精々 Example Sentence Question

Bunpro
#1

Here again with another question about an example sentence.

In the grammar explanation section for 精々 there is the following example sentence:

せいぜい３ヶ月は働いてもらわないと困ります
You need to work for 3 months at the most

I was a bit confused by this sentence due to the inclusion of 困ります. I also noticed that if you look up 精々 elsewhere it also has the meaning of “to the utmost; as much as possible; as much as one can”. After seeing those additional meanings, and reading this without the English translation, I would have thought that this sentence meant something along the lines of “You need to work as much as possible for 3 months (or it will be inconvenient for us).”

Am I totally off in interpreting it this way?

1 Like
#2

せいぜい is mostly used to mean “at best” or “at most”. Very often it will be before some kind of numbered or countable thing (e.g., 3 months). It is also used with this nuance just on its own like “せいぜい、明日会えるよね” or something to mean “At best, I can see you tomorrow (but probably not), right?” or something like that. So the translation for the example sentence is correct in this case.

The other usage of せいぜい (which you found when you looked it up) is normally with verbs denoting effort (頑張る、努力する、etc) but it has a negative connotation and is normally used in a reprimanding or slightly scolding way. E.g., 精々頑張って means something like “Try your best (but we both know it is unlikely)”. As such, you wouldn’t use this to talk about your own actions. The positive version would be 一生懸命 or 精一杯 or something. I spoke to a friend about this usage once and interestingly the nuance used to be neutral. Here is an article about it in Japanese, if you are interested: 「『せいぜい』がんばって」？｜NHK放送文化研究所

As for the pattern “しないと困る”, it is not uncommon and the English translation would be different depending on context but in most the cases I have seen of it it does just mean “have to”/“need to” but the nuance is different to いけない or 駄目 or whatever.

5 Likes
#3

Nevermind. Nothing to see here :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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#4

Ahh okay, that usage of 困る makes this sentence make a lot more sense. I kept getting stuck on it because I thought there was an implied inconvenience that wasn’t being included in the English translation. I’m more familiar with the ないとだめ, etc. structure, so good to know that 困る can be used as well. Thank you!

And thanks for linking that article!

#5

Looool I saw your original post and glad I wasn’t the only one who got caught up on the 困る :joy:

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#6

Well, it was more like I was at work (thus not focused on what I wanted to say) and thought I was contributing something. Then realized that I wasn’t making much sense, so I retracted my message, :joy:.