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"kute" at the end of sentence

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dontmindme

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Hello, I'm wondering if adjectives in "kute" forms at the end of sentence have a specific meaning. (Simple example : 「りんごがんなくて」 "there is no apple"). Thank you in advance for your answers.
 
It means there is something else following that which wasn't specifically stated but which can be inferred from the context. Without the context there is no way on earth to guess what was intended to follow りんごがなくて

This is part of the reason that most of the time when you ask a question about Japanese the answer will include "What's the context?"
 
Last edited:
That's リンゴがなくて, not リンゴがんなくて, as Mike-san wrote.
Yeah, the meaning differs depending on the context, i.e., what is omitted after it as same as other -te forms.
e.g.
A: 何でリンゴ買ってこなかったの？
B: 店にリンゴがなくて（買えなかったんだ)
A: Why didn't you buy any apples?
B: Because there was no apple in the shop(, I couldn't buy them).
 
Hello, thank you for your replies. I am sorry for the typo.
In most of the case I can think of, I believe this form can be replaced with のに/ので or だから. Are there cases where - te form is the only option?
Also, I have seen the sentence 「私は怖くて。」which means "I'm afraid". What kind of verb can turn an adjective from "afraying"(passive form) to "afraid"(active form)?
Thank you for your time.
 
dontmindme said:
In most of the case I can think of, I believe this form can be replaced with のに/ので or だから. Are there cases where - te form is the only option?
Click to expand...
The continuous usage of the -te form, for instance.

A: すごい汗だね。
B: 走ってきたから暑くて暑くて。

A: 彼女欠点ないよね。頭がよくて、かわいくて。
B: スポーツもできて、性格もよくて。
C: 優しくて、料理もうまくて。

A: すいません、財布を落としちゃったんですけど。
B: どんな財布ですか。
A: 革製で、色は黒くて。
B: はい。
A: 中に免許証が入ってます。

You can't rephrase these -te forms with ～いので/から.
Incidentally, I can't think of any example that ～くて can mean the adversative conjunction ～いのに.

dontmindme said:
Also, I have seen the sentence 「私は怖くて。」which means "I'm afraid". What kind of verb can turn an adjective from "afraying"(passive form) to "afraid"(active form)?
Click to expand...
What do you mean? Are you saying that a verb is omitted after 怖くて in your example?
 
I think you may be missing the point that grammatically a sentence can't end with 〜くて (or 〜て). That form always indicates that something else follows it.

The thing that causes confusion is that people often omit the part that follows it, leaving it to be understood by context.

Imagine I asked you what "She has a nice smile but....." means in English. It is exactly the same dynamic at work in Japanese. You know there is something else which should be there, but without more information (the context) you can't possibly say exactly what that something else is.

怖い is an adjective. If you want the verb for "fear" it is 恐る or 怖がる, depending on the context. (There is no "afraying" in English).
 
Thank you again for answering. I apologize for my bad English, I haven't practiced a lot since I'm learning Japanese (and I happen to be bad at both). Thanks for your examples, Toritoribe. I think this is now only going to be about whether I remember to use this. Practice will do it. I am sorry if I wasn't clear about my last example. I'm totally aware this is not an actual grammatical rule, and that it only depends on the omitted last part. I was informed of the meaning of 怖くて through a short translated text and validated it on Google Translate (with the verified label). I deduced there was a commonly implied part of the sentence. This made me wonder what could be this particular implied part. (I can't think of anything that could turn "I'm scary and... " into "I'm scared") Thank you again for your patience.
 
It does mean scared. But the form of it means that something is supposed to follow. I'm scared and... Usually if the ~くて is at the end of a sentence that means that it's implied by context what follows. For example something in English might be. "I am really afraid of going to the dentist. I have a dentist's appointment tomorrow but..." The thing implied here would be that they don't want to go because they are afraid of the dentist. It's the same in Japanese.
 
I wouldn't suggest using Google Translate as one of your Japanese learning tools; it will cause more confusion and misunderstanding than it is worth.
 
Hello, I actually figured out by myself what was confusing me. In the 「私は怖くて」 example, not only would the end of the sentence be omitted, but also a second object. (私は（歯医者が）怖くて（いけない）。) It seems like I forgot that が can be used for other adjectives than 好き. My slow thinkng is to blame.
By the way, I usually use a japanese-english dictionary, I actually used Google Translate this time because I know I wouldn't find specifically "怖くて" in the dictionary. The verified label meant that it was actually validated by a japanese, and not computer-generated, which made it trustworthy enough to me.

Unless I'm mistaken again, I don't want to make you lose more time with this thread, so this may be my last post. Farewell, and thank you for all.
 
You shouldn't feel like you're making us lose time. You and your questions are very welcome here.

Are you using any textbook for learning Japanese? Or are you mostly learning by using a dictionary?
 
Hello, I don't use any textbook nor do I study in a school or with a teacher. I know the basics of the grammar, and check the definition of any word I don't know in a discussion. If I forget the meaning of a word and don't meet it again, it doesn't matter, since it means i only needed once.
I'm totally aware this is not the best way to learn a language -if not the worst- but I'm doing all this in my freetime, which i lack.
 
If you doing this in your free time which you state you lack I would think that would make you even more so put that time to it's best use. You're not doing yourself any favors here going about it the way you are. You need some kind of learning book if you are going to do it on your own. If you lack the funds I would suggest a library. I don't know how they do it in other countries but I would think you could get a membership for free or little cost and be able to suggest books to buy if they don't have them available. All you're going to do this way is learn bad habits or try to fill in the gaps with your native language.
 
Just one suggestion from me: you say you're not very good at English. I don't honestly see that in your posts, but if it's true, you should (given the choice) opt for learning materials in your native language (which I assume must be French). Going through one language you aren't fluent in to learn another language can cause misunderstandings and mistranslations.

So in particular, use a Japanese-French dictionary, not a Japanese-English one. I managed to find one a few days ago pretty easily just by finding the French words for "Japanese" and "dictionary" and passing those into DuckDuckGo.

Also, don't be afraid of textbooks just because you're only doing this in your free time. I'm only doing this in my free time, too, and my progress is at a snail's pace at the moment. But you can work through a good textbook as fast or as slowly as you need to. I've been at this for a few months at this point and I've still only made it to lesson 6 of GENKI I, but working through it has still been a huge benefit.
 
If you actually knew the basics of Japanese grammar, you wouldn't have had to ask the question at all. The nature of 〜て is one of the grammatical basics that any good textbook covers early.
 
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