Doko datte & kokontoko

Greetings,

I've trouble with the following two sentences:

1) その人達はどこだって自由に生きるんだ。

Is it safe to rephrase this sentence to "No matter where, those people want to live free."?
Doko datte = anywhere?

2) ここんとこ一週間！

Is "kokontoko" a variant of "kokontokoro" (now, these days)? If so, does this expression mean something along the line "It's been one week now!"?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Carabas said:

1) その人達はどこだって自由に生きるんだ。

Is it safe to rephrase this sentence to "No matter where, those people want to live free."?
Doko datte = anywhere?

Click to expand...

Yep, this usage of 「どこだって」 is pretty much just a colloquial alternate of 「どこでも」. You can also get the same 「（た／だ）って」 construction with verbs and such as well:

(examples courtesy of Google)
どこに行ったって変わりゃしないだろ！
ここで誰が何と言ったって、幸せな奴は幸せ、不幸な奴は不幸。現実はかわらない。

As a note on the rest of your translation there, you may want to look over the end of the sentence again -- there's no "want" in there.

Carabas said:

2) ここんとこ一週間
Is "kokontoko" a variant of "kokontokoro" (now, these days)?

Click to expand...

Most definitely yes.

Carabas said:

If so, does this expression mean something along the line "It's been one week now!"?

Click to expand...

Without any further context here, I'd say it's more likely referring to "this past week."

(more examples from Google)
ここんとこ一週間ぐらい友達からメールがこない。
ここんとこ一週間の記録
もうここんとこ一週間くらい咳が止まらない。

Carabas said:

Thanks in advance for your help.

Click to expand...

Not a problem. I think you'll find that people around here are more than happy to help those that show effort in thinking things themselves before posting, as you clearly have. Best of luck in your studies!

Jt_, thanks for your quick reply.

jt_ said:

As a note on the rest of your translation there, you may want to look over the end of the sentence again -- there's no "want" in there.

Click to expand...

Yes, I'm aware of that. 自由に生きるんだ literally means "live free" only. However, the sentence refers to people who just broke out of the prison, so I thought "No matter where, those people live free" sounds a bit strange even if it's what the Japanese says. Sorry, I should've mentioned that in the original post.

Without any further context here, I'd say it's more likely referring to "this past week."

Click to expand...

Naruhodo.

Carabas said:

Yes, I'm aware of that. 自由に生きるんだ literally means "live free" only. However, the sentence refers to people who just broke out of the prison, so I thought "No matter where, those people live free" sounds a bit strange even if it's what the Japanese says. Sorry, I should've mentioned that in the original post.

Click to expand...

As many people are fond of saying over in sci.lang.japan, context is everything.

I do agree with Jt_ that sticking "want" in that sentence is a mistake, since it's not anywhere in the Japanese. Maybe "No matter where, they will live freely." or something like would be better. Or maybe not.

jt_ said:

Yep, this usage of 「どこだって」 is pretty much just a colloquial alternate of 「どこでも」. You can also get the same 「（た／だ）って」 construction with verbs and such as well:

(examples courtesy of Google)
どこに行ったって変わりゃしないだろ！
ここで誰が何と言ったって、幸せな奴は幸せ、不幸な奴は不幸。現実はかわらない。

Click to expand...

I was under the impression that this だって was a separate construction meaning the same thing as も, like 俺だって驚いているさ. The use you mention is more like ても.