What's new

方 and だと in a sentence

CptGuapo

後輩
8 May 2012
33
1
23
Hello all.
I'd like to know if someone can help about the meaning, translation or function of the 方 and だと in the following sentence:

昔の子供の方が幸せだとおもわせます。

It's part of a larger text (I can post it if someone want, it's not that large, about six sentences in total) about that always recurrent generations' conflict talk, specifically child's play, commenting that children these days spent all the time in games and PCs, that in the past was better, and so on.
Analyzing the context I know its translation is something like "This is make us think children of old times were happier than the recent ones" but, I don't get exactly what 方 and だと are doing there...

Could someone elaborate? Thanks in advance.
 
Comparative

昔の子供 and 今の子供 are being contrasted

The と is quotative and should be associated with おもわす.

「昔の子供の方が幸せだ」とおもわせます。

Do you understand the おもわせます part?
 
Hmmmm... I see...

You mean 昔の子供の方が幸せだ is a quote itself and とおもわせます is the verb that make the introduction to it, right? I was thinking だと was kind of a particle or idiom...

About とおもわせます, it is thinking more emotionally, deem or believe, isn't it?

And 方? What's its function? The translations regarding it I've found, only say something about direction...
 
You would benefit from using a proper textbook, as this is all stuff that someone studying over four years should have known long ago and would have learned very early on through a textbook.

だと is the copula だ and the conditional と.

方 (ほう) refers to one part, side, element, etc of something that is plural. The other part need not be explicitly mentioned, as it is naturally inferred from the nature of 方.

おもわせる is the causative form of 思う...."makes (you) think". Have you learned how to conjugate causative form yet? If not... another reason to use a proper textbook, you would have learned it long ago.
 
I'm attending a course using some material similar to a textbook, with a different approach compared to common lessons, focusing on sentences, but I'm still in the early stage.

The verb part is still the basic too, with dictionary form, ます form, past, て form and passive form so far. Causative and other tenses and/or conjugations are being used eventually to make us get used to them but they are for the near future.

Grammar stuff I try to learn for myself since there are a lot of details like that I'm asking for help here.

Well, anyway, thanks a lot for your response. It helped very much!
 
Just for confirmation, isn't it 昔の子供の方が幸せだと思わます?
 
Toritoribe-san! 久しぶりですね!

No, it's really with the せ. The teacher pronounced it very clearly, by the way.

Is something wrong?
 
It's just because 思われます is more common as a stand alone sentence. There is no problem when the causer that makes the readers/listeners think is obvious from the context.
 
Ah, OK. As I'm really in new grounds here I have to ask to the teacher if there is a reason to be that way.

But... since you are here, Toritoribe-san, I'd like to have a second opinion: What would be the translation of 方, at least approximated? It's fine, I understand the context via Mike's explanation. It's just that reading at this very moment I'm still confuse because there's a の before it, making the translation seems to be like "[something] of children of the past"...

Kinda nitpicking, I know, but could you give another enlightenment, please?
 
Mike-san already explained it perfectly correctly. 方 means "side", and is used there for comparison.

ほう【方】
4 〔比べられる物の一方〕a side; a part
その小さい方をください
Give me the smaller one.

私の方の手落ちでした
The fault was mine.

彼の方に不服はなかった
There was no dissatisfaction on his part.

私たちは皆彼の方についた
All of us sided with him.

生活は今の方が前より楽だ
I am better off than I used to be.
方の英語・英訳 - goo辞書 英和和英

昔の子供の方が幸せだ
The side of children of the past is happier (than the side of children of today). = Children of the past are happier (than children of today).
 
Aaaahhhh... OK, then... It was missing some examples to fix it in mind... Definition is always good, of course, but with some examples makes it much better to understand. Anyway, my question was fully answered.

助けてくださて有難う御座います!
 
Back
Top Bottom