Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (October 13, 2022)

5 comments

1. I encountered this and was wondering about it:

   > わけにもいくまい

   The sentence I saw it in was:

   高木も太平洋に飛び込んで逃げるわけにもいくまい

   In context of this book, I think this sentence should mean “Takagi can’t escape into the Pacific” but why it should mean that is tripping me up. I thought まい was negative volitional, so it seems this could mean he didn’t want to escape into the pacific?

2. I’ve got an odd issue typing out Japanese on iOS I was hoping maybe there’s an easy answer to. I can’t seem to get ん to work – here’s an example しゅっしn

   On its own I can type n and then above the autocomplete will show ん　a few choices over. But at the end of words it will always just show as n and even autocomplete won’t show the character, like another example is がくえn

   I googled quite a bit but only get general results about how to enable the Japanese keyboard and other things not specifically addressing this one character. Is it me doing something wrong, or some other way to show ん　that I am missing?

3. Is there a “default parse” for 面白い? Like, if somebody said just なんて面白い映画だった what would a Japanese person read this as? “funny” simply by virtue of movies being funny more often than interesting? What about 面白い物語? Or is it better to just keep both meanings in mind and to wait for further context to resolve the ambiguity?

   On an unrelated note, I feel like I’ve been biting off more than I can chew recently in terms of Anki. Seeing the morphman number grow is just so satisfying but of course the real progress comes from immersion which I unfortunately have been neglecting due to my Anki addiction 🙁 I still have a mountain of reviews to deal with but I’ll crank it down on the new cards for a while now. I really really really have to immerse more.

4. I saw this example, with no further context, on the use of “ても” to say something opposite of what is expected:

   食べてもあんぜんです.

   But i don’t quite understand how the parts of the sentence are opposite. I think it has to do with the fact that we expect food to be safe to eat so it’s not normal to state that is “safe”.

5. Shinkanzen N2 Grammar L25 Exercise

   1. この自転車は(乗りにくくて)しょうがない。

   I understand that 乗りにくくて certainly works here because you are describing your body sensation from riding the bike. But why can’t 気にいって be used here? I thought 気にいって describes your feeling or taste, which should also work here, right?

   2. 犬が飼い主にそっくりなのが(おかしくて)たまらなかった。Why can’t 笑って be also used here? It is not impossible to laugh at the situation when you see the dog owner and the dog look exactly the same.

   3. 地球上から戦争を(なくさなければならない)。Why can’t なくさないわけにはいかない be used here? More specifically, what is the difference between the two? I thought both would describe something you have to do because of moral reasons or social rules/obligations and such.

   Thank You