Particle「も」in the sentence 「夏休みももう終わりだ」。

Question

So, I'm quite a novice, and I'm having some difficulty parsing the sentence:

「 夏休{なつやす}みももう終{お}わりだ。」

I "understand" it means "Summer vacation's already over".　I also understand 夏休み means summer vacation.

At this point, I am speculating, so please tell me if I make any errors: もう終わりだ is equivalent to もう終わりです, which means, it's (already?) over. However, I am confused at the use of も as the particle preceding もう終わりです. The only use I know for も is when replacing を or は to signify "also".

Could someone please clarify the use of the particle も and the meaning of もう in もう終わりだ.

Answer 1

夏休みももう終わりだ。

According to 明鏡国語辞典:

も 🈩副助
⓭ 軽い詠嘆を込めて物事をとりたてる。多く、人為を超えた物事の順当な推移についていう。
「夜もふけた」「暮れもおしつまった」「今や春もたけなわ」「ついに夏休み[戦争]も終わった」

So the も expresses 軽い詠嘆, light exclamation/admiration.

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もう終わりだ is equivalent to もう終わりです, which means, it's (already?) over.

You're right. だ/です is a copula. です is the polite version of だ.

もう has several meanings such as "already" "now" "soon" "shortly" "anymore" etc., and I think the もう in your example can be "now" "already" or "soon":

夏休みももう終わりだ。
Summer vacation is over now.
Summer vacation is already over / has already ended / is already coming to an end.
Summer vacation will be over soon.

Answer 2

”夏休みも終わりだ”

"ああ！夏休みも終わりだ"

The above two sentences are natural Japanese and have the same meaning.

"ああ！夏休みも遂に終わりだ"

This one also have the same meaning. "遂に（ついに）" is "at last, or finally"

"夏休みは終わりだ"

This sentence shows just the fact, but the sentences with "も" convey messages containing unspoken meanings. It depends on the individuals to feel what kind of unspoken meanings. I feel that the speaker fell in love during the summer vacation but he (or she) lost it.

"Mr. Trump will be the president of the US at last. The world will be brought to ruin."

"遂にトランプが合衆国大統領になる。世界も終わりだ"

The usage "も" in this kind of situation is one of the most difficult Japanese language usage. The clear explanation is difficult.

With the sentence "世界も終わりだ," I feel not just the world in general but various aspects like economy, climate and race issue, etc. will be brought to ruin.

Answer 3

It seems to be a sentence used by natives without thinking too much. But if you ask them to explain why it is used that way, you might get various interesting answers.

1 - The summer(implied) and its vacation are both over.

or

2 - It was a nice summer but even such nice summers too come to an end.

or my favorite

3 - This summer vacation as all the ones before it has also come to an end.