5

I've always heard こいつ refer to a person. (That guy!) However, in my JLPT Reading workbook there is a line where it refers to a situation. The explanation says:

「こいつ」が状況を表し．．．．ことに気づくこと。

It goes on to say two of the answers were wrong because they referred to people.

I got the answer correct because it "felt right", but I really don't understand the explanation. Is this a different こいつ? Is this a common usage of it?

The passage is about a group that got lost in the woods picking mushrooms. The narrator climbs a tree to find the way back.

こいつはまずいと思って、俺はナラの大木に登って．．．．

The question and answer are:

「こいつ」とは何を指すか。

〇　変な場所にいるわたしたち

| improve this question | |
  • @Dave: I hesitated to take out the middle of the sentence. I didn't want to confuse people and also didn't want to add extraneous information that would also confuse the question. In the dots are "．．．．｢まずい」がよくないという意味であることに．．．．". And I also thought that about it still having to do with people in the end. – silvermaple Jul 21 '12 at 5:58
6

こいつ as well as これ can be used to refer to a situation, and you can rephrase the line as 「これはまずいと思って、俺はナラの大木に登って・・・」. こいつ sounds more colloquial, blunter and maybe more masculine than これ. 岩波国語辞典 states "こいつ = このやつ。｢これ｣の乱暴な言い方。「こやつ」の転。".

岩波国語辞典 also states "これ ②今話題になっている物・事をさす語。「一夜のうちに大木になった。おじいさんはこれを見て驚いた。」"

(Btw, I think the answer to「こいつ」とは何を指すか should have been written as more like 「わたしたちが変な場所にいること」.)

| improve this answer | |
  • 1
    I agree, the answer “変な場所にいるわたしたち” is incorrect, although it could be less incorrect (?) than the other options which are not shown in the question. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jul 21 '12 at 11:43

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.