28
votes
Accepted
Is the word 「やんな」positive or negative?
The particle な indeed has both meanings: "Don't do ～" and "Do ～". From デジタル大辞泉:
１ 動詞・動詞型助動詞の終止形、ラ変型活用語の連体形に付く。禁止の意を表す。「油断する―」「まだ帰る―」「かの尼君などの聞かむに、おどろおどろしく言ふ―」〈源・夕顔〉
２ 《補助動詞「なさる」...
- 306k
26
votes
Accepted
Why is the て-form being used before ん？
誰探してんの is a contracted form of 誰探してるの, which in turn is a contracted form of 誰(を)探しているの ("Who are you looking for?", notice the progressive form). More generally:
ている contracts to てる. (See ...
- 306k
13
votes
Accepted
What is the verb ending of われん mean?
救われん is made of 救われる and the archaic suffix ん, which came out of む. む・ん had similar roles to よう・おう today; that is to say, 救われん in modern style would be 救われよう or 救われるだろう. It is not related to the ん ...
- 11.2k
11
votes
Accepted
Saying い adjectives without pronouncing the い
It's uttered as a colloquial, casual and exclamatory phrase. It's typically used in response to a situation/stimulation that strikes you suddenly. っ is often added after the stem.
高っ! (Wow,) it'...
- 306k
10
votes
Is it a hiragana or a kanji or something else entirely?
It's a cursive version of と like the one in the picture, but written more stylistically
- 101
10
votes
Is it a hiragana or a kanji or something else entirely?
This style of と is found in fonts like 築地体初号仮名, an archaic looking font developed by Morisawa. It's a reproduction of a particular set of movable type, and other font makers might have similar looking ...
- 4,568
9
votes
Accepted
Any hints on how to translate the 'Nanny' in Totoro?
ニコニコしとれば 悪さは しねえし いつの間にか いねくなっちまうんだ。
This is the same as the following sentence written in the standard Japanese.
ニコニコしていれば悪さはしないし、いつの間にかいなくなってしまうんだ。
If you keep smiling, they won't do bad ...
- 306k
9
votes
Accepted
がってんなら - what kind of contraction am I dealing with in this sentence?
帝国がってんなら、
It looks like a contracted pronunciation of 帝国がと言うのなら。
～というのなら → ～ってのなら → ～ってんなら
(The particle って can be the colloquial version of という.)
I think the sentence literally means:
『帝国が』...
- 65.3k
8
votes
Accepted
What does てくんない ending on a verb mean?
This is an abbreviated form of 〜てくれない, meaning "to not do 〜 for me". So 貸してくれない means "won't lend me", but phrased as a question like this (likely with a rising intonation) mean "Hey Maruo, won't you ...
- 43.9k
8
votes
Accepted
Can anyone explain what ないっちゃないんだけど means in this sentence?
Xと言えばX, where X is any predicate, is a way to reluctantly admit X.
3日でできると言えばできます。 I can do it in 3 days if you insist (but I don't want to do so)
その花は赤いと言えば赤い。 You may say the flower is red (but ...
- 306k
8
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between ～してる and ～している?
してる is simply a colloquial contracted form of している, similarly one has してない contracted from していない. It is very common in spoken language, but ungrammatical in "proper" (school) grammar.
This ...
- 48k
8
votes
Is it a hiragana or a kanji or something else entirely?
It is not a contraction but a design of と. It is supposed to represent the beginning of the stroke written with a brush.
You can see the same style in し in 亡くした on the fourth line. On this, the ...
- 32.6k
7
votes
Accepted
What does the 「たあ」 do in this sentence?
It is a sound change of "とは". It may be used in old city(下町 in Japanese) in Tokyo.
- 24.1k
7
votes
Accepted
休ん and 違うん . I don't get if this is a verb form, conjugation, a contraction or some grammar that I still don't know
休んどいてもいい is a colloquial contraction of 休んでおいてもいい. See this chart. 休んで is the simple te-form of 休む, but a te-form may be "fused" with a following subsidiary verb and look different.
違うんだろう ...
- 306k
6
votes
Accepted
Contractions in やんなっちゃう
Yes, やんなっちゃう is short for いやになっちゃう, which is short for いやになってしまう.
いやになる is a fixed phrase meaning "to be fed up / sick / disgusted". So やんなっちゃうなあ is something like "Now I'm starting to feel disgusted"...
- 306k
6
votes
ておく → とく in other contexts; similar 2-kana to 1-kana shortcuts?
Yes, for example...
～ておいで -> ～といで e.g. 持っておいで -> 持っといで
～ておくれ -> ～とくれ e.g. 来ておくれ -> 来とくれ (← might be Edo/Tokyo dialect)
Yes, for example...
～でしまう -> ～じまう (でし→じ) e.g. 死んでしまう -> 死んじまう (→ often ...
- 65.3k
6
votes
Accepted
落としちまった - what form is this?
It is two verbs. You just had the two wrong verbs in mind.
落｛お｝としちまった
is the colloquial form of 落｛お｝としてしまった, which in turn is comprised of the following two verbs:
落｛お｝として (て form): 落とす (jisho.org)
...
- 650
6
votes
About ておいてね, what does it mean?
You think right, that といて is a shortened, colloquial version of ておいて. In other words, ~とく is a casual version of ~ておく where basically て+お is merged into と.
More precisely the shortenings work as ...
- 7,886
6
votes
Accepted
How to parse 何てこった
It comes from
なんてことだ
(source)
As the result of a sound change.
It is colloquial.
- 3,084
6
votes
Accepted
Sound change of verbs (違う → ちげー)
I think this is a variant of the /ai/-to-/ee/ sound change that typically happens with i-adjectives:
What does こまけー mean?
What is じゃねぇか? What is its original form?
わからない vs わかね in My Boss My Hero
If ...
- 306k
6
votes
Accepted
Why is the verb 変えれない instead of 変えられない
This is called ら抜き言葉, 'words without ら', and while it is often used informally by younger speakers, it's non-standard and therefore can make you look sloppy if you use it in a formal environment. It ...
- 11.2k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible