Hello. I hope this is not agains the rules or is a bad way of formulating this topic.
I am currently in the process of learning a base vocabolary so i can then start reading and writing out sentences (and listen to spoken japanese).
I just arrived at “まま” and now i am slightly confused.
From what i can understand まま points to a state of being. what or how something *is* currently and the rest of the sentence then conveys further meaning like ***something is supposed to Stay like it is*** or ***something is still a certain way***.
まだ on the other hand relates to time in that something is *still* like it was before.
So far so good, but now comes the part that had me perking up.
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The Example i was given for まだ was:
> 彼はまだ若いです。
>
> he is **sill** young
for まま i got the following example:
> 電気がついたままですよ。
>
> The lights are **still** on!
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so now i was wondering: what exactly is the difference in terms of information exchanged here? what does change if i were to switch まま and まだ around here? What exactly is the difference in meaning, when used in that way?
I thought about it a bit and even tried out the different words in a translator. (i know, i know) to see if that would change the sentence produced, but nothing changed.
彼はまだ若いです。 –> “He is still young.”
彼はまま若いです。 –> “He is still young.”
After a bit of thinking, here is what I came up with:
since まだ refers to a lack of change and まま refers to the current state. would it be correct to say that, if truly translated directly instead we would get:
彼はまだ若いです。 –> “He is still young.”
彼はまま若いです。 –> “He continues to be young.”
?
Do i get the difference here correctly, or am i completely wrong?
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In any case, thank you for any help!
2 comments
まま follows and has the feeling of “as is; unchanged; unaltered”.
電気をつけたまま – the light left on
熱いまま – while still hot
不便なまま – while still inconvenient
まだ goes before and has a sense of “still” or “not yet.”
電気がまだついている – the light is still on
電気はまだいていない – the lights aren’t on yet
まだ若い – still young
まだ強くない – still not strong
まだ静かだ – still quiet
まだ丈夫じゃない – still not study
basically まま puts focus on the lack of change, while まだ is less specific about if. for example, ドアが開いたままだ。(the door was left open) gives off the impression that someone forgot to close it , while ドアがまだ開いてる。(the door is still open) doesnt give off that impression as much (only stating that it is open). i think your example of “he continues to be young” doesnt fit cause age isn’t something someone can control