English translation:
even though
and yet
despite
Structure:
Verb + くせに
いAdj + くせに
Noun + の + くせに
なAdj + な + くせに
Explanation:
[Used to criticize the behavior of others]
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I’m not sure, but this example sounds a bit weird:
「男のくせに泣くな」って言われるけど、たまには泣いていいと思う。
The translation is:
I am told ‘you are a man, don’t cry,’ but I think that it is okay to cry from time to time.
But grammar explanation is mentioning that 癖に is translating as “despite”.
So looks like 癖に usage in this sentence is wrong. It should be either だから、なので or something similar.
のくせに is fine. It’s just difficult to translate to English. だから would also work but doesn’t imply criticism.
なので shouldn’t be used, ので doesn’t pair well with a command. It’s primarily used to objectively explain the reason for an existing situation or one that is certain to occur.
Thank you for the answer!
But really still pretty confused.
癖に is kind of the same as のに, but with criticism.
So it’s like “despite”, “even though”, etc.
But in the example sentence we want to say “because”, not “even though”.
“Because you are a man, don’t cry”, not “Even though you are a man, don’t cry”, correct?
That’s why for me 癖に sounds strange in this sentence.
I think the fun fact for the gramar point helps to elucidate here:
癖 is a word that has developed a ‘negative’ meaning over time. Originally, 癖 was used to convey a preference, or the side that someone or something tended to lean toward (due to it being favorable for some reason). When adding the case marking particle に to this, it merely expressed that (A) was the preferable state/location, so (B) not being/not acting in a way appropriate for (A) is less than desirable.
So 男のくせに泣くな
Can be thought of as:
- “From the standpoint of being a man, not crying is prefereable”
Or taking the more “habit” oriented meaning
- “A habit of men is not crying”
Definitely a weird coming from English, but the key take away to add to the primary meaning of “despite” in my opinion is this feeling of “(B) not being preferable”
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Wow, it really works! Thank you, didn’t pay much attention to the “Fun Fact” section.
Now, it kind of makes sense.
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