2級 Grammar 76-80

Juggling my upcoming move with studying for 2kyuu (kanji is destroying me), and plans to meet up and say so long to all the people I've met along the way, plus the fact that Brett is in AMERICA equals less than awesome posts, but for those of you out there who are still following along, it's better to do a little bit of 中途半端 studying every day than stop studying completely until you have the time to do it right. So I'm gonna keep going with the grammar and get as much absorbed (吸収, 2級 kanji) as I possibly can. Thanks for sticking with me.

76) ～てならない
~ cant help but

Used to refer to emotions or feelings or effects that originate naturally and automatically as a reaction to something. It's a strong expression, emphasizing the idea that these feelings can't be repressed or held back. Can be attached to the て form of verbs or い-type adjectives. な-type adjectives take 「でならない」. When it's used with verbs, they'll probably be one of the following verbs:

• 思われる (to be thought)
• 思い出される (to be remembered)
• 悔やまれる (to be regretted)
• 感じられる (to be felt)

You'll notice that all of these verbs are in their passive forms, which ties in with the idea that てならない occurs naturally, on it's own. You don't make an active effort to remember something, it just can't be helped.

Ex 1. この音楽聞くたびに戦争を連想されてしまうので、辛いことを思い出されてならない。
Ex 2. 試験は明日だが、ぜんぜん勉強していないので、不安でならない。

77) ～ということだ　(1)
～そうだ

This is used exactly the same way as そうだ, to indicate that the information in your sentence comes from something that you heard or read, from some source other than yourself. Basic stuffs.

Ex.　「日本は元々安全な国だったけど、現在は危険な状態になっています。」とよく言われていますが、実は日本の犯罪率は減っているということだ。

78) ～ということだ　(2)
~ is understood
~ is apparent
~ is evident

This is easiest for me to remember in the following pattern: A ということは、Bということだ。Taking A as the proof, we can infer B. My book's examples are pretty simple to understand:

• こんなにたくさん星が出ているということは、明日は天気がいいということだ。
• あんなに大きい家を買ったということは、彼は大金持ちだということだね。

Ex.　彼女が最近のデートを全部キャンセルしたということは、もう付き合いたくないということだろう。

79) ～というと　・　といえば　・　といったら
~ if one were to mention...

A special construction used to indicate what comes to mind in terms of something else. You can use it to say anything from "If one were to mention kanji, people think "HARRRRRD!" to "If one were to mention famous crazy people named Tom, Tom Cruise comes to mind."

Ex. アメリカ料理といえば、ハンバーガやステーキなどが代表的だ。

80) ～といったら
~ speaking of
～は

This really can just be used in place of は when you want to stress something really big or すごい in either a good or bad way. Kind of like a "How about that.... It was amazing/terrible!"

Ex. この痛みといったら言葉にできないほどだ。