I just realized that I can see my personal AVG on the stats page of my Bunpro account, but I dont think people are able to view others stat pages (yet).
I was positively suprised when I saw mine!
Personally I think the hardest grammar point for me to understand was
the difference between 〜たところだ (Just did) and 〜ところだった. (Almost did)
After a bit of thinking, based on my understanding, I think I get it now, though:
Because ところ is the metaphorical or literal “place” either in time or space,
If I were to interpret, I think (〜た) + ところ + だ literally translates to:
“The place (of) the past-action exists.” (〜た) directly implying that the action is over, and ところ that the current “place/time” of existence (だ) is at (〜た), aka the aforementioned past-action.
Example:
食べたところだ。=> “I just ate.”
On the other hand, (る)ところだった translates to: “The place (of) the outputted-action existed.”
So we specify that the “place (in time)” of an action being outputted did exist, where “place” may imply that there existed other actions among this action, so basicially you were (だった) in the metaphorical space of one action among other actions. ( e.g., "You were on the verge of doing something, standing at the place where it could have happened.)
だった of course states that this was a past-place, so a thing that is not changable now. It leans into the idea that this event nearly took place, and you’re observing it in retrospect. “Place” as a branching point.
Example:
転ぶところだった。=> “I almost fell.”
Another hard one was the nuances of ならまだしも.
This might sound overly technical, but breaking it down semantically like this helps me connect grammar to logic (I swear Im not going insane (I think)).
If you’re the same way, here’s how I think about ならまだしも:
-
It is not just any なら+ま, it is the ならま-“だ”
=> It is not just any “hypothetical-still”, it is the “hypothetical-still”-existence. We are stating that “something hypothetical” existing over a period of time. (In this case “over a period of time” is more similar to => “Barely” as in “It is barely still the case.”) (Although まだ is often seen as one unit, etymologically it comes from 未+だ) -
It is not just any ならまだ, it is the ならまだ-“し”
=> It is not just any “hypothetical-still-existence”, it is the “hypothetical-still-existence”-reason. We are stating that ““something hypothetical” existing over a period of time” as a reason for something. -
It is not just any “ならまだし”-, it is the ならまだし-“も”
=> It is not just any “hypothetical-still-existence-reason”, it is the “hypothetical-still-existence-reason”-inclusion (Note that combined with まだし this strengthens the “even” emphasis). We are stating that even “”“something hypothetical” existing over a period of time" as a reason for something." is included. (Because しも is historically just a combination of し and も, I like to see しも as meaning not just “Even” but also “reasonably.”)
TLDR: The Phrase-as-Logic Summary:
Lets say: Even hypothetical still-tolerable (A) is being generously included
→ Therefore, (B) is not tolerable at all"
Lets think: “hypothetical-still-existence-reason-inclusion”
→ “なら-ま-だ-し-も.”
(By the way, no native speaker will analyse their own grammar like this, of course.
Native speakers don’t consciously think about this stuff the way we do, but I find it helpful to try and unpack what might be intuitive for them.)
You can post yours in this thread.
