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Question about japanese sentence

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trmcami4945
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Question about japanese sentence

Postby trmcami4945 » July 4th, 2012 12:07 am

So I saw this on my textbook

急に家へ帰らなくてはいけなくなってしまいました。

My question is about this part: 帰らなくてはいけなくなってしまいました。
I can see that this includes the pattern for "なくてはいけません" and "ってしまいました" but I don't understand what is the meaning of the "なって". Does it come from "naru" (to become)? What exactly 帰らなくてはいけなくなってしまいました is supposed to mean?

Thank you!!

Kat
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Postby Kat » July 4th, 2012 10:45 am

trmcami4945,

Hi there! Thanks for posting :)!

急に家へ帰らなくてはいけなくなってしまいました。

A literal translation of this would be:

"Suddenly, it has unfortunately become the case that I must return home."

So more naturally this would be:

"[Unfortunately,] I suddenly have to go back home."

So you're right - this なって is from なる, and contains the meaning of "has become the situation that" or "has become the case that".

I hope this helps! If you have any other questions, post them here. :)

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ericf
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Postby ericf » July 4th, 2012 11:24 am

Yes, it comes from なる to become. I guess you understand the simpler form:
急に帰らなくてはいけない。I must return home quickly.
The point is that this doesn't indicate a change of state, whereas adding なって shows that state has changed. It wasn't late/I didn't need to return home, but now it has become late/I do need to return home. And the しまいました is just alas/sadly. So, in somewhat stilted English, it is:
Sadly it has become that I must return home quickly.

Hope that helps,
Eric.

ericf
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Postby ericf » July 4th, 2012 11:25 am

Haha, I was beaten to it!

trmcami4945
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Postby trmcami4945 » July 4th, 2012 3:35 pm

i get it now! thank you guys so much!! :)

jaehwi
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Postby jaehwi » July 5th, 2012 12:35 am

We're glad your question is answered :)

If you have any other question, please feel free to ask.

Regards,
Neha/JapanesePod101.com

lovesong
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Can someone tell me what this means?

Postby lovesong » August 15th, 2012 4:13 pm

Konichiwa mina-san,

Ok, so since yesterday I am writing with a Japanese friend, we do not know eachother for long and my Japanese is not nearly good enough to write even in hirigana so we keep it simple for now and write in romanji (with some English where needed). All good so far until I came across this sentence: "Laura wa watashi yori ooku no nihon eiga wo shitteirune!!"
I anderstand the sentence somewat but I do not know how to interpet "Laura wa watashi".. Is she saying "You have watched a lot of Japanese movies", or "we have watched a lot of Japanese movies" or something comepletely different? (I guess I should learn the wa particle again) 8)
Can someone clarify this for me?
Thnx :wink:

Laura

mmmason8967
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Postby mmmason8967 » August 15th, 2012 8:46 pm

Hi Laura

The wa particle marks the topic, which means it sets the context for the rest of the sentence. It doesn't play any grammatical part in the rest of the sentence, and that means that you can make things easier by removing the wa phrase and putting it to one side.

Your sentence ends with ne, which is just adding a little emphasis. It doesn't alter the meaning of the sentence, so you can put this to one side too.

That leaves you with watashi yori ooku no nihon eiga wo shitte iru to translate.

Does that help?

マイケル

natsukoy9313
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Postby natsukoy9313 » August 17th, 2012 7:50 am

Laura-san,
マイケルsan has already replied to you perfectly :wink:
What your friend wrote was "you have watched more Japanese than I have"!

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

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