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俺旅芸人の一座にいたんだけどそれがあの盗賊どもに襲われちゃってさー

The て form is used at the end but not for a request. It doesn't seem to be one of those cases where the order of the words is simply "inverted" either, so what's the nuance behind the て form in this case?

1 Answer 1

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Te-form at the end of a sentence can be:

  1. Request marker
  2. Reason marker
  3. Simple "continuation" marker used to indicate the current story continues

    で is usually used to connect to phrases, but when the speaker is too excited about the first part already, s/he wants to affirm it with ね

    For that reason, you will keep encountering "sentences" ending with conjunctions and verbs/adjectives in the te-forms for as long as you study Japanese. We call those 「言いさし表現」.

In this case, it's 3. This te-form is used to keep the listener's attention by indicating this is not the end of his story and he has something more to say about it.

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  • I've seen it used in some instances where it was actually the end of the story though. Is it then similar to using けど or が at the end of a sentence or something? EDIT: Sorry, now that I think about it those would probably fit under the second definition. But couldn't my example fit under the second definition too?
    – xndfrr
    Aug 9, 2018 at 3:52
  • @xndfrr It could be 2, if this is an explanation of some previous context (e.g. "You're severely injured! What happend!?")
    – naruto
    Aug 9, 2018 at 4:00
  • I think that's the case then, he's providing context for how he ended up captured by a group of thieves.
    – xndfrr
    Aug 9, 2018 at 4:03
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    Hey @naruto, apparently this is the source: geocities.jp/p_lilith_q/daihon/beruseruku1.htm
    – BJCUAI
    Aug 9, 2018 at 6:18
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    Okay, then this te-form looks like a combination of both 2 and 3. Te-form for reason can be in plain form (e.g. "電車が遅れて。")
    – naruto
    Aug 9, 2018 at 7:13

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