Thought bubbles anyone? From the previous ad…

[thought bubbles]

「赤ちゃん寝ている 。音もれしていないかな・・・」

「赤ちゃん寝ている。」This is pretty straightforward with one catch. 「赤ちゃん」means “baby”, and 「寝ている」means “is sleeping.” The dropped the particle, which was most likely, 「が」。

「音もれていないかな」、「音」means “sound”, and the verb 「漏れる」means “to leak”. Sound can leak from headphones, pee-pee can leak from a baby’s diapers, and sensitive data can leak from a company. Smell can also 漏れる from a bag or something… Like if you’ve got a bag of Korean kimchee (yum yum) and you carry it on the train, everyone will know. Cause, 「臭いが漏れている！」

「読書中だから、静かに話そう ・・・」

「読書」is the semi-kinda-sorta-formal word for “reading”. It’s less casual than 「本を読んでいるから、」but not by much. It means exactly the same thing. 「静かに話そう」does not mean “let’s speak quietly” as it may seem, but it is the high school girl thinking to herself that she should speak quietly. Japanese people will use the 「よう」form of verbs when thinking to themselves… Actually, in this case, if they used cartoon speaking bubbles and not thought bubbles, it wouldn’t be strange if one friend was telling the other, 「静かに話そう」, as in suggesting let’s speak quietly. Anyway, let’s talk about the “self-suggestion” form of 「よう」form of verbs.

For example…

「卵が安い！買おうっと！」”eggs are cheap! I’ll buy some!”

「お腹空いた、おにぎり食べよう」”I’m hungry, I’ll eat a rice ball!”

「疲れたな、今日早く寝よう」”I’m tired, I’ll go to sleep early today.”

In all of these sentences, the person isn’t necessary speaking to someone else, they’re just talking to themselves… 独り言。

Of course “let’s buy them!”, etc is the same grammar pattern… But I’m tellin’ ya, they’re used both ways.

Enough of that one!

- Harvey