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I saw that 唱えるか while watching Little Witch Academia.

The dialog is:

さっきのを唱えて！ (She is talking about 呪文)
唱えるか！！！

Is that an abbreviation of 唱えるものか?

The context is that one of the characters put the others in a cage to be the bait. And then they were told to recite the magic words to attract the monsters.

The protagonists got annoyed and said 唱えるか！

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  • So you're thinking it's intended to mean "I can't cast it!", "No way" or something? Then you may have misheard something. Do you have link to the video (or at least the episode number)?
    – naruto
    Commented Feb 13, 2022 at 23:17
  • It's episode 1. And no, I did not mishear anything because I only watch with Japanese subtitles.
    – Manab
    Commented Feb 14, 2022 at 1:45
  • And yes, I believe she means something like (The hell I'll recite it!).
    – Manab
    Commented Feb 14, 2022 at 2:08
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    I thought she literally said "呪文唱えるか", and that's why I thought it was unlikely to be a rhetorical question.
    – naruto
    Commented Feb 14, 2022 at 3:00
  • 1
    Thanks for posting this question, and also for at least trying to include the context. Next time, though, please try to be more careful to quote accurately. The way you wrote this, it looks as if one of the characters actually said the words "さっきのを唱えて！She is talking about 呪文 唱えるか！！！," including the English part!
    – Nanigashi
    Commented Feb 14, 2022 at 22:13

1 Answer 1

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Here's the actual conversation.

アツコ：クチュル・カテラ・フラーラ！

(A furious monster appears)

アツコ：なにこれ、さっきの呪文なんだったの？
スーシィ：「馬鹿め、悔しかったら私を食べな」って意味。
アツコ：はぁ？
スーシィ：アルクトゥルスの森にしかいない、伝説のコカトリス。羽には猛毒があると言われている。猛毒コレクターにとっちゃ超レアアイテム。そいつの気を引きつけてー、その間に羽を取るから。
アツコ：はぁ、つまり私たちは囮ってこと？
スーシィ：違う、生け贄！　さっきのもういちど唱えてー！
アツコ：唱えるかぁー！

In this context, the last line means "No way", "Heck no", etc. It's basically a rhetorical question. See: 「知るか」 and variant phrases

As explained in the linked page, 唱えるか can mean both "Okay let me cast it" or "No way will I cast it!" depending on the context and the intonation. We need sufficient context or the audio to know which is intended.

唱えるもんか (唱えるものか) also works in this situation, but that doesn't mean 唱えるか is its abbreviation.

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