わけにはいかない vs どころではない

Japanese
#1

I asked this question a few days ago in the Short Grammar Questions thread on the WK forums but that didn’t solve my question and I’m still wondering about it, maybe someone here can clear up my confusion.

I need some help understanding the difference between わけにはいかない and どころではない. Specifically, this sentence came up in my Bunpro reivew:

硬貨（こうか）を持（も）ってないから、何（なに）も買（か）う______________。

with the English prompt “I don’t have any hard currency on me, so I cannot afford to buy anything.”

I’ve learned by now that “cannot afford to” means that Bunpro wants to hear わけにはいかない but I don’t see how that fits here. I use Kanzen Master N2 as my main resource for grammar, and their explanation of わけにはいかない is the following: 社会的常識に反する・心理的抵抗がるなどの事情があって、～できない。能力的にできないという意味では使わない。

The way I understand it, this means something along the lines of “one is technically able to [V] but will not do it because of societal norms/expectations/other psychological reasons, even though there may be a desire to do [V]”. (Translation is still not my strength but I hope I got the idea across.)

In the example sentence above, I don’t see any psychological reasons - if you didn’t bring any money you physically cannot buy anything. And I doubt that there’s some implied social stigma around using one’s credit card or phone to pay in this situation, so I’m reading this as the person being literally unable to pay for anything.

Wouldn’t どころではない be a much better fit in this situation? Kanzen Master describes it as ～できる状況ではない。余裕がないという事情（お金がない・時間がない・うるさい・病気など）のため、機体していることや想像していることが全くできないという意味で使う。My understanding of that grammar point is that one is unable to do X because of a lack of/too much Y. Since お金がない is explicitly listed here, I feel like this would be a much better match.

Another part of my confusion is that the Bunpro explanations of わけにはいかない ( cannot afford to, no way・impossible to do) and どころではない ( this is not the time for…, far from, out of the question) almost seem to me as if they would match the Kanzen Master explanations better if they were switched.

The conclusion of the discussion on the WK forum was that according to a native speaker, どころではない is definitely wrong in the example sentence above while わけにはいかない is grammatically correct. So I’m definitely going wrong somewhere in my understanding of these grammar points, could someone please help me figure out what exactly I’m mixing up? English isn’t my first language either so maybe I’m missing some nuance there, or maybe I’m misunderstanding the monolingual grammar explanations, I’m really not sure.

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#2

My 2 cents: I wouldn’t get too caught up in the isolated sentence scenario. The way I hear it is “I don’t have hard currency on me, so I shouldn’t buy anything (but I could if I really wanted to)…by whatever means that are unknown without context”…it’s a gapping hole and I don’t spend time on unknown possibilities in an imaginary scenario, so maybe not the best example.

I dislike the ‘can’t afford to’, especially in the above context because there is actual a monetary value to make further confusion. My internal translation say “shouldn’t (but I want to)” for わけにはいかない same as ないわけにはいかない “should (but I don’t necessarily want)”…this is how I feel it but without getting too wrapped up in the English nuance and try to keep it Japanese. I sort of feel the the two grammar points could be consolidated for learning purposes since the later helped the former for me. From there どころではない has a separate meaning entirely that does not imply overlap, at least for me. I hear no obligation at all since it’s out of the speaker’s power to change the condition even if they wanted to.

Also “can’t not” for ないわけにはいかない is terrible English though double negatives are natural for Japanese (still hurts my ears in English :hear_no_evil:)

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#3

Here is my explanation

verb (る) ＋ どころではない
It isn’t the time to do verb (because someone is busy, sick, poor, inexperienced etc) (may sound angry)

verb (る) ＋わけにはいかない
can’t or should not do verb (because something bad might happen) (but speaker might want to do it)

verb (ない) ＋わけにはいかない
must do verb (because something bad might happen if it isn’t done) (but speaker might not want to do it)

In your example “硬貨を持ってないから、何も買う ________________”, わけにはいかない is the correct answer because the speaker wants to buy something, but can’t (because the speaker isn’t carrying any physical currency). A more common way to say this sentence in modern Japanese would be 現金を持ってないから、何も買えない。

どころではない can’t work here because どころではない is used in situations where something can be done, but doing it is a bad idea, and the speaker in your example can’t buy anything whether they want to or not (because they don’t have any money).

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#4

Thank you both for your replies! (And sorry that it took me some time to respond)

That’s a good point. I guess I’m worried about running into a problem like this during the JLPT so I approached my problem entirely from a “how do I fill in the gap” point of view. But if I just heard that sentence in the wild I would probably get the idea without questioning it too much (plus there would be some form of context).

And thanks for your own translations of phrases, those make a lot more sense to me!

To be honest, the more I think about it the more confused I get again, and I’m having a hard time pinpointing why exactly. Maybe because of this

so the difference between these two grammar points is starting to blur for me again. My main takeaway so far is that わけにはいかない has a nuance of wanting to do X, whereas どころではない seems to be more matter-of-fact about it. And どころではない is about the circumstances not being right to do X. Did I get that right?

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#5

Yes, that’s correct. It is confusing, but try not to get stuck on it. Good luck on the test!

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