Need help with a sentence なきゃ/も/んど

milami88 · (#1 (**permalink**))

Hello,

could you please help me understand the following sentence from the grammatical point of view?

こんなに急ぎでなきゃ　家の手入れも　しといたんだけんど。

My translation is: If I wasn't this busy I would have taken care of the house

1. What is なきゃ? So far I have learnt this form in "someone MUST do something", e.g. 明日しけんがあるから、勉強しなきゃいけないよ。 (I have to study because I have a test tomorrow). What does なきゃ mean in this example?

2. 家の手入れも - "taking care of the house". Why is も here?

3. しといたんだけんど - shouldn't it be していた? Why しと? Also, what is the んど at the end?

Thank you so much in advance for helping me

RadioKid · (#2 (**permalink**))

1. NAKYA

"なきゃ:NA-KYA" is shortened form of "なければ:NA-KERE-BA" meaning "should not be" by itself. Combined with some behaviour, it means "Should" because there is hidden (or omitted) "can not be accepted".

I mean "NA-KYA" is shortened form of "NA-KERE-BA (NARANAI)" which has hidden part "NARANAI" meaning "can not be accepted".

"勉強しなきゃ:BENKYO SHI-NAKYA; must start studying" has omitted part "いけない” to mean "勉強しなきゃいけない：BENKYO SHINAKYA IKENAI; I can not accept not starting studying".

"NAKYA" itself means "unless" when used in "こんなに急ぎでなきゃ" meaning "unless in such case of hurrying".

2. MO

"MO" is often used meaning "too". In this case, he did something other than taking care of the house. And also, "MO" can be used meaning "even" ( "even taking care of ..." in this case).

3. KENDO

It can be typo of "しといたんだけど:SHITOITA-N-DA-KEDO;I had done it up”.

Another possibility is a dialect of northern Japan of "だけんど" meaning just same as "だけど" in standard Japanese.

Anyway, Japanese conversation often ends with "けど:KEDO;... but..." meaning ".... but are there anything wrong ?".

"しといた:SHITOITA;I had done" is shortened form of "しておいた:SHITE-OITA" in conversatin.

milami88 · (#3 (**permalink**))

Thank you very much! Yes it could be some kind of dialect, the one who said that sentence was the obaasan from "tonari no totoro".

Just to verify:
1. de nakya is from "ja/de wa nai", is that correct?
3. しておいた is from しておく -> to do something in advance?

RadioKid · (#4 (**permalink**))

>1. de nakya is from "ja/de wa nai", is that correct?

No. "DE NAKYA" means "if ... not ..." or "DE NAKEREBA" in Japanese.

>3. しておいた is from しておく -> to do something in advance?

Yes. "in advance", yes!

And yes, I remember the scene of "TOTORO".

milami88 · (#5 (**permalink**))

I'm so sorry I still don't understand the nakereba thing. What I have learnt is that "nakereba" (-eba conditonal) means "if something not [happening]". Why DE nakereba? What is the purpose of the DE?

こんなに急ぎでなきゃ　家の手入れも　しといたんだけんど。

Could you please translate the sentence? Because I am watching totoro with English and Japanese subtitles, so the English translation isn't always exact. The translation in the subtitles was "If you weren't in so much hurry [if you hadn't come here so early], I would have taken care of the house". The was I understand it is "If I weren't so busy, I would have taken care of the house".

RadioKid · (#6 (**permalink**))

"こんなに急ぎでなきゃ　家の手入れも　しといたんだけんど。"

=> If the moving was not so suddenly, I could have taken care of the house.

>What I have learnt is that "nakereba" (-eba conditonal) means "if something not [happening]". Why DE nakereba? What is the purpose of the DE?

In this case, "DE" is "連用形" of "助動詞：だ" used for expressing "in a hurry" or "moving suddenly". (Sorry, I don't know the English word for Japanese Grammar words)

milami88 · (#7 (**permalink**))

I think I get it, thank you. Also I read in another forum that である means "to be/is". I didn't know this before. So こんなに急ぎである = to be in such a hurry, somebody is in such a hurry. So, こんなに急ぎでない = someone is not in a hurry. And then なければ makes it conditional -> "if" or "when".

So basically my problem was that I didn't know the form である

RadioKid · (#8 (**permalink**))

Let me explain from another point of view.

In "急ぎでなきゃ:ISOGI-DE-NAKYA; being not in hurry", "DE" combines "ISOGI:being in a hurry" and "NAKYA;unless".

Without "DE", it would be just a negative sentence as "急がない:ISOGA-NAI;not in a hurry". When you want to make more complex sentence with "unless", you need "DE" like as "急ぎでなければ:ISOGI-DE-NAKEREBA;unless you are not in a hurry".

Of course "でないDE-NAI" is negative for of "である

E-ARU" as you found.

milami88 · (#9 (**permalink**))

Thank you! I understand what you mean.