Kai
Regarding な as a sentence-ending particle I'm reading a manga containing the line きさま!見ているな! I'm confused as to what role な plays in this sentence. I've seen a lot of different definitions of the meaning of the particle and they seem to be quite ambiguous. I've seen it as a more masculine form of ね, a negative imperative form (when used with dict. form verbs), casual emphasis on a decision/suggestion/opinion and so on. If I had to guess, I'd translate the sentence to "You (rude)! Are you watching?" or maybe "You! Don't look!" From what I can tell however, the official translation is "I am watching you!" or natural, "I can see you!". Can I get some pointers as to how to identify the role of な in the sentence, or is it just one of those things you gotta learn to recognize by reading a lot?
Aug 15, 2014 6:48 PM
Answers · 1
The usages of "な" you said are all correct. ------------------------------ For "な as in 見ているな", it emphasizes the action, "見ている" "きさま" is a very rude expression of "you". (A long time ago such as 1000 years, it was an honorific expression, though) Therefore, the nuance of "きさま!見ているな!" is like "Hey you! What the hell are you looking at!" This is my example just for the nuance, thinking of "きさま" is used here. The direct translation is like what you said. ------------------------------ The nuances of な/ね for the above usage depend on situations: "The cute dog is looking at us. かわいい犬がこっちを見ているな/ね" "これいいな/ね This looks good. (doesn't it?)" Men may prefer な, e.g. when they talk only with men. ------------------------------ The negative imperative form is "見るな。 Don't look." In this case, It's always 見るな; NOT 見るね ------------------------------ I hope it helps.
August 16, 2014
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