Let’s learn Japanese with Kaneda’s quote from Akira.
CONTENTS
Video
Kaneda’s Quote
Japanese: おめえもボスになったんだろ？この瓦礫の山でよ。
Romaji: omē mo bosu ni natta ndaro? kono gareki no yama de yo.
English: You’ve become a boss too, right? … on this pile of rubble.
Analysis
おめえもボスになったんだろ？
おめえ which is a broken version of おまえ means “you“ in a very rough and aggressive way.
も means “also”.
ボス means “a boss“.
なった is the past tense of なる meaning “to become” which follows a noun with the particle に.
んだろ in a question means “right?” used in male speech when asking for confirmation from the listener.
この瓦礫の山でよ
この means “this” as an adjective so it’s always followed by a noun. And the noun is 瓦礫の山: 瓦礫 means “rubble”, the の particle is used to explain what the following noun is made of and the following noun is 山 which literally means “a mountain” but it’s also used to mean “a pile“.
で is the particle to indicate the location where the action has taken place.
よ is the particle used in male speech to make the tone stronger which often sounds rough and aggressive and it can be used multiple times in the middle of a sentence. In this sentence, the word order is inverted for emphasis, so this よ is actually in the middle of the sentence as この瓦礫の山でよ、おめえもボスになったんだろ？
Examples
Plain-Form + んだろ (right?)
Verb + んだろ
車で送るよ。急いでるんだろ？
kuruma de okuru yo. isoideru ndaro?
I will give you a ride. You are in a hurry, right?
I-Adjective + んだろ
そろそろ寝る時間だ。明日早いんだろ？
sorosoro neru jikan da. ashita hayai ndaro?
It’s about time to sleep. You have to get up early tomorrow, right?
Noun/Na-Adjective + な + んだろ
お金貸してやるよ。緊急なんだろ？
okane kashite yaru yo. kinkyū na ndaro?
I will lend you money. It’s urgent, right?
Difference between んだろ and だろ:
ん comes from the explanatory particle の so んだろ is used when asking for confirmation based on context or background whereas だろ is used when simply asking for confirmation of what you believe.
You’re tired, right?
- 疲れたんだろ？ – the listener looks sleepy (= context) and the speaker wants to confirm that it’s because he/she is tired
- 疲れただろ？ – the speaker believes the listener is tired and wants to confirm that it’s true
It’s delicious, right?
- おいしいんだろ？ – the speaker has never eaten it but heard it was delicious (= background) so he/she wants to confirm that it’s true
- おいしいだろ？ – simply asking for confirmation as the speaker believes it’s delicious
Can you draw? You are good, aren’t you?
- 絵、描いてくれよ。上手いんだろ？ – the speaker heard the listener was good at drawing (= background) so he/she wants to confirm that it’s true
- 絵、描いてくれよ。上手いだろ？ – simply asking for confirmation as the speaker believes the listener is good at drawing
So in this scene, Kaneda saw what Tetsuo did (= context) and so he wants to ask for confirmation of his guess. Therefore, んだろ is used.
*In female speech, 〜んでしょ/でしょ is used instead. But males also use 〜んでしょ/でしょ to make the speech sound soft.
よ (makes the tone stronger which often sounds rough and aggressive in male speech)
お前よ、ふざけんじゃねーぞ！
omae yo, fuzakenjanē zo!
You, don’t fool around!
だからよ、言っただろ？危ないってよ。
dakara yo, itta daro? abunai tte yo.
That’s why I told you, right? That it’s dangerous.
実はよ、俺よ、前科があるんだ。
jitsu wa yo, ore yo, zenka ga aru nda.
Actually, I have a criminal record.
In this usage, よ is usually pronounced a bit longer (i.e. よー rather than よ).
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Hi Anzu,
at time index 3:47 you have an example sentence which contains: 頭は悪い
On this site: https://crunchynihongo.com/japanese-vocabularies-talking-about-human-body/
they state that “stupid” is 頭が悪い. Google translate also gives the indication that 頭が悪い seems to be “more correct”.
So is it possible to use both は and が in this situation or is が “better”?
Thank you!
Hi Franz,
In this sentence, は is better than が and here is the reason: the particle は can be used to indicate the topic or the contrast. And in the “頭は悪い”, the usage of the は is the latter as he is contrasting “his cleverness” and “his sports ability”. It’s like “As for cleverness, I’m not good (頭は悪い). But as for sports, I am good (運動はできる)”. So if the speaker is not contrasting anything and just saying “I’m not smart”, が is used like “俺は頭が悪い”.
Here is the quote analysis with the explanation of the contrastive particle は:
https://epjapanesey.com/haruhis-quote-im-not-interested-in-ordinary-humans/
Hope this helps!
Cool thanks a lot Anzu for the thorough explanation 🙂