Hi,
1. One of a pair of twins is talking to his mother.
僕フレッドじゃないよ。ジョージだよ。まったく、この人ときたら、これでも僕たちの 母親だってよく言えるな。
I don't understand the last part of this very clearly.
a) Is この人 the mother?
b) Does これ refer to the incident where the mother got the boys' names mixed up?
c) Does 言える have an identified subject, or is it just "people in general"?
2. こうなったら他に手はない。
This is supposed to mean "There was nothing else for it" (i.e. the speaker was forced to do a certain thing).
I understand that 他に手はない is an idiom, and I assume that こうなったら is こう + なったら (conditional of なる), but I don't understand why it is なったら, conditional. It doesn't seem to fit the meaning.
3. カートがいうことをきかない
On purely grammatical grounds (i.e. not semantic) is there any way to tell whether the subject of いう is カート and the subject of きかない is the speaker, or the subject of いう is the speaker and the subject of きかない is カート?
4. ぶつかる ----------- スーッ・・・・おや、まだ走っている・・・・ハリーは目を開けた。
"-----------" is meant to be a very long dash (I don't know how to type it properly).
As far as I can tell, the first part of this is supposed to mean that he didn't crash into the ticket barrier. How does ぶつかる ---- スーッ・・・・おや mean that? And what is スーッ?
1. One of a pair of twins is talking to his mother.
僕フレッドじゃないよ。ジョージだよ。まったく、この人ときたら、これでも僕たちの 母親だってよく言えるな。
I don't understand the last part of this very clearly.
a) Is この人 the mother?
b) Does これ refer to the incident where the mother got the boys' names mixed up?
c) Does 言える have an identified subject, or is it just "people in general"?
2. こうなったら他に手はない。
This is supposed to mean "There was nothing else for it" (i.e. the speaker was forced to do a certain thing).
I understand that 他に手はない is an idiom, and I assume that こうなったら is こう + なったら (conditional of なる), but I don't understand why it is なったら, conditional. It doesn't seem to fit the meaning.
3. カートがいうことをきかない
On purely grammatical grounds (i.e. not semantic) is there any way to tell whether the subject of いう is カート and the subject of きかない is the speaker, or the subject of いう is the speaker and the subject of きかない is カート?
4. ぶつかる ----------- スーッ・・・・おや、まだ走っている・・・・ハリーは目を開けた。
"-----------" is meant to be a very long dash (I don't know how to type it properly).
As far as I can tell, the first part of this is supposed to mean that he didn't crash into the ticket barrier. How does ぶつかる ---- スーッ・・・・おや mean that? And what is スーッ?