might・could be
capable of
possible
Structure
- Verb[stem] + かねない
- Noun + に + かねない
[Used when some negative situation might be expected to happen, or when someone is capable of doing something bad.
Often used as: A conditional B かねない。Where conditional is:と、ては、たら、でもetc.]
Hi! I can’t make sense of how 兼ねる is supposed to mean “to spread across”. Neither Jisho or Weblio seem to suggest so. Any explanation for this?
At the top it says “spread across (usually 2 different activities or thought processes)” so maybe they meant in the sense that it’s used in the を兼ねて grammar point? Still seems difficult to phrase that in a way that uses “spread across”…
There’s one meaning that jisho and weblio don’t list, which is “to extend over a long period of time or over a long distance”. That one is closer, but as far as I know this meaning doesn’t exist in modern Japanese. In classical Japanese though, it was apparently possible to use 兼ねて like modern にわたって.
Yeah, I guess it kinda works as a mnemonic, but I’m not happy with being taught a meaning I can’t find in dictionaries.
It feels a bit like the Koichi/Wanikani style “please use your imagination for this mnemonic and you’ll see the connection”. Didn’t expect this from Bunpro.
It appears that this grammar structure can come after a noun, however none of the example sentences show this structure, nor could I find any examples online. Does anyone have any good examples?
Not sure if you were referring to the を兼ねて grammar point referred above or the one with the negative. But if it is the first case, maybe the reason you were not able to find examples online is because the がてら grammar point that has the same meaning is used instead of it. See the highlight part in the Handbook:
But if you are referring to 金ない・兼ねない, accordingly to the Handbook it attaches to the masu stem (conjuctive form) of a verb,
