ばかり

[The7thSamurai]

Hey guys, me again. Trying to learn how to use ばかり properly and I think I have a general understanding on how it works, but I can't understand this sentence in my text book:

(previous paragraph talks about the high percentage of school kids using mobile phones and wearing brand clothes)...これらはどれもお金がかかるものばかりです。

I really don't get this one. It's the first time I've seen これら in use, and none of my dictionaries have the meaning, but the textbook says it means 'these' which I guess is fair since you can pluralise かれ in the same way.

But my main confusion is with どれも.

Using just お金がかかるものばかりです I would translate it as 'They're just things to spend money on' but with どれも in there I don't get it.

 

[Mike Cash]

ら is a suffix indicating plurality. A common visual pun based on this is an image of several turtles together. (カメラ).

The use of "question words" (だれ、どれ、etc) with a following particle is, I think, sort of hard to wrap your mind around at first. It means "any/all of ~~~". Imagine you have three items A, B, and C, each costing a million bucks. Someone asks you どれが高いですか？ You could say ＡもＢもＣも高いです, but that's unwieldy. You could say 三つとも高いです. Or you could say どれもが高いです. Think of it as a sort of equivalent of "whichever" (by extension, "each and every one, without distinction between any of them).

The translation would be something like, "These things are all just items that cost (a lot of) money". The implied value judgment that one is to take away is that the speaker doesn't have a high opinion of the worth/value of their choice of how to dispose of their disposable income.

 

[Elizabeth]

どれもが高いです. Think of it as a sort of equivalent of "whichever" (by extension, "each and every one, without distinction between any of them).

Some more emphatic versions of どれも高い might be 一つ残らず、(every single one, without any remaining) どれもこれも (this and every one) どれもみんな、
if that helps at all 。。。Also どのものも for every/each one although I'm not sure how natural these sound in the case of a limited case set of only three choices.

 

[Elizabeth]

Using just お金がかかるものばかりです I would translate it as 'They're just things to spend money on' but with どれも in there I don't get it.

良い例を思い付いたよ。 これは「いつ」＋「も」のパタンが「いつも , all the time, always」に似ているね。

 

[The7thSamurai]

Thanks heaps. I think I understand the basic concept now, but those どれでも、こどか、どこも、だれでも etc words still confuse me. Will have to look into them a bit more.

Cheers!

 

[J44xm]

Thanks for the answers! However, a follow-up: What does the と in 三つとも高い mean? Or rather, which と is it? My first impression is to interpret it as "the set of all three is expensive," which is quite incorrect, I believe.

 

[Mike Cash]

Thanks for the answers! However, a follow-up: What does the と in 三つとも高い mean? Or rather, which と is it? My first impression is to interpret it as "the set of all three is expensive," which is quite incorrect, I believe.

It is easier to just remember/use it as a set than to try to analyze the use of the individual particles. (Long way of saying I'm not smart enough to explain the nuts-n-bolts of it).

Your first impression was correct if by "set" you meant each of the component members considered individually. If by "set" you meant each of the three considered as a single unit, you're mistaken.

 

[Elizabeth]

After all, isn't とも nothing other than 共, both, all, either, together with, as well as etc. ?

 

[J44xm]

Interesting indeed. Thank you for the comments.