Japanese from zero · N1 Lesson 2
The last night in the apartment
〜ずじまい ・ 〜ものを ・ 〜だろうに ・ 〜ながらに ・ 〜思いを する
In this lesson, you will learn to say that you never got around to something with 〜ずじまい, that someone could have done better and didn't with 〜ものを, that someone surely feels one way and yet acts another with 〜だろうに, how something is done or has always been with 〜ながらに and 〜ながらの, and what you went through with 〜思いを する. It is the last night in the apartment Lisa and Minju have shared for three years.
By the end you will be able to say
富士山には 結局 登らずじまいでした。In the end, I never climbed Mount Fuji.
早く 言えば よかったものを。You should have just told me sooner.
寂しいだろうに、友達は ずっと 笑って いました。She must have been sad, yet my friend kept smiling.
友達は 涙ながらに 気持ちを 話して くれました。My friend told me how she felt, in tears.
一年目は、夜に 寂しい 思いを しました。In my first year, I felt lonely at night.
The grammar in this lesson
- 〜ずじまい — never got around to (and now it's too late) — A verb's ない-form without ない + ずじまい says something you meant to do never happened, and the chance has gone.
- 〜ものを — if only (you had); when you could have — A plain-form clause + ものを says a better outcome was right there and someone let it slip, with a note of regret or complaint.
- 〜だろうに — surely ..., and yet — A plain form + だろうに guesses how someone must feel or how things must be, then sets what really happens against it; after 〜ば it says what would have been.
- 〜ながらに / 〜ながらの — as (one is); just as it always was — A noun or a ます-stem + ながらに (before a verb) or ながらの (before a noun) says a state that holds the whole way through, mostly in set phrases.
- 〜思いを する — to feel; to go through (a feeling) — An adjective + 思いを する says you went through a feeling, such as loneliness, fear or hardship; 〜思いを させる makes someone else go through it.