スーパーカブ discussion (Intermediate) April 2024

Book Clubs
#81

Basic grammar question about いる vs ある in chapter 3:

sentence

人がランニングする程度の速さで走っていても車が居ないので追い抜かれることはなく、みっともない走りをジロジロ見る歩行者も居ない。

my translation

Even going only at the speed of a person running, since there are no cars, she is not being overtaken and there are no pedestrians staring at her embarrassing riding either.

Why is 車が居ない used in this sentence?

I would have thought that with inanimate objects like 車 you should use ない instead of 居ない.

Maybe my translation is wrong and the sentence structure should be parsed differently?
When reading the 居ない part, I was initially confused and wondered whether this actually refers to the cars or maybe somehow to the running people or even 小熊.

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#82

Another question about chapter 3:

How is 夜中 supposed to be read in the following

sentence

… 原付通学の予行練習気分で夜中の学校近辺まで行ってみたり…

Is this よなか or やちゅう?

Is there a difference in meaning? If not, which is more common?

Also, I find it interesting that it is used with の to somehow “label” the school vicinity
as being “in the middle of the night” instead of using it adverbially with something like に to specify the time for the whole sentence, or more specifically, the verb 行く.

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#83

This is a ChatGPT answer, after much prodding, but it seems that 車が居ない is idiomatic, because cars that are moving are considered somehow “alive”… however, it seems to work ONLY with cars, and not any other vehicle.

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#84

やちゅう is usually written in hiragana, and is more informal; 夜中 (よなか) in kanji is more formal. But the meaning is the same, I think.

I think there’s a similar usage of の, for example, in 海辺のカフカ (Kafka on the Shore).

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#85

居る can be used with anything that can be seen to kind of move “spontaneously” and is expected to do so soon. This kind of usage is more common with certain inanimate objects (e.g., cars that have a driver and are going to drive off) but you may see it with other things as well although it’s a bit rarer and more contextual.

It could also be よじゅう :wink: but to answer the question, よなか is the standard reading. よなか means “in the middle of the night”, やちゅう means “during the night”, and よじゅう means “all through the night”. The meaning is clear from the actual pronunciation of the words. I believe there is a Bunpro lesson that covers part of the usages of 中 but なか normally means something in the middle/halfway through, ちゅう normally means during some period, じゅう normally means something across a whole period or space. I may not be entirely accurate here as my source is myself so let me know if you know I’m wrong.

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#86

Can we post questions about the vocab deck here? There was an error with the pronunciation and definition of one of the words - well, not an error, but using (I believe) the incorrect pronunciation.

In the deck, 奴 is said to be pronounced やっこ, which is, to be sure, one way to pronounce it. However, in the book, as it is used, I think it is pronounced やつ. “Yatsu” is much more common way to pronounce 奴 - I don’t really hear “yakko” in conversation.

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#87

I believe the team is working on an update for the deck generator to fix やつ:

and also to improve some other points: Bunpro Vocab Decks (Announcement) - Mar/29/2024 - #30 by Pablunpro and Bunpro Vocab Decks (Announcement) - Mar/29/2024 - #32 by Pablunpro

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#88

You can definitely post suggestions for fixes! I am making a few changes now that have already been suggested.

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#89

This is correct. I would have definitely read this as よなか. The only time something is really read as やちゅう or よじゅう is when there is emphasis on an action that is happening all night, or throughout the night. As you also mentioned -

  • なか = In the middle of (a noun/thing).
  • ちゅう = Something happened/exists at some specific point (during some period or space).
  • じゅう = Something is non-stop or constant (within some period or space).
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#90

I would have expected よなか as well.

The reason I asked the question is the reading やちゅう for this word in the new vocab deck.
Maybe you can change that?

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#91

Sorry to bother you, but do you know when this will be out? According to the schedule created by @krghtj we’ll read chapters 3-5 this week. It would be nice to have a look at the word list for the next chapters!

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#92

It’s already been completed, so just needs to be added to the deck. Will make sure it gets uploaded first thing tomorrow :bowing_man:.

The reason a few of these came up as errors is due to us not having them in our vocab lists initially. よなか has been added now, so I will change the incorrect deck entry as soon as it is in our database.

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#93

@Asher can we have @krghtj 's schedule in the main post please? :pray:

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#94

Done! :blush:

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#95

Thanks for that, makes it easier to find when I want to reference. <3

Also, finished another 3 pages today, which also coincides with me finishing chapter 3. See you all tomorrow!

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#96

I finished chapter 3 today too. The first chapter was so hard, but it gets easier as I read. So glad that the chapters are that short!

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#97

There was an oversight in the spreadsheet I used to make the schedule, which led to a formatting error. Week 17 says to read chapters “45-45” rather than just “45.” Could you please correct this in the main post? Thanks.

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#98

Same here, finished chapter 3. Oh boy, is she in trouble now! :wink:

I had this doubt on the sentence about 小熊 buying a chain with a key to secure the moped: when it says ‘原付につけるチェイーン鍵を買ってこなくてはと思った’, is ‘…こなくては…’ a short form of ‘must’ (she thought that she had to come (?) and buy a chain with a key to secure the moped).

In chapter 3, I saw these expressions:

  • 一息つく - to take a rest or to catch one’s breath (which 小熊 does a lot)
  • 手に入れる - to obtain, to get (the 原付 of course)
  • 頬が緩む - to grin (which 小熊 does inadvertently)
  • 目を覚ます - to wake up or to sober up
  • 悲鳴を上げる - to scream or to complain (小熊’s sweating leg muscles)
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#99

This is how I interpreted the sentence as well. 来る means that she went somewhere to purchase the chain lock, and then came back to the first location. (Grammar Point in Bunpro)

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#100

Finished another 3 pages today!

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