14
votes
Accepted
Conjugated word + んだ vs nonconjugated word + conjugated んだ
無理だったんだ is straightforward, it's a combination of 無理だった ("was impossible") and the explanatory-の. "So it is that it was impossible", "Because it was not possible", "(I failed but) it was impossible (...
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9
votes
What is the meaning of ～んです/～のだ/etc?
One usage that I was taught and is not mentioned above for んです is to soften a question or statement.
For example
レストランに 行きたいです I want to go to a restaurant.
is a bit demanding or matter-of-fact. ...
- 1,809
7
votes
Accepted
What does 歩けというの mean in this song?
というの asks rhetorical questions (it's literally just と, 言う, and の). If your mom told you to keep studying for a long time you might say something like 死ぬまで勉強しろというのか "you want me to study until I die, ...
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6
votes
Accepted
How to understand 「僕は誰より彼女が好きなんだ。」
なん does not mean "not". This (な)ん is something called "explanatory-の". You can learn about it in the following articles.
What is the meaning of ～んです/～のだ/etc?
Explanatory のだ （んだ）
より is a particle to ...
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6
votes
Accepted
What does「電車に乗ってたらなんだっていうんだろね」mean in this context?
Ignore my suggestion in the comments! Actually I think the way you should interpret this is "what difference does it make if he's riding the train?" Grammatically some key points are:
乗ってたら is a ...
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6
votes
Accepted
Are のだぞ、のさ、のだ grammatically wrong?
As for the difference between んだぜ/んだぞ and のだぜ/のだぞ, yes, the former is far more common, but the latter form is still grammatical and occasionally heard. A fictional pompous person may well talk like ～...
- 264k
5
votes
Accepted
What are the grammatical roles of the two のs in the following sentence?
彼はこういうのがうまいのです。
Sounds like you're confused about both の. Let's analyze.
Breaking it down
First, a literal word-by-word translation.
[彼]{"He" }[は]{[TOPIC] }[こう]{"like this" }[...
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4
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Whats the difference between なんで日本語を話せますか vs なんで日本語を話せるのですか
The former, なんで日本語を話せますか, is plain unnatural, and you should always construct a sentence like the latter. A good rule of thumb is that なんで/どうして is almost always used with explanatory の/ん.
Exceptions:
...
- 264k
4
votes
Meaning of "のであり" in the sentence
There's a lot to unpack here. The attempted translation you proffered doesn't come all that close, so I've broken it down as shown below:
その手間が面倒な人
People (who find) that 'labor/time & effort' ...
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3
votes
のだ vs. similar constructions
When のだ is used to provide an explanation, how does it differ from (だ)から?
Giving a reason is only one of the ways to explain something. Explanatory-のだ is used in broader situations to mark an ...
- 264k
2
votes
いつもあなたの名前呼んでいるのよ 気付いてよ此処に来て
This の is "explanatory-no". I hope you already know this の because it appears in many formal sentences. Semantically the sentence is the same as 名前を呼んでいるのだ/です.
This よ after の is a feminine sentence-...
- 264k
2
votes
Meaning of のか in this sentence?
If you don’t know whether or not whatever uttered the voice did so in response to the sound, you might say:
その音に反応したのかどうかわからない。
If you suspect it did, you might say:
その音に反応したのかもしれない。
のか in your ...
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2
votes
Meaning of のか in this sentence?
In this sentence, のか means that the speaker is guessing at a cause. To translate the sentence, "Perhaps reacting to the sound, I heard a voice." Kind of a gross translation, but ...
- 21
2
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Explanatory form のです used in two consecutive sentences
You are right, the first sentence looks fairly unnatural to me if this is everything in the conversation. You have to say ケーキがなくなってしまいました or something if this is the first sentence in a conversation.
...
- 264k
2
votes
Accepted
Sentence meaning - 「それにしたって」, 「だったっていうんですもの」, 「で」
Your translation is actually good overall. You can split this long sentence into two and interpret them individually.
本式のメリーゴーランドの馬のように大きくはないけれど、それにしたって持って来る時は国雄さんとお父さんと二人がかりだったっていうんですもの、
It's ...
- 264k
1
vote
What does 嫌いなの (kirainano) mean
"なの" can be used as either a question marker or an explanatory marker depending on intonation. Think of reading it as "嫌いなの？" versus "嫌いなの". In this case, the context ...
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1
vote
Accepted
What does the ending to this する conjugation mean してんなぁ?
～してんなぁ is a contraction of ～してるなぁ (which in itself is a contraction of ～しているなぁ, as you probably know). る sometimes becomes ん before certain consonants.
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