「日刊四字」へようこそ!

Now Featuring 1級 Grammar, Everyday Japanese That You Won't Find in the Book, and Language and Cultural Trivia!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

2級 Grammar 56-60

56) ~ずに(は)いられない
~ to feel the need to do something, based on internal forces

Look at the way this one is structured. We discussed the 「~ずに」 construction briefly in the comments section of 我田引水, and if you add it to the negative potential form of いる, to be, you get: cannot EXIST without doing. You can use this for things that you REALLY want to do like, 「お好み焼きを食べずにいられない。」 but it's designed to communicate a very powerful compulsion. My book lists the following example:

「酒を飲まずにいられない」と言うのはアルコール中毒の症状です。

Here's mine:
Ex. レストランのバイトがきらいになって、朝起きてまた寝ずにいられない。

57) ~せいだ ・ ~せいで ・~せいか
~ due to
~ because of
~ fault

「せい」 works just like 「おかげ」 except that 「せい」 can be used to attribute responsibility to positive or negative things, though negative usages are more frequent; 「おかげ」 only works favorably.

Use like this:

Cause(の)で、Effect

EffectはCause(の)せいだ.

You can use either a noun as the cause (in which cause you need the parenthetical の), or you can use it with a verb or adjective in it's usual form. When you attach the か、you weaken your certainty a bit, like adding a 「だろう」.

Ex. ボスにいつも怒られているせいで、仕事がきらいになった。

58) ~だけ
~ as much as
~ all of
~ everything

This 「だけ」 is not at all to be confused with the one used to mean only. I guess technically it's the same word, but if you think about it "only" terms, you just get your meanings all messed up, which I now realize I have been doing with the phrase "好きなだけ食べてください." It literally means "Eat as much as you like," which is not quite the same as "You don't have to eat everything," which is what I usually try to say. For the mean time, I'm sticking with "ムリしないでください," and learning the real use of this grammar point.

It's used in two main ways. It's attached to verbs in たい form, or other words that express desire to say, as much as you want to: 食べたいだけ、寝たいだけ、欲しいだけ、or 好きなだ。The other main way is to attach it to potential forms (できるだけ) which becomes the same as なるべくに: as much as possible; if possible; as much as you can.

Ex. ボスに怒られるのは、職場のビュッフェを食べたいだけ食べてみたことです。二週間で五キロ太った。

59) ~だけあって ・ ~だけに
~ being the case
~ because of

This one is used to attribute a naturally evident reason for something: She went to beauty schoolだけあって、she's really good at make up. Obviously. If you use the あって form, you need to use it positively. に can go either way.

Ex. だが、まずいだけに、ごはんがいつも残っている。

60) ~だけのことはある
~ see above

This is exactly the same as だけあって or だけに except that it requires two sentences. The effect is stated, and the reason comes afterwards in a separate sentence. If someone comments on the beauty student's makeup, you can explain it by saying "She went to beauty school だけのことはある.

Ex. 無駄にしたくなかっただけのことはあった。

No comments: