わりかし}食べる。 ≒ 彼は比較的よく食べる。
  He is rather a good eater.

Perhaps it's okay to assume something like よく is omitted after わりと, if it helps you.