２級 Grammar 21-25

The Daily Yoji is back and back strong with TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY.

21)　～かねる
cannot ~, ~ is difficult

I've been waiting for this grammar point for SO long - it's basically the same construction (-masu stem) as ~にくい, but it's for things that are difficult or impossible to do because of psychological barriers. Until this point I've never been able to use "見にくい", because it means "ugly" or "hard to see", as in "I forgot my glasses, so everything is hard to see!"

If you say something is 見かねる, however, it means you cannot watch something in silence, as in the example sentence below. For this one, just remember - it's like ~にくい, but when you can't do things for mental reasons.

Ex : インドの貧しさを見かねて手伝いに行く！

22) ～かねない
can
capable
possible

This one's nice in that it's clearly a negative form of the above, although I always seem to have a problem with modifications that by themselves are negative, and when THOSE are made negative, the result is positive. It sounds even more confusing when I say it like that... anyway, it's also mentioned that this is used mostly in negative situations. A good way to remember this would be my 電池辞書's definition of "I wouldn't put it past ~", as in...

Ex : 僕の隣家の人は大好きな子猫のトラインバイクを食べかねなかった...

23) ～かのようだ
seems as if
like
looks like

This is just a really basic modification of "ようだ" or "ように" or what have you. The only different as far as my book goes is that this one is stronger.

Quick refresher on usage:
Verb = dictionary form + かのようだ.
な type adjective or noun ＋　である　＋　かのようだ.
~かのように + Verb or Adjective
~かのような + Noun.

Ex : GTOかのようだ教師になるように。

24) ～から～にかけて
from ~ to ~.

This one is awesomely simple. It's VERY similar to ～から～まで, with the one catch being that it's not exact. You wouldn't use it to say "class is from 5 to 6 o`clock", or "I fly from Narita Airport to Seattle", but you could use it for "Japan is pretty hot from spring until fall", or "snow fell all the way from my home to the mountains".

Ex : 中国から日本列島にかけて黄沙がよく降っている。

25) ～からういと　　～からいえば　　～からいって
On the subject of ~
If you're talking about ~
In regards to ~

This is pretty much a fancy connector for a subject and ones judgement or evalution of that subject.

Ex : ブログの時間厳守からいうと、ザデイリー四字が完敗した。