Question
Updated on
10 Dec 2022
- English (US)
-
Japanese
Question about Japanese
その会合にはわずか6人しかいなかった
If わずか and しか both mean "only", why is this being said twice? "Only 6 people only exist".
その会合にはわずか6人しかいなかった
If わずか and しか both mean "only", why is this being said twice? "Only 6 people only exist".
If わずか and しか both mean "only", why is this being said twice? "Only 6 people only exist".
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- Japanese
I don’t know about grammatical reasons,I think it’ s emphasis way.
You can say 「6人しかいなかった」
Also,「わずか6人だった」
- English (US)
- Japanese
- English (US)
@takiorange I really dont understand this weird dichotomy in japanese between being super ambiguous and indirect on the one hand, and yet being unnecessarily redundant at the same time.
- Japanese
The combination of わずか and しか works to emphasize the number of people joining in the meeting too little, like “surprisingly only six people”.
Highly-rated answerer
- English (US)
- Japanese
Sorry 😅
I think we have to read good sentences and know right way.
I study English, and I always same problems.
- Japanese
@kinthira
You can also say "その会合には6人しかいなかった" removing "わずか" that means "a bit" or "a wee." As a commenter explained, adding "わずか" to this sentence focuses on the number six to emphasize the number is regrettably small.
As for "わずか6人しかいなかった," you would say *just* only 6 people existed.
"(わずか)〜しか〜なかった" is kind of collocation in Japanese. If you say その会合にはわずか6人がいなかった, it sounds weird.
I don't think Japanese is super ambiguous, indirect and unnecessarily redundant. For example, articles are unnecessarily redundant to me, because the Japanese language has no articles. That being said, I have to follow English rules to make sound myself natural. Every language has its own style to express what people speaking their languages have in mind.
- Japanese
Your original sentence seems to be accompanied by a nuance “unexpectedly or surprisingly” due to too little number of people joining. It was emphasized.
Highly-rated answerer
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