Why are the meanings for 圧倒 all “to …” ? Why is it listed as a “transitive verb”? If the vocab were “圧倒する” , I think everything would make sense. JMDict has the same issue.
Most of all, how do I know to add the “to” prefix when asked for the English translation?
Forgive me if you are hinting at something deeper and I misunderstand you, but I’m not sure I understand the source of dissonance here. JMDict and Bunpro both list it as a noun/suru verb. This is consistent with it’s usage both in noun and verb form. Via a cursory look at examples online, it seems like it’s usually used as 圧倒的 and 圧倒される, which I would translate (vice any greater context) as “overwhelmingly” and “to be overwhelmed”.
Just pulling two random examples:
彼の迫力に圧倒された。
I was overwhelmed by his power.
満場一致圧倒的でした
It was unanimous and overwhelming.
This seems to be in harmony with the definitions.
The issue I’m having is, when Bunpro asks me to translate 圧倒 to English, my first inclination is not adding “to …” prefix to anything, because it’s not presented as a verb. “overwhelm” (or did I type “overwhelming”?) is marked wrong.
Ah, I think I get you now. I don’t study vocab in Bunpro so I didn’t even think about from that angle. This sounds like a Bunpro-ism. If I were being generous to Bunpro, I’d say it makes sense given that “overwhelm” is an odd thing to say as a noun, in isolation (in English).
What happened to you guys?
Overwhelm.
Huh? What do you mean? You mean ‘you got overwhelmed’?
Like, the most literal way I’d translate it as a noun is “overwhelment” or “a overwhelm”, but that’s so awkward to say outside of anything but the most over-literal-anime-fansubber-who’s-allergic-to-localization context that I’d immediately fall back to “to overwhelm”. But if I’m being honest, it sounds like maybe the question/answer pairing could be reviewed. It may be worth submitting a bug report/alternate answer suggestion. Dunno if Bunpro does hints in vocab, but this sound like the kind of thing that could be a hint vice an outright wrong answer.
Thanks! I’ve just been condition by Wanikani that without する=“xx-ing” and with する= “to xx”. That mostly carries over to Bunpro vocabulary, but this one in particular seems weird.
I think I’d be liable to start mixing those two up, as they kind of sound similar to me. But hey, if it works for you ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Personally, whenever I have trouble discriminating between these noun/suru pairs, I always think of them like “TO”/“A” [XYZ], i.e. 味見する “to taste test” vs 味見 “a taste test”. Or sometimes I find it helpful to do away with the verb form at all and think in a more literal translation where you end up sounding like a doge meme/lolcat meme, e.g. My boss is doing (a) worry/上司が心配しています。 I think there’s less intermediate, mental translation when I do this.
But I’m no linguist, so maybe this is all technically incorrect, and I won’t presume my method is better or anything lol. So far it hasn’t caused me any cognitive dissonance.