掴み所

[Kasurot]

Since the two Kanji for this are "grip/seize/hold" and "place", I assumed this word/phrase meant to something like a hilt or handle... as you would find on a gun or sword. However, upon doing a google search, almost every results it comes up with "掴み所がない" used in ways such as "掴み所がない感じ". The latter I thought maybe meant extremely happy or angry, such as... can't get a grip on their emotions. Is this in the right area or am I completely off?

Thanks for any help,
Kevin Armstrong

[Psy]

Ahoy there, good attempts but no, this means "vague" or "unclear." Without a place to grasp, something without a basis by which to understand something. はっきりしない. Note that without the がない this refers to the point at which you can grasp something, e.g. the main point being discussed. Of course, it can also simply refer to a 掴む所. A lot of the examples point at 掴み所がない話 or 掴み所がない人.

Thanks again, Doraemon.

[Kasurot]

Thanks for the answer! It's funny when you don't think of something so simple. Especially since you hear "Couldn't grasp the idea/concept." quite often.

Oh... and not related to the question at all... but what is the Nihongo2 grammar that you have in your signature?

Thanks again,
Kevin

[Psy]

Thanks for the answer! It's funny when you don't think of something so simple. Especially since you hear "Couldn't grasp the idea/concept." quite often.

Happens to all of us, believe me...

Oh... and not related to the question at all... but what is the Nihongo2 grammar that you have in your signature?

That refers to a very large online Japanese grammar dictionary I'm using at http://www.nihongo2.com/ , titled the 日本語表現文型辞典. There's nary a point I've needed to look up that hasn't been listed here, and I'm fairly confident that, from a grammatical standpoint, finishing it will be adequate preparation for the 1級. I'm glad I was clever enough (or perhaps evil enough?) to think to download the thing onto to my computer before they started prohibiting it, a point further reinforced by the "temporarily unavailable" error message the site displays at the time of this writing.

Today I'm at point 41. I hope to have a general overview of all of the points in 3 to 6 months, following which I will crack down on the more difficult/forgotten points through review.

Difficult but rewarding. 頑張ります！