Sentence meaning - fantasy book

[Cala]

This sentence bothers me:
低い鼻に愛敬がある、なんとも人のよさそうな顔をした男だった。

His low nose possessed a charm, he had a good man's face? - a liberal translation

I don't get what nantomo is doing here... Very human, good natured face maybe?

Help.

 

[Mike Cash]

May I suggest using a single thread instead of starting a fresh one for each sentence?

Help with a sentence - fantasy book | Japan Forum

Are you familiar with the idiom 人がいい and the grammar of 〜さそう ?

 

[Toritoribe]

何ともの英語・英訳 - goo辞書 英和和英
人がいいの英語・英訳 - goo辞書 英和和英

低い鼻に愛敬がある also modifies 顔, by the way.

 

[Cala]

Yeah sure, I can keep all the questions in this thread if that helps.

I'm familiar with 〜さそう but not 人がいい, but now that you've untangled the two it's easy enough to find.

So here the なんとも is just emphasising the bit that comes next right?

So now putting that together with the fact that the first part of the sentence also modifies the bit about his face, I get something like this:

His face, with a low nose being its charm, gave him the appearance of being very nice/generous/soft-hearted.

 

[Mike Cash]

His face, with a low nose being its charm, gave him the appearance of being very nice/generous/soft-hearted.

Very well done.

 

[Toritoribe]

As for the modifying clause, see the difference.

彼は低い鼻に愛敬があり、なんとも人がよさそうだった。

In this case, あり is the continuous usage of the -masu stem, as in your initial translation, and ある can't be used here since there is no modified noun after this clause. (In other words, ある can't be the continuous usage in the original.)

I can keep all the questions in this thread if that helps.

It would be no problem if you use an explicit title including the word/phrase/expression you don't understand, instead of general/unspecified titles such like Can anyone help me translate this sentence?, Help translating a sentence, Help with a sentence or Sentence meaning.

 

[Cala]

use an explicit titl

I will do that then.

So if the sentence was:
彼は低い鼻に愛敬があり、なんとも人のよさそうな顔をした男だった。

The two clauses would still be separate, since the あり means the first clause won't be acting on the second?

Thank you both for all the help.

 

[Toritoribe]

To tell the truth, I intentionally avoided using that example since three interpretations are possible in that case.

1)
connecting two clauses
彼は低い鼻に愛敬がある。and 彼はなんとも人のよさそうな顔をした男だった。

2)
connecting two modifying clauses
彼は低い鼻に愛敬があり、なんとも人のよさそうな modifies 顔.
(彼は低い鼻に愛敬がある顔をした男だった。 and 彼はなんとも人のよさそうな顔をした男だった。)

3)
connecting two modifying clauses
彼は低い鼻に愛敬があり、なんとも人のよさそうな顔をした modifies 男.
(彼は低い鼻に愛敬がある男だった。 and 彼はなんとも人のよさそうな顔をした男だった。)

As you might notice, it also can be possible to interpret that 低い鼻に愛敬がある modifies 男 in the original sentence, but 低い鼻に愛敬がある is a description about his face, so I wrote this clause modified 顔 in my initial post. The difference is subtle in meaning, though.)

 

[Cala]

I see. That was quite helpful for understanding things though. Thank you for always helping me out.