Vocabulary

嫌(いや) na-adj

disagreeable; unpleasant

怖い(こわ・い) i-adj

scary

嬉しい(うれ・しい) i-adj

happy

恥ずかしい(は・ずかしい) i-adj

embarrassing

早い(はや・い) i-adj

fast; early

する exception

to do

何(なに／なん)

what

いる ru-verb

to exist (animate)

彼女(かの・じょ)

she; girlfriend

朝(あさ)

morning

起こす(お・こす) u-verb

to cause, to wake someone

タイプ(ta i pu)

type

うち

referring to one’s in-group, i.e. company, etc.

子供(こ・ども)

child

プール(pu u ru)

pool

入る(はい・る) u-verb

to enter

理由(り・ゆう)

reason

ある u-verb

to exist (inanimate)

欲しい(ほ・しい) i-adj

desirable

カレー(ka re e)

curry

食べる(た・べる) ru-verb

to eat

家(1) うち; 2) いえ)

one’s own home

house

帰る(かえ・る) u-verb

to go home

すぐ

soon

パソコン(pa so ko n)

computer, PC

使う(つか・う) u-verb

to use

皆(みんな)

everybody

イタリア(i ta ri a)

Italy

行く(い・く) u-verb

to go

私(わたし)

me, myself, I

予算(よ・さん)

budget

どう

how

とても

very

怪しい(あや・しい) i-adj

suspicious; dubious; doubtful

妻(つま)

wife

バッグ(ba g gu)

bag

そんな

that sort of

もん

object （short for もの）

買う(か・う) u-verb

to buy

訳(わけ)

meaning; reason; can be deduced

恥ずかしがり屋(は・ずかしがり・や)

one who easily feels or acts embarrassed

寒がり屋(さむ・がり・や)

one who easily feels cold

暑がり屋(あつ・がり・や)

one who easily feels hot

ミネソタ(mi ne so ta)

Minnesota

暮らす(く・らす) u-verb

to live

辛い(つら・い) i-adj

harsh

The ～がる grammar is used when you want to make an observation about how someone is feeling. This is simply an observation based on some type of sign(s). Therefore, you would not use it for your own emotions since guessing about your own emotions is not necessary. This grammar can only be used with adjectives so you can use this grammar to say, “He is acting scared,” but you cannot say “He acted surprised,” because “to be surprised” is a verb in Japanese and not an adjective. This grammar is also commonly used with a certain set of adjectives related to emotions such as: 嫌、怖い、嬉しい、or 恥ずかしい.

Examples 1

1. 早くきてよ！何を恥ずかしがっているの？
   Hurry up and come here. What are you acting all embarrassed for?

2. 彼女は朝早く起こされるのを嫌がるタイプです。
   My girlfriend is the type to show dislike towards getting woken up early in the morning.

3. うちの子供はプールに入るのを理由もなく怖がる。
   Our child acts afraid about entering a pool without any reason.

This grammar is also used to observe very frankly on what you think someone other than yourself wants. This involves the adjective 欲しい for things one wants or the ～たい conjugation for actions one wants to do, which is essentially a verb conjugated to an i-adjective. This type of grammar is more suited for things like narration in a story and is rarely used in this fashion for normal conversations because of its impersonal style of observation. For casual conversations, it is more common to use でしょう such as in, カレーを食べたいでしょう。. For polite conversations, it is normal to not make any assumptions at all or to use the よね sentence ending such as in カレーを食べたいですか。 or カレーを食べたいですよね。

Examples 2

1. 家に帰ったら、すぐパソコンを使いたがる。
   (He) soon acts like wanting to use computer as soon as (he) gets home.

2. みんなイタリアに行きたがってるんだけど、私の予算で行けるかどうかはとても怪しい。
   Everybody is acting like they want to go to Italy but it’s suspicious whether I can go or not going by my budget.

3. 妻はルイヴィトンのバッグを欲しがっているんだけど、そんなもん、買えるわけないでしょう！
   My wife was showing signs of wanting a Louis Vuitton bag but there’s no way I can buy something like that!

～がる is also used with 屋 to indicate a type of person that often feels a certain way such as 恥ずかしがり屋 (one who easily feels or acts embarrassed)、 寒がり屋 (one who easily feels cold)、or 暑がり屋 (one who easily feels hot).

• 私は寒がり屋だから、ミネソタで暮らすのは辛かった。
  I’m the type who easily gets cold and so living in Minnesota was painful.

Vocabulary

言う(い・う) u-verb

to say

ボール(ba a ru)

ball

爆発(ばく・はつ)

explosion

する exception

to do

膨らむ(ふく・らむ) u-verb

to expand; to swell

あんた

you (slang)

関係(かん・けい)

relation, relationship

ある u-verb

to exist (inanimate)

彼女(かの・じょ)

she; girlfriend

彼(かれ)

he; boyfriend

無視(む・し)

ignore

{昨日【きのう}

yesterday

喧嘩(けん・か)

quarrel

何(なに／なん)

what

平気(へい・き) na-adj

coolness; calmness

顔(かお)

face

We just learned how to observe the emotions and feelings of other by using ～がる with adjectives. But what about verbs? Indeed, there is a separate grammar used to express the fact that someone else looks like they are about to do something but actually does not. Similar to the ～がる grammar, this is usually not used in normal everyday conversations. I have seen it several times in books and novels but have yet to hear this grammar in a conversation.

For the regular non-past, non-negative verb, you must first conjugate the verb to the negative ending with ん, which was covered here. Then, you just attach ばかり to the end of the verb. For all other conjugations, nothing else is necessary except to just add ばかり to the verb. The most common verb used with this grammar is 言う . It is also usually used with the に target particle attached to the end of ばかり.

This grammar is completely different from the ばかり used to express amounts and the ばかり used to express the proximity of an action.

Examples

1. ボールは爆発せんばかりに、膨らんでいた。
   The ball was expanding as if it was going to explode.

2. あんたとは関係ないと言わんばかりに彼女は彼を無視していた。
   She ignored him as if to say, “You have nothing to do with this.”

3. 昨日の喧嘩で何も言わなかったばかりに、平気な顔をしている。
   Has a calm face as if [he] didn’t say anything during the fight yesterday.

Vocabulary

謎(なぞ)

puzzle

秘密(ひ・みつ)

secret

皮肉(ひ・にく)

irony

紅葉(こう・よう)

leaves changing color

始まる(はじ・まる) u-verb

to begin

すっかり

completely

秋(あき)

autumn

空気(くう・き)

air; atmosphere

なる u-verb

to become

そんな

that sort of

顔(かお)

face

する exception

to do

うまい i-adj

skillful; delicious

説明(せつ・めい)

explanation

出来る(で・き・る) ru-verb

to be able to do

いつも

always

言う(い・う) u-verb

to say

～方(～かた)

way of doing ～

皆(みんな)

everybody

嫌(いや) na-adj

disagreeable; unpleasant

By now, you’re probably thinking, “Ok, we’ve done adjectives and verbs. What about nouns?” As a matter of fact, there is a similar grammar that is used usually for nouns and na-adjectives. It is used to indicate that something is showing the signs of a certain state. Unlike the ～がる grammar, there is no action that indicates anything; merely the atmosphere gives off the impression of the state. Just like the previous grammar we learned in this section, this grammar has a list of commonly used nouns such as 謎、秘密、or 皮肉. This grammar is used by simply attaching めく to the noun or na-adjective. The result then becomes a regular u-verb.

Examples

1. 紅葉が始まり、すっかり秋めいた空気になってきた。
   With the leaves starting to change color, the air came to become quite autumn like.

2. そんな謎めいた顔をされても、うまく説明できないよ。
   Even having that kind of puzzled look done to me, I can’t explain it very well, you know.

3. いつも皮肉めいた言い方をしたら、みんなを嫌がらせるよ。
   You’ll make everyone dislike you if you keep speaking with that ironic tone, you know.

For a whole slew of additional real world examples, check out the jeKai entry. It states that the grammar can be used for adverbs and other parts of speech but none of the numerous examples show this and even assuming it’s possible, it’s probably not practiced in reality.