Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (May 11, 2023)

13 comments

1. I don’t understand the 事 in this sentence:

   地震めっちゃ大きかったけど皆無事ですか？

   “There was a super big earthquake but ???”

2. I don’t understand what 締めるところを締めてこそ means in the following sentence.

   「締めるところを締めてこそチームの結束も強まるものだ。」

   I currently understand it as “It’s only meaningful when you tie things when you tie them(??) should strengthen the unity in the team.” But I’m very confused

3. Is the shi in “大した” pronounced more like a sh? As I’m learning, I’m noticing sometimes vowels at the end of syllables are silent, and I know this tends to be between what people call voiced consonants. I’m not educated enough on the technical details of the language to quite understand that yet, but I know su is pronounced as just an s sometimes. Could someone help me know when to recognize this while reading out loud?

4. 「自分のものをとられてしまったようで、なんかむかつく。亮(りょう)は弟みたいにかわいいやつだけど、それとこれとは話がべつだ」

   I came across this while reading, and my question lies within the second part of the second sentence. 「それとこれとは話がべつだ」Am I right in thinking that this is supposed to be something like “This and that is a different story” or “This and that is a different conversation”?

   I’ve never come across this before that I can recall. It might seem obvious looking at it now, but if I’m completely off the mark, then I’d like to know.

5. When I order takeout from a restaurant and go pick it up, or at places with pre-made sushi in the open refrigerators, sometimes the chefs are right there preparing the food. In such cases, would it be appropriate to say ごちそうさまでした as I leave? If not, what would be a better response? Interestingly, all my searches for “ごちそうさまでした takeout/takeaway” or “ごちそうさまでした 持ち帰り” show nothing at all and I can’t believe that no one else has asked this question.

   Thank you in advance.

6. what does “日本語訳ガバガバだね” mean? I can’t figure out how がばがば fits?

7. What is up with the word ‘囚われる’? It seems like it’s in passive form, and the meaning according to [jisho.org](https://jisho.org) is also ‘to be caught’. However I cannot find a non-passive form of this verb, and even in the inflections [jisho.org](https://jisho.org) claims that it has a passive form, 囚われられる. Is this correct? If it is, how could one think about what 囚われられる means as opposed to 囚われる?

8. I recently started watching a lot more Japanese reality tv shows on Netflix and one thing that stood out to me is this frequent use of ‘ko’ (or ‘kou’, I am not really sure) in their speech.

   Am I right in assuming that it does not actually mean anything and it’s somewhat similar to ‘like’ in American English? I’m getting a similar vibe from their frequent use of ‘sa’ as well, perhaps it works in the same manner?

   Thanks in advance!

9. くれる

   giverが receiver(the speaker)に thingを

   ———–

   もらう

   receiverが giverに・から thingを

   ———-

   But what pattern does もらってくれる follow?

10. 姿勢を正して・黙想・止め・起立・礼

    Why not やめろ？I thought やむ was intransitive?

11. With one character distrusting another, he says “*偶然現れたことといい芸がなさすぎるじゃないか？*”. I’m in particular confused about the “ことといい” I assume this is the continuative form of “事と言う”? rather than that “いい” is “良い” modifying “芸” but I still don’t understand it’s function here.

12. “握りしめただけで、こうはならなくない？”

    What grammar is involved with ならなくない？ Shouldn’t it just be ならない?

13. Why do we need the で particle here? And does it mean “three women came”? I’m confused because I learned で is used for transportation/method/place.

    女の人が3人で来ました。