Slang? 方言？

gibbousmoon · 14 Mar 2007

親しみやすいっすね。

親しみ is familiarity, but what in the world does やすいっすね mean? Has anyone encountered this grammar before?

leonmarino · 14 Mar 2007

gibbousmoon said:
親しみやすいっすね。

「・・っすね」is a abbreviation of 「・・ですね」

そうですね → そうっすね

And 「・・やすい」 means "easy to" or "easily ... -able".

書きやすい → easy to write
この文字は書きやすい → These letters are easy to write

The opposite of this is 「・・にくい」

食べにくい → hard to eat
このパンは食べにくい → This bun is hard to eat (maybe because it's too big or too hard or whatever)

Oh, I found this link to help you on your way too. Anyways, you sentence thus means:

親しみやすいっすね → He is easy to get familiar with, isn't he? → He is very likeable, isn't he?

undrentide · 14 Mar 2007

親しみやすい is one word, meaning amicable, friendly, approachable.
It comes from verb 親しむ＋ adjective やすい（易い）.
There are many other words with ～やすい.
やすい means easy (to ~), 親しむ is to get familiar to, acquainted with.
So 親しみやすい = easy to get familiar with/acquainted with.

～っす is a slangish expression for ～です.

leonmarino · 14 Mar 2007

... I was thinking... It kind of depends on the context what it means exactly, doesn't it?

この食器、食べにくい！ → These cutlery.. Hard to eat! → It's hard to eat with this cutlery!

In that sentence you don't say that the cutlery itself is hard to eat, but that it's hard to eat with the cutlery.. Isn't it? I'm only half-native so I sometimes get the easiest things wrong so if anyone sees the need to correct and enlighten me, please do.

And the same goes for:

このペンは書きやすい → This pen is easy to write → It's easy to write with this pen

Isn't it?

undrentide · 14 Mar 2007

You beat me Leon!

And yes, you're right. When one says ～は×××にくい (or ○○○やすい）, it is not necessarily 「～」 itself is hard/easy to do something, because the word preceding は is just a topic, not the subject of the verb/adjective.
Depending on the context, it can be hard/easy to do ___ with ～.

gibbousmoon · 14 Mar 2007

Thanks guys! It was the っすね that got me confused. It occurs elsewhere as well, but thanks to you, I understand it now. Here's the complete passage (it's a music review).

ネットレーベル「kikapu」からリリース。ややビートありの穏やかなアンビエント。親しみやすいっすね。Enoのあのアルバムを偏愛しているワタクシとしては、アーティスト名は、どうなの？って感じですが。パロディなんすかね。関係ないのかもしれないっすけどね。カヴァーはキレイ。

And here's what I understand it to mean (idiomatically):

This release is from "Netlabel" [kikapu]. It has a tranquil ambience with a slight beat to it. It's easy to get into. I listen to it as someone who is partial to Eno albums. Is it a parody? Maybe there's no connection. It's a good cover, if so.

Does that sound about right?

Glenn · 14 Mar 2007

Correct me if I'm wrong, but っす is a little different than です because you can place it after verbs to make them (semi-)formal: そう思うっすよ。

gibbousmoon said:
Ｅｎｏのあのアルバムを偏愛しているワタクシとしては、アーティスト名は、どうなの？って感じですが。

I listen to it as someone who is partial to Eno albums.

This is a little incomplete, but I'm not really sure how to translate it. Maybe "as someone who's partial to Eno's albums, I wonder what's up with the name, though." For some reason this seems really difficult to translate right now.

gibbousmoon said:
パロディなんすかね。

Is it a parody?

I think this is closer to "I wonder if it's a parody" (talking about the artist's name).

gibbousmoon said:
カヴァーはキレイ。

It's a good cover, if so.

I think just "the cover's pretty" is fine.

Everything else I'd say you did really well with.

Nagato · 14 Mar 2007

Glenn said:
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but っす is a little different than です because you can place it after verbs to make them (semi-)formal: そう思うっすよ。

How about のです、んです?
そう思うんですよ
そう思うのですよ

Glenn · 14 Mar 2007

It's different than those too. そう思うっす (which does seem to be grammatical, after a Google search) is like そう思います. そう思うんです and そう思うのです are different.

JimmySeal · 15 Mar 2007

Glenn said:
This is a little incomplete, but I'm not really sure how to translate it. Maybe "as someone who's partial to Eno's albums, I wonder what's up with the name, though." For some reason this seems really difficult to translate right now.

Yea that line is hard to translate into English but I like your translation. That review is for a single by a group called Off Land and the cover looks like this:

Brian Eno (who also makes ambient music) has an album called On Land and a lot of his albums are sky/airplane themed.

I would punctuate the first sentence as:
This release is from netlabel Kikapu.

gibbousmoon · 22 Mar 2007

Thanks for all your help, everyone!

Off Land is actually the artist name of a friend of mine; I was translating the review as a favor to him.

Slang? 方言？

gibbousmoon

先輩

leonmarino

Back

undrentide

Japa'n vagyok

leonmarino

Back

undrentide

Japa'n vagyok

gibbousmoon

先輩

Glenn

一切皆苦

Nagato

後輩

Glenn

一切皆苦

JimmySeal

Tubthumper

gibbousmoon

先輩

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