I'm guessing it might be Shinjo

[andycarmenjapanese8100]

LI S5 L9.

Demo, ore wa Shinjō ja nai ka to yosō shite iru n dakedo
But I'm guessing it might be Shinjo.

The "to" particle after "Shinjō ja nai ka" is like a verbal quotation mark, right? Except it's marking a thought in this case rather than a spoken opinion.

""Shinjo, isn't it?" [I'm] guessing."

Demo, Mizunuma-san ga jōshi ni natte mo, Shinjō wa nattoku shinai n ja nai kana.
But even if Mr. Mizunuma becomes the assistant manager, I don't think Shinjo's going to agree with it.

Double negative here - "Shinjō wa nattoku shinai n ja nai kana"

"Shinjo, won't fully understand, will he? I wonder..."

Nōryoku ga aru noni, mitomete moraenai kaisha nante yameru! tte iu kamo shirenai zo
He might just say "I'm not staying with a company that's not going to recognize my skills and talents!"

"Nōryoku ga aru noni" = To have the ability in spite of...

"mitomete moraenai" - not recognising [for someone else - in this case, other people not recognising his talents]

"kaisha nante yameru!" - company [I'm going to] quit! - with "nante" just for emphasis, right?

"tte iu" - "tte" being like a verbal quotation mark then "iu" meaning "to say."

Demo, sainenshō no Shinjō ga jōshi ni natte mo, umaku minna o matomete ikenai ki ga suru zo.
But even if Shinjo, the youngest of them all, becomes assistant manager, I feel like he won't be able to organize everyone

"umaku minna o matomete" - skillfully, everybody, put in order - the word order is difficult, why isn't the adverb "skillfully" in front of the verb? Here it's in front of "everybody." "Skillfully" is describing the way the verb happens, it's not modifying "everybody."

And I don't know why the object marking particle "o" is used rather than the directional particle "ni." I've noticed that in other cases too, like "Natsuko-san o yobu" (to call Natsuko). What is the rule for using "o" instead of "ni" when it would seem more logical to use "ni"?

"ikenai" - "don't do"
"ki" - "skill"
"ikenai ki" - "doesn't have the skill?"

"suru" - why isn't this in the potential form, "dekiru?" They're talking about an expression of ability.

[ericf]

Demo, Mizunuma-san ga jōshi ni natte mo, Shinjō wa nattoku shinai n ja nai kana.
But even if Mr. Mizunuma becomes the assistant manager, I don't think Shinjo's going to agree with it.

Double negative here - "Shinjō wa nattoku shinai n ja nai kana"

"Shinjo, won't fully understand, will he? I wonder..."

nattoku has various meaning; the most appropriate one here is consent/assent rather than understand. So I'd probably put:
Shinjō won't agree, I'd have thought.

Nōryoku ga aru noni, mitomete moraenai kaisha nante yameru! tte iu kamo shirenai zo
He might just say "I'm not staying with a company that's not going to recognize my skills and talents!"

"Nōryoku ga aru noni" = To have the ability in spite of...

XXX no ni...
means "in spite of XXX..." rather than "XXX in spite of..."

Demo, sainenshō no Shinjō ga jōshi ni natte mo, umaku minna o matomete ikenai ki ga suru zo.
But even if Shinjo, the youngest of them all, becomes assistant manager, I feel like he won't be able to organize everyone

"umaku minna o matomete" - skillfully, everybody, put in order - the word order is difficult, why isn't the adverb "skillfully" in front of the verb? Here it's in front of "everybody." "Skillfully" is describing the way the verb happens, it's not modifying "everybody."

I think you might be over-relying on your knowledge of English grammar; just because the adverb goes right next to the verb in English doesn't mean it has to go there in other languages. You're right though, umaku could go next to the verb in Japanese but I suspect that changes the most important point of that particular clause.
umaku minna wo matomete -> umaku is the important word
minna wo umaku matomete -> minna is the important word
(that's just my feeling, I suppose the stress could be the other way around.)
Think about these two english sentences:
Tomorrow morning, I'll go to the shops.
I'll go to the shops tomorrow morning.
Which one stresses the "when" and which one stresses the "what"?

And I don't know why the object marking particle "o" is used rather than the directional particle "ni." I've noticed that in other cases too, like "Natsuko-san o yobu" (to call Natsuko). What is the rule for using "o" instead of "ni" when it would seem more logical to use "ni"?

The people are the direct object, hence using wo. He's organising them, not organising to them, if you see what I mean. Similarly for yobu, Natsuko-san is the direct object.

"ikenai" - "don't do"
"ki" - "skill"
"ikenai ki" - "doesn't have the skill?"

"suru" - why isn't this in the potential form, "dekiru?" They're talking about an expression of ability.

"ikenai" is the potential form of "iku" so this is where the expression of ability comes in and why you don't need dekiru/dekinai. The sentence could be complete at that point:
..., umaku minna wo matomete ikenai zo.

"ki" is "spirit; mind; air; atmosphere; mood" not "skill". In this particular case it's "mood".
The "ki ga suru" is just an add-on expression that shows you have a mood/feeling or hunch about the earlier part of the sentence. "netai ki ga suru" -> I feel like I want to sleep. In some ways it's not so different from adding "...kana" to the end of a sentence, as above.


I've only picked out those few things, I think you had the rest pretty good.

[andycarmenjapanese8100]

And I don't know why the object marking particle "o" is used rather than the directional particle "ni." I've noticed that in other cases too, like "Natsuko-san o yobu" (to call Natsuko). What is the rule for using "o" instead of "ni" when it would seem more logical to use "ni"?

The people are the direct object, hence using wo. He's organising them, not organising to them, if you see what I mean. Similarly for yobu, Natsuko-san is the direct object.

Making a phone call to Natsuko-san...

That's directional.

[ericf]

Yup, but it's
Natsuko san ni denwa suru
Or
Natsuko san ni denwa wo kakeru

[andycarmenjapanese8100]

Yup, but it's
Natsuko san ni denwa suru
Or
Natsuko san ni denwa wo kakeru

Natsuko-san ni denwa suru.
Natsuko-san o yobu.

These two things are similar. Yet one of them uses "ni" and one of them uses "o." Designating Natsuko-san as the direct object in one but not the other seems arbitrary.

[community.japanese]

...and I've "got a call"

That's a great explanation, エリックsan! And, very good point, Andy-san!
"Call to someone" seems to be a "direction", but it's just a matter of verbs' characteristics.
The verb "yobu" in Japanese is transitive and it can be translated to several different verbs in English.
However "denwa suru" can actually considered as "transitive verb + noun" as it can also be "denwa o suru".

Another way to differ "yobu" from "denwa (o) suru" is that the action of "yobu" is more direct as it's either
to invite someone or to shout his/her name while "denwa (o) suru" action is using a phone more directly and
your phone connects you to the other person.

I think you might be over-relying on your knowledge of English grammar; just because the adverb goes right next to the verb in English doesn't mean it has to go there in other languages. You're right though, umaku could go next to the verb in Japanese but I suspect that changes the most important point of that particular clause.
umaku minna wo matomete -> umaku is the important word
minna wo umaku matomete -> minna is the important word
(that's just my feeling, I suppose the stress could be the other way around.)
Think about these two english sentences:
Tomorrow morning, I'll go to the shops.
I'll go to the shops tomorrow morning.
Which one stresses the "when" and which one stresses the "what"?

Very clever
As to "stresses" and "focuses", you're right; Japanese also works in the similar way as English does.
The difference is that important information might come towards the end in Japanese.
Position of adverbs is very flexible in Japanese, but if we should keep some words close to each other,
that's when adverb shouldn't come in between. I'd say "min'na o matomeru" is one chunk which the adverb "umaku"
should modify and, if it was "min'na o umaku matomete", it's rather "umaku matomeru" with less importance on
"min'na". Both can suit in this context, so this is just an observation...

Great analysis, both of you!!

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101,com