崇君は漫画ばっかり読んでてさ。かっこ悪い。

[healer]

Takashi-kun is reading nothing but comic books… He’s so uncool.
Reference Expressing Amounts
Notice 「読んでて」 is the te-form of 「読んでいる」 with the 「い」 dropped.

What does さ after 読んでて mean? I've found from a dictionary that さ can be a particle to indicate assertion at the end of a sentence mainly by male. Is it what that is?
Is 読んでてさ simply the same as 読んでいてさ? I;m still not sure what 読んでいてさ is or means.

 

[bentenmusume]

You can think of さ as a slightly more assertive ね. I wouldn't say it's necessarily primarily masculine in use, at least not these days. You'll hear plenty of girls (of the type who speak that way) use it.

And yes, 読んでて is just a contracted version of 読んでいて, just like 読んでる is a contracted version of 読んでいる.

As for the -て form, it's just connecting the two clauses, as the -て form often does. I feel like that should be enough for you to make sense of it, but is there something else in particular that's confusing you here?

 

[healer]

Thanks for your answer.
I have known all along that い is often dropped with casual conversation and the -て form is also used to connect one clause to another.
What threw me was that I didn't expect the particle like さ would go right after the -て form because I never think the sentence would be considered ending there. We're often told that Japanese people sometimes just wouldn't finish a sentence and leave the other party guessing. Anyway I've got it now.

 

[healer]

I've come across another sentence on the same web page.
昨晩のこと、全然覚えてないな。
Man, I don’t remember anything about last night.

覚える is an ichidan transitive verb and its negative form is 覚えない . Is 覚えてない here the short form of 覚えていない?
I remember な is also a particle used at the end of a sentence mainly by male to indicate emotion or emphasis. Is this what that is?

 

[Toritoribe]

What threw me was that I didn't expect the particle like さ would go right after the -て form because I never think the sentence would be considered ending there.

Actually, the period used there is wrong. It should be a comma; 崇君は漫画ばっかり読んでてさ、かっこ悪い。 since this sentence should be interpreted as a single sentence, as jt_-san explained "two clauses".

覚える is an ichidan transitive verb and its negative form is 覚えない . Is 覚えてない here the short form of 覚えていない?

Yes.

I remember な is also a particle used at the end of a sentence mainly by male to indicate emotion or emphasis. Is this what that is?

Yes, but it's used by female nowadays, too. な is mostly for confirmation to the speaker themselves in monologue, but It's also used to show the speaker's thoughts softly or euphemistically in a conversation.

さ and ね are also used in the middle of a sentence, but な is less common than さ or ね since this is mostly for monologue.
e.g.
崇君はさ、漫画ばっかり読んでてさ、かっこ悪い。
崇君はね、漫画ばっかり読んでてね、かっこ悪いんだよね。
崇君はなあ、漫画ばっかり読んでるからなあ、かっこ悪いよなあ。

 

[healer]

Actually, the period used there is wrong. It should be a comma

Does it also apply to all the "unfinished" sentences that end with が, けど, けれど or even て?

 

[Toritoribe]

If you mean "a sentence whose ending part is omitted" by "unfinished", you misunderstood it. As I wrote, your example sentence is a single sentence like;

彼は来ましたが、彼女は来ませんでした。
今日は寒いですけど、薄着で大丈夫ですか。
すいません、昨日はお腹が痛くて、行けませんでした。

and not

いいえ、彼女は来ませんでした。彼は来ましたが。
昨日は暑かったですね。今日は寒いですけど。
すいません、昨日はお腹が痛くて。明日は行きますから。

 

[healer]

Thanks!
I don't mean when が, けど, けれど are used for the meaning of "but, however". I refer to those sentences ending with these words and leaving something for the listener to infer. For example I've come across すいませんが before one asks question. So are those ending with て where it means to be てください.

 

[Toritoribe]

Sorry but you still seem to be confused or misunderstanding something. Those words exactly mean "but/however", and the following part is just omitted, similar to "He came, though" or "It's cold today, but..." in English. When a question follows すいませんが, that's a single sentence and nothing is omitted. A comma is put after すいませんが in this case, of course (e.g. すいませんが、時間を教えていただけないでしょうか).

Also, ～てください is not the only one meaning of ～て at the end of a sentence.

Anyway, the point is 崇君は漫画ばっかり読んでて（さ）、かっこ悪い is a single sentence, so a comma is used, while 暇だったら漫画読んでて。ちょっと出かけてくるから。 are two sentences, so a period is used after 読んでて.

 

[bentenmusume]

(Edit: Whoops, post overlapped with Toritoribe-san. I'll be taking my original post down and waiting for the OP to follow up.)

 

[healer]

Thanks Toritoribe-san.

Those words exactly mean "but/however", and the following part is just omitted,

I had supposed Japanese people for one reason or another stop short of saying something trying not to be rude might not actually mean "but/however". Thanks for clearing up and reinforcing my thinking.

彼は来ましたが、彼女は来ませんでした。
今日は寒いですけど、薄着で大丈夫ですか。
すいません、昨日はお腹が痛くて、行けませんでした。

For the example sentences you gave above, if the speaker chooses to omit the second part, will the first part end with a comma or a period?

～てください is not the only one meaning of ～て at the end of a sentence.

So far I've only come across ～て at the end of a sentence for ～てください and those to be linked to the following clause like the topic of this thread or the third example sentence you gave. Those linked to the following clause I don't think the sentences stop there, so there is no end of sentence.
Now I encounter the saying of 読んでて the first time as you quoted. Is this a complete sentence that simply means reading? It says 読んでて instead of 読んでる or 読んでいる, is it because there is something left for the other party to infer like those end with が, けど, けれど ?

ちょっと出かけてくるから。

What does から here mean? I try to read into it with the meaning of "because" or "from", but I can't fit it in.

 

[Toritoribe]

For the example sentences you gave above, if the speaker chooses to omit the second part, will the first part end with a comma or a period?

A period, because the sentence ends there.

Those linked to the following clause I don't think the sentences stop there, so there is no end of sentence.

That's exactly why a comma should be used after 読んでてさ in the thread title sentence. If the following part is omitted, a period is used, as I wrote above.

Now I encounter the saying of 読んでて the first time as you quoted. Is this a complete sentence that simply means reading? It says 読んでて instead of 読んでる or 読んでいる, is it because there is something left for the other party to infer like those end with が, けど, けれど ?

It's simply the shortened version of 読んでいてください.

What does から here mean? I try to read into it with the meaning of "because" or "from", but I can't fit it in.

It's "because". から can't mean "from" when attached to verbs.

 

[healer]

読んでいてください

How would this one be translated into English language? I would expect it to be 読んでください only. What extra meaning that ~いて~ could give apart from the sense of being present continuous?

 

[Toritoribe]

読んで works well, but the speaker is talking about their recommendation about how to kill time while being waiting, so 読んでいる is more preferred.

 

[bentenmusume]

Sorry, this might be 余計なお世話, but just to follow up on this, it's always important to remember (I'm sure you already do to some extent, but I thought it was worth reinforcing) that it's not always possible to capture the nuance of why a certain phrasing is more natural in Japanese through English translation.

Present continuous is precisely the meaning here. In English, we don't typically make requests using the present progressive (e.g. "Please be reading this"; at least American/British/Australian English, perhaps Indian English is an exception). In Japanese, however, this is a perfectly natural and idiomatic construction, and is heard/used quite often when the focus is on the action being continued for a period of time. (As another example, you'll also hear ちょっと待って（い）てください, which puts more of a focus on the duration, i.e. waiting over a period of time. ちょっと待ってください is also common, but has more of an instantaneous nuance.)

Again, the key takeaway here is that sometimes key differences can't be explained/understood solely through translation. (This is true going the other way, too, as English makes certain distinctions that Japanese does not, such as singular/plural with most nouns.)

 

[healer]

Thanks 反面教師先生!
It is very enlightening.

 

[bentenmusume]

Glad to help!