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なれる / 第2作目 / せっかく

eeky

先輩
8 Jun 2010
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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) Translation's right, and なれる here is potential of なる.

2) 作 means "work", and yes, 目 is the ordinal suffix here. As to why it can be used with 第 and what difference it would make if either of them weren't there, I can't really speak. I feel like it's pretty much the same either way, and they're all interchangeable, but I could be wrong.

3) You seem to have the explanation translated right. Now for the sentences:

せっかく京都に来た ("we came to Kyoto through great effort") のだから ("so...") 金閣寺だけは見て帰りましょう ("let's go home even if only seeing The Golden Pavilion."). The は in 金閣寺だけは gives it the sense of "even if only The Golden Pavilion", serving as the contrast marker. I can't really explain it much further than that, though...

せっかくここまで頑張ったのだから ("since we've stuck with it up until this point through great effort") 最後までやりましょう ("let's do it to the end"). I think they both fit in with 「せっかく~のに・・・しないのは全然だ。だから ・・・する」という意味. But, um... is 全然 supposed to be 残念?
 
2)
As Glenn-san wrote, 2作目/第2作 also can be used here. I can only say that they are all common.😌


3)
だけは is used as せめて~だけは or "at least", thus, your interpretation is correct.(And this meaning is from the contrastive marker は, as Glenn-san explained.)

I, too, thought 全然 would be a typo, and 残念 makes perfect sense.👍

The two "…" refer to the same thing.

a) せっかく京都に来たのに金閣寺を見ないのは残念だ。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に最後までやらないのは残念だ。だから最後までやりましょう。
 
Thank you both. I see it now. Yes, sorry, 全然 should be 残念. Not sure how that happened...!

Could I ask further about this one:

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。

Is there a way to make a small/minimal change to this sentence so it does mean "Since we've made such an effort to come to Kyoto, let's go home having seen only the 金閣寺" (even though that is not something one would ever want to say)?
 
は is the key word.

せっかく京都に来たのだから、金閣寺だけ見て帰りましょう。

Although this is logically/semantically odd.(But if I actually hear this sentence, I would interpret it as 金閣寺だけは/だけでも, since that's logical/normal.)
 
I see, thanks.

(I've also just noticed that だけは actually has a separate entry in the dictionary as an expression, which I never thought to look up. Oops.)
 
Which dictionary are you using? It's not in 広辞苑, 大辞林, or プログレッシブ和英中辞典.
 
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