1

Context: A guy asks a girl if someone (another girl) is her friend because she was with her the day after. This is what she answers. I understand 一方的 means one sided and 憧れてる is to long for or admire. Full sentence reads as follows:

あ いやっ... 私が一方的に憧れてるだけで。

The いやっ at the beginning makes me think this is a negative answer. Does this mean something along the lines of

No we are not friends, but I admire her.

1
  • 3
    A tip: it's great that you try and put in some context to help clarify your questions, but it's actually easier if you quote the surrounding lines in Japanese, because what we sometimes see is summaries and paraphrases in questions could be inaccurate or unclear. More original text will be conducive to us pinpointing and explaining the meaning and grammar points for you. See this meta post: japanese.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2190/30454
    – Eddie Kal
    Jan 18, 2022 at 21:39

1 Answer 1

2

Going by the context you describe in the question, the meaning of that response does constitute a negative answer to the effect of something like

Well, I admire/like her. That's it. The feeling is not reciprocated.

So my rendering is a bit wordy because I am trying to render it in natural English. Although it is a negative response to the question asked, I don't think the いや here is a hard, clipped "No". Rather, it is closer to a filler and better translated as "well" or maybe "well, not really." For more on いや, see this answer:

The usage of いや in response to questions

一方的に, as you say, means "one-sided", "unreciprocated".

憧れる means something closer to "like". The aspect in the original Japanese line is continuous (憧れてる, contracted from 憧れている), telling us the action is ongoing, but I'm reluctant to use the present continuous or the present perfect continuous. In such situations usually the simple present does the job just fine, and the other two tense-aspect combinations would sound weird.

だけ is a noun meaning "only", "just", "merely", or "simply"

で is the conjunctive form of copula だ

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .