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eeky

先輩
8 Jun 2010
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Hi,

この間の金曜日の欠勤を弁解できるからね。

What is the purpose of から in this sentence?

Is this a question? If so, how do you tell?
 
Hi,

この間の金曜日の欠勤を弁解できるからね。

What is the purpose of から in this sentence?

Is this a question? If so, how do you tell?

This is analogous to the "wait, I can explain everything" we use to try to forestall someone getting mad at us before launching into the actual explanation.

この間の金曜日の欠勤を弁解できるから {怒らずに聞いていて} ね

This kind of construction/usage, where one is left to infer what comes after から, is quite common.
 
Hi,

この間の金曜日の欠勤を弁解できるからね。

What is the purpose of から in this sentence?

Is this a question? If so, how do you tell?
It's not a question. The given translation is wrong, as is often the case with the Tanaka Corpus. The translation is for この間の金曜日の欠勤を弁解できるかね。.
この間の金曜日の欠勤を弁解できるからね。
Can you account for your absence last Friday? - Tanaka Corpus
「欠勤」に関連した英語例文の一覧 - Weblio英語例文検索
 
What's the preceding sentence, is it related?
There is no preceding sentence given; it is an isolated example sentence from a huge database of examples (not all of which are correct, as Toritoribe has highlighted).
 
There is no preceding sentence given; it is an isolated example sentence from a huge database of examples (not all of which are correct, as Toritoribe has highlighted).

But it certainly does provide a very illustrative example of what a difference in meaning the presence or absence of a single kana can make, doesn't it?
 
Is the Goo dictionary more accurate?
Yes, very much so. Goo is just citing the Shogakukan Progressive dictionary, which is a very good dictionary.

The Progressive was my first paper dictionary, actually. It was always accurate, but back then I wasn't always good enough at deconjugating to actually find the word I needed!
 
So when using Weblio should I distrust the Tanaka Corpus answers?
The problem is that the Tanaka Corpus excerpted just a single sentence from really-existed articles and gave just its translation without the context. For instance, この間の金曜日の欠勤を弁解できるかね。 can also mean "I wonder I/you/they/it can account for my/your/their absence last Friday", so "Can you account for your absence last Friday?" is just one of the possible translations.
 
The problem is that the Tanaka Corpus excerpted just a single sentence from really-existed articles and gave just its translation without the context. For instance, この間の金曜日の欠勤を弁解できるかね。 can also mean "I wonder I/you/they/it can account for my/your/their absence last Friday", so "Can you account for your absence last Friday?" is just one of the possible translations.
Ah, I understand, it's not necessarily wrong it's just incomplete.

It makes it difficult to rely on the results. I spend so much of my time looking things up and then using the results as a reference for future use that I'm concerned about how much else I'm doing incorrectly.

As with many things about learning Japanese, I often feel that each step forward is made at the expense of at least half of a step backwards because I learn what I've mislearned.
 
As with many things about learning Japanese, I often feel that each step forward is made at the expense of at least half of a step backwards because I learn what I've mislearned.

A common lament.

I would like nothing better than to tell you it eventually goes away, but it doesn't. About a week ago my wife corrected me on the usage of a word and wanted to know if I was just being silly and using it incorrectly on purpose. I told her that I wasn't. Apparently I had been burdened with an insufficiently precise understanding of the use of 女々しい and using it wrong at least half the time for almost thirty years. Live and learn.
 
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