Confusion regarding けど in general

Japanese
#1

That one has always confused me. Like from what I can gather and from what most translators say, it’s supposed to mean “But”

But then they throw it into sentences I don’t think make sense with that in mind at all, for example

“君が何言っているか全然分からないんですけど。”

It makes my head spin, but if I had to make a guess, I’d say in that sentence you’re saying it expecting your conversation partner to rebuke and speak more clearly or something?

How right am I?

Also, I keep seeing words like 見るがいい and 受けるがいい that I don’t see listed anywhere I’m aware of, what does it mean by that?

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#2

Haha, when I try to translate it into english it makes no sense, but it makes perfect sense to me in japanese :slight_smile:

So, you are definitely quite right, that it’s not simply translated as “but” :slight_smile:

I guess in this case it simply indicates that the speaker gives an explanation.

As for ~がいい, this is also a grammar point I suggested them to add. This is definitely very common!

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#3

Indicates that the speaker gives an explanation? Could you be a bit more clear? I’m not sure I’m following

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#4

If you remove んですけど it just sounds like a blunt statement “I don’t understand what you say”. Especially with 言っている (non polite form).

But if you add んですけど (yes, as a whole thing) it essentially indicates explanation AND makes it a bit more polite. You can replace んですけど with んですが.

It is a very common way to end sentences.

I would suggest reading んですが grammar point, んですけど is just a variant of that.

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#5

I’ll have to take another look at that page once I’m feeling more awake.

Aside from some rocky starts involving Rosetta Stone and Duolingo, all I really have under my belt besides self-taught kana is a little over half of wanikani. so a lot of this grammar stuff is kinda new to me

lots of effort to wrap my head around some of this stuff

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#6

@Enecororo @Kuromaku
Hey :smiley:

I think this grammar point might make it a bit more clear:
だけど。。。だが。。。

As @Kuromaku says, けど at the end of the sentence is often used to make the sentence more hesitant and polite in situations when we want to ask for something, or saying something might be too frank, etc.
Often speakers expect some kind of answer from the interlocutor.

Cheers! :cowboy_hat_face::+1:

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#7

So I guess it’d be like

言っていることか分からないんですけど。（もっと簡単にしてください）

Apologies for the subpar japanese

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#8

Yes, that’s right! You got it!

It might have been 「わかるようにもう少し説明してください。」etc, the sense is the same.

@Kuromaku @Enecororo
By the way, do you have any idea how to rename this grammar point to make it more noticable to users?

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#9

It honestly seems fine to me as it is. It just take time to put all of that into your brain when you just starting out.
I find myself struggling with some grammar points initially, only to realize a month later that the very same grammar point is trivially simple. It just takes time to form all those neural connections :slight_smile:

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#10

I find myself agreeing with Kuro.

Though if I had to make a suggestion, could maybe throw in another example sentence along that line

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#11

Okay I found a sentence in Wanikani with けど in it where I have trouble placing what it’s doing there

「俺は、みんな死ぬ前に己の墓は己で建てるべきだと思うけどね。」

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#12

I think this is the explanatory version like の・んだ けど or any verb+けど. Maggie Sensei has a great write up, check out:
(3) To make your point / to complain / to express your feelings (colloquial)

This is a great question, I hear this all the time (probably because the speaker was complaining or making a point/stating opinion :slightly_smiling_face:)

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#13

Wow that is a really long article, thanks tho

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#14

Hi there,
I’m a very beginner and didn’t even learn this yet, so I might be fundamentally wrong but I always thought of this as something like “though”. So it would be “I don’t understand what you’re saying at all though.” Am I wrong?
Sorry for the unqualified question.

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#15

You’re right. ‘Though’ is a more fitting sentence ending translation most of the time, just like ‘Although’ is a more fitting translation when you see だけど as the opening statement of a sentence. You will see the け family of sounds used a lot to remove ownership from a statement, kinda like you don’t want to claim you know 100%

明日のテスト1時くらいんだったっけ？
Tomorrows test was at 1pm…yeah?

I like to think that け just marks a third party in a conversation, someone that you want an answer from. In lots of cases it could be internal monologue

一生懸命頑張っていたけど (I gave it me all… though why is this the result) when speaking to yourself. However, it is much more natural for け/けど to have a direct third party (another person). For internal monologue (speaking to yourself) のに is much more common than けど, and けど may actually sound a little crazy when speaking to yourself, like you actually expect your inner voice to have the answer you are seeking.

Let’s pretend you are stuck in traffic in a car by yourself, on top of that you need to pee.

わぁ〜トイレに行きたかったのに :sob::sob: ahhhh I really need to go to the toilet… but that goal seems out of reach (perfectly normal)

Now you are in the same situation but you are not the driver.

わぁ〜トイレに行きたかったけど :sob::sob: ‘ahhh I really need to go to the toilet’ (you are not the driver, so using け highlights to someone that you want them to take action, like pull over the car) Using のに here is also fine, the only difference is it doesn’t express that you want the driver to take immediate action. Just that the ideal situation (being able to pee) is out of reach.

Sorry for the long explanation, I just love Japanese grammar :joy:

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#16

Thank you very much for the explanation, it wasn’t long at all! :wink:

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