Meanings of 'と' and some translation issues

[kincaid42]

「おや？ ここをほれと言っているのか。よしよし、ほ ってやろう」

I am having a little of trouble with this sentence. My translation would be "Oh? You dig that here?, there there, you are digging it seems." but I know that's way off.


It is confusing to me because the words are not spaced. "toitte" can mean 'however, because, or as'. But 'itte'(iu in the -te form) itself can mean to say, or to call.

Since the particle 'to' doesn't really fit in well I ruled out 'itte' but the meaning 'however, because or as' doesn't really fit in well with the sentence. Then I realize there were more meanings to 'to' other then 'and', 'with', or to quote something.



I am also having trouble with the ending 'no ka' and the last phrase 'hotte yarou'.

 

[Toritoribe]

As you guessed, と is a quotation particle.

の is the explanatory の.
Noun-related particles - Tae Kim's Japanese grammar guide

か is a question particle, but is used as a self-question here.

ここをほれと言っているのか＝「ここをほれ」と言っているのか
Ah, I see, you're saying "Dig here."

～てやる: to give you a favor of doing

As for やろう, have you learned the volitional form?

 

[Mike Cash]

Do you know the command form of verbs?

In English it is simply the plain old present tense of the verb, but in Japanese it is conjugated.

 

[kincaid42]

Yea I knew 'ka' is a question particle but I didn't see a question mark so it threw me off.

I thought 'no' was only used to link two nouns or to be used as a possessive. I need to study more on particles.

I have seen verbs in volitional form before but I have not really gotten into it yet. From what I have seen I'm guessing it's yoruou?

---------- Post added at 09:16 ---------- Previous post was at 09:14 ----------

Ya, its base -te right?

 

[Toritoribe]

Yea I knew 'ka' is a question particle but I didn't see a question mark so it threw me off.

It's quite common not to use the quetion mark in Japanese. Further, it's never used in this "I see"/"not asking" context.

I have seen verbs in volitional form before but I have not really gotten into it yet. From what I have seen I'm guessing it's yoruou?

やる[yaru] --> やろう[yarou]
Japanese verb conjugation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ya, its base -te right?

If you're saying about 言って and ほって, yes, it's the -te form of 言う and 掘[ほ]る, respectively.

 

[kincaid42]

Oh, I don't know why I typed 'yo' for that was a typo, and I see I forgot to take the ending -u out.


Sorry, I'm not used to forums yet. I was trying to respond to Mike Cash but it ended up under the post that I replied to you.