Node/ n de/ Because or Due To

[レトラーマンティーク]

Hello!

As said in my intro, I am playing through Pokémon HeartGold for Kana practice and vocabulary gain; I am having a hard time finding information regarding node and its colloquial version "n de" in order to understand what this guy is saying. Here is the previous line for context:

やあ！MARIEちゃん　ヒビキなら　２かいに　いるよ！

Hello Marie-chan! Hibiki is upstairs! (is that right? I don't quite get なら here; would appreciate an explanation ♥)



What I understand so far is:

He's probably playing with his pokémon as always.

(Itsumo = Always
Youni = In order to? Can't fit it in
Pokémon to =with his pokémon
Asonde = Playing
rund = colloquial node and ???)
arou = probably?)

What does あそんでるんだろう means here exactly? Any tips you could give me for the future times I could see this kind of wording? Thank you!

[yangmuye]

I think the のだ means “いつものようにあそんでる”(“He is playing as usual.”) is a conclusion.

[レトラーマンティーク]

Where do you see that のだ?

[NileCat]

あそんでる is a contracted form of あそんでいる.
（いる）んだろう is a contracted form of （いる）のだろう.

[SomeCallMeChris]

やあ！MARIEちゃん　ヒビキなら　２かいに　いるよ！

Hello Marie-chan! Hibiki is upstairs! (is that right? I don't quite get なら here; would appreciate an explanation ♥)

That's exactly right. なら just means 'if', so -literally- it's 'Oh, Marie! If it's Hibiki (you're here for), he's on the second floor.' ... but what you wrote is a much more natural and sensible translation.

いつものようにポケモンとあそんでるんだろう

いつものように is a set expression that means 'as always' or 'in the usual way'. It comes from the 'appears like' meaning of よう not the 'in order to' meaning of ように.

ポケモンと is of course 'with (his) pokemon'.

あそんで　る　ん　だろう　→　あそんで　いる　の　だろう　→
あそぶ（て form) + いる (to make a continuing action conjugation)　+ の + (to make it explanatory) ＋　だ (conjugated to だろう to make it softer).

[レトラーマンティーク]

Thank you SO much! There was a lot more to it than I thought...Didn't know の could be used to make something explanatory...is it typically after the ている form or...?

I'm so grateful to you all, really; I have a very strong aversion to not understanding anything I read or hear plus an infinite curiosity supply. Unfortunately as I just started learning Japanese, it happens quite often that I stumble on wordings or phrases that I can't comprehend...

[SomeCallMeChris]

Any sort of sentence can end in an explanatory の or のだ expression.
Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar has a section, but before I refer you there, I want to warn you that his English translation examples are often so literal that they aren't correct English at all. That can be difficult or confusing if English is not your first language.

Anyway,
の as explanation: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/particles3.html#part5

Tae Kim's Grammar Guide in French:
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/french/index.html

jgram.org is also a useful site in that they have an entry for almost every grammar point, but unfortunately, those entries are often terse or confusing, but many people find the place useful anyway if only because it least it says -something- about anything you could think of (if you phrase your search carefully):
http://jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=no+da

I'd also recommend A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. This forum's sponsor site sells it, although it can of course, also be found at any major bookseller. There's also an intermediate and advanced volume when you feel ready for them:
http://www.thejapanshop.com/A-Dictionar ... =salesrank

Also, of course, I use a combination of dictionaries,

The firefox plugin rikai-chan which pops up the pronunciation of kanji and the EDICT definition on mouseover:
http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/

The EDICT J-E database has its home with WWWJDIC
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi- ... dic.cgi?1C

Unfortunately, while it's a wonderful resource, EDICT is really an -enormous- glossary and not a proper dictionary with examples and structured definitions, so I often visit yahoo for their 和英 (japanese-english) and 国語 (national language→Japanese) dictionaries:
http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/

(I also use a handheld 電子辞書 but mine is quite old and I don't have any recommendations for one in particular. A lot of people are preferring to buy dictionary applications on smartphones these days.)

[レトラーマンティーク]

Amazing, thank you very much Chris!!! Would you also be able to direct me toward a place where I can see all the "contractions"?

[david9091]

Hi Everyone i hope you will be fine ...... thanks for this useful and nice post i request you all to share many more informative post for us ...... thanks a lot good luck