Nov 1, 2019 00:50
4 yrs ago
Japanese term
Italy
知らなかったふりなんて
Non-PRO
Japanese to English
Art/Literary
Cinema, Film, TV, Drama
Dear ProZ members,
I have a little grammatical doubt about the following sentence. A man has witnessed a dramatic scene where one of his friends died. At a certain point, he says:
あんなもん見せられて知らなかったふりなんて俺はできん
Attempt 1) After I've been showed that thing, I can't pretend I didn't know him.
Attempt 2) After I've been showed that thing, I can't pretend I don't know anything about this.
#1 is surely possible, but what about #2? Is a present tense interpretation possible?
Thank you!
I have a little grammatical doubt about the following sentence. A man has witnessed a dramatic scene where one of his friends died. At a certain point, he says:
あんなもん見せられて知らなかったふりなんて俺はできん
Attempt 1) After I've been showed that thing, I can't pretend I didn't know him.
Attempt 2) After I've been showed that thing, I can't pretend I don't know anything about this.
#1 is surely possible, but what about #2? Is a present tense interpretation possible?
Thank you!
Proposed translations
(English)
| 4 | present tense interpretation is possible |
Yuki Okada
|
Proposed translations
1 hr
Yuki Okada
Canada
Canada
Native in Japanese
Canada
Engineering translator
Native in: Japanese 
Works in: English to Japanese, Japanese to English
Related KudoZ points
:
12
Selected
present tense interpretation is possible
知らなかった appears to take the form of the past tense, but it really isn't. I am not trying to equate the Japanese and English grammar, but this is a kind of like the subjunctive mood. You must have seen many of them like:
知っていたら教えてやるよ (I currently do not know)
地下鉄に乗れなかったらバスもあります (if you miss the subway at a later time)
If your sentence uses a "present" tense:
知らないふりなんて…
this means he can't pretend that he has nothing to do with this, as opposed to he does not have knowledge of this.
知っていたら教えてやるよ (I currently do not know)
地下鉄に乗れなかったらバスもあります (if you miss the subway at a later time)
If your sentence uses a "present" tense:
知らないふりなんて…
this means he can't pretend that he has nothing to do with this, as opposed to he does not have knowledge of this.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "That was very clear. Thank you very much!"
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