Japanese in 18 Months? No way!!!

[larethian]

based on what I remembered from my sucky Japanese, I think that shimau means "to an end", though in a more figurative form that implies "drat!", poke!" (this word is censored), "shit!" kind of feeling, or indicate a level where you can't go beyond, I guess? in Chinese, it's like "完蛋了！" kind of feeling. whether it's translatable or should be translated depends on the context, I guess.

しまった！Even my explanation got sucky! 説明が腐ってしまった！Hmm, this doesn't sound right, since it indicates the explanation got bad over time, but something like that.

[YoakeNoHikari]

Yes, it rotted away slowly. XD

I get what しまう means, but I was wondering whether the progressive form of 怒る was to get angry, or to be angry.

[EusthEnoptEron]

僕はね、怒ってるの。今すぐ貴方の脳みそを吹っ飛ばして差し上げたい気分。
↑ be angry

そろそろ怒るわよ？このボケナス！
↑ get angry


Or a sample with shimatteru from the top of my head. What I think it may be used like. "Be angry" in this case, too. Or to be more exact, "has gotten angry".
化物が怒ってしまってる！我々も終に黄泉比良坂を歩む亡者の列に加わるってこと！？

[YoakeNoHikari]

Thank you very much!

[YoakeNoHikari]

What tense is 戦えり? The reason I ask this is because of that Gate series that was suggested, and I realized I have no idea what tense it is. Upon entering 戦えり into google, the first three suggestions are of the said book, so I suppose 'tis unique.

[larethian]

What tense is 戦えり? The reason I ask this is because of that Gate series that was suggested, and I realized I have no idea what tense it is. Upon entering 戦えり into google, the first three suggestions are of the said book, so I suppose 'tis unique.

correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this something akin to nominalization of a verb to noun or a verbal noun?

[YoakeNoHikari]

That's what I thought, but how'd it translate?

戦場？ 戦争？

[Doraneko]

戦えり　is an just old-fashioned way of saying 戦った, with a militaristic flavour. It is usually used in the titles of books and movies.

斯く　戦えり →　このように　戦った

Don't use it in modern day conversations or else people will think you have just timeslipped from the 1930s .

eg.

• 児玉誉士夫随想・対談「われ　かく戦えり」
• 別冊歴史読本 「'86夏季特別号」 特集 連合艦隊かく戦えり
• 太平洋戦争の記録 日本かく戦えり
• 「沖縄県民かく戦えり。 県民に対し、後世特別の御高配を賜らんことを」 (６０年前に自決した沖縄海軍隊の大田司令官による有名な電文)

[YoakeNoHikari]

Can this conjugation be applied to other verbs?

[Doraneko]

Can this conjugation be applied to other verbs?

For advance questions like this, you should have asked your Japanese teacher or a linguistic professor, instead of a random law/accounting student with half-baked Japanese knowledge in an English forum.

Back to the question, I am not even sure if 戦えり is a regular verb conjugation. In ancient Japanese, past tense is in the form of き or けり, depending on whether it is a first-person experience (the former) or third-person narration (the latter).

From the examples I have provided previously, you can see 戦えり taking both the meanings of 戦いき (as in 我斯く戦えり) and 戦いけり (as in 沖縄県民斯く戦えり). There are still ample examples of 戦いき and 戦いけり in Google, so it is safe to say that 戦えり hasn't taken over any of them either. Anyhow 戦えり is likely just an alternate (but slightly cool) way of saying 戦った, without any impact over the general verbs and does not serve as an example of another generally-used type of verb conjugation.

As I have stressed, take what I have said with a grain of salt and consult the professionals if you are interested.

[YoakeNoHikari]

Unfortunately, the only Japanese person I know is my piano teacher.

All my Japanese has been self-taught within the space of 3~4 months, with exposure to VNs before that.

I don't have anybody to ask, so I have to run to this forum everytime I have a question. >.<

も一度、ありがとうございます。

[EusthEnoptEron]

Unfortunately, the only Japanese person I know is my piano teacher.

At least you know one, unlike me.

btw. I remember having seen this form in Dantalian no Shoka. tobira ga hirakeri or something like that.

[rpapo]

Could be worse: my entire non-BT Japanese contact list:

(1) Lady from church. I think I either asked her too many questions, or her husband got suspicious of all the questions, but whatever happened I haven't heard anything since getting a note that she didn't have time for questions anymore . . . about six months ago.

(2) Another lady from church. Wife of university professor, middle-aged with no kids. She won't have anything to do with anything so shady as otakus, though I can ask her the occasional question. Very occasional.

(2a) Her husband, who's a nice guy but is also quite busy. Based on the reaction of (2), I am careful with him.

(3) Yet another lady from church, since moved to Chicago. After reviewing about ten pages said she didn't have time for it.

(4) Guy from church who lived in Japan for a while and now works for Toyota. What I'm working on is far outside of his abilities in Japanese, which are generally business oriented. He think's I ought to get my head examined, but respects the effort involved.

(5) Guy in our Tokyo office. I've not told him I've been translating light novels, mostly because the other's reactions so far.

(6) The people at our local Japanese grocery store, about three miles from my job. I try to use Japanese when I'm in the store, every couple of weeks. 大福 are delicious, but very filling.

None of the above, excepting occasionally (2), are any help with these translations, so I'm pretty much on my own.

[larethian]

For advance questions like this, you should have asked your Japanese teacher or a linguistic professor, instead of a random law/accounting student with half-baked Japanese knowledge in an English forum.

There is a saying that the further you go (or the more you know), the more you realize you don't know. Seems like it's true. Wise words indeed, though you're still better than my quarter-baked Japanese.

[YoakeNoHikari]

That's definitely true. When I first started reading the Big Three, I thought that that was all to manga.

Oh, how wrong I was...

It was probably after I picked up Hayate no Gotoku that I started becoming モノのアワレ.

...I can't make puns to save my life.