Hiya,
1. 筆者はいい占い師になれるでしょうか。
My translation: "(Do you think) the author would make a good fortune-teller?"
Is なれる the potential form of なる, literally "can become", or is it the actual verb なれる?
2. シリーズの第2作目だから面白くないだろうと思っていたら、 けっこう面白かった。
My translation: "Because it's the second work in the series, I didn't think it would be very interesting, but actually it was."
I'm unsure about 第2作目. I can't find 作目 in the dictionary, so I'm guessing 目 is behaving as a suffix meaning "(second in) order, (second in) sequence". Is that right? If so, why would both 第 and 目 be used?
3. I am getting very bogged down with an explanation of the use of 「せっかく」. This is a note:
注) 「せっかく」には「せっかく~のだから・・・」 の用法もある。
(※「せっかく~のに・・・しないのは全然だ。だから ・・・する」という意味)
My attempted translation: "Note: You can also use 「せっかく」 in the expression 「せっかく~のだから・・・」. This means 'although X happens / is done with great effort, Y regrettably does not happen / is not done at all. Therefore, Z happens / is done.'"
I made up X, Y and Z to stand for the omitted parts ~ and ・・・, but since there are two omitted parts in the original expression and three in the explanation of what it means, I'm getting very confused and probably have it all wrong.
Then two example sentences are given:
a) せっかく京都に来たのだから、金閣寺だけは見て帰りま しょう。
b) せっかくここまで頑張ったのだから、最後までやりまし ょう。
I would assume that (b) means "Since we've made such an effort to persevere this far, let's see it through to the end", but I can't match this to the earlier explanation of the meaning of せっかく~のだから・・・.
I don't get (a) at all. To me, it looks like "Since we've made such an effort to come to Kyoto , let's go home having seen only the 金閣寺." Obviously this is nonsense. I'd like it to mean something like "let's at least see 金閣寺 before we go home", but I don't know if the Japanese can sustain that meaning.
1. 筆者はいい占い師になれるでしょうか。
My translation: "(Do you think) the author would make a good fortune-teller?"
Is なれる the potential form of なる, literally "can become", or is it the actual verb なれる?
2. シリーズの第2作目だから面白くないだろうと思っていたら、 けっこう面白かった。
My translation: "Because it's the second work in the series, I didn't think it would be very interesting, but actually it was."
I'm unsure about 第2作目. I can't find 作目 in the dictionary, so I'm guessing 目 is behaving as a suffix meaning "(second in) order, (second in) sequence". Is that right? If so, why would both 第 and 目 be used?
3. I am getting very bogged down with an explanation of the use of 「せっかく」. This is a note:
注) 「せっかく」には「せっかく~のだから・・・」 の用法もある。
(※「せっかく~のに・・・しないのは全然だ。だから ・・・する」という意味)
My attempted translation: "Note: You can also use 「せっかく」 in the expression 「せっかく~のだから・・・」. This means 'although X happens / is done with great effort, Y regrettably does not happen / is not done at all. Therefore, Z happens / is done.'"
I made up X, Y and Z to stand for the omitted parts ~ and ・・・, but since there are two omitted parts in the original expression and three in the explanation of what it means, I'm getting very confused and probably have it all wrong.
Then two example sentences are given:
a) せっかく京都に来たのだから、金閣寺だけは見て帰りま しょう。
b) せっかくここまで頑張ったのだから、最後までやりまし ょう。
I would assume that (b) means "Since we've made such an effort to persevere this far, let's see it through to the end", but I can't match this to the earlier explanation of the meaning of せっかく~のだから・・・.
I don't get (a) at all. To me, it looks like "Since we've made such an effort to come to Kyoto , let's go home having seen only the 金閣寺." Obviously this is nonsense. I'd like it to mean something like "let's at least see 金閣寺 before we go home", but I don't know if the Japanese can sustain that meaning.