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So I wrote this sentence:

エルヤはほんと上手戦士です、彼女は矢印を半分に切れます!

But it got corrected to this sentence:

エルヤはほんとうに凄腕の戦士で、彼女は矢を真っ二つに切れます!

I'm pretty sure that the first half of my original sentence is correct. So I have two questions about this correction:

  • Was the first half (before the comma) of my sentence correct? Does the correction make it sound more natural?

  • In the second half of the sentence, can someone explain how it works?

1 Answer 1

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In the first half, you are missing an うに from ほんと. 「ほんと」 is more used in slang/informal writing, but you'd still need the に in this case.

You could say 上手戦士 (note the necessary な), but [凄腕]{すご・うで} more greatly emphasizes her skill; 上手 works, but sounds a little "plain".


For the second half, 矢印 means an arrow that is a symbol (印), such as one you might be on a street sign, food packaging

(on a cup noodle) ふたを矢印まで[剥]{は}がして、水をいれる → Peel lid back to the arrow mark, fill with water

, or even this very typed character ➡.

矢 is what you use to talk about the weapon fired from a bow.


半分 means "half" in the sense of a portion size.

水を飲みかけて、半分を残す。 → Drink (some) water, leaving half of it.

真っ二つ means "half" in the sense of "(exactly) in two" or "both halves". So this is a case where the more common (IMO) English expression can screw up your translation/thinking: エルヤ doesn't split the arrow in "half", she splits it "in two". Now, if you were to find only one half of an arrow that had previously been split in two, you could probably use 半分.

真っ二つに切った矢の半分を見つける

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  • Hm, I think I have heard ほんと as an adverb before, though.
    – Angelos
    Feb 20, 2017 at 20:48
  • 2
    We could say somebody is 上手 in skills (e.g. swordplay), but it doesn't make sense for job names. Feb 20, 2017 at 22:37

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