Question
Updated on
16 Jun 2018
- English (US)
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Japanese
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Question about Japanese
今回の事故は、歩行者も信号無視をしているのだから、運転手が悪いばかりとは言えないだろう。<- is this sentence grammatical? (if it is ungrammatical, why?). if it is grammatical, how does it differ from the following sentence?
今回の事故は、歩行者も信号無視をしているのだから、運転手が悪いとばかりは言えないだろう。
今回の事故は、歩行者も信号無視をしているのだから、運転手が悪いばかりとは言えないだろう。<- is this sentence grammatical? (if it is ungrammatical, why?). if it is grammatical, how does it differ from the following sentence?
今回の事故は、歩行者も信号無視をしているのだから、運転手が悪いとばかりは言えないだろう。
今回の事故は、歩行者も信号無視をしているのだから、運転手が悪いとばかりは言えないだろう。
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16 Jun 2018
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- Japanese
We don’t say like the former one, and the latter is correct. That is because it is a set phrase. The emphasized version of “とは言えない(we can’t say)” is “とばかりは言えない(we can’t say only )”.
The emphasized version of “とは限らない(is not always)” is “とばかりは限らない(is not always only).” You have no choice but to memorize them.
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@rakujin
your sentence isn't grammatical very much.
ah...this problem is very difficult for us Japanese people hahaha.
in this following sentence, "悪いとばかりは" the phrase is better in that pronounce? nuance? and so on.
I'll tell you later, if I have an idea about this.
(Please don't expect too much.:-)
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The first one is grammatically okay, but the second one sounds more natural.
The meanings seem the same.
Actually, I might say, 運転手ばかりが悪いとは言えないだろう。
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We don’t say like the former one, and the latter is correct. That is because it is a set phrase. The emphasized version of “とは言えない(we can’t say)” is “とばかりは言えない(we can’t say only )”.
The emphasized version of “とは限らない(is not always)” is “とばかりは限らない(is not always only).” You have no choice but to memorize them.
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- English (US)
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- English (US)
@Hiroshi212 ahh i see... it's a lot easier knowing that it's a set phrase! thank you (for the とは限らない example as well)!
- Japanese
- Japanese
@rakujin In this example, it is insinuated that 歩行者も悪い so the two sentences are similar, but
（運転手が悪い）とばかり can have alternative's, for instance （運転手が若い）気温が低い、etc., I mean, "bad" can be also a variable, whereas
（運転手）ばかりが悪い's case, the location of ばかり limits the 運転手 is the "variable" or reason of being "bad" so, "who" is bad is indicated clearer, I think.
I don't think my explanation is clear enough, though. ^^)
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@tatsuca ahh, i think i get what you mean! the 'variable' is focused on 'who is bad', meaning a choice between the driver/pedestrian... i think... thank you for the detailed explanation!
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