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What does this mean?

Tomii515

やった~!
16 Feb 2006
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Hello everyone :)

So, my japanese friend and I were speaking japanese with eachother, and then she said this:

今日は今から出かけないといけないんだけど、近いうち 話せるといいね

I didn't understand what it meant, so i asked her and she said that it basically had the meaning of "i have to go out now but i hope to talk to you soon" (she thinks).

Anywho, I was looking at it and i was wondering about the grammar here.

今日は今から出かけないといけないんだけど、近いうち話せるといいね

BOLD: is this a type of grammar? "~to iku/ikeru" or "~to ikanai/ikenai"??

ITALIC: Is this also a part of something? Or is this just another Japanese thing that can't translate to English?

Anywho, the way I would've translated it would've been:

Today i cant go to not go out from now, but i hope we can talk (when) i'm near home.

LOL :D

anyways, thanks for anyone who helps :)
 
Verb in the negative form + といけない means I must. いけない means the same as だめ, so you are effectively saying, if I can't X, its だめ (i.e., I must do X).

今からいく means to go now (kara can be used to indicate when an action that extends into the future/could begin later in the future begins), so she is saying effectively, that she has to go now.

The whole phrase is:

(Today) I got to go now, but I hope we can talk sometime soon.

うち hear does not mean home but means roughly 'time frame,' so she is hoping you can talk sometime soon. Since uchi means within, if you want to try to rationalize the meaning in your head, think of it as within a close (time frame).

ETA: Oops, I didnt see that she had already translated it. Yes, tell her she translated it well!
 
ahh i got it!
Thanks so much :)

i didnt realize that "chikai uchi" was a phrase rather than "close home" haha. my mistake ^^;;

arigatou gozaimashita ^^
 
i think your friends meant

i wont' reply for today, but i hope to talk to you soon.

出かけない probably means "not going to answer". But i'm not sure if i'm right LOL 😅
 
i think your friends meant

i wont' reply for today, but i hope to talk to you soon.

出かけない probably means "not going to answer". But i'm not sure if i'm right LOL

No, it has nothing to do with the word "answer"...

出かけない is "not going out" but in the original sentence 出かけないといけない which means I have to go (out).
Correct translation is already given by Charles with good explanation about
~ないといけない.
 
ahh i got it!
Thanks so much :)
i didnt realize that "chikai uchi" was a phrase rather than "close home" haha. my mistake ^^;;
arigatou gozaimashita ^^
"Close to home" you need to include the "to," so it would be something closer to うちにちかい。 In the sense you were expecting, the whole sentence reads "to be able to talk that of the nearby home." 😅
 
"Close to home" you need to include the "to," so it would be something closer to うちにちかい。 In the sense you were expecting, the whole sentence reads "to be able to talk that of the nearby home." 😅

Yeah ^^
That's why I wasn't sure.

At first, I though of it as "I hope we can talk (at) my house that is close" o_O but that made no sence XD haha. And it didn't have で after うち

I thought like 近いうち was like "my house that is near" or whatever :p

I guess the thought of it being a set phrase never crossed my mind... :geek:

Anyhow, obviously I was wrong about it :oops:
 
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