適度に / じゃない / 国の友だち / じゃ

[eeky]

Hi,

1. 適度に世話をしなくてはいけないからなんでしょう。

(Talking about the reason why robot pets sell well.)

In what sense is 適度に used? Is it saying that these "pets" need only a moderate amount of care rather than a great deal of intensive care? Or does it mean that you must be gentle with them?


2.
佐藤： 映画研究会に入ろうと思うんですけど、一緒に入りませんか。
ケン： 映画研究会ですか。まあ、映画は嫌いじゃないですけどね。

My translation:

Sato: I'm thinking of joining a film appreciation society. Would you like to come along too?
Ken: A film appreciation society? Hmm, I don't really like films.

What is the purpose of じゃない in this case? (I gather it is not a negative, but I am unclear about the exact nuance.).


3. 国の友だちが遊びに来ていて

Does 国の友だち mean friends from the village / rural area where the speaker used to live / was brought up?


4. それじゃ、来月になってからじゃだめだね。

I assume this means "In that case next month will be no good" (the context is that it will not be possible to go and see a play next month because it will have finished its run).

What is the purpose of the second じゃ in this sentence?

 

[Toritoribe]

1)
The former.

2)
That's a negative. 嫌いじゃないですけど can connote （そんなに）好きでもない in this case.

3)
Probably yes, but the kanji 国 is rarely used in that meaning nowadays. To use 故郷 (+ furigana) would be more common, I think.

4)
That's the same as ～てはだめ/いけない. The sentence can be rephrased with 今月中に行かなくちゃ/行かなきゃだめだね.

 

[eeky]

Thank you. It seems I will never properly understand the use of じゃない.

4) I understand your rephrasing, but I am a bit puzzled about how ～てはだめ would fit into the sentence as it was originally phrased (それじゃ、来月になってからじゃだめだね). What is the ～ part? I assume it cannot be から, and なって is not next to だめ so that seems not to work either.

 

[Toritoribe]

来月になってから performs as a noun clause here. It can be considered that the predicate 見に行く is omitted from 来月になってから見に行くんじゃだめ, since it's obvious from the context. Thus, the sentence can also be rephrased with 今月中じゃなきゃだめ.

 

[eeky]

In the pattern NOUNじゃだめ = NOUNではだめ, what is で actually doing? Why not just NOUNはだめ? Is it the same では/じゃ as in じゃない?

 

[Toritoribe]

ては/では peforms as a conditional particle as a set.
The negative てはない/ではない/じゃない and the negative てない/でない are almost the same in meaning, but は can't be omitted from this conditional ては/では.

 

[eeky]

Could you explain why you refer to this as a "conditional" particle? Edited: Oh, I guess you may mean 来月になってからじゃだめだね ~= IF it's next month THEN it's no good?

I am a bit uncertain about the connection between ては and では in this context. Is this では a version of a basic pattern ～ては where the "verb" is the copula? Is it analogous to cases like this?:

勤務時間中たばこを吸ってはいけない

 

[Toritoribe]

ては
［連語］《接続助詞「て」＋係助詞「は」。上に付く語 によっては「では」とも》
１ 危惧・不都合などの感情をもたらす条件を仮定して示す 。…たら。「けが人が出―大変だ」「死んではなんにも ならない」

ては - goo辞書

じゃ roughly means "in the case of ~". Unlike たら or なら, the clause/phrase following ては must be negative things such like だめ, いけない, 無理. So this ては/ちゃ/では/じゃ is sometimes used like a sentence final particle, e.g., あんなやりかたじゃ（あ）ね（＝あんなやり方じゃ（あ ）ダメだね/無理だね）.
And yes, では is a variation of ては as in the dictionary I quoted above. では is used also for verbs, for instance, 妊婦はこの薬を飲んではいけない.

 

[eeky]

Thanks Toritoribe, I am familiar with ～て／ではだめ／いけない／etc. when the ～ part is a full verb, but I did not at first connect this with the じゃだめ in the original sentence because there is no full verb preceding.