Japanese Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for students, teachers, and linguists wanting to discuss the finer points of the Japanese language. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Just trying have some fun with Japanese grammar, but the sentence in the title has me stumped. I just don't understand Japanese particles enough to even know where to begin. Here is my best attempt at something resembling this sentence, but its gotta be wrong, so please help understand how to construct this sentence in the best way.
I think that she thinks that I think she is dumb
私は彼女が私は彼女がバカとおもうとおもっているとおもう。(LOL, there is just no way...)
How about...
I think she is dumb.
彼女のことをバカだと僕は思っている。
↓
She thinks that I think she is dumb.
彼女のことをバカだと僕が思っていると彼女は思っている。
↓
I think that she thinks that I think she is dumb.
彼女のことをバカだと僕が思っていると彼女が思っていると僕は思っている。
↓
X thinks that I think that she thinks that I think she is dumb.
彼女のことをバカだと僕が思っていると彼女が思っていると僕が思っているとXさんは思っている。
↓
Y thinks that X thinks that I think that she thinks that I think she is dumb.
彼女のことをバカだと僕が思っていると彼女が思っていると僕が思っているとXさんが思っているとYさんは思っている。
↓
... and it can go on and on...
How about "私は、彼女が、私が彼女を馬鹿だ(と思う)と思っていると思う"?
"I think that she thinks that" is translated as "私は、彼女が(を)～と思うと思う" and "I think she is dumb" is translated as "私は彼女は馬鹿だと思う", so it would be translated as "私は、彼女が、私が彼女を馬鹿だ(と思う)と思っていると思う".
My other idea is "私が彼女が(を)馬鹿だと思うと彼女が思っていると私は思う".
Nice challenge! I really had to think about this one.
The only way I could do it without the sentence being super clunky was to use synonyms for think. So I used 意見｛いけん｝(opinion), and 思う。 I'm not 100% convinced that it means exactly what I have translated it as (or if its 100% grammatically correct for that matter), but this is what I came up with:
私の意見ですけど、彼女の思いでは私が彼女を馬鹿{ばか}だと思うと考えているかな。
This is my opinion, but she seems to think that I think she's dumb.
I have found that in situations like this, using synonyms helps make the task of translation considerably easier at times.
