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Puffy Amiyumi grammar question

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bigred
New in Town
Posts: 4
Joined: January 23rd, 2008 9:19 am

Puffy Amiyumi grammar question

Postby bigred » May 18th, 2009 4:37 pm

I'm looking at the song, Into the Beach, and trying to figure out some things:
1. In the second verse, the word nobita modifies hana. I had expected the form to be nobitai since this would be the adjectival form. Nobita is a plain past form of nobiru, so the use of the verbal form instead of an adjective has me confused.

2. What does omotaku mean?

Here's the verse I'm looking at:
Pinocchio nobita hana wa
Omotaku utsumuku mono
Hadaka ni nareru koto de
Junsuina kimochi ni natte iru no-deshou

I'm still new to all of this, so I'll probably have more questions as I progress. Thanks for the help.

zakojanai
Established Presence
Posts: 97
Joined: January 29th, 2008 9:03 am

Postby zakojanai » May 18th, 2009 6:34 pm

1.
Well, you're sort of right about nobitai being the adjectival form. The verb here is nobiru (to grow, to extend). When the ending -tai is added to nobi (the verb stem), it transforms the verb into an adjective. Good job for getting that right. However, -tai is only used to express the desire to do something. Nobitai would mean "I want X to grow." Tabetai would mean "I want to eat X." Etc.

To describe an action that has happened to an object, you use the plain past tense (-ta) form of the verb. With nobiru, that would be nobita. This first would translate to something like "Pinocchio with the extended nose." (I know this translation is overly literal.) It's pretty common to use verbs in this sense when emphasizing a certain trait or past event. You can also use the dictionary form of verbs or the -te iru form if what you want to point out about the person is ongoing.

Ex.
sushi wo tabeta hito wa suteki. The guy who ate the sushi is dreamy.
sushi wo tabeteiru hito wa suteki. The guy eating sushi (right now) is dreamy.

2.
Omotaku is a form of "omotai," meaning heavy.

By the way, can you read kana? Because I hate writing this in romaji.

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bigred
New in Town
Posts: 4
Joined: January 23rd, 2008 9:19 am

Postby bigred » May 19th, 2009 6:42 pm

zakojanai,

Thanks for the thorough response. Your explanation helped broaden my understanding of how verbs take on various forms to modify nouns.

You've also prompted me to shed my laziness in learning to function with the kana.

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