させていただきます / 引くもんな / そうじゃない / 怒られる

Hello,

1. あしたの会議には、やむをえない用事で欠席させていた だきます。

Translation given: "I will have to be absent from tomorrow's meeting due to unavoidable circumstances."

I can't quite figure out 欠席させていただきます. Does it literally mean "I am receiving the favour of being allowed to be absent"? That isn't quite what the translation says though...


2. あんな本みたらフツーの女は引くもんな！

Translation given: "Obviously a normal woman would lose interest if she saw a book like that!"

I'm trying to make 引くもんな = 引く + もん + な = "not (な) a thing (もん) that would attract interest (引く)". However, is this a valid use of な? Maybe I've got the whole thing wrong...


3. Two people are talking about an exam.

ケン： 悪かった人はもう一度テストを受けるのかな。
キム： そうじゃない。今までもそうだったから。

My part translation:

Ken: I wonder if people who did badly can take the test again?
Kim: ???, as that's what's happened in the past.

What does そうじゃない mean here? Is the rest of my translation correct?


4. そんなことをしたら怒られるんじゃないかな。

My attempted translation: "If (you) do something like that, (he/she/they) might get angry."

I am not very confident about this.

Is 怒られる the passive form of 怒る, used in the sense of "you might suffer / be affected by someone else getting angry"?

Is it reasonable here to interpret the basic sense of じゃないかな as "might"?

eeky said:

1. あしたの会議には、やむをえない用事で欠席させていた だきます。
Translation given: "I will have to be absent from tomorrow's meeting due to unavoidable circumstances."
I can't quite figure out 欠席させていただきます. Does it literally mean "I am receiving the favour of being allowed to be absent"? That isn't quite what the translation says though...

Click to expand...

Yeah, your interpretation is correct. You can think that させていただく is simply a humble expression of する.

Sentence translation help | Japan Forum
https://jref.com/showthread.php?t=46004
にしてみた / かなと思って / らしくていい / ね / 使わせてもらう | Japan Forum

eeky said:

2. あんな本みたらフツーの女は引くもんな！
Translation given: "Obviously a normal woman would lose interest if she saw a book like that!"
I'm trying to make 引くもんな = 引く + もん + な = "not (な) a thing (もん) that would attract interest (引く)". However, is this a valid use of な? Maybe I've got the whole thing wrong...

Click to expand...

That's not a negative sentence. な is a sentence final particle, and the verb 引く itself means "to lose interest". This usage of ひく is a rather colloquial expression(a young people's dialect).
ひく as "to attract" is a transitive verb, so the object is usually needed （e.g. 興味をひく）.

eeky said:

3. Two people are talking about an exam.
ケン： 悪かった人はもう一度テストを受けるのかな。
キム： そうじゃない。今までもそうだったから。
My part translation:
Ken: I wonder if people who did badly can take the test again?
Kim: ???, as that's what's happened in the past.
What does そうじゃない mean here? Is the rest of my translation correct?

Click to expand...

No, it's not.

受ける might be "to have to take the test (again)" here.

eeky said:

4. そんなことをしたら怒られるんじゃないかな。
My attempted translation: "If (you) do something like that, (he/she/they) might get angry."
I am not very confident about this.
Is 怒られる the passive form of 怒る, used in the sense of "you might suffer / be affected by someone else getting angry"?

Click to expand...

Yes, it 's close to "to be scolded".

eeky said:

Is it reasonable here to interpret the basic sense of じゃないかな as "might"?

Click to expand...

Yes.

Toritoribe said:

No, it's not.
受ける might be "to have to take the test (again)" here.

Click to expand...

Hi Toritoribe; thanks for your reply. I can't exactly fit "No, it's not" into this, but the most sense I can make of it taking into account your comments is something like the following:

Ken: I wonder if people who did badly will (have to) take the test again?

Kim: No they won't. ...

and then I'm wondering if 今までもそうだったから is saying that people in a similar situation in the past haven't had to take the test again, and that this explains why people won't have to take it again this time.

I am not at all sure about this.

そうじゃない means Ken's anticipation "悪かった人はもう一度テストを受ける" is wrong.

eeky said:

I'm wondering if 今までもそうだったから is saying that people in a similar situation in the past haven't had to take the test again, and that this explains why people won't have to take it again this time.

Click to expand...

Right. Thus, the matters of the two そうs are different(the opposite).

EDIT:
Oh, wait! I could completely misinterpret the meaning of そうじゃない. It could be そうじゃない？ or "I think so". ううん、そうじゃないと思うよ/違うと思うよ。今までもそうじゃなかったし。would be more common if the answer is "No".
There is no ambiguity in spoken language, since it's always said with a rising intonation. That's why "?" is preferred to be used in interrogative sentences in written Japanese these days.

Thank you.

I do find these ～じゃない-type expressions confusing sometimes -- whether they are actually stating negatives...

I have that problem with じゃね sometimes. I'm not sure if it's a shortened form on じゃねえ or if it's supposed to be a funny version of だね.